Dreams, Moments, Travels
Moments prior to getting my haircut with Albert at Gio’s on Bell Road and 64th Street in Phoenix, Arizona, I snapped a photo of myself with my beard hiding my many chins. Following the haircut, back in the car, I took a photo of the new naked and near-bald look I am sporting for the second half of the year. Turns out that when you sit in your car, you sit in almost the exact same spot all the time – this photo turned out to be fairly simple to composite.
With Caroline at her Cold Fusion Users Group meeting in Tempe, Arizona, tonight, her mom and I stopped at 25th Street and Bell Road in Phoenix for a couple of Nogales Hot Dogs.
This local street-side vendor sells traditional Nogales Dogs wrapped in bacon topped with tomato, onion, mayonnaise, Mexican and cheddar cheese, grilled onion, guacamole, and salsa with a side of roasted peppers. Jutta had a bottle of Coke while I opted for the Mexican Apple Soda. This was my mother-in-law’s first sampling of Nogales Hot Dogs; as for me, well, I’ve been a frequent enough customer.
Using Easy Mosaic software from www.ezmosaic.com, I created this 3072 x 2048 pixel image using 346 images from our vacation with my mother-in-law. The final image contains 4096 images, the maximum allowed with the Free Trial version, and, of course, are duplicated images from the 346 source photos. The software is easy to use and free for 20 days of usage, which I took advantage of. Easy Mosaic cost is as low as $35 for a Home version and up to $149 for the Commercial version – for those of you needing 2 GigaPixel images using more than 400,000 images.
To see the details in the image, click here.
Moto Photo printed a matte 11×17 image in less than 10 minutes for under $12 as a photographic print, not a laser or inkjet print. I’ve used Moto Photo for a couple of years now and love their service, friendliness, great quality, and prices.
Earlier in the day, I printed nearly 800 photos that will travel with Jutta back to Germany later this week. Afterward, we visited my mother again for another cookout, but this time, we took a dip in the pool before dinner – even Aunt Eleanor joined us, her first time in the pool in 2 years. With only a few days left until Jutta leaves us, I can’t help but start to miss her as her stay, for the most part, has been so much fun, and the smiles and laughter a real pleasure to see on my mother-in-law’s face.
We barbecued at my mom’s house tonight; she’s the one holding Guido, the dog. Aunt Eleanor, Grandpa Herbert, and my mother-in-law Jutta get along well; it must be that Jutta is their connection to the Old Country. Tomorrow night, we will visit again, but this time we are keeping time for getting in the pool before dinner.
Disclaimer: This post was updated in November 2022, as the original only included one photo. The bigger details were written back then, although a few things needed to be figured out.
My mother-in-law standing under the dollar bill we stapled under the shelf. In March, I stapled another dollar there when my grandfather Herbert and aunt Eleanor and I passed through on the way to Florida. There is also a bill on the left of the picture that Caroline and I stapled on the wall when we visited Steins in November 2000 on our way back home across the United States.
Today, we found our way back to Phoenix through a very hot desert.
Well, that just sucks, a rollover accident where the roof of the SUV had to be cut off; we can only hope that everyone was okay. And that is the end of our short 5-day mother-in-law/son-in-law super drive.
Disclaimer: This post was updated in November 2022, as the original only included 1 photo. The bigger details were written back then, although a few things needed to be figured out.
Wow, I was wrong about where we were going to be last night! We ended up at the Sands Motel in Portales, New Mexico. From there, it was only 90 miles over to the Nuthin Fancy Cafe in Roswell, New Mexico, for breakfast. If you think my mother-in-law had any interest in visiting the world-famous UFO Museum and Research Center, you’d be nuts; this lady came out of having survived World War II in Germany and could give 2 cents of concern about some crazy idea that a UFO landed nearby. Yeah, I thought the same thing, “Your loss old lady.”
We made our way to Carlsbad Caverns National Park instead because in America’s natural wonders, Jutta has a big interest.
Oh, look, it’s the Cave Door Greeter, kind of like the human equivalent at Walmart or Costco.
After selling my mother-in-law on how great the slow trail through the Natural Entrance to the Big Room is, she agreed to go for a little walk.
Caroline and I have already visited Carlsbad Caverns on three previous visits in 1998, 1999, and 2002; I hadn’t anticipated that I’d still be able to appreciate it as much as I am.
There’s one thing missing as Jutta and I make our way into the cave: the chatter of her and Caroline nattering on in German about what they are looking at.
There are eight more images from inside the cave following this one; you can rest assured that I feel like deleting all of them and cutting to the juicy bits that will follow later in the evening.
But I love these photos, even if they are only 8 megapixels each.
These contrasting colors and various rock types, many of them coated in the frozen minerals leached out of the surrounding earth, make for striking images and are on a scale that makes one feel like the puny little human one is.
There are three other visitable caves nearby, including Lower Cave, Hall of the White Giant, and Slaughter Canyon Cave, that we’ve yet to visit. I think we need to better plan our spontaneous trips.
Just imagine what these might have looked like when water was flowing over them. Over at nearby Lechuguilla Cave, one might see it (if they are a scientist and can wait years for permission after convincing the park service that their research is worthy and they have the requisite skills for serious caving).
Of course, one could visit Kartchner Caverns in Benson, Arizona, to see a living cave system, but with their no-photography rules I fail to understand the attraction fully. I need photos, or we were never there.
We actually have been to Kartchner because when I bought tickets they didn’t tell me ahead of time that photography wasn’t allowed. I can’t even remember what I saw as my jaw was clenched down so tightly that it apparently obscured my vision and erased my memory. Now consider this view of yet another psychedelic chamber: I know I was here, right here at the spot where this photo was taken, and that makes this place sit in my memories for years, and if ever I need a reminder, I just look back to these days and revel in the experiences we’ve been able to obtain.
[Or could it be that you have no memory of Kartchner because the cave tour itself felt very short, the bats were off lounging in Mexico, and the seeming majority of our visit was spent looking at some light show accompanied by new-agey music? – Caroline]
No tripod, handheld, not the best ISO, and still, I managed to snap off three portrait images of this giant cascade to stitch into a panorama.
Those are soda straw formations and represent the end of our self-guided tour of Carlsbad, well, the caverns anyway; there’s more to come above ground.
At dusk, you might be so lucky, depending on the time of year, that you too can witness the Bat Flyout. My mother-in-law had one word to describe this phenomenon, “Sagenhaft,” which translates to fabulous or amazing.
Sadly, the bats missed this cockroach, probably because it and a bevy of its friends were camping out in what can easily be described as the worst room ever in any of the cheap motels we’ve sunk to staying in.
This one, though, will not be stayed in. It took everything in my power to remain in this room to take these photos.
So disgusting it was I didn’t even bother to haggle about a refund; I simply wanted my mother-in-law and me to put as many miles between us and this shithole as quickly as possible. Sadly, this was the only motel in Las Cruces that had availability, which meant that though it was approaching midnight, we’d have to tough it out for another hour until we reached Deming, New Mexico, with fingers crossed we’d find a room
While it might be difficult to make out, I believe this is the outline of a dead body and the single greatest contributing factor as to why this room smells something worse than hell.
I’m still trying to figure out what happened to the curtains.
This was that place of nope, the Town House Motel in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Seriously, nothing compares to this in all of our travels.