An Historic Day

I promised myself when I started this blog that I would stay away from politics and work happenings, but I'm going to back track on that statement just a bit.  It's election day in the good 'ol US of A and I have a few observations on this historic day.

First, the United State is NOT a democracy.  We're a democratic republic.  As much as people would like to believe so, you also have no RIGHT to vote in the presidential election.  The wonderful electoral college determines the presidency, not the popular vote.  I remember in high school thinking that the electoral college was outdated and needed to be done away with, however, I have since changed my tune.  The Founding Fathers were brilliant in their foresight on this issue.  While your state may grant voting rights for local and state elections, the Supreme Court ruled decisively in 2000 in Bush v. Gore that no right to vote in Federal Elections (presidential) exists, simply measures to prevent discrimination in voting.

Second, public campaign funds are dead.  Obama's about-face on accepting these funds will kill this movement for the foreseeable future.  Ironically, John McCain crossed party lines to side with the Democrats on McCain-Feingold only to have his opponent give up funding.  Campaign reform has been a priority for the Democrats for some time and to see it fall to the wayside is interesting.

Despite any outcome, I urge you to exercise your PRIVILEGE to vote today.  Far too many people have given their life for you to stay home.

Gold Rush 2008

For a change of pace, Jen and I met up with Geoff and Vanessa today and travelled to Dahlonega, GA for Gold Rush.  Gold Rush is the annual arts and crafts fair that the city of Dahlonega puts on somewhat in conjunction with North Georgia College.  I'm not an arts and crafts kind of guy, but the weather was gorgeous and it afforded us a taste of life to come.  

We met up with our other friends, Pat and Mel once we got up to Gold Rush.  Essentially, the entire town shuts down and the downtown area is transformed into tent after tent of crafts and food vendors.  It looks a lot like this:

We also had Ellie (Geoff and Vanessa's daughter) and Shay (Pat and Mel's son) along with us for entertainment.  Shay almost got airborn here and seems to love it:

Ellie, on the other hand, crashed out while Geoff enjoyed some ice cream:

Pat enjoyed a corn-dog, unfortunately, with ketchup, don't know what that's about.  I eat my corn-dogs with mustard, but I'm in the minority, evidently.

Shortly after that, Shay decided to pass out as well...  I can't say I blame him, it was an absolutely perfect day to take a nap outside.

After Gold Rush, we made our way to the park in Cumming for church.  Jen and Shay were chillin' (quite literally, it cooled of pretty quickly).

And finally, an action shot.  Dan and Jake having fun after the service:

Some processed Africa Pictures

The biggest disadvantage to shooting RAW with a digital camera is the inevitable post-processing that you have to do once you get back.  However, the results are stunning, far better than just having the camera do all the work for you.  Here are the first 11 pictures that I've done.  A big advantage to RAW is when I go to blow this thing up to 30"+, it'll be super sharp.  Click on any picture to view the full size on Picasa.

From Madikwe Game Reserve, South Africa

From Madikwe Game Reserve, South Africa

From Madikwe Game Reserve, South Africa

From Madikwe Game Reserve, South Africa

From Madikwe Game Reserve, South Africa

From Madikwe Game Reserve, South Africa

From Madikwe Game Reserve, South Africa

From Madikwe Game Reserve, South Africa

Yes, they do get that close to you!

From Madikwe Game Reserve, South Africa

From Madikwe Game Reserve, South Africa

Jen actually took this one, notice the giraffe in the top middle of the picture. Enjoy!!!

A break from the norm

I promise I haven't given up on my blog, things have been extremely hectic since returning from South Africa. I also pledge to have more photos from that trip for you guys very soon (hopefully this week). For a change of scenery, I offer some pictures from todays Gardner-Webb - Georgia Tech game. My step-dad had 2 sideline passes and couldn't make the game (my mom was singing the National Anthem at the Presbyterian College game), so Jen and I headed down.

First off, it's a bittersweet gig. Since we're "working press," we can't wear team colors/shirts or cheer for the team (or boo them as is sometimes required), but the payoff is being on the field and the chance to take some great pictures. You can check the AJC for a game review, but simply put, Tech played pretty poorly. GW deserved to win this one, fortunately, Tech eked out a win. We were very lucky to actually be standing in the end-zone with Dwyer (21) broke a 79 yard TD run. That was pretty fun, he ran right at us!

In no particular order, here are some pictures:

Silicone Breasted Mattress Thrasher Pt. 2

It has been brought to my attention that I left a previous post incomplete by not explaining the silicone breasted mattress thrasher. My apologies, it started as a small aside on a game drive and turned into the running joke of the trip. Now might be the best time to describe our cast of characters that will appear in future posts, so without further ado:

Jim/Dad - my father, organizer and director of the trip
Cat - my sister, full of wit and pithy comments
Chris - my brother, the official comedian of the journey
Brittany - Chris' wife
Janice - Dad's friend
Dale - Dad's good friend from South Africa, our local host
Ingrid - Dale's wife
Sean - Our guide while in Madikwe
Callie - Our B&B host in Cape Town
Luli - Callie's wife and the other B&B host
Jen - my wife
John - self explanatory

Ok, now that I have that bit of business out of the way, on to the silicon breasted mattress thrasher... While out on safari in Madikwe, all of the Americans were asking tons of questions, "what's this?" and "what kind of bird is that?" Ingrid is a huge source of knowledge for all things aviary (or anything else for that matter). We kept asking rapid fire questions about birds and animals. Finally, we stop to look at several birds nesting in a tree. Someone asks for the name of a bird, and without hesitation, Ingrid replies "It's a silicon breasted mattress thrasher." The delivery was dead serious and it we all cracked up laughing hysterically. From that point forward, anytime someone asked for the name of a bird that we didn't know, the answer was of course silicon breasted mattress thrasher. That, of course, deteriorated into something larger than we ever thought. Whenever anyone asked what something was, the answer was SBMT. I know it's not quite as great as everyone had hoped for, but it provided some great laughs for us.

32 Hours Later

We finally made it home to Georgia this morning. The return flight is always ten times worse than the flight over and this flight was no different. Our trip started in Cape Town on Friday morning around 8:30 a.m. (SAST - 6 hours ahead of EDT). With everything loaded in our VW minibus, we departed for the airport. Our flight back to Johannesburg was on Mango, they're very similar to Airtran. Wheels up at 11:00, wheels down in J'burg about 1. Unfortunately, we didn't have time to return to the Howes residence for a quick bite to eat and a shower, so we camped out in the J'burg airpot.

Four hours later and Delta is finally checking in for flight 35 to Atlanta. Good-byes are said to the Howes and dad (he's staying for another 2 weeks and going with Dale to Zimbabwe this weekend) and we make our way to the plane. Let the fun begin. The boarding gate area is closed and there is a huge mass of humanity standing around. We're obviously not leaving on time. J'burg has their own security in the airport similar to security stateside. Delta also has their own security. We go through a total of 3 different checks before we actually get on the plane. The final is a hand inspection of your carry-on luggage as you actually get on the plane. I won't rant too much, but when are folks going to take a nod from the Isrealis and start using some proven techniques for security screening? Oh well...

All of our carry-on bags are finally approved and we actually board the aircraft. The aircraft door is closed and then we sit and wait. Finally the pilot comes on with some news.

*WARNING - AVIATION NERD SPEAK COMING*
Evidently, the prevailing winds on 21R shifted and died down. JNB only has 2 parallel runways, so there was no runway facing directly into the wind. JNB is also at 5558 feet, so the density altitude is much higher than most runways. High density altitude + full load of passengers + full fuel + full freight - prevailing winds for takeoff = not enough runway to get off the ground.
*END NERD SPEAK*

The news was that the freight had to come off the plane so we would be below max takeoff weight. We now have to wait on the ramp workers to get the freight containers unloaded. While we're waiting, I look out the window to see how things are going and notice that things are eerily dark for an active ramp. I see the amber flashing lights of ramps trucks and baggage carts, but everything else is pitch black. About that time, the pilot announces that the airport has blown a main transformer and is now without primary power. So, the ramp guys trying to take off freight so we can leave are now working in the dark. Oh, and the computers at the gate that recalculate the total freight and luggage loads are without power, so the calculations are taking "a bit longer than normal," says the pilot. Having done some flight training, that's code for doing the calculations by hand.

Finally the extra freight is off, power is restored to the terminal and we push back to takeoff. 9 hours later we land in Dakar, go through their rather intrusive security check, pickup a few thousand pounds of fuel and change out our crew and head for the ATL. Fast forward 8.5 hours and we're wheels down on 27L after almost 30 continuous hours of travel. We clear customs, recheck our baggage (long story, look for another post), take the train, re-claim our baggage, meet Kristen and head for Canton. Wow, what a day.

In closing, despite where your travels may take you, there are always a few things to look forward to when you get back home. For me, hearing people say "y'all" and a Chik-fil-a bisquit for breakfast were enough. Upon my return, I now have 35GB (yes, gigabytes) worth of pictures to process and go through, 2 suitcases of laundry to wash and a whole bunch of stories to type and share with you. One last thing I'm really looking forward to: crawling into my own bed tonight and sleeping in tomorrow morning...

Dialup what?

Well, evidently we're quite spoiled in the U.S.A, as most of South Africa does not have intenet access more speedy than dial-up. So, I apologize for a lack of posts and especially pictures. I promise to post as many as possible when I return this weekend.

We've spent the last 5 days in CapeTown and it's been wonderful. Last Saturday we took a gondola to the top of Table Mountain and then walked to its highest point, McClearn Beacon, about a mile from the top of the gondola. The views were amazing and several locals said the weather was one of the best days that they could remember. That evening, we met the Howes (mentioned earlier) for dinner down by the waterfront. The food was marvelous, as was the company.

On Sunday, we met the Howes for a 'light'lunch that turned into a 3 hour extravaganza. We ate at a place called Kalk Bay on the Indian Ocean side of CapeTown. After that, we headed down to the boulders in Simonstown to see the Jackass Penguins (yes, they're really called that, I'll provide a link later). We then headed over the mountains onto the Atlantic side of CapeTown and watched the sunset at a great little place called Le Med.

Monday, woah! We went cage diving with great whites! We had a chartered boat along with about 20 other folks. Unfortunately, our pickup time at our B&B was 5a.m., but that was a small price to pay. Not sure of the actual water temperature, but we had 7mm wetsuits on for those of you that dive. There were 7 individual sharks that approached the boat and Britney got some amazing pictures. That brings the amazing animal count for this trip higher than I can count anymore. It's even more impressive than on TV, to be that close to a great white is extremely exhilarating.

Today we ventured to the Stellenbosch region of CapeTown, world reknowned for its wines. We explored some historical homes in the downtown area and then went to the Spier winery for lunch. The food was incredible as was the wine. Spier also has a Cheetah conservation/rescue program. For a small fee, you can actually pet a cheetah, so of course we did that (well, everyone but me, someone had to take pictures). Unfortunately, we missed the last wine tasting while playing with cheetahs, but we were able to have some with lunch so we know what to look for when we go to the bottle shop (aka liquor store) here locally.

The next few days aren't fully planned, there is still so much to see and do in CapeTown. We know we won't fit everything in and we've been pushing pretty hard lately, so we're just aiming to enjoy our last few days in Africa. We have tons and tons of pictures and stories to tell (27GB of pictures at last count) and can't wait to see everyone!

The Big 5!

Well, we're back from the bush and have returned to civilization.  All told, this has been the most amazing trip I've ever been on.  I have tons to post and share, but I just wanted to get some photos up for you all (y'all for Sean).  Speaking of Sean, he's included here as he was the best guide one could hope for.  There's also a picture of us in front of the entrance to Leopard Rock.

Silicone Breasted Matress Thrashers...

Well, we finally made it to Leopard Rock Lodge in the Madikwe Game Reserve. The flight from Dakar was uneventful and was followed by a 5 hour drive out to Madikwe. We rolled into the lodge around 11:30 p.m. local time, so all told, we were on the move for about 33 hours.

I'll skip the fluff and get right to the big stuff. Saturday morning on our first game drive, the very first thing we encounter are lions.... Two males and a female...HUNTING! They were stalking a zebra. Absolutely incredible. You could practically reach out of the truck and touch them and they could have cared less that we were there. Unfortunately, they didn't actually take the zebra, we think it got wise to them and the lions lost interest. Saturday also brought us some giraffe, four rhino and a very close encounter with some elephants.

The afternoon drive is when we encountered the rhinos and elephants. We happened upon the elephants quite by accident. Finished for the evening, we were heading back to the lodge when we passed another group of folks. Their guide mentioned some elephants in the trees ahead and he wasn't comfortable sticking around. Our guide, Shawn, was not to be dissuaded. Pushing on, we encounter a whole herd of elephants eating in the trees. It was fairly dark, but we had our spotlight and could easily see them. One even decided that she didn't care for our presence, that will make you think twice about messing with them. With that, we moved on back to the lodge.

The scenery here is marvelous, I'll post more about that later. Unfortunately, the internet isn't quite what I need to upload pictures or even post on a regular basis, so I'll do what I can.

Photography for Safari in South Africa

In the effort to replace what was lost with my first blog, I’m going to do an in-depth on the photography equipment that is going with me to SA (South Africa).  I’m becoming a self-diagnosed photography nut.  It’s really all Jen’s fault.  We had a perfectly good Kodak point and shoot and it takes fairly decent pictures.  Well, some friends upgraded to DSLR and we started looking into going that route.  I must admit, being the cheapskate that I am, I was against the endeavor. 

After some prodding, we purchased a Canon Rebel XTi kit with the included 18-55 f3.5-4.5 lens.  It took better pictures than the Kodak, but a new lens was in order to realize its full potential.  After tons of research, I decided what I wanted and Jen and my dad went in together on the Canon 100mm f2.8 macro lens.  What an absolutely fun lens!  You can take amazing close-ups (think insects/flowers) and it also works great as a portrait lens.  I had my first taste of what a really good lens could do on the XTi body and there was no turning back.

 

My Christmas present from Jen was a Canon 24-105 f4 IS L lens.  I did so much research on this lens that I thought Jen was going to turn off our internet.  The payoff has been incredible.  I took it to Ireland in April and even with my limited photography skills I managed to capture simply stunning photos.  With some practice under my belt, my sights turned towards the SA trip.

 

If Jen didn’t like the research before, she really didn’t like it this time.  I frequent a few photography related message boards, which she has affectionately dubbed the “stupid website.”  Fair enough given the time that I’m on them, I’ll take my licks.  In reading the boards and doing research, I very quickly realized that, despite its greatness in Ireland, the 24-105 wouldn’t be enough for SA.  Almost everything I read stated that you need something in the 300-400mm range of lens to get pictures of the big 5.  I started looking at lens prices and when you get into that range, we’re talking serious money, money equivalent to some serious down payments on a nice car.  There was one lens that kept coming up in discussions involving folks that had been to SA. 

 

The lens they all talked about was the Canon 100-400 f3.5-5.6 IS L lens.  Compared to other IS (image stabilized) lenses, the 100-400 is actually reasonably priced (understand that everything is relative, my reasonable might not be your reasonable).  Canon employs a push/pull zoom on this lens.  So instead of having all sorts of internal gearing to zoom the lens, you do it the old fashion way, just push and pull.  This allows for some significant cost saving, but the optics are top notch.  It’s not an extremely fast lens, but if used in daylight or with the appropriate camera body, that shouldn’t be an issue.  Having a zoom lens is also incredibly helpful when animals are walking towards you.  Often times, 400mm is too far to capture animals that might end up closer to the Land Rover than you might expect.  And evidently in SA, they can get quite close.

 

Knowing that nobody had one of these lenses that I could borrow, I bit the bullet and bought one.  My intent right now is to sell it upon my return, I could have rented, but it would have cost 20% of the total purchase price to rent one for 3 weeks, so purchase and sell is the best way for me.  One thing the 100-400 really needs is a good auto-focus system on the camera body it’s mated with.  Next, I set off to upgrade my camera body.  The XTi is a great camera and I highly recommend it for those looking to make the jump to DSLR (the newer XSi is great, too).  I needed something that has faster auto-focus and a higher frame capture rate.  I heard rumors that Canon would be introducing a new XXD camera in September.  With that, I started looking at the 40D, knowing that it would soon no longer be the top of its class.  Sure enough, 40D prices started coming down and I found someone selling locally, so I snapped one up.  With my primary lens and camera body in place, I could start begging/borrowing for some more gear.

 

All of the research also showed that changing lens while on safari is a BAD idea.  The dust and dirt that can end up on your sensor and in your lens can cause some expensive repair bills.  Jen and I have a good friend, Kristen, who graciously allowed me to borrow her Canon 30D.  Now I had a camera body for my 100-400 and my 24-105.  This idea of 2 cameras makes perfect sense to me, as one can easily switch between the two depending on the shot.  If an elephant comes charging at you, you can grab the camera with the shorter lens to get better up-close picture while running away, or you can be trampled while you change lenses.  I’ll take option one any day of the week.

 

My sister-in-law owns a Canon XT and she has that equipped with another telephoto lens.  I also rented a wide angle for the panoramic shots that I hope to encounter while on safari.  Between us, I think we’re covered for photo gear.  For those nerds out there (or those that just like photography), here is the full run down of photo equipment.  I’ll try to build the links bag into the post when I have a chance so you can check out any of these lenses/bodies for yourself.  Bodies are followed by the lens they’ll primarily be equipped with.

 

Canon 40D

Canon 100-400 f3.5-5.6 IS L

Canon 30D

Canon 24-105 f4 IS L

Canon XT

Canon 10-22 f3.5-4.5 EF-S or Canon 70-300 f3.5-4.5

Canon 50mm f1.8 (for night shots and indoor tourist stuff)

B&W Circular Polarizing Filter (reduces glare)

1 – 4GB CF Card, 2 – 2 GB CF Cards, 2 – 1 GB CF Cards

Kinesis Safari Bag

3 Canon batteries

3 in 1 battery charger (works in the Land Rover!)

500 cleaning wipes

Cool cleaning pen (for heavy smudges)

Lowepro CompuTrekker camera bag

Mac Book 13”

Maxtor 200GB Firewire hard drive

Card Reader

Life at FL330

I’m writing this while cruising across the Atlantic.  Things are winding down on the plane in terms of the activity level of the other passengers, but as usual on airplanes, I’m wide-awake.  We had a smooth departure from Atlanta and quickly left the continental United States in our wake.  All of those hurricanes and tropical storms/depressions coming off of Africa have caused us to do some swerving while in the air.  Our in-flight map looks like a three year old who can’t quite color in the lines.

After traveling to Ireland in April and now heading to South Africa on another international flight, I’ve come to the conclusion that international air-travel is much more civilized than the domestic version that so many of us have grown accustom to.  The whole boarding process of an international flight seems more orderly.  Folks aren’t running you over to get on the plane.  Maybe the thought of 18 hours in the air mellows people, I don’t know.  We flew Aer Lingus to Ireland and the service was impeccable.  Despite some less than stellar domestic run-ins, the Delta service to South Africa has been pretty good.  We got a menu for dinner that listed pasta as an option, only to find that they didn’t really have any on this flight.  Given that I had a pecan-crusted chicken salad for lunch, I opted for the beef.  Surprisingly, it wasn’t that bad.  I try to avoid meat/chicken when flying, but going hungry wasn’t an option.

The lovely Boeing 767-400 we’re on has the snazzy new personal in-flight entertainment option installed and I actually have a real AC 120V power outlet at my seat!  It’s powering the Mac Book as I type, I only hope I have it on the way back to the states so I can do some photo editing.  Now if Delta could speed along the process of installing in-flight internet access, I could post real time instead of typing in Word and uploading when I have a connection.

Since my first blog crashed, now might be a good time to give everyone a run down of our activities and itinerary in South Africa.  Our flight lands in Johannesburg at 4:35 p.m. local time (that’s 10:35 EDT, we’ll be 6 hours ahead for those of you keeping score) on Friday the 12^th.  Our friends, the Howes, will meet us at the airport with 2 cars and a trailer.  We’ll load up and begin the 5-hour drive to Madikwe Game Reserve.  Once at the lodge, we have a week of driving and walking safaris scheduled.  I overheard the girls talking about a spa of some sorts, so they will probably partake in some pampering at least one day while we’re there.  Thursday morning, the 18^th, we leave the lodge and head back to J’burg.  Since we’ve been able to show the Howes around the states on their trips over, they’re going to show us around J’burg on Thursday afternoon and Friday.  Being one of the largest cities in all of Africa, and undoubtedly the economic capital, I’m sure that much is in store for us there. 

On Saturday, the 20^th, we head over to Cape Town for a week of fun in the sun.  There are quite a few places to go and things to experience in Cape Town.  High on my list is cage diving with the Great Whites.  Ever since Discovery Channel began doing Shark Week a number of years ago, I’ve always wanted to do a cage-dive with the whites.  We have a recommendation for a company that takes you cage diving in the morning and then whale watching in the afternoon.  Sounds like a winner to me!  Just east of Cape Town you’ll find the heart of South Africa’s winemaking country.  I’m always on the lookout for a good Merlot, Pinot or Cabernet Sav that is reasonably priced.  Hopefully we can score some good finds and even bring some back to share.  If not, I’ll at least get names and perhaps we can convince an importer to import some for us.

After our time in Cape Town, we head back to J’burg to make our flight back to the states.  It’s another marathon, we leave Friday early afternoon local time and get back early Saturday morning.  Our major plan is to not make too many small plans, to just explore the country and experience things as they happen.  It is a vacation after all…

We're In Dakar!

Blogging live from Dakar, Senegal!  We're sitting on the ground awaiting the arrival of some new passengers.  We also dumped off a bunch of folks here.  The flight over the Atlantic was long, didn't get much sleep.  Most notable thing yet, we turned to final on the approach and I got a good look out into Africa.  Now, we came in at 4:30 in the morning, but other than the lights of Dakar directly below us, there were no lights at all.  Quite a change from air travel in the US.  I typed a few posts in the air, I'll try to get them uploaded before we take off.  Next stop, Johannesburg!

Rib in the beer

Well, we added the entire party to our group. The international terminal in the Atlanta airport is far superior to the domestics terminals. We ate lunch at TGI Fridays and had a great time reconnecting and telling some stories. Unfortunately, we had a a bit of an accident involving a rib and a Sweetwater 420. The rib got passed across the table and ended up in my Sweetwater 420. Here's the picture of the disaster:















We're off to get our passports verified by the Delta folks.

Re-post from last night...

So, it looks like I lost the blog on my site completely. So, I wanted to re-post some stuff that I had up there, specifically our packing pictures. I know, it's boring, I just found it funny that all the stuff we had actually fit and we were well under weight for the trip over. Coming back might be a different story.

Here is everything we had to pack:

And here is the after-packing shot:

Hard to believe we got everything. And one last shot, the latest addition to our traveling party, my sister, Cat (with Jen and I in the Atlanta airport):

We'll see how the internet holds up in ATL and try another post later this afternoon.

Holy crap, we're going to Africa!

That was the text I got from my sister this morning while I was riding to the airport in Chattanooga.  Unfortunately, when I got there, I discovered that my database on my website wasn't working, so here we go again with starting a blog!  I hope that's not indicative of the day's travels.  I'll post when I get to Atlanta and fill you all in.  Unfortunately, I lost the pictures that I've already posted, I'll try to recover them and get them back up.