Those of you who also read Priscilla’s Blog have already seen the link to all of our pictures. We edited out about half of them, but there are still over 300. But, we’ve got them neatly arranged by place we were at, at there’s thumbnails and everything, so you can actually scoot through them pretty quickly if you, like me, have limited patience for looking at huge collections of photos.

Or you can just get the highlights here! First, that map there shows basically where we went. We flew into Denver, so if you want to follow along on the map (just click it if you want to) start on that side. You can zoom in and see the path with enough detail that you can use your inate-to-humans “snap to road” ability and pretty much know exactly where we went. Or, like I say, you can just look at the whole thing, it gives a pretty darn good overview, just not as cool (read: geeky). (Thanks once again to the amazing Gmaps Pedometer for making such things possible).
I’m not going to type a play-by-play of everything we did. But here’s a text overview, with quick reviews and links to photos:

• Rocky Mountain National Park: We were more impressed than I expected us to be. If you go there, I highly recommend the Mill’s Lake Trail.
• Snowy Range Road: We had a nice campground and a nice scenic drive, neither of which were in our original plans.
• Grand Teton National Park: Amazing mountains, although not a lot of great trails or other things to do.
• Yellowstone: Big and famous, but unlike anything else on Earth
• Arches: From the mountains to the desert, and uncommonly beautiful desert at that
• Canyonlands: It seems like it’s gotta be as big as the Grand Canyon. Probably not, but awe-inspiring and beautiful.
• Manti-La Sal National Forest: Amazing campground on a mountain with amazing views of Canyonlands that sadly didn’t photograph very well.
• Bryce: I can’t think of anything as closely linked to my sense of visual beauty as this park
• Zion: Another home of yet another kind of rock formation. Also home to two unique hikes: Angel’s Landing and The Narrows.

In addition to all of those links to photos, I’ve also got just a couple of google map projections of GPS recordings of trails that we walked. My favorite is definitely this one of the Fiery Furnace in Arches. The rangers warned us that the GPS wouldn’t work in there, which was largely true… but apparently it got enough glimpses of GPS satellites to give a sense of where we went, although I bet a lot of these data points are pretty inaccurate. Still, despite its lack of precision, I love that aerial view of the furnace. And of course, you can zoom in and out and see the whole park from above, if you like.

I also have projections like this one of the Flattop Mountain Trail and the Mills Lake Trail (both in Rocky Mountain National Park) if you (like me) can’t get enough of this GPS/aerial photo stuff. (Thanks once again to GPS Visualizer for making this kind of thing so incredibly easy and so deeply satisfying). (Ok, and yes, thanks also to Google Maps. But unlike the other two things, everybody knows about Google…)
Anyway, as I hope is evident, we saw some amazing natural wonders, and we also had a great time. If all of this isn’t enough detail for you, I’m sure you’ll have no trouble convincing either of us to talk and talk and talk about it, so don’t hesitate to ask — at least, not for OUR sake. :)

Meanwhile, there’s the van. The van was a gift from my parents, after it got old enough and of questionable enough reliability that they got a new one. It’s been very handy, helping me with several pickups of lumber, furniture, etc. It also helped countless friends of mine move.

But, during its last main job last fall, a scary thing happened. A big part of the suspension jetted up through the floor of the car. Eek! I asked some friends about it and most people thought it would be repairable. I took it to a garage, but they recommended a welder. I took it to the welder, but he said it might not be worth it, the van is old and rusty and it would cost at least a few hundred dollars to repair. I drove away to think about it.

Now, thinking is one of my favorite activities. :) I did some math in my head and calculated, after a while, that, for as little as I drive the van, it’d be cheaper for me to rent a U-Haul all of those times than to continue paying the insurance on it along with these repairs. Less convenient, sure, but still… My line to myself ended up being “if you used the van more often, it might be worth fixing, but since you don’t, it’s not worth it, at least not for you.”

So, long and short, I had two motor vehicles to sell. And, just as I don’t have a great deal of experiene buying cars, I don’t have any experience selling them… The other two cars I’ve owned in my life were junked at the end of their times.

Again, it’s great that it’s so easy to use Kelley Blue Book and similar sites for things like this. The KBB value of my car was $1050-1250, depending on condition, and it definitely isn’t in top condition. So, I was gearing up to try to sell it for about $1000. Turns out that before I even listed it on line, I hear interest from two different friends, and ended up selling it to one of them for $925. Her other car is a pickup, and by our calculations, the Saturn will pay for itself in about 7 months in fuel savings for as much driving as she does. Wow.

But I did eventually get up my courage to list it online. I cleaned it up a bit on the inside (finding all sorts of things (especially cheap kids’ toys) that were apparently left in there when some friend was moving things). I figured I would try on Craigslist first, because it’s free and easy.

A tip for people thinking of listing something on Craigslist: do it when you have some free time ahead of you. Listing this old beast for $200 negotiable, I had two replies the next morning, both of whom very specifically made offers to pick it up THAT DAY. I actually had several meetings and stuff that day, so I had to work to fit one of them in. But, he was flexible, and we worked it out.

He worked as a professional welder in Columbus, IN, and apparently does welding in his spare time as well. So, I think the van is going to a good home. He drove over in his big pickup, pulling a trailer behind him.

I asked if we wanted to test drive it or anything. “Nah” he said “as long as I can drive it up on the trailer, that’s all I care about.” No problem there! So, up it went, he handed me the agreed upon $125, and a few signatures later, the van was gone. So simple.

So, I’m a one car family again! :) I do like the new car, I’m happy about the whole experience. But, as a conclusion, rather than talk about the new car, I want to send a tribute to the old Saturn.

I have an approach to examining car expenses which is to look at the total cost of the car, including repairs (but not including gas or insurance) over the time that you owned the vehicle. I think you do pretty well if you can drive an economy car for $1000/year. So, if you buy a car for $13,000, never put any serious repairs on it, and it lasts for 13 years, you did well. If you buy an old car for $1000, put $2000 of repairs into it over three years, you did well. Or, if you buy a used car for $9000, drive it for two years with no repairs, and sell it for $7000, you did well.

Well, if I recall correctly, I bought the 1994 Saturn for $5500 in December, 1999. Over eight years later, I sold it for just over $900, so I my net expense was $4600. That car barely needed any maintenance. In fact, a year or so ago, I finally had a bunch of the preventive maintenance type stuff done on it, figuring that it had been at least seven years since it had any of that done. So, maybe I did $1000 of repairs over that eight years. Even at a full thousand, though, the total cost of ownership would be $5600 over eight years, an average of under $700 per year. And never once did it fail to get me where I wanted to go. That car served me extremely well, and it is just a bit sad to see it go. Of course, since I sold it to my friend, I’m hoping I can watch it continue to serve someone well for at least a few more years. Thanks, y’old Saturn…

src="http://www.bloomington.in.us/~drernst/200603-nyc/dscf0011.jpg"/>

It’s been about two weeks since my most recent post. Where have I
been? Well, although it doesn’t explain everything, part of the
distraction from posting was a trip to New York City. Sue had a
conference at the Waldorf Astoria, and she asked if I might like to
meet her, stay for a few days with Meg (my very dear friend from
high school) and her family, and to have some fun in The City (as the
locals call it). Well, yeah! So, I was there from Friday evening
through Tuesday morning, March 3-7.

Partially inspired by [my friend Beth's world famous
blog](http://iceblog.puddingbowl.org/), I figured I should do more
telling of stories of trips on my own blog. So, welcome the new
“photo tours” category, and here’s a bit about our trip to NYC!

(I’m highlighting a few here, but you can [look at more photos if you
want to](http://www.bloomington.in.us/~drernst/200603-nyc/index.html))

I fell asleep on the plane, but woke up as we were descending into the
city right as the sun was setting. What a photo opportunity!
Unfortunately, being a lousy photographer armed with a lousy camera
seated in (literally) the aft-most seat of a small jet experiencing
the turbulence of flight-delay-inducing winds, the opportunity was
pretty well squandered. A couple survived good enough to share, but
it was much nicer to look at than these pictures suggest.

Meg and (husband) Dan and (son) Charlie live in Queens, pretty close to LaGuardia. After a short scare of wondering
where my bag was (it had fallen off the conveyor belt before I got to
baggage claim, and was hidden from my view) and the confusion of Sue
and I trying to locate each other at our respective terminals, we met
and got a cab to their house. The cabbie was funny. He asked me what
a good way to get to the house was. I said I didn’t know, which
worried me, but I’m pretty sure that he took us a fine route (after
surprising me a lot by consulting a map). Led Zeppelin’s *Babe, I’m
Gonna Leave You* was on the radio, the driver liked it and asked if
we knew who sang it. I happen to know a great deal about that song,
and told him. He said it didn’t sound that old. Funny. We ended up
asking a lot about music. He told us about how Billy Joel was playing Madison Square Garden
the day before (or so). “Wow, that must have been busy!” I said. “Yeah! I had no idea he
was still so popular!” “Well, yeah, especially around here” “Oh, is he from New York?” He was funny.

Meg buzzed us in, and not knowing that there was a cool old-fashioned
elevator, Sue and I carried our bags up to the fourth floor. No big
deal, but Meg felt bad for forgetting to tell us about the elevator.
Their apartment was very nice. Last time I was in NYC was before they
moved to this place, so it was my first time seeing it.

src="http://www.bloomington.in.us/~drernst/200603-nyc/dscf0030.jpg" />

It was naturally also my first time to visit their neighborhood in
Jackson Hts. Meg said it’s informally called “Little India”, and this
was easy to believe as we walked past a number of people of Indian
descent and signs with illegible-to-me lettering. The Indian dinner
we picked up was delicious, but I was particularly taken by the Indian
Sweet Shop that we stopped by. I know several places in Indiana where
I can get a good Indian meal, but this tiny little shop that sold
nothing but unfamiliar-to-me desserts really highlighted how a big
city like New York is different. A shop like that couldn’t survive
most places, even though its offerings were delectable.

The last time I was in NYC included the day that Charlie was born.
Now he’s 21 months old. So, he had changed a lot. It was nice to see
him “again”.

Charlie’s favorite toys are cell phones. Meg and Dan have collected a
number of old cell phones from their friends for Charlie to have and
to hold. I pulled out my cell phone and “called” him up. Seeing me
do this, he was very interested in my phone. I figured there’d be no
harm in letting him carry it around, so he did. I was right, no
harm… until it was time for him to go to bed. He really didn’t
want to part with it. Meg calmly said that it was time to give David
his phone back. Charlie summoned his courage and slowly handed me the
phone. I thanked him. Meg commended him. But the positive
reinforcement from humans wasn’t enough; his courage melted into
extremely audible tears of separation anxiety. Poor kid. Apparently
he has a Motorola StarTac just like mine that Meg keeps hidden away
for “Emergencies”. (Jeremy, I’m sure if you’re reading this, you’re
thinking that it’s another sign of how badly I need a new phone…).

Charlie likes working phones too. While we were getting him ready for
bed, we ended up in a three-way call — on “speaker phone” — with Dan
and his brother Adam. I know from past visits that Dan and Adam talk
with each other on the phone a **lot**. So, there was something very
homey and “chip off the old blocky” about having this conference call
of Grabois men. Tee hee.

src="http://www.bloomington.in.us/~drernst/200603-nyc/dscf0048.jpg"/>

Dan was calling from the Atlanta airport, where he was on his way home
from a [Meridian Arts Ensemble](http://www.meridianartsensemble.com/)
gig in Alabama. He’s been their french horn player for years, I think
since the beginning. So, we didn’t see him until the next day. And,
at first, that wasn’t for very long, because Sue and I took the subway
to meet Jessica and Jenni Robertson at their upper west side
apartment. It was very fun to see them, but unfortunately I forgot to
bring my camera that day, so I don’t have pictures. Jessica had her
camera though, so hopefully I’ll be able to get some.

We went out to brunch, and then talked, walked, and subwayed around
the city for the afternoon. It was quite fun. It was really Sue’s
first time in NYC (except for a long layover that she and I had on the
way home from Nova Scotia many years ago) so she wanted to do lots of
touristy things (by her own admission/description). So, yeah,
Chrysler Building, Empire State Building, Ground Zero (much more of a
spectacle now than when I saw it four years ago. It struck me as a
canyon, at least 50 feet deep, in the middle of some of the most
expensive real estate in the world), Wall St., saw the Statue of
Liberty from the southern tip of Manhattan, China Town, Grand Central
Station, Times Sq.. etc. I enjoy just wandering around New York.
Part of my enjoyment of it is just building a map of the city into my
brain because it’s all so talked about in our society. It definitely
comes up a lot, especially if you’re interested in music, food,
politics, etc. :)

Sue and I ate dinner in a rather random seeming Irish-themed place in
the financial district. It was unbelievably empty, but the food was
good and the staff were very friendly. Then we set back to Queens to
hang out with Meg and Dan a bit before bed. Sunday, we mostly just
hung around at Meg and Dan’s. Meg and Charlie and I went to the local
playground, which was very nice, but not as nice as it would have been
if it hadn’t been 25 degrees and very windy. Still, we had fun, and
Meg and I had a nice talk.

Meg and Dan got a sitter for the evening, and we all went out to
dinner. After extensive discussions about where we might go, Sue and
I resolved on requesting “a place that you two think of as really
good” (rather than trying to select a particular type of food, or what
not). We settled on a place called Babbo Lupa
run by [Mario
Batali](http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/mario_batali/article/0,1974,FOOD_9906_1696090,00.html)
of New York and Food Network fame. The dinner was extremely good, and
it’s amazing how even that famous a restaurant run by that famous a
chef was still not very expensive (about $10-$12 an entree). We
bought wine, appetizers, and desserts, so we still ran up a good tab,
but… yeah, one could have been very satisfied for well under
$20/person. The food was all good, but the most memorable dish for me
was an appetizer of shredded raw Brussels Sprouts mixed with a great
deal of strong parmesan cheese and a simple dressing. Very very good,
but also very creative. Cool. It was one of the best dining
experiences I can remember.

src="http://www.bloomington.in.us/~drernst/200603-nyc/dscf0021-meg.jpg" alt="Saying goodbye to Charlie" />

Dan woke up early the next day to drive to Hartford, CT to teach (his
schedule is pretty darn crazy). However, his brother Adam came over.
I hadn’t seen Adam since Meg and Dan’s wedding, so it was nice to hang
out with him a bit in the morning. He casually cooked some delicious
lentil soup (which is probably part of what inspired me to cook the
same last night) and we all ate a bit of lunch until Sue and I headed
back to Manhattan to check in to the Waldorf.

Sue and I made a bet about what we would think of the Waldorf. We
knew it would be hoity-toity, but the question was, would we really
actually think it was nice, or just hoity-toity. We stayed at the
Palmer House in Chicago for Darren and Brooke’s wedding in October,
and found the lobby to be very impressive, but the room itself to be
relatively bland. I bet her that *she* would agree that the room at
the Waldorf Astoria would be nicer.

src="http://www.bloomington.in.us/~drernst/200603-nyc/dscf0072.jpg" />

Well, she won the bet, but only because I underestimated her
jadedness, or something. In *my* opinion, the room was substantially
nicer than the one in Chicago. I was particularly impressed by the
bathroom, in which the floors, walls, and countertops were all large
cuts of stone (seemingly marble, but I don’t really know that). The
decor was all either antique or very nice, although admitedly some
things were the former but not the latter. And, as a final nice
touch, the alarm clock was very new and had what has to easily be the
best user interface I’ve ever seen on an alarm clock. And it had a
built in CD player. Very nice. Sue is silly…

But, in general, the Waldorf struck me as a place where rich people
who like to feel richer than other people go so that they can feel
richer than other people. We had a drink in one of the on-site
restaurants that night, and it was crazy expensive. It’s really
striking to think that every drink on their menu cost more than either
of our amazing celebrity-chef entrees had cost the night before. And,
it’s not like the amibiance was even that good. I think they are just
pricing out the riff-raff. Little did they know that we’d go down
there for one drink anyway. :) It was nice for us to relax and talk
on my last night there, though.

[](http://www.bodiestheexhibition.com/)

But, in all that about the Waldorf, I skipped the fact that Sue and I
went to see [Bodies: The
Exhibition](http://www.bodiestheexhibition.com/) right after we
checked in. I had a lot of mixed feelings about it, in part because
it was gross, and in part because of my museum hangups. But, it was
undeniably interesting, not just in what it teaches about human bodies
but in how they successfully preserved and presented all of those
bodies. Very interesting, and actually less gross than I had
expected. But still gross.

I woke up early on Tuesday morning, took a cab to the airport (20
minutes door to door) and a few hours later I was back home in
Indiana. What a world…