The Parrothead!

Stacey and I are really excited about our most recent purchase. We just obtained our own motorhome. That's right, a house on wheels, and it's pretty incredible. I found an awesome deal on Craig's List. I looked at it one day, and bought it the next. I couldn't let this little gem slip away. Check it out below, and then I'll tell you more.

The "Parrothead" is a 1971 Dodge 24 foot motorhome. Some may call it old, but I call it classic. The previous owners were some amazing people from Post Falls, ID. When they got her, they completely refurbished her, rebuilt the engine, redid the interior walls, upgraded the electical and plumbing systems, installed a surround sound system, added a marine-grade water heater and pump, installed new passenger seats, and had a professional artist paint the parrot on the side. To be honest, the parrot was a major part of the appeal.
The day I purchased her, I immediately drove her over to Montana. She's going to be Stacey's home for the summer. I bought this before Stacey ever got a chance to see it. She was pleasantly surprised by the comfort and quality of this rig when I arrived. Driving this thing is a ton of fun. It's big, bulky, and takes a while to stop, but it's pure joy. I get the same feeling in this rig that I get on boats. I love boats. They have this very care-free quality about them. The Parrothead is basically a fun boat on wheels.
This rig also has everything on board that you need to survive. In the head, it's got a marine-style toilet and shower. In the kitchen, she's got two sinks, a 4-burner range, an over, a microwave, and a propane/electic refrigerator. For heat she's got 2 hydronic boat heaters and a propane furnace. For relaxing, she's got 4 very comfortable swivel chairs (with seatbelts) and a queen-size bed. For entertainment, she's got a TV, DVD player, Dobly Digital Surround Sound complete with an awesome sub-woofer, and satellite radio (so we can listen to Radio Margaritaville) which we already owned.

New Brew

Here's the picture we plan on using for our most recent brew. Our friend Josh took this picture in Glacier Nat'l Park last summer. We liked it so much we named our latest beer, "Curious Goat," after it. It's a nice smooth, very malty dopple-boch. Boch just so happens to mean goat. So, we thought the name was fitting.

Here's a finished version of one of our labels. Chocolate Legs was in my opinion the best beer we've concocted. We combined a dark stout with home-brewed espresso and bittersweet dark chocolate. It turned out way better than we imagined. We just didn't have the carbonation figured out yet, and it was a little puny in the alcohol content arena.

We call our little home brewery Muddy Boots Brewing Co. We named it after our fondness for hiking, and the tendency to get off of the trail with very muddy boots. After a long day on the trail, it's really nice to enjoy a cold brewsky. Should we ever go anywhere with this commercially, we'll definitely cater to hikers and outdoor enthusiasts.

Our brews:

• Chocolate Legs - Chocolate Espresso Stout
• Drunkin' Punkin' - Spiced Pumpkin Wheat Beer: We created this one for Halloween. It's so bad that I refuse to drink it. I've renamed it Satan's Piss Pot. From what I understand, beers that include spices need considerable aging before being fit for consumption. So, we're giving it a little more time.
• Appleknocker Apfelwein: Not a beer, but a nice apple wine. This one is strong. It'll lay you out.
• Curios Goat - Dopple-Boch: This is our first lager. The others were ales. It's very smooth. It's also the first time we exclusively used malt as the fermentable sugar. In the other brews, we added corn sugar (dextrose) in addition to the malt. Supposedly, an all-malt beer is far superior to beers using dextrose. I can't really notice the difference, but I like this beer.
  

The Bison Range

The National Bison Range near Moiese, MT

It's springtime. That means Stacey has headed back over to the Bison Range to catch Pronghorn fawns. She does this every year in order to tag them and take a tissue sample. By tagging them, she can visually identify every individual on the range. This makes behavioral observations much easier. By taking a tissue sample, she can genetically identify them and construct pedigrees. This is important since she's looking at problems associated with inbreeding in a small population.

Here's a picture of Stacey just after catching one of the fawns. This one gave her a pretty good downhill run, but she managed to nab it.

Whenever possible, I like to go out on the range and help her out. Here I am holding a fawn's mouth closed. This keeps it from crying out and attracting the attention of predators. They're super sweet little critters. I love getting the chance to hold them, but my heart goes out to them too. They don't know that I'm not going to eat them.

Only in a Jeep

I was looking through some pictures yesterday, and I found this one I took of Stacey on the Bison Range. I always thought this looked just like a Jeep ad with the snowcapped mountains in the background and no visible trace of a road. Yes, Stacey is one of those Jeep owners that actually uses it the way it was intended. There was no road here by the way, just a trail.

Critter Spotlight: Prairie Rattlesnake

Prairie Rattlesnake

Stacey and I found this guy on the Bison Range last spring. We were driving down a gravel road in the Jeep with the top down, and we noticed a very unmistakable rattling noise as we drove by a hillside. Stacey slammed on the breaks, and we backed up to see if we could find it. He was only about a foot off of the road. So, I leaned out and snapped this picture. We were pretty close to it, but well out of strike range. Just a few days later, we had another run-in with a rattler while trying to find a pronghorn fawn. This time the snake struck and almost tagged Stacey's mentor, John on the leg. Luckily, his yoga training helped him levitate a couple of feet off the ground. It was a pretty close call. Since that incedent, Stacey has been wearing snake-proof gaiters in the field.

Oregon Coast

About a month or so ago, Stacey and I had a trail run in western Oregon near Portland. It was a 25k run called Hagg Lake Mud. Mud was what we expected, and mud is what we got. Temps were in the lower 40s, it rained (sideways) the entire time, it was windy, and the mud was thick. Anyway, we were so close to the coast that we just had to see it regardless of how tired we were. Here we're at Cannon Beach with Haystack rock in the background. I've seen this rock on countless calendars, and it was awesome to actually see it in person.

This picture was taken just north of Cannon Beach at Ecola State Park. All of Oregon's coast are public land. The cool upside to that is that it would be possible to walk the entire coast without anybody chasing you off their land. However, once you visit the Oregon coast, you realize that it'd be pretty much physically impossible due to the nature of the coastal cliffs.

Looking south down the beach at Ecola. I love the Oregon coast. I could do without some of the rain, but the wind didn't bother me a bit.

Around NYC

I've already put up a couple of posts about our trip to New York this spring, but I've failed to show many of the city sights (mostly because everybody's seen them). So, here's a picture of us standing in Brooklyn with lower Manhattan in the background. We could also see the Statue of Liberty, but we never got very close to it.

We also went to a taping of the Late Show with David Letterman. We got the free tickets by anwering a trivia question about the show over the phone while still in Idaho. We were really surprised by the Ed Sullivan Theater. It looks pretty big on T.V., but in person, the place is tiny. We had front row seats right next to the band. The guest that night was Richard Geer which we weren't thrilled about, but the show was still very entertaining.

This is the famous St. Patricks Cathedral. Honestly, this place rivaled most of the gothic cathedrals I saw while in Europe. Very impressive. Is it common for churches in NYC to have gift shops?

Times Square. You cannot avoid it, but it is pretty neat.

Hells Canyon

Stacey and I spent our Easter Sunday hiking along a trail in (ironically) Hells Canyon Nat'l Recreation Area, ID/OR. So, I thought I would include a picture of the area. I forgot to take the camera, but I had some pictures from a previous adventure. This shot shows how the Snake River meanders through the canyon. The hike we were on actually had some trees, and it was along a different river (Rapid River). So, it was a bit different looking, but this gives you an idea of the terrain.

Here's a different view of the canyon. The picture doesn't do it justice, but this is the deepest canyon in North America. That's right! This thing is deeper than the Grand Canyon, but not nearly as wide. Click on the picture to get a better view.

Obligatory Drinking Shot

If you're in your twenties and you're on the web, it is required by law to have at least one picture of you drinking some sort of alcoholic beverage. Since I wish to abide, I've decided to post this little pic taken at Scruffy Duffy's in NYC. The bartender at this place actually knew the official Guinness pouring technique. He even drew a clover in the top with the foam.

Lego Chewbacca

I was very excited to see this lego Chewie at FAO Shwartz in NYC. They also had a lego Darth Vader and a lego Batman. One of the employees at the store took this picture and made fun of my hat.

Naked Cowboy

No trip to NYC is complete without a fondling from the infamous Naked Cowboy. This guy makes a living by busking in his undies. Where does he keep his tips? They're in his boots and his guitar. Believe it or not, Ryan and I encouraged Stacey and Danielle to pose with this guy. We also got a good shot of them checking out his butt (he makes them do this).

Beershakes and Ridiculous Faces

Stacey and I visited New York City over spring break to visit her brother. He took us to a little restaurant in Brooklyn called Shnax. They served some amazing burgers, and were apparently famous for their beershakes. Beer and ice-cream mixed together sounds terrible, but in reality, it is AWESOME! Anyway, this is a picture of Stacey enjoying the beershake while I sport a ridiculously goofy smile. This picture makes me laugh.

While on the topic of goofy faces, I thought that I'd drop in this picture of Danielle helping Ryan clean up his face in Little Italy. In the background, they're busy filming the Sopranos movie.

Bighorn Skull

This is a fun picture of Stacey holding a Bighorn Sheep skull she found near Poia Lake in GNP. There's a cave near here that we didn't know about at the time. We'll head back and check it out this summer.

Snow on the Rocky Mountain Front

In sticking with the snowy theme of the last couple of posts, I present this photo taken of the prairies just west of Browning, MT. That's the Rocky Mountain's eastern front in the background. I like how it comes out of nowhere. Plus, the sunlight looks pretty neat. I could do without the telephone pole in the middle, but it was there.

Making Post Holes

I just really like this picture of Stacey and Niko hiking along Going-to-the-Sun road in Glacier National Park. This was taken in mid-March last year. St. Mary Lake was still frozen over, and we wanted to see the classic Wild Goose Island shot in a way that few people have the opportunity to expience. So, we hiked the 12-mile journey without snowshoes. We post holed through a good section of it.

LtoR - Kyle, Stacie R., Niko
It was a beautiful sunny day for a hike. If we look cold, it's probably because the temp. was in the 20s and the wind was blowing about 25mph. Here's the reason we didn't take snow shoes. The wind had cleared the early sections of the road, and we didn't feel like packing them in.

The payoff...

Eating Toast

You must start the day with a good breakfast! I like to have breakfast (in this case I'm eating toast) on the porch while the snow is coming down. This isn't my porch. This is the porch of a tiny cabin at the Lochsa Lodge near Lolo Pass MT/ID. The snow shower you see here probably yielded about 2 feet of powder.

The Palouse

The is a picture of the Palouse region of north Idaho and eastern Washington. The picture doesn't due justice to the very unique rolling prairie landscape, but the sky looks nice. I took this picture near Kamiak Butte county park near Pullman, WA last fall.