Introducing Amani Massage Therapy

I tried to get Anne to write a post about her new business but she is too embarrassed to write about herself. Once again, I am in awe of my wife. She has started her own massage therapy business and has already made allies with two very successful wellness businesses in town, BEE Green Organic Produce Co-op and Kai Yoga. She anticipates opening the doors on Dec. 1. She was meeting with the fire inspector this morning! Its a very exciting and scary time for Anne so she could use any words of encouragement you may have.

I know some of you may say, "you shouldn't put a phone number on a blog", but this is her work number that she is already advertising so it's already public. More info on Amani Massage Therapy coming soon. If you are wondering, Amani is Swahili for PEACE.

Secret lovers, yeah, that’s what we are....

A Ring Neck and Gila Monster(the only venomous lizard in the world) make for strange luvas...Picture taken at our local aquarium here in Albany GA.
Lyrics curtosy of Atlantic Star.

Freezing My Ice Off!

During the winter of 99 while on break from grad. school, one of my buddies and I planned our first winter mountaineering trip. We decided to drive to Durango CO where we planned to climb Engineer Mountain. Neither one of us was an experienced mountaineer at the time,but we both had considerable climbing, hiking and winter camping experience. We researched the trip exhaustively. We gathered maps, inventoried equipment, and practiced our techniques all from the mountainous regions of Western Illinois.

An Illinois mountain scene taken from Jimmedia on Flickr

The climb of Engineer Mountain is a story in and of itself. Highlights include: one climber with snowshoes and the other post holing to his hip every other step; a drunken moonlight hike to base camp, scavengers in our food stash, a late evening search for a climbing partner who went snowboarding alone, and some Acute Mountain Sickness. It was awesome! Learn More about Engineer Mountain here: http://www.summitpost.org/mountain/rock/150328/engineer-mountain.html.

After getting spanked on Engineer, we decided to check out something called the Ouray Ice Festival we had heard about. After a few hours of driving treacherous mountain roads we arrived to what turned out to be one of the coolest events I've ever been to. We arrived late and poached a campsite in a closed campground. In the morning we went to a coffee shop. While reading a current issue of Rock and Ice Mag., we realized that the guys sitting down at our table were on the cover! We didn't do any climbing during that festival but I would later return to the town of Ouray, more experienced and better equipped.

In 2006, Anne surprised me with an airline ticket that would get me to the beautiful town of Ouray CO via Grand Junction just in time for the Ice Festival. One of my friends, Kelly Webb had recently relocated to Ouray with his wife and daughter. Not only did he pick me up from the airport but they put me up for the weekend. He also acted as my very own private guide in the ice park.

The festival had grown quite a bit since the last time I had been there. It was insane! More vendor tents, more competitors, louder music, more spectators, more media, and more freebies.

Onlookers can stand on the bridge crossing the lower end of the canyon to watch the competitors climbing.

There is also a slack line competition where the bravest, drunkest or craziest climbers attempt to tight rope walk across the canyon. It makes for a great spectacle.

Above all the competition and spectator crazinest is where the climbers will go. Designated a "Crampon and Helmet Zone", steep and icy trails skirt along the edge of the canyon. Although many routes were reserved for classes and workshops, it is a pretty long canyon with a number of fingers and climbing areas. The areas have been given some great names such as South Park, New Funtier and Shit House Wall.

Kelly and I would start our morning off with coffee and a short drive up to the Canyon. We wanted to be on the ice by 7Am to be sure that we got a good route. It was very crowded if you can believe that. In most cases we would pick our route, set up our top roped anchoring system then drop into the canyon by rappelling.

In many cases we were belaying from on top of moving water. In some places, ice fall had broken through and the rushing water was apparent.

Its hard to get good photos when there are only two of you. One person must work the ropes as the belayer while the other is climbing. You can't really yell up to the climber,"Don't fall while I take my hands off the rope to hold the camera?" That's why you will find a lot of "before" and "after" shots as well as pictures of people climbing next to you.

These are some of the images from one of the narrow corridors in which we climbed. These aren't of us but of the folks climbing next to us. I only wished we were climbing with a third person who could have taken these silhouetted shots of our climbs. Maybe out there somewhere these guys were taking pictures back at us and have posted the same.

The canyon falls into a shadow most of the day, but as the sun moves overhead the condition of the ice begins to deteriorate. Larger and larger chunks of ice continue to break off with each climb and plummet to the canyon floor. Everyone in the canyon must pay close attention to their surroundings so that they don't get squashed.

Imagine that as a belayer standing at the bottom of the climb, someone on the cliff side continuously throws buckets of crushed ice cubes on your head. Every time the climber swings his or her ice tool, the ice shatters a little. Occasionaly a larger chunk will break free. You constantly hear people screaming "Ice!!!" or "Rock!!!" as these chuncks come down. Belayers try to position themselves to protect from these falling hazards. The sound of the ice falling in the canyon is much like 100s of glass bottles being shattered in the street.



We aren't just enjoying nature in the Ice Park. As a matter of fact, the ice has been created artificially. For more info see the video at the end of this posting. There is more of a party atmosphere in the air. In the background we hear an eclectic mix of music pumping through the canyon; Red Hot Chili Peppers followed by James Brown, then The Chemical Brothers. It really sets the atmosphere and gets you pumped.

We climbed like this for fours days straight. Kelly and Jen were the most gracious hosts. The Festival never disappoints.

I can't describe the sense of satisfaction I get from spending time climbing with my bros like Kelly. It is always a powerful experience, being in nature, experiencing God's creation so fully, sharing such a close bond with friends, and pushing one's self to achieve.

One of the things I love so much about my wife is that, even though she doesn't share quite so perverse of a love for the outdoors as I, she recognizes how important it is to me. I was unable to make a trip to Ouray in 2007 but thanks to Anne, I will be "Freezing My Ice Off" again at the Festival in 2008. At around 11am today I was on speakerphone with my long time climbing partner and good friend Matt trying to get signed up for the same workshops at this year's upcoming festival. Registration went on line at 11 this morning! This will be Matt's first Ice Festival, Its never boring when Kelly is around, and hopefully this year Jen will be able to join us climbing (as she had a baby in her belly in 2006!)

Just to give you a little taste and get you as psyched about this as I am; here is a little video footage of the Ouray Ice Festival from Youtube. For full effect, turn up the computer volume, turn the AC up, fill two bowls with ice and put your bare feet in and enjoy...

Devil's Den Subterranean Dive

After such an awesome dive at Morrison Springs FL, Anne and I decided to travel to the privately owned Devils Den Spring. It’s a very unique dive located in the belly of a giant sink hole. It’s not considered an overhead environment but more like an open water dive underground. Check it out at: http://www.devilsden.com/

There are steps carved into the cavernous sinkhole that continue into a long wooden staircase. The Staircase will only support one diver at a time and lead to a platform in the middle of the water. The submerged portion of the sink hole is shaped like an upside down mushroom.

As you look up, sun light beams into the sink through the opening filtered by all of the surrounding vines and foliage.

Once in the water our confidence began to fade. Looking down it was very dark and ominous, the water is freezing and until it has time to warm up in our wetsuits our teeth chatter.

We had picked a good time to dive as a number of divers had just finished their dive. I think there were only two other divers in the water as we prepared to go in. Our friends Penny and Gretchen looked on while we completed our final safety checks and began to dive.

As we descended we stopped at a dive platform, turned on our dive lights and took a second to compose ourselves. It was a cloudy day so there was limited sunlight entering the sink. Large three foot long catfish swam by. Our lights could not reach the bottom but illuminated the fossil filled limestone near us. There is a comforting feeling to focus on the rock closest to you. To concentrate on the detail of what you are looking at.

As we began to descend we followed the limestone down on an angle. We worked ourselves around the center pillar dropping into the darkness. At first we stayed at a constant depth but then as our confidence grew we dropped deeper into the abyss. The deeper we dove, the farther into an overhead environment we went.

The sink is full of a number of very technical caves that have been haphazardly barricaded to keep out divers. There are short non-technical caves created by fallen boulders that they refer to as “swim throughs”. These tunnels may be ten to thirty feet long. They start and end in the main chamber. To be sure we were not accidentally entering a technical cave; we would cover over our lights. If we could see ambient light at the end of the tunnel, it was a swim through; darkness, a cave. Some of these were vary narrow, only a few feet wide. They were exciting and as our courage grew we navigated longer and more narrow “swim throughs”.

Here is some great Youtube footage taken by other divers at Devils Den. It gives you an idea of just how dark and scary the "swim throughs"could be:

After about 45min I was nearing the end of my air. To be cautious, most divers ascend while they still have some air, just in case something happens on the way up.

This was another amazing dive. Despite how awesome it was, we decided to only burn one tank each (normally we dive at least two tanks on a trip). We had a couple of friends who don’t dive waiting to go kayaking with us that afternoon. As it turned out, we all had lunch together in Gainesville FL then headed back to Albany. A combination of the cold water, climbing those stairs treacherous wooden stairs, and the general exhaustion you get from diving had us worn out.

After a three hour drive we still needed to clean and hang all of our equipment, Anne’s favorite part of the whole trip!

How Blessed We Are...

Anne and I are meeting for lunch where my hardest decision will be, sushi or hot Cuban sub. As we eat we will be agitated by the poor service and complain that we can't afford to go on a 4 day dive in the Florida Keys this winter. How selfish and self absorbed is that. Please be grateful for what you have and help us be accountable to this as well...

Yggdrasil the World Tree

A Baobab tree on the drive to Mombasa.

My Wife is so Awesome!

On the weekend of Sept 28 we celebrated our third anniversary! Now as some of you may know, our first two anniversaries were both complete disasters due to a series of unfortunate events (the first year we drove into a hurricane in FL after replacing two nearly blown tires on our car, last year we were invited to use a cabin, but when we arrived, there was already a party going on...hosted by people we didn't know?) We started this past weekend off with a little help from our old friend William Shatner, that’s right Captain James T. Kirk (The PRICE – LINE- NEGOTIATOR). He found us a beautiful room in a 4 star hotel overlooking the city of Atlanta. We were at the top of the building on the 23floor with a balcony, and paid less than we do to stay at the Super 8! In the morning we were awakened by the sound of a marching band in the street below. Apparently the city of Atlanta gave us a last minute parade!

We spent the rest of the day cruising around Atlanta shopping for a few things we can’t get good deals on in our little town of Albany. Anne got her rings cleaned; I got some shoes at REI. While we were looking for a massage supply store for Anne, SHE suggested we stop by the other REI store in Atlanta. Two REIs in one day? Is that even possible? For those of you who don’t know, REI is a huge outdoor equipment store that I spend hours in whenever I am in Atlanta. It just so happened there was a scratch and dent sale for Coop members only. Wait, I’m a Coop member!

As if it was Christmas morning and I was 8 years old, I did my best speed walk through the store to the back loading dock where all the good stuff was located. I immediately noticed about 10 Kayaks. Anne has said to me on a number of occasions that she could really get into kayaking. She always enjoys it when we go. A friend of mine had a canoeing outfitters and would loan us kayaks but he has closed his business. I glanced at the price tags first and got a little twitchy. They were practically giving them away! I quickly ruled out, the wrong type of kayaks, the broken and damaged kayaks, then the ones that were the wrong size. People were circling the kayaks like vultures. I called Anne on her cell. She was inside looking at clothes. She came out, got into one of the “good” kayaks that I director her to test and then she said,” DO IT !” How awesome is that! A couple of hours later we left with two 14 foot sea kayaks completely rigged with rudders and all!

This was awesome, but not the highlight of our weekend…and not why my wife is so awesome. On Sunday morning with kayaks on the roof, we met up with our friends David and Jackie who are avid divers. We headed to Morrison Spring in FL . (A little background: South GA and North Florida are home to a unique geological feature called a blue hole spring. They are fresh water springs fed by the limestone aquifers and are often characterized by their crystal clear water, 68 degree temp year round, as well as underwater caves and caverns. We dive them as an alternative to expensive and distant saltwater dives. People travel from all over the world to dive some of these springs. Read more about Morrison Springs here: http://underwaterflorida.homestead.com/morrison.htmll)

Although we have been diving in springs, we have never been in a cavern before. Overhead environments and low light situations can be tricky to say the least. The plan was that I would dive the cavern with David and Anne would dive just the basin with Jackie. When we got there, Anne was all about the cavern!

We made plans on what we would do if anyone freaked out and we went over what to expect during the dive. David is a dive master and is really good at explaining things.

When we dropped down into the basin to the mouth of the cavern, silt was getting kicked up to the point that there was 2-3ft of visibility. This is a terrifying experience. You are disoriented, breathing heavily, and 35’ below a surface that you can’t just shoot to without serious physical complications. Anne was in front of me following Jackie. She swam into the current that is blasting thousands of gallons of water per minute out of the cavern opening.

The opening was about 10’x10’. At one point I signaled to David that I was getting a little freaked. I watched Anne struggle against the current and get blown back a few times. Then she disappeared into the mouth of the cavern. If it wasn’t for Anne, I may have backed out of the cavern dive. Once I pushed forward into the current, the silt cleared up and there was Anne pulling herself down the guide rope into the darkness. Once in the cavern the current dissipates and the water is crystal clear. Our lights are shining all around the cavern. Looking back there is a small opening that appears to be about the size of a doorway. It is glowing a magnificent blue. All around us are catfish and very curious eels. We are now at about 80’ ft deep, the entrance to the cavern is at around 35’ We explored around the cavern. I couldn’t help but watch Anne swimming around with her dive light, checking out formations and eels, watching her check her gauges and dive computer and think, “How Awesome is my Wife?”

The cavern was full of formations such as flow stone. One side was dominated by an incline of sand. Small fish, catfish and eels could be seen cruising this subterranean sand bar. There were also vents that blasted out strong but isolated currents. Crumbled limestone looked like popcorn as it was constantly being blown up a few inches then falling back into the vents current. The roof was filled with air pockets that when shined on by our dive lights created the most erie effect.

Peek-a-boo! Many of the caverns nooks and crannies were occupied by eels or catfish. These are pictures of the friendly eels we encountered in the cavern. Pictures taken by our friend Jackie.

This is another picture taken by our friend Jackie while we were in the cavern. I was checking my gauges. We were at about 80' deep and about 50' below the entrance of the cavern. I was sucking air down like it was my job.

This experience was amazing; by far one of the coolest things I have been blessed to do.

After about 20min of diving, I had expended my air and signaled to Anne that my time was up (I burn air much faster then Anne and faster then my no decomp time will allow.) On this dive we both burned air faster than usual as we were so excited and scared. We all went up together taking our time to the surface. This was only the first of two dives. After lunch we burned another tank in the cavern. Follow these links to see great YouTube video footage of what we experienced. These aren’t of us but of other divers entering the exact same cavern we did. When I watch them, I can’t believe that Anne and I were there. That we did that.

General Dive of the Cavern

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6470082381054492971&q=morrison+spring+dive&total=9&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=1
Better footage of getting into the entrance

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5039805332666771226&q=morrison+spring+dive&total=80&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=3

What we saw in the cavern.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8618617140775854004

After our second dive, David and Jackie headed home while Anne and I took our new kayaks on their maiden voyage. We paddled down the beautiful flow of the spring that connects into the Suwannee River. When I suggested to my cavern diving wife that we switch kayaks for a while (they are two different models) she informed me that I could stay in my own kayak, that the Eclipse was hers! “It’s prettier and has a cup holder”….. Fair enough.

I know this turned out to be a long entry, but it was such an amazing weekend and reminds me of how awesome my cavern diving wife is! But then I am sure that I don’t need to tell any of you.