Saturday 20 December 2014

Part 4: Kentucky Fried....Continued

Just a quick round-up on some other goings on in Kentucky other than climbing. What an awesome place.

Other Goings On:

To be honest I didn’t really climb as much as I thought while being here, I think I probably averaged about 3 days a week all up. Other than climbing I mostly hung out in the Miguel’s restaurant getting to know the staff pretty well and drinking far too much filtered coffee (when in Rome right?).
I also very luckily managed to score some ah “volunteer” work at the Rock House, which is a local restaurant down the road from Miguel’s. The guy who runs it is an absolute legend and the guys working in the kitchen are hilarious, it’s been a really fun place to work and will make the trip go just  a little longer. They also make some of the biggest burritos you’ve ever seen. De-licious!


This photo is un-bear-able..........sorry.

The weather here is also pretty up and down, apparently it was super wet just before I got here which explains why the car parks were a muddy catastrophe and at the end of November it got super cold, like 10 degrees below zero cold. Luckily me and Scotty insulated the shit out of the van. One cool thing that came from the cold weather was the formation of massive icicles at the top of the cliffs which as they melted in the warming weather would come crashing down with a huge rumble echoing around the crag as we were climbing. Made things pretty exciting for a couple of days! Had to watch your step walking in though, a giant icicle to the head would end the trip real quick. 
I call them Death-cicles

I also got to experience a proper American thanks giving. Scotty and Lina invited me back to spend the holiday with them and their family, which was bloody amazing. After helping chef Scotty do some cooking during the day we all sat down to a huge meal together of turkey, country ham, mash potato, pumpkin soup, stuffing and green bean casserole with pumpkin pie to finish. Then with some glasses of wine under the belt, was schooled in the finer points of American football, which if I’m going to be honest, was pretty enjoyable to watch. Thanks for letting the uncultured aussie crash your day guys, had a blast!
The man knows his turkeys alright.


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Apart from that my time mostly consisted of sitting on my laptop in cafes and eating way to much food! The Food here is so damn good. I’ve been enjoying all the sweet fatty things you don’t see back home, biscuits and gravy baby, holy shit, and corn bread, the best! Not to mention all the fast food which I'm trying to sample some of each, Waffle House, Wendy’s, IHOP, Five Guys, Applebees, Arbys, Chipotle, Chillis, Dennys, Cracker Barrel, Dairy Queen, the list goes on. There are also so many candy bars here that you don’t get back home (new addiction to reeses pieces chocolate bars). Ive definitely put on at least five kilos since being here, sad face. So enjoyable though.
Deep fried to perfection!

Where the magic happens.

Now to Really Hit the Road:

So that’s about all of everything I got up to in Kentucky. Met some awesome people, did some bad arse climbing, ate some amazing/terrible/”god damn it, why did I just eat that whole thing” food and hung out with some good mates. Off to Chattanooga now for some hiking around for a couple days then more climbing and bouldering before Canada for Christmas. Missing everyone back home for sure, big hugs and kisses for everyone back home, or just a high five if kisses from heterosexual males isn’t your thing. See you all on Facebook soon.

Laterz

Monday 1 December 2014

Part 4: Kentucky Fried



Official AAA road map for Kentucky.

Time again to do some blogging. Just about to leave Kentucky after a funny ol’ month and a half in The Red River Gorge, climbing (sometimes), eating (lots), and generally just having a cruisy time of it. Enjoy!

Van Land:
Sexy aint it?

After a week and a bit running around New York I finally had a van and was ready to kit it out with a bed frame and try and insulate it as best I could. Having no tools to speak of it was going to be an effort to work out but luckily Marie mentioned her dad, Scott, lived not far from The Red and had a bunch of tools. So after talking to Scotty on the phone it was all on and I headed out of New York. Eleven hours driving later I rocked up at Scotty and Linas house in Louisville, KY.
Scotty "The Man" Buckingham, putting first tools to the job.

These guys are just awesome. The epitome of southern hospitality. They set me up in the guest bedroom with my own bathroom in there huge house that Scotty built and took me out to dinner pretty much every night of the four I was there, the last night being homemade Chinese Hotpot that Lina made, which was super tasty. They even kitted me out with some bedding and utensils. Can’t thanks these guys enough for all the help. Bloody marvellous!
Chinese Hotpot = Culinary sensation.

Over the next four days we insulated the walls, floor and ceiling of the van with BAT insulation. We built a bed frame down one side as well as installing some fold down shelves for cooking on the back doors.
Pretty thick........so is the insulation.




Not Pictured: Scotties super thick southern accent.

Bourbon being a mandatory feature of all vehicles in the state.

Home, sweet home!


And Finally Some Climbing:

Now with a pimpen home on wheels I was itching to get down to The Red and meet up with my buddies Logan Barber and Jack Masel, who had been there for 2 weeks already, for some climbing action. A couple hours’ drive, a few stops at Walmart and the supermarket and I was finally pulling in to Miguel’s. This iconic pizza shop/camp ground sits in the corner of the car park with fields of tents winding their way to the back of a hollow between the hills where it’s situated. My first impression of Miguel’s is that it is friggen busy, climbers absolutely everywhere. It seems everyone has a dog and no one is particularly friendly which I found out over the next few weeks isn’t always the case, meeting some awesome folks, especially the guys who work here. 
Welcome to flavour country.

Welcome to steep country.

The Leaves where all turning red for the first couple of weeks I was here which made for some beautiful views driving between crags and at the top of the cliffs. Sunsets in particular could just light up for some stunning scenery.
This is Natural Bridge, its natural, and a bridge.



The first climbing day for me the guys took me to The Motherlode region down south. This is the place with the Madness cave, an incredible 40 meter wall that kicks back to 45 degrees half way up with rippling features that provide consistent incut edges all the way up. If you’ve seen photos of The Red it was most likely this wall. Not wanting to do anything too hard on the first day I checked out a 5.12a(24), a 5.12b(25) called “Ale 8 1” and got completely sandbagged on some terrible nonsense called Chainsaw Massacre (5.12a, 24). Getting ridiculously pumped on these the first day climbing gave me a taste of what this place is mostly about, consistent climbing while fighting a nasty forearm pump. There is also definitely some techy stuff here which I actually found the most enjoyable.
Logan on something ridiculously steep in the Madness Cave.

The Red River Gorge is also most definitely a sport climbing outdoor gym, with entry conditional on dog, stick clip and climbing slang test (some favourites include “dirt me”, “I’m numbing out” and ”I was cruxing so hard”)
Logan on Prometheous Unbound 5.13a(28). Cruised it 2nd shot.

The climbing here is honestly amazing though and is some of the most enjoyable climbing I’ve ever been on but ultimately I just couldn’t find my groove with it. I guess its a mix of a few things. I subluxed my rib two weeks before leaving Australia (tip: don’t go mountain biking before a big trip) which was lingering and meant cutting my training short which I don't think helped. 
Me on Jesus Wept 5.12d(27).

Even though I didn't climb as best as I thought I could I did manage to get up I couple of amazing lines. My third day on I managed to flash a 5.13a(28) called Spank and onsight another straight after called Easy Rider. Both where super fun. Kaleidoscope (5.13c, 30) also went down third shot which was great and a 5.13b(29) Table of Colors Direct might have been the best I climbed in the whole place or ever for that matter. Another 5.13b(29) I flashed in the Madness Cave called Flour Power, which might have been the highlight right there. I also managed to onsight or flash a bunch of climbs between 5.12a(24) and (5.12d(27) so pretty happy with that for sure.
The look of struggle. Me on Sex Farm 5.12b(25).

Logan had a great trip with a couple of 5.13c’s(30) as well as some impressive 5.13a(28) onsights, go Logs! Jack should be super stoked with his trip, definitely harnessing some long hidden potential with a few 5.13a’s(28) and 5.13b’s(29) and his first 5.13c(30) with Kaleidoscope. Was great to hang out with these fellas and climb rocks. They made the trip so much more awesome.
The boys in line with there tickets in hand.
A few weeks into the trip my good mate Roman came over to join us. We had been planning this trip for months before hand and was awesome to finally see him over here and to hang out. Roman did nothing short of an onsighting rampage, tearing The Red a new one with style. He bagged himself a few 5.13c(30) onsights and a whole bunch between 5.12d(27) and 5.13b(29). Some truly impressive climbing to watch.
Golden Touch 5.13b(29), didn't even make it past the 2nd bolt, nice photo though.
Duckface and sleepy eyes, look out ladies.


It has been a great crew to climb with, also making a local crusher and all-round nice guy Nat an honorary Aussie who climbed with us a bunch. I really did enjoy the climbing style here and once I let go of thinking I had to climb hard grades and just climbed because it’s fun (which I forget way too often) I had a great time on the rock. It’s so nice to be somewhere completely different and also enjoying the company of my good buddies!

To Be Continued........ Again:

So I have written more but it ended up being way too long so I might leave this one for now and put another blog up soon with a bunch of other stuff I got up to while in Kentucky. So far the trip has been just awesome, Loving life! Put another blog up soon, promise. Big hugs for everyone back home. Miss y'all!


Tuesday 21 October 2014

Part 3: New York Fun Times


 
              What a place! So much of everything jammed into one spot, given that spot happens to be pretty friggen huge. I think I underestimated the Kilometers to miles conversion.
My short week in New York City has been so much fun and I thought I’d put some thoughts down on laptop before the dirtbagging starts.

 Later Australia, You Saucy Minx:
Oh yeah!
 
             The day to leave came so quick in the end, you think you have heaps of time to organise everything and then all of a sudden you’re in the car driving to the airport hoping you haven’t forgotten anything. So shedding more tears than was really necessary I hugged mum, dad and the besty Amanda goodbye, and then another hug, and another, before walking through the departures gate. Twenty hours of traveling later and no sleep for thirty, I found myself in the New York Penn Station bleary eyed and wandering around with no clue of how to get anywhere, let alone where I was staying with friends in Brooklyn. Do I catch the blue line, or the green, or the red? Is it the A, C, E or maybe the G or L, or 1 or 5 trains? I ended up drifting into the Amtrak customer help where I met Ashton, a guy with a thick West Indian accent that I could hardly understand. He just happened to be going the same way and sprinted us down to catch the C train to go straight through to Brooklyn. What a champ. I met my mate Ryland at the station and headed to his and his girlfriend Marie’s couch where I passed out. I spent the next week getting my tourist on as well as finding the ultimate dirtbag climbing van.

Central Park, Museums and M & M’s:
Count the billboards
 
               My first day I was up early, slightly jet lagged but excited to head out and get amongst it. I jumped on the subway with a somewhat vague idea of how to get around and headed to downtown Manhattan. This place is amazing, so many people and so much concentrated into one spot. The architecture is something else, old and with so much history, and tall!  Most of the time you don’t see the sun because you’re in a forest of skyscrapers.
 
I walked north and headed straight to the Empire State Building, which I decided not to climb as apparently there’s better skyline views elsewhere, but had a quick look in the lobby anyways. Then on to the New York Public Library which was great to see. It has an eerie quality to it, very big and loaded with history if you wanted to stop and read all the plaques, which I tried and failed after the first one. I didn’t meet any ghosts though….. first Ghostbusters anyone??
I might have seen the ghost of Bill Murrays career though.
 
Grand Central station was up next and like everything else in this place its friggen big and lots of people. It was cool but got outta there pretty quick and on to Times Square.

Times Square was something else. If you want to see the next level of consumerism than this is the place. Massive electronic billboards everywhere and shops that are way over the top. The three story M & M store was my favourite (for obvious reasons), with the Hershey store coming a close second. Madame Tussauds was pretty cool if you want to see which celebrities you’re taller than (Brad Pitts got nothin by the way).
Sun doesn't set in Times Square, this was actually taken at 10pm.

Uh-oh, my heart just stopped.
 
Holy crap the food! So many places to eat here, if it wasn’t for all the walking I would be at least ten kilos heavier right now. The hot tip from the guy in the phone store was to head to Hell’s Kitchen, which is Ninth Avenue from 42nd to 51st street (I think). It’s just full of awesome boutique-esc restaurants. I found some traditional New York pizza for dinner which is the size of your forearm and of which I ate my way through copious amounts during the week. Then back on the subway to the couch to pass out for eight hours before day two.

Day two saw me riding the subway all over the place, from Queens to the Bronx, looking at some subpar vans which looked barely road worthy before Heading to The Museum of Natural History in the afternoon which I was really excited about but unfortunately found it a bit ‘meh’. It definitely had some interesting stuff though, the cut of Californian Redwood was an eye opener. Straight out of there to take a stroll through Central Park which again is huge, I needed my GPS to find my way out, no seriously. Finally finding my way out I checked out the FAO Schwarz Toy Store where I managed a sneaky “souveniring” of some candy. Chocolate covered Oreos are a culinary delight by the way.

A few commando rolls past the guards and I was out.
 
Apparently the best sky view of New York is from the GE Building which is above Rockefella Centre. Forty something stories up and I wasn’t disappointed. Magic panoramic views of Manhatten from one end to the other, with Central Park on one side and the Empire State Building on the other. Awesome.

Crikey its big.

 
The next view days were pretty much all about car hunting with some sampling of amazing cuisine choices with Marie and some friends of hers. Hometown BBQ slow cooked ribs among the favourites and Marie’s delish homemade curry definitely floated my boat.

By the weekend I still hadn’t found a van and was getting a little anxious. I ended up out in New Jersey on a Saturday looking at a 99 Chevy Astro cargo van and thought screw it, I’ll take it. It was cheap and I was way over talking to used car salesman (these guys suck). Two days later, van bought, I was ready to get moving and thought I’d get a quick oil change first at the local mechanic. A few hours and $1300 later I eventually got on the road *frowny face*.

Buying a car in New York was and absolute shit fight. If anyone is thinking about it make sure you don’t get impatient and be sure the car is checked over before buying. Registration and insurance is a bitch too. Anyways it’s finally done and I’m on my way.

 

Next Stop - Climbing:

Apart from all the car stuff, New York was rad! Such a cool place and I was so lucky to have friends like Marie and Ryland who put me up for the week, you guys rock my socks. Can’t wait to get back here and hangout.

Finally made it here to Red River Gorge after spending a few days with the awesome Scotty and Lina in Lousiville tricking out the van, but might save that for next blog.

First day climbing will be tomorrow, so psyched to feel some stone under the ol’ fingers. Missing everyone back home but having a blast.
Here's some extra photos I thought you might like.

Laterz J

Mmmm Chocolate


13 hours of cooked goodness.



Heart attack on a plate.






Naked Cowboy is naked.

Massive Californian Redwood is Massive.

This ones for you Bec.

And this ones for you Kristi.



This is probably what I saw the most of in New York so I thought id chuck it in.