a wide open invitation: Wasatch Plateau Marathon +

I’ve never done anything like this before. I want you to try it with me. and I'm letting you know now so you can save the date and begin training if you're interested. this is not a race; it is a run (or, if you prefer, a ride). here are the details.

When: Saturday, September 1, 2007, AM

Cost: free! - this is all pretty informal and out of the way.

Distance: 28 miles. come do as much or little of it as you like. you can relay with someone or bring your bike if you want, whatever. if you plan to run the distance, train as you would for a marathon.

Where: along the Skyline Drive, across the top of the Wasatch Plateau. The Skyline Drive is a mostly unimproved road that traverses the summit of the plateau for about 100 miles. We will be doing a 28 mile stretch of that between Fairview Canyon and Ephraim Canyon. the elevation of the course varies but stays around 10,000 feet.

How: the summits of both Ephraim and Fairview canyons are accessible by car. you don’t need high clearance or 4WD or anything. but you need something with high clearance to get around on the Skyline Drive and we’ll have our truck and can arrange for that and so on.


the green patch is the Wasatch Plateau and the dotted line that runs down it is the Skyline Drive. hope that helps a little.

we’ll also have the course charted, with a few water and food caches along the way. a couple days ago we went up to look around and begin surveying.

baby Ash included to show scale; she’s about 23 inches long so reckon your measurements from there. Kelly, modeling the signage below, will be there too for autographs and polaroids. afterwards let’s all have a picnic or something."bring the wife and family. bring the whole kids--yippee."here are a couple links to information about the area-
go Utah
Utah forests

this, by the way, is for anyone interested - friends, family or strangers. let me know if you’re in or have questions. and, to address any FAQ’s this is a very legal event disclaimer (a la Gil Scott-Heron) for you to sign off on.

wha’ happen?

shucks, lolookes illiken I'm Finnished

Blog Archive

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this summer: blue planet run!
high school reunion
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cocoa krispies with eyes, potatoes without
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► 2006 (89)

this summer: blue planet run!

last week these guys began a 15,000 mile relay across the northern hemisphere through 16 countries. it’s all about helping a billion people get access to clean drinking water. 20 runners are going around the clock in 10-15 mile increments to cover 150 miles a day through early September. and they’ll be coming through southern Utah in August.

(August 9-11, Boulder, Lake Powell, Blanding, Moab)

check out their website

high school reunion

all this talk about reunions got me thinking about how I graduated from high school 10 years ago and that there was probably some kind of reunion coming up. so I looked into it a little and sure enough, this weekend.

June 9, 2007
6:00 p.m.
Little America Hotel
500 S Main St
Salt Lake City, UT

whether through improved self confidence or just an eroding memory I’ve mostly shed the humbug attitude I once held about my high school. so I’d actually been kinda planning on going to the 10 year reunion. I even got a new haircut. :)

I mean 5 years? -whatever. but after 10 years, people’s courses have really had time to careen off in interesting directions; rhinoplasties, alcoholics, petty millionaires and local celebrities. a brother-in-law even tells the story of the high school reunion where Super Dell rolled up in leather on a motorcycle with a couple of escorts and started throwing around $100 bills, like Jack Nicholson in the parade scene on Batman!

here’s the thing though: it’s $50/person and no kids! so yeah, screw it. I don’t know, I guess I’d just assumed it would be a different, less formal kind of occasion. and I thought that half the fun would be in meeting everyone’s offspring.

to me this seems to send two tacit messages to alumni. the first regards the presumed economic demographic of those who are actually invited. and the second has more to do with the eminent role ones former high school “should” still play in ones life. actually, the whole thing has helped bring back a lot of things I’d forgotten about high school.

but maybe I’m just being cheap, or sentimental. your thoughts?

Rat Fink Reunion

I’m not a car* guy. but I have always been pretty intrigued by the Rat Fink scene. so imagine my excitement when I learned that the Rat Fink Reunion was an annual event in Manti. in years past we’ve always been out of town or something, but this time we got to go so I have a little report.
















first of all, you can learn more about Ed “Big Daddy” Roth at one of these places. how he scavenged junkyards to make building hot rods an aesthetic art, was the first to start using fiberglass to mold auto-bodies, and went on to create a bunch of monsters to ride around in the things – including the anti-mickey mouse Rat Fink that’s become such an icon. eventually Big Daddy Roth settled down in Manti, married a local girl and died in 2001. now his widow, Ilene Roth, has been putting this on for the last 5 years. she’s also the county auditor or something.












the Roth home is on the east end of town, last house on the street, and they open it up for you to look over the collection. then in the garage/hangar out back they’ve got a big carpeted shrine of a museum, with the best stuff even glassed off. dozens of vehicles, t-shirts and even pinstripers. whatever you want to bring, they’ll pinstripe it for you: cameras, wedding rings, strollers, palm pilot (you square!). I bet they’ll even pinstripe your ipod.

but I think this is the crown jewel of the collection: some fan mail to which Ed responds, talking about his boss old lady, being sidetracked by the devil, and how kids should NEVER COPY!

people come out to Sanpete for all kinds of stuff: weddings, snowmobile rallies, the Mormon Miracle Pageant, and to look at old pioneer homes. but if you get the chance, you really should come out to this sometime - I’m giving it a bunch of stars and thumbs. it’s a 3 day affair and there’s also tons of souvies, pompadours, tattoos, a car show, awards, parade, music, and bbq.

* by the way, I realize there are few things less pedestrian than a car show. but as far as cars and paintings go, hot rods and Rat Fink are about as pedestrian as it gets.

cocoa krispies with eyes, potatoes without

wtf?