tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-51035058104575627222024-02-07T04:57:38.746-08:00Black Hawk AdventuresAn ideal place to go to whether you're planning for a trail hike or just plain camping.Black Hawk Adventureshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00561506217655448796noreply@blogger.comBlogger57125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5103505810457562722.post-46652350474175332962013-12-04T18:14:00.001-08:002013-12-04T18:14:38.583-08:00National Geographic Announces 2014 Adventurers of the Year<br />
<h3 style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: Batang, serif; font-weight: normal;"> </span><img src="http://press.nationalgeographic.com/files/2013/11/aoy-logo-111113-180.jpg" /></span></h3>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Batang, serif;"><b><span style="color: white;">Online
Voting for People’s Choice Adventurer of the Year Runs through Jan. 31, 2014</span></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: "Batang","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">The 2014 Adventurers
of the Year, naming extraordinary achievements in exploration, adventure
sports, conservation or humanitarianism have distinguished them in the
past year was already announced by </span><span style="font-family: "Batang","serif";"><a href="http://adventure.nationalgeographic.com/" target="_blank"><span style="text-decoration: none;">National Geographic</span></a></span><span style="font-family: "Batang","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: "Batang","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Runs through
Jan. 31, 2014, the online voting for the People’s Choice Adventurer of the Year
has already started. Fans can go </span><span style="font-family: "Batang","serif";"><a href="http://adventure.nationalgeographic.com/adventure/adventurers-of-the-year/2014/vote/" target="_blank"><span style="text-decoration: none;">here</span></a></span><span style="font-family: "Batang","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> to vote
at any time for their favorite honoree. In
February, the adventurer with the most number of votes at the end of the voting
period will be announced as the 2014 People’s Choice Adventurer of the Year.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Batang","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="color: white;">The 13 honorees
this year were a long-distance swimmer, to refresh your memory, he was the
first to swim from Cuba to Florida without protection from a shark cage; another
one was a skier who is re-imagining his sport in urban landscapes; and two
veterans dedicated to establishing connections between veterans and the
outdoors; lastly a snowboarder committed to helping brain injury
survivors.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Batang","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="color: white;">The 13
Adventurers of the Year for 2014 are:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 12.5pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;">§<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Batang","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Stacy Bare and Nick Watson</span><span style="font-family: "Batang","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> — American adventurers and veterans who
launched an organization that links veterans to the outdoors and the outdoors
community;<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 12.5pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;">§<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Batang","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Greg Long</span><span style="font-family: "Batang","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> — American big-wave surfer who won the 2012/13 Big-Wave World
Tour, despite nearly losing his life in a massive wipeout a few months
earlier;<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 12.5pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;">§<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Batang","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Amy and Dave Freeman</span><span style="font-family: "Batang","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> — American adventurers and educators who
completed a three-year, 11,647-mile journey across North America by kayak,
canoe, dogsled and foot, connecting with students and teachers along the way;<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 12.5pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;">§<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Batang","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Diana Nyad</span><span style="font-family: "Batang","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> — Sixty-four-year-old American long-distance swimmer who recently
completed a swim between Cuba and the United States, on her fifth attempt;<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 12.5pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;">§<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Batang","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Kevin Pearce</span><span style="font-family: "Batang","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> — American snowboarder who, after surviving a traumatic brain
injury, launched the “Love Your Brain” campaign to encourage the use of helmets
for kids;<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 12.5pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;">§<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Batang","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Kilian Jornet Burgada</span><span style="font-family: "Batang","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> — Spanish “skyrunning” ultrarunner whose new
brand of running involves blazing up technical terrain such as glaciers, rock
ridges and steep snowfields;<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 12.5pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;">§<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Batang","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Raphael Slawinski and Ian Welsted</span><span style="font-family: "Batang","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> — Canadian alpinists who were the first to
summit Pakistan’s K6 West, one of the last great unclimbed peaks in the world,
despite danger and political turmoil in the region;<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 12.5pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;">§<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Batang","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Adam Ondra</span><span style="font-family: "Batang","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> — Czech rock climber who takes climbing to new frontiers of
difficulty;<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 12.5pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;">§<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Batang","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">JP Auclair</span><span style="font-family: "Batang","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> — Canadian skier who is best known for his special style of urban
skiing;<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 12.5pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;">§<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Batang","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Sarah Marquis</span><span style="font-family: "Batang","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> — Swiss hiker who has just completed a three-year trek from
Siberia to Australia.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: "Batang","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">“This is the
ninth year that National Geographic has combed the globe to find people who
embody the spirit of adventure in diverse ways. The 2014 Adventurers of the
Year are truly inspiring and remind us of the importance to pursue our own
passions every day,” said Mary Anne Potts, editor of </span><span style="font-family: "Batang","serif";"><a href="http://adventure.nationalgeographic.com/" target="_blank"><span style="text-decoration: none;">National Geographic Adventure</span></a></span><span style="font-family: "Batang","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> online.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Batang","serif"; letter-spacing: -.65pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;"><span style="color: white;"><a href="http://latest.blackhawk-mines.com/">http://latest.blackhawk-mines.com/</a><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
Black Hawk Adventureshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00561506217655448796noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5103505810457562722.post-77732424566185484712013-11-25T18:22:00.001-08:002013-11-25T18:29:04.302-08:00Embracing Adventure And Danger<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">It was never good to insult children from anything that could possibly have any danger attached yet parents keeping their children under permanent watch has become “what people do.”</span><br />
<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">People harmed children without them knowing it out of our fear-based culture. Children need to confront danger; they need to explore; they need adventures at some point in their life.</span></span><br />
<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">There was a time when parents knew how important to embrace adventure and danger at some time when let their kids go off into the woods by themselves, with rifles. And thinking about it now, if that was really so horribly dangerous, half of us wouldn’t be here.</span></span><br />
<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">You bet alright, it is scary to watch your children walk into a subway station or out into the woods. But you have to do it. Let them go out and face the world, it is healthy for them but remember to calculate the risks, pick your times, pick your spots, watch them from a distance if you must.</span></span><br />
<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Fear is just an impulse; along with it can be based on lies, distortions, or even on nothing at all. It’s an absurd thing on which to base your children’s lives.</span></span><br />
<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">A new German study shows clearly that adventure shapes the individual. As one of the researchers concluded, “Living our lives makes us who we are.” Your children need to live, and not merely exist inside of a fear-inspired bubble. The study also indicates that exploration and adventure not only affect personality development, but also brain growth.</span></span><br />
<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The real dangers for your children lie in government schools, and even in private schools that function on the same model.</span></span><br />
<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">People are pushed, economically, to put their children into public schools. Make sure that you tell your children how the system is set up to condition them. Educate them that understanding is far more important than memorizing. Back them up if the teachers give them grief.</span></span><br />
<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Your children should know, very clearly, that teachers and principals are just average people doing particular jobs. Some of them are good people, others are bad people, and a title is just a title – it means nothing more.</span></span><br />
<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Educate your children to be brave, let them learn how to fall and rise again. but remember you want to let them encounter dangers slowly, and you’d never put them in positions to get truly hurt, but you should be nothing like the über-parents who surveil their children’s every move, in terror that poor little Johnny will encounter something that hasn’t been sanitized for his protection.</span></span><br />
<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://blackhawk-mines.com/">http://blackhawk-mines.com/</a></span></span><br />
<br />Black Hawk Adventureshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00561506217655448796noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5103505810457562722.post-30658270333814213082013-06-27T18:24:00.002-07:002013-06-27T18:30:28.657-07:00Black Hawk Adventures – A family of travelers: Life’s always an Adventure<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhQrdY7-fm5Ru9VMF7hIKkweLhlrrAFsyJZxXt1DfMkgzG7GBuxF0T4p19dSDBFBn2NwqyLzdp3zgX1lW52VVcQFEUrZWtZqThyphenhyphenZUDFPE1ZgnTrMpRRuEgLMJTOUisz0W4Tn7Klo8G5Wco/s480/A+family+of+travelers+Lifes+always+an+Adventure+-+black+hawk+adventures.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="248" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhQrdY7-fm5Ru9VMF7hIKkweLhlrrAFsyJZxXt1DfMkgzG7GBuxF0T4p19dSDBFBn2NwqyLzdp3zgX1lW52VVcQFEUrZWtZqThyphenhyphenZUDFPE1ZgnTrMpRRuEgLMJTOUisz0W4Tn7Klo8G5Wco/s320/A+family+of+travelers+Lifes+always+an+Adventure+-+black+hawk+adventures.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://blackhawk-mines.com/2013/06/28/black-hawk-adventures-a-family-of-travelers-lifes-always-an-adventure/">http://blackhawk-mines.com/2013/06/28/black-hawk-adventures-a-family-of-travelers-lifes-always-an-adventure/</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="arcticletext" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">After
14 years, four children, 55 countries, and 250 000km, this Argentinean couple
had a dream of travelling around the world by car and still on the road
fulfilling their dream. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="arcticletext" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="arcticletext" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">In
1999, Herman Zapp and his wife Candelaria climbed into their car and drove out
of Argentina with only $4 000 in hand.
Using their 1928 Graham Paige they went to Alaska as both wanted to go,
so that’s what they did. “I saw the car
two months before we left and fell in love with it so I brought it,” Herman
said in Cape Town, where they now live. They arrived in South Africa last year.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="arcticletext" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="arcticletext" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">In
the same year Herman, an electrician, and Candelaria, a secretary, sold their
house, packed what they could into the car and left. “Everyone thought we were
crazy,” Herman said. “But, really, who is crazy – the one who goes for the
dream or the one who doesn’t?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="arcticletext" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="arcticletext" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">Even
that they are doing what they wanted at first the couple has some fears. “That first day was the hardest,” said
Herman. But the pair was determined. “If you let your fear take hold, your life
will pass you by,” he explained.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="arcticletext" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="arcticletext" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">The
couple, Herman Zapp and Candelaria was married for 20 years. “We think we will
be around forever but it’s important to rethink life,” said Herman. “My mother
died when she was only 46, the only legacy I have taken from her is to ‘do it
now’.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="arcticletext" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="arcticletext" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">They
survive mainly on the kindness of others, having been taken in by more than 2
500 households all around the world. “You have to give a chance to people to
show how good they can be.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="arcticletext" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="arcticletext" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">They
have three children, three boys and a girl and every child were born in
different countries. Herman said being on the road was the best education they
could get.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div .0001pt="" 0in="" class="arcticletext" justify="" margin:="" text-align:="">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="arcticletext" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">“School
is important, but it’s not the most intelligent person who survives, it is the
person who learns how to adapt the fastest.”
The husband is in no doubt that his children will be better people for
experiencing all the different cultures of the places they’ve been to.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="arcticletext" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="arcticletext" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">“We’ve
been to Australia and Canada and have stayed with kids who’ve had rooms full of
toys, but we’ve also been to countries like Cambodia where children have made
toys from sticks.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="arcticletext" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="arcticletext" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">This
kind of education, said Herman, is priceless.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="arcticletext" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="arcticletext" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">“Now
they know that everything has value and meaning.” Candelaria said the children
were excellent travellers and adapted easily.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="arcticletext" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="arcticletext" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">The
Zapps, are currently living in a flat in Constantia, Cape Town. They supplement their income by selling their
book, Spark Your Dreams and giving motivational talks. Their next plan as soon as they have enough
money, they plan to head to Egypt for their next adventure. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
Black Hawk Adventureshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00561506217655448796noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5103505810457562722.post-17743941169557142622013-06-23T20:16:00.000-07:002013-06-23T20:17:00.826-07:00Diving - Black Hawk News - Adventures Guide<span style="color: white;">Since 1943, scuba diving has become a famous activity practiced the world over after the invention of the aqualung by Jacques-Yves Cousteau. Diving could be dangerous if you are not qualified to do so but there are now many training programs to meet the requirements as a diver. There is PADI, NAUI and CMAS after, divers can rent equipment, request air fills, and dive without any higher supervision but it is always recommended to dive with a buddy.
</span><br />
<span style="color: white;"><br /></span>
<div style="line-height: 14.25pt; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://blackhawk-mines.com/"><span style="color: white;"><img alt="" class="aligncenter" height="412" src="http://www.lahainadivers.com/images/divemap/points/big/1218106321.jpg" title="black hawk mines" width="550" /></span></a></div>
<strong><span style="color: white;">If you are planning to go diving here are some great places you can visit:</span></strong><br />
<span style="color: white;"><strong><br /></strong>
<strong>Vinales, Cuba.</strong> Maria la Gorda and Cayo Levisa are Vinales’ great diving site and it is two of the most candid diving spots in the world. The stunning Maria la Gorda’s black corals overflowing with marine life such as barracudas and red snappers is a good choice for a diving spot. While Cayo Levisa is a dreamy mangrove-island on a 3km long coral-reef.</span><br />
<span style="color: white;"><strong><br /></strong>
<strong>Dahab, Egypt.</strong> For divers of all levels Dehab is an easy shore access of a great spot for divers. It has deep water and extreme visibility. You can have the chance to see not only large numbers of reef species but also the occasional pelagic and even the odd shark.</span><br />
<span style="color: white;"><strong><br /></strong>
<strong>Bali, Indonesia.</strong> Warm tropical waters, marine landscaped coral reefs, wreck diving and abundant tropical fish and mammals, these are just few of what Bali can offer divers. Not to mention there are plenty of dive sites all around the compact island and each with crystal waters and the opportunity to dive with dolphins. The three of the top spots are Menjangan Island, Tulamben and the island of Nusa Penida.</span><br />
<span style="color: white;"><strong><br /></strong>
<strong>Boracay, Philippines is a Pilipino national marine preserve.</strong> It is one of the most famous diving sites in Southeast Asia. This is one of the great beaches in the world which makes it a great choice for a holiday vacation plus it offers a wide range of dive activities. You will also enjoy the numerous good quality resorts, restaurants, bars and nightlife.</span><br />
<span style="color: white;"><strong><br /></strong>
<strong>Koh Tao, Thailand.</strong> If you want a pure relaxation and a getaway from the outside world, then this is definitely the perfect place for you. This place is small Tropical Island covered in jungle, surrounded by many quiet, palm tree covered beaches. You can enjoy snorkeling and scuba diving. You will definitely enjoy the corals and the turtles.</span><br />
<span style="color: white;"><strong><br /></strong>
<strong>Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia.</strong> By the bay of Kota Kinabalu Tunku Abdul Rahman National Park is a marine park made up of a number of islands. The waters here offer divers a first glimpse of Borneo’s profuse array of corals and underwater creatures. Its calm water is ideal for macro and close up photography, with a World War II Japanese freighter wreck nearby for the adventurous. </span><br />
<span style="color: white;"><br /></span>
<a href="http://latest.blackhawk-mines.com/2013/06/24/diving/"><span style="color: white;">http://latest.blackhawk-mines.com/2013/06/24/diving/</span></a><br />
<span style="color: white;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white;"><br /></span>
<br />Black Hawk Adventureshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00561506217655448796noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5103505810457562722.post-3746901951722080212013-06-16T23:40:00.001-07:002013-06-16T23:40:42.302-07:00Black Hawk Mines Adventure - Adding outdoor adventure to the family mix<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: white;">NOW summer’s finally here, it’s time to take your
whole brood outdoors and create some lasting memories.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: white;">Lisa Salmon is inspired by two adventure experts
who have written The Family Guide to the Great Outdoors<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: white;">THE electronic age, combined with an increasing
tendency to wrap children in cotton wool, means kids are staying inside more
than ever.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: white;">But while hours spent playing on a computer or
watching TV may keep kids entertained, there’s one thing for sure: electronic
entertainment is not what childhood memories are made of.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: white;">Memories come from doing things like climbing
trees, making dens, sitting round a campfire and generally having fun outdoors;
say Charlie and Caroline Gladstone, who have written The Family Guide to the
Great Outdoors to encourage more families to get out and about together.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: white;">The married couple has picked up a wealth of
knowledge about the great outdoors since they abandoned the London rat race
when their first child was born more than 20 years ago, and moved to a farm in
Kincardineshire.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: white;">They now have six children, five dogs and six
horses, and their children have been brought up to love the outdoor life.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: white;">They’ve learned all manner of outdoor skills that
Charlie and Caroline share in the book, from building rafts and treehouses, to
starting a campfire and cooking on it, and even skinning a rabbit.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: white;">“Danger and fun have evaporated from normal life,
but we brought our children up in the middle of nowhere in a very free way,”
says Charlie.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: white;">“They were allowed to go off and play in rivers
and climb trees, which is how I was brought up.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: white;">“We think that’s had a profound effect on their
confidence and their sense of who they are.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: white;">As well as information about outdoor living, the
book includes advice on making weapons. Charlie’s great-great grandfather was
the famous Victorian Prime Minister William Gladstone, who had a collection of
hundreds of axes, which Charlie still treasures.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: white;">He gives swinging and chopping advice in the book,
after reminding readers never to forget how dangerous the tools are.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: white;">He also explains how to make weapons including a
potato cannon, bow and arrow, dart launcher and catapult, and says: “One of the
theories we have is that if boys particularly were allowed to chop with axes,
throw things, make weapons and light fires a bit more often, there’d be very
little fighting in the street.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: white;">“Boys are naturally aggressive, and the wrong
outlet for that is computer games or TV. If kids get out and run round, climb
something and get really dirty, they’ll come in and be sweetness and light.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: white;">But Charlie, 49, stresses that just because his
children – who are aged between 13 and 23 – have been brought up spending a lot
of time outdoors, it doesn’t mean they don’t have TVs, iPads and computers.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: white;">“Of course they do. We haven’t brought them up in
a way that says outdoor fun is all they’re allowed.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: white;">“But in a world full of ‘stuff’ and purchases,
it’s nice to strip all that back and go for a sense of purity.” He says their
outdoor fun is easily achievable partly because of where they live. But we’re
not suggesting that children need to grow up in such a remote place – anybody
can climb a tree, go for a long walk, swim in a river or cook on a campfire.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: white;">Many parents may appreciate the fun side of the
outdoor life, but worry about the safety aspects. However, Charlie stresses
that as a child he did “unbelievably reckless” things, such as jumping into a
river in flood, with a rope tied to his waist at one end and to a tree at the
other.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: white;">“It was fine,” he insists, “and it removes an
element of fear.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: white;">“You can survive unbelievable things in life.
Allowing your children to walk to school on their own for the first time in a
city is much more risky than climbing a tree.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: white;">“You just have to apply common sense, and learn
your limitations.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: white;">And while he acknowledges modern health and safety
rules can have their place, he says, sometimes such rules can be “a nightmare”,
which aren’t constructive or helpful.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: white;">“Stopping children from doing some of these things
doesn’t improve their life,” he insists.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: white;">As well as explaining how to master outdoor
skills, the guide suggests outdoor activities for families such as building
rafts, dams, dens and treehouses, and making rope swings, smoke signals and
even rosehip itching powder.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: white;">“You’d think kids would tire of outdoor games by
the time they’re about ten,” says Charlie, “but if you add some real challenge
and danger, they’ll enjoy them throughout their life.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: white;">“You need to be quite bossy with kids though and
tell them, ‘We’re going to do it, tough’.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: white;">He adds: “The best fun you can have in the world
is sitting round a campfire with your kids. Given the opportunity, anyone can
do these things – they’re completely free, and it terrifies me that more people
don’t do them.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: white;">• The Family Guide to the Great Outdoors by
Charlie and Caroline Gladstone is published by Square Peg, priced £12.99<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: white;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="http://latest.blackhawk-mines.com/"><span style="color: white;">http://latest.blackhawk-mines.com/</span></a></div>
Black Hawk Adventureshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00561506217655448796noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5103505810457562722.post-52548615044984910582013-05-09T18:23:00.002-07:002013-05-09T18:26:24.751-07:00After slow start ski resorts nationwide bounces back - Black Hawk Adventures<span style="color: white;"><br /></span>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="http://blackhawk-mines.com/2013/05/10/after-slow-start-ski-resorts-nationwide-bounces-back/"><span style="color: white;">http://blackhawk-mines.com/2013/05/10/after-slow-start-ski-resorts-nationwide-bounces-back/</span></a><br />
<span style="color: white;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">According to a
report from the National Ski Industry Association, ski areas across the nation
saw strong business during the 2012-13 seasons.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
Although the rise in the Rocky Mountain region
is just about 1.9 percent, Skier visits rose 11 percent in the United States.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
In southwest Colorado the season started slowly,
but picked up after the holidays.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
"Despite the slow start to the season,
overall Durango Mountain Resort was about on par with last season," said
Kim Oyler, spokeswoman for the southwest Colorado resort.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
"Thanks to help from Mother Nature and our
mountain operations crew, Durango Mountain Resort was able to extend the season
one additional weekend and closed on April 7," she said.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
U.S. resorts experienced slow starts be
subsequent to a strong snowfall in mid-December.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
Comparing to December last year snowfall for
December this year nearly tripled. And compared
to 2012, snowfall was weaker in January, strong in February and about even in
March,.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
"It started real late," said Richard
Bodiford, co-owner of End Industries, an Aztec shop that rents ski equipment.
"We missed a lot of Christmas break business, but the middle picked up all
right."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
The Four Corners was blanketed with snow soon
after Purgatory at Durango Mountain Resort closed on April 7, the final insult
indicates.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
"We got some in early March and after the
season closed it's been snowing left and right all over Colorado,"
Bodiford said.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
The winter was the eighth-best for the Rocky
Mountain region in the past 34 years, the report said. The association did not
release data for individual resorts.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
The national survey of resorts spotted other
trends:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 3.45pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: white;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Snowboarding was down for the third
straight winter. In 2012-13, snowboarders made up 29.6 percent of total visits.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 3.45pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: white;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Season pass sales dropped as more
skiers bought daily tickets. Average season pass sales fell 4.3 percent.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 3.45pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: white;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Ticket prices rose. The average
adult weekend ticket cost $86.17, up 4.3 percent.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 3.45pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="color: white;">Snow sports remain popular, but
resorts face a variety of challenges, the report said.<br />
<br />
"The popularity of skiing and snowboarding remains high, but weather
conditions, economic headwinds, competition from other leisure activities, and
other factors are contributing to the challenges ski areas face," the
report said.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
Black Hawk Adventureshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00561506217655448796noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5103505810457562722.post-85435195482526601822013-05-07T20:40:00.002-07:002013-05-07T20:47:14.936-07:00Ski Safety Tips for Beginners - Black Hawk News - Adventures Guide<span style="color: white;"><br /></span>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><a href="http://latest.blackhawk-mines.com/2013/05/08/ski-safety-tips-for-beginners/">http://latest.blackhawk-mines.com/2013/05/08/ski-safety-tips-for-beginners/</a></span><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: white;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">One of the most popular and maybe the most needed safety gear
is helmet but one of the best skiing safety tips is really a matter of personal
choice - to wear, or not to wear. Although
it isn’t really mandated, it is encouraged to use helmet.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: white;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Unquestionably skiers should be just as cautious if
you think about those who usually wear protective headgear, namely football and
baseball players, construction workers, horseback riders, rock climbers,
bicyclers, auto racers, and motorcycle riders.
The most important safety gear for skiers is helmet and as well as the
following.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: white;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">You will definitely enjoy it more and will have
much more fun on the slopes if you're in good shape. Exercise in advance and work your way up to skiing by exercising constantly
year-round.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: white;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Use proper ski equipment</span><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> and don't just borrow equipment.
Rent from a ski shop or the ski resort and make sure that the shop is legit. When purchasing equipment, be certain
your </span><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><a href="http://skiing.about.com/od/skigear/bb/skiboot.htm"><span style="color: windowtext; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">ski boots</span></a></span><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> are fitted properly as it
should be. In any case, confirm your </span><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><a href="http://skiing.about.com/od/skiingglossary/g/bindings.htm"><span style="color: windowtext; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">bindings</span></a></span><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> are properly adjusted.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: white;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Get ready for the
weather.</span><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> Be
dressed in layers of clothes and put on a helmet liner, a hat, or a headband. Also put on gloves or mittens. Always carry an extra pair lest the first pair
gets wet.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: white;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Acquire proper
instruction</span><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">. Either
individual or group Sign up for ski </span><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><a href="http://skiing.about.com/od/instructionfitness/ht/learntoski.htm"><span style="color: windowtext; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">lessons</span></a></span><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">. Experienced skiers still polish
up their skills with a lesson every now and then.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: white;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Ski goggles are also
important</span><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">. Put on </span><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><a href="http://skiing.about.com/od/skigear/ss/goggles.htm"><span style="color: windowtext; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">ski goggles</span></a></span><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> that perfectly fit around
your helmet. There are goggles for those who wear eyeglasses, buy goggles that
fit comfortably over your eyeglasses or you may also consider prescription goggles
but it would me a bit costly.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: white;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">If you're exhausted, take a break and rest for a
short time in the lodge. As you're
resting, ensure you eat and drink enough. Although done in ice, skiing burns a lot of
energy! At what time it's the end of the day, there's no need to attempt and obtain
in a final run, or two, if you are tired. It's okay and in fact better to stop as you're
ahead and spare your energy for next time.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: white;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Ski with a friend</span><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> or with a group; it's at all
times safer to ski with a friend so he can watch out for you and you watch out
for him too. Appoint a meeting area if
in some point you lost each other and walkie-talkies will come handy so you
could stay in touch.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: white;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Respect your limits.</span><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> Do not ski trails that are on
top of your skill level. Do not go
off-trail. At the same time, maintain to
be in control of your skis and the trail you are skiing should be the center of
your attention. Accidents happen more often when you lost guard.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Obey the rules</span><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">.
Comply with posted trail closure and other warning signs. Remember that there are skiers who are in
front of you, and below you, on the trail have the right-of-way.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
Black Hawk Adventureshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00561506217655448796noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5103505810457562722.post-59824547748468909802013-04-22T19:10:00.003-07:002013-04-23T21:39:11.162-07:00Black Hawk Adventures - Why you should go hiking<a href="http://blackhawk-mines.com/"><b><span style="color: white;">Why you should go hiking</span></b></a><br />
<span style="color: white;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white;"><br /></span>
<a href="http://blackhawk-mines.com/2013/04/23/why-you-should-go-hiking/"><span style="color: white;">http://blackhawk-mines.com/2013/04/23/why-you-should-go-hiking/</span></a><br />
<span style="color: white;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white;">One great way worth trying and doing if you love outdoors is to experience hiking, you can do it alone, with friends or family. Hiking, what is so great about it, maybe you are wondering what could be getting out from it.</span><br />
<span style="color: white;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white;">One of the most basic activity and the most popular conceivably is hiking, which in turn other activities like or backpacking, or rock climbing were based.</span><br />
<span style="color: white;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white;">One and maybe the best benefit you can get from hiking is the fun and quality time with family and friends. Hiking can be a brilliant approach of spending quality time with family, friends or to a special someone. Many things can happen to a day of hiking, I may soon turn out as a family picnic, friends’ day out or even a quiet alone time with your lover. It does not matter you want to spend time with, the pleasure of hiking is limitless.</span><br />
<span style="color: white;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white;">Hiking is definitely the best way to enjoy the beauty of nature. It would make you feel as if you are in the heart of Mother Nature. Walking through the lush green environment and awesome sight of the beauty of the tranquil river waters or the playful waterfalls is something that you can do while you are hiking.</span><br />
<span style="color: white;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white;">Another one good benefit of hiking is it is a great way to stay fit and stay physically active all at the same time while you are having fun. Which is more fun running on a treadmill or hiking? Combine nature’s goodness and your fitness and start hiking now!</span><br />
<span style="color: white;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white;">Compare to any other types of exercise, hiking is much more diverse, specifically to those exercise done inside the gym. The thrill is not just the different form of exercise you will be doing but rather the different surroundings you will be encountering, the trail you will take, the landscapes will change as well. In addition, hiking will make the working out more interesting thus making you maintain your motivation to exercise. This happens a lot when you are just starting to work out, you might feel a little embarrassed because of the fear that people from the gym or streets might be judging you while hiking, it can be discrete and isolated you’d never feel that scare. However, you have to remember to inform someone about your whereabouts for safety reasons. More often, hiking with friends, family or a loved one will surely feel more of an entertainment than exercise plus you can meet other people in camp site where usually everyone id friendly.</span><br />
<span style="color: white;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white;">Hiking can also be a good form of stress reliever; this can also reduce insomnia that will lead to a better mental health. Hiking outdoors will make you feel closer to nature and natural rhythms, which may amplify your happiness and help you feel more content. It will give you peace of mind for sure. Some people seek inner peace and find hiking a very good source of inner peace they are looking for. This is definitely a get away from a hectic life, a good escape from the hassle and bustle of the city life. Nature has her way of relaxing anyone; it is surely a place where you can relax and spend some time alone if you want.</span><br />
<div>
<br /></div>
Black Hawk Adventureshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00561506217655448796noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5103505810457562722.post-80608208568249921792013-03-21T22:10:00.000-07:002013-04-23T21:43:35.132-07:00Outdoor Adventures in Thailand<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: white;"><br /></span>
</span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://blackhawk-mines.com/2013/03/22/outdoor-adventures-in-thailand/"><br />
</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: white;"><a href="http://blackhawk-mines.com/2013/03/22/outdoor-adventures-in-thailand/">http://blackhawk-mines.com/2013/03/22/outdoor-adventures-in-thailand/</a></span><span style="color: white;"><br />
<!--[endif]--><u1:p></u1:p><o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">Do I have to tell you why Thailand,
well then let me give you reasons why you of all countries will enjoy this
country if you love outdoors!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><u1:p></u1:p>
</span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">Have you tried caving, if not then
try it in Thailand. Get inside of Thailand literally by<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>exploring ancient caves and tremendous
caverns like those in the Pang Mapha District of the Mae Hong Son
Province. Dare and see the underground and discover wildlife, history and
geology, it’s a caving venture you will never forget. Caves like<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.cavelodge.com/caving.htm">Cave Lodge</a><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>have expert guides. Expert
guides will escort you so you need not to worry, they will lead you through
geologic labyrinths, vertical caves and collapsed caves. For additional
thrill and blood rushing, your journey comes along with forest hikes or rafting
to see even more of the Thai landscape.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><u1:p></u1:p>
</span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">For animal lover and wild life
enthusiasts out there, we are sure that you will enjoy Jungle Trekking in<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>the wilds of Thailand by hitting the
unmarked trails. To make the most out of your trip, try at least a 3-day
trek to see mountain ridges, rainforests and experience camping in the
beautiful Thai wilderness.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><u1:p></u1:p>
</span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">Elephant Riding, sounds like fun,
yes it is! This will be a whole new experience that you shouldn’t ever
miss, taking<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>an elephant ride
through local Thai villages and surrounding forests. Miss it and it will
feel like you have never gone to Thailand at all. <span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><u1:p></u1:p>
</span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: white;"><br />
<!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--></span><span style="color: white;">
<!--[endif]--><u1:p></u1:p><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><u1:p></u1:p>
</span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">Rock climbing or repelling are
everywhere now and you find it ordinary. Then you must try number 7,
Waterfall Abseiling,<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>throw in the
force of a waterfall, and now you're talking adventure. Repel down
Thailand's beautiful and powerful waterfalls. You'll feel your heart in
your chest as you lean over the edge of a 35-foot waterfall and the ground
slowly slips beneath your feet.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><u1:p></u1:p>
</span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">Whitewater Rafting is something new
to<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>Thai tourist market but
whitewater rafting is quickly being added to many adventure trek
itineraries. Rush the rapids in Southern Thailand's Phang Na province,
and you're assured an exciting ride.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><u1:p></u1:p>
</span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">Mountain Biking, maybe you are
asking what is so special about it because you can probably do it anywhere but
here this. <span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>Mountain biking
is tremendously trendy in this country and there are a lot of different tours
from. Add to the thrill, you can travel around the city at night.
Explore the lively Bangkok City on a 3-hour bike tour; the ride ends somewhat
early, so you can enjoy the town once you've turned in your bike.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><u1:p></u1:p>
</span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">Snorkeling and Sea Kayaking are the
best in Thailand! <span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>Explore
reefs or get lost in the blue during an open-water dive. Go to
Phang-Nga for Snorkiling experience and you'll peacefully roam the underwater
beauty of Similan and Surin Marine National Islands. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><u1:p></u1:p>
</span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">Zip Lining, travel from<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>the sea to the sky. This adventure
takes you through the canopies of the Chiang Mai rainforests. You'll ride in
your single-person swing and cruise a cable suspended through the 1500-year old
Thai rainforest.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><u1:p></u1:p>
</span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">Skydiving, well who doesn’t know how
this<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>amazingly scary experience<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>is. it is thrill that you seek
then inject your vacation with pure adrenaline with this extreme
experience. So jump ahead and experience a thrill of a lifetime!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Black Hawk Adventureshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00561506217655448796noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5103505810457562722.post-78555888185849901042013-03-21T22:06:00.002-07:002013-04-23T21:39:21.393-07:00Why it is More Fun to Shoot Video than Taking Still Pictures<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; text-align: justify;"> </span><span style="text-align: justify;">It is nice to take pictures but there are moments that
pictures cannot tell but videos can.</span><span style="text-align: justify;">
</span><span style="text-align: justify;">Videos can make someone feel like they were there also.</span><span style="text-align: justify;"> </span><span style="text-align: justify;">While photograph can last forever, you can go
back to those moments watching and re-watching those precious moments.</span><span style="text-align: justify;"> </span><span style="text-align: justify;">"While pictures can be flat, video
brings life to your experiences," says Laurel House, who videoblogs about
travel, fitness, and more at</span><span class="apple-converted-space" style="text-align: justify;"> </span><strong style="text-align: justify;">QuickieChick</strong></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">"With video, you can share your adventures -- and relive
them again when you come home," he added.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">You do not need fancy equipments to capture the moments on
video, you phone will do or there are quality and affordable camcorders
available in the market. And worried
about video editing, you do not have to do it or there is Windows Live Movie
Maker that is so much easy to learn.
Therefore there are no excuses!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">Now let us learn how to get you going. Video recoding isn’t
really hard; here are the ways to do so.
<strong>Get personal.</strong><span class="apple-converted-space"> Try adding narrations, wouldn’t it be
boring if your video is a bunch of sequence photos like. Plus, the people who are going to watch your
videos will get as much excitement as you were during your travel. They will understand </span>what the shots
are and what the experience meant to you.
And remember to sound natural, scripted is boring! If you want to be in the video, do not appear
stiff and cold, be natural, act natural.
Smile and laugh but never fake it!<span class="apple-converted-space"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">Entertain and tell a story, who would want to watch a video
that has no sequence and with a singles shot. Capture every detail and
reactions of the people so that when you go back you will feel the same
happiness. I did not say join a
competition for your video but it could have at least a beginning, middle, and
end.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><strong>Keep your videos short, because no matter how interesting
your video looks like audience will become </strong>antsy just stay snappy and stick to a single subject.<strong><span style="font-weight: normal;"><o:p></o:p></span></strong></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">Focus on moments and experiences that are actually fun and
fun to watch, skip the non sense, you would want to waste time viewing it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">Your travel video will stand out if you fit in the same
simple tricks that you'd use if you were taking a still photo so borrow some <strong>photography
tricks. Remember to keep the camcorder
still while filming. </strong>"Your
video will be 100 times better if the image is not shaky," says Cailin
O'Neil, who videoblogs at<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><strong>Cailin
Travels</strong> Cailin also recommends shooting away from the sun to
prevent glare and silhouetting.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">Always check the audio, and use your ears. Nothing is worse
than a video where you can't hear the person talking. "What makes video
unique from photos is that people can actually hear the ambience of a
place," O'Neil says. Record you
film or video in a location where you're protected from the wind. However, pick up some modest street or nature
sounds while you push record.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">"No one likes the way they look on camera, so don't
judge yourself," says House of QuickieChick.com. "So don't stress too
much -- and have fun." So <strong>loosen up
and enjoy!</strong><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><br />
<!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
Black Hawk Adventureshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00561506217655448796noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5103505810457562722.post-80329943934652593882013-03-11T22:47:00.000-07:002013-03-11T22:47:30.250-07:00Summer and Day Camps<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<div class="art_postdate" style="margin: 0px 0px 45px;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="art_image_container" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 2px 10px;">
<div class="art_image">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><img src="http://www.richmondmagazine.com/images/articles/b663db02fcdc1ccfac75281465607ccf.jpg" /></span></div>
<div class="art_image_caption">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">Camp Friendship in Palmyra offers outdoor adventures, sports and horseback riding.</span><br />
<i><span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">Photo courtesy Camp Friendship</span></i></div>
</div>
<div class="art_copy" style="line-height: 20px; margin: 0px;">
<em><span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">A sampling of camps in and around Virginia</span></em><br />
<em><span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">* = Day camp or day-camp option offered</span></em><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">*<strong>4 Star Summer Camps</strong>Academic and sports programs held at the University of Virginia. Rising 7th- to 12th-graders. Charlottesville, (800) 334-7827 or<a href="http://www.4starcamps.com/" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">4starcamps.com</a>.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><strong><br />4-H Junior Summer Camp</strong> A weeklong residential camp for ages 9-18 at the Jamestown 4-H Educational Center. Contact your local extension office or visit <a href="http://www.richmondmagazine.com/jamestown4hcenter.org" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">jamestown4hcenter.org</a>.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">*<strong>Brilliant Summer at St. Catherine’s</strong> Coed offerings include academic courses, athletic and dance camps, a music academy, and a creative-arts day camp. Ages 3 through rising 12th-graders. 6001 Grove Ave., 288-2804, ext. 3396, or <a href="http://www.st.catherines.org/summer" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">st.catherines.org/summer</a>.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">*<strong>Camp Blue Sky Camp</strong> Programs cater to three development levels between ages 5 and</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">13 through activities that include arts and crafts, music and drama, culinary crafts, technology, science, and more. Multiple locations throughout the Richmond region, 747-5900 or<a href="http://www.rainbowstation.org/" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">rainbowstation.org</a>.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><strong><br />Camp Friendship</strong> Coed residential camp for ages 7-16. Optional adventure trips, sports clinics and equestrian program. Palmyra, (800) 873-3223 or <a href="http://www.campfriendship.com/" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">campfriendship.com</a>.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">*<strong>Camp Ganim</strong> Day camp for ages 2-5. Swimming lessons, socialization skills. 5403 Monument Ave., 285-6500 or <a href="http://www.weinsteinjcc.org/" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">weinsteinjcc.org</a>.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><strong><br />Camp Hidden Meadows</strong> Coed camps of varying lengths for ages 7-16, plus weeklong equestrian (ages 9-14) and rock-climbing camps (ages 12-16). Bartow, W.Va., (800) 600-4752 or <a href="http://www.camphiddenmeadows.com/" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">camphiddenmeadows.com</a>.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><strong>Camp Horizons</strong> A coed residential camp for ages 6-17; equestrian option. Harrisonburg,</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">(540) 896-7600 or <a href="http://www.camphorizonsva.com/" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">camphorizonsva.com</a>.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><strong><br />Camp Roanoke</strong> Residential coed summer camp for ages 5-17, operated by Roanoke County. Salem, (540) 387-6114 or <a href="http://www.camproanoke.com/" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">camproanoke.com</a>.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><strong><br />Camp Strawderman</strong> All-girls overnight camp with an equestrian focus. Ages 6-17. Edinburg, (301)</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">868-1905 (winter), (540) 984-4738 (summer) or <a href="http://www.campstrawderman.com/" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">campstrawderman.com</a>.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><strong><br />Camp Virginia</strong> A residential camp for boys featuring athletic programs, camping, horseback riding and fly fishing. Goshen, (540) 997-5518 (summer), Richmond, 282-2339 (winter) or<a href="http://www.campvirginia.com/" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">campvirginia.com</a>.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><strong>*Chesterfield County Parks and Recreation</strong> A variety of summer camps. 748-1623 or<a href="http://www.chesterfield.gov/" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">chesterfield.gov</a>.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">*<strong>Collegiate Summer Quest</strong> More than 100 camps, from sports to academic enrichment, for 3-year-olds to adults. 103 N. Mooreland Road, 741-9714 or <a href="http://www.collegiate-va.org/" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">collegiate-va.org.</a></span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">*<strong>Episcopal High School</strong> Overnight and day programs in leadership, athletics, writing, science and photography for grades 7-10. Alexandria, (703) 933-4199 or<a href="http://www.episcopalhighschool.org/summerprograms" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">episcopalhighschool.org/summerprograms</a>.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><strong>Ferrum College Summer Enrichment Camp</strong> Coed, grades 4 to 7. Activities include Hogwarts Academy, chess, cooking and more. Ferrum, (888) 508-7822 or <a href="http://www.ferrum.edu/fcsec" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">ferrum.edu/fcsec</a>.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">*<strong>Great Summer Escape</strong> Day camps for children ages 6-12 are offered at Richmond’s community centers. 646-5733 or <a href="http://www.richmondgov.com/parks" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">richmondgov.com/parks</a>.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">*<strong>Hanover County Parks and Recreation Youth Summer Programs</strong> Day camps for elementary- and middle-school-age children. 365-7150 or <a href="http://www.co.hanover.va.us/parksrec" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">co.hanover.va.us/parksrec</a>.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">*<strong>Henrico County Recreation and Parks</strong> Various programs, including performing-arts, history, nature and sports camps. 501-7275 or <a href="http://www.co.henrico.va.us/rec/at-your-leisure-program/summer-camps/" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">henricorecandparks.com</a>.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">* <strong>Henricus Historical Park Day Camps</strong> A variety of programs cater to ages 6 and older with activities that include history, nature, arts and crafts, and outdoor exploration. Henricus Historical Park, 318-8797 or <a href="http://www.chesterfield.gov/" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">chesterfield.gov</a>.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><strong>Randolph-Macon Academy Middle School Academic Camp</strong> A residential camp for students entering grades 6-8 featuring schoolwork, field trips and other activities. Front Royal, (800)272-1172 or<a href="http://www.rma.edu/" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"> rma.edu</a>.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">*<strong>St. Christopher’s School Summer Ventures</strong> Coed sports and academic-enrichment camps for ages 3-16. 711 St. Christopher’s Road, 282-3185, ext. 5327, or <a href="http://www.stchristophers.com/" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">stchristophers.com</a>.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">*Saint Gertrude High School Summer programs and camps for middle- and high-school girls in the performing arts, fitness and athletics. 3215 Stuart Ave. and 490 Scott Road., 358-9114 or<a href="http://www.saintgertrude.org/" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">saintgertrude.org</a>.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">*<strong>St. Joseph’s Villa</strong> Programs for 2- to 5-year-olds and school-age children, Early Autism</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">Services, a full-day camp for children with special needs, and a therapeutic day-treatment summer program. 8000 Brook Road, 553-3200 or <a href="http://www.neverstopbelieving.org/" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">neverstopbelieving.org</a>.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">*<strong>The Steward Summer Experience</strong> A selection of camps for all ages, including sports, arts, chess and video-game creation. 11600 Gayton Road, 740-3394, ext. 6529, or<a href="http://stewardschool.org/summer" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">stewardschool.org/summer</a>.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">*<strong>Trinity Episcopal School’s Summer Discovery Program</strong> Basketball, music, lacrosse, field-hockey and football camps for all ages. 3850 Pittaway Drive, 272-5864 or <a href="http://trinityes.org/" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">trinityes.org</a>.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">*<strong>University of Richmond School of Professional and Continuing Studies</strong> Children’s technology workshops; cooking, golf, arts, science and drama camps; summer reading programs, SAT prep, babysitter training and more for K-12 students. 28 Westham Way, 289-8133 or<a href="ttp://www.spcs.richmond.edu" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">spcs.richmond.edu</a>.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">*<strong>Weinstein JCC</strong> Coed day camps for students entering grades K-8. Sports, art, dance and more. 5403 Monument Ave., 285-6500 or <a href="http://www.weinsteinjcc.org/" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">weinsteinjcc.org</a>.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">*<strong>YMCA of Greater Richmond</strong> Featuring 18 branch locations, including Camp Thunderbird, offering day, specialty and sports camps for ages 2 1/2-18. 649-9622 or<a href="http://www.ymcarichmond.org/camp" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">ymcarichmond.org/camp</a>.</span><br />
<h2>
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">
Religious</span></h2>
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><strong>Camp Alkulana</strong> Outdoors adventures and activities while exploring Christian values. Millboro Springs, 329-1701 or <a href="http://www.alkulana.org/" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">alkulana.org</a></span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><strong>Camp Blue Ridge</strong> A traditional coed residential camp affiliated with the Seventh Day Adventist Church. Montebello, (888) 746-4227, (540) 377-2413 or <a href="http://www.campblueridge.org/" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">campblueridge.org</a>.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">*<strong>Camp Hanover</strong> Day and overnight summer sessions with traditional activities, as well as bouldering, for students entering grades 2-12. Christian focus. 3163 Parsleys Mill Road, Mechanicsville, 779-2811 or <a href="http://www.camphanover.org/" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">camphanover.org</a>.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">*<strong>Camp Hilbert</strong> Day camps on Lake Rosalie for children entering grades K-9. 2240 Maidens Road, Maidens, 545-8631 or <a href="http://www.weinsteinjcc.org/" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">weinsteinjcc.org</a>.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><strong><br />Camp Maxwelton (boys), Camp Lachlan (girls)</strong> Residential Christian summer camps for boys ages 9-15 and girls 8-15. Rockbridge Baths, (540) 348-5706 or <a href="http://www.maxwelton-lachlan.com/" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">maxwelton-lachlan.com</a>.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">*<strong>Camp Piankatank</strong> Baptist overnight camp with loads of water activities, horseback riding and rock climbing. Ages 10-17; weekend mini-camp for ages 7-9, day camps for ages 6-9. Hartfield, (804) 776-9552 or <a href="http://www.camppiankatank.org/" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">camppiankatank.org</a>.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><strong>Camp Willow Run</strong> An interdenominational Christian camp located on Lake Gaston,</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">for students entering grades 3-12. Littleton, N.C., (252) 586-4665 or <a href="http://www.campwillowrun.org/" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">campwillowrun.org</a>.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">*<strong>Chinmaya Mission Summer Camp</strong> Day camp focusing on Hindu faith and culture. Ages 5-13. 11537 Nuckols Road, 364-1396 or <a href="http://www.chinmayadc.org/" style="text-decoration: none;">chinmayadc.org</a>.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">*<strong>Christian Youth Theater</strong> Day camps in musical theater for ages 6-13; offers a separate program for ages 14-18. 285-2987 or <a href="http://www.cytrichmond.org/" style="text-decoration: none;">cytrichmond.org</a>.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><strong>Kaleidoscope Camp</strong> Christian (Mennonite) camp with lots of activities for ages 7-16. Williamsburg Christian Retreat Center, Toano, (866) 566-9272 or <a href="http://www.wcrc.info/" style="text-decoration: none;">wcrc.info</a>.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><strong>Makemie Woods</strong> Presbyterian overnight camp offering canoeing, archery, ziplines and trails, plus Camp Jordan for diabetic children. Grades 1-12 (Makemie Woods); grades 3-10 (Camp Jordan). Barhamsville, (800) 566-1496 or <a href="http://www.makwoods.org/" style="text-decoration: none;">makwoods.org</a>.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><strong>Oak Hill Christian Service Camp</strong> Service projects and recreation for kindergartners through 12th-graders, plus music-and-drama week for ages 13 and up. 8451 Oak Hill Camp Road, Mechanicsville, 779-3050 or <a href="http://www.oakhillcamp.org/" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">oakhillcamp.org</a>.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><strong>St. Sebastian’s Sports Camp</strong> Multiple sports for boys and girls ages 9 to 14. Orkney Springs, 540-856-2141 or <a href="http://www.shrinemont.com/" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">shrinemont.com</a>.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">*<strong>Triple R Ranch</strong> Christian overnight and day camps, including horsemanship, archery and more, for ages 7-14 and a special training camp for ages 15-17. Chesapeake, (757) 421-4177 or<a href="http://www.triplerranch.org/" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">triplerranch.org</a>.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><strong>Westview on the James</strong> Methodist overnight summer camps for ages 6-15 and Adventure Trek programs for ages 13-17. 1231 Westview Road, Goochland, 457-4210 or<a href="http://www.westviewonthejames.org/" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">westviewonthejames.org</a>.</span><br />
<h2>
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">
Special Interests</span></h2>
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">*<strong>ArtHaus Kids Summer Camps</strong> Ages 3-17. Explore clay, paint, mixed media, photography,</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">textiles and more. 1811 Huguenot Road, Suite 304, Midlothian, 897-4278 or<a href="http://www.arthausrichmond.com/" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">arthausrichmond.com</a>.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">*<strong>ArtVenture</strong> Classes offered by the Visual Arts Center of Richmond for ages 3 to teens.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">1812 W. Main St., 353-0094 or <a href="http://www.visarts.org/" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">visarts.org</a>.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">* <strong>Bon Secours Virginia Health System’s Nursing Explorers Camp</strong> Rising 6th- to 8th-graders interested in the medical field experience life inside the hospital, meet health care professionals, conduct experiments and more. Seven Bon Secours hospital locations in the Richmond region, 559-0647 or <a href="http://www.bonsecours.com/" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">bonsecours.com</a>.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><strong>Camp Motorsport</strong> Coed residential race-car and kart-driving camp for ages 8-16. Clover, (434) 822-2999 (camp); (855) 508-9382 (registration) or <a href="http://www.campmotorsport.com/" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">campmotorsport.com</a>.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><strong>Camp Sea Gull (boys), Camp Seafarer (girls)</strong> Camps for ages 6-16 in eastern North Carolina,</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">featuring seamanship and traditional camp activities. Arapahoe, N.C., (252) 249-1111 (Sea Gull); (252) 249-1212 (Seafarer) or <a href="http://www.seagull-seafarer.org/" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">seagull-seafarer.org</a>.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><strong>Cheerio Adventures</strong> Outdoor adventure camps featuring backpacking, canoeing, climbing, caving and more for ages 10-17. Mouth of Wilson, (276) 579-6731 or <a href="http://www.campcheerio.org/adv" style="text-decoration: none;">campcheerio.org/adv</a>.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">*<strong>Children’s and Teen Studios at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts</strong> Cross-cultural learning, studio projects and more for 5-year-olds to 12th-graders. July 8-Aug. 30. 200 N. Boulevard,</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">340-1405 or <a href="http://www.vmfa.museum/learn" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">vmfa.museum/learn</a>.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">*<strong>ComedySportz Improv Camp for Kidz</strong> Half-day camps focusing on short-form improv and creative thinking for ages 8-14. 8906 W. Broad St., 266-9377 or<a href="http://www.comedysportzrichmond.com/kidzcamp.php" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">comedysportzrichmond.com/kidzcamp.php</a>.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">*<strong>Discovery@VCU</strong> Offers a variety of in-depth experiences in physical, life and health</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">sciences, engineering and the arts for rising 6th- to 8th-graders. 828-8829 or<a href="http://www.vcuyouthcenter.org/" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">vcuyouthcenter.org</a>.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">*<strong>Green Adventures Summer Camps</strong> Campers learn about the plant kingdom and their connection to it through crafts, field studies and more. Preschoolers to 7th-graders. Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden, 1800 Lakeside Ave. 262-9887, ext. 322, or <a href="http://www.lewisginter.org/children" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">lewisginter.org/children</a>.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><strong>Henricus Historical Park Day Camps</strong> A variety of programs cater to ages 6 and older with activities that include history, nature, arts and crafts, and outdoor exploration. Henricus Historical Park, 318-8797 or <a href="http://www.chesterfield.gov/" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">chesterfield.gov</a>.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">*<strong>iD Tech Summer Computer Camps</strong> Coed residential and day camps at the College of William & Mary. Ages 7-17. Williamsburg, (888) 709-TECH or <a href="http://www.internaldrive.com/" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">internaldrive.com</a>.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">*<strong>Latin Ballet of Virginia</strong> Two-week course in ballet, Latin jazz, modern, hip-hop and multicultural dance styles. Ages 5-18. Cultural Arts Center, Glen Allen; Richmond CenterStage, 356-3876 or <a href="http://ww.latinballet.com/" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">latinballet.com</a>.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><strong>Lobs & Lessons</strong> Offers full-day, weeklong camps at the Mary and Frances Youth Center for rising 1st- to 8th-graders. Camps focus on tennis, but also include daily activities and nutrition lessons. 828-9276 or <a href="http://www.vcuyouthcenter.org/" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">vcuyouthcenter.org</a>.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><strong>*Mad Science</strong> Full- and half-day camps in robotics, fort building, space and forensics for grades 1-6 at locations throughout metro Richmond. 359-1500 or <a href="http://www.centralva.madscience.org/" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">centralva.madscience.org</a>.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">*<strong>Maymont Summer Camps</strong> Outdoor adventures and hands-on activities for ages 18 months to rising ninth-graders. 2201 Shields Lake Drive, 358-7166, ext. 324 or 333, or <a href="http://www.maymont.org/" style="text-decoration: none;">maymont.org</a>.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><strong><br />Nature Camp</strong> A coed summer camp specializing in natural-history and environmental-science education, for students in grades 5-12. Vesuvius, (540) 377-2491 (camp phone), (540) 460-7897 (inquiries) or <a href="http://www.naturecamp.net/" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">naturecamp.net</a>.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><strong>Randolph-Macon Academy Flight Camp</strong> Students entering grades 9-12 learn to fly a plane</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">and even solo in a Cessna 172. Front Royal, (800) 272-1172 or<a href="http://www.rma.edu/" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"> rma.edu</a>.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><strong>Southern Mystique Film Camp</strong> One-week summer filmmaking camp for ages 14-24. 1 New Millennium Drive, Petersburg, 898-2496 or <a href="http://www.cvfi.us/" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">cvfi.us</a>.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><strong>Space Flight Adventure Camp</strong> Coed residential summer camps for students aged 11-15 interested in learning about rockets and space flight. Wallops Island, (757) 824-3800 or<a href="http://www.vaspaceflightacademy.org/" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">vaspaceflightacademy.org</a>.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><strong>SPARC</strong> (School of the Performing Arts in the Richmond Community) SummerStarz Touring Ensemble (ages 10-16), BRAVO (rising 5th- to 8th-graders), SPARClers (rising 2nd- to 4th-graders) and SPARClers Jr. (rising K-1 students). 2106-A N. Hamilton St. 353-3393 or<a href="http://www.sparconline.org/" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">sparconline.org</a>.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">* <strong>Summer Rock Camps</strong> Programs for budding rock stars ages 7-17. Short Pump School of</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">Rock, 4300 Pouncey Tract Road, 212-3900 or <a href="http://www.shortpump.schoolofrock.com/" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">shortpump.schoolofrock.com</a>.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><strong><br />Summer Science Explorers</strong> Hands-on experiments and activities for 4-year-olds to seventh-graders. 2500 W. Broad St., 864-1407 or <a href="http://ww.emv.org/summercamps.html" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">emv.org/summercamps.html</a>.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">Wilderness Adventure at Eagle Landing Outdoor adventure and discovery camps for ages 8-17. New Castle, (800) 782-0779 or <a href="http://www.wilderness-adventure.com/" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">wilderness-adventure.com</a>.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><strong>YMCA Camp Silver Beach</strong> Residential Chesapeake Bay adventure camp on Virginia’s eastern shore. Sail, kayak, fish, water-ski and more. Ages 8 to 16. Jamesville, (757) 442-4634 or<a href="http://www.campsilverbeach.org/" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">campsilverbeach.org</a>.</span><br />
<h2>
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">
Special Needs</span></h2>
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><strong>Brainy Camps</strong> Residential camps for children of various ages living with health and behavioral disorders. Harrisonburg, (202) 476-3181, (202) 476-5142 or <a href="http://www.brainycamps.com/" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">brainycamps.com.</a></span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><strong><br />Camp Abilities Maryland</strong> A sports and recreation camp for children who are blind or</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">visually impaired. Lusby, Md., (240) 737-517, or <a href="http://www.campabilitiesmaryland.web.officelive.com/" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">campabilitiesmaryland.web.officelive.com</a>.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">*<strong>Camp Baker</strong> Overnight summer camp sessions (day options available) for children and adults with mental retardation ages 6 and up. 7600 Beach Road, Chesterfield, 748-4789 or<a href="http://www.richmondarc.org/" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">richmondarc.org</a>.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><strong>Camp Easter Seals</strong><a href="http://www.campeastersealsucp.com/" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><strong></strong></a> UCP Residential summer camps for children and adults with disabilities ages 6 and up. New Castle, (540) 777-7325 or <a href="http://www.campeastersealsucp.com/" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">campeastersealsucp.com</a>.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><strong>Camp Fantastic</strong> Residental camp for children ages 7-17 who have received cancer-specific treatment. Front Royal, (540) 667-3774 or <a href="http://www.speciallove.org/" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">speciallove.org</a>.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">*<strong>Camp Gonnawannagoagin</strong> Weeklong day camp sessions for children with a primary diagnosis of autism ages 4-18. Virginia Beach, (757) 422-2040 or<a href="http://www.camp4autism.org/summercamp" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">camp4autism.org/summercamp</a>.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><strong>Camp Holiday Trails</strong> Residential summer camp sessions for children with special health needs aged 5-17. Charlottesville, (434) 977-3781 or <a href="http://www.campholidaytrails.org/" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">campholidaytrails.org</a>.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">*<strong>Camp Jordan</strong> Residential camps for rising 3rd- through 10th-graders with diabetes.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">Barhamsville, (757) 566-1496 or <a href="http://www.makwoods.org/cjordan" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">makwoods.org/cjordan</a>.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><strong>Comfort Zone Camp</strong> Free, year-round bereavement camps for children ages 7-17. Mechanicsville and Goochland, 377-3430 or (866) 488-5679 or <a href="http://www.comfortzonecamp.org/" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">comfortzonecamp.org</a>.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">*<strong>Gallaudet University Summer Programs</strong> Residential camps for hearing-impaired high-school students ages 14-18. Washington, D.C., (202) 448-7272 or <a href="http://www.summer.gallaudet.edu/" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">summer.gallaudet.edu</a>.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">*<strong>Starfish Savers</strong> An outdoor-adventure day camp for children, teens and young adults (ages 9-26) with high-functioning autism, Asperger’s Syndrome or ADHD. Centreville, (703) 631-9557 or <a href="http://www.starfishsavers.com/" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">starfishsavers.com</a>.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">*<strong>Surfers Healing VB</strong> A one-day camp at the beach, free to registered participants, for children with autism and their families, complete with surfing sessions. Virginia Beach, (757) 544-3224 or <a href="http://www.surfershealingvb.org/" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">surfershealingvb.org</a>.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">*<strong>Voices Together</strong> For children with autism: coed day camps for ages 5-12, and an adventure day camp for high school students. 5403 Monument Ave., 545-8658 or <a href="http://www.weinsteinjcc.org/" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">weinsteinjcc.org</a>.</span><br />
<h2>
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">
Sports</span></h2>
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><strong>6 Points Sports Academy</strong> Softball, baseball, basketball, swimming, tennis and other sports for rising 4th- to 11th-graders. Affiliated with the Union for Reform Judaism. Greensboro, N.C., (561) 208-1650 or 6pointsacademy.org.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><strong><br />Adidas Tennis Camp</strong> One-week program, all ability levels. Day and overnight options. Fredericksburg, (800) 944-7112 or <a href="http://www.tenniscamper.com/" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">tenniscamper.com</a>.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">*<strong>Bogey’s Sports Park</strong> Junior golf camps (age 15 and under)every summer. 1675 Ashland Road, 784-1544 or <a href="http://www.bogeyssportspark.com/" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">bogeyssportspark.com</a>.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">*<strong>Camp Carysbrook</strong> Residential and day camps for girls ages 6-16, or an equestrian camp for girls ages 10-16. Riner, (540) 382-1670 (summer), (703) 836-7548 (winter) or<a href="http://www.campcarysbrook.com/" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">campcarysbrook.com</a>.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">*<strong>i-SportsCamps</strong> A residential or day golf camp at Birdwood Golf Course for players ages 10-17. Charlottesville, (434) 972-6083 or <a href="http://www.i-sportscamps.com/" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">i-sportscamps.com</a>.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">*<strong>Passages Adventure Camp</strong> Day and overnight camps include rock-climbing, kayaking, Fat Tire Camp (new) and a mountain bike camp. Ages 5-17. 11421 Polo Circle, Midlothian, 897-8283, ext. 310, or <a href="http://www.passagesrva.com/" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">passagesRVA.com</a>.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">*<strong>Richmond Ice Zone</strong> Figure-skating camps and hockey camps. 636 Johnston-Willis Drive, 378-7465 or <a href="http://www.richmondicezone.com/" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">richmondicezone.com</a>.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">*<strong>Richmond Indoor Sports Experience</strong> Ages 5-13. 2300 Oak Lake Blvd., Midlothian, 744-4600 or <a href="http://www.riseindoor.com/" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">riseindoor.com</a>.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">*<strong>Richmond Kickers Soccer Camps</strong> Ages 2-16. 644-5425 or <a href="http://www.richmondkickers.com/" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">richmondkickers.com</a>.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">*<strong>SkateNation Plus</strong> Basic Skating lessons, hockey and figure-skating. 4350 Pouncey Tract Road,</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">364-1477 or <a href="http://www.skatenationplus.com/" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">skatenationplus.com</a>.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">*<strong>Shaka Smart Basketball Camps</strong> Day camps conducted by VCU’s coaching staff for all levels of players, with an emphasis on teamwork and sportsmanship skills. Sessions are June 24-28, July 15-19 and Aug. 5-9. Stuart C. Siegel Center, 1200 W. Broad St., 828-1278 or<a href="http://www.coachsmart.com/" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">coachsmart.com</a>.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">*<strong>Sports Center of Richmond</strong> All-sports and soccer camps for ages 3-17. 1385 Overbrook Road,</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">257-7267 or <a href="http://www.scor-richmond.com/" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">scor-richmond.com</a>.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">*<strong>Stone Bridge Farm</strong> Full- or half-day horseback riding camps for riders of all levels, ages 8-17; sleepover camp for ages 10-17; Horse Show Camp for intermediate and advanced riders ages 8-17. Natural Bridge, (540) 291-1000 or <a href="http://www.stonebridgefarm.net/" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">stonebridgefarm.net</a>.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">*<strong>Tall Cedars Farm</strong> Equestrian day camps for all levels of experience. 11353 Rocky Ridge Road, Glen Allen, 883-3003, (804) 357-4231 or <a href="http://www.tallcedarsfarm.org/" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">tallcedarsfarm.org</a>.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">*<strong>University of Richmond Spiders Sports Camps</strong> A wide range of sports camps, including baseball, football and tennis. <a href="http://www.richmondspiders.com/" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">richmondspiders.com</a>.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">*<strong>VCU Sports Camps</strong> Basketball, soccer, field-hockey, baseball and volleyball camps. 1200 W. Broad St., 828-4000 or <a href="http://www.vcurams.vcu.edu/camps.html" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">vcurams.vcu.edu/camps.html</a>.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">*<strong>Virginia Fishing Adventures</strong> Day and overnight fishing camps for boys and girls ages 6-16. 687-1869 or <a href="http://www.virginiafishingadventures.com/" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">virginiafishingadventures.com</a>.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">*<strong>Virginia Outside</strong> Mountain-biking camps for boys and girls ages 8-13. 687-1869 or<a href="http://www.%20virginiaoutside.com/" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">virginiaoutside.com</a>.</span></div>
Black Hawk Adventureshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00561506217655448796noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5103505810457562722.post-77471403956911010822013-03-11T20:26:00.000-07:002013-04-23T21:43:01.579-07:00Tales of a 60-year-old hitchhiker<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: white;"><br /></span>
</span><br />
<div class="featuredMedia" style="border: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<a class="lightBox" href="http://media.salon.com/2013/02/hitchhike2.jpg" style="background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border: 0px; color: red; font-size: 14px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" title="Tales of a 60-year-old hitchhiker"><span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><img alt="Tales of a 60-year-old hitchhiker" height="211" src="http://media.salon.com/2013/02/hitchhike2-620x412.jpg" style="background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border: 0px; font-size: 14px; list-style: none; margin: auto; max-width: 580px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 580px;" title="Tales of a 60-year-old hitchhiker" width="320" /></span></a><br />
<span class="caption" style="background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border: 0px; display: block; font-family: BentonSansCondMedium, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 16px; list-style: none; margin: 10px 0px 20px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="photoCredit" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: white; display: inline; font-family: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-weight: normal; list-style: none; margin: 5px 5px 15px 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: right; vertical-align: baseline;">(Credit: Photo of the author)</span></span></div>
<div class="articleContent" style="border: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">I knew they could see me. Families on their way to the lake, truckers hauling loads on deadlines, couples heading for church or breakfast – they all would have found me directly in their line of sight as they screamed into the westbound curve at 70 miles per hour. I imagined that for those 10, maybe 15 seconds, they thought: Is that a person on the shoulder? Where’s his car? What’s he doing? Looking for a ride? Really? Then, whoosh, they were past.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">They were coming at the rate of about one vehicle every four seconds. That would be more than 15 per minute. More than 1,000 per hour. Times two, for the time I’d been there. I knew it wasn’t personal, but from where I stood, it was still a lot of rejection. The sun rose higher, its glare and warmth intensifying.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">All I’d have to do, I thought, was hop across the median and turn my back on all of this – head east, back to the Twin Cities and home, and never tell anyone I was ever serious about hitchhiking 1,700 miles to visit a friend in Twisp, Wash., a small town in the mountains east of Seattle. I could be home in two hours, and spend my week’s vacation fishing.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">It was early on Day Two on the summer road trip I’d been thinking about for several years – an appealing Western road trip, sure, but also an examination of whether the American road even resembled the one I thought I once knew. For beatniks in the ’50s and baby boomers after them, the highway was a cultural Main Street, combining adventure and community, and hitchhiking was a way to join the parade. If you had the time and curiosity, it was as good a way as any to walk off and look for America. But it had been more than 30 years since I’d been out there, and in that time hitchhiking had simply vanished, like phone booths and penny candy. Now seemed like the time to find out where everybody had gone – whether the Me Decades or a generation of ramped-up fear had made that highway commons a different place, and made us a different people – suspicious, driving solo, insulated by our custom music and podcasts.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">Also, I had just turned 60. In another year I could be having a hip transplant, or worse. I realized I was in a rare position, as lives go: no elderly parents, no wife, no girlfriend, not even a dog. No disabilities. My two grown daughters seemed to turn pale when I mentioned the trip (the urge to wander being a symptom of Alzheimer’s disease), but they weren’t about to say no. Suddenly, thumbing halfway across the country – farther than I ever had before – had become something I knew I had to do <em style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">now,</em> before it would be impossible or certainly just crazier. It was something I knew I would deeply regret <em style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">not</em> doing.</span></div>
<div class="toggle-group target hideOnInit" data-toggle-group="story-13208590" style="background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border: 0px; font-size: 14px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">But what was I thinking? Even when thumbing was commonplace, hitchhikers were an object of suspicion, and old ones even more so. Now I could easily be taken for a guy fresh off a 40-year hitch in the penitentiary. A crazy. A deadbeat. And that was even if people understood the meaning of the little sign I was holding, with its one, handwritten word: “West.” So after two hours on the shoulder that morning (and one hour the evening before), I was beginning to have my own doubts. If I’d wanted to celebrate my seniority, why hadn’t I just gone on a cruise or cut back on salt? Twenty-four hours after leaving my Minneapolis home, I was stuck in Albany, Minn., only four rides and 100 miles up the road, and the first 40 had been on a commuter train out of town. Turning back east, to what was close and familiar, suddenly seemed to make sense.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">That’s when the big red pickup hauling the enormous horse trailer slowed to a long halt on the entrance ramp shoulder. The driver opened his door and waved to me.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">“Where you going?” I asked.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">“Bismarck,” he said.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">And I was in.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><img alt="" height="195" src="http://media.salon.com/2013/02/hitchhike_embed3.jpg" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; list-style: none; margin: auto; max-width: 580px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" title="hitchhike_embed3" width="320" /></span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">I began hitchhiking to get to high school, as my brother had before me. We lived on a busy street near a traffic signal, so we could simply walk the line of idling cars, books under our arms, asking for rides. We were clean cut and always got to school, which of course got me thinking this was a pretty reliable way to get from place to place.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">In time, my hitchhiking horizons broadened. There were trips on college weekends to see my sweetie, or relatives in Chicago, or friends in Sioux City or Saugatuck. Trips to big-city concerts, and once 1,000 miles to an antiwar protest in Washington, D.C. That trip featured a night in jail for my young wife and me in Henry County, Ill. (for walking on the interstate shoulder, though insurrection was implied).</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">Hitchhikers were a common sight in those days. In fact, there were so many that on busy highways we often had to negotiate who got to stand where, or ask drivers to drop us off farther up the road, where there wasn’t so much competition for the next ride. If a rusty old van came limping over the hill you could often count on it pulling over to absorb everyone into the river of road-trippers. But all kinds of rides were possible. Businessmen in wide, air-conditioned sedans often stopped, looking for someone to keep them awake with conversation or to pepper with questions about us young kids and hair and the war. Guys just out of the service, readjusting, curious about college and girls and driving hot new cars. Sometimes “older” couples with kids about our age. All types, and they’d often tell their secrets, encouraged by the odd intimacy of the front seat, where the hours demand conversation but eye contact is difficult. And then they dropped you off and drove out of your life, leaving you a little closer to your destination, with their stories now in your bag.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">Soon, of course, I got my own cars, and kids, and jobs. Getting away required more time management and less whimsy. In the fall of 1979, I thumbed part of the way from Minnesota to New Mexico, and returned cold, late and exhausted. That was the last time I’d hitchhike, until 32 years later.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">In that time I don’t believe I saw even a dozen hitchhikers, total, anywhere in the U.S. The aging of the baby boomers, I’m sure, was part of it. So was the growth in vehicle ownership.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">In 1965, there were about 47 vehicles on the road in the U.S. for every 100 residents, according to the Federal Highway Administration. In 2007, the number was 84. That’s getting close to one vehicle for every man, woman and child in the country. Meanwhile, one glimpse of a high school parking lot will tell you that kids who once might have been likely to stick their thumbs out on a highway shoulder now don’t lack for personal transportation. And if everybody’s got their own wheels (or a cut-rate airline ticket), who’s left to bum rides?</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">There are some people — experts, in fact — who view hitchhiking as an environmentally and socially positive thing to do. A solo driver is hauling space that is “a colossal resource that we waste,” according to Alan Pisarski, an international transportation policy analyst and author of “Commuting in America.” And hitchhiking could reduce that waste, he says, with new communications technologies helping people find rides while easing the risks and fear associated with hitchhiking. That’s already been happening in Washington, D.C., and some other large cities, where commuters have developed an informal but website-supported activity called “slugging.” Slugs — the riders — connect with drivers at designated locations, and both get to work more quickly than they otherwise might because the driver qualifies for the high-occupancy vehicle lanes on freeways. Slugging even has its own code of in-the-car etiquette, governing the radio, talking and coffee-drinking. And authorities have winked.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">But long-haul hitchhiking, quite a different enterprise from commuting, doesn’t appear to have many practitioners. If you’ve grown up getting rides from your parents, who then gave you your own car, while you also became accustomed to the instant responsiveness of the Internet, or if you’ve had your own wheels for the last 40 years, why would you subject yourself to the uncertainties of unscheduled rides with strangers? Serendipity is just too cute a word for it.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">And let’s not ignore the fear factor. It’s a cliché by now: the hitchhiker, kidnapped, cut up and left in a plastic bag on the side of the road. Or, conversely, the hitchhiker who robs and kills the people who picked him up. The 1974 film “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” is still getting mileage out of that one. Meanwhile, Let’s Go Publications, the series of travel books founded in 1960, which grafted the cheap utility of hitchhiking onto the romance of youthful travel, by the 1980s was warning that the practice was dangerous. In 2011, the books got rid of their “thumb” logo altogether.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">But how well-placed is that fear of hitchhiking? Some say not very: Most murder victims know their killer. Noted sports statistician Bill James, who has recently turned to crime analysis, says that hitchhikers aren’t any more of a danger to society than any other group of people that might include random predators. Crime didn’t go down when hitchhiking slacked off, he added. And while he says he doesn’t pick up hitchhikers himself, he regards the practice as good for society (apart from his personal safety), by building trust and a sense of community.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">When I called the Montana state patrol before I left to ask what was legal and what wasn’t, the woman who answered the phone used the word “dangerous.” When I asked what she meant, she said it’s not that hitchhikers are getting waylaid, it’s just that people standing or walking on the shoulder of the road often get hit. “You’ve got to be totally on your ‘A’ game,” she said.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">But the shrewdest insight I found in my preparations came from Elijah Wald, author of “Riding With Strangers/A Hitchhiker’s Journey,” and a lifelong, global hitchhiker. These days, predators aren’t out burning $3.50-per-gallon gas looking for victims, Wald wrote. More likely they’re cruising the Information Highway. And that wasn’t my route.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><img alt="" height="176" src="http://media.salon.com/2013/02/hitchhike_embed4.jpg" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; list-style: none; margin: auto; max-width: 580px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" title="hitchhike_embed4" width="320" /></span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">I’d be joking if I said I knew how to prepare for this trip. I had no idea how long it would take me, and although I planned to fly home, I couldn’t buy a ticket, because I didn’t know when (or how) I’d get from Twisp to the Seattle airport. I didn’t know where I’d be each night. And for some reason — probably years of driving around on my own, and stopping when I wanted to — I was really worried about whether I’d get to the bathroom enough, and how I’d avoid getting hungry. And would I get coffee when I needed it?</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">I did make one rule for myself: No camping. At my age I deserved a motel room after a long day on the road, even a cheap one. Of course that also meant I wouldn’t have to carry a big load of gear, either. So I packed a borrowed backpack with a couple of changes of clothes, a rain jacket, a laptop and a heavy but otherwise forgettable book. I also packed a foam board that I could break into pieces to make signs, and a big, thick marking pen. My granddaughter had made me a card reading “Good Luck! Have Fun!” which I tucked into my book as my good luck charm. I locked up the house, not knowing exactly when I’d be back or even how far I’d get.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">I had told very few people about this. I’d <a href="http://60west.blogspot.com/" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">started a blog</a> I would update often on the road; I’d also developed a plan with my kids to text them every time I got picked up, and then again when I got dropped off. I’d thought about shooting pictures of license plates of cars that had pulled over for me and emailing them, but I quickly realized that was the exactly the sort of thing I didn’t want to do: approach would-be rides with suspicion. Good judgment, yes. Suspicion, no. And gratitude, yes.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">The pickup driver was John Berger, hauling eight bucking bulls and a pony from a rodeo in Rice Lake, Wis., back to his home in Mandan, N.D.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">“You looked like a clean-cut fellow,” he said, when I asked why he’d picked me up.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">I’d never ridden with bucking bulls. But hitchhiking trips are full of surprises, and this one was already pushing the limit. The day before, in fact, the second ride of the trip had been (for me) unprecedented: a lift on the back of a motorcycle.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">“You gotta be kidding,” I said when Dale, a well-built guy in a tank top with several spikes in his face, pulled over to where I stood on the entrance ramp at Monticello, Minn.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">“This’ll work. Just tie that backpack on with those bungees,” he said.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">I turned my cap around (seems I hadn’t packed a helmet), and as we leaned into the traffic, Dale asked if I was hungry or thirsty. His church, the Church of the Living Water, just up the road in Clearwater, Minn., was giving away food, water and clothes to anybody who stopped by. I’d just eaten, and I didn’t want to lose time, so I asked him just to drop me at the closest exit. But then: an epiphany. I had no control of time, I realized. No control of anything, really. I didn’t know where I’d be from hour to hour, or whom I’d be riding with. And wasn’t that the point? I could stand at a hot freeway interchange waiting for a ride that might or might not materialize, or I could go to Dale’s church picnic, meet people I would never seek out in my normal life, and then ride farther up the road on the back of his motorcycle to St. Cloud, tacking hard into the wind. I realized I’d have to chuck my usual impatience. And it meant that, even in a small way, I’d have to discover faith. I’d get somewhere. It would take however long it took.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">I had to trust that the rides would come.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">And they did. By Sunday night, I was in Glendive, Mont., more than 500 miles from Albany, Minn., where I’d thought about turning around that morning. After Berger and his bucking bulls, I got picked up by a National Guard chaplain whose wife was the superintendent of schools in Dickinson, N.D. Then I crossed the high plains of western North Dakota with Terry, a high-speed talker who was wearing a Hawaiian shirt, since he’d spent the day managing his gas well-drilling company’s golf tournament. These were people I should fear?</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">As the sun set, I had clearly reached the West. Vent flames from natural gas wells — a signature feature of the new industry turning western North Dakota inside out — dotted the vast, treeless landscape like fireflies. Glendive, Mont., which I remembered as a quiet outpost on the range, was now busy with trucks pulling off the highway and men just hanging around in small groups outside the few motels – workers gearing up for another week in the fracking fields or on the Burlington Northern-Santa Fe railroad expansion. I was lucky to get a room. But luck was with me, I now believed.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><img alt="" height="173" src="http://media.salon.com/2013/02/hitchhike_embed1.jpg" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; list-style: none; margin: auto; max-width: 580px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" title="hitchhike_embed1" width="320" /></span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">The next day, Monday, another gas worker, heading from New Town, N.D., to his home in Caldwell, Idaho, for a three-week vacation, hauled me nearly 300 miles to Bozeman, Mont. Berger had been right: Once I got out of Minnesota, the rides would get longer. I quit for the night after one more ride, to Three Forks, Mont., now three days and 1,000 miles from home. More than halfway.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">Tuesday morning I stopped for breakfast in a restaurant next to the motel, plopping my pack onto a chair and lying across the top my latest handmade sign, which now read, “Missoula.” The waitress asked why I had the sign.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">I explained that I was hitchhiking, and that I wasn’t really going to Missoula, but well beyond that. She wished me luck, and 10 minutes later, as I was paying my bill, slipped me two fresh scones in a bag.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">No charge. “In case you get hungry,” she said.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">Suddenly I realized that, as I inched my way west, at the mercy of strangers and sun, people were actually looking out for me. “I saw you when I was going the other way, and couldn’t believe you were still here,” several said. A pair of off-duty tribal police officers picked me up in succession, providing a sort of police escort through some otherwise sparsely traveled country. And two drivers, when I asked why they’d picked me up, said God had told them to.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">But it was after that breakfast at Three Forks, posted on the shoulder at Milepost 278, that I received a sign from the ancestors. Bored and wandering along the shoulder, checking out the trash and wildflowers as little traffic came by, I thought about taking a picture of the streetlight at the entrance as it curved in graceful isolation against the open, blue sky. And as I approached the base, I noticed a rusted inscription at eye level:</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">“Rainbow Krystal. 7/1/81. Good Hitching to You All.” Thirty years ago!</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">Krystal was probably long gone from the road, and maybe even from life. But the connection felt almost alive. Here, at last, was my traveling companion — a vaporous partner, joined through time in the adventure and the tedium, in the youthful dependence on the kindness of strangers, in the gluttonous delight in the scent of hot sage and the chirping of meadowlarks, and in the simple, summery joy of moving on, particularly west. Here was someone who knew the way, who’d stood in this very spot, trying to flag a ride. Times had changed, sure. But even though I was waiting longer for rides than I ever remembered, Krystal might have found the experience familiar: a trip down a vivid receiving line of eccentrics and brooders, protectors and braggarts, seekers and lecturers, actors and emcees. Some were former hitchhikers returning the favor, while others said they thought it might be something they’d try themselves someday. And all of them, for a little while, were neighbors. (And, yes, one was too drunk to be driving.)</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">Whatever they sought from me — conversation, or the fulfillment of some mission (none asked for money) — I hope I provided. Thank you, Krystal. And to those who follow: Good Hitching to You All!</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><img alt="" height="190" src="http://media.salon.com/2013/02/hitchhike_embed5.jpg" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; list-style: none; margin: auto; max-width: 580px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" title="hitchhike_embed5" width="320" /></span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">There wasn’t much traffic late the next afternoon as I walked north through Bridgeport, Wash., about 50 two-lane miles from my primary destination: Twisp, Wash., where my friend had just bought the weekly newspaper. (And you thought my road trip was nutty?) I passed the town’s only motel, boarded up a generation ago, and started wondering if I’d need to sneak under someone’s porch to sleep. I heard several cars approaching, turned, and locked in on a small, blue BMW convertible. “This would be nice,” I thought.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">The car slowed. The driver, wearing a plaid shirt and amber glasses, appraised me, then stopped at my feet.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">“Hop in. You’re going to Brewster?” he said, reading my sign, indicating the only destination I thought people in the area might recognize.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">“Actually, I’m trying to get to Twisp,” I said. The word sounded funny, but the idea was becoming reality.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">“I’m going right through Twisp,” he said.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">And so the best came last — an easy cruise in a luxury two-seat convertible, winding down the Columbia and up the smaller Methow River as twilight enveloped the mountains. Claude Bannick, the driver, who turned out to be a prominent lumberman in the valley, told me about how he and his late wife had hitchhiked all over Europe. Had I not been so aware of how I’d arrived at this moment, I might have thought the music on the satellite radio — the Grateful Dead — was proof I had returned to another time. But this was clearly now.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">Because when we drove into Twisp, there was my pal Don, now a publisher, waiting in front of the Methow Valley News office. I introduced him to Claude, now his neighbor in the valley. These days, it’s all about networking.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">——</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">I’m pretty sure that’s the last time I’ll hitchhike. I really am too old for that sort of thing; a highway shoulder is a loud, dirty, assaultive place to spend a day. The long waits and doubts can be wearying. Several friends said later they never thought I’d make it, and while I was glad they hadn’t told me that, I could hardly believe it myself.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">Was I lucky? Was I ever. Luck has always been part of it, though patience is its partner. It’s possible that in some other week I might have gotten few rides and had to fly home from Billings — or even Fargo. Or it might have rained. Or that deputy sheriff way back at Albany, Minn., might have visited me a second time, asked me if I wasn’t the same guy he’d told to get off the road the night before, and hauled me to the local senior center.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">But in 19 rides over 1,700 miles I found that it’s still possible to hitchhike in America, and get where you’re going. Perhaps we’re even on the verge of a renaissance. I’ll leave that to others. But I do believe they’ll find that the American road is still a hospitable place, that our fellow travelers are curious and caring, and that fear will get you nowhere.</span></div>
</div>
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><a class="toggle-group toggleOnScroll trigger remember refreshAds gaTrackPageEvent" data-toggle-group="story-13208590" href="http://www.salon.com/2013/02/27/tales_of_a_60_year_old_hitchhiker/" style="background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border: 0px; color: red; font-size: 14px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></a></span></div>
<div class="writerMeta" style="border: 0px; font-size: 14px; font-style: italic; line-height: 18px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">Bill McAuliffe has been a staff writer at the Minneapolis Star Tribune for 32 years. He lives in Minneapolis. Follow him on Twitter @BillMcMpls.</span></div>
</div>
Black Hawk Adventureshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00561506217655448796noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5103505810457562722.post-57979056055362680562013-03-10T19:46:00.002-07:002013-04-23T21:39:41.429-07:00Fraud Warning: Safety Tips on Purchasing Camping Gears<span style="color: white;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white;">Planning a camping adventure for first timers can be very frustrating at first. You maybe</span><br />
<span style="color: white;">unsure as to what you should bring along with you and if you have the rights tools.</span><br />
<span style="color: white;">Although a camping vacation can be fun and exciting, it can sometimes be stressful to</span><br />
<span style="color: white;">plan. But don’t worry, like they say the first time is always the hardest. And again don’t</span><br />
<span style="color: white;">worry because it is not as hard as you think.</span><br />
<span style="color: white;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white;">When it comes to camping you will have to bring multiple items with you because you</span><br />
<span style="color: white;">will be in the wilderness and convenience will be provided for you rather you must bring</span><br />
<span style="color: white;">it with you. It is your first time so what you need to know is how to purchase the right</span><br />
<span style="color: white;">tools and how to avoid fraud while buying.</span><br />
<span style="color: white;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white;">These are your fraud warnings and safety tips:</span><br />
<span style="color: white;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white;">Meeting the buyer- whether you’re going to meet up or the buyer would go to your</span><br />
<span style="color: white;">place make sure that you have someone with you. Never go alone or never allow him</span><br />
<span style="color: white;">inside your house alone.</span><br />
<span style="color: white;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white;">Meeting the seller- same goes in meeting the seller. It is best if you meet them at their</span><br />
<span style="color: white;">home addresses where the item for sale is placed. At least no matter what happens</span><br />
<span style="color: white;">you know where the seller is situated.</span><br />
<span style="color: white;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white;">Accepting and paying money- if the item is worth only a few bucks then it is easier</span><br />
<span style="color: white;">and more convenient to pay in cash but if it involves larger amount of money it is safer</span><br />
<span style="color: white;">to carry a check rather than cash.</span><br />
<span style="color: white;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white;">Purchasing online- Only buy from a legitimate site, research information about the site</span><br />
<span style="color: white;">first and read reviews about it. Also you can ask friends who bought items online and</span><br />
<span style="color: white;">go for the same site. If the advertiser wants you to send cash up front you shouldn’t do</span><br />
<span style="color: white;">it. Remember not to sent cash or cheques through the post, or place money directly</span><br />
<span style="color: white;">into a seller’s bank account, in advance of receiving goods.</span><br />
<span style="color: white;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white;">Ask for the warranty or receipt of the product- once you bought an item from a</span><br />
<span style="color: white;">private seller you will have no legal comeback if it turns out to be faulty so better check</span><br />
<span style="color: white;">it thoroughly before handling the money.</span><br />
<span style="color: white;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white;">And always keeps records about the transactions made.</span><br />
<span style="color: white;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white;">Fraud warning: Scam ads</span><br />
<span style="color: white;">• Adverts that contain very poor grammar/spelling errors</span><br />
<span style="color: white;">• Anyone requesting money in advance of you receiving the goods</span><br />
<span style="color: white;">• Anyone who says they are in a different town/ area of the country than the</span><br />
<span style="color: white;">postcode entered on the advert</span><br />
<span style="color: white;">• Anyone offering expensive items for free, or at a discounted rate, on the</span><br />
<span style="color: white;">condition that you pay large sums of money to cover travel, postage or courier</span><br />
<span style="color: white;">cost</span><br />
<span style="color: white;">• Anyone offering to buy you an item for a higher cost than you advertising it at to</span><br />
<span style="color: white;">include shipping to them</span><br />
<span style="color: white;">• Anyone asking you to remove your item</span><br />
<span style="color: white;">• Anyone offering something that is too good to be true</span><br />
<span style="color: white;">• Anyone who wants payment via money transfer</span><br />
<span style="color: white;">• Anyone who only corresponds by an email and is unavailable on phone</span><br />
<span style="color: white;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white;">As many kinds of investment, the chances of buying camping gears ending up to</span><br />
<span style="color: white;">a fraud is more likely to happen as well. And a scam can be devastating for you</span><br />
<span style="color: white;">physically, financially and emotionally. Hope this served as a fraud warning for you.</span><br />
<span style="color: white;"><br /></span>
<a href="http://blackhawk-mines.com/2013/01/07/fraud-warning-safety-tips-on-purchasing-camping-gears/"><span style="color: white;">http://blackhawk-mines.com/2013/01/07/fraud-warning-safety-tips-on-purchasing-camping-gears/</span></a><br />
<div>
<br /></div>
Black Hawk Adventureshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00561506217655448796noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5103505810457562722.post-21079869364058886422013-01-08T18:24:00.004-08:002013-01-08T18:24:43.758-08:00Fraud Warning: Safety Tips on Purchasing Camping Gears<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><a href="http://blackhawk-mines.com/2013/01/07/fraud-warning-safety-tips-on-purchasing-camping-gears/">http://blackhawk-mines.com/2013/01/07/fraud-warning-safety-tips-on-purchasing-camping-gears/</a></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Planning
a camping adventure for first timers can be very frustrating at first. You maybe unsure as to what you should bring
along with you and if you have the rights tools. Although a camping vacation can be fun and
exciting, it can sometimes be stressful to plan. But don’t worry, like they say the first time
is always the hardest. And again don’t
worry because it is not as hard as you think.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">When
it comes to camping you will have to bring multiple items with you because you
will be in the wilderness and convenience will be provided for you rather you
must bring it with you. It is your first
time so what you need to know is how to purchase the right tools and how to
avoid fraud while buying. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">These
are your fraud warnings and safety tips:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Meeting the buyer</span></b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">- whether you’re
going to meet up or the buyer would go to your place make sure that you have
someone with you. Never go alone or
never allow him inside your house alone.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Meeting the seller</span></b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">- same goes in
meeting the seller. It is best if you
meet them at their home addresses where the item for sale is placed. At least no matter what happens you know
where the seller is situated.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Accepting and paying
money</span></b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">-
if the item is worth only a few bucks then it is easier and more convenient to
pay in cash but if it involves larger amount of money it is safer to carry a
check rather than cash.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Purchasing online</span></b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">- Only buy from a
legitimate site, research information about the site first and read reviews
about it. Also you can ask friends who
bought items online and go for the same site.
If the advertiser wants you to send cash up front you shouldn’t do
it. Remember not to sent cash or cheques
through the post, or place money directly into a seller’s bank account, in
advance of receiving goods.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Ask for the warranty
or receipt of the product</span></b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">- once you bought an item from a private seller you will
have no legal comeback if it turns out to be faulty so better check it
thoroughly before handling the money.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">And
always keeps records about the transactions made. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Fraud warning: Scam
ads<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Adverts
that contain very poor grammar/spelling errors<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Anyone
requesting money in advance of you receiving the goods<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Anyone
who says they are in a different town/ area of the country than the postcode
entered on the advert<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Anyone
offering expensive items for free, or at a discounted rate, on the condition
that you pay large sums of money to cover travel, postage or courier cost<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Anyone
offering to buy you an item for a higher cost than you advertising it at to
include shipping to them<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Anyone
asking you to remove your item<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Anyone
offering something that is too good to be true<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Anyone
who wants payment via money transfer<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Anyone
who only corresponds by an email and is unavailable on phone<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">As
many kinds of investment, the chances of buying camping gears ending up to a
fraud is more likely to happen as well.
And a scam can be devastating for you physically, financially and
emotionally. Hope this served as a fraud
warning for you.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />Black Hawk Adventureshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00561506217655448796noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5103505810457562722.post-85797466657673315922013-01-02T17:27:00.000-08:002013-01-02T17:27:01.581-08:003 powerful ways to do a better job in 2013<br />
Here are three ways you can improve your work - and your workplace - in the New Year.<br />
<br />
1. Know what you’re doing before you worry about how you’ll do it.<br />
<br />
We jump to thoughts of implementation so often in our work, and that tendency creates<br />
several problems. We may not know exactly what we’re implementing, why we’re<br />
implementing it or how much is possible. By skipping ahead to the details, we begin work<br />
that may not make sense—and we unnecessarily constrain ourselves. This year, be mindful<br />
about each idea you’re pursuing and determine its larger purpose before running forward<br />
with activities. It’s not about what you’re doing but why you’re doing it.<br />
<br />
2. Spend at least 15 minutes a day in deliberate thought about something bigger than your<br />
to-do list.<br />
<br />
This is critical. I believe in mornings - but for some people, it works best to do this exercise<br />
at the end of the day to prepare for the next morning. What larger purpose defines you right<br />
now? One year from now, what will you be glad you did tomorrow? Ten years from now? What<br />
are the big things that need to happen to advance those aspirations? I believe the sum of our<br />
efforts each year reflects the rigor we apply to these larger questions. Take a few minutes<br />
each day to ask them. You may not have every answer, but you’ll make smarter choices along<br />
the way - and let the little crap go more easily. For me, five minutes at the start of my workday<br />
plus nightly blogging are tools I use in trying to step out of everyday to-do lists and think about<br />
what ideas matter most each day. What tools can you put into place to schedule reflection?<br />
<br />
3. Think about what unites your colleagues rather than what’s in it for you.<br />
<br />
The best workplaces in the world have something in common: Colleagues embrace a collective<br />
vision, and they’d do anything for each other. I’d always prefer to be in that kind of culture than<br />
a dog-eat-dog slugfest because it’s better for me and better for my organization. Try to set a<br />
course toward that kind of camaraderie. Define what you all want to do together. Along the way,<br />
share credit. Recognize the achievements of others. Sacrifice something selfish if it yields a<br />
greater good. If you are a manager, you have the chance to transform the experience of those<br />
who report to you. Seize it with a spirit of selflessness. In the end, it’s the fastest way to<br />
achievement - and happiness - for everyone.<br />
Black Hawk Adventureshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00561506217655448796noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5103505810457562722.post-70546570222628854162013-01-01T17:56:00.001-08:002013-01-01T18:00:26.944-08:00The Future Is Now: What We Imagined for 2013 — 10 Years Ago<br />
Predicting the future is hard, but that doesn’t stop us from trying. We’re Wired, after all.<br />
<br />
Ten years ago, we boldly declared that we’d be living with phones on our wrists, data-driven<br />
goggles on our eyes and gadgets that would safety-test our food for us. Turns out, a lot of<br />
the things Sonia Zjawinski conceptualized in our “Living in 2013” feature way back in 2003<br />
were remarkably close to what we’ve seen. We even got the iPhone right (sort of).<br />
<br />
And so, as we look back on life in 2013 circa 2003, we’re going to spin it forward once again<br />
to tell you what life will be like in 2023.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCausBgsQh440U1BWZDeI1iOVIvyg6te8ICq4usFLCq1b-b4TLTbUEJIhg1nb6Hg-fA0SA2H6nw11Z4yImcJ3hNR5eAwpXSJQMERVNH-T8dVyKwhwloJOC6a4_n8NFO5_g2boncHNA6rdY/s1600/iphone-dh_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="237" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCausBgsQh440U1BWZDeI1iOVIvyg6te8ICq4usFLCq1b-b4TLTbUEJIhg1nb6Hg-fA0SA2H6nw11Z4yImcJ3hNR5eAwpXSJQMERVNH-T8dVyKwhwloJOC6a4_n8NFO5_g2boncHNA6rdY/s320/iphone-dh_.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
Predicted for 2003 (above):<br />
Apple redefined the desktop, laptop, and MP3 player. The next insanely great thing: an LCD<br />
arm cuff that includes a PDA, wireless Internet, a mini iPod, and, of course, a phone. The<br />
iPhone bracelet's motion sensor allows you to scroll through apps and files with the flick of<br />
a wrist, its clasp holds a digicam for use during video calls, and its wireless ear clip lets you<br />
listen and speak to callers. And everything can be done via voice recognition or touchscreen.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZNlaVQqj1UKyKGyShlDCcNy03CIFqk9eVFJS9-PwXniRXqdkYMuyqw7RDY8uUGlcY7O8p6wTf803frepmO7ppNIOgSB1PEzsx5rTv6n3S3oxJTdN9B_OD5Fy57mgbKEh47zMElnOz0ZtR/s1600/pebble-zambelich.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZNlaVQqj1UKyKGyShlDCcNy03CIFqk9eVFJS9-PwXniRXqdkYMuyqw7RDY8uUGlcY7O8p6wTf803frepmO7ppNIOgSB1PEzsx5rTv6n3S3oxJTdN9B_OD5Fy57mgbKEh47zMElnOz0ZtR/s320/pebble-zambelich.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
Delivered in 2013:<br />
Hey, it turns out, Apple gave us an iPhone after all! We got the name right, and even seemed<br />
to know about FaceTime. But the form factor details? Not so much. While you can wear an<br />
iPod nano as a watch, or make a call with your iPhone, if you want the watch-plus-phone<br />
combination that we teased you with 10 years ago, for now you'll need to pick up a secondary<br />
gadget that can transmit to your phone, like this Pebble.<br />
<br />
Looking ahead to 2023:<br />
Here's the thing, the screen on a watch is simply too small to display lots of data. And as an<br />
input device? Forget it. Yet keeping your phone out of sight means you often can't interact with<br />
your data on the go. The obvious answer is a variable size display. Samsung has already<br />
demonstrated a pretty convincing foldable OLED display prototype. Given 10 more years, we can<br />
easily see one screen serving multiple purposes by taking on multiple form factors, depending on<br />
whether you wanted to simply glance at it to read a message, or unfold it to write your reply.Black Hawk Adventureshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00561506217655448796noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5103505810457562722.post-41086277250263891362012-11-11T20:44:00.003-08:002012-11-11T20:44:55.494-08:00Black Hawk Adventures: Be Present In Every Photo with Tripod Multi-tool<br />
<a href="http://latest.blackhawk-mines.com/2012/11/12/be-present-in-every-photo-with-tripod-multi-tool/">http://latest.blackhawk-mines.com/2012/11/12/be-present-in-every-photo-with-tripod-multi-tool/</a><br />
<br />
Tired of Bringing Big Tripods on camping Trips? Tripod Multi-tool is the Best Gadget for you.<br />
<br />
First things first, why do you go on camping? Is camping really fun? The outdoor is a great experience to anyone. The adventure of living in the outdoors makes camping fun for everyone. Camping is an escape of the hustle and bustle of the busy life in the city. The nature and fresh air in addition to great sceneries can satisfy anyone.<br />
<br />
Although camping is such a common word, everyone was to hear it in some point of their life but what is camping exactly? Camping is an act of spending time in the outside; it is an outdoor recreation activity. Campers would pack their essentials, travel the wilderness, and camp overnight or for several days. It is basically spending time in the other shelter, preparing meals by cooking over a campfire and sleeping without your beds.<br />
<br />
So why is camping fun again? Aside from what nature can offer, camping is a great opportunity to spend time with your family and friends, have fun with your kids while you get the same fun as they do with no destructions from the modern world. You can do a lot of things while you are in camping outdoors like fishing, hiking, swimming, biking, and canoeing.<br />
<br />
Everyone in the world are so much into taking pictures more especially in moments like camping with the family an friends. The dilemma is, bringing a big tripod with you would cause you more hassle but if you wont bring it, chances are, you would be the camera person as a result you are absent in every picture.<br />
<br />
Tripod Multi-tool is the best gadget for you. A camera-friendly multi-tool that functions as multi purpose tool and a tripod called Steady. Costing only $65, Gerber has done a very nice job on this one. Tiny arms fold out from the handle to offer the tripod’s three legs of support. Form the knife blades to driver heads and all the other components of the multi-tool are all made of stainless steal.<br />
<br />
Built for campers and adventurers, Steady can hold digital cameras up to 340 grams and smart phones up to 170 grams. This tool has 12 different components that are most essential to campers and even at home. All these in one tool with rubberize coating. <br />
<br />
The steady features:<br />
•<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Overall length: 6”<br />
•<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Closed length: 4”<br />
•<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Weight: 5.8 oz.<br />
•<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Steel type: 420j2 Stainless<br />
•<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Max Phone/Camera Weight: 170 grams/340 grams<br />
•<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>12 components<br />
•<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Tripod Functionality<br />
•<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Camera/Cell Phone Mount<br />
•<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Cell Phone Attachment<br />
•<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Fine Edge Blade<br />
•<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Serrated Blade<br />
•<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Micro Flat, Square Cross & medium Flat Screwdrivers<br />
•<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Bottle Opener<br />
•<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Needlenose Pliers<br />
•<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Wire Cutters<br />
•<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Stainless Steel Components<br />
•<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Rubberized Coating<br />
Black Hawk Adventureshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00561506217655448796noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5103505810457562722.post-31430034018721989642012-11-08T00:40:00.002-08:002013-03-10T19:51:31.250-07:00Black Hawk Adventure: KOREA: Best Place to Camp<br />
<br />
<a href="http://blackhawk-mines.com/2012/11/08/black-hawk-adventure-korea-best-place-to-camp/">http://blackhawk-mines.com/2012/11/08/black-hawk-adventure-korea-best-place-to-camp/</a><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Korean Government does not particularly promote camping in Korea but surely campers will enjoy Korea more than any other camping experiences they had. National parks are the best bet for recreational camping in natural areas, but campgrounds in tourist areas such as Seoul are available.<br />
<br />
Campsites sprout in almost all major cities in Korea, they have set their own camping resort with of course support from the central government. Every campsite differs from each other, some are better even so camping facilities are considered a good alternative for Korea, where there is less accommodation provision outside of the city.<br />
<br />
Travelling in Seoul can get a little airless sometimes since one-fifth of the population of Korea resides in the mega city. If you are more of a nature lover type, there are a number of venues nestled inside and outside of Seoul that provide a quieter yet equally exciting alternative to city thrill. Campers are sure tired of the city that is why they are enthusiastic of the thought of camping so that they may be able to enjoy the cool, calm and lush of nature. Camping gives a great opportunity to escape the hustle and bustle of the fast forward city life.<br />
<br />
If you are not so much of a fun of camping you must try camping in Korea. Camping in Korea is one of the best ways to see the many stunning things life can offer. Beautiful national and provincial parks scattered throughout the country will satisfy your picky taste buds for fun. They present beautiful settings, cultural sites, hiking trails and other attractions. These parks are well run with a developed infrastructure and well-appointed campgrounds, several offering tents and mattresses for hire. There may be amusement parks, playgrounds, swimming and sports available on the premises or nearby. These campgrounds usually have tents and bedding as well as restaurants and shops and often have hot water and electricity.<br />
And the most fun part is many of these parks offer campgrounds with full utilities for as low as 3,000 won per night, family fun adventure for less.<br />
<br />
<br />
Unfortunately not all throughout the year these campsites will be available, most campgrounds are close during winter. Booking is a must more especially during peak season, form late July to August; it’s first come-, first-serve basis.<br />
<br />
There are also private campgrounds, Gangwon province has a number of campgrounds as choices. The Songjiho Auto Camping Resort is open April to November with 90 tent sites. Reservations are recommended. Shaded sites are available at Solsum Camping. The Mangsang Auto Camping Resort for caravans and tents is near the sandy Mangsang Beach and has a cafeteria, playground and laundry; caravans — recreational vehicles — and cabins are available for rent. Gyeonggi Province is home to Jara Island’s Jarasum Campground and Bandi Camping in Paju and Nanji Camp in Sangam-dong.<br />
<br />
The best part about camping is you got to go back to basics and enjoy life as it is. You have to start from scratch. You can go back to being kids when you were just playing house, while you enjoy the scenery and the sense of being in the wild. It can be very thrilling and you can have the change to experience new thing every after camping trips.<br />
Black Hawk Adventureshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00561506217655448796noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5103505810457562722.post-16565820337119343542012-10-16T18:37:00.001-07:002012-10-16T18:37:51.346-07:00September 2012 - Black Hawk News - Adventures Guide<div>
<a href="http://latest.blackhawk-mines.com/">http://latest.blackhawk-mines.com/</a></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<a href="http://latest.blackhawk-mines.com/2012/09/">Archive for September, 2012</a><br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<div>
<b>Black Hawk Adventures : Olympic-quality sports gear for all</b></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
In the wake of the Olympics fever, people across the world had a glimpse of sophisticated and high-end sports gear used by athletes in their games. Not surprisingly, they are using top-of-the-line gears and equipment to help them perform at their best. And thanks to such an elite market, the advanced and highly-improved gears are [...] <a href="http://latest.blackhawk-mines.com/2012/09/04/black-hawk-adventures-olympic-quality-sports-gear-for-all/">Read More</a></div>
</div>
Black Hawk Adventureshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00561506217655448796noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5103505810457562722.post-66102126434430170702012-10-02T01:46:00.002-07:002012-10-16T21:27:17.903-07:00Charges in $1-million green-energy scam <span class="insertedphoto" style="color: white; font-family: inherit; line-height: normal;"><img alt="The holiday RIDE campaign in Durham has so far charged 138 people with various driving and drinking offences." class="alignleft" src="http://storage.canoe.ca/v1/dynamic_resize/sws_path/suns-prod-images/1297225722144_ORIGINAL.jpg?quality=80&size=420x" style="border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; float: left; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px;" /></span><br />
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><span class="placeline" style="border: 0px; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">TORONTO - </span><span style="line-height: 18px;">A Scarborough man is accused of bilking investors out of $1 million with a green energy-scam.</span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<div style="border: 0px; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">Durham Regional Police claim the accused set up a company called Saunders Power Inc. on Wellington St. in Bowmanville, which he used to defraud 10 individuals and businesses between December 2009 and March 2012.</span></div>
<div style="border: 0px; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">“The company was geared at manufacturing cork-screw style wind turbines capable of producing energy that could be sold back to the Ontario Power Authority for a lucrative profit,” police said Friday. “The accused allegedly produced forged documents and a fake licence to make the business appear legitimate.”</span></div>
<div style="border: 0px; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">One of the investors became suspicious and contacted police in January, which prompted an investigation.</span></div>
<div style="border: 0px; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">Gregory Saunders was arrested at his home on Tuesday.</span></div>
<div style="border: 0px; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">The 56-year-old is charged with fraud over $5,000 and forgery.</span></div>
<div style="border: 0px; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">Anyone with new information regarding this investigation should contact the Fraud Unit at 1-888-579-1520, ext. 5353, or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS(8477).</span></div>
<div style="border: 0px; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<a href="http://www.torontosun.com/2012/09/28/charges-in-1-million-green-energy-scam"><span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">http://www.torontosun.com/2012/09/28/charges-in-1-million-green-energy-scam</span></a></div>
<div style="border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
</div>
Black Hawk Adventureshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00561506217655448796noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5103505810457562722.post-16428802874860403462012-09-17T19:31:00.003-07:002012-09-17T19:36:19.535-07:00Black Hawk Adventures : Olympic-quality sports gear for all<span style="color: white;"><a href="http://latest.blackhawk-mines.com/2012/09/04/black-hawk-adventures-olympic-quality-sports-gear-for-all/">http://latest.blackhawk-mines.com/2012/09/04/black-hawk-adventures-olympic-quality-sports-gear-for-all/</a>
</span><br />
<span style="color: white;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white;"><br /></span>
<div style="border: 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.333333969116211px; line-height: 17.981481552124023px; padding: 0px 0px 12px;">
<span style="color: white;">In the wake of the Olympics fever, people across the world had a glimpse of sophisticated and high-end sports gear used by athletes in their games. Not surprisingly, they are using top-of-the-line gears and equipment to help them perform at their best.</span></div>
<div style="border: 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.333333969116211px; line-height: 17.981481552124023px; padding: 0px 0px 12px;">
<span style="color: white;">And thanks to such an elite market, the advanced and highly-improved gears are made available to the public as consumer products. The technology used to develop gears in professional sports are now adopted by legit manufacturers in improved sports gear for amateurs, minus the fraud alert.</span></div>
<div style="border: 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.333333969116211px; line-height: 17.981481552124023px; padding: 0px 0px 12px;">
<span style="color: white;">Sleek bicycles in word-class events are mainly from carbon fiber-reinforced plastic known for its durability, strength and lightness. This particular material is now available in high-performance bicycles — from rims, seat posts, handlebars, stems and cranks.</span></div>
<div style="border: 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.333333969116211px; line-height: 17.981481552124023px; padding: 0px 0px 12px;">
<span style="color: white;">As for helmets, they are also becoming more advanced in terms of design and composition. Originally, helmets are made from leather, effective in protecting it from abrasions. Today, helmets being used in competitions are sometimes with built-in goggles and a wraparound design so that cyclists will have more convenience while having the optimum protection.</span></div>
<div style="border: 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.333333969116211px; line-height: 17.981481552124023px; padding: 0px 0px 12px;">
<span style="color: white;">Likewise, consumer helmets for skateboarding, football and skiing are created with hard aerodynamic plastic shells that are highly resistant to puncture and have shock-absorbers. Separate visors or ultra-lightweight goggles made from polycarbonate plastic (like bulletproof glass) are also popular.</span></div>
<div style="border: 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.333333969116211px; line-height: 17.981481552124023px; padding: 0px 0px 12px;">
<span style="color: white;">Bodysuits worn by track and field players of the US has now become part of a popular trend in recycled-materials-turned-fabric. Looks like many of our athletes and outdoor lovers are highly concerned about the impact they are making on the environment; good thing sports equipment firms have quickly responded to the market.</span></div>
<div style="border: 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.333333969116211px; line-height: 17.981481552124023px; padding: 0px 0px 12px;">
<span style="color: white;">Olympians this year have donned uniforms that are reportedly made from recycled plastics — think old plastic bottles spun into fabric and fibers that combine superb quality with sustainability. Fortunately for you, this green innovation is already available for the public.</span></div>
Black Hawk Adventureshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00561506217655448796noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5103505810457562722.post-61048570641453691262012-09-11T20:02:00.004-07:002012-09-11T20:04:43.640-07:00Blackhawk Mines Corp - BlogSpot - Mod DB<a href="http://www.moddb.com/members/blackhawkadventures/videos/blackhawk-mines-corp-blogspot">http://www.moddb.com/members/blackhawkadventures/videos/blackhawk-mines-corp-blogspot</a><br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="304" scrolling="no" src="http://www.moddb.com/media/iframe/697447" width="560"></iframe><br />
<a href="http://www.moddb.com/members/blackhawkadventures/videos/blackhawk-mines-corp-blogspot"><span style="color: white;">Blackhawk Mines Corp - BlogSpot - Mod DB</span></a><br />
<span style="color: white;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white;"><a href="http://blackhawk-mines.com/">Black Hawk Adventures</a>This blog aims to equip ordinary people with the necessary mindset and provisions when setting out on a trip that will require staying and sleeping outside. Having the necessary knowledge is not only crucial for survival but also for the preservation of the places you'll be visiting.</span>Black Hawk Adventureshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00561506217655448796noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5103505810457562722.post-13683891724949330402012-09-11T01:02:00.000-07:002012-09-11T01:02:03.249-07:00Blackhawk Mines Corp<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://www.squidoo.com/blackhawk-mines2">http://www.squidoo.com/blackhawk-mines2</a>
</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: white;">
Blackhawk Mines</span><br /><span style="color: white;">
Blackhawk Mines acquires Amazon Gold Ventures.</span></span><br />
<img alt="" class="lensPhoto lens_intro_img" src="http://i3.squidoocdn.com/resize/squidoo_images/-1/lens19220779_ddabacbea8e527b28946868a69fcd50b.jpg" style="border: 0px; float: left; font-size: 14.44444465637207px; line-height: 20.981481552124023px; max-width: 250px; padding: 0px 10px 10px 0px;" /><br />
<div class="module_intro" itemprop="description" style="border: 0px; font-size: 14.44444465637207px; line-height: 20.981481552124023px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">A Mining company that operates in Columbia. A public listed company that trades in Germany on the Frankfurt exchange.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">Blackhawk Mines Corp. (formerly named: Bentley Fairview Resources Co. Ltd.) is a gold-focused exploration and mining development company with additional interests in silver. The Company is focused on creating royalties and participating interests through joint venture partnering with independent mining operations in South America. The Company's strength is in generating prospects that provide world class gold deposits. Collectively, with our partners and associates who have extensive in-country expertise in exploration and mining operations in Colombia and throughout South America, Blackhawk Mines Corp. can become a significant venture in the mining industry.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">In recent years, the modern governments of Colombia, Peru and Brazil have each successfully attracted both, foreign capital and technology. Historically, these countries are known to be gold-rich areas mined by humans for thousands of years. In particular, Colombia possesses an exceptional geologic terrain for gold exploration. Within the last five years this country has produced a very high rate of plus-million ounce gold discoveries by a relatively small amount of active companies. In the 19th century, Colombia was the world's largest gold producer. Currently, Peru, Colombia's neighbor to the south, produces about 210 tons of gold per year from the metal rich Andean Cordillera.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">At present, the Company is focused on Colombia with its flagship Las Palmeras Project in Segovia, Antioquia adjacent to the Frontino Gold Belt reserve. Las Palmeras is an active operation including a gold processing stamp mill and has total reserves estimated at over $180,000,000 USD. The Company's operating partner based in Envigado, Department of Antioquia, has strong, established legal and political alliances that enable excellent cooperation with such key entities as the Colombian Ministry of Mines and Energy.</span></div>
<div class="module_intro" itemprop="description" style="border: 0px; font-size: 14.44444465637207px; line-height: 20.981481552124023px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="module_intro" itemprop="description" style="border: 0px; font-size: 14.44444465637207px; line-height: 20.981481552124023px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<div class="write_module" style="border: 0px; line-height: 20.981481552124023px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 14px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<div id="imageDiv157514413" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
</div>
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">Panama City, Panama. March 01, 2012 - Blackhawk Mines Corp. ("Blackhawk") announced today that it has acquired all the assets and business operations of Amazon Gold Ventures Inc. ("Amazon"). The current South American mining operations of Amazon will continue under the Blackhawk name and will be managed by existing personnel and managing partners based in Antioquia, Colombia and Panama City.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">Blackhawk Mines Corp. is a public company listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, Open Market trading under the ticker symbol: B06N. As part of the acquisition agreement, existing shareholders of Amazon will be entitled to exchange their shares of Amazon for shares of Blackhawk on a one for one basis. The name Blackhawk Mines Corp. will be retained as the new group name and trading of Blackhawk shares will continue on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, First Quotation Board under the current ticker symbol: B06N.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">Recently, the Frankfurt Stock Exchange has proposed certain changes to the Open Market trading segment which will mean that Blackhawk will be applying to trade on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange's higher platform the "Entry Standard" later in this year. The proposed changes to the Open Market are an attempt to increase liquidity, transparency and public disclosure in German public capital markets.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">The management of Blackhawk is in full agreement with the proposed changes that the Frankfurt Stock Exchange is implementing and looks forward to meeting full compliance with all future listing requirements brought in by the Exchange. In addition, Blackhawk shall be seeking secondary listings of its shares on other exchanges and trading venues in order to increase market presence and liquidity for its shareholders.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">The merger of these two companies signifies greater resources and expertise as now Blackhawk will be able to draw on all the experience that the combined team members and joint venture partners have. Ina addition, the two corporations effectively combined together will also bring increased value and benefit to the shareholders of both companies.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">The exposure to operational mines in South America and exploration in California follows the trend that most financial experts are promoting; own as much Gold as possible. With prices currently in excess of $1700 an Oz, being a gold mining and exploration company has never been so profitable.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">Amazon has been focused on Colombia with its flagship Las Palmeras Project in Segovia, Antioquia adjacent to the Frontino Gold Belt reserve. Las Palmeras is an active operation including a gold processing stamp mill and has total reserves estimated at over $180,000,000 USD. The Company's operating partner based in Envigado, Department of Antioquia, has strong, established legal and political alliances that enable excellent cooperation with such key entities as the Colombian Ministry of Mines and Energy.</span></div>
<div class="write_module" style="border: 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 20.981481552124023px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 14px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
</div>
Black Hawk Adventureshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00561506217655448796noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5103505810457562722.post-32299577820316775952012-09-11T00:59:00.000-07:002012-09-11T00:59:10.516-07:00The Big Bear Gold Claims - San Bernardino County, California<span style="color: white;"><a href="http://www.blackhawkmines.com/big-bear.php">http://www.blackhawkmines.com/big-bear.php</a>
</span><br />
<span style="color: white;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white;"><br /></span>
<h4 style="border: 0px; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 19px; font-weight: 300; margin: 0px 15px 15px; padding: 0px; text-shadow: rgb(204, 204, 204) 1px 1px 1px;">
<span style="color: white;">
Big Bear Location and History</span></h4>
<div style="border: 0px; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, 'Liberation Sans', FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1em; line-height: 1.7; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 15px; margin-right: 15px; padding: 0px;">
<span style="color: white;">This Big Bear Claims lie in southwestern San Bernardino County about 30 miles northeast of San Bernardino on the north east side of the San Bernardino Mountains The Big Bear claims presently cover an area of about 1440 acres or about 2.5 square miles, near Lucerne Valley, CA and currently consists of 9 claims.</span></div>
<div style="border: 0px; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, 'Liberation Sans', FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1em; line-height: 1.7; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 15px; margin-right: 15px; padding: 0px;">
<span style="color: white;">San Bernardino County is the largest County in California, and in fact the largest County in the United States. It is an intensely mineralized area, with records indicating more than 250 mines recorded in the area. Commodities from industrial minerals to gold and silver have been produced since the mid 1800s and still form a large part of the local economy, therefore the governments and agencies are generally mining friendly. The area remains an important cement and industrial production area.</span></div>
<div style="border: 0px; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, 'Liberation Sans', FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1em; line-height: 1.7; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 15px; margin-right: 15px; padding: 0px;">
<span style="color: white;">The area has been known as the Blackhawk Mining district in most reports. The district was organized in 1870, when an English concern organized the Santa Fe group in 1890 to work the area on a large scale, but work stopped soon afterward and prospecting was minor during the early 1900s. The Santa Fe group was re-opened in 1921 and operated continuously until 1940. In this last operating phase the production amounted to a reported $300,000.</span></div>
<h4 style="border: 0px; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 19px; font-weight: 300; margin: 0px 15px 15px; padding: 0px; text-shadow: rgb(204, 204, 204) 1px 1px 1px;">
<span style="color: white;">
Mining in California</span></h4>
<div style="border: 0px; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, 'Liberation Sans', FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1em; line-height: 1.7; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 15px; margin-right: 15px; padding: 0px;">
<span style="color: white;">Based on the U.S. Geological Survey's (USGS) preliminary data for 2007, California ranked third behind Arizona and Nevada in non-fuel mineral production, accounting for approximately 6.3% of the nations' total. The market value of mineral production for California was $4.3 billion. California produced about 30 different industrial minerals during the year.</span></div>
<div style="border: 0px; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, 'Liberation Sans', FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1em; line-height: 1.7; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 15px; margin-right: 15px; padding: 0px;">
<span style="color: white;">California led the nation in the production of sand and gravel, portland cement, diatomite and natural sodium sulfate, and was the only producer of boron and rare earths. The state ranked second behind Florida for masonry cement. The only metals produced were gold and silver.</span></div>
<div style="border: 0px; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, 'Liberation Sans', FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1em; line-height: 1.7; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 15px; margin-right: 15px; padding: 0px;">
<span style="color: white;">California ranked 6th in gold production out of nine states that reported for the year. Other minerals produced include common clay, bentonite clay (including hectorite), crushed stone, dimension stone, feldspar, fuller's earth, gemstones, gypsum, iron ore (used in cement manufacture), kaolin clay, lime, magnesium compounds, perlite, pumice, pumicite, rare earths, salt, silver, soda ash, and zeolites. There were about 660 active mines producing non-fuel minerals during 2007. Approximately 10,000 people are employed at these mines and their processing plants.</span></div>
<h4 style="border: 0px; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 19px; font-weight: 300; margin: 0px 15px 15px; padding: 0px; text-shadow: rgb(204, 204, 204) 1px 1px 1px;">
<span style="color: white;">
Mining Phase 1</span></h4>
<div style="border: 0px; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, 'Liberation Sans', FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1em; line-height: 1.7; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 15px; margin-right: 15px; padding: 0px;">
<span style="color: white;">The phase 1 evaluation plan already underway, involves resampling and mapping earlier reported zones for which original data is no longer available, while seeking extensions of alteration that may have been ignored by earlier workers due to lower than economic grades at the time. If phase 1 work provides the results we believe it will, Phase 2 will be put in play. Phase 2 will involve drilling and bulk sampling of mineralized areas in order to design an appropriate recovery system, and simultaneously develop the detail information required for mine permitting.</span></div>
<h4 style="border: 0px; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 19px; font-weight: 300; margin: 0px 15px 15px; padding: 0px; text-shadow: rgb(204, 204, 204) 1px 1px 1px;">
<span style="color: white;">
Geology and Ore Deposits</span></h4>
<div style="border: 0px; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, 'Liberation Sans', FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1em; line-height: 1.7; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 15px; margin-right: 15px; padding: 0px;">
<span style="color: white;">The area is underlain by granitic rocks, mica schist, gneiss, and a limestone breccia belt. A mineralized zone known as the Arlington-Santa Fe lode occurs in a thrust fault that strikes west and dips north. The historic ores consisted of hematite-bearing fault gouge in limestone breccia. Several ore bodies were reported to yield up to one ounce of gold per ton. The ore zones were reported to be up to 75 feet thick and 1000 feet long, with altered weaker mineralization in the host rocks.</span></div>
<div style="border: 0px; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, 'Liberation Sans', FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1em; line-height: 1.7; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 15px; margin-right: 15px; padding: 0px;">
<span style="color: white;">The carbonate host rocks that slid off the mountain contain naturally crushed vein mineralized rock which has been a target for gold exploration for many decades. In the late 1970s, an exploration program of 61 drill holes, hundreds of feet of bull dozer trench sampling and extensive geochem surface sampling reported broader mineralized than had been noted before.</span></div>
<div style="border: 0px; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, 'Liberation Sans', FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1em; line-height: 1.7; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 15px; margin-right: 15px; padding: 0px;">
<span style="color: white;">This exploration showed broad areas of gold mineralization contained in the landslide. Estimates showed the areas to contain up to 80 million tons of mineralized material at gold grades of approximately .03 oz/ton, and silver grades around .25 oz/ton. This shows a gross potential of 2 to 3 million ounces of gold and 10 to 20 million ounces of silver.</span></div>
<div style="border: 0px; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, 'Liberation Sans', FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1em; line-height: 1.7; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 15px; margin-right: 15px; padding: 0px;">
<span style="color: white;">Gold values of the late 1970s (approx $350/oz gold and $15 oz/ton silver) did not make the project economically interesting at the time. However, the current gold and silver prices, at plus $1700/oz gold and Silver in the mid $30s/oz, cast the economics in a very favorable light.</span></div>
Black Hawk Adventureshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00561506217655448796noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5103505810457562722.post-24865326286580917432012-09-11T00:55:00.001-07:002012-09-11T00:55:56.745-07:00Scamsters’ paradise: Why tourists love to hate Delhi<span style="color: white;"><a href="http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-09-10/delhi/33736495_1_travel-scams-tourists-train-station">http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-09-10/delhi/33736495_1_travel-scams-tourists-train-station</a>
</span><br />
<span style="color: white;"><br /></span>
<div class="mod-timesofindiaarticlepageimage mod-articlepageimage mod-articleimage" id="mod-article-image" style="border: 1px solid rgb(219, 219, 219); clear: both; float: right; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 5px 10px; padding: 0px;">
<div id="mod-article-image-box" style="border: 0px; font-size: 14px; height: 200px; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; width: 280px;">
<ul class="main-image" style="border: 0px; font-size: 14px; height: 200px; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; width: 280px;">
<li style="background-attachment: scroll; background-color: transparent; background-image: none; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: repeat repeat; border: 0px; font-size: 14px; height: 200px; line-height: 18px; list-style: none !important; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center; width: 280px;"><a class="thickbox" href="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/photo/16328882.cms" id="mod-article-image-link" style="border: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;" target="_blank" title=" (Travel scams, brilliantly complex and unarguably rampant, have given New Delhi a spot in the worlds top cities travellers love to hate.)"><span style="color: white;"><img alt="" src="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/photo/16328882.cms" style="border: 0px; font-size: 14px; height: 186.97674418605px; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; opacity: 0.5; padding: 0px; width: 280px;" title="" /></span></a></li>
</ul>
</div>
<div class="main-image-info" style="background-color: #dddddd; border: 0px; font-size: 10px; line-height: 15px; margin: -36px 0px 0px; min-height: 34px; opacity: 0.8; padding: 0px 2px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; width: 275px;">
<span style="color: white;">(Travel scams, brilliantly…)</span></div>
</div>
<div class="mod-timesofindiaarticletext mod-articletext" id="mod-a-body-first-para" style="border: 0px; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; margin: 4px 280px 10px 0px; padding: 0px 10px 0px 0px;">
<div style="border: 0px; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;">
<span style="color: white;">NEW DELHI: Our city recently made it to a top ten list of global cities, but not for reasons we should be proud of. Travel scams, brilliantly complex and unarguably rampant, have given New Delhi a spot in the world's top cities travellers love to hate.</span></div>
<div style="border: 0px; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;">
<span style="color: white;">Hate may seem like a strong word, and the city's reputation an exaggeration, but tourists' experiences here confirm New Delhi's number eight position on the CNNGo list isn't unwarranted. Whether it's the ingenious "poop scam", detailed train station scams, or the routine fleecing, every tourist has a story to share. Cheating here, it seems, is so ubiquitous that tourists believe it's in our DNA. "Everybody here cheats. Your government cheats you, and you con us," says Bryan, from <a href="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/topic/Liverpool" style="border: 0px; font-size: 15px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Liverpool</a>, England.</span></div>
</div>
Black Hawk Adventureshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00561506217655448796noreply@blogger.com0