Independence Day has always been one of my favorite holidays. When I was a kid it was because it was the only time of year when I was seemingly granted a license to play with fire and explosives. Now it’s mainly a time that I enjoy being with friends and family and grilling. And of course fireworks are pretty cool as well.

Here are a few photos from this years excellent Independence Day weekend at the lake.

We started off with a cruise around the lake.

Here is Jimmy doing his impression of GOB Bluth.

We spent a few hours at Silver Dollar City, which was relatively uncrowded.

Here are the girls watching a movie with Nana.

The girls had tons of fun with each other.

Sunday night we went for a cruise around the lake and watched a fireworks show!

This morning I completed my first bike riding event of 2010. It was the Tour de Lakes in Lee’s Summit, MO – a ride that I have never participated in before.

The Tour de Lakes was different than other rides I have done in that it was almost entirely through developed areas. But traffic really wasn’t a problem and the volunteers and LSPD did a nice job of watching out for the bikers. Probably the only thing I didn’t particularly care for was the rest stops, or lack of – only 1 on the 32 mi and 4 for the 65 mile route. Things I liked about this ride were the areas around the lakes, the ice cream at the finish line, and the goodie bags (complete with cool t-shirt, nice biking socks, water bottle, headband, and a few other things). It was by far the best goodie bag I’ve ever received at a cycling event.

This was Ian and Cara’s first official ride event and I think they both enjoyed it. While it was not my first ride, it was my first ride on my new road bike, and not to my surprise it worked great! We only rode the 32mi route, so it served as a nice warm-up for some of the other upcoming rides, such as Tornado Alley, Maple Leaf, and whatever else I may end up riding.

For quite a while I’ve been meaning to try out the Ruby Jack trail, especially considering there is a trail head just up the road from my house. The Ruby Jack trail is another rail-trail project, similar to the Frisco or Katy trail. It’s still under construction but as I understand it, the trail is more or less complete from Carthage until somewhere around Oronogo.

I rode from my house up Old 66 and got on the trail where it crosses the road just before Steph’s parent’s house. I wasn’t sure which direction to go, so I chose east into Carthage. The gravel on the 2 mile section from Carthage is extremely coarse, more like driveway gravel than something suitable for a bike trail. It was rideable…but barely. I heard that there was a mis-communication when the gravel was ordered. The trail going west toward Oronogo is the correct small gravel normally found on bike trails.

It turned out to be a bit shorter than I expected, my entire trip was only 11.5 miles. Most of the trail crosses through farm land, so I wouldn’t describe it as terribly scenic, but nearing Carthage there is a nice canopy of trees shading the trail. Also this section appears to receive heavier use, so it was a bit more worn and the rough driveway gravel was less annoying.

When complete, the Ruby Jack trail will ultimately run from Carthage to the KS state line. Initially it was planned as a bi-state trail all the way to Columbus, KS. However, Cherokee County passed an ordinance in response to those plans that effectively prohibits the rail-trail from entering Kansas. So until the good people of Cherokee County overcome their fear of bikers and joggers, the trail will stop at the state line.

Rough gravel aside, I am really excited about this trail. I think it’s a great asset to the area and another excellent component of the ever expanding trail system in the Joplin area.

I keep seeing car companies bragging about their cars getting 31mpg or a hybrid getting 40mpg and I just roll my eyes. These seem lame to me because my first car, a 1996 Honda Civic HX routinely achieved between 40-50mpg. It was NOT a hybrid, yet it was more “green” than just about any car on the market today – hybrids included. GM used to manufacture the Geo Metro, a (also non-hybrid) small car that was capable of achieving nearly 60mpg. You would think with today’s gas prices and a greater interest in being “green” these types of cars would be flying off the lots… but they’re not. Because they aren’t even being manufactured. Not anymore. Coincidentally, as gas prices started soaring, the Geo Metro was discontinued in 2001, and not long after, the Civic HX was replaced with the much more expensive Civic Hybrid.


Back in 1996 no one (except geeky me) cared about fuel efficiency. Gas was cheap (about $0.75/gal) and high MPG wasn’t something that would command a higher price tag like it might now. The cars above weren’t necessarily made with the goal of efficiency…they were made to be affordable and this was accomplished by eliminating features and using smaller engines; ultra efficiency was simply a by-product.


When MPG became all the rage, car manufacturers started touting their “efficient” models, arbitrarily setting 30mpg as the gold standard for fuel efficiency. Hybrids were available for those really wanting to make a statement. Unlike their slimmed down economy brethren, hybrids achieve higher mpg by ADDING technology and cost, rather than reducing it, thus aligning the hot ticket item (high MPG) with their most expensive price tags. But there was a problem…those pesky economy models. How is a car manufacturer supposed to sell expensive hybrid technology when there are options within their own lineup that cost significantly less, and strictly in terms of mpg, perform just as well or better? Easy – get rid of the economy models. Since they weren’t big sellers back in the day, most people probably don’t realize these types of cars ever existed.


The Civic Hybrid actually gets less MPG than my old HX model and costs a staggering $8,000 more. Today’s non-hybrid Civic gets 26 city /34 highway, compared to my Civic of the mid 1990s that was 37/52…so basically the civic of 15 years ago on it’s WORST day still outperformed today’s civic on it’s best day. And on the open highway it could literally double the mileage of today’s Civic. Double!!! Today, the closest thing GM makes to the Metro is the Aveo, which peaks at only 35mpg. Their most efficient model is the Cobalt which tops out at a radical 38mpg. If you want the fuel efficient version of VW’s Jetta… it’s their most expensive model and it’s nothing short of groundbreaking at 30/42mpg. Ha.


My question is – if car manufacturers could make cars 15-20 years ago that just about anyone could afford and got 40-60mpg… why can’t they now that MPG is actually what people are asking for? I’m sure they can… they just want to charge a premium for what people are wanting, and right now hybrids are a way to do that.

We are back from our trip to South Dakota and had a great time! I took tons and tons of photos and had a very hard time narrowing it down… so even the narrowed down list is pretty long. If you want to see the larger versions just click on them! Enjoy!

Here we are, ready to set out!

It wasn’t long before Emma decided to try out the napping abilities of the Jetta.

The first night we made it as far as Sioux Falls, right about 500 miles from home. Cracker Barrel started off the second morning.

I had never been to the Corn Palace so we stopped by to check it out.

As it turns out, the Corn Palace is weird. A combination theater and basketball arena with a maze of trinkets and trash for sale.

One of my favorite sights – mountains in the distance!

Welcome to the Black Hills!

Our little cabin. And by little, I mean tiny. I think the entire cabin would fit in my bedroom at home. But it was cute and did us well for the week.

After we got settled, we drove in to Rapid City to get groceries and eat dinner. Emma was more interested in conversing with the people across the divider.

Our first order of business was Mt Rushmore.

Emma insisted on doing all of the 200 or so steps completely unassisted. Luckily we weren’t in a hurry.

Emma usually likes pinecones, but this one was fairly sharp.

Our first picnic of the trip in a nice forested area.

Emma decided to try on my sunglasses.

A nice view near our Picnic spot.

We walked around a small trail by Horsethief Lake.

Steph sitting in our bug spattered car while I get out to take photos of something.

Some wildlife.

Emma napping with the wild hair.

We stumbled across a really neat overlook along the road.

A family photo at the overlook.

Emma, my little rock climber. It won’t be long until she’s going up mountains with me!

Walking back to the car after enjoying the overlook and the rock climbing.

Me and Steph.

The cabin only had a standup shower, so Emma used this duckie tub. This was after she had taken a bath, got dressed and then decided to get back in the tub.

Emma enjoying another hike.

She wanted to hike on her own.

Another nice view of the Black Hills.

Trying to take a photo with Emma… but she was not cooperating. This is her famous move that we have dubbed “the limp noodle”.

A road went to the top of this mountain. The rocks kept us from driving over the edge.

Every time we would pass by some water, Emma would start pointing. Apparently her new favorite thing is to throw rocks into water.

We drove the “wildlife loop” which was both scenic and offered views of various types of wildlife.

Most of the days of our trip were blue skies and bright white puffy clouds. Perfect weather!

A friendly burro.

There were tons of bison along the drive.

After the drive, we decided to break out the new backpack. She liked it!

Steph was feeling left out so she took this self-photo.

Emma is still riding good in the backpack!

I have already started teaching her to appreciate pine trees. “See Emma, this is a Ponderosa.”

Wednesday I got up at 5:30am and climbed the 7 mile loop to the summit of Harney Peak, the highest point in South Dakota. Compared to some of the others I’ve done, this was fairly easy.

The sign said to allow 5-6 hours, but after only an hour and 10 minutes I was at the top.

Just below the summit I saw this crazy looking animal.

The early morning view from the top was amazing!

All alone at the top. I didn’t see a single person the entire hike up, and only one on the way back down. Then I saw a second person as I reached the parking long.

A view of “the needles”, the rest of Custer State Park, and beyond.

Just one of the many awesome rock formations in the Black Hills.

After my hike, we all headed into Wyoming to Devils Tower. The rolling green mountains and valleys made for a very nice drive.

Here is Devils Tower.

We broke out the pack again. This time for a mile and a half.

Another self timer family pic after we finished the hike.

Since Emma was so good we gave her a cook-cook (Cookie).

We took the scenic way home up Spearfish Canyon. There are several waterfalls, but it started raining so we were only able to see this one.

The Alpine Inn, where we had dinner in the cool little town of Hill City, SD.

Steph and Emma hiking some more. This time at Jewel Cave.

Another great picnic spot. This time by a lake.

Whee!

Steph and I in the car.

Emma was doing so well in the pack, we just kept doing hikes!

This was an old house the used to belong to a poet back before the park existed and is nicknamed “The Badger Hole”. It was like walking back in time. Very cool!

Another view of the mountains!

Driving along Needles Highway.



More bright skies!

Needles Highway is not a place for large vehicles!

Emma and I enjoying the latest National Geographic.

Our last day we headed out to the Badlands.

Me and Steph at an overlook.

We had a picnic and luckily the picnic tables had shelters since there were no shade trees to be found.

We enjoyed the striped patterns in the soil and rocks.

Steph and Em after lunch.

Once again trying to take a photo with an un-cooperative child.

Em and I checking out some fossils along the trail.

A family photo at the Badlands, courtesy of nice British couple.

A self-shot at the badlands.

I have definitely never hiked a trail that looked like this!

Our last night in South Dakota…hiking around Sylvan Lake.

Sylvan Lake… if you have seen National Treasure 2 you may recognize it.

Hiking through a narrow passage behind the lake.

Our last night….having a cookout by the lake!

Em is quite independent.

A view of Harney Peak on the drive back to the cabin for the last time!

This was how Em spent most of the 14 hour drive home.

In my MSU days when I was shooting on 35mm film my favorite setup was TMAX black+white film with a red filter on the camera. I thought this gave landscapes a kind of … “ansel adamsy” type effect.

When I transitioned into digital, one downside was my loss of this effect. I tried numerous ways, including photoshop layers, digital effects, and even using a red filter and converting the image to black and white. No matter what I tried, the results looked plain terrible. It seemed that JPG files deteriorate when exposure and contrast (especially in the blue channel) is pushed to the extreme.

Saturday I decided to try some new things, in hopes I would be able to better reproduce the “ansel adamsy” look. I had come to the conclusion that using an actual red filter on a digital camera was not the way to go. So I shot normal color photos, and used a polarizer filter to keep the nice blue sky from getting washed out. If you have a graduated neutral density filter (who doesn’t!?) that might work as well. Then I set my camera to “RAW” mode, which saves images straight to disk with no processing or JPG compression. Shooting RAW files vs. JPG allows significantly greater flexibility in adjusting color temperature (white balance), exposure, and all the other settings I would need to digitally reproduce the effect film use to achieve so effortlessly…but at the expense of files that can only be opened by special programs and can exceed 35mb each! Yikes!

So here is a color example from Saturday’s shoot:

And here is the same photos with the black/white + red filter effect:

Here are a couple others of two Bur Oaks:

I think it’s a fairly cool look, although I feel as though I am somewhat violating my unspoken rule of minimalist “photoshopping” to my photography. Then again, this same effect can be achieved via traditional photography techniques. After all, one of my favorite photographers, Ansel Adams did it back in the ’30s and ’40s.