Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Random 2004 Vacation Photos

This post is just to ensure that my "Insert Image" icon works so this is my last test before I go back to normal programming.  I am so happy that my problem was Internet Explorer and I have now switched to Google+ Chrome and I like it.

Route 66 near Oatman, AZ     November 2004

I have a stack of archived DVD's.  This was the way I used to save my photos.  I carefully removed all the photos from my hard drives and I thought that it would be better to store on a physical disk, but my new way is just to buy more Hard Drives as storage is much cheaper than it was 8 years ago.  And also it takes a lot of time to move gigabits of data

Route 66  Arizona       November 2004

This trip was very late in the year as we both couldn't get our time off to match.  At least we weren't there during the heat of summer.  I can imagine sweltering in the 100°F heat.   We flew into Las Vegas and the next morning we drove our rent-a-car directly to Route 66, Flagstaff then North to the Grand Canyon

Oatman, AZ       November 2004

Oatman is known for their "wild" donkeys, and they roam freely around the streets begging for food.   We wanted to feed them so we thought we were smart to buy our Carrots in Laughlin where they were cheaper. We came prepared and as Mrs Skoot fed them they followed us everywhere, even inside some of the stores as we were trying to get away from them

Oatman, AZ         November 2004

Here is a view of the unpaved main street.   Not many tourists around this time of year

Donkeys      Oatman, AZ        November 2004

Only the donkey traffic jam, probably more donkeys than people

Abandoned car              November 2004

As you see, I stop everywhere for photos.  Not that it matters but all of these images were taken with a Nikon D70

Sacramento Wash       November 2004

We have never encountered a flash flood before.    Just moments before we passed some cars going the other direction.  I was tempted to drive right through in our Rental car but luckily we didn't as the water got much worse.   We had to turn around and drive an extra 100 miles around to get to where we were going, to Williams for the night.  In retrospect we should have just waited half an hour then perhaps we could cross

Williams, AZ  (I think)      November 2004

We drove through Williams and Seligman then towards Flagstaff and North on 89 towards the Grand Canyon

Grand Canyon, south Rim          November 2004

It was our first time coming here and it was awesome.   Even with a wide angle lens you couldn't capture the grandeur of what your eyes are seeing.   There was so much to take in.   The viewfinder of your camera could only capture a small rectangle

Grand Canyon, AZ       November 2004

We just had to breathe it all in, stare at the views and walk around to a few viewpoints.  Of course I snapped a few photos

Portrait,  Grand Canyon, AZ      November 2004

I alway try to purchase cameras with remote control shutter releases, and I usually bring a tripod.   On every trip I try to come back with at least one portrait of the two of us.    I have given up on asking others to snap photos of us as they never frame the scene the way I ask them to.   I like to do it myself.   I also don't like to use those 10 second self timers.  I had bad results using them because you never know when they "go off" and also you can't survey for people walking into your scene and are usually in the background which you don't notice until you get home


Portrait,  Grand Canyon, AZ        November 2004

I actually had this one enlarged.  It looks like we are standing on the edge of the Canyon without any guard rails in sight

Arches NP, Utah               November  11, 2004   Remembrance Day

A day or two later we ended up in Moab, UT, where we stayed for a couple of days and explored Arches NP and CanyonLands NP

Thanks for looking at our vacation photos.  They were just a bunch I dragged over from my archived DVD to test out Google Blogger and the "insert image" icon.   I am happy to report that it all worked the way it should

As the links to my previous photos will soon be broken,  it is my plan to dig out a DVD every so often and post some photos of years gone by.  For those interested to know; I bypassed the Picasa3 interface, which I don't like and I upload directly to my Picasa Web Album.  I select which photos I wish to display and put them into my temp directory.  I run a bulk resize program which reduces the size of all photos in that directory in one swoop and then I upload all them at once, as a group.  It is fast and easy.   When I want to post an image I "upload from Picasa", highlight the photo, or double click really fast and then resize and position from the resize menu.   The only glitch is that your cursor always goes to the top.


15 comments:

  1. Reposting favorite vacation summaries is a great way to remember some of these trips. Especially since your writing has probably improved over the years. I look at some of my early posts and I'm tempted to just start over again...

    I'm glad everything seems normal again....

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    1. Richard:

      that was the reason that I was so upset with Webshots shutting down. My diary would be devoid of photos and I wanted to be able to look back on them. I started this blog to highlight scenic photos mainly, and the motorcycle/scooter stuff was just an add on. That's also why I picked this template size to make my photos a bit larger. It would be nicer if I could figure out how to make my photos "clickable" and then have the browser go to full screen mode to display it. I tried to figure out the HTML coding for thumbnails linked to the full image but it never worked. All they do is go to Flickr, or Photobucket galleries, and the Blogger only goes to 640, when I really wanted at least 800, but at least this method is better than what I had before

      . . . and it is much easier to just upload and link, rather than use an external image hosting site and then HTML into the post.

      I can't thank you enough for your help and testing and YES, things seem normal and I can post multiple images and the Blogger "insert image" icon now works perfectly in Chrome or Firefox.

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  2. Good job Bob. Glad you're back on track. nice to see pics of Mrs. Scoot as well.
    She really needs a scooter of her own. Maybe point her over to Pat's page. some women respond well to a challenge......if she can do it, so can I....that sort of thing.

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    1. Chris:

      There are medical reasons as to why she can't ride. She used to have a scooter but we sold it, and she is unable to ride pillion due to stresses on her hip. I am a solo rider by default and I am a social person so when I ride with other couples I feel a bit left out, and in the evenings when we go our separate ways I am left alone. That's why I like to meet up with people along the way, or for a weekend. I do not have a riding buddy and it seems that all my friends live in Oregon.

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  3. Wow.... looks like the surface of the moon! I see it was pretty cool too by the way you and "Mrs Scoot" were dressed...:-)

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    1. Pat:

      I like Arizona, but I LOVE UTAH. I want to ride my bike there and revisit Moab, Arches NP and CanyonLands again. When I found these photos they give me happy memories of a great vacation.

      We went there in Mid November and it was warm during the day, warm as in around mid 70's but chilly during the night. We hiked the short trail to Delicate Arch and by the time we got up the hill we were sweating, it was only about a mile or less, but uphill all the way.

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  4. Great photos Bob, and I sure hope I can venture as much as you do.

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    1. Benny:

      We haven't taken many road trips lately. We used to drive all over the country, gravel or pavement didn't matter. We had a truck and a jeep back then. For the past few years we have just been flying and renting a car. Don't worry, your time will come. You just have to have the desire to see our Country . . . Right now you have different priorities.

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  5. Wow, those pictures were 8 years ago. Does it seem like just yesterday?

    Always nice to see pics of you and Yvonne from a while ago. You two haven't changed much at all.

    Glad your photo issue has been resolved and inserting them is working fine now.

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    1. Trobairitz:

      Thanks for your kind comments. It does seem just like yesterday but 8 years have gone by so fast. Hard to believe that it was so long ago. We feel the same, just more white or less hair, as in my case.

      I'm glad I can post photos much easier than before. I mean, who would have thought it was a Browser problem. But you are right, just use all Blogger products and they should all work together.

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  6. you had some pretty good light at the Grand Canyon there Bob.....

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    1. Dom:

      We went during November, I thought it was too late in the year but we missed the Heat and the crowds. We also encountered a few snow storms on our way to Bryce Canyon. My biggest memory of that day was an unplanned donation to the Municipal Tax system for not noticing a "slow to 30mph" sign as I merrily continued on at highway speeds.

      I also have a story about a person I met while at the Canyon. He was a professional photographer with a BIG camera and we got to talking about his "lightning" photos, which were being sold in the Gift Store.

      It was a bright overcast day, Diffused light is the best for photos

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    2. The lightening storms at Bryce Canyon can be exciting. I was reading the sign at the viewpoint about summer lightening storms and how people should stay in their cars. That's great advice if you have a car. I saw a storm off in the far distance and thought ' I'll leave in a few minutes '. Big mistake, a few minutes later it was starting to hail and the thunder was getting louder.

      An amazing amount of hail came down in a few minutes, I had a big Windjammer on my Suzuki GT750 'WaterBuffalo' so I thought' no need to panic, I can handle some snow'. A big bolt of lightening and the thunder came together. I felt it and jiggled the gas slightly when I was startled. The bike went sideways on the ice although I managed to keep it up.

      'Now is the time to panic'. I stopped the bike and hid in the trees. People will say that's dumb but my thinking was that there are millions of trees around, but only one motorcycle.

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  7. Bob, The blog's looking good. When I click on the pictures, they blow up nicely, maybe it's the 22" screen I view them on, but they look great!

    Now if I could figure out my Blogger issues. For some reason your blog, and Brady's blog only show up on my "reading list" about 1/4 of the time. Everyone else's blog show up every time. Go figure.

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    1. Erik:

      Sorry, can't help you there. I had that problem too before, but all seems to work now. Perhaps you should upgrade your Browser or try Google Chrome as it should work best, being a Google product.

      Or you could try to relink them. You know delete. and then reboot your computer and then add us back. Perhaps we were added when you had a glitch . . .

      Glad to hear my photos are shining through. I am happy now that all is well with my system

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