Everybody has to pay bills. Even the Airstream Chronicles. So, how does it get done here?

• Small web & network consulting contracts.
• Articles.
• The Digital RV Book (ah yes).
• My savings account (ouch).
• And now something new……

Stock Photography

So, what’s new? I’ll tell you. Within the past few weeks I’ve started submitting photography to stock photo sites. 3 sites in all, but I’ve found a site I prefer, and I’m starting to submit the better photos from the past year of traveling. The site is Dreamstime.com. You can check the site out by clicking the following icon in this post, or on the right sidebar as well:

So far I only have 2 images listed with Dreamstime, but I’m spending the morning uploading a few more. We’ll see what gets approved and move forward from there.

If you’re looking for stock photos to use on your own web sites, publications, etc., check out Dreamstime. They’ve got reasonable rates. And if you’re looking to sell your own photography I’d suggest checking them out as well. The site is easy to use, and I’m satisfied with how they work with submissions.

The Digital RV

Beyond stock photography there is also the Digital RV. I’m sure readers are familiar with it already, but there have been some developments with the book.

Several months ago the second edition was released. And it was also set to be available at places like Barnes & Nobel, Walden, Amazon, etc. But a snag occurred, and it was actually a positive thing.

The publisher’s latest distribution service denied the book for re-distribution. The back cover had lettering too close to the edge. So I had to revise the cover and resubmit for distribution, which was completed this morning.

Why is all that a positive thing? Well, with the update to the book’s cover I was also able to update the price. Due to re-seller requirements the price was set much higher than what I’d desired for the book. Over $20. The new distribution service setup initially was pretty weird, and the price was stuck there. With the update to the book I was able to adjust the price, even with the big box resellers.

So, the book has been updated, and better yet, the price has been updated to $17.95. With the update of the price I’ll see less revenue from the re-sellers, but that’s ok. I really wanted the price below $20, and the whole process was a mess with the first go round with the publisher.

That means if you’ve been waiting to get the book, now is the time. Also, if you know someone who is into RVing, pass along the book information to them as well. And in 4-6 weeks if you really need to get it from one of the larger book stores you’ll be able to.

Still, I’d suggest getting it direct from the publisher. Oh, and I’d love to see 100 sell off the website over the next month and would greatly appreciate readers referring a friend or two. Thanks all!

Don’t forget, it’s also available from Airstream Life, RVBookstore.com, and Workamper.com too.

At 5 this morning I shot up and was wide awake. Might have something to do with going to bed a little after 8 last night. What can I tell you? I was tired.

I gave Sadira a call early on to see if she’d like to go out to Promised Land. I wanted to get further in this morning, take photos, and GPS the area. She said sure and popped over about 45 minutes after I got in touch.

While the ride there is less than 25 miles it sure takes a while to get in.  Deep washes, cut away chunks of road (especially close to the parking area).  The Titan fortunately handles it with ease.  By the time we reached the broken windmill I knew we’d only have 5 or 10 more minutes.

We parked the truck and started our walk into the canyon well before 8 a.m.  Yes, an early start indeed.  As we approached the dry river bed we both heard something.  Flowing water, and lots of it.  Last week the river was dry, and this week there was actually a flow strong enough to hear it a way off.  Wow!

Walking in wasn’t as easy as the trip that I took with Andy & Brooke.  There were many water filled areas.  And hopping across the rocks here isn’t as easy as other places.  The stones in the river bed are worn smooth, and even Vibram soles don’t stick easily.

We reached the first climbing area after sloshing through water and scrambling over the smooth stones only to find you couldn’t even stand under the cliff.  A heavy flow of water was rolling through.  Nobody could belay that climb today!

Finally, we found we really couldn’t “hike” further in.  If I’d worn my Chacos today we could have progressed on (through the water), but for once I was wearing real hiking shoes instead of my sandals.  Go figure!

With our path for forward progress blocked we made our way out of the canyon and back to the truck.  We took our time, as it’s an interesting walk along the river bed, and even more interesting with the water flow.

Along the way I came across a wonderful little lizard who allowed me to take many photos.  The lizard really blends in well with the rocks though.  Pretty hard to see at first.

After snapping away at the little reptile I decided to take a few flower photos.  That’s when I noticed a bee.  Or maybe not a bee.  Striped back end, but a green face.  Well, not sure what type of insect it really is, but it was fun trying a few more macro shots.

If you can’t tell, I have been working on my macro shots lately.  I think this little insect came out well.  You should see the original version at full resolution!  I never put up full photos here, as it would take forever to upload, and to download for readers.

There’s the wrap for this morning.  Our hiking adventure was over before 10 a.m., but keep in mind the wakeup time! 

Ah, and here’s one more of my recent practice macro shots.  Hope you enjoy it!

Don’t forget, I’m now posting more photos at my flickr site as well. 

Guess we’ve got a little ritual going now. Saturday morning climbs. Oh, wait, last Saturday we drove around trying to find the Promised Land…..hmmmm…. Well, Saturday mornings have something to do with climbing.

We set up on our regular climb in the Granite Dells. The “Time Zone Wall.” After last week’s jitters we were ready to try out the tougher spots on the wall again. We played around Time Slot and Nick of time, so back and forth between a 5.8 - 5.9. For not climbing in a while we all did well.

Of course, we cheated here and there on the route. Andy went up first. I watched closely, and saw a few moves he missed. It reminded me how we figured this one out last time, and made it easier on me to deal with the “hard part”. Too bad I found new hard parts and let myself off to hang on the rope! Whoops.

Brooke got right back on the rock easily too. I’ll tell you, 1.5 months of no climbing really shows through for each of us. I tired easily, we found bigger holds here and there, the works. But still, we’ll all get back to it in no time!

Andy wanted to make sure readers know, he’s an A+ belayer. As you can see from the photo he has his special (key word, special) belay hat and glasses. Oh, and we’ve got some other great photos of Andy, but they’ll wait for a special (there’s that word again) post all about Andy……

There were even a few photos of me today. The shot above is of me starting Nick of Time (5.8-.9). I ended up moving off to the right, and sticking closer to the 5.8 side of it, but still, nice to be back out.

After several climbs each I unclipped the quick draws from a pair of bolts at the top of the climbs, and then went up and over the edge. Below Andy & Brooke wrapped up the rope, and packed up. We weren’t done for the day though.

Once I walked off we headed down to Watson Lake. In the guide there was another neat spot with 3 sport climbs right near the water. We headed down to find it.

The new spot was Blue Heron Point. A 5.8, 5.10, and 5.11. They’re all short, so they just might be doable in the near future. We’ll have to see. Oh, and the photo above isn’t of Andy with his favorite picture book, rather he’s looking at the guide regarding the climbs.

Finally we took a walk over to Comic Cliff & Thor’s Wall. Some pretty crazy stuff in there. 10’s, 11’s, and 12’s. I’m sure Andy will be ready to solo all of them next week. I’ll just stand back and watch.

That’s it for today’s report. Really hot out, and I’m tired…….

Given the lack of maps or guides to the Promised Land I decided to take another ride out with the GPS and mark all the turns. It’s not the easiest place to find, but now that I know where it is, getting there wasn’t so hard.

One of the keys to getting back in was finding Forest Service Road 638. Once you get on Haystack Rd (off of Perkinsville Road) you basically head in toward Little Thumb Butte. When you hit 638 bear left, and then bear left once more. Go through a set of white gate markers, and then the next major left follow again (really cryptic stuff here, eh). Don’t worry, I’m working on a map.

The ride in was ROUGH. Last week it was pretty tough getting in as well, but after the recent rains the roads were in worse shape. A lot of erosion has occurred. If you’re looking to go climb in there, go in a raised truck or Jeep.

After arriving at the canyon I didn’t walk too far in. Heading into really unknown territory alone isn’t the best idea. This weekend Brooke, Andy, & I will probably head back in and really look for all the climbs. The camera will be with me of course, and I’ll try to document the area as best I can.

While in the parking area I took several photos of the “fused rocks”. Pretty cool area, and the rock here is like nothing I’ve ever climbed. Oh, and you should see the rocks in the river bed! Really amazing, and I’ll make sure to shoot more of those too!

The ride out was as rough as the ride in. 22.5 miles back to Point of Rocks Campground. As I was leaving I noticed the monsoon clouds forming. Several stops were made, and I shot the clouds as they built. Very cool indeed!

But yesterday I took a walk along the streets of Prescott. A very simple mission…. Getting my hands on the map for the Promised Land climbing area.

I parked in the center of town, and walked along the streets of Prescott once again. I’ve walked the town dozens of times now, and I think it’s a cute place to say the least.

Unfortunately, Granite Mountain Outfitters no longer carries the map I was looking for. Nobody does! Ah well, looks like I’ll have to get creative when it comes to finding information about the climbs there.

While I walked the streets I took photos here and there. Nothing artistic or special, just photos of things that caught my eye. I finally took a few photos of the mural at the Art Store. I’ve wanted to photograph it for a while, but it’s so big I took it in “small bites”.

I also walked through a few “back alleys” in town as well.  And no, nothing shady about the back alleys of Prescott.  Just not that kind of town (to my knowledge :)  ).

Well, hope you enjoyed some different scenes from downtown Prescott.  My version of “Walking Prescott” I suppose.  Still, if you want the real thing, stop by Granny J’s site, she’s got the real scoop on this town. 

I know…..keep some camera in the truck at all times.  Here’s the thing.  I don’t want to ruin a camera leaving it in the truck (it gets hot in there).

Yesterday I ran out for a few more errands.  And once again, there were black clouds crossing the town.  Thunder claps rolled through, and a few shook the truck.

When I reached Manzanita Outdoors there was a full downpour.  Back at my trailer, nothing.

After shopping was completed I headed right back to the trailer.  And in the distance was a big black cloud with breaks of blue all around it.  And from the cloud you could see the rain line clearly!  What an incredible site.  And there was no camera available.  Ah well, gotta remember to bring it with me, and then bring it into the Airstream when I return home. 

Yesterday I finally got a snapshot of what the monsoon season here is like.  And no, I didn’t have my camera at the ready.

By 10:30 I saw the sky filling in with dark clouds.  I was out running errands, and noticed the clouds filling in right over downtown Prescott.  Pretty cool to watch.

After refilling my propane, doing a little shopping at Fry’s (the best grocery store I’ve found in my travels), and hitting the local Mac store the rain came.  And it came hard.

While in the Mac store (checking into ILife 08′) the rain came.  And the hail came too!  I got a little worried seeing the hail, as Airstreams don’t survive hail well.  Oh no!

I still had one more stop before returning to the trailer.  My friend Sadira left her Nalgene bottle at the Airstream the night before (trying to photograph the meteors), and I was bringing it by to her.

Well, the ride over to SnapSnap was amazing.  City streets were rushing rivers!  The rain came down so hard it reminded me of summer storms in Orlando.  Lot’s of lightening, hail, and hard driving rain!

So, there you go.  It really does rain here in Arizona, and when it comes down, it comes down hard.

Oh, and by the way, no rain back at the trailer.  No hail either, and that was good.  The storm seemed to stay right over the downtown area.  Whew!

Another early day.  Andy popped over at 8:30 to do some climbing out in the Dells again.  No driving around all morning, no searching for the cool spot.  Just a short walk into the Dells.

Oh, and we will return to the Promised land.  There’s supposed to be some amazing climbs in there, and we want to see them….

Our first stop was the Perfect Idiot again.  But quickly we decided not to climb there.  The rains of the past few weeks brought out a ton of mosquitoes.  And the start of the climb is in a very shaded canyon.  Therefore the mosquitoes were all over me!

Andy and I moved to an area with sun, and the mosquito situation was much better.  Better to not be swatting while belaying I say.

The climbing was funny.  Neither of us had been out in a while, so we both had to get comfortable on the rock again.  My first two climbs were sloppy, and I stuck to the bigger holds and spots to stand.  Hmmm….a backslide in my climbing.  It’ll be short lived.  Andy felt the same way too.  But by the third climb we were settling in again.

After our climbs Andy called Brooke.  They decided to bring the pups down to the park on Watson Lake.  The lake looks much better now since the rains.  So Brooke and Andy’s mom popped over with 3 pups in tow.  We had lunch (salad for me), and they headed off to the lake.

The afternoon was quiet….no big reports.

Last evening I tried to sit up for the meteor shower.  Made it to 10:30, but that was it.  No good shots of shooting stars.  I do have many itchy spots from mosquito bites though! 

Today I headed up to Chino Valley bright & early. 8:00 a.m. pickup at Andy & Brooke’s house. They called the other day and we arranged to do an early climbing day. Something different this time. “The Promised Land.”

The guides I currently have with me don’t cover Promised Land. But apparently it’s a pretty good sport climbing area outside of Chino Valley. And it’s not too far off from Sullivan Canyon, but it’s far enough! We had a little trouble finding the spot (understatement). Ah, Brooke & Andy are having a giggle reading this one.

We headed out along Perkinsville Road, and went in search of our “left turns”. Apparently you’re just supposed to keep going left (to a point). First we went too far towards Perkinsville, and had to turn back. Fortunately, the ride was pretty, and there were many “postcard” scenes along our route.

After getting back near the start of the road Brooke placed a call to Granite Mountain Outfitters. They carry a map of the area, and the map leads to Promised Land. We didn’t have a map (I should have searched for it yesterday). We drove and drove, went over rocks, ruts, and through a few washes. Glad to have a 4×4 Titan!

Finally we turned around. We knew we were close, but just couldn’t find the right spot. Fortunately on our ride back we ran across another truck heading in, and asked the driver if he knew about the climbing area. He did, and pointed us back toward one of the roads we tried. We were apparently close.

Finally, after many hours we found the parking area, and made our way into the canyon to see what’s what. We found that there were in fact a few obvious climbs. But we didn’t get too far in (we’d spent a long time just finding the place).

While walking in I kept looking around. The fellow who directed us in followed us in to the parking area a few minutes later. Brooke & Andy had walked a little way ahead, and I was near the truck and talked to the guy. He rolled his window down and advised me there was a mountain lion in the area. He’d seen it recently dragging a fawn near the canyon. Interesting. The other interesting item was the bolt action rifle in his front seat…..a little spooky.

Our walk in was interesting. The canyon area still had water here and there. And a few tadpoles to boot. The rocks were very “different” to say the least. For the first time ever my Chacos didn’t stick well to the rocks. Hmmm. Special rocks indeed. According to the quick note I read in the guide book (there is a quick note) the rocks are horizontally banded quartzite. Whatever the rocks were, they were slick under my chacos.

So, there’s the story today. No climbing in the end…..More than 4 hours out, 3 hours in the truck, and a warning from a fellow with a bolt action rifle in the passenger seat. Still, a nice day, great to hang out with Brooke & Andy again. Maybe we’ll climb tomorrow. Or maybe we’ll drive for hours on end again…..nah, no more long drives for me.

Oh, and if you’d like to see more pictures, click the Flickr link in the right column.

Hey, Andy, I put the picture of you pointing aimlessly off somewhere!

But I didn’t forget.

Today I took a ride down to the Prescott National Forest office to ask more questions about the “America The Beautiful Pass - The National Parks & Federal Recreation Lands Pass.” As you may recall, I ran into many issues while in Colorado with the pass, and spent a good bit of time searching for clarity.

Unfortunately, I made many calls to forest service offices while in Colorado, and didn’t find much in the way of clarity. I was also asked, “Don’t quote me,” often. Hmmmm.

So, today I got some additional clarity at the Prescott office, and also a request not to be quoted in an article that I believe we’ll be putting together for Airstream Life Magazine.

It was confirmed for me by the employee I spoke with that Concessionaires may or may not accept the pass. Apparently it’s up to them (the concessionaire). I pointed out that there was NOTHING in the pass brochure regarding concessionaires, and the person I was speaking with agreed. But they did point out that it is mentioned on one of the web sites about the pass.

If you visit one of the primary purchase sites for the pass, linked here, you will read:

Your Annual Pass covers Entrance Fees or Standard Amenity Fees at sites managed by USDA FS, NPS, USFWS, BLM and Reclamation.

I guess you could infer that the pass is only good at sites managed by the particular services listed. Concessionaires managing the sites don’t fall in that list. Of course, how many people purchasing the pass realize that our national forest lands have been handed over to 3rd party management groups.

As an interesting aside, the employee here in Prescott pointed out to me that the Mount Rushmore National Memorial also doesn’t take the pass (guess that’s not a National Park….or something). From their site you can read the following:

The $8.00 parking fee is a special use fee and is valid for the entire calendar year and is the only fee within the park. This is not a Federal entrance fee, so National Park Passes, Golden Age, Access and Eagle Passports are not accepted. Bus parking fee: $50 for a 24 hour time period.

Basically, we have “some clarity”. The pass is valid at national sites, with a few caveats. It’s up to you the consumer to work hard at figuring out what those caveats are. At least the folks at Mount Rushmore are upfront about it. I sincerely think that all sites managed by concessionaires should clearly identify themselves as an area not managed by national forest employees.

In the end, I’d like to see the following signage at sites that are managed by concessionaires……

So, the subject hasn’t been dropped here.  And I’ll continue researching.  What I’d love to find is a listing by state of sites managed by National Parks staff vs. a listing of sites managed by concessionaires.  :)  Think I’ll ever find one???