Utah Trip - Part 2 - Harvest House

      When my sister Suzanne and her husband George visited Zion National Park several years ago, they stayed in a B & B in Springdale, Utah. Springdale is a "funky" little town which is on the doorstep of the park.  They gave it a good recommendations, so I made reservations for our first three nights.  It was a good recommendation, and one that I happily continue.  The inn is owned by Tom and Mary Ann Burns, with Tom handling most of the inn keeping duties as Mary Ann has a job in Las Vegas.  Tom was quite garrulous and a charming host, plus his breakfasts were great.

      We stayed in the Garden Suite, which had a separate entrance and all the amenities.  The separate entrance was nice as it gave us access to the hot tub and some wonderful views.

     The garden was in full spring bloom, as witnessed by the purple locus tree in bloom behind the hot tub in the picture above.  We could walk every where.  Zion uses a shuttle bus system rather than allowing individuals to use all of the park roads.  You can drive part of the way into the park, but it is easier to catch the shuttle and explore the park by getting off at one of the 8 shuttle stops.  The Town of Springdale has a bus system that takes you into the visitor center where you can catch the National Park Service shuttle.  All for no charge.  It was an easy way to see the park and get to the trailheads.

      This is the view from the back yard of Harvest House. Not a bad way to start our vacation.

Utah Trip - Part I - Valley of Fire

       After Nan's semester ended we took a trip to southern Utah.  We left Durham on Sunday, Mat 8th at 4:00 AM.  Nan's co-worker and friend Mike Ennis drove us to the airport and stayed in the apartment and watched the dogs while we were away.  We flew fron RDU to Charlotte and then on to Las Vegas, where we picked up a car and drove northeast to Zion National Park.  On the way we stopped off at a Neveda State Park called "The Valley of Fire".
      The park is in a basin composed of Aztec sandstone created some 200 million years ago (for you creationists that's 6,204 years ago).  The comination of wind and water scoured the rock into odd shapes and formations.

     Here's Nan holding up a portion of a formation called the Beehives.  I got inside one to see if it really housed any bees.

     It didn't.
     In addition to the interesting rock formations we visted Atlatl Rock, where you climb up irons stairs to see Native American petroglphs on a rock wall.

      It is assumed that the petroglyphs were left there by Anasazi tribes that lived near-by from around 300 B.C. to 1150 A.D. The desins were carved through desert varnish, a dark coating on the rocks caused by the leaching of certain minerals inside the rocks.  It's kind of a natural varnish that preserves the drawings.

     One of the other interesting rock formations in the valley is Elephant Rock, which is reached on short side trail.

      Sometimes you really have to use your imagination.
      From the Valley of Fire, we drove on to Zion. More on that park my next entry.

Two Down - Three To Go

     April 29th was the last day of classes at Duke. Nan has a week to correct the final papers of her students and submit their grades.  Duke has an interesting tradition on the Last Day of Classes.  They hold a day-long party on West Campus which starts at 9:00 AM with a breakfast on the Main Quad and ends with a Midnight Snack at - well- midnight.  In between, the schedule called for such activities as the Chapel Climb(which I believe is a climb up the stairs to the tower of Duke Chapel), Bocce Ball & Cornhole(I know what the first is, but don't ask on the second), Inflatable Jousting(I again have no idea), and a "Grease" Sing-Along(You're the one that I want -oo, oo, oo). The feature event is an evening concert, which this year featured Dev(?), Hyper Crush(?), Ludacris(Ah ha -one that I recognize), and Rudy Currence(?).
      The other featured event appears to be the consumption of alcohol.  Actually alcohol other than beer is not permitted. As the published rules state: "no wine, hard alcohol, Joose(?), 4Loko or other similar beverages(?)".  The punishment for getting caught with one of these prohibited beverage is - having to pour the contents out.  Lest you think the students might be deprived, the rules state that a "student may have a maximum of six 12 oz. cans on them at any given time".  I assume if you get caught with 7 or 8 you might be required to . . . pour the contents out?  For a school founded in the Methodist tradition, which generally frowned on the consumption of alcohol, this is a very tolerant policy.
     Anyway, for Professor Mullenneaux forty-two, twelve page papers await.  Here's a shot of her after her last class.

      East campus of Duke is the portion of the campus reserved for freshman.  For those not wishing to partake of a festive, alcohol-oriented West campus LDOC(Last Day of Campus), one could get a flight in a hot air balloon.

     While Nan was correcting papers, I went to a couple of Duke sporting events.  The first was the ACC lacrosse championship game  Duke v. Maryland

      Duke lost 11 - 9.
      I also went to a Duke v. Virginia Tech at the Durham Athletic Park.  Duke has an on-campus baseball stadium, but plays over half their games at the home of the Durham Bulls.  One of the games I actually played in when a member of the Oneonta Red Dragon baseball team was against Virginia Tech.  It was a spring baseball trip in April, 1968.  As I remember the trip we played VaTech, Washington and Lee, and Lynchburg.  We went in private cars, and had to drive back through Washington D.C. the night after Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated.  I remember we had to be diverted through D.C. because of rioting. Of course it didn't help that we were 6 white boys in an out-of-state car. I sure we might have been viewed with some suspicion by the D.C. police

    Duke won 3 - 2

Back in the Swing

      After a couple of weeks of recovery, I'm back in the swing of a southern spring.  As the number of days in the academic year count down, there is quite a bit of activity on campus. Nan and I attended a concert by the Duke Jazz Ensemble on April 8th.  Nan had attended their prior concert in February while I was up skiing and had enjoyed it thoroughly.  The Jazz Ensemble is directed by John Brown, who is a bass player.  He generally is able to bring in some very talented guest artists to play with the ensemble.  The April concert featured Jon Metzger, a noted vibraphonist.  It was a very good concert, with the high point being a jam session with Brown and Metzger.  One of Nan's students was a lead saxophonist.
      A week later we attended the Duke Wind Symphony's concert - Saxophones En Masse.  The concert featured The North Carolina Saxophone Ensemble and Susan Fancher, a Duke faculty member.  We had seen Fancher last year and she is marvelous.  She also teaches at the Hartwick College Summer Music Festival.  If you get a chance to see her, you should.  She was featured in Michael Torke's: Saxophone Concerto for saxophone and wind ensemble.  The interesting point about this piece is that it was premiered by the Albany Symphony Orchestra in 1993 and Nan saw it.  How's that for a coincidence?  Anyway, the concert was very good.  They played two pieces written by senior music majors.  The level of talent amazes me. Although the pieces weren't great, just the fact that the student were able to write and score them is a tremendous achievement.
      Having taken advantage of what the Music Department had to offer, we shifted to the entertainment provided by the Duke Drama Department.  We bought tickets to see a production of The Laramie Project, a play we saw at Stageworks in Hudson several years ago.  Well, Phil screwed-up.  I thought it was an 8:00 curtain and when we got there we found out it was 7:30 and they had sold our tickets.  "Mindfulness Phil," said the little voice in my head. 
     Not to be undone, we went upstairs to the other theatre in the Bryant Center which was featuring the musical Aida, which was written by Sir Elton John and Tim Rice.  So it was not a wasted evening.  As fate would have it, one of Nan's students was conducting the orchestra, which of course made it more interesting for her.  It is not the greatest musical and some of the acting needed stronger direction, but the lead voices were excellent.  The show was produced by Hoof 'n' Horn, which is the entirely student run group.  They have been a fixture at Duke for 75 years, making them the oldest student-run theater organization in the South.  Again kudos are in order for these multi-talented students.
     Our arts blitz concluded last Thursday with a visit to Chapel Hill to see Playmakers production of Big River.  Playmakers is the professional company associated with UNC.  We auditioned last Fall for their season, but it's pretty clear that they use faculty and students in their MFA program for many of the parts.  Big River was written by Roger Miller (King of the Road, You can't Roller Skate in a Buffalo Herd) and is an adaptation of Huck Finn.  I love the music and was spoiled by seeing it originally with a full cast.  Playmakers did a nice job, with Jim, played by David Aron Damane, leading the way.  Damane has a big operatic voice and in his duets with Huck, played by Jason Edward Cooke, I felt like he held back so not as to overwhelm Cooke's reedier, sweeter voice.  Of course, the show stopper for me is Free At Last, sung by Jim; and Damane hit it spot on. (I use to sing Free at Last in church on Human Relations Sunday, but not with anything close to the passion or voice of Damane.)
     After two weeks of recovery it is great to be back in the swing of things.

Racing to Bronchitis

      I haven't submitted an entry in a couple of weeks due to a brief illness.  It all started after I participated in The Great Human Race down here in Durham.  The race was sponsored by the Volunteer Center of Durham and is a fundraiser for various not-for-profit organizations in the community.  A group from Nan's work (The Thompson Writing Program of Duke) decided to enter a team and asked if I wanted to run.  It sounded like a good idea, so I signed-on.
     The week prior to the run had been quite warm, but a cold front went through just before the race and dropped the temperatures by 20 degrees. Over 600 runners took part and it was a good race.  They used a new type of timing chip(well new to me anyway) that activates when you cross the starting line.  It is actually on the number bib you wear.  Anyway, my chip time was 29:05, putting me in 6th place in my age group (right in the middle).  My teammate Sarah Hallenbeck finished 2nd overall and our team was third.   The race itself raised over $203,000.00, so regardless of your time you had to feel pretty good about participating. I stood around in my sweaty race togs waiting for the awards (not for me-for Sarah) and "took a chill", so to speak.  By the time I got home my throat was sore and a cold had set in.
    I self-medicated for the first couple of days, but the head cold moved into my lungs and I decided seeking medical treatment was a better idea. After reviewing my symptoms, the doctor ordered a chest X-Ray.  It is amazing how medical technology has advanced.  The X-Ray images are now produced digitally on the computer.  The doctor comes into the examining room, hits a button, and there are the images.  At the same time we're looking at them, a radiologist at the hospital, which is 10 miles away, is reviewing them as well.  The report ends up on-line in your on-line medical file which you can access and review at any time.  All this high-tech and I still was on antibiotics for a week.   I spent most of time time at home sleeping, with only an occasional stroll out in the beautiful Spring weather.
     One interesting occurrence during my recovery period had to do with Nan getting to do a voice-over promoting a friends book.  Go to http://www.ajmm.net/AJMayhew/ and listen. 

Fore!

     A week ago my friend Tom C. came down for a quick 3 1/2 day visit.  The primary purpose of the visit was to play golf and golf we did.  I played 105 holes of golf during his visit and Tom set the record with 123.  Needless to say, my hands are tired.  Of course it's never how many holes of golf you play, it's how many time you swing the club.  Suffice it to say that with the number of swings I took, I'm more tired than Tom.

     We started at Occoneechee Golf Club in Hillsborough.  In fact, Tom got right off the plane and we headed for the course.  We played the white tees making the course 5,911 yards par 71.  The above shot is of the par 4 368 yard 4th hole from the tee of the 5th.
     The next morning we went over to play Hillandale, which is a municipal course just around the corner from where we live.  We were the first people out on the course.  The trees are just starting to bud so I snapped a quick picture from the first fairway.

     Unfortunately on the third hole I got a call from Nan that Finn's leash had broken and he was busy chasing deer in Duke Forest.  We told the starter that we had a "family" emergency and asked if we could we get a rain check.  He said yes, so off we went on the dog hunt. Nan called back to tell us that Finn was last seen running down route 751 which runs by our apartment.  I let Tom off at one end of the street and went back to the apartment.  Finn is not a stupid dog.  He had found his way home, but was cowering under Nan's car(all right he's not a terribly brave dog).  Anyway, the lost was found and we still had a full morning free to play golf.  Rather than go immediately back to Hillandale and have to explain the "emergency", we drove out to a small course called Lake Winds about 15 miles north of Durham.  We played 11 holes, as we had a PM tee time at another course.  The attendant at the desk was an older man who wasn't quite sure what to charge us for 9 holes.  But the greens fees were only $15.  When we paid the full amount, he told us we could play as many holes as we wanted and threw in some peanuts. The greens were fine, but the fairways need to grow in a little more.
     From Lake Winds we headed east from Durham to the Falls Village Golf Club.  This is a Lee Trevino designed course measuring 6,474 yards and is a par 72.  The greens were very fast and we both  had trouble measuring the speed of our putts. We took a cart as a remembered there were some significant distances between holes.  Here's Tom in front of the clubhouse.

     The next morning we went back to Hillandale with our "rain checks" and had the course pretty much to ourselves until about the 14th hole. (We caught some people who had been allowed to start off the 10th hole.
      Our next course was Willowhaven at Umstead Pines or Umstead Pines at Willowhaven (I'm never quite sure what it's name is).  This is a 6,474 yard par 72 course.  It winds through a development and crosses the main road a couple of times, so a cart was used.(I have to admit, the carts were my idea - an attempt not to run out of gas)  Again fast greens.
     We saved the best for last.  On Wednesday AM we played the Duke University course, using the Blue tees of course.  It measures 6,565 yards and is also a par 72.  One of the distinguishing features of the course is how well trapped the greens are.  Tom said, "If I knew I was going spend this amount of time in the sand, I would have brought a beach towel."  He actually became quite proficient at getting out of the traps.
Here I am on the 18th tee with the Washington Duke Inn in the background.

     After Duke I was ready for a little sight-seeing, but Tom wanted one more round.  Recognizing that he still had a foot of snow in his front yard and probably wouldn't be able to get out on a course for another month, I said "I'll drop you off at Hillandale."  So Tom played another 18 and I took a nap.
     It was a very enjoyable 3 and 1/2 days.  Next year Pinehurst!

Back to the Grind

        After a week at the beach, it was difficult to get back into the swing of our weekly routine.  In fact, my motivation to work was at zero.  The weather has been nice and the trees are in bloom, so it's a pleasure to walk the dogs.  We also took a trip to Duke Gardens to view the flowering trees.
        In the early 1930's Dr. Frederic M. Hans, an original faculty member of the Duke Medical School, persuaded Sarah P. Duke, widow of Duke Univ. founder Benjamin Duke, to donate $20,000.00 to finance a garden adjacent to the Duke West Campus.  By 1936 when Sarah died the original garden had fallen into disrepair. Dr. Hanes convinced Sarah's daughter to reconstruct the gardens. Pioneer landscape designer Ellen Shipman planned the reconstruction and planting of the new gardens.  There are 5 miles of walks and pathways in the 55 acre park.

       Another nice aspect of the Gardens is that you can walk the dogs as long as they are leashed.

        We finished the week volunteering at "Tails at Twilight", the fundraiser for the Animal Protective Society of Durham.  Nan was a section leader and I was in charge of several of the tables at the silent auction.

        We were Section 1 - hence the sign.  It was a very successful evening.  Unfortunately, while I was taking care of another one of the tables at the silent auction someone broke a small piece off a Hummel figurine that was up for bid and then hid the small piece.  I only hope that the person who won the bid was the person who broke it.  Otherwise it was a nice night.