Author Archives: Jeff C

Colorado Multisport Week

July 19, 2011 by Jeff C | Comments Off

Ned’s spending a couple of weeks in Colorado — mostly riding bikes and training for the Leadville race in August. I joined him for about five days. Day 1 we hiked Bear Mountain near Boulder (and saw a mother bear with 2 cubs at a distance of about 40-50 yards). Seeing a mother bear up that close sure is thought-provoking; it made me think: “I wonder if I can outrun Ned in an all-out short sprint?” Day 2 we rafted the Arkansas River near Royal Gorge. The rest of the days we mostly scouted and mountain-biked part of the course of the Leadville 100, and even did a kayak tour of Lake Dillon on the way back to the airport.

Royal Gorge is a suspension bridge about 1000 ft above the Colorado River. Ned was dubious as we approached — scoffing a bit that so much touristy enterprise had sprung up around something that, he said, “frankly doesn’t seem like it’s all that impressive.” Ha. About five minutes later, as we actually drove onto the bridge, he stopped the car dead in its tracks — voice nervously giddy and spewing expletives. Suffice it to say that he was impressed. This was the funniest moment of the trip.

Forgive some of the mediocre photography — this is mostly pocket camera stuff.

Oregon — JB and Joyce’s 50th Anniversary

June 30, 2011 by Jeff C | Comments Off

I love this story. In 1961, my dad was “pipelining” (i.e., working on a crew burying pipeline pipe) in Oregon. My then-teenaged mother hopped in a car with her soon-to-be mother-in-law (and sisters-in-law) and they all headed out for Oregon. In my mom’s suitcase was the wedding dress she had sewn herself. And the rest is history.

Anniversary parties aren’t exactly my Mom and Dad’s “style.” So instead, we (JB, Joyce, Jana and Jeff) went to Oregon on the week of their 50th anniversary. We visited the church where they got married, their first apartment (the white building with green doors and roof), and the beach where they spent their Fourth-of-July honeymoon. We even found the pipeline.

I also posted a few great old pictures from that period in 1961 — the pipeliners’ honeymoon. The pinup girl is my newlywed mom. A few of the pictures show my grandpa, Joe Cotner (in the overalls) and my great-uncle Bill, all pipeliners in that era.

JB and Joyce Cotner 1961 Oregon pipeline.jpg

Alaska with Joyce and J.B.

June 29, 2011 by Jeff C | Comments Off

My first post-retirement priority was to take a trip with my Mom and Dad. Most Alaska tourists apparently spend their time on cruise ships. I had raised this option with my Dad. Predictably, his response to the cruise ship idea included a good bit of profantity and the word “prison.” So we flew to Anchorage in mid-June, rented an SUV, and for two weeks traveled the majority of the relatively-few roads that exist in that section of Alaska.

Along the way, we chartered a small boat for a private glacier cruise, took a horseback ride in the Kenai peninsula, took a ‘flightseeing’ plane trip to McKinley (including a landing on the Glacier), and spent a day on those terrible old school buses that are the only way to actually go into Denali National Park.

If you get off the tourist-beaten path, you can really have the place to yourself. One day, for example, we drove into Wrangell-St. Elias National Park — the largest national park in U.S. at 13 million acres. There are only two roads in, so we picked one and drove 2 hours, which was as far as you could go in a vehicle. In that time, we saw maybe one or two other cars of sightseers. Meanwhile, most of the visitors to Alaska were sharing a boat with 2,000 other tourists, or at best sharing bus with 40. I think my Dad was right.

JJC_3839 Alaska Aerial Glacier Cracks.jpg

Spain 2011 – Barcelona & Ibiza

June 6, 2011 by Jeff C | Comments Off

I jumped the gun a little. On the first official day of my retirement, I was actually already in Spain. A friend of mine is living in Barcelona, so I spent a few days there, and then a long weekend in Ibiza. (It turns out that Ibiza is an island in the Mediterranean, a hundred miles or so south of Barcelona).

The best picture from Barcelona is one I didn’t have the nerve to take. Nudity is legal (and not uncommonl) on Barcelona beaches. (No, I did not — thanks for asking.) One day, just off the side of the busy beachside boardwalk lay an older, fairly-heavy, very-tanned Spanish gentleman, sleeping buck naked with his head resting on his own artificial leg (which he had removed, apparently for use as a pillow). I didn’t have the nerve to go over there and take a picture. So…no Barcelona beach pictures.

The first several pictures below are actually at Montserrat — a hilltop monastery outside Barcelona. Then there are a couple at the relatively modern and decidedly odd Sagrada Familia Cathedral in Barcelona — designed by the architect Gaudi, after whom was coined the word “gaudy,” for reasons the cathedral makes apparent. The pretty beach is Ibiza.

Ironman Texas

May 25, 2011 by Jeff C | Comments Off

In a moment of weakness and/or bravado a couple of years back, I claimed that I would do an Ironman on every continent. So, Brazil 2008 (South America: done); Germany 2010 (Europe: done). Last year they announced, for the first time ever, that there would be an Ironman event in Texas — right here in the Houston area. I was bummed — on one hand, if they’re having one in your hometown, you can’t NOT do it, but I’d loved doing them as “destination events” in cool distant places. Worse, they scheduled it in late May — in south Texas where, you may already know, it gets really hot in late May.

And so we did it. My friends / training partners all did great. Scott exorcised his IronMan demons (his last attempt – in Germany – landed him in the ICU rather than the finish line). Shane logged his fourth Ironman (his third within a 12-month span). The one female in our group, Angie, kicked all our butts (in our defense, she’s a fitness “professional” and she’s about three age-groups younger than the Shane and me). All good. Me? I had some unmentionable problems during the bike section, which set me back nearly an hour and gave me my worst Ironman time ever. But hey, I finished, so who cares, right? North America: done.

And my Mom and Dad even came down to watch.

That’s me in the black tank top (#2079). [Update: I added some pics of Scott, too]. I’ll try to gather and add some pics of the others. Here are a few for now.