Breakin' Records and Bustin' Rubber

I love this place.
2 weekends ago Jade and I broke the record for the world's biggest piggy back race, with over 150 couples running a 100m dash without the passenger touching the ground.

Last weekend Jade and I rode our bikes 14 miles to St. Andrews.  The route took us along a beach, through a national forest, past a Royal Air Force base, and through farmland.  St. Andrews is the home of golf.  So naturally Jade and I then had fit in a quick 18.  So we unstrapped the clubs from our bikes and hit the links. Jade was 19 under and I finished up 11 over.  After that painful loss we got some lunch and went to the castle.

After the castle is was time to go home.  4 miles into our trip, disaster struck.  Jade got a flat tire.  Luckily we were a little under a mile from the train station and were able to get back to Dundee.

 

I did a double take when I saw this one.

Jade said, "Wanna eat at Little John's?" I said, "HHWHAT?...OKAY!"

Which soap do you think I used?
Actually washed 'em twice.

St. Andrew's Castle

 

Get a load of this guy!

It took a bit of searching, but we found it!  The toilet, straight in to the sea.

Jade did it, but I'm takin' the punishment for my lovely wife.

I don't know what's up with Shanaynay, but her name is showing up all over this place.

Right Hand Drive

So Jade and I took a road trip this weekend.  This was my first experience driving on the left side of the road.  I only almost got us killed twice.  Once for not looking in a pertinent direction (when turning) and second for not driving on a pertinent side of the road.

Anyway, we made it to Cromarty on a northeast peninsula and had ourselves a great time at the pub that was underneath out B&B.  We met another American named Heather and she was doing an apprenticeship at a pottery company in town.  She is super talented and so nice!

Next stop was Kyle of Lochalsh on the west coast.  There we stayed at a beautiful B&B right on the water.  The owners Mary Anne and Mardo were rad!  Not only did they have a beautiful place for us to stay but they were hilarious!  The name of their place was the Tigh a Cladach B&B.

Well, I know you're here for the photos so I'll shut up.

Jade napping in our sweet Nisan Micra!

The "Monster Burger" in Kyle of Lochalsh.  3x1/4lb patties +chili, tomato, lettuce and bacon.  Taken to the dome.

The view from our B&B of the isle of Skye.

Eilean Donan Castle

Well, we'll keep ya posted.
(Hopefully climbing outside soon!)
-SG & JG

Dundee! minus the crocadile part

Hello from Myland!  Scotland that is.  My beautiful wife Jade and I have arrived in Dundee and have been poppin wheelies and throwing down doubles of single malt left and right.  I'm lying.  We are actually searching for a place to live and taking it kind of easy as Jade's knee recovers from surgery.  Well I thought I'd share a few photos here, rather than put them on Facebook like I feel I'm expected to do.
So, here ya go.

 Jade and I at the airport 11:30pm.

 Big Ben.

 The London Eye.

 The view from our room at the Bruce Hotel.

 The street next to our B&B.

 Random sign on the walk downtown.

 Jade's school for the Summer. 

 The wind was crazy two days ago on the Tay.

 Jade waiting for me to take the previous picture.

 The view across the Tay estuary.  This leads straight to the North Sea.

 The RRS Discovery.

I thought this graffiti was funny because I thought of that character from the "Martin" show.  Hah!

Well, I'll try to keep this up.  See ya later!
-SG

'Necks

My fiance' is from Kansas.  It's very flat and lacking in boulders there.  So when she came to visit me in Atlanta for Thanksgiving we decided to climb some rocks.  Since she has limited experience climbing routes, I made the decision to drive us both to Sandrock, AL. We got there at around 10 on a Saturday night.  We found a peaceful roadside campsite, lit a fire, chatted for a while, and then went to bed.

The next day, I was psyched to get Jade on some short routes that would challenge her and most importantly: something that she would have fun on!  Well, this is where I totally failed!  It was a WEEKEND at Sandrock!  Of course all the mellow/awesome routes would be taken by people top roping ALL DAY!  I know what your're thinking: "WELL DUUUH, Mr. Gross!

I know...soooo dumb.

On the other hand, we both got to go to an area at which we have not spent much time.

Unfortunately, Sandrock was trashed!  Here is the list of gnarly things we saw just hiking around.


1. Beer cans and mini-liquor bottles galore
2. Thong (on top of lookout boulder & attached to above beer can)
3. Trashbags nailed and hanging from trees
4. Used condom under Fireplace boulder
5. Bonfire (still going) under Free the Weed boulder with a lighter fluid bottle (left next to a tree), Naty light cans, Jim Beam Black Label bottles.

The worst thing was hearing my fiance' say, "Wow! We don't have beautiful places to go climb and truly enjoy like this in Kansas.  It sucks that people down here treat this gorgeous place, like such shit!  What the ____'s wrong with them?!"

Well...That's why I love her.

-SG

P.S.   -  I'm jealous of the climbers in other states that don't have to deal with this shit.  If this kind of trashing was happening in Joe's Valley, Bishop, or Little Cottonwood, there would be an upheaval of massive proportions!  The bottom line is: We need to take action and stop the destruction of our natural recreation areas all over the country.

A couple of classics.

So I've been getting out a bit, and I've been bringing my camera.  Finally I have a computer that can edit the HD format that it shoots.  The only bad thing is when I was moving, I had a momentary lapse in judgment and tossed my wide angle lens in the trash!  I didn't like this tiny scratch on it so I pitched it...so dumb.  Anyway the videos and the problems will get better.  As the song says, "I've seen this road before, and I'm gonna drive it again, survive it again.  I'd done that crazy dyno-kinda problem last year just got no video of the send,  this is me coming close before I told Mark not to take video for my last try.  

Well, here we go!

Well, see ya later.
-SG

Destruction

Ok nothing actually got destroyed, 'cept for Andrew's hopes of getting to the top of these boulder problems today!  Valiant efforts they were, just some days they just don't go.

Now presenting....
Falls By a Friend starring: Andrew Mallette

Well, see ya later!
-SG

Lots has happened!

Whoa it's been a long time! This is the longest stretch of blogger neglect since I started in '05. This is not something I am the least bit proud of! Well, I got a new camera and finally got the remote flashes hooked up so I'm kinda psyched about taking some pictures. I know all ya'll thought I was out of this thing for good but, as many climbers before me have, I just needed a little hiatus from the game.

So the news:
1. I'm engaged
2. I'm unemployed (kinda)
3. I may be living in New Zealand this Summer (what what)

A boulder I found, over the hill and through the woods:

Well, see ya later.
-SG