The Avant Garden

 I could update this blog. I only have about 200 vacation pix to bore folks with ... so let's get started.

 We flew into Las Vegas late on Friday the 13th and headed for Zion Canyon Nat'l Park in Utah. We took the shuttle up the valley and hopped out at the first sign of good swimmin' -n- stackin'. I built this TripleDeckerArch thing in the Virgin River in the shadow of the Courtyard of the Patriarchs : 

Could I have gone for four?We went into Canyonlands, The Island in the Sky section, and did the hike to Murphy's Overlook, and I could not resist this one, much to the chagrin of my wife:

It was slightly scary, but worth it. Maybe.We found a great waterfall just south of Moab. At Ken's Lake, an irrigation pond turned Nat'l Forest just south of Moab, we found a Waterfall in the Desert. I did an arch o'er it and took this silly video:
 

To view it, pretend you are standing beside a stream looking down into the water and then you look downstream and upstream. But only watch it once -- it makes me seasick. At the bottom of the Ken's Lake Falls, there was a fantastic swimming hole at the bottom of a large fall, with rocks aplenty. I did a total of nine stacks, I think, in guerilla-stacking fashion. This female arch is a favorite:
Spooky, aye? Wednesday, July 18, 2007

 Just around the corner and up the hill, this balance that I did not do caught my eye:

If I lived there, I might cap that with something. Might not, too.

 The Desert around Moab is just full of stuff like that, making me feel some what inadequate, actually.

And here is another one that I had nothing to do with, this one in Arches National Park:  
Nice sunset in Arches, one of many there ...

 Speaking of which, my camera took this pic of Delicate Arch, which is the unofficial symbol of the State of Utah:
I love that shadow!

 We stayed at the Apache Motel again, though we didn't get the John Wayne Suite -- we got the trailer 'round back. But we love it and the AC works. When we stayed at the Apache two years ago, I built a Rock Ness Monster in a little garden area near the swimming pool. Barbara, the very kind lady who works there, named it "Cecil the Seasick Sea Monster" and drew a mouth on its head. Well, over time two of the arches fell, so I fixed him.  This is the new edition of Cecil:
The Apache is the only motel in town with a Rock Ness Monster.

 We went back to Zion, which had caught fire in our absence, and went for a hike up to the Emerald Pools. I did this stack at the trailhead:
I hope the photos wowed them in Peoria.

for my fellow tourists to photograph, and a very attractive young woman walked up and said she had seen my work on the Internet before. What are the odds of that? She took my picture, which made my day. She promised to send me one. We'll see.

There was lots more to my vacation and many more stacks I didn't photograph, like the six arches I did in the Virgin River. I've done more stacks and taken even more photos since we returned 72 hours ago, but am too tired right now to get them on the blog.

I would like to note that Sylvia, the Avant Dog, passed away today. We returned from vacation to find that she had taken a major nosedive, and today, we had to put her to sleep. I just could not bear to see her in such pain. She was a good dog around the Rockpile, only knocking over two stacks among the thousands she trod. She will be missed, and a special stack is coming just for her soon.  

It's family vacation time yet again, and this year, we're off to Moab, Utah for a week. Don't come over -- our dog  (named "Meanass Sumbitch" ) will be here and be hungry. 

I've been playing with some things other-than-natural of late:
The Outdoor Living Room expands ... 

 The Outdoor Living Room is plenty cool, IMHO. I don't know that anyone else thinks so, but I am fonder'n heck of it. The windows in the foreground of that photo were in my room, and when I was cleaning up for the baby shower that I hosted (not for my spouse, thankfully) I stacked the old window frames, the piece of copper and the old sewing machine parts in the configuration that you see here, though it was on the back porch and not in the Avant Garden Proper, and I decided I liked it and just moved it and made it stand independently instead of leaning. (Longest sentence in the history of this blog?)

I almost always go stackin' on the Fourth of July, leaving surprises around for the increased tourist traffic to discover. This year I rolled outta bed really early and drove the 39 miles to SkinnyDip Falls and did this, among other things:
Sorry 'bout the over-doctored photo.

 I hung around a few minutes and listened to a group of people come up the trail and see it. I wanted to jump up and say, "I did that for ya -- Happy Independence Day!" but I just sat there and let my ego inflate without saying a word. I felt myself blush so intently when a German coed yelled out to her companions, "Schoen!"  and pointed that I was worried that my head really was swelling. So I left.

On Saturday I heard that my Roadside Serpent had lost its head, so Sunday morning I drove the 19 miles out to Bent  Creek and fixed him, and did this thing again for good measure:
Under-utilized, that tall black stone is.

 I came back home and the whole Avant Family went down to the River to cool off a bit. While snapping this photo of four balancing rocks, this fifth one on the  edge tried so hard to get in the the row for the picture, but he just didn't make it:
First black and white photo on this blog, I think.

 Anyway, I will be outta contact for a while, but when I come back, I hope to have a camera card full of noteworthy pix -- if I can find a section of Utah that is not on fire.

I've been doing that ol' You Tube thing again. This is a collection of shorts that Rob did.