America the Beautiful

This will hopefully be my final 'blog from the barge' update as I'm to be plucked off this static platform in a few days for some small doses of reality in the city before embarking on my next vacation. I even managed to squeeze out one job out here since my last post, but the reality is that by the time I'm done with this hitch, I will have worked exactly 1 job start to finish. Not exactly the best career-enhancer, but I suppose I won't complain about getting paid. I'll just try to remember this when I'm in charge, if ever.

Anyway, my last posts had me frolicking about the southern hemisphere with friends and females. Well, after exploring new countries, I decided it was time to head to my homeland for some quality family frolics. That, and there was a Magoo family wedding to attend! These have become can't-miss gatherings since I really do enjoy my time with the Magoos, siblings and extended fam alike. My hitch in Saudi had been spent pretty much on the barge the whole time, where we got through 3 jobs pretty quickly. Upon my return to Udhailiyah, I headed out to monitor a water shut-off job that some of the newer specialists were doing. It was the first time I'd slept in a pickup in a few months, and it was just as NOT comfortable as I remember. However, our tools worked and when I got back to the base, I quickly packed up my stuff and headed to Khobar, for my flight out of the Kingdom.  

Lucky for me, AP was able to take some time off before she started working, so we met up in a place whose concrete jungle is where dreams are made of, says Alicia Keys: New York City. Despite the fact that I'd lived in Buffalo, NY for a few years of my childhood, I'd never made it to Manhattan itself. I met up with AP at the airport and we immediately headed down to Times Square, where we camped out at the lovely Westin for the duration of our Manhattan sojourn. Day 1 included sampling some of the famous New York-style pizza around the Square, consuming copious amounts of colored M&M's, embarking on a week-long challenge to finish two giant Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, and then trekking to the top of the Empire State Building for a bird's eye view of the 'Greatest City in the World.'

Saudi-themed M&M's

Hello King Kong

Atop the Empire

Freedom Tower

We also happened upon a random street-side food and drink festival right outside the flat-iron building. One of the stands had enormous watermelons cut in half and then filled with Vodka. Needless to say, AP and I heartily enjoyed one. After making a lap with the drink, we had at least 4 people ask us where they could get one. Chalk one up for spontaneity. 

Delicious watermelon vodka

Flatiron Building

One of the enduring things about New York is its absolutely amazing food everywhere you go. Since the city is tremendously diverse, there's food from all corners of the world represented. Our first night, AP and I went to one of her favorite Thai restaurants in the city, where we munched down our fair share of Pad Thai. She's an NYC veteran herself, with annual trips to visit her mom's side of the family there. She felt right at home at each of the delicious eating establishments we graced with our presence.

Day 2 took us down to Lower Manhattan, where we made a solemn visit the 9/11 Memorial. The Memorial was actually quite simple really. Two enormous waterfall pools sat exactly where World Trade Center 1 and World Trade Center 2 stood before that infamous Tuesday morning. I must say it was somewhat cathartic because 9/11 really did have a big impact on me and my views of the world. Living in the country where 15 of the 19 hijackers called home has certainly forced me to put things in perspective. I'm continually surprised what kind of opinions I get from people all over the world regarding 9/11 though. I've heard Syrians claim it was the Jews, Malaysians claim they still don't know who did it, and more recently, an American guy who's absolutely sure the American government had a hand in it. Perhaps I'm simply an old-fashioned student of logic who saw the act as what it was: an unabashed statement of extremist terrorism. I made it my mission to read a lot about the Kingdom, the Bin Laden family, and even former President Bush's own memoirs (perhaps not the most unadulterated view of history). However, nothing has been able to convince me that it was not an act of Al Qaeda, developed in part by Osama himself, who had proudly touted his previous terror attacks in East Africa and had anti-American views since at least the Persian Gulf war. I apologize for the diatribe, but I suppose I'm just amazed sometimes at how easily people's viewpoints can be shaped by popular perception. Perception can be perpetuated by the media, personal bias, and even fear. It's easy to shape things in your mind to justify your own beliefs. I know I'm guilty of it too. Maybe it's just a sad state of human existence that we can never be truly 'free' thinkers.

Despite my incoherent rambling, I still think the 9/11 Memorial was quite nice. The names of those who perished line the waterfall pools and the enormous Freedom Tower, set to open in 2014, stands adjacent to the site. The day was ominously cloudy and helped reinforce the somber mood I was feeling. I suppose I only hope people remember 9/11 as an example of what can happen when extremism finds its roots and people are convinced that killing innocent civilians is justifiable by their own religious dogmas. This is certainly one of the reasons why I've chosen to shed my own religious loins and opt for a more rational and (hopefully) logical view of the world around me.

Anywho, after the Memorial, AP and I headed down to Wall Street to sniff the scents of capitalism while aimlessly wandering about lower Manhattan. We ended up going to S'mac for a late lunch, which is basically the greatest macaroni joint in the history of the world (probably). Dinner time was spent with a family friend of AP's, who regaled us with tales of her own recent trip to Australia to visit AP's fam there.

South Tower Pool

Solemnity

Our third day began with a trip to the Museum of Natural History, where we found our inner Ben Stiller and enjoyed an awesome showing at the planetarium there. We trekked a bit around Central Park, trying to find some sunny peace. We also indulged our sweet teeth at Serendipity, a famed restaurant that serves some of the most amazing and creative desserts around. One instant-diabetes chocolate sundae later, and we were pooped. That evening we were treated by AP's cousin and her husband to tickets to the hottest show on Broadway: 'Kinky Boots.' It was the story of an English businessman who found himself running his deceased father's shoe business into the ground. He ends up finding a niche and under-served market with drag queens and cross-dressers. So he enlists the help of one of the queens and makes boots for that unique market. All in all, the show was fantastic. The songs were booming with sound and dancing. I felt myself subconsciously rocking my legs to the beat of every song. The music was written by Cyndi Lauper, who absolutely deserved credit for much of its success. The show also ended up winning the 2013 Tony Award for Best Musical. I highly recommend it, might even open up a mind or two.

So much history

So serendipitous

So...walk in the Park

Our final full day in Manhattan started off with a trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art ('The Met'). There were plenty of American art pieces, as well as art from all around the world, spanning centuries. We also decided to indulge a little bit and go shopping on 5th Avenue, since apparently wearing Crocs and Oakleys isn't cool in places that aren't the oilfield. That evening we met up with two of my very good friends, one who I went to high school with and my friend Sara, who used to work with me at SLB back in the day. We all feasted on amazing Greek food (and a shitload of wine), before heading to the oldest pub in Manhattan, McSorley's. We slugged a healthy amount of beers before making our way to another bar where shots and dancing were on tap. Pretty awesome Friday night in NYC.

The next morning was a harsh reminder of what drinking does to the body of a 26-year old male. Staving off puking was the only thought on my mind for the first 5 hours of the day. AP was hurting as well, but we got ourselves together and continued our food safari in Times Square, snacking on a massive foot-long hot dog that seemed like such a good idea at the time. It was not.

Pig

We took the train out to lovely Long Island to spend the weekend at AP's cousin's place in Huntington, an appropriate familial move considering it was AP's birthday weekend. We went out to the movies, checking out Hangover 3 (better than 2, worse than 1), and had amazing seafood, including my new-found favorite soup ever, New England Clam Chowder, which is decidedly better than Manhattan Clam Chowder.

AP's birthday was spent frolicking about her aunt's pool and getting very casually drunk on birthday cake and sunshine. Fun fact: her aunt's house is actually the house from 'The Money Pit' and apparently when they bought it, they faced a similar situation as in the movie. Her grandma came and paid everyone a visit, despite her deteriorating health, and I know it made AP's day. A nighttime viewing of 'Zero Dark Thirty' put everyone in a particularly sleepy and patriotic mood.

It's your birthday!

A trip to Long Island wouldn't be complete without a trip to the Hamptons. AP and I rented a car and sped eastward, stopping in East Hampton for some shopping en route to our hotel in Montauk, the most eastern point on Long Island. The Hamptons were certainly very nice and definitely oozed with money. Montauk was a little more like a fishing town, and it even had a little bit of Leland feel (for all of the Michigan folk out there). Unfortunately, we got rained on most of our time there, but we did manage to visit the Montauk Lighthouse, which was actually commissioned by President George Washington (fun fact #2!). We continued our smorgasbord by inhaling some of John's Famous Pancakes (and bacon and fruit and eggs and fat).

Panorama from the top of the lighthouse

Walks along the beach

Sun finally starting to come out

History nerd

On our way to gastrointestinal victory

After Montauk, AP and I headed back to Huntington and spent our final night in NY at her grandma's house, happily indulging in macaroni and Gin, the game not the drink.

I really liked finally seeing NYC after years of only seeing it on TV and in movies. The quality of the food really struck me, as did the expensive price tags on everything. I'm also pretty happy I got to meet a lot of AP's family, since it just reinforced the things I already saw in her. Unfortunately for her, I got to return the favor the next couple days as we flew to suburban Detroit for a huge meetup of the Magoo clan.

It was the first time I had been back to Detroit since Thanksgiving 2011, and it was awesome to experience it in June, when the weather was just about perfect. We met up with our old buddy from our Peru trip, Grunt, and a few of his friends for some spectacularly greasy Hunter House burgers and even some post-burger ice cream. Like I said, food safari.

The day before the wedding we took care of some shopping and I got things together for my next Saudi visa. We hung out at my cousin's house where AP got to meet a lot of the cousins and aunts and uncles. That night we grabbed dinner and headed to Dick O Dows, Birmingham's favorite pub for years.

Hanging out with my beautiful niece!

That Saturday was wedding day and it was just a bit warm for Michigan, but even so, we suited up, glossed our shoes, put on our lipstick and heels, and headed to the church for my cousin Sarah's marriage to her longtime boyfriend Jordan.  The ceremony was excellently decorated and the couple really just beamed the entire day. Naturally, momma Magoo was crying within minutes, but luckily the priest who oversaw the ceremony was a long-time family friend and did a splendid job of personalizing the homily. After the 'I do's were exchanged, everybody headed out to Orchard Lake to attend a pre-party at one of our family friend's lakeside house. A few cocktails and selected meats later, we all crowded into Orchard Lake Country Club and enjoyed the food and dancing and drinks and general tomfoolery that goes hand-in-hand with Magoo weddings. The night ended with a very memorable rendition of 'Touch Me,' performed by the father of the bride.

Upgrade from sporty Oakleys to fashionable(?) Ray-Bans

Beauty and the beast

The day after the wedding, I drove out with my folks and AP to Ann Arbor (1) to show AP just how awesome and beautiful my old college campus is and (2) to visit my sole remaining grandparent, mom's mom. Unfortunately, she too is in fairly poor health, more mental than physical, so the visit was honestly more sad than uplifting. I hope I'm long gone before my mind goes. From there, we all flew out to lovely San Francisco!

I took AP around the town a little bit, hitting up some of the touristy stuff like Fisherman's Wharf, Golden Gate Bridge and Park, Muir Woods, etc. I also took her up to Mount Diablo for another awesome sunset up by the folks' place. It was a great little ending to our trip together, as AP flew back to Australia. It would be more than 2 long months before I would see her again.

Clam Chowder again....

AP likes the seals

Such a local

So many trees

She even found some woodland creatures

After AP departed, I focused my energy on my next little adventure, a climbing course in the Sierra Nevadas of eastern California. I'd booked the 6-day course a few months earlier with California Alpine Guides and was pretty excited because it was to offer a variety of rock climbing and mountaineering skills. I made the long drive from San Fran due east through Stockton and Modesto and the winding mountainous passes of the northern Sierra Nevadas, through the far northern reaches of Yosemite National Park, all the way to the tiny town of Bridgeport. I met our guide Forrest, a guy my age originally from Massachusetts who'd been climbing since high school, as well as the other customer on the trip, a French Catholic priest who is part of the Dominican Rite sect of Christianity that still celebrates the mass in the original Latin. He was a pretty interesting guy, having traveled extensively all over the world preaching and teaching to 'the faithful,' as he liked to call them. He also said mass at 5:30 am every day and only removed his priestly garb when he absolutely had to. Our conversations almost always involved the church in one way or another, and he expounded on some of his views, the most fascinating being his theory of devil worship among rock stars.

That first day we went to the granite basin area around Bridgeport and did some basic rock climbing. Forrest showed us a couple things I hadn't really heard of at that point as far as techniques go, specifically the reason for the design of climbing shoes (rubber, big surface area) and their ability to grip at extreme angles. I held up fairly well, probably due to the training I'd been doing after the website warned to be in good shape. I was definitely tired in my arms and my legs were surprisingly torn up too.

We parked all of our stuff at this campsite outside of Bridgeport and set up our tents and whatnot alongside a nice fresh-water glacier-fed stream. Forrest was a pretty awesome cook and every night he pulled out something simple but spectacular. I snuggled into my tent that night and passed out pretty hard.

Viewing area along my drive

Safe driving Jeff

The Mono Lake basin

Granite Basin climb - 300ft

Made it!

Day 2 took us to a different rock formation, where Forrest went through a lot of the equipment, including all of the rock climbing gear - hexes, cams, tri-cams, nuts, ropes, etc. It was really the first time I'd seen or used any of the pieces of equipment, but I found I was particularly good at using the nuts for anchoring, no pun intended. We had a man-sized lunch at a gas station on our way back to the granite basin, where we begun our first multi-pitch climb. A pitch is literally just a length of rope, usually 150-200 ft, so any climb that's multi-pitch will involve the lead climber going first with the rope attached to him. He'll set anchors along the way and when he gets to the maximum length of the rope, or the nearest good resting spot, he'll anchor himself and the next climber will follow him up, unclipping himself from the anchors as he passes. The final person in the group will follow after the 2nd-to-last climber reaches the top of the pitch, and the final person will follow up, but after he has reached each anchor, he will 'clean' it, meaning remove the anchor from it's grip and take it with him up until he has reached the top of the pitch. Then everyone is at a good resting place with all their equipment still intact, so the process repeats itself.

That day we did a 3-pitch climb to get to the top of the crag. It was tough but I did make it and I felt like I moved fairly well, although not nearly as well as Forrest. We also tried practicing our rappelling skills, where I found I'm particularly horrible, as I gashed up my arm pretty well. Rappelling is where you are tied to an anchor and you descend by slowly getting into basically a seated position with your legs pointed straight out and your feet touching the crag. Then you slowly walk down the face of the rock. I could never really get in a good seated position, so I flopped around like an idiot bashing myself a few times. Luckily the scars looked cool. Anyway, at the end of that day, we grabbed some dinner at the gas station by our camp site, since they had a decent Mexican restaurant there. A few beers later and we were passed out, ready to head to the mountain the next day

That's the priest way up there climbing

He did pretty well too

Much-needed break

Arms could not have been more tired

Forrest was the man

The next day we took off for Mammoth Lakes to pick up a few small pieces of gear we'd need for the mountain. We finally entered the Twin Lakes area by about 10 am and crossed into the campground that surrounds the trail head. We loaded up our bags (each probably 50 lbs) and started our hike in the shade of the pine trees that cover the lower parts of the Sierras. The hike wasn't particularly grueling that first day, but carrying all the equipment was definitely more tiring than I'd anticipated. Also, fun fact #3, you can get underwear blisters. My bag was pulled so tight to my waste, that it actually created a blister at my underwear line. WTF! Anyway, after about 4 or 5 hours of solid hiking, we made it up to a small glacier lake at like 10000 feet. The area would be our base camp for the next few days. We had spectacular views of our mountain to be conquered, Matterhorn Peak. There was a 700-ft arete that we would have to multi-pitch climb in order to get to the top, and it was just staring at us in the face. Taunting and haunting us. The snow level basically started a few hundred feet from our campsite, and the little stream coming down from the mountains provided excellent and extremely cold freshwater. We set up camp, with the priest and I in one tent (don't worry, he wasn't THAT kind of priest) and Forrest had his one little one-man sleeping-bag-with-a-cover-thingy. He made a pretty awesome Thai dinner that night. The night's sky was both chilling and beautiful, with thousands upon thousands of stars showing up to keep us company.

That's alot of gear

Still among the pines

The Sawtooth Range of the Sierra Nevadas

Approaching snow areas

At our base camp, pointing to Matterhorn

That's Matterhorn directly above me

Our next day on the mountain was really a 'skills day.' We started our day late and began with snow training. Proper snow climbing was discussed, but more importantly was the self-arrest lesson. There are ways to stop yourself with your ice axe depending on the position that are when you fall and how you are going down the snow. We went through each one a lot to make sure we got good form down and I got pretty comfortable with it. Drive the ax hard, dig with your feet, find your footing, and get back up! We also went over the different knots we can tie with the ropes and when we should use each knot. We set some more anchors in different types of rock and differently angled cracks. We went to sleep early that night because summit day was the next day and we wanted to be moving by 4am.

That's some serious crag

Marmot alert!

Sun on the mountain = not cold = good

Base camp panorama

Just in case you're confused about the destination

That night I hardly slept at all. It might've been because I'd watched the Red Wedding from Game of Thrones a few nights before the trip and I ended up re-tracing every single episode that led to the events of the Red Wedding, just to see how it could've been avoided. Either that or nerves. But probably Red Wedding.

Anyway, we rose at like 3am to get our gear ready and we were moving by 4. It took a few hours for us to get to the base of the massive rock face that we were about to climb. We had to ditch our crampons and ice axes at the base of our climb, since they weren't necessary going forward. Forrest led the pitches, with Father going second, and me following up the rear, cleaning the anchors.  The first pitch went pretty smoothly, but after the second one I was already feeling pretty fatigued. The third pitch also started with a lot of lateral movement along a ridge that was at least 300 feet up. I was actually scared out of my mind and literally crawled along the ridge. I seriously struggled to make it up one of the cracks that we were supposed to work ourselves into. By the end of the third pitch, my arms were completely torched. Luckily, since Forrest and Father went before me every time, I had a lot of rest. Father also was about half as fast as Forrest, so I got extra rest when he went. The fourth pitch was pretty short and fairly manageable as we kept working north. The fifth pitch was really tough as it was really the last stretch. I tried to make a couple really powerful moves and just ended up flailing about and relying on Forrest's anchoring. Eventually I got to the top and we noticed just how cloudy and cold it was at the top of the mountain. We had one final pitch, which was pretty much just a lateral move. The only issue was that it was now extremely foggy and cold and the start of the pitch began with us toting a line of a ridge. So Forrest went out with the rope and after about 30 feet, he completely disappeared in the fog. When he finally yelled out 'Ok, Father, you can start!,' we had absolutely no idea where he was or how far along the ridge he was. I struggled to tote the ridge as my shoes were finally getting pretty slippery and there weren't a lot of good places to support my feet. But I lumbered over some boulders and eventually met up with the guys. From there, we took a few short strides and wound up at the summit of Matterhorn Peak! I'll admit I was pretty exhausted, at least in my arms. I would've taken some pictures except my camera had died and the clouds were now spitting snow and hail at us. It was still tremendously foggy. We signed the ledger that people had left at the top and discovered people had also left a flask of whiskey and a joint. Pretty natural selections for California I'd say.

We slowly started making our way down the back of the mountain, which early on didn't require us to rope up. However, the weather really started getting worse, with high winds and constant snow beating us up. I'm not sure we were as appropriately dressed as we should've been, considered the amount of sunshine we'd seen on our way up the arete. We started sliding down the mud and roped up to each other to make sure we didn't lose anyone. The weather did not let up at all as we slowly trudged along until we got to the bottom of the arete where we picked up our ice axes and crampons. Considering the snow wasn't very icy, just rocky and muddy, we left the crampons on our bags and continued in hiking boots. We made our way down across the giant gulch that leads up to the summit. We also decided to do a little bit of glissading to expedite our trip. Glissading, as you may or may not remember, is basically just sliding down on your ass. Luckily we managed to cover a lot of ground doing this as we escaped the high Alpine weather. I even had to use my new self-arrest skills a couple times during the glissade. We got back down to camp at about 2pm and as luck would have it, the weather cleared up exactly as we got there. No more rain or snow or clouds or fog. I certainly learned a very important lesson of mountaineering that day: weather can change instantly, so prepare for anything. I was pretty glad to get back and get rested at base camp. We were all pretty exhausted, but the hardest parts of the mountain were done. I'm also pretty proud I was able to make it up and down as well as I did. Of course I was terrified, but once you're on your way up the mountain, you basically just have to keep going to the top and get down, regardless of any fear or fatigue. After a couple hours of relaxing, Forrest made another awesome meal and we chatted a bit before passing out comfortably.

Start of our summit attempt

Still has energy

Had some pretty awesome views up there

Testing out the anchors

About to go on the scariest ridge ever

Crapping my pants

It's still nice and sunny

Started out pretty cold. Ended cold too

Our final day we woke up pretty late and started packing up all our gear. Tent came down. Clothes were put away. Gear was organized. Packs were re-loaded. We had one final granola breakfast and started the long hike down from base camp to the trailhead. The day got warmer and warmer, and the added weight of the packs didn't help. I've found that I'm much better going up a mountain than down a mountain. Since my legs are like 95% of my body, I'm a bit top heavy, so going down is always a chore. Down in one of the rocky areas, I tried to jump between two boulders and slipped and rolled my left ankle pretty hard. I was extremely pissed because I feared I had sprained the same ligaments as I did playing basketball a year before. Luckily I just kept walking and stretching it and by the time we got to the trailhead, it felt pseudo-normal, even though a little bit swollen. It was about 11am, so we drove into Bridgeport and grabbed one final meal of cheeseburgers together. We headed over to the ranger station where our cars were all parked and said our final goodbyes and exchanged contact info. Forrest said he was going to attempt a climb of El Cap in Yosemite in the upcoming weeks and Father would go back to San Francisco to preach, as well as lead the youths of his parish in outdoors activities. I enjoyed the long drive back home across California. It was pretty peaceful and I was so relieved to have finished the climb, where I learned a lot of new skills, gained a bunch of mountaineering knowledge, and even learned a thing or two about myself.

 Back in SF, I found out my visa got delayed by a few days, much to the dismay of the boys back in Saudi, who apparently were struggling with high job demand and a personnel shortage. Either way, I spent a couple more days at home and even got to celebrate a nice Father's Day with my dad and younger brother, who was about to drive cross-country back to Detroit to start working. A few tears from mom, and I was off to the airport, heading back to the kingdom for another hitch.

I spent that next hitch almost entirely on the barge, unfortunately. I tried to schedule one of my mandatory courses in Rio de Janeiro, but unfortunately SLB handled the visa process rather poorly. I also had to cancel a couple safety classes I had booked because we couldn't get anyone else out to the barge. All in all, I was out on the barge for an entire month, which coincided almost exclusively with the holy month of Ramadan. Therefore, activity moved extremely slow. The crews did less than the bare minimum during the day, and very little at night too. Luckily, since all the Aramco guys were also fasting, they didn't push us too much. I really only did one operation during my entire month out there. 'How did I stay busy?', you may wonder. Well, I continued to check off movies from AFI's Top 100 Movies of All Time list. I've now seen 85 out of the top 100. I also read a few good books, including the epic Atlas Shrugged, which definitely reinforced some of my more individualistic viewpoints and rationalist thinking. I managed to exercise by doing ab exercises in Wireline's cabin and using some of our downhole tools as weights. I'd gotten pretty comfortable with the barge by the time I left, developing pretty good relationships with the client and crews. The food of course got pretty boring, but I'm glad I managed to take care of a few personal goals despite the slow operations out there.

I flew off the barge on a helicopter and got back in time to depart for my next little adventure: Australia again!