Sent Packin'

Greetings from a relaxing evening in Fort Collins, Colo. With a little time off from traveling, the frequent flier miles are once again rolling, err, flying. I often debate what to bring with me to ensure a speedy and minimally painful traverse of the TSA gauntlet. My Think Tank Photo Airport Security bag has been quoted by security in the past as being a "busy bag."



I normally pack my 400mm, 70-200mm, 24-70mm, and 16-35mm lenses along with two Canon Mark II bodies. 580ex strobe, spare batteries, tape, credentials and other odds n ends fill in the nooks. And of course my Canon G9 point n shoot (took the photo). However, my biggest security worry is my monopod, for obvious weapon-like reasons. My busy bag typically has a 50% rate of getting through without extra screening. Gotta love consistency!

In my Kelty Redwing 3100 backpack (just small enough to count as a carry on, just big enough to hold a lot of crap!) is my laptop, Think Tank Photo belt to wear while shooting the game, clothes, book, snacks, and toiletries. A ton of stuff for 48 hours away from home, but the workout you get from lifting this stuff in and out of overhead bins can't be beat.

My first trip to Fort Collins was a post-midnight, deserted street, freezing weather, iced sidewalk journey into a college town that at first seemed like just another cold Mountain West Conference town. I've been back a half dozen times and love it here more each time. This weekend, the weather is in the 70s during the day and cool at night, giving my California-blooded body a break from the bubbling desert. We made a dinner stop at Bisetti's Italian Restaurant for a damn good marathon of eating indulgence.



College Avenue is what every college town should be like. Rows of restaurants and retail shops, topped with loft apartments and student dorms, framing a pedestrian and bicycle friendly road overlooking places like "The Drunken Monkey." The bar across the street from the restaurant, not the two drunk monkeys about to start a fight in the middle of the road. It had all the atmosphere of a city not too small, not too big. The CSU marching band's fight song echoed down the street where families, couples, friends, meandered for a night out. We even spotted the Colo. State volleyball team together picking up dessert. Could you imagine this on Fremont Street in Vegas?



Back at the hotel, I just watched the media take a quick break from its creepy obsession with Sarah Palin to report the O.J. Simpson verdict. If karma exists, it has an ironic way of debuting 13 years later to the day after O.J.'s not-guilty verdict was read in LA. Unfortunately for him, that's not how justice is done in Vegas. I'm laying here, typing on a king size bed with six pillows in a Marriott, while The Juice lays on a cot in the Clark County Detention Center. Then again, I've never kidnapped, robbed, or wrote a book about killing anyone. I didn't get the opportunity to cover the trial, but I was down there last winter for the preliminary hearing, so as a farewell, here ya go:



The theme of this entry is "sent packin," so in the spirit of sport, I have some shots from the UNR Wolfpack's fourth consecutive successful year in painting the cannon blue. After last year's defeat, I offered some sort of optimistic cheer about getting it back this year. Call it rivalry apathy, but this time I'm exercising some sort of objectivity and say the team that wanted it more, got it. Your defense straight up didn't show up. The other team's QB rushed for 240 yards. Your coach is 0-4 against the in-state rival. 'Nuf said. See what happens next year.