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June 20, 2010, a Sunday
Pawnee National Grassland to Parker (K2), Colorado, USA
— No Swift Foxes today
We awoke around 5:50 as cows were rocking the RV. There was a solid cloud layer that would be good for photography. I had my regular breakfast and made instant coffee to go and J started a mug of tea steeping.
We entered the blind around 7:00 and there weren't any Swift Foxes out. We waited, and light rain, like mist, started falling around 7:25. The rain became steady around 7:45 and stopped around 7:55. We waited and waited and the clouds started to break up, but no foxes came out. We started to pack up the blind around 9:30.
We returned to the RV and I selected five images for the blog. I processed them through Capture One (C1) and then started to process them in Photoshop CS5. Because the first image was shot at ISO 640, I wanted to run some noise reduction on it. One of the reasons that I had delayed upgrading to CS5 was that Noise Ninja, my usual noise reduction software, hasn't been updated yet to run with CS5. After I learned that CS5 has a new noise reduction capability that is comparable to Noise Ninja, I decided to upgrade to CS5. Well, the Filter > Noise > Reduce Noise... of CS5 didn't appear to do much at all. After I did a Google search, I discovered that the new-and-improved noise reduction in CS5 is part of Camera Raw — not what I'd call part of Photoshop at all. So, I went back to Capture One (C1) and processed a second variant of two images using noise reduction in Capture One (C1). Then I brought in the noise-reduction version of the first image into Photoshop and placed it on top of the regular version of the image, and I could proceed as I usually would to combine the noise-reduced image for the background, where the noise of the original would stick out, and the original image for the fox where noise reduction usually removes fur detail and the noise isn't a problem. Then I discovered another "problem" with Photoshop CS5 — it has iPhone-like behavior when using the hand tool to move the image around. If the mouse is moving when you let go of the click, then the image keeps moving — it doesn't stop like it did in previous versions. It's very frustrating to consciously have to stop moving the mouse before letting go of the click. Did I mention I don't like Photoshop CS5 — don't get me started! After I finished processing the five images in Photoshop, we prepped the RV to move and I hooked up the Jeep to tow. We got underway around 12:05.
I had Clif Bars for lunch as we drove.
We stopped at the Taco Bell in Eaton so J could go in to get take-away: a hard taco and an enchirito.
We stopped at a Cenex in Greeley around 12:55 to dump, and there was a trailer and an RV ahead of us in line at the dump station. The RV ahead of us got out of line before the guy with the trailer even started dumping. After waiting quite a while, we were finally able to dump. We left around 1:25.
We stayed on US-85 out of town and made our way onto I-76, US-6, I-270, I-70, and I-225 before getting onto South Parker Road — the slow way. That's how our GPS routed us when J told her (our GPS is named "bossy") to take us to Parker, but I would have taken I-25 because there's less stop and go. Just about the time we got onto I-225, J said she would have preferred taking I-25 too.
We made a short side trip to my storage unit so I could swap a backup hard drive that I hadn't swapped in a while.
We went to a King Soopers around 3:15 to do some grocery shopping. We both went in, and after I finished picking up some items, I returned to the RV around 3:45 so that J could "wander the aisles aimlessly" without me. I started to work up a blog entry. J returned to the RV and put away some things before we left around 4:30.
We went to a Loaf 'n Jug to fill up the RV at $2.499/gal using our 10¢/gal King Soopers discount. The price was higher than we expected, but we're always glad to use our 10¢/gal discount.
Unfortunately, a Diamond Shamrock (gas station) just down the road was selling their gas for $2.469/gal — no special discount required. :(
We went to the One Stop Coin Laundry in Parker around 5:15 to do a bunch of laundry. After we started the laundry, we went online through their free WiFi with our computers in the RV — perfect! After the laundry finished, I made dinner.
We had dinner around 7:10 of leftover Blue-Cheese Cheeseburgers and veggies and some "fresh" King Soopers potato salad — I was starving and the food was great.
We went to our friend G's around 7:45 to take on fresh water. We didn't take on fresh water when we dumped in Greeley because there were more people waiting to dump after us and the water we picked up there before was on the soft side and I disliked its taste — the Parker water is much better. We visited with G and JP in the RV for a while as we took on water.
We reached our nice parking space in Parker Colorado around 8:30. I set up Dropbox and Evernote on my mother's iPad. I tweaked some other things on the iPad, and it was ready to go.
We entered the blind around 7:00 and there weren't any Swift Foxes out. We waited, and light rain, like mist, started falling around 7:25. The rain became steady around 7:45 and stopped around 7:55. We waited and waited and the clouds started to break up, but no foxes came out. We started to pack up the blind around 9:30.
We returned to the RV and I selected five images for the blog. I processed them through Capture One (C1) and then started to process them in Photoshop CS5. Because the first image was shot at ISO 640, I wanted to run some noise reduction on it. One of the reasons that I had delayed upgrading to CS5 was that Noise Ninja, my usual noise reduction software, hasn't been updated yet to run with CS5. After I learned that CS5 has a new noise reduction capability that is comparable to Noise Ninja, I decided to upgrade to CS5. Well, the Filter > Noise > Reduce Noise... of CS5 didn't appear to do much at all. After I did a Google search, I discovered that the new-and-improved noise reduction in CS5 is part of Camera Raw — not what I'd call part of Photoshop at all. So, I went back to Capture One (C1) and processed a second variant of two images using noise reduction in Capture One (C1). Then I brought in the noise-reduction version of the first image into Photoshop and placed it on top of the regular version of the image, and I could proceed as I usually would to combine the noise-reduced image for the background, where the noise of the original would stick out, and the original image for the fox where noise reduction usually removes fur detail and the noise isn't a problem. Then I discovered another "problem" with Photoshop CS5 — it has iPhone-like behavior when using the hand tool to move the image around. If the mouse is moving when you let go of the click, then the image keeps moving — it doesn't stop like it did in previous versions. It's very frustrating to consciously have to stop moving the mouse before letting go of the click. Did I mention I don't like Photoshop CS5 — don't get me started! After I finished processing the five images in Photoshop, we prepped the RV to move and I hooked up the Jeep to tow. We got underway around 12:05.
I had Clif Bars for lunch as we drove.
We stopped at the Taco Bell in Eaton so J could go in to get take-away: a hard taco and an enchirito.
We stopped at a Cenex in Greeley around 12:55 to dump, and there was a trailer and an RV ahead of us in line at the dump station. The RV ahead of us got out of line before the guy with the trailer even started dumping. After waiting quite a while, we were finally able to dump. We left around 1:25.
We stayed on US-85 out of town and made our way onto I-76, US-6, I-270, I-70, and I-225 before getting onto South Parker Road — the slow way. That's how our GPS routed us when J told her (our GPS is named "bossy") to take us to Parker, but I would have taken I-25 because there's less stop and go. Just about the time we got onto I-225, J said she would have preferred taking I-25 too.
We made a short side trip to my storage unit so I could swap a backup hard drive that I hadn't swapped in a while.
We went to a King Soopers around 3:15 to do some grocery shopping. We both went in, and after I finished picking up some items, I returned to the RV around 3:45 so that J could "wander the aisles aimlessly" without me. I started to work up a blog entry. J returned to the RV and put away some things before we left around 4:30.
We went to a Loaf 'n Jug to fill up the RV at $2.499/gal using our 10¢/gal King Soopers discount. The price was higher than we expected, but we're always glad to use our 10¢/gal discount.
Unfortunately, a Diamond Shamrock (gas station) just down the road was selling their gas for $2.469/gal — no special discount required. :(
We went to the One Stop Coin Laundry in Parker around 5:15 to do a bunch of laundry. After we started the laundry, we went online through their free WiFi with our computers in the RV — perfect! After the laundry finished, I made dinner.
We had dinner around 7:10 of leftover Blue-Cheese Cheeseburgers and veggies and some "fresh" King Soopers potato salad — I was starving and the food was great.
We went to our friend G's around 7:45 to take on fresh water. We didn't take on fresh water when we dumped in Greeley because there were more people waiting to dump after us and the water we picked up there before was on the soft side and I disliked its taste — the Parker water is much better. We visited with G and JP in the RV for a while as we took on water.
We reached our nice parking space in Parker Colorado around 8:30. I set up Dropbox and Evernote on my mother's iPad. I tweaked some other things on the iPad, and it was ready to go.