Raible Designs

July 2019: Road Trips, Family, Van Life, Cape Code, KCDC, and NYC

Matt Raible — Mon, 26 Aug 2019 21:43:50 -0600

This July was one for the books! I started traveling with JHipster Conf and kept traveling until That Conference in August. There was some vacation mixed in (Montana and Cape Cod), but I also worked out of my VW Van for a few days, spoke at KCDC, attended a family reunion, and did a NYC JUG Tour.

I flew home just in time for Devoxx4Kids Denver and Trish and my 6th anniversary. A dream came true for me when I watched Abbie and Jack teach the Devoxx4Kids workshop.

The beginning of August kept the travel rolling with a company shindig in Napa, a friend's wedding in Half Moon Bay, and a crazy flight schedule to THAT Conference and back.

Let's just say I'm glad to be home. 😊

You can find more pictures from my summer adventures on Flickr.

Raible Road Trip #70: To Jekyll Island and Back

Matt Raible — Thu, 4 Feb 2016 10:43:09 -0700

My Dad's 70th birthday was January 16, 2015. Years ago, we started talking about celebrating this event and suggested we go somewhere warm. Trish and I proposed Hawaii, Mexico, or even Cuba. My Dad had his own idea: he wanted to go to Jekyll Island, Georgia. He spent a few high school years in Brunswick, GA and had fond memories of the place and weather. He also wanted to drive there, because road trips are awesome. At least they are in my family. We've done many family road trips over the years; the last one was in July.

One of the great joys in owning a VW Vanagon Westfalia is having the ability to sleep anywhere. Home is where your van is. We did a bunch of van repairs and upgrades last fall: rebuilt the transmission, added modern headlights, installed a Truck Fridge and a Propex heater. It was finally in tip-top shape for winter camping (or a road trip), so I suggested to my parents that we drive it to Georgia, via New Orleans. They agreed and we all smiled with thoughts of visiting the Big Easy. We'd never been.

My parents flew to Denver a few days before we started. Our journey began early Sunday morning, January 10th. We left Denver around 6am and I spent the first couple hours driving in the dark, eastbound on I-70. Within the first hundred miles, the van's odometer quit working, so we had to rely on the gas gauge to know when to fill up. For anyone that's owned a vanagon, you'll know their gas gauges are fairly unreliable. Tom Hanks even talked about this on the David Letterman show.

My mom took the second shift and when she asked me if we had enough gas to make it another 50 miles, I say "yep, it sure looks like it". 20 minutes later, we were on the side of I-70, out of gas. We grabbed the empty jerry can off the back and started walking to the next exit, which wasn't far, but it was cold. Within a couple minutes, a trucker stopped to give us a ride. I hopped in and my mom walked back to the van. The trucker, Don, was super cool and drove me to a nearby gas station and back. It was the first time I'd ridden in a semi truck and it turned out to be a pretty cool experience. We decided to stop for gas whenever the fuel gauge hit the orange zone from then on.

We spent the first night with my Aunt Donna and Uncle Dale, in Clever, Missouri. We had a lot of fun visiting with them and talked for hours, both before bed and the next morning.

I spent that night in the van and tried out the new Reflectix insulation my dad and I made the day before. It was 12°F outside that night and plenty warm inside the van.

The next day, we drove a few hours to Hot Springs, Arkansas. We marveled at the bathhouses from a bygone era and stayed in a Hot Springs National Park KOA.

Tuesday, we drove south, across the mighty Mississippi to New Orleans. We arrived at Ponchartrain Landing, just after dark and enjoyed dinner at the RV Park's restaurant. We were impressed with the food and the live music. We caught an Uber into the French Quarter and enjoyed live music from the Treme Brass Band at d.b.a..

The next day, we spent touring the French Quarter, learning about its history and basking in the soulful atmosphere.

Thursday, we continued our journey, driving to Panama City, Florida and stopping to see the USS Alabama along the way.

When we started driving on Friday, the Syncro had a loud knocking in the left year. I posted this to the Vanagon Owners group on Facebook and they quickly diagnosed it as a bad CV joint. The noise went away at highway speeds.

We made it to Jekyll Island by late afternoon and I took a quick nap before picking up Trish and the kids from the Jacksonville airport around midnight.

My dad's brother, Jim, and sister, Mary, arrived in Jekyll Island before we did. Jim's wife Maryann shares a birthday with my dad, so we celebrated on Saturday with cards, laughter and lots of smiles. We rented bikes from a shop nearby and had a blast biking around the island and walking on the beaches.

One of the highlights of the weekend was doing Jack's science experiment. He'd brought a kit to grow bacteria in Petri dishes so we rode our bikes around the island and stopped at various restaurants. We asked kitchen managers to swab their countertops for us, then we captured the result in different dishes. It was a warm sunny day and all the restaurants were very helpful. We completed our mission in time to watch the Broncos beat the Steelers that evening.

I returned Trish and the kids to the airport on Monday and they flew back to Denver. I worked remotely for the rest of the week while my parents, aunts and uncle spent long hours together exploring the island. They talked about memories of their youth, took a lot of walks together, did some shopping and did what older people do: watched The Weather Channel. A historic snowstorm was headed for the east coast and it could alter flights home to New York, as well as our route back to Denver.

Our trip back to Denver began early Friday morning, January 22nd. I was eager to get home for the AFC Championship game on Sunday. We dropped my Aunt Mary off at the airport in Jacksonville around 7am and drove through Florida, staying south on I-10 to avoid the storm. There was lots of rain and wind, but only for a few hours. We made it to Shreveport, Louisiana that evening and stayed at a KOA. We made it 900 miles the first day. With 960 miles left, we knew Saturday would be rough, but we could make it back in time for the game!

Saturday was sunny in Texas and we spent most of the day driving through it.

The knocking noise from the CV came back, but we knew there was no stopping now. We pulled into Denver around 11pm that night, finishing our 4000 mile road trip to Jekyll Island and back.

What a fun trip! It certainly helped that we had no breakdowns. Yes, we lost a hubcap, the CV needed to be replaced and the odometer stopped working. However, these were all easy to fix and the odometer even started working again on the way home. We made it back in time for the Broncos game and Trish and I had a blast at the tailgate before watching the Broncos beat the Patriots.

One other highlight of the trip was that The Bus was this close to being finished. The shop working on it was sending me pictures the whole time and set the expectation that it would be finished within days. Unfortunately, they discovered some issues while driving it (dead battery, leaks in the gas tank), so they determined there was still work to do. Nevertheless, they invited us down for a test drive. My parents and I drove down Monday afternoon, hopped in it for a ride and quickly broke down within a couple miles. The battery was charged enough to start it, but when the engine died at a light, there was no juice left. We pushed it off to the side of the road, called for help to get it jump-started and drove it back to the shop. With all the snow on the ground in Denver, I'm OK if it takes a few more weeks to complete.

More on Flickr → Raible Road Trip #70 Album

I also named both our VWs on this trip. The '66 21-Window will now be known as "Hefe", and we're calling the '90 Syncro Westy "Stout". Hefe can be attributed to its German roots and one of my favorite beer styles, Hefeweizen. In Spanish, El Jefe means "the boss", so that's fitting too. As for Stout, both Trish and I have Irish roots, we love stout beers and we've turned it into a thick and strong vehicle.

Now it's February. It's been dumping snow in the mountains and we completed our first winter camping trip with the kids last weekend. The Broncos are in the Super Bowl this weekend. Life couldn't get much better right now. ;)

Life Update: The Bus Project, New Gigs, New House and More

Matt Raible — Wed, 8 Jul 2015 22:14:56 -0600

I've written a few Life Update blog posts in the past and it seems appropriate to write another one today. A lot has happened since I wrote about our trip to Syncro Solstice 2015 in Moab. First of all, let's talk about the most exciting one: The Bus Project.

The Bus Project
The last time I wrote about The Bus, it'd just arrived at Sewfine to have the interior installed. From the get-go, I knew this was going to be a good experience. I've been talking with the owners (Carol and Mike) for years about the project. Seeing the knowledge they had about VWs and knowing it was in good hands brought a sense of calmness over me. They estimated it'd take 4-8 weeks to finish and it ended up taking 12. I'm proud to say it left Sewfine yesterday with a completed interior.

The Bus Interior on Flickr →

In mid-May, we took The Bus to its first show: VWs on the Green in Littleton. Sewfine had completed the driver's seat and ragtop. I got license plates and insurance and was planning on driving it to the show. However, Mike pointed out that the engine compartment wasn't sealed and the engine might get really hot on the 10-mile drive (because it's an air-cooled engine). I agreed to trailer it instead and rented a car hauler from U-Haul.

While driving it onto the trailer, and onto the grass at the show, I discovered several issues that needed fixed before I'd consider it road-worthy. First of all, the shifting was very sloppy and it was hard to find first gear. Third gear was easy to find and I ended up using that a few times, much to the chagrin of the clutch. I also found the air-bag suspension to extremely stiff. So stiff it seemed dangerous to drive over 20mph. Then there was the oil leak that left a trail behind us.

The good news is the guys who painted it have agreed to try and fix these issues and it's back in their good hands today. I don't know when it'll be done, but I've given up on trying to establish deadlines; especially since the largest VW show in Colorado is this weekend and it won't be done by then.

Below are some photos we took at the VWs on the Green Show.

For more pictures, see Trish's VWs on the Green 2015 album on Flickr. I also published mine.

New Gigs
I started a new gig in March, slinging code for a fashion-industry startup in downtown Denver. The team is comprised of guys I've known for years and I've had a really great time. The project is led by James Goodwill, who I worked with at Virtuas, Overstock and Time Warner cable with. It's good to be working with him again. My good friend, The 'Fesser, just joined our team last week too! I'm writing JavaScript, HTML5 and CSS and we're using AngularJS and Bootstrap as our UI frameworks. There's also opportunities to do Python and iOS development. James and another friend/co-worker, Wes Matlock, recently published Beginning Swift Games Development for iOS.

Trish started a new gig with Tuliva this week and now has an office a block from mine (at Thrive Ballpark). Thrive's new space is awesome and I love that they have coffee, beer and kambucha on tap! I've been riding my bike to work (6 miles each way) most of the year. My client has an office five blocks from mine, so I tend to spend half my time there.

The JHipster Mini-Book
I wrote about my progress on the JHipster book at the end of June. Now that it's July, I'm working on Apache Camel and Java Web Security presentations for UberConf.

Selling our House
Last month, we found a house we loved near our kids' schools. It was on an acre of land in a prime part of DTC (near Cherry Creek High School). To make an offer, we had to put our house on the market. Unfortunately, our offer wasn't accepted, but now we're on the market and hope to move south soon. It's been an interesting experience polishing up our house and keeping it clean, especially in the midst of the torrential rain we've had lately.

Summer Vacations
Last week, we drove our Syncro to my parent's house in Montana. Trish took a gorgeous photo of the sunset in Wyoming on the way up.

A beautiful Wyoming sunset on our way to Montana in our Syncro Westy. Photo by the amazing Trish McGinity.
Posted by Matt Raible on Thursday, July 2, 2015

We had an amazing week with my parents, my sister and her wife, Mya, and many old friends. My uncle was in town for the first few days, so we played golf, hiked in Glacier Park, and spent quality time together. The kids had a great time throwing water balloons from the Syncro in the Swan Valley Parade and we admired the beauty of the Swan Valley Museum. We fished, swam, boated, picked huckleberries and played guitar on the front porch.

We drove back to Denver on the 5th of July in 16 hours. We stopped for an hour in Billings, and had good enough timing to watch the USA Women's soccer team win it all! Driving through the dark rain and fog in Wyoming wasn't fun, but we arrived safe and sound at 3am. We were very impressed with the Syncro's performance.

We have a raft trip scheduled next week, with the same friends from last year. This time, we're rafting the Green instead of the Yampa, starting at the Gates of Lodore. I love rafting and it's really fun to take my family on multi-day trips with epic people. I feel very fortunate. When the bus is done, I just might melt into a puddle of glee.

The Scenic Way to Santa Fe

Matt Raible — Sun, 27 Jul 2014 11:56:52 -0600

After having a successful run at ski season with our VW Syncro, Trish and I figured we'd see how it performed in the summer. We took it 4x4ing in Moab, rafting in Dinosaur National Monument and camping for Father's Day Weekend. It was a trusty steed for our kids, dogs, skis and raft. Earlier this month, we planned a week-long road trip to Santa Fe to see one of my old college roommates. Because of the holiday weekend, it turned into a 10-day road trip. We left Denver in style on the morning of the 4th.

The motorcycle on the back didn't seem to slow us down much. We drove from Denver to Winter Park, taking the long way over Squaw Pass to avoid traffic.

When we arrived at our Ski Shack, the engine was making a loud knocking sound. We dismissed it as a random occurrence. When I drove to the gas station 45 minutes later, the knocking was loud enough that heads turned when I drove past. After fueling up, I started the van and began driving back to our condo. The engine sputtered, the tires screeched and then the engine died. I pulled to the side, conveniently still in the gas station's parking lot. The engine would no longer turn over.

Below is the email I sent to Mike at Rocky Mountain Westy while walking back to our condo.

Happy Fourth of July! Our van's engine gave up the ghost today. There was a loud knocking, then it felt like is slammed on the back brakes, a screech of the tires and it died. Now it won't even turn over. Sounds like it's seized to me.

This happened in Fraser today. I have AAA so could probably get it towed to you.

Can you help us find and install a new engine? I'd like something with similar HP. Would you recommend a 1.8T, a 3.0 liter or something else?

It was the best breakdown I've ever had. I was able to walk home (one mile) and it didn't even rain on me. From there, we continued to celebrate the 4th and refactor our road-trip plans. With the Syncro, we were planning on camping at The Great Sand Dunes, Pagosa Springs and Mesa Verde. We decided we'd drive our new sedan instead (recently gifted from Trish's Dad). I took the train to Denver, drove it up on July 5th and we departed Winter Park on Sunday, July 6.

Instead of camping in beautiful campgrounds, we changed our plans to stay at B&Bs. In the meantime, Mike replied and said he thought he'd be able to install an H6 3.0 by the end of the month. He recommended it as a good replacement for our SVX engine, particularly because it was more reliable and likely to endure more miles. We agreed to the repairs and had AAA tow it to his shop in Fort Collins.

Our first destination was The Broadmoor. We took the back way through Breckenridge and skipped the holiday traffic. We arrived around 5pm and were warmly welcomed, dogs and all. We celebrated our one-year anniversary early with excellent Italian food, golf on the West course and a fun pub crawl on Monday night.

The Broadmoor was named the #1 Golf Resort in North America by Golf magazine readers. We certainly enjoyed the course, but it's also the first time Trish and I declined beers from the cart lady. Our games were so bad, we weren't in the mood to celebrate anything.

That afternoon, we took our dogs to the excellent Bear Creek Dog Park and sampled some beers at nearby breweries. Our favorite was the Golden Bee and their real yards of Guinness.

On Tuesday afternoon, we left Colorado Springs for Pagosa Springs. There, we enjoyed a country B&B, soaked in the hot springs and had a great hike to Fourmile Falls.

We left on Wednesday afternoon and drove to Taos, New Mexico. We had the best chilli relleno in the world, watched a bluegrass jam, visited Taos Mesa Brewing and hiked to Williams Lake.

On Friday, we left Taos and drove to Santa Fe, our ultimate destination. While arriving, I checked my email and was pleased to see an email from the folks working on my '66 Bus. While flipping through the pictures referenced in the email, I realized there were several videos. I did my best to get us off the road and into a place where I could watch the videos on a proper screen. You can imagine my glee as I watched my bus drive under its own power for the first time.

My "achievement unlocked!" moment was soon complimented by an excellent margarita and tasty New Mexican food. Wow! Those New Mexicans know the right level for the "default" hot sauce. Spicy and delicious!

We spent the weekend with our friends Chris, Mary and Luna and had a great time. The Santa Fe summer weather was beautiful - in the mid-70s most of the time, with nice breezes and sunshine. Trish, Chris, Sagan, Jake and I took a hike on Saturday and thoroughly enjoyed their national forest. On Sunday, we marveled at the art on display at Santa Fe's 11th Annual International Folk Art Market.

More photos on Flickr →

The rest of the time, we hung out in their backyard. Trish played her banjo, we watched the firepit crackle and Dino (their new puppy) kept us entertained with his antics. It was one of the most relaxing weekends I've had in quite some time. Thanks to Chris, Mary and Luna - you guys are awesome and we can't wait to visit again!

The Syncro Rescue Road Trip

Matt Raible — Tue, 10 Dec 2013 23:47:46 -0700

Last Thursday, Trish and I met in Boise, Idaho to begin our Syncro Rescue Road Trip. You might remember we bought a ski bus a couple months ago. After Devoxx and Thanksgiving, we finally had time to pick up our new rig. We rented a car from Boise and drove to Bruce's (the owner) house near Sun Valley. We arrived at Bruce's house, met his family and were introduced to our new Volkswagen. We spent the next hour learning about its engine, suspension, beds, captains (swivel) seats, propane system, RV hookups, fridge, stove and roof tent. It was impressive and I couldn't wait to drive it!

Looking back, after reading all the receipts, it's obvious that Bruce did great things for this vehicle. When he bought it in 2004, he worked with Small Car to convert the engine to a 3.3L Subaru SVX. He also installed a 2" lift kit, disc brakes, and better gearing. It was a cool car before Bruce bought it; he turned it into a mean machine. I thought it'd be small like my '66, but it's more like a tank, that you have to crawl into. We like it more every time we drive it.

After spending the night in their cozy guest bed, we enjoyed some good coffee and got on the road.

I was immediately impressed with the Syncro's acceleration. The Subaru engine has some great pickup in lower gears. In third gear, you can easily get up to 75 mph (120 kph) before shifting into fourth. The fourth gear is a lot like overdrive, bad for power but great for gas mileage. Within the first ten minutes, I was pleased to find the cruise control still worked. It took another hour for us to figure out to work the heater. Once we did, we had all kinds of heat, which was handy considering it never got above 5°F on the whole trip.

Trish's first shift at the wheel was met with some resistance: the e-brake was on. After a couple miles, pulled over for something else, but realized the mistake as soon as we parked. It smelled a lot and hasn't worked since.

Our Friday destination was Jackson Hole, where we figured we could find a nice place to stay and possibly ski the next morning. We briefly considered sleeping in our new camper, but with no auxiliary heater (possessed, but not installed) it seemed like a bad idea. We got our first taste of bad roads over Teton Pass. We figured it wouldn't be a problem since the Syncro is a 4WD, but we used the wrong lever (the differential lock instead of the 4WD) and slid all over the roads. We drifted sideways a few times, but soon after figured out how to engage 4WD, resulting in great traction. We celebrated our safe arrival with tasty beers at Wyoming's oldest brewery.

That evening, we moseyed into Jackson and found some great live music. While driving around, we noticed the stereo and cigarette lighter / phone charger quit working. The next morning, I woke up early to get some new windshield wipers and fix the blown dash fuse. After some inspection, I found it wasn't a fuse problem (there was a wire into where the fuse should be). I texted the previous owner, who pointed me to the auxiliary battery. Wiggling some of the battery's wires got everything working again.

After breakfast, Trish and I decided to do the responsible thing and drive back to Denver rather than go skiing. The conditions were still frigid and there was only 1" of fresh snow. We left Jackson around 9:30am and arrived in Denver just before 7pm. We only stopped for gas and our vanagon drove like a dream.

We've got some work to do before our next road trip (to Montana in two weeks). It seems the previous owner did most of his improvements when he bought it in 2004. The engine, drive train, suspension and wheels/tires are all in great shape. The Subaru conversion is "beautiful" according to a vanagon mechanic I talked to today. The upholstery could use a refresh and the stereo is showing its age. It failed an emissions test today, but there's a shop a few blocks away that specializes in Subarus.

Our Syncro is a real joy to drive. It cruises on the freeway and works great in the city with its quick acceleration and impressive turning radius. Let the VW adventures begin!

P.S. I love getting the '66's daily progress updates. Checkout yesterday's and today's.

Summer Vacation 2012 in Montana and Maui

Matt Raible — Wed, 1 Aug 2012 09:30:27 -0600

I started writing about my summer vacations in Montana as soon as this blog gave me an opportunity: July 2003. In July 2004, I didn't travel to the cabin for the 4th, but I did in 2005. Then, 5 years ago, I started writing longer blog posts about our trips. 2008 was Raible Road Trip #12. In 2009, I spent a whole month in Montana. In 2010, I visited after my parents moved there full-time. Last year, I took Trish for the first time.

I don't know what Raible Road Trip number this year's trip was, but I'm going to go ahead and assume #17. This year wasn't exactly a vacation for me. It was what I like to call a workation. I tried to take the whole month off, but my current client needed my services. As a compromise, they agreed to let me work 20 hours per week during July. While I didn't get a chance to fully unplug, I did enjoy the reduced workload and time to spend with friends and family. And the views from The Cabin and Sugar Beach weren't bad either.

Below is our trip itinerary in condensed form, complete with photos from my incredibly talented fiancé.

We embarked on our drive to Montana on June 30th, stopped for fireworks in Wyoming and spent the night in Yellowstone park. Arrived at the cabin, got to sleep in the new house for the first time, built a cabin float, drove it in the parade, went boating at Holland Lake, played golf. Journeyed to West Glacier to celebrate Dr. Barton's PhD at his sister's house. Rafted the Middlefork of the Flathead all weekend. Played some more golf and went waterskiing.



→ Trish's Montana Summer 2012 Album

On July 14th, we flew to Maui and continued to explore. Our good friend's parents have a timeshare on Sugar Beach and got us a screaming deal on lodging. We had beachfront accommodations with a pool, hot tub and sauna. We played golf on my birthday (July 16th). Visited the Old Lahaina Luau, Maui Aquarium and Coconut Festival at Grand Wailea. Drove to the summit of Haleakala. Sipped cold handcrafted ales while watched the kids boogie board. Embarked on a sunset cruise, hiked in Iao Valley, did some horseback riding along the beach, sea kayaked and snorkeled with sea turtles. Savored Shawn's excellent cooking. Flew back to Missoula (Montana), slept for 6 hours and drove 12.5 hours back to Denver on July 27th.



→ Trish's Maui Summer 2012 Album

Mahalo Montana and Maui. Thank you to our awesome friends: Mom, Dad, Owen, Jason, Ryan and Shawn. It was an incredible adventure.

My Summer Vacation in Montana

Matt Raible — Sat, 1 Aug 2009 11:38:40 -0600

As an adult, I've often reflected upon my childhood and one of my favorite times of the year: Summer Vacation. The feeling that fills your mind and body on that last hour of school before summer break is simply awesome. I don't know when I began longing for that feeling again, but I'm pleased to say I enjoyed it again this year. I took an entire month off from "working" and enjoyed a proper summer vacation at my family's cabin in Montana.

My plan to take a month off began formulating years ago when we'd drive to the cabin for the 4th and only spend a few days before driving back. The trip was never long enough.

I started talking about spending all of July at The Cabin a couple years ago, but never committed to it. My opportunity finally came last December when Julie asked me if she could take the kids to Florida for 3 weeks for Christmas. I quickly realized that, as a kid, 3 weeks in Florida was an awesome opportunity and agreed to give up my time with them. However, I also realized I could get some negotiating power from the agreement and said "only if I can take them to the cabin for 3 weeks next summer".

For regular readers, you know the rest of the story. My Dad flew to Denver for Father's Day Weekend, stayed the following week and then we embarked on our journey to Montana on Monday, June 29th. The first week was great and we had tons of fun during the rest of July. Here's a list of some highlights:

Running a 5K while Abbie and Jack ran the 1 mile "fun run" with my Mom. It was Abbie's first race and she got 1st place with a time of 11:05.
Hiking to Holland Falls.
Picking Huckleberries.
Greeting my sister after she rode her motorcycle for 13 hours in the rain.
Spending my birthday at Big Sky Waterslides, something I used to do every year for my birthday.
Golfing with my family in Columbia Falls.
Building a set of bunkbeds for the kids.
Rides on "Rocket" (4 wheeler) with the kids, especially when Jack would say "go as fast as Rocket can go".
Golfing with my good friend Owen in Seeley Lake.
Prepping and pouring the floor on the New Cabin.
Fishing with my Dad in "Joe's Jungle" and installing a new window in the cabin afterward.
Teaching Abbie and Jack how to shoot a gun (a .22 pistol) for the first time.
Getting my next gig.
Traveling to Idaho for Clint and Autumn's Wedding Reception (they got married last December in Costa Rica).
Seeing Abbie get all googly-eyed over an older boy in Idaho.
Staying up to watch the sunrise in Idaho.
Milling D Logs for the kids' Treehouse.
Making it from The Cabin to Denver in 13 hours with only one speeding ticket.

More than anything, it was great to spend so much time with my parents and children. The Cabin is a very special place to me and I'm proud I can take my city-slicker kids to let them experience the outdoors and live like I did growing up. In the city, they always have an adult nearby and are never left on their own for long. They wear helmets when they ride their bikes in the alley, even though they have training wheels on and couldn't fall over if they tried.

In Montana, the rules all change.

In Montana, the adults worked on the New Cabin and the kids were left to occupy themselves. Their imaginations ran wild and they played with each other for hours every day. They made me see and remember one of my favorite things about childhood - infinite possibilities. As I kid, I was a dreamer and used to think that anything was possible in the world (flying, teleporting, you name it). I'm happy to see that Abbie and Jack believe that anything is possible too.

A week ago, I returned to Denver after driving almost 4000 miles in 30 days. I feel refreshed after so much time off. I've got my goals and ambitions in line for the rest of the year and I'm looking forward to writing more, smiling more and doing great things for my new client. Over the next several months, I'll continue to work with GWT and even have plans to talk at The Rich Web Experience in December. When I travel for work, I'll be in Boston and Cupertino. Hopefully I'll see some of you along the way.

As usual, you can see all my pictures from the past few weeks in my Montana 2009: Weeks 2-4 set on Flickr.

Raible Road Trip #13 Trip Report

Matt Raible — Sun, 5 Jul 2009 13:30:17 -0600

Last Monday morning, my Dad, Abbie, Jack and I loaded up our rig and embarked upon Raible Road Trip #13. We rolled through Custer, South Dakota around 4:30 in the afternoon and arrived at Mount Rushmore just after 5. After gawking at Rushmore, we took a meandering route through 1-car tunnels and Custer State Park. We saw a plethora of bison, some antelope and lots of nice campsites.

On Tuesday, we woke up early and began the 9-hour drive to Fairmont Hot Springs. We pulled in right around 5 and had a blast in the pool and on the water slide. When we got there, we discovered that the pools were open 24 hours. Abbie and I were still up when my Dad and Jack fell asleep, so we snuck out and played in the pool by the fading light of the 10:00 sunset.

On Wednesday, we arrived at The Cabin around 5 after a brief stop in Missoula to get some clown costumes (for the parade) and have some of the best ice cream in the world (according to Jack). Abbie learned how to chop wood and Jack got to ride on all the tractors. My Mom arrived from Oregon later that night.

Thursday and Friday, we worked on The New Cabin and got ready for the Swan Valley 4th of July Parade. While camping in Custer, Abbie and I decided to be clowns for the parade and we were fortunate enough to find costumes in Missoula. My Mom had to drastically shrink Abbie's to fit, but her hard work paid off when Abbie won 1st Place among all the walkers. She was sooo cute as a little clown and I was a proud Dad for pulling off another fun parade.

After the parade, we ate some huckleberry ice cream and watched the O-Mok-See for a couple hours. Then we joined up with my friend Owen and his family and enjoyed an afternoon boating on Holland Lake. We closed the night watching fireworks and got to bed really late.

Since we've been here, we've seen a couple bears (while riding the 4-wheeler with each kid) and my Mom saw a mountain lion walk in front of the cabin this morning. The mosquitos are vicious, but the weather is beautiful. For more pictures from the last week, see my Montana 2009 - Week 1 set on Flickr.

Raible Road Trip #13

Matt Raible — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 06:46:04 -0600

Another year has passed and it's time for the annual trek to The Cabin for the 4th of July. Last year, we took the route through Yellowstone. This year, we're going to shake things up a bit and head through Mount Rushmore.

One of the highlights of this trip is sure to be Fairmont Hot Springs. We're staying their tomorrow night and I'm sure Abbie and Jack will love it.

After 3 weeks at The Cabin, we'll be heading to Clint and Autumn's wedding reception in Idaho. Having so much time off from work is sure to be strange, but I'm sure I'll get used to it.

Happy 4th everyone!

Raible Road Trip #12 Vacation Report

Matt Raible — Mon, 7 Jul 2008 18:32:43 -0600

I'm happy to report that the kids and I made it home safely last night after a heckuva Road Trip. We were gone for a total of 8 days and we drove for 4 of those. Here's some stats from Snow White:

43 Hours
2248.3 Miles
150.9 Gallons of Gas
14.9 AVG MPG
52 AVG MPH

Of course, these stats include day-to-day driving while in Montana.

Driving to Montana
We left early on Saturday morning, waking up at 4:30 and were on the road around 5. This was brutal considering I went to bed 4 hours earlier the night before. My Dad and I took turns driving and tried to listen to an audiobook (Spook Country) along the way. However, whenever one person wasn't driving, they fell asleep so the whole idea somewhat failed.

We arrived in Yellowstone around 5PM and checked into our campground. The ranger told me there were 5 grizzlies in the campsite and that we should pack up our food and put small pets in cars for the night. Of course, I couldn't wait to tell this to Abbie, who is always scared that bears will attack us when camping. I finally calmed her fears by telling her I wrestled a bear once when I was a kid and won pretty easily. After setting up camp, Abbie took a swim in the "freezing cold" Yellowstone Lake and we ate dinner and climbed into our tent shortly after.

On Sunday, we woke up and made it out of our campsite by 7:30. We drove to Old Faithful, enjoyed an eruption and proceeded to have a nice breakfast at The Old Faithful Inn. After checking out some more geysers, we made it out of the park around 11. We stopped briefly in Bozeman to see an old friend, hit Clearwater Junction and Lucky's (for huckleberry milkshakes) around 6, and made it to The Cabin just before dark.

At The Cabin
The few days we spent at The Cabin and in the Swan Valley were a lot of fun. I got to drive the family Excavator with both kids on my lap. Jack was operating the bucket while Abbie was operating the swivel of the cab. I took my mountain bike, so I got to ride some old trails I used to ride all the time as a kid. Not only were there beautiful views on the trails, but I also got to experience quite a wreck that sent me head-first into some rocks and bushes. It was the first time I've wrecked in a while where I thought to myself "that was fast and hard enough to break some bones". Luckily, all I received were a number of scratches and bruises.

On Thursday, we took my sister to the train station in Whitefish. We left early enough for my dad and I to get in some golfing at Meadow Lake Golf Course and the kids to hit Big Sky Waterslides. Apparently, they didn't have a height requirement because they were able to go on all the slides.

On the 4th, we finished Abbie's Princess float in the early morning, took a quick sauna and headed down to the Swan Valley Parade. We'd been talking about the parade and Abbie's float for several weeks, so I was kinda nervous that I might mess it up. Not only did everything go great, but there were several hundred folks that clapped when we drove by and commented on what a beautiful princess Abbie was.

After the parade and drinking some good ol' Busch Light from the "Beer Garden", we headed to Holland Lake for a swim and canoeing. We drove back home in time to play a game of horseshoes and get the fireworks setup for the evening. We had a good fireworks show (with yours truly in charge) and enjoyed lots of laughs with old friends.

The Drive Home
As usual, the drive home was the longest portion of the trip. The first day, we left the cabin around 11 and pulled into Billings around 5. The kids (and dog) did pretty good as we only needed to stop once. The shorter first day turned out to be a good idea since the kids like hotels so much. Yesterday, we left Billings around 9:30 and cruised along mightily until we hit the Colorado border. There, traffic came to a standstill and we suffered through stop-and-go the rest of the way home. After 9 hours, we pulled into my driveway, exhausted.

I don't believe we'll be driving next year. The Road Trip to The Cabin is something that should only be done every couple years. Snow White continues to be an awesome car. We towed a sawmill (on a trailer) to The Cabin and didn't even feel the load. With DVD screens in the back of both front-seats, it was an excellent road-trip vehicle for the kids. Also, it's smooth suspension made for an enjoyable experience for everyone (we drove Julie's Honda Odyssey one year and Abbie kept getting sick from the DVD screen bouncing). The more I drive it (esp. skiing, camping and on road trips), the happier I am with the purchase.

For more photos from the trip, please see Raible Road Trip #12 on Flickr.

Raible Road Trip #12

Matt Raible — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 00:06:42 -0600

It's hard to believe it's been a little over a year and a half since Raible Road Trip #11. That's far too long ago and I'm pumped that tomorrow marks the beginning of Raible Road Trip #12.

My dad flew in last night and we've been scrambling for most of the day getting ready for our early morning departure tomorrow. I'll be waking up in about 4 hours, stuffing the (hopefully) still-sleeping kids in the car and we'll be off to Big Sky Country. We expect to be driving for 12 hours tomorrow. Our destination is Grant Village on Yellowstone Lake.

After a nice night on camping on the lake, we'll be driving through Yellowstone, checking out some gooey geysers and then driving through Montana to The Cabin. I'll be off the grid for a week and I couldn't be happier.

Happy 4th everyone!

Related: Raible Road Trip #10.