The first time I had craisins in a salad was at the Hard Rock Cafe in Indianapolis last December. I didn't know what I was eating, but I knew they were good. A few weeks ago in Aspen, we went to this place with a salad bar and I saw those things I liked so much back at the Hard Rock near the dressings. I piled them atop my lettuce post-haste!

Back at the table, I decided to ask if any of my dining counterparts knew what they were. The conversation went something like this...

Guy: What are these things?

Caplin: Craisins.

Guy: Oh!

Turns out a craisin is a dried up cranberry, much like a raisin. Crrrrrrraisin. Get it?

Fast-forward to my return to Chicago. I got home and I realized we had a big bag of craisins in the pantry! Whooo hooo! Needless to say, every salad I've made myself since them has had at least twenty five of the little buggers peppered throughout it. There's just something about the sweetness of the craisins set against the tangy flare of Italian dressing that just makes my taste buds sing! What do they sing? "Gimme sum moe craiiiiiiiiisins baaaaayybaayy!"

The interesting footnote in all of this is that I generally don't enjoy eating raisins on their own, nor do I enjoy eating cranberries as a side dish in a holiday spread. My mother says I enjoyed both raisins and cranberries as a toddler, so perhaps this is some repressed childhood craving only beginning to surface now, some 20 years later?

Frankly, I can't say that I'd eat the craisins on their own if they weren't in the salad. Either way, I'm not arguing with this new found love. Craisins will be a fixture in any salad I prepare for myself from now until my death. If I'm stopping by your place for a meal that includes a salad, please have craisins on hand or risk my friendship shifting elsewhere. I will also give preference to any restaurants that can provide this delectable topping whilst dining out.

The view outside our hotel window. Whenever the wind would howl, this trailer would rock back and forth pretty quickly. I don't normally wish harm upon others but, deep down inside, a part of me wanted to see the trailer tip over.

The power, which came back on shortly after we got out of bed, continued to cease intermittantly. The thought of being stuck here for another night, this time without electricity, began to erode the sense of adventure from our situation.

Enter, The Plan. The Plan was simplistically brilliant: Hire a flat bed tow truck to transport Mark's winter-inept vehicle, along with us, twenty miles south to the next town. With a lower elevation, the snowfall in the town of Blanding should have been less, meaning clearer roads and a better chance of escape. Internet research confirmed Mark's hunch about the improved road conditions, so the call was made and off we went!

We said goodbye to the Monticello Days Inn and hopped aboard the tow truck from Devon's Service, Inc., with owner Kim Burtenshaw.

Kim, who's lived in Monticello, Utah, all his life, said that a storm of this size was considered rough even by his standards.

Kim's diesel tow truck made easy travel on the snow-covered roads that would have been impassible in Mark's car. The more of the foreboding road conditions we saw, the better we felt about our decision to wait out the night in Monticello, and the more The Plan began to have promise.

Kim smiled while sharing that our idea to have our car towed out of town was, "... an excellent idea." Perhaps this is because he made $200 off The Plan?

With road conditions improving, as expected, in the town of Blanding, Kim dropped our car on the side of Route 191. After settling up the tab, we were on our way. The Plan was in full effect and, so far, was working brilliantly!

With lower elevations the further we drove, the snow eroded to just mountain top dustings, and then to none at all. In less than two hours, the landscape went from snowstorms to dust storms. A landscape so brown and arid that the cloud bottoms matched it in color from sunlight bouncing off the desert floor. Every time I visit the desert southwest I always feel a bit spiritually moved and in awe of our planet, and this time was no different.

Horses amidst swirling dust in Arizona were a sure sign that The Plan had worked, and that we were almost home free! Not so fast...

The higher elevation of Flagstaff, Ariz., brought with it the last thing either Mark or myself wanted to see, snow. The only fault of The Plan was rearing forth to destroy us, or at least, to destroy Mark's driver side wheel of his car.

While trying to make a turn on a snow covered road onto a highway on-ramp, Mark's car skidded into a curb going about 20mph. The impact with the front driver's side wheel was loud and hard, and was greeted with Mark's awkward retort, "That's always fun." The impending wobble of the car after the impact let us both know that The Plan had almost failed entirely.

A closer view of Mark's chipped rim, bent wheel, and destroyed pride.

A friendly mechanic at the first gas station in sight came out of his toasty garage only to laugh at us and conclude sarcastically, "You're fucked." Thanks so much for telling us what we already knew. The mechanic gave us directions to the Pontiac dealership in town, suggesting that they might have the parts on hand to get us going again.

iPhone to the rescue, part two... Captain Obvious the mechanic gave us the wrong directions to the Pontiac dealership.

Cliff Shanley (right) of McCoy Motors, though very helpful, shot another dagger into the heart of The Plan. The damage to Mark's wheel was too great for us to drive anywhere that night because the parts needed to fix it had to be ordered from across the state. Cliff took the information and called a rental car company to come pick us up.

...at least they were positive.

Mark later shared that, while at McCoy Motors, he almost asked me to stop documenting him and our adventure. Never one to shy away from opportunities for attention, this only indicates how truly aggravated Mark was that The Plan was crumbling.

The Enterprise car rental folks came and picked us up at McCoy Motors and were very helpful and cordial.

More waiting for paperwork at Enterprise put The Plan and its success further and further away.

Mark laughs while pulling away from Enterprise in our new vehicle, a white Chevy minivan. Stylish? No. Attention getter. Hardly. Sure footed in snow with front wheel drive? You bet! All we could do at that point, really, was laugh. We'd been through so much in twenty four hours, a good laugh got rid of the frustration and made the rest of the drive bearable.

... a drive that, for the first 45 minutes, comprised of white-knuckling it through near zero visibility in continuing blizzard conditions.

Like turning off a switch, the snow cleared soon after that and we enjoyed clear, star-filled skies for the rest of the drive to Phoenix. It was amazing when I stepped back and looked at our journey later that night, I experienced so many weather conditions in such a short timeframe. The day started in in a horrendous blizzard (even with my lifelong Chicago upbringing, it was bad), then gave way to mild desert dryness with beautiful arid landscapes, which turned into dust storms with haunting brown-tinted clouds, which slipped into more snow, and finally, views of thousands of white diamonds in the most brilliant night sky I've ever witnessed.

Though the novelty began to wear off with the power outage at the hotel, and definitely with Mark's car being damaged and the though of being stuck on the road for a second night, I wouldn't trade in the experience for a smoother one having lived to tell the tale. I got to meet lots of new people along the way, interesting characters like Kim the tow truck driver, or Chuck Upton (in the "We're Positive" sign shot) who's worked at McCoy Motors for over 25 years. There are people I would have never talked to or gotten to meet otherwise, and they put a human face on the great landscapes I've shot on my previous visits to this part of the country.

Another first: After pulling into Phoenix in our Chevy minivan after our long ordeal, I actually jumped at the idea of something all too familiar and something usually rejected at first thought, heading to Chili's with Mark.

With our magazine deadline met Sunday afternoon at Winter X Games, and an impeding snowstorm in the forecast for Colorado and much of the rocky mountains, we decided to get on the road as early as possible, packing up saying goodbye to our fellow photographers in Colorado at noon. The drive through Colorado was smooth sailing, with only a few flurries hitting the windshield. Crossing the border into Utah even brought with it a few glimpses of the sun. Less than half an hour later, however, we found ourselves in what could have been a very dangerous situation had we not ended up where we did.

Very light snow greeted us on Interstate 70 as we entered Utah. Conditions seemed like they were in our favor.

As we turned south onto Route 191, conditions worsened. Mark's rear wheel drive sports car, as in Aspen, began slipping and sliding on the roadway.

An attempt to find better road conditions landed us on Route 666. Perhaps this should have tipped us off that things were about to get crazy?

Making our way back onto Route 191, it quickly became apparent that, in Mark's car, the snow-covered roads through the mountainous terrain would no longer be passible. We decided to make a u-turn and head back into the town of Monticello to wait things out at a Days Inn... not so fast.

Shortly after the u-turn, while climbing up a fairly steep grade, the car slid to the right uncontrollably and we ended up stuck on the shoulder in about six inches of snow.

"I don't know what to do."

I'm going to charge Apple Computer for the rights to use this scenario in their next iPhone commercial. "So we're driving through the mountains in a sports car during a blizzard like idiots when we got stuck! So I just got out my iPhone, right? And just like that, I Googled the nearest tow truck!"

Unfortunately, every tow place we called was answered by a machine. Even the police non-emergency number had no answer. As a last resort, we dialed 911 and were given an emergency tow number. That place said we could expect to wait for up to 45 minutes for them to get to us.

Sheriff to the rescue! For the second time in under a week, the police came to our aid in a more surefooted vehicle. Officer Tom Dyer of the San Juan County Sheriff's Dept. offered to push us up the hill back into town.

Getting the push.

With officer Dyer's help, we made it back to the Days Inn, but the fun wasn't over yet...

In his attempt to push us up the steep driveway to the hotel, officer Dyer himself became stuck on top of a flower planter, and had to be pulled off by the hotel's plow driver and owner. We never made it up the driveway completely, becoming stuck once again in front of the sheriff's cruiser.

Mark, who plans on purchasing a Corvette within the next month, scratches his head as to why his rear wheel drive, low profile tire sports car designed for fast speed on flat, dry surfaces keeps getting stuck in winter's brutal wrath.

David, Days Inn owner and plow driver, improvised with a ratchet strap to successfully tow Mark's car up the driveway.

Snow falls outside the Days Inn in Monticello, Utah.

Its just after 1 a.m. and the snow has stopped falling outside our hotel window. The forecast, however, states that snow is still possible through Monday night, meaning that we may be stuck here for another day and a half! We had plans to shoot drag racing in Phoenix on Monday, but those plans have obviously been scrubbed. Mark wasn't too happy about that, or anything about this situation.

I've gotta say, despite all the stressful moments, despite nearly spinning 90 degrees into an oncoming semi's path, despite having to pee really bad while sitting on the side of the road for over an hour, there was something about this whole episode that was kind of exciting. There was that uncertainty about the whole situation, not to mention the hilarity of it all happening again (remember, we got pushed up a snowy road in Aspen by the police less than five days ago) that made me smile. I just hope we can go home soon.

I'm exhausted after our longest day of shooting on the trip. I got some good stuff and will post more photos soon, but for now, I'm going to sleep!

This is going to be a quick blog with more photos and less talking. I will say that this has been the best say of my trip by far, but not so much because of what I shot, but because of the shenanigans that took place after we were finished for the day. I'll let the photos and captions take it from here...

I started the day working one of the ski jumps up high with a 400mm trying to get the skiers going over the highway in the background. Shot countless skiers and this was the only one that came close to what I saw in my mind. Unfortunately, it is still an "almost."

Nice contrasty colors here, eh?

Caught X Games legend Shaun White popping up over another jump behind our shooting location for the skiers.

As a lighting designer, this one made me smile. This is a $10,000 moving light with melting snow atop it, dripping into the base of the fixture. I wish I had ESPN's budgets to work with on my shows!

After our shoot, we drove about 30 minutes to Glenwood Springs to have dinner at Chilis. Along for the ride were (from left) Mark, Caplin, and Ric Tapia. That's our server Denise on the right. She remembered all of us from our visit during the previous year's Winter X Games, even down to the booth we sat in. Impressive!

Later, Caplin pelted Mark in the side of the head with a snowball. Good times..

I'm not gonna bust this person out, but on the way home, a member of our group became ill. We had to pull over, fast! Here's my view of him letting loose from inside the car...

...and here's what the car looked like outside when he was done. Man I've got a hankering for some Dinty Moore beef stew! Mmmmmmm. Goodnight!

We had another fun day here in winter wonderland shooting Winter X Games 12. Today marked the first daylight events, so we had more chances to play with the scenery and integrate all the wonderful natural backgrounds into our compositions. I feel like I haven't given you guys an overview of the place yet, so here's one:

The Superpipe (foreground) at Winter X Games 12.

The superpipe was where skiers performed their big tricks I posted pics of yesterday. Snowboarders also have events here. The blue lines in the Superpipe are done with a special dye and are there so the competitors can easily see the edge of the pipe as well as read the curve of the surface as they're jumping in the air. Behind the Superpipe, you can see the Snowcross course where the snowmobiles race.

A snowmobile rider bails off his sled after realizing he's about to come up short on a jump during a practice session for the Speed and Style event Thursday night.

After shooting snowmobiles for the first part of the afternoon, Mark and I caught a ride up to the top of the Mono Skier X course. Athletes that compete in this event are either paralyzed or have no legs altogether. The modified sleds that are used look fairly demanding on the riders, as the landings over the jumps can be very hard. So hard, in fact, that parts of the sled sometimes fail, causing big crashes.

Mono Skier X competitor Zack Broderick of St. George, Utah, crashes during a qualifying round for the Mono Skier X competition on Thursday afternoon. The crash was caused when Broderick's ski separated from the binding on his sled. The ski can be seen flying through the air near his arms.

One thing I haven't touched on yet is the altitude here and dealing with the effect is has on your body. The altitude here in Snowmass Village is right around 8000 feet above sea level. Compare that to 580 feet or so, which is what I'm used to in Chicago. Being so high up means the air is thinner, causing folks like me to become winded with menial tasks like running up a few flights of stairs. When it came time to hike back up the Mono Skier X course to catch a ride back down (nearly 400 yards uphill at a 30 degree angle carrying 25 pounds of gear), both Mark and I had to stop every fifty feet or so to catch our breath. The locals must have thought we were wussies.

Here's the media center at Winter X Games 12. This heated tent is where photographers, videographers, and reporters go to finish up work, relax, and even grab a used-to-be-hot meal!

The guys game me crap about this one during our group edit session back at the house, but I still like it! What do you think?

After a long day trudging around on the slopes, the hot tub at our condo sounded really nice. I talked Mark and Caplin into coming in with me, but Mark would only join us with the condition that I set up a group portrait. My favorite shot occurred when a snow smoothing machine drove by on the ski slope behind our place. The headlights and the backlit steam coming out of the tub (which is outdoors) make this image look pretty odd.

(From left) Caplin, Mark, and Guy enjoy a relaxing dip in the hot tub as alien forces, unbeknownst to them, swoop down to perform classified medical experiments.

Today was a pretty laid back day in Snowmass Village. We loafed around 'til around 11 a.m., then we suited up and drove thirty minutes away to the nearest Wal Mart to buy groceries and look for some other pertinent necessities (radio control toy helicopters). Afterwards, we grabbed some lunch before heading to the X Games venue at Buttermilk Mountain to check out the course layout and some of the new events. We wrapped up the evening by shooting the Skiing Superpipe men's elimination round. Good times! Good, cold times!

My view on the back of a snowmobile getting a ride to the top of the half pipe. The drivers usually mad dog it to the top, making for a very exciting ride!

Justin Dorey of Vernon, British Columbia, Canada, competes in the Skiing Superpipe men's elimination round on Wednesday night.

With the temperature hovering around 15 degrees for most of our shoot, my breath began to freeze on the back of my camera as I looked through the eyepiece. Check out all the frost near the bottom under the wheel! Despite not wearing a hat, the only part of my body that felt really cold at times were my feet.

Andreas Hatveit of Norway competes in the Skiing Superpipe men's elimination round on Wednesday night.

Myself hamming it up in front of the Welcome to Colorful Colorado sign on the border between Colorado and Utah Tuesday evening. Note all the footprints in the snow from the countless other tourists who've stopped for this joyfully cliche photo.

I'm really excited to be back in Aspen, Colorado on the ESPN Magazine photo team for Winter X Games 12, excitement that still hasn't worn off all the way even at 3:10 a.m.! I flew into Phoenix on Monday to meet my buddy Mark Rebilas for a road-trip into Colorado this afternoon. Seeing the desert southwest by car is always a very spiritual experience. Looking at rock formations that are billions of years old always gives you a sense of perspective as far as your place and role on planet Earth.

Monument valley stretches behind our car as we enter Utah on Tuesday afternoon.

The road trip, as with last year's, was not without its shenanigans. After arriving in the town we're staying in, Snowmass Village, Mark's rear-wheel drive sports car began to have serious issues keeping up with the mountainous, snowy roads. (you may recall last year, Mark got his car stuck in a snow bank whilst trying to navigate the exact stretch of road way, in a more agile vehicle). After fish tailing for several blocks uphill looking for our condo, we finally caught the attention of a local police officer, who pulled us over and gave Mark a warning for not staying on his side of the road (though the side of the road we traveled on was pretty much dependent on where the car decided to slide).

The Snowmass Village Police bid us farewell.

Despite the traffic stop, the police offer was nice enough to show us where our street was located. As we followed him back down the hill to make the turn into our condo complex, we got stuck not once, not twice, but three times. The police officer ended up having to push us up another crest in the road into our parking lot with his 4x4 Explorer police cruiser. Luckily another photographer we're working with rented an SUV, so we plan on driving to the venue with him each day and leaving Mark's car to be stolen or towed away.

Photographers Robert Caplin (left) and Mark J. Rebilas look over the menu at Zane's Tavern on Tuesday night. We sort of have a love-hate relationship with Zane's. The food isn't the best, but its either that or go hungry, as its the only place open when we're done shooting.

We spent the rest of the night getting acquainted with and relaxing in our 4 bedroom condo that myself and four other photographers are staying in for the next week, as well as taking a trip to Zane's Tavern for dinner. Zane's seems to be one of the only places that serves food in Snowmass Village open past 9pm. The food is not the best, but with the choice of that or going hungry, I'll take Lame'z, err, Zane's.

Snowmass Village, Colorado, lit by moonlight early Wednesday morning as seen from the parking lot of our condominium complex.

I finished up my night by stepping outside and shooting (not making) some photos of the brilliant, nearly-full moon lighting up the snow on the mountains. This truly is a beautiful place.

I'll try and update my page daily during my trip, either with a new blog, or with new pics in the Winter X games gallery I created in my photos section here on Myspace. Enjoy!

Here's what a mic boom turned camera platform looks like. I held the boom in position while Mark triggered it in sync. with another handheld camera.

We took the rig over to the BMX street course to try it out. I climbed atop one of the small quarterpipes and held the camera boom straight up above riders as they did their tricks. After being up there for a few minutes, I started to get a little more confidence with the rig and my position. I started to get the camera boom to a near horizontal position, placing our fisheye lens less than three feet from the top of the riders as they did their tricks. I also tried placing the pole straight down underneath me on a part of the obstacle that none of the riders were coming near. I guess this is when BMX rider Dave Mira decided to show us who was boss out at the street course.

More confidence led to me holding the rig out nearly horizontal, placing the lens three feet above the riders.

Mira dropped in on my side of the course and peddled my way. I figured he'd flip up in the air and go right back down after a trick like other guys had done on my end. Mira hit the quarterpipe on my left side and then chirped, "Heads up!!!" as he turned his bike and ran it right up the wall below me, right over the boom in my hands! Mira landed the trick to the cheers and laughs of all the other riders on the course.

Mira executes a new X Games trick, the Camera Boom Grind. I'm glad I was paying attention and able to hold on to the rig!

"Heads up!" The exact same moment from the pole cam view.

The camera and Pocketwizard were unscathed, though my mic boom got crushed pretty good on the section where the bike hit. It made for a pretty cool shot though, and I was all smiles knowing that the Camera Boom Grind, if only attempted once, was a new trick in the X Games I had something to do with!

****

Here's some other shots from days three and four of my trip.

Panning with rider Mike Mason to try and, once again, make an interesting frame out of empty stadium seats.

Out of focus flowers in the foreground. Clever, eh?

What u know 'bout dem Ballahollic's?!?

Another artsy-fartsy view of big air competitor Jake Brown flying off the big air ramp. Brown later fell nearly fifty feet straight down at the end of the same ramp and walked away!!!

Me and my buddy Mark Rebilas atop the big air ramp at STAPLES Center.

Me and my buddy Tony Hawk in the bowels of STAPLES Center after the Moto X best trick finals.

Stay tuned for more updates from X Games here in la la land.