Route 1

SAN FRANCISCO, CA - I spent all day today driving down the California coast. All day.

It was a long trip but a lot of fun. Definitely not for the night time. There was no way I could take enough pictures or go into enough detail. It was amazing. I spent the first part driving exclusively through redwood forests. There isn't a way to describe how big these trees are. Pictures don't do them justice.





I even drove through one.



And if you have ever wanted anything - and I do mean anything - carved out of redwood, look no further than Route 1. Everybody there has carved everything out of that damn wood. Lots of gift shops up in them thar woods.

The fog was once again eating the forest and it was amazing to see.



I finally reached the point where the road and coast met (as I said, I'm not really counting yesterday).



I just spent a while sitting there, watching it. I have some video to share, but it would be too much trouble tonight. Tomorrow.

There were so many beautiful spots. I only took pictures at a couple. I wanted to make it to San Francisco by sunset. I'm not sleeping in this car another night in a row. I need a shower.



I stopped on a beach for a few minutes.



This jellyfish was washed up on shore.



Brakes don't fail me now.



And then I hustled the rest of the way. I saw San Francisco in the distance just as the sun was setting and made it into the city by nightfall.



More tomorrow, folks. I'm tired.

Hippieville

CRESCENT CITY/EUREKA/ARCATA, CA - I finally reached the ocean (yesterday). I arrived in Crescent City, the first coast city on 101 and headed to the ocean. Unfortunately, Crescent City was kind of run down and I didn't really want to be there long... so here's a picture, but pretend you didn't see it.



I then trailed the coast to Eureka. Tony had mentioned having a friend there that I could crash with but I couldn't reach him (no reception) until I was already in Eureka. He finally got in touch with her but she was hanging out in Arcata, a nearby town, which meant I was crashing in the car again. Things were beginning to get funky in there.

I decided I would check out Arcata because it sounded interesting and was soon to discover that Arcata is Hippieville. It was an interesting little place... it was so close, it may as well have been a neighborhood in Eureka. Lots of organic produce. And homeless people. Mostly homeless hippies. Now, ultimately I have no problem with hippies. We have a lot of similar ideas about how things should be. However, I do find myself having a problem with trust fund hippies. People who claim to live this lifestyle but never have to do any of the work that would actually go into it. Parents pay the bills while they claim to be revolutionary. Sorry... that's not that revolutionary. If your parents are going to pay the way, just be up front about it.

Then I found myself getting irritated with the countless hippies on the street asking me for change. I mean, what kind of dumbass goes without a job, travels around, bums off of others, and... oh. That's when I started to feel a little hypocritical. So, I worked on changing my attitude. However, I was feeling pretty lonely there and was wandering aimlessly. I was worried I wouldn't fulfill my "meeting a new person" for the day, so I went up and introduced myself to some guy waiting for his friend to buy something from a convenient mart.

"Hi, I'm not really from the area. Anything interesting to do? My name's Nick, by the way."

"Hey, man, get me a Dr. Pepper. No. Hey! Get me a Dr. Pepper."

I wasn't sure I was being listened to. Then...

"Hey, you smoke?"

"Huh?"

"You smoke? You smoke weed? You got five dollars? My friend and I are tryin' to get some weed. If you give us five dollars so we can get some, you can smoke some. My name's Dustin."

Then Dustin's toothless friend wandered out of the store and began muttering nonsense.

Dustin says, "Hey man, this guy's gonna smoke-"

"Uh, no thanks, man. I'm good."

Dustin looked heartbroken that I didn't want any part of his fun. I mean, it couldn't have been because I wasn't going to give him five dollars.

I awkwardly excused myself so I could go associate with someone who wasn't crazy, homeless, or high (preferably all three). I got at least partway down the street before Dustin started trailing behind, calling out to me. I glanced backward as others on the sidewalk began staring at me. By that time though, Dustin had already become infatuated with something shiny on the ground. This is my break!

I got a few more cement panels down the sidewalk when suddenly Dustin was right behind me, calling out to me again... I must have introduced myself as "Hey". Dustin's awfully spry for his current condition. I wish he had seemed half this crazy before I made the mistake of saying hi.

"Hey man, you wanna drink some vodka with us?"

His friend's empty, toothless grin stared deep into me.

"Nope. I'm good."

Luckily, his friend began gumming some more nonsense and I just walked away. And that was that.

I did run into the two of them several more times as I made the rounds of the town square. He just nodded and smiled knowingly, in on some desperately important information I was never made a part of.

There were plenty of other interesting folks out that night. There was the homeless guy who stayed in one seat on the square, yelling "Jake!" (as near as I could tell) intermittently, between asking people very courteously is they could spare some change.

I found an open door at this music store named "Metro" and a performance was going on. The place was quite full, so I stood near the back and enjoyed the free music. The performer, Jason Webley, was entertaining and doing this performance solo. The crowd was very into it. Apparently he was having a 21+ show down the street but had agreed to do this little teaser first. It was his CD release date. I had fun and decided to try to go to the show, if I decided to stay in town for another hours or so.

I made myself a sandwich, wandered around, and finally decided I couldn't just sit there for two hours. So, I got in my car and tried to find the hot tub place I had seen an ad for on the highway. Some place rented hot tubs by the hour and it seemed like a good idea. Plus, if I couldn't get a shower, maybe some hot water would help wash some of the scum off me that had accumulated in the past 36 hours.

It was a nice little place which was set up like a cabin. They sold coffee and juices along with pastries. I ordered a cold lemonade. It was very tart but good. I asked about the hot tubs and was informed they were all booked up. "You should be sure to make a reservation before 4pm." Too bad I didn't get to town until 6. I finished my lemonade and slowly made my return to Hippie Square.

I decided to just go to the place where the show was being held. Some restaurant named Jambalaya where they served... jambalaya. Apparently they had shows there almost every day of the week. I wouldn't have assumed so. The place was really nice looking, exactly what you would expect an expensive restaurant in a little town like this to look like.

"How much for a cup of jambalaya," I asked.

The server needed to look at a menu first (she must have been new) and replied, "Five dollars."

Disappointed, I said, "Nevermind," and did my best to ignore the delicious smells drifting from the cooking area, only about 20 feet away.

The band took a while to set up and I sat around. The opening acts ended up being the other members of the quartet, each of which also had their own CD available. The first act was the drummer, who was amazing. He did a couple bits with a homemade contraption consisting of several pots, a baking pan, a giant water bottle, and some PVC pipe all attached to an old chair back strapped to his chest. Oh yeah, and a two-liter filled with coins tied to his foot. Here's a video I shot. Unfortunately, my camera's lens covers have been sticking and I didn't realize this until it was already over (in my defense, it was dark and I was hurrying).



The girl on violin and bassist were quite good too. It was a great show alone just because there was no waiting in between sets. Just bam, bam, bam. At one point I checked out the bathroom. It's good to know they have just as healthy an obsession with Chuck Norris in the West as so many seem to in Illinois.



And, of course, a mirror picture (at least I held out this long into the trip).



Oh, why yes! That is the same exact clothing I was wearing yesterday! Thank you for noticing!

You think I'm going to have any more clothing smelling like garbage than I need to? (By the way, my pants smelled like garbage when I finally got to take them off today. I felt it was pertinent for you to know that.)

And here's the slick handstamp everyone got at the show. I like it.



I was still feeling kind of down at that point and Tom was nice enough to send me this video:



I finished watching the show, bought some CDs (the first I've bought in a while... I'm proud of myself for remembering how) and decided to head out. I drove a ways down the road and was finally tired enough that I stopped in a friendly looking gas station (by friendly, I mean that the parking lot was pretty big and it seemed as if some others might already be sleeping there). Apparently there's nothing free in the world anymore. Almost every place I drove past had signs up insisting on "NO OVERNIGHT PARKING." Is space so valuable I can't take up twenty square feet for a few hours?

The Vortex

GOLD HILL, OR - Here are some long overdue posts. I had to go a little bit without WiFi.

I stayed overnight in a truck stop and slept kind of fitfully, but felt pretty good. I headed out early to Gold Hill where the Oregon Vortex is located. It's buried deep in the woods there but was easy to find. I paid the admittance fee and then hung out in the gift shop until the tour began.

Our tour guide was very excited about the place and the tour took about an hour to complete. I seemed to be the person otherwise most excited about it all and was busy taking pictures with my two cameras most of the time. The rest of the group was a bit older and seemed kind of tired.

After our guide gave us a brief history of the place. Apparently Native Americans feared the spot and their horses wouldn't set foot on the land. It was later used by prospectors, which is why the house stands where it does (their mules wouldn't set foot on the land either). The house slid partway down the hill after a flood and is now secured in place with cables. A physicist and engineer (his name escapes me) became obsessed with the place early in the 1900's and conducted thousands of experiments. The alleged facts behind the place are that it sits on a sort of gravitational/magnetic fault line. There are supposed to be several crossing points of "terralines"...but I'm not sure exactly what that's supposed to mean.

I do know this... when I got into the area where the Vortex was supposed to exist, I felt kind of sick. I've never been carsick or seasick, so I'm not sure what that's supposed to feel like, but I did feel strange. When I was a kid, I threw up on the Tilt-A-Whirl once (it was actually a pretty sick story - I got it all over the seat and when I got out, the carnie just sloshed a bucket of water in the car and loaded up the next group). Anyway, it kind of felt like that, spinning in circles. I'm not sure whether it was some actual vortex, or suggestion, or simply all the twisted up lines of the house... but I definitely felt ill. I felt sick for the next hour after leaving. My back really hurt afterward too... although I realized it didn't really hurt at all while there, which is unusual.

I took a lot of pictures, but they were hard to get. Most of them demonstrate the change in height between people. Judge for yourself.





Here's the house itself.



Here's the broom standing up.



Here's more comparisons.





Here's a video of a bottle rolling "uphill". It definitely looks to be going the wrong way when compared with the only level spot in the house (you can kind of see that plank cut off on the very left of the picture). But who knows. Maybe it's forced perspective. Regardless, I felt happy just to get away with taking video without anyone noticing. I was warned not to... so I felt like I had to.



Is the Vortex real? Hell if I know. I was really hoping to catch some strange light anomalies on camera. There were several examples of this... strange light beams going through pictures. While these photos certainly could have been doctored, the most interesting one wasn't even noteworthy at first. Until you realize this light beam is covering two kids, but a third kid is standing in front of it. It was bizarre. But, there's always Photoshop. I don't know. All the anomalies did have one thing in common though... they looked like they were swirling like a tornado, but staying cylindrical. Strange stuff. I won't rule anything out after some of the same stuff I've caught on film. If I can find those pictures from Bartonville, I'll have to put them up here. Still don't have an explanation for those.

Regardless, I felt like throwing up for a while after seeing this, which is strange for me. I'm just glad I finally saw it after all these years.

Much Better

PORTLAND, OR - Feelin' much better. Apparently nothing a couple Benadryl and several fitful hours of sleep couldn't make up for.

Disconnect

PORTLAND, OR - I've never felt as lonely on this trip as I do right now.

I just was out having a fun time tonight. I met a lot of new people and had good conversation. But right now I feel really lonely.

Maybe I had expectations for this part of the trip. I don't know. But I feel really disconnected right now.

I've always been prone to this. Since I was very young. I can remember living in our house on Hershey, which places me between the ages of 5 and 7, and sitting up late at night worrying about crazy stuff. I would stare at my bedroom door there and become fixated on the idea that "this moment is gone forever." Moment by moment I would think about this, which doesn't strike me as normal for a child in kindergarten or first grade. I've always felt prone to that sort of existential depression.

I have the same feeling right now. I'm not worried about this moment passing, but it feels the same in my stomach. I wish I could spend time thinking about the same stuff as others... or maybe not spending time thinking about the same thing other people don't spend time thinking about. It would be comforting. Because this is ridiculous. Right now I'm wishing I didn't even have the things going on in my head which prompted this trip in the first place. Life would be so much easier. I would love to be able to pick a career, settle on a job and a town, have a family and be content. I'm envious of those that can do this. It's not fair. And I know life isn't fair, but I would love for it to feel unfair for me in some other way. Because that way of living doesn't make sense to me but I don't know which way does.

I hope this trip continues to help providing those answers for me. I know right now this is a temporary feeling. I just wish I didn't have it tonight.

I'm sorry for the bitch session - but while I'm at it, why do I have to be allergic to cats? Or anything for that part? I was as close to being born in a barn as anyone I know. I grew up outside and around animals. My first steps were in horse stall, walking around horses' legs. I spent my childhood outside. And yet I'm allergic to everything. Most of all, to cats. Which everyone seems to have. I can't wait for a night I get to spent somewhere (not in my car) where the people don't have cats.

Oh yeah. And some asshole ran into my car today. I went out to grab something from my trunk earlier tonight and found that part of my trunk is broken along with the bumper. Someone ran into my parked car and didn't leave a number or any information.

Whatever. I'm still having a great trip and I know lots of people are much worse off than having some stupid allergies and a cracked bumper. Sorry for the pity party. At some point, this post was bound to happen. It's probably good I got it out of my system now. Time to cut the crap.

I just took a couple Benadryl and I'm going to go pass out. Have a good night everyone.

The Prick, The Australian, And The Aborigin-ay! They All Live Together On Avenue A!

SEATTLE, WA - Last night I had the opportunity to spend a little bit talking to an Australian and an Aborigine. The Aborigine, Gunn, was spectacularly quiet, spending the majority of the conversation sitting in a chair, staring off into the distance. Tim, the Australian, more than made up for this though. He was quite talkative, which I really enjoyed. It was also late in the day and I was becoming worried I really wouldn't meet anyone new and interesting.

We were outside around some patio furniture and I was explaining the nature of my trip to Tim. "Fear and Loathing and whatnot, eh?," he asked. It seems they were on a bit of a road trip themselves. Gunn has some pottery on display in Chicago and that's where they were headed next. Tim seemed excited when he discovered I was from the Chicago area and I told him about some interesting places to check out.

Tim also posed a series of questions to me as a test. He asked what I would say if he were to burn the American flag. I told him that's what the First Amendment is for and he can do as he pleases. Surprisingly, Tim told me I was the first person who didn't get angry at this question. He was shocked that I didn't care, but seemed happy at the same time. He also asked what I would say if he were to call my mother a name. I responded that he didn't know my mother, so, who cares? He seemed pleasantly surprised by this again and laughed, saying he would say the same thing. I asked who Tim had been talking to and he told me mostly sailors, so I told him I wasn't at all surprised by the response then. We talked a little more about politics and opinions and found we felt the same way about most things. Gunn gave a grunt or nod in reply to most of my comments. I'm going to assume he feels the same way too.

In the middle of our conversation, we were greeted by Jeremy. Who was drunk. And an asshole.

Jeremy wandered into the conversation with this line, "Scottish, huh?" We all gave him a blank stare for a moment. Then he repeated it. We all sort of realized at the same time he was asking Tim if he was Scottish... because he had an accent, of course. Tim replied, "A little south, mate."

"So, Irish, huh? Or English?" He emphasized this with a couple more "huhs?" just to help drive the point home.

"Well, about five or six thousand miles more south, mate."

Jeremy stared for a few moments, leaning slightly forward and swaying gently in the cool Seattle breeze.

"Australian!"

"There you have it, ma-" Tim was cut off before he could finish.

"Fuckin' douchebag," interrupted Jeremy.

Tim kind of chuckled while shaking his head and tried making a couple more comments, each time cut off with the now classic line, "Fuckin' douchebag."

I felt it was my duty to inform Jeremy he was "being a prick." His stare turned my way. Ahh, that glorious drunken stare. Just slightly off-balance, with a hint of confusion and that wonderful mix of anger and ignorance. It only lasted a moment before he turned back on Tim.

By now, I had noticed that Jeremy was displaying a bit of an accent himself. So, I asked, "Where are you from?"

"My muddah," he quickly responded. A clever one.

"Alright, where's your 'muddah' from?"

No response. Just the stare again. This conversation was going places.

I gave him another moment and then asked him again, "Where are you from?"

"A little east of west and a little north of south."

Great. Now we were getting somewhere. Of course, he was back at bashing Australia for no apparent reason in any downtime. Tim was being very gracious throughout. Gunn kept up his steady, silent vigil.

At some point, I gathered that Jeremy didn't like the Red Sox, which surprised me because I was starting to pin the accent as Boston. But Jeremy wasn't giving much else and I was beginning to lose hope.

At one point, Tim asked, "Brooklyn?"

Jeremy stopped and stared. It was like his brain was slowly chewing on the information that was coming in. After what was becoming an uncomfortable silence, he finally replied, "Brooklyn's not a bad place..."

Hmm. Now I began to realize that I had no idea why I cared where Jeremy was from. It really didn't matter. He was another ignorant soul giving this country a bad name for no good reason.

It was becoming apparent that Tim was ready to go on about his business and I'm guessing Gunn had felt that way from the get go. I asked quickly if I could grab a picture for my collection and expected Gunn to say no, which I was okay with. I thought the Aborigine tradition was one of no photographs because of a belief that capturing an image can capture one's soul. But apparently Gunn is a modern Aborigine because he was totally fine with it. Fortunately for us, Jeremy didn't want to pass up a photo op, so he became chummy and jumped in the picture.

Can you guess which one is Jeremy?



Jeremy started right back into his bullshit as soon as the picture was done, so I decided I would get chummy with him so they could start to get away. I started gladhanding Jeremy and slapping him as much as I could on the shoulder. It felt kind of good. Lots of comments like, "Man, this has been fun, huh?" And, "Good meetin' ya! Good meetin ya'!"

Tim and Gunn slipped behind me and I spun around, hoping Jeremy would get lost in the confusion. He was.

I parted ways with the other two, politely saying, "I apologize for America."

"No worries, mate," and they walked away.

I spent the rest of the night hanging out with Josh and we had plenty of time to walk around a little bit of the downtown area.



We got to meet plenty of locals. Homeless locals that is. And some guy tried to sell us coke twice. The first time he was offering for free. We ended up running into him again and he explained very sincerely that earlier we were really passing up a very good deal. We thanked him kindly for the offer again and continued on.

We stayed at Josh's cousin's again, which was kind of like having a sleepover. Josh slept on the couch and I slept in a sleeping bag on the floor. Good times. Josh got up to go to work this morning and we said goodbye. I'm heading to Portland sometime this afternoon. I decided I was going back to sleep for an hour because I slept fitfully last night. I ended up sleeping 2 1/2 hours more and got a later start than expected.

While working on this, Josh's cousin, Dana, came downstairs with lunch for me. A plate full of taquitos, an apple, and a nice, tall glass of cold milk. She's such a sweet person. Always smiling. And she has given me a place to crash. It's funny. So much of this trip is going to end up with me relying on the kindness and generosity of other. And yet, I have such a hard time accepting when someone wants to do something nice for me. I suppose this will be a healthy exercise.

Westward Ho! (And A Tribute To A Fallen Hero)

MONTANA/IDAHO/SEATTLE, WA - I left Yellowstone at night and drove through to Missoula, MT, where I slept in a truck stop overnight. Even in a sleeping bag and fully clothed it was still cold. By that next morning, I was pretty desperate for a shower. I hadn't showered or changed clothes since Denver and things were getting funky. Deodorant can only do so much.

The truck stop didn't have any showers, so I continued onward. Josh sent me a text message that his cousin was insisting I crash at her place, which was good news. I was getting sick of sleeping in the car in cold weather.

I stopped off in Coeur d'Alene, ID, which was a beautiful place by a lake. I was trying to find a place to eat early lunch (the time zone may have clicked over, but my stomach hadn't). I had lunch but couldn't find WiFi anywhere.

Tom had text messaged me some bad news the night before and I really wanted to check to see if it was true. Unfortunately, Tom was right and my favorite website has been shut down. I am truly sad. I read about it today and realized my world has changed forever. And while the website was nothing dirty (for anyone who doesn't know which one it is - it won't be named here for legal reasons), there could be legal ramifications as a result of this shutdown. Let's hope not. I can only stay on the road so long, haha. I wonder what the statute of limitations is on this...

I do happen to have a picture which I believe does a good job of stating my opinion on the matter.



'Nuff said.

Anyway, I continued on. I didn't end up getting to see a lot of Montana or Idaho because of the massive amounts of fog.



I did find one stop in Montana which was really nice.



It's funny... I really don't enjoy looking at pictures like these myself. They're always on the covers of atlases and they always annoy me. Seeing it firsthand helped me realize that pictures can't do it justice. But for some reason I just keep taking the pictures and posting them on here for everyone else. Oh well.

I got to Washington and was amazed by... just how boring it was. The east side of Washington is difficult to drive through. It's almost as depressing as Nebraska.

I always knew Washington was known for it's expensive coffee products and depressed people. However, I wasn't aware that one of it's major exports is dirt. It must be. Because that's all the east side of the state consisted of - dirt. And some rocks.

I did make two stops, both of which were on opposite sides of the Columbia River. There was a nice view on the east side... if you like dirt, that is.



Across the way was my next stop - a petrified forest. I hiked around for a little while, but there wasn't much to see. I had an eye out for rattlesnakes the whole time too.

After that was a beeline for Seattle. Once I hit the mountains, everything changed. The western part of the state is beautiful. Of course, as soon as I hit the mountains, it started raining. Thanks, Seattle.

I met up with Josh at a gas station and we headed to his sister's where he is staying. They said it was cool if I took a shower. Yes! It was maybe the most enjoyable shower ever. It had been about 60 hours and things were getting unbearable. I could probably deal with it just fine, just so long as I got to change clothes and didn't sit in a small box the whole time. Probably just a preview of what's ahead in the trip anyway.

We had some dinner there and went over to his cousin's place. She is unbelievably nice. She opened up her home and said I could stay as long as I need, although I do want to get moving on to Portland soon. Josh and I visited with her, her boyfriend, and son for a while and then went to hang out and catch up.

Later at night we sat around and watched "The State", so a good end to the evening.

This morning, after some breakfast, Josh and I went out to a park to play some disc golf. I haven't played that game in years. It was a good time and the park was beautiful. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera.

Josh had to work for a couple hours, so I stayed here, wrote all of this, and washed some clothes. We're going to head downtown this evening, so I get to really check out Seattle. Have a good night.

Yellowstone

YELLOWSTONE PARK, WY - Let's sum up the past couple days in a few postings. (NOTE: All pictures can be seen in bigger size by clicking on them. If I make them any larger, I'll have to do a dozen posts.)

I woke up early in the morning on Tuesday in that WalMart parking lot in Cody. My car rocked all night long from the heavy wind. I tried to imagine it as being rocked to sleep - the kind of rocking where you freeze your ass off while being in a cramped space that smells kind of bad. I did get to have a first for the trip... let me know if this is TMI. I awoke around 4am feeling a desperate need to evacuate my bladder. The kind of pain that you know you could endure for several hours if necessary, but you certainly won't be able to go to sleep with it. The wind was howling outside and I was freezing in full clothes under a blanket... so... I grabbed an empty water bottle. This was no easy task in the dark, so I flipped on the overhead light while finding myself muttering a short prayer that no one would try to get into the two cars on either side of me for the next minute or so. Josh suggested today that I get one of those large Mountain Dew bottle for just such an occasion. It is on my "To Do" list.

There was about an hour drive to Yellowstone through the mountains and I already had difficulty getting through the trip quickly without stopping every little bit to take pictures.







It was a wonderful drive. I got into the park and was quickly greeted by snow (no, sadly, not Tom). Everything was amazing.



The pictures don't do it justice, but the road reached so high up that the clouds were hanging just a couple hundred feet above. It felt like you could reach up and touch the sky. It definitely felt like a different world there.



There are only a couple main roads through the park, which make a circle around the center of the park and trail up the two sides. I started heading in the direction of Old Faithful so I could make sure to check it out and hit the waterfalls before sunset. I stopped at one of the many sites to see natural hot springs (or at least to see some sulfur exhaust) and was snapping some pictures. Then I saw a pretty big animal eating something down below. My heart practically jumped out of my chest I was so excited... because from behind it looked like a grizzly. I moved my getaway car a little closer to the edge so I could jump in quickly if necessary and started walking to the side so I could get a better look. From behind, it looked like a grizzly hunched over until I saw the dark brown head. It turned out to be a bison laying down eating some grass. I was pretty disappointed.



I actually never saw a bear all day, which I had kind of set my heart on. This is why I'm trying to have zero expectations for this trip... it will only to lead to disappointment. And to think, I packed a pic-a-nic basket for two...



I spent a good part of the morning just driving around and stopping every 500 feet or so. Every spot there seems perfect. It was a good start to the day.

I stopped near Old Faithful and tried to find somewhere to shower. I was getting a little sick of myself. Unfortunately, the showers are closed off-season, as is most everything there, so I was out of luck. I took a bit of a trucker shower in the bathroom of the dining hall there and brushed my teeth. Lunch was okay... I was happy to eat something warm. But there was something else I wasn't happy about...



Somebody's getting sued.

Anyway, I wandered over to Old Faithful and must have just missed the most recent display. There's a boardwalk that goes all the way around the geysers (there's several of them) and there's plenty of benches for seating. I grabbed a prime one and decided to rest for a little while. Luckily, there was plenty to keep me entertained during that time.

People watching is a lot of fun. For example: This couple that sat down near me had their little puppy with. The dog's name was "Scooter" but when the woman called the dog, her southern accent made it sound more like "Skeew-ter". She was practically obsessed with taking pictures of this little thing. She even went so far as to have her husband leave the boardwalk and walk towards Old Faithful with the dog so he could set it down and the dog could run towards the camera with the geyser in the background. Now let me say this: The boardwalk is there for a reason. There are signs everywhere and a big warning before you approach the area. Lots of people get hurt every year because new sulfur pockets pop up all the time. The ground can give away, leaving very intelligent individuals standing in boiling water, scalding mud, or acidic messes which eat through boots. But damn! We want a cure picture of Skeew-ter, eh?! Nothing bad happened though and Social Darwinism continues to disappoint me.


I laid down on the bench and slept for a little while. It's funny what people will say about you when they think you are asleep, even if you're within earshot.

The geyser went off and I grabbed a lot of pictures. I'm curious how film will turn out. I still haven't gotten any rolls developed.




Afterward, I watched the "Mother of the Year" let her little three-year-old walk off the boardwalk and wander around. Did I mention that one of the biggest displays next to all the warnings was a display funded by the family of a nine-year-old who was off the boardwalk and broke through the ground, getting burned to death. It happened in the 70's and the family helped pay for the display so it wouldn't happen to someone else. And this mom just smiled as she watched her kid play in the rocks. People amaze me.

Wildlife was everywhere. It kind of put things in perspective. If we weren't around, the rest of the world would just keep going, like we had never been here.





I'll let the pictures tell the rest.

Update Coming

SEATTLE, WA - I will be posting an update sometime today hopefully. Lots to share.

Who Farted?

CODY, WY - I'm sitting in a Days Inn parking lot scamming free internet. God bless WiFi. Reminds me of the ghetto days at my dad's... not that I'm very far removed from that...

I'm not far outside Yellowstone but I have decided to camp out for the night. There's no point in going to the park now... I'll just head there first thing in the morning. I should make it to Seattle by Wednesday.

Goddamn WalMart. They're everywhere. Even out here. I drove more than an hour today without seeing any houses. That's what it's like out here. I thought Nebraska was barren. Wyoming is nothing but open space. But Wyoming is different. The whole place is beautiful. Nebraska sucked. Anyway, I got off track, I was complaining about WalMart. In the middle of this quiet town/quiet state, where semis aren't even allowed to pass through all the way because they can't head towards the park, there's still a WalMart to pollute the goodness. Dammit. Even worse, I went inside tonight to buy something (a DC to AC converter). I hate myself a little right now. Oh well, at least I'll be abusing their parking lot tonight... I'll be sleeping there. If only I could figure out a way to get a free shower from them. That would be great.

I took quite a few pictures today, despite my digital camera not wanting to cooperate. I spent the most time in Thermopolis (yes... that's right... Thermopolis), home of the world's largest hot water spring. The whole town smells like a fart. When I first got to town, it kind of slipped my mind that hot springs are sulfur springs. I thought I was the one that smelled (I've spent a lot of time in this car) and I rolled the window down to air myself out. Then it dawned on me, "Oh yeah..."

I didn't actually get into the springs because it cost $10 just to have the privilege of smelling like ass for the rest of the night. Pass. But I drove around the park for a little bit and wandered into a bison pasture. I could have reached out and touched one of these guys, although I decided it would be best not to chance it.



I promised my mom I wouldn't get eaten by a bear on this trip and, while she didn't explicitly express so, I'm guessing she meant all wildlife in general.

Chicago might have to give up the title of "Windy City" because I'm pretty sure any town here in Wyoming could win it. I'm almost a little afraid my car is going to blow over tonight while I'm in it. Probably not though, eh?

I had the opportunity to enjoy a sunset in the mountains. I haven't really had that yet. I hope I take the chance to sit down and enjoy it a little more next time.



Well, it's time for me to find my perfect parking space for the night. Thanks everyone who commented on the last blog. I'm going to repost it on MySpace for others.

Good night.

If You Could...

HIGHLANDS RANCH, CO - Melissa and I had an interesting conversation this afternoon. I was talking about visiting her in New Mexico and mentioned that I really want to check out Roswell. We had a brief discussion about what I would do if she got abducted by aliens and I didn't (it mostly ended with me saying I wouldn't be able to go on because I missed the opportunity to do that but had to watch someone else get to experience it).

Anyway, it came out that being abducted by a UFO ranks pretty high up on the list of things I would absolutely do, just as long as I didn't die in the process. Soon, a discussion erupted out of this... just what is on your list of things you would definitely do if you wouldn't die in the process?

Here are some of mine:

1) Get struck by lightning. I have to admit, I have a slightly sick fascination with lightning and would love to be struck if I could manage to survive the blast. And maybe I'd get super powers as a result.

2) Go off Niagara Falls in a barrel. Or better yet, in a canoe while wearing a Viking helmet. Melissa suggested an inner tube while wearing floaters. Well, maybe
those options are pushing it.

3) Drive a car into a tornado. I was watching that Storm Chasers show (I think that's the title) and I love that armored car they have. Right now, if they gave me a chance to ride along for an episode, I would do it in a heartbeat.

4) Put my head in a lion's mouth. Why not?

5) Rush into a burning building. I guess I would probably be doing this to save someone. So, I would like to think I would do this even if I didn't know I would survive. I guess this only counts as half.

6) Jump across rooftops. Like in a movie. Or a comic book. And I'd need to be chased by a bad guy too. I was really tempted to do this one of the last times I hung out with Emily and we visited some people on the rooftop of her building. It would have been so easy. But then she told me about someone who did just that and got stuck. They needed to have someone come get him off the roof. So I decided I probably shouldn't do it and shouldn't say I was thinking about doing it right before she said that. Emily, if you're reading this right now, I hope you're not laughing at me too hard.

7) This isn't too dangerous (depending on the height) but cliff diving would be great. I really should have done it at Casa Bonita the other night. It would have been a nice experience to add to the collection.

I'm kind of out of suggestions right now. Anyone else have anything they would like to do? Leave comments about what you would do if you would survive. By the way, you can leave comments without having an account now. And comments would really help me feel like I'm not just talking to no one here... so feel to leave comments frequently.

Don't make me beg.

Colorado Suffers From Bipolar Disorder

COLORADO SPRINGS/MANITOU/HIGHLANDS RANCH, CO - Yesterday was a beautiful day. The warmest one since I got here. It topped out around 75 degrees sometime in the middle of the afternoon and was clear and sunny.

I went to Colorado Springs to hang out with Lindsey one last time. We met up with her friend Michelle and went to Manitou to go hiking.



Manitou is this cool little hippie town in a valley. There are all these little shops and diners. The people seem pretty laid back there... my kind of place. On a quick side note, I found out today that manitou is a Native American term referring to the idea that everything is interconnected. More specifically, there are individual manitou which, while independent, are still a part of everything. I like that concept.

Anyway, a nice town.



We hiked a little, grabbed some milkshakes at a place called "Marilyn's House of Fine Pizza," and checked out Garden of the Gods.



Back in Colorado Springs, there was some good conversation, a little Thai food, Cherry Limeades from Sonic, and many episodes of "Friends." A good night.

The drive home was rainy and surprisingly cold. Then, at 9am this morning:



Ridiculous. And right before I'm going to head out. I don't know how much fun Yellowstone is going to be in these conditions. Or the mountains.

Oh well.