Bun Mon Mou

Day Twenty Eight: Sturgis & Devil's Tower

2004-08-14T21:45:41Z

I can't explain enough how much I liked Wind Cave National Park. Everyone keeps asking if we went into the cave. No. Honestly, I have no idea about the cave. It would be nice to see it someday.

We left the park around 7 and drove into Custer. Tons of bikes everywhere. Custer has an internet cafe. We uploaded the stuff, grabbed some bagels and zipped on over to Mt. Rushmore.

Mt. Rushmore wasn't a planned stop. We actually decided to go after we passed the road leading to it. I turned the car around and in about 15 minutes we were at the base of the mountain. They charged us $10, we walked up, looked at the dead presidents heads and seemed to feel sort of cheated. Not that it wasn't impressive. It was. But really, how long can you look at it and not get bored? It took us about 45 seconds. So we headed to the gift shop. Smash bought some postcards and Nikki conned me into buying (for her) a hat that is actually a buffalo head (not a real one). Check out the pictures, you'll see what I mean.

We made her wear the hat the entire time we were at Mt. Rushmore. Which wasn't all that long. Just long enough to pee and to take pictures of a Japanese tourist family taking pictures of each other. It was wild.

Though it was the last day of the rally, We thought Sturgis would still be a bit of fun. Oh it was.

To find it, all we had to do was follow where the route taken by the many, many bikers. In about 30 minutes, we were in a traffic jam of backed up motorcycles.

This was very much not not kind of scene. It was cool to look at and I've always wanted to experience it, but I felt pretty out of place. Leather, meat, booze, half to mostly naked women, gambling... yep, the basics. Icky. But fun to make fun of.

We drove through Sturgis twice, just to get the full effect. Devil's Tower was next, but about 60 mins away. For the entire drive, we saw bikers everywhere. Certainly not complaining. I'm very pro-biker. Was pretty cool.

Devil's Tower was hyped up for me. We drove and drove and finally saw it about ten miles before we got to the base of it. It's not really all that big. I mean, it's not small, but it's not huge either.

We paid the $10 and the $12 for the campsite (again, with no shower) and set up camp. How about food? Where would we get it? All were hungry, but the nearest place was about 30 miles away.

Thirty miles seems like next door now. Only thirty miles? Sure! Let's go! And guess what we found? Yeah, a Yawbus. After eating, I called my folks, turns out that the east coast is getting some kind of hurricane thing. It's sunny and perfect here. HA!

Anyway, soon after that, we drove back to Devil's Tower and Nikki and I walked the base of it. Smash stayed back to do some work (she really *is* working). The walk was nice. Short, about a mile. All paved, so I wore my sandals. Nice. We saw a few climbers and got some nice pictures. Mostly, it was just relaxing. Lovely.

When we all met up again at the campsite, we talked about what to do for the rest of the trip. We made a decision. And this may come as a shock to some of you. We're heading for home.

No. It's not because we're unhappy or not getting along. It's not because we're tired of traveling. I think we all have different reasons. Mine is that I've taken everything I can from this particular trip. I've learned all that I can for now. And now I would like to apply it. I told my father, "I'm not anxious to get back to Pennsylvania, but I'm ready to not be traveling for now."

On this trip, I've seen so many places that I would like to be, but I can't be at any of them. I'm not really even sure what that means, but it's what I'm thinking.

Maybe we're all thinking it in a way. We've all internalized a lot of this trip. And though I've written volumes about it, I've hardly scratched the surface of the essence of our travels. Like a soldier who fought a war, I probably wont talk about a lot of the trip. There are stories to tell and believe me, those who know me will hear about them forever. But there are some things, I think, that we'll always keep to ourselves. Nothing that is shocking or even interesting to anyone else. But things that words can't begin to touch.

This isn't a farewell, but the next few days will be driving days. I'm not sure when or even if we'll have a chance to upload pictures until we get home.

When we get home, we'll upload the pictures, update the site and a few days after that, we'll say our good-byes.

Until then, thank you for reading and keeping up with us. It means more to us than you could possibly know.

Stats
Miles traveled today: 269
Hours on the road: 7
Miles traveled in total: 9244

Pictures
Pictures from Eric's Camera.
Pictures from Smashley's Camera. NOT UP YET!!!

Where are we?
Map showing where we are today!
(Purple = where we've been. Red = where we traveled today.)

Day Twenty-Seven - Colorado, Nebraska, Wyoming and South Dakota! CARHENGE!!!

2004-08-13T13:59:27Z

Morning came slow and long and in the form of the lot of us not really sure what we wanted to do. Stay here? Travel? Drive like crazy? Well, we did a bit of both.

But first let me tell you about something that happened last night. Actually, it was right when we first got to the campsite. The bathrooms there were really wacky. It was one door. Just one. On one side of the doorway was the word "LADIES" and on the other side, "MEN." However, as I said, there was only one door. What to do? Open it, right? Sure!

I was still in the car when this went down, so this is how it happened for me. Ashley and Nikki went to the bathroom. It's only about 500 feet away. You could see it from our site. I don't know who left first, but Ashley returned first. She asked, "We're Nikki?" I said, "She went to the bathroom, didn't you see her?" Ashley, of course, did not.

"How big are the bathrooms?" I asked.

"Three stalls." Ashley replied.

Hm. This is strange. "So where is Nikki? You're sure you didn't see her?"

She did not.

About five minutes later, Nikki comes bopping down the road to our site, decked out in her pink monkey pjs. We ask her where she was.

"I was on the Men's side!" She proudly boasted.

No, this wasn't some act of rebellion. As it happened, she didn't really look at the signs, just walked in past the word "MENS" (which was, by the way, written in big black letters on the men's side after you opened the door), undressed, put on her pink monkey pjs, brushed her teeth, washed her face and didn't think twice about why the heck there was a urinal in the Ladies bathroom.

Go Nikki!

Anyway, back to the morning...

I wake up and am in a slightly grumpy mood. The trip has been hardest on me, I think. It's because I have to drive all of the time. It's not that I didn't know this coming into the trip, but still, it's rough. So I really wanted to stick around Estes Park. But yet, I really didn't want to stick around Estes Park. It's just not for me.

The daily journal needed typed up, so I got to that and chatted with my Mom for a bit on IM. Hi Mom! Our net connection at the campground was pretty crap, but we uploaded the pictures and the words and got on the road at (I'm not joking) 12 noon.

Our only destination: Carhenge. More on that later.

Coming out of the mountains, Colorado turns into Nebraska. Just flat and... well, it's like a slightly greener and less interesting Arizona. I really like Arizona and New Mexico. A lot. This part of Colorado wanted to be like that, but just wasn't. Looking behind us, the mountains seemed unimpressive. I wanted to look back and see huge giants towering over us, watching all that we did. But I just saw some pretty big hills. Kind of depressing.

We drove north on I-25 until we hit Wyoming. Looking into Wyoming, we could see a field of windmills. Tall white spires that just screamed "renewable recourse!" They weren't even ugly like some solar panels. They were sleek and lean and just all around cool.

Wyoming, this part of it anyway, looked a lot like the part of Colorado that we just drove. We jumped onto I-80 east, which was also Route 30. Route 30 goes through Gettysburg. When I get back, I'll have to spend a few days there. We've got some catching up to do.

For us, Wyoming lasted only a little more than an hour (we'll be back). Nebraska was up next. And as soon as we hit it, it was very Nebraska. Everything you've heard about Nebraska (which is probably not much) is true. It's flat and pretty uneventful. In need of gas, we pulled into an old old gas station along Old Route 30 (still had the concrete from the 1930's). This was like jumping back in time. Old cars were rusting along site the garage, the girl pumping our gas has frosted blond hair, and everyone seemed kind of hometown goodness mixed with a heavy dose of "what are you strangers doing here?" Neat experience. Someday I'd like to take Route 30 the whole way from Philly to wherever it ends up. Same with Route 50, The Loneliest Road.

We thankfully exited the interstate and were on a US Route. Two lanes and just wide open spaces. Small towns with old, mostly shut down shops. Even old movie theaters. It would be nice to spend more time in places like this, but you can't hit them all, right?

Alliance, Nebraska is the home of Carhenge, our main stop for the day. The town was like most towns we've seen on this trip. It looked like something from Route 66, but without the charm. It was old and dusty and... Nebraska. We stopped for a Slurpee and headed out to Carhenge.

Now, what in the devil is Carhenge? OK. Carhenge is a replica of Stonehenge, only, as the name implies, built out of cars.

Big, gray cars are stacked in the exact shape of the stones at Stonehenge? Why would people do this, you ask? Why would we want to see it? Simple! They did it because they could. We're seeing it because it's there!

I was worried that it would a) be closed and b) be expensive. Luckily, it was open and FREE! This is REAL art, folks. Art is for everybody all the time! It's accessible by all people of any income bracket. Exciting!

It's really a hard place to describe, just check out the pictures. You'll probably never be going through Nebraska, but if you are, it's well worth a visit. I'm VERY glad we went. I'd love to go back for a solstice.

Though Carhenge was amazingly wonderful, we had to push on. We still had no idea where we'd be sleeping tonight. That's a fun thing, but still, it was getting late. OK, it was five, but we didn't know when we'd find something. And we really didn't want to stay in a motel. Since Carhenge was open all the time, I suggested staying there. I would have loved it, but I'm not sure if we would have been hassled by the fuzz.

So we scrammed for the north, shooting for the Rapid City/Black Forest (or was it Black Hills) area. We drove and drove and Nikki slept as Ashley read. We wandered into a town called Hot Springs. They were big into Sturgis and tons of bikers were everywhere. Cool stuff. We found a movie theater that was playing biker movies all week. Mad Max was tonight, but Easy Rider is playing tomorrow, Beach Party, Wild Bunch, Mask and a few others had already played. What a cool fest!

This town was great! But we had to get going. Still no place to sleep. And with the bike rally going on, it might be tough to get a place. Only a few miles out of town was Wind Cave National Park. We were half afraid that they'd charge us $15 for just driving through it, but we ventured on anyway. We crossed a cattle guard and right to our left... a buffalo! We stopped and grabbed the pictures. This big fella was just sauntering along the road, keeping one eye on us and the other on whatever it was in front of him. Big ugly cow is what he was. But cute too.

Time to move on, it was after 7 and still no place to stay. We had a few hopefuls, but with the rally... yeah. Anyway, a few more miles and we came to a campground sign. We hung a left and were greeted by scores of ground hogs! They were everywhere! Nikki laughed goofily and the ground hogs laughed back! It was all very wonderful. We love fuzzy little critters and this trip has provided them in ways we couldn't even dream of! Thank you, trip!

Another mile and there was a mama deer with two fawns. This place is awesome! We better be able to find a site!

What luck! It was one of those parks where you plop down in an empty spot, set up your tent and put your money in a little brown envelope. And we did just that! While picking out our site, we noticed that a HUGE Chinese family had claimed most of the sites in the trees. They had a gigantic van packed full of camping stuff. Just odd. You don't see that much. I don't know. Just interesting.

Our site overlooks some nice grassy rolling hills. A campfire was immediately set as we settled down for the evening.

All in all, a wonderful little day.

As I was writing this and the girls were away, an adult bunny hopped right past me, not noticing me until it was too late. He was five feet away and stopped in his little bunny tracks. Slowly, he walked a big farther, stopped and for the next 15 minutes chomped down on some yummy grass.

Oddly enough, just as I was writing the bunny story, Nikki said to me, "There's something walking towards us..."

"How big?"

"Like human size."

Then I heard something big walking up to us and we could see something through the smoking glow of the fire. Something big.

"It's a deer!"

And there she was. Not 10 feet away from us. She didn't seem to mind the fire or us talking. Odd how tame they are here. No one can really (legally) hurt them, so they have no fear of humans. Just as it should be.

I took a few pictures with the flash to hopefully shoosh her on and it worked. She moved up to the tree line and away from the campers.

This place is amazing. I am in love. And sadly, we're leaving tomorrow morning.

Such is life.

Stats
Miles traveled today: 424
Hours on the road: 7
Miles traveled in total: 8975

Pictures
Pictures from Eric's Camera.
Pictures from Smashley's Camera.

Where are we?
Map showing where we are today!
(Purple = where we've been. Red = where we traveled today.)

The Terror of Nikki Zombie!!!!

2004-08-12T17:17:53Z

This is what happens when I leave Nikki and Ashley alone in the tent at night....

http://www.sitproperly.com/bmm/images/zombie

Seriously. Be scared... be very ascared!

Day Twenty-Six - Rocky & Bullwinkle National Park

2004-08-12T17:01:31Z

Upon waking up, I realized two things. 1) That the campsite we wanted wasn't occupied. None of them were. It was us, an RV thing, the campground hosts and another tent. One family came after us. That's it. Just one. We were VERY unhappy.

Oh and 2), the campsite we wanted was flooded with light from the very bright bathrooms.

We woke up early. before sunlight. My favorite time in the morning, actually. I love it. We were packed up and ready to go by 6:30.

Traffic into Salt Lake City was pretty heavy. There was some stupid morning show on the radio. It was horrible. I think radio DJs are one of the lowest forms of life on earth. It's very incredible. Makes me embarrassed to be a human.

Western Utah and eastern Colorado were pretty much the same. There were some differences, but mostly it was a lot of driving.

I don't want to belittle Colorado. It's pretty. I guess it all just looked like Arizona, but all crumpled up.

We drove on Route 40, yes the same Route 40 as earlier on the trip and also the same one that goes through Hagerstown. I really like Hagerstown. The park is beautiful. Anyway, we passed a ton of neat towns that used to be big tourist places before Route 80 came in. Dinosaur was neat. All the street names are dinosaur names! Neat! Some broken down motels and just fun.

Route 40 taunted us with signs: 56 miles until the next gas station... 43 miles... 36 miles.... Luckily, we had a full tank. No cell either. No cars. We were very alone on a very lonely road. I liked it though. Driving like that makes me quite happy.

We took Route 34 to go through Rock Mountain National Park. It was the only way to get to Estes Park, our home for the night. We drove about 10 miles then came to a toll booth. $15 to enter the park. Sure it's good for 7 days, but come on! We scrounged the money and bit the bullet. If we didn't have it, we would have had to drive a couple hundred miles out of our way. We wouldn't have made it to anywhere near Estes Park.

The park itself was kind of boring at first. I thought, "oh great, more mountains." But then we played with a ground squirrel and everything was ok! Yay!

We climbed higher and higher until we were above the tree line. It's a tundra up there. They don't get rain or snow much because it's above the clouds. We actually saw birds BELOW us! I was a little scared. You know? Me and heights.

Getting out of the car was like stepping into January. The winds made it feel like it was below freezing. The snow on the ground, in patches, didn't help.

The dissent down to the bottom was quicker than going up, but pretty too.

This brought us out to Estes Park, near our campground. Mary's Lake. It's a nice place. Pretty rustic. $25 a night for a tent. But it's better than a motel. And there's internet here.

The town of Estes Park is nice. Kind of like Ocean City, but with mountains instead of the ocean. Got Chinese food. Very good, but everyone who worked there was Scandinavian. Very strange. I just don't get it.

I wish there was more to write. I know the posts haven't been so interesting lately. Maybe the trip is just becoming normal to us. It's all new, but everything is new. We're used to new things, so new things don't seem so new. I don't know. Does that make sense?

Stats
Miles traveled today: 515
Hours on the road: 11
Miles traveled in total: 8551

Pictures
Pictures from Eric's Camera.
Pictures from Smashley's Camera.

Where are we?
Map showing where we are today!
(Purple = where we've been. Red = where we traveled today.)

Day Twenty-Five - The Great Salt Utah

2004-08-11T02:49:06Z

We drove as far as we could last night. Wish it was farther, but what can you do?

I am, however, glad we didn't do western Utah in the dark. Eastern Nevada was beautiful. A lot like much of the other desert we've seen. And like the other deserts, it had its own characteristics too. The mountains here were a lot like California's, but came to peaks, where California's just rounded off. Both were about the same size.

Again, we were on Interstate 80, heading east. Utah was not far, maybe a hundred miles or so. Time flew by as quickly as I drove. Flow of traffic was 85. Sometimes 90. I have never gone that fast before. Maybe I'm just overly-safe, but I don't trust myself at that speed. These roads, though, were flat and straight and you could see for 15 - 20 miles ahead of you. What a site! A lot of people would say that it was boring, but I loved it. Nikki was mostly awake. Simon and Garfunkle were playing on the mp3 player and she asked, "Are Simon & Garfunkle the ones who do the tiger thing... and the one guy was mauled by one of them?" "No," I answered, "that's Sigfried and Roy." She hasn't been with us very long. Silly Nikki!

Smash slept until after we crossed the Utah state line. We work her up for the Salt Flats.

Almost immediately after crossing into Utah, it flattens out and looks like a fresh layer of snow is covering the ground. It was 85 degrees (give or take), so it was obviously not snow. Sand? We weren't really sure and assumed it was a mixture of salt and sand.

Then it turned pure white. We stopped the car and all walked out onto the flats. It was pure salt and crunched under our feet. Some parts were still damp like a small pond was just drying up. My foot sank in about an inch or so, much to Nikki's giggles. Immediately following, Smash's foot sank in up to her ankles. Hearty laughs all around.

The salt had crystalized over everything. Over the tracks, the sticks, the random litter and bottles too. We found a pool of water covered by a thin layer of salt. Our fingers poked through and Nikki and I wiggled then around in the water. I suggested that we taste it to see how salty it was.

Without a thought, we pulled our fingers from the water, put them to our lips and...

HOLY CRAP!!!

This was the foulest salt EVER! Seriously. If you ever find yourself in the middle of eastern Utah and are tempted to see just how salty small puddles of water are, trust me. Back away slowly and RUN! Nikki and I both spit it out repeatedly. We couldn't spit enough! Just gross! Do NOT try this at home!

But too late! The salt was all over our fingers and shoes... it was everywhere. Beautiful to look at, interesting to walk on... but seriously, don't put it in your mouth. I have no idea what we were thinking. Evil.

Back in the car, we drove to Salt Lake City, but skirted its western edge. No need for city driving unless we have to, right? Right.

Our destination, for now, was Ogden. More than anything, it was a town near a cheap state park. Willard Bay State Park. $14 a night. And we already paid it months ago! Nice!

Anyway, Nikki and I got chinese (very good too) while Smash sat and watched us. Then Smash went to a really cool Italian place and Nikki watched her eat. I, not wanting to just sit around, took off to find the older downtown area. This is where they film the TV show Everwood. If you've not seen it, check it out, pretty darn good. I found it on 25th Street.

It was an OK downtown. Nothing to write home about (though, I guess I am anyway). I got a few pictures and just milled about. None of the stores really interested me. Mostly specialty crap stores. No thanks.

Then it was time to find out campground and site. Nikki called and got directions, which were simple and I drove us the six miles from Ogden to Willard Bay. Our camp site was pretty crap, so we asked the front desk lady if we could change since we're pretty much the only people in the campground. Seriously. at 5pm when we got settled in there was the host and another tent out of 40+ sites. The lady told us that almost every site was taken. There were a handful of other pretty crap sites that we could take, but we opted not to. She seemed to be very bothered by us bothering her. Like we were interrupting her TV watching. Annoying. Oh well.

We wanted site 7, but that was taken, or so she said. We'll see. I'm betting it's not. We stuck with our original site and more or less just dealt with it. It's not bad, I guess.

Nikki and Smash played some soccer (or rather, kicking the ball around) for pretty much the first time since buying the ball (which was on our first night). I watched and joined in occasionally. The lake (the Great Salt one), is about 1000 feet away. Or maybe it's just the bay, but it's part of the lake. I guess. I really don't know. Anyway, we tried to see if Nikki could go swimming, but it was muddy as all get out. So we got out and played some more soccer.

I announced that I was going to "do the pictures." This means that I was going to take the pictures from the cameras, load them onto the computer, go through them and arrange them to put up on the site. It's almost a ritual by now. We all gather around the flickering glow of my trust little laptop and giggle at our antics from earlier in the day. It's something we do together. Fun stuff. Oh yes. Really, it is.

And that's about it for today. Not a lot of excitment, but then again, we left Route 66 weeks ago! Kidding kidding. We're still having a blast. Maybe we'll never come home! HAHA!

Stats
Miles traveled today: 412
Hours on the road: 9
Miles traveled in total: 8036

Pictures
Pictures from Eric's Camera.
Pictures from Smashley's Camera.

Where are we?
Map showing where we are today!
(Purple = where we've been. Red = where we traveled today.)

Day 24 - Goodbye California, Hello Nevada!

2004-08-10T07:47:05Z

We're on our way home. It's official. We've started east. It wont be a direct route, of course, but we're definitely on the last leg. It's strange, we don't really seem to notice it. I'm not sure what that even means, exactly. We're coming home. We'll be home in about 10 days, give or take. It's strange to think that.

I can't even remember what I did at home. I worked, but after that? I don't remember. Maybe I'll start doing something new. Maybe? I'm going to have to!

So anyway, today started late. We've been lazy. We didn't really get on the road until about 10am. We said our good-byes to Santa Rosa and made one last stop at the market for our last organic junk food haul of the trip (probably).

There's no direct route from Santa Rosa to I-80. Yeah, I-80. It goes right through "home." and here we are trying to get to it. Go figure. Originally, I-80 wasn't in our plans, but with our second stop at Santa Rosa, we could hardly avoid it.

But all roads lead to 80, so we found it no problem at all.

Since my camera bit it yesterday, our first stop just just to the east of Sacramento so we could pick up camera #2 of the trip. It really sucks that it happened, but hey, that's life. In this world, everything in temporary. Cameras included. No need getting upset. And besides, new camera! Well, actually, it's the same camera exactly (same model). But hey, good camera, right?

Near Sacramento there is a town called Placerville. I really wanted to stop there because I have an ancestor (from only a few generations back) who was known as the Goat Doctor. He was kind of a local legend. There's even a book about him. We were going to stop by the historical society and see if anyone knew anything more about him. He used to live on a ranch, I'd love to see it. But the historical society office is open every day except, you guessed it, Mondays. Today is Monday. Go figure.

As we passed Placerville from I-80, I saw ranch after ranch on top of hills and in valleys all around. Any one of them could have been his place. I just wish I could have seen it.

His mother was a contemporary of Edgar Casey and she herself was a well known clairvoyant. She had predicted the 1906 earthquake in San Francisco and since she was respected, people listened to her, got away before it all went down and saved their necks. Her great great great grandfather was Admiral Andre of Her Majesty's Royal Navy. He was best buds with a fellow named Benedict Arnold. Guess who convinced who to switch sides in the middle of the game? Yeah. I have cool ancestors.

We knew we'd be traveling through Donner Pass, but I was the only one who really knew the story (and I barely remembered it). We exited 80 and transversed Donner Lake where a few families from the Donner Party built cabins to hopefully survive the winter of 1844. It's now a resort. Go figure.

The museum was marginally helpful, but didn't really tell us how to get to the site. I had to look through a teacher's guide to Donner Pass to figure it out. Near the museum were two or three cabin sites. Six miles to the northeast was the camp of the actually Donner family.

While trying to get to California, 80 or so settlers broke off from a much larger group to try out this cool new short cut. Well, the short cut wasn't so short and it took them WAY longer than they expected. So long that winter set in all around them in a very bad way. By October they were immobilized. Stuck in the mountains with little food and hardly any supplies. The Donner family (who came up with the idea of the short cut) had broken an axle. The rest of the party, feeling slightly bitter, moved on westward. But because of the snow, only made it six miles.

Both groups realized that they would have to resort to extreme measures. They ran out of actual food and hunting in the winter is nearly impossible. So they boiled hides and leather. Soon, members of the group that went on ahead started to die. It was not too much later when they figured out that to survive, they'd have to eat the flesh of their loved ones, wives and husbands. The Donner family had the same hardships, but there is no hard proof that they ate human flesh to survive.

Rescue parties were on their way by February, but the last of the party did not leave Donner Pass until April. Out of 80, only 42 survived.

The snow was 12 feet by the Donner family. 22 feet by the other group. How anyone survived is well beyond me. Oddly enough, more children survived than adults.

I wish the place would have held onto the meaning better. But with the resort only a few feet away and a horribly interpreted park, what can you do? Rick Burns (brother of Ken Burns who did the really really really long Civil War documentary for PBS) did a documentary on the Donner Party. I saw it a few years ago and highly suggest you go to the library and see if they have it.

Donner Pass was a nice break for us. It was right on the California-Nevada border and gave us a chance to try to figure out where we'd be staying tonight.

We decided to just drive until we couldn't handle it.

I-80 is beautiful out through these parts. It kind of reminds me of Arizona and parts of California, but it's very much its own thing too. The sunset was breathtaking and no pictures could convey that. We took them anyway.

The sun set and it was dark. Stars. So many stars. Smashers saw a shooting star. I, as usual, missed it. I've only ever seen a shooting star once outside of a meteor shower. That was in Gettysburg on a real special night.

Anyway, I wanted to drive until I fell asleep (not really). We talked about finding a Wal-Mart and borrowing their parking lot. But then we saw a sign that read "REPORT GUNFIRE FROM THE HIGHWAY". We weren't exactly sure what it meant. There are a few different ways to take that. So we just forgot about that idea and pulled into Elko. A casino town with a stupid name.

A motel again? Yeah. Last one of the trip since we'll be back on track as of tomorrow in Ogden, UT. Ogden is where they film the TV show Everwood. It's a pretty good show, but the town is really pretty. I hope to find it.

Internet availability will be iffy from here on out. Hopefully we'll have something, but don't count on it. We'll post as often as we can. If we miss a day, we'll post it as soon as possible.

Woo!

Stats
Miles traveled today: 554
Hours on the road: 11.5
Miles traveled in total: 7624

Pictures
Pictures from Eric's Camera.
Pictures from Smashley's Camera.

Where are we?
Map showing where we are today!
(Purple = where we've been. Red = where we traveled today.)

Day Twenty-Three - The city again...

2004-08-09T07:24:43Z

This one will be real quick-like. It's late and I'm sleepy and not sure when we'll get net access again. So here goes...

We went into San Francisco again today. Lovely day! No pictures though because my camera... well... remember how the camera was somehow dropped? Well... the button finally popped off. No button, no camera. Evil.

After "The City," we took in a documentary on surfing called Riding Giants. It was pretty good. Ashley enjoyed it. Nikki napped in the car for the whole thing. Funny.

So after a surfing movie, we thought, "hey! let's go to the beach!" The only problem was that the beach was sort of hard to find. It was getting dark and the fog was coming in.

We finally got to (where else?) Bodega Bay. Cole wandered off and in the dark and fog, we just couldn't find her. Getting worried, Nikki and Ashley walked back up to the car to get flashlights. What they found at the car was Cole. However, I was still on the beach... the cold, dark, foggy, CREEPY beach with a big ol' case of the willies. Nice.

They came back down and got me. We then drove back to Cole's. The girls got food. I wrote.

Yep!

Stats
Miles traveled today: 163
Hours on the road: n/a
Miles traveled in total: 7072

Where are we?
Map showing where we are today!
(Purple = where we've been. Red = where we traveled today.)

Day Twenty-Two - Here and there, but all Santa Rosa (well mostly)

2004-08-09T07:24:07Z

Well, well, well. Back in Santa Rosa. At Cole's house, of course. Many kitties!

Funny thing is that while we were gone, Princess was wondering around looking for us. Could you blame her? Nope. Hehe.

Cole had to work from11 - 7, so most of the day was spent wandering around looking for things to do. Nothing stressful, of course. Nothing really that exciting to the reader, either.

We ate lunch at Slice of Life, which is an all vegetarian pizza (etc) place. We had pizza and it was freakin AWESOME. Why can't we have vegan pizzas around where we live? I just don't know.

There was a healthfood supermarket (yeah, supermarket, just one of many out here), and Smashers got a thing of organic strawberries. Wow. Just yum.

After Slice of Life & strawberries, we thought it would be fun to drive up to Bodaga Bay to see where they filmed some scenes from The Birds. You know, Hitchcock's lovely little flick. We were driving up Route 1, and I saw, out of the corner of my eye, the school house from the film. Turns out we drove past it last time we went to the beach. Same place! Cool!

This place was fun. It was turned into a house, but part of it is a gift shop and part is a house now. The inside looks nothing like it did, but the outside is much the same. Bippity Boppity Now Now Now.

I got a tshirt! Woo! Has birds chasing kids down the street in front of the school. Fun!

Then we got to the beach. Which was the exact same beach where we were before. Only this time it wasn't with Cole since she was at work. Nikki and Smashers braved the icy cold water and waded up to their ankles. Smash sat down and Nikki changed into a swimsuit (sort of). She walked in up to her calves. COLD! I caught the face with my camera. Classic.

I thought she was going to totally wuss out, but no! She amazed me by actually fully submersing herself while trying to body surf. It was funny and sad and just... well, it was hilarious. She had a blast though and that's what matters.

Nikki had plans to meet up with Jo Jo around 6, so we sped back to the house, and then to Jo Jo's. Smashers and I stayed at Cole's, mostly because we had to pick Cole up from work at 7. That and we weren't sure if it was just a Nikki and Jo Jo thing or if we were invited too. But Smash and I bought food to make and then confusion reigned as normal.

Cole, Smash and I hung around the house and just sort of hung around the house. Nikki called several times, but I think we were just so beat that we didn't feel very sociable. I completely apologize to Jo Jo for that. In retrospect, I (at least) should have sucked it up.

Smash and I picked up Nikki from Jo Jo's around 11. Jo Jo has an incredibly cool house. I wish we could have taken pictures. I forgot my camera. HUGE surprise there. Anyway, very cool house. Very cool girl. If she doesn't come visit us in Pennsylvania, I'm personally waging war on California. Got it? Good.

Oh and then sleep. Yep. Sweet, sweet sleep.

Stats
Miles traveled today: 112
Hours on the road: n/a
Miles traveled in total: 6909

Pictures
Pictures from Eric's Camera.
No Pictures from Ashley's Camera today.</a>

Where are we?
Map showing where we are today!
(Purple = where we've been. Red = where we traveled today.)

Day Twenty-One - Two days worth of driving all wrapped up in one. Kill us.

2004-08-07T18:01:14Z

So today was a driving day. And not like other driving days. We drove two days in one. Oh yeah. Fun? No. Did we stop anywhere fun? No. Did we eat Yawbus? Yes, of course. Did we take a lot of pictures? Oh my yes. Will you see all of them? Most of them.

It's even boring to think about. Did anything fun happen? I don't think so.

Oh wait!!! Something fun DID happen! YEAH! We got water at a healthfood store in Garberville! Where is that!? No idea! But wow! Fun!

We also passed a Reggae Festival with a bunch of really dumb looking white kids.

Pretty much it was the same route we took to Eugene.

So I guess that's it. Sooo... check out the pictures. We got bored and took them. Nikki annoyed me (Eric) by trying to take a picture of my ear. Yeah, it bugged me for some reason. Crazy. Those pictures will not be shown. I was not amused. She almost got a plane ticket home. Oh yeah. Big time.

Enjoy the pics!

Stats
Miles traveled today: 556
Hours on the road: 10.5
Miles traveled in total: 6797

Pictures
Pictures from Eric's Camera.
Pictures from Ashley's Camera (finally!).

Where are we?
Map showing where we are today! (Coming tomorrow)
(Purple = where we've been. Red = where we traveled today.)

Day Twenty - Eugene!!

2004-08-06T03:48:13Z

Twenty days! Wow. This is crazy. We've been on the road for twenty days?! It feels like forever. Twenty days seems like months ago.

And I love it. We all do.

We were talking today about how we never want this to end. I wish it didn't have to end. Sadly, it does. Very sadly. But not for another 13 or so days. That's good news!

So we wake up. Morning at the Motel 6. Yes, they did leave the light on for us, thank goodness. Well, we woke up, showered and packed everything up and drove to the Travel Lodge, only a block away! Why? Well, it was the same price PLUS they have internet access. Free. Yep.

We unloaded there and when drove into Eugene. Our first stop was Cosmic Pizza! Wow! Cosmic Pizza is AMAZING. Why? Well simple! They have vegan pizza! Vegan Pizza? Do I mean pizza without the cheese? Well, sort of, but the cheese was replaced by tofu! Sounds bad? Well, you've never tried it. I was iffy on it, but wow. good. Nikki got a pepperoni pizza. WAIT! Nikki is veg, right?! Yep! They were veggie pepperonis! Yay!!! Ashley got boring cheese pizza. But we love her anyway.

Before the pizza, we got VEGAN peanutbutter cups. OH MY! AMAZING! I'm just stoked. I want to eat them everyday. I'm kidnapping Eugene.

After the pizza, we walked around Eugene. This is one of my favorite places ever. We hit some hippy shops and some CD stores. Mostly we just hung out. Walked around and enjoyed the town. Santa Rosa and Eugene are wonderful. I'm not sure which would win.

The last place we hit was Planet Goloka. It's this cute little cafe where we had smoothies and I bought TWO tshirts! YAY! This is one of my favorite places so far on the trip. I could have hung out there all day.

What struck us all as cool was that everyone in this town is just SO nice!!

After Planet Goloka, the girls hit a piercing place. Each were tempted by the serpent of the needle, but in the end, they just bought new ear rings. Nice ones too. You'll see in pictures, probably tomorrow.

Then it was back to the hotel. Sort of early, but we have laundry to do and it's nice to just relax.

Eugene is amazing. And it's only the size of Williamsport, but there are seven or so ALL vegetarian places. Why were we cursed with living on the east coast?!

BLAH!

What a GREAT day!

Stats
Miles traveled today: 23
Hours on the road: n/a
Miles traveled in total: 6264

Pictures
Pictures from Eric's Camera.
Pictures from Ashley's Camera (finally!).

Where are we?
Map showing where we are today!
(Purple = where we've been. Red = where we traveled today.)

Day Nineteen - California, Oregon - driving driving driving

2004-08-05T05:00:30Z

Today was a driving day, though not an especially long one. It was also the first camping morning in what seemed like weeks, though it was only a few days.

I wrote in the morning while the girls slept, we showered and tore down the tent. We're getting quite good at this.

We finally left the park around 9:30am and drove north on 101 through more redwoods. Often there is a lot of fog, but it was clear sailing for us. The driving was pretty much nonstop until Roseburg, which is about 90 or so miles south of Eugene, Oregon (our decided stop for the night).

Let me back up a little. Since we're going back to California (Cole's) on Saturday, we're stopping in Eugene for the day (tomorrow) and then turning around. Tonight we're in Eugene. Tomorrow is a whole day of Eugene.

Anyway, we stopped at Roseburg for some Chinese (Ashley got Yawbus instead). Food was good and we were quickly on our way.

Eugene afforded us no campgrounds, not even a KOA, so we found a Motel 6 and bedded down for the night.

It was 6pm and we were pretty hungry, so we checked out an all vegetarian Chinese place in downtown Eugene. Amazing. Wow. This was just ridiculously good. Nikki got some fake beef stuff that was eerily like real beef. I got tofu something or other. Ashley got springrolls. The food was incredible. The place was called Lotus Garden. If you ever find yourself in Eugene, just go there. Wow. Seriously. Go.

We walked around Eugene a bit before it got dark. Nice town, but everything was closed. We'll see more tomorrow.

Nikki and I took in The Village, while Ashley is taking in free internet across the street. Nice that they just give it away like they do.

Sorry for the short entry, but really, not much happened today. Some very beautiful scenery (and more clearcuts than yesterday). Oregon doesn't allow you to pump your own gas, but it's a LOT cheaper here than in California. Go figure.

Stats
Miles traveled today: 313
Hours on the road: 7
Miles traveled in total: 6241

Pictures
What few pictures we took today will be up on tomorrow's entry. Sorry.

Where are we?
Map showing where we are today! (Coming tomorrow)
(Purple = where we've been. Red = where we traveled today.)

Happy Birthday Nikki's Mom!

2004-08-05T01:33:27Z

Hi!! All three of us wish you a very super happy birthday! WOOO!!

Everyone else do the same! DO IT!

NOW!

The evolving meaning of this trip.

2004-08-05T01:31:41Z

This trip is an overview. We are skimming America to find the places we'd like to see again. It is not, in itself, an end. Nor is it even a means to an end. It is a brief introduction to the rest of our lives. After this trip, how can we settle down without at least even the thought that we are denying ourselves the very instinct of human beings, to explore?

We have mentally bookmarked a thousand or more places to visit again, to spend days learning and understanding. Places where the culture intrigued us, even begged us to experience it. Mountains left untouched. Deserts crossed but not truly discovered. Streams and lakes, trails and roads spider-webbing their way across valleys and towns lie waiting for the rest of our lifetimes. Not just for us, but for everyone. But everyone grinds their lives away at a job, returning home too weary to even care, to tired to even know they're miserable. Do it now.

This trip is not an opportunity of a lifetime. This trip is carelessly thrown together by three people who have never done this before. All planning is out the window, all schedules are meaningless. What matters is the experience. What matters is living it. What matters most, however, is doing it again and again.

We have become a nation of consumers where we used to be a nation of do-ers. We sit on our big couches in our big houses after slaving away just to make enough money to live our consumer lifestyle. This kills every opportunity to explore the world outside of our little bubble. If we would only simplify our lives. Focus on what is important. We could understand how meaningless all this buying and spending and so-called living is. And that, even if you don't see the world through travel, is what will save us all.

Simplify and deny the learned tendency to consume. If this trip has taught us anything, it is that. It's up to us to not only remember it, but to teach it as well.

We are a family, each having a specific role, even if it's undefined and seemingly unimportant. It's not the traditional sense of family, but when did that ever matter? When I talk of "us" it's like talking about one person. Together, we've created this group consciousness. We haven't lost any of our individuality, but have taken all three and bound them together with travel and living in a car for five weeks. I was worried that we may fight, not mesh and not get along. The opposite is true. We left Pennsylvania as three different people exploring America for three different reasons and have found one thing that keeps us going: each other.

Day Eighteen - Back on the Road

2004-08-05T01:30:42Z

Ah! Once again the open road!

We left Santa Rosa after a quick stop for more Smart Water (if you don't know what this is, do find out) and a good-bye to Cole at the Market.

Our destination: Redwoods National & State Park. Awesome.

Driving from California, south to north, is long. Days to cross it. Well, I suppose if you wanted to do it all in one day, you could, but that's not our point. Nonetheless, we drove for a few hours prior to our first stop.

Being on the road again was great. Not that Cole's wasn't, but we had gotten used to not traveling and I was worried that we'd get to steady on our land-legs. It would be like starting over. Those fears were banished very quickly. We picked up where we left off.

Route 101 going north through California has always been the main route for such a trek. Old tourist traps are still running full-swing with no interstates sort of near by to steal their business. The lure of the tourist trap can be hard to resist, even for a consumption-weary crew such as we. And kitsch almost always wins out.

We broke down and actually shelled out money (though not a lot) on two such traps. Both were pleasant stop overs.

The first was the hole in a big redwood tree. We paid $3 for the car load and got to drive through the middle of a living (and actually quite healthy) redwood. It was, I suppose, interesting. A nice lesson on how nature wins, but man still tries to push his boundaries. No, there didn't need to be a road through a tree. And in all respects, there shouldn't have been a hole through a tree. But in the end, the tree lived. There are certainly much more horrible things you can do to a tree. We saw those next.

Driving north, we'd look across the mountains and see square patches, bald, where a forest used to stand. These are clear-cuts. What a horrible thing to do to a forest. It's like decapitating a body. The body (the mountain) is still there, but it's dead. Yes, trees can grow back, but the forest, as it was, can never ever come back. It's disgusting and shows zero respect for nature and God. But then, when the Almighty is the dollar, you bow only to that. The dollar dictates that you clear cut. Therefore, sustainable practices such as selective cutting, seem slow and costly. It's true, it slower and thus will cost more, but can we really put a price on an old-growth forest? Forget about the whole hippy-treehugger thing and think about its sheer beauty alone. Would you rather have forests or tree farms?

The clearcuts ran for much of the trip, looking like huge scars on the sides of hills. Some had shrubs and brush, certainly not natural to a dense forest floor. But since there was now amble sunlight, these weeds could grow and choke out any actual trees that are trying to repopulate the area. Sad and disgusting.

Despite these near constant reminders of how selfish and greedy humans can be, especially when money is involved, we trudged on, taking a side road called Avenue of the Giants. This allows the traveler to experience a handful of redwood from the comfort of their own car. It keeps nature at a safe and TV-like distance. That's a good thing though, because it also keeps littering and nature-abusive humans at a safe distance from the forests. Those who really want to experience the redwoods can do so through trails and roughing it. Those who want to experience such things rarely destroy them, even unconsciously.

Upon this road were signs for other drive-thru trees and random tourist stops. One was called "Confusion Hill." Nikki remembered it from some documentary. They say that the magnetic field is a bit off there and that makes things all wonky. They built a shack to prove it. The shack is built on the side of a hill and conforms to the contour of the hill. Meaning, it's slanted big time. They claim that water flows uphill, and it really does appear to. There are other such optical illusions there too. We tried them all and generally just goofed around with this other family who was there with us.

"Other family." That's right, other. It's strange how we've become a family. Not strange, but natural. (And sad that "natural" is "strange.") her.

We all stumbled around, trying to focus and regain our balance. Quite a bit of fun. After the shack thing, we hung out in a well-landscaped grove of redwoods. These trees are huge. The trees at Big Sur are slightly shorter, I think, but fatter. So from the ground the trees at Big Sur were bigger, but looking up, the redwoods seem to stretch for miles. It's like nothing we have in Pennsylvania.

I know many people are pretty ok with huge timber companies slaughtering entire forests, but before you can really have an opinion on this, you have to see these things for yourselves. I wish we had more time here. Weeks or months even. I want to really experience the dense old growth forests.

Humbolt County is known for two things (outside of the activist community). One is that this is where the Big Foot legend comes from. Second is that this is where the best pot in the world comes from. Now, do you think there is a connection here? Best pot = Big Foot? I think the mystery is finally solved.

Humbolt is also beautiful, I just wish we could see more of it. We stopped in a little town called Garberville. Lots of hippy stuff. Also, every little town, even this one, which is the size of Montandon, in Pennsylvania, has a healthfood store. And all of these healthfood stores are way better than the one in Lewisburg (which doesn't take much).

First, we grabbed Yawbus at this little gas station. The large tattooed fellow who took our order was super nice and even came over to the table to ask us how our sandwiches were. Delightful. While I have no taste for southern California, northern California had more than made up for it.

We checked out the healthfood store, bought some mouth-watering chips that I've become addicted to and milled about the rest of the town.

Nikki and I bought new bags and Ashley searched for a skirt. No skirt was found and we departed, driving through more groves of redwoods.

Running low on gas, we pulled into a mom & pop station in Eureka, CA. It was Nikki's turn to pump so she got a first row seat to see a car with more rust than paint (the trunk couldn't even close because the rust had eaten the lock!), a windshield that looked like in won a battle with someone's head, but perhaps not by much as all of the other windows were simply gone. The rest of the car was dented and had huge chunks taken out of it. The real gem, however, were the two girls, obviously transplanted from what could only be described as some Louisiana swamp, who yelled very loudly at every male who walked anywhere near their excuse for a car, "Do you have a cigarette?!" How classy! We got pictures. The plates on the car claimed California, but which from which Californian junk yard did these two fine ladies steal their chariot?

Filled with full-on belly laughs (and after a quick call to Brad, our travel consultant), we drove another hour to our campsite.

Though we had reservations, the reservations only assure that we get a site. It doesn't assure which site we get. Because we arrived so late, we got literally the last site available. Number 12. It's not bad. A little on the small side. Actually, when we were setting up the tent, a twelve year old kid rode by on his bike, fairly loudly exclaiming, "Wow! That's a small tent site!"

With that accomplished, we went back into "town" where there was a cafe, sat down and to our surprise an extremely nice waitress suggested that we could order veggie burgers and that they were vegan. So we did! This wasn't some hippy cafe. This was a greasy spoon. It was a diner. The word "cafe" only takes the edge off. We ate and decided to get firewood: Only $5!

We pulled the car next to a wheel barrel filled with chunks of wood. The whole thing was ours for only $5. Nikki, being the brave girl that she is, knocked on the door to an old airstream trailer now serving its life as a home for the $5 for wood guy. Five dollars for wood guy poked his head out of what was probably his bathroom window, "I'll be right out."

A minute later, he appeared at the front door thing with half-buttoned jeans, suspenders and no shirt. He wasn't some fat dirty hick, he was ripped. As Ashley put it, "he had an eight pack!" He covered himself with a blue denim shirt, buttoned a button or two and helped us load up the car. He then grabbed his chainsaw as we looked at each other maybe wondering if this was the last thing we'd ever see. But no, he was one nice fellow. He was cutting up more wood for us! After he sawed two or three pieces, he grabbed his ax and gave us two armloads and even made a bunch of kindling. What a guy!

Ashley had to sit in the front seat with Nikki and I, and the wood pile in the back would shift with every turn, but we made it back to the campsite.

I'm not very good at starting fires, but for some reason, the fire gods were smiling upon us. In no time at all, we had a beautiful campfire. Our first of the trip. Well worth the five bucks and there's even wood left over for the next people!

A great little day. Nothing special, but yet, everything special.

Stats
Miles traveled today: 372
Hours on the road: 7
Miles traveled in total: 5928

Pictures
Pictures from Eric's Camera.
Pictures from Ashley's Camera.

Where are we?
Map showing where we are today!
(Purple = where we've been. Red = where we traveled today.)

Who was Emperor Norton I?

2004-08-03T15:20:12Z

Why, he was the Emperor of the United States of America and Protector of Mexico, that's who!

Joshua Abraham Norton (January 17, 1811–January 8, 1880), a businessman of San Francisco, California who lost his fortune investing in Peruvian rice, famously anointed himself His Imperial Majesty Norton I, Emperor of the United States, and Protector of Mexico in 1859 and "reigned" until his death.

Though he was considered insane, or at least highly eccentric, the citizens of San Francisco (and the world at large) in the mid-to-late 19th century celebrated his presence, his humor, and his deeds—among the most notorious being his "order" that the United States Congress be dissolved by force (which Congress and the U.S. Army ignored), and his numerous (some claim prophetic) decrees calling for a bridge to be built across San Francisco Bay. The King in Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is reportedly modeled after him.

Self-proclamation
Having become fully disgruntled with the inadequacies of the political structure and state and federal governments of the United States, Norton took matters into his own hands on September 17, 1859, when, in letters to the various newspapers of the area, he summarily proclaimed himself "Emperor of These United States":

At the pre-emptory request of a large majority of the citizens of these United States, I Joshua Norton, formerly of Algoa Bay, Cape of Good Hope, and now for the last nine years and ten months past of San Francisco, California, declare and proclaim myself the Emperor of These United States.

Emperor Norton regularly strolled the streets of San Francisco in an elaborate blue uniform complete with tarnished gold-plated epaulets.At the pre-emptory request of a large majority of the citizens of these United States, I Joshua Norton, formerly of Algoa Bay, Cape of Good Hope, and now for the last nine years and ten months past of San Francisco, California, declare and proclaim myself the Emperor of These United States.
He would, on occasion, add "Protector of Mexico" to this title. Thus commenced his "unchallenged" 21-year reign over America.

Imperial decrees
As is the role of any emperor, Norton issued numerous decrees on matters of state. Obviously, now that a monarch had assumed power, there was no further need for a legislature, and on October 12, 1859, the Emperor issued a decree that formally dissolved the United States Congress. He also observed that "...fraud and corruption prevent a fair and proper expression of the public voice; that open violation of the laws are constantly occurring, caused by mobs, parties, factions and undue influence of political sects; that the citizen has not that protection of person and property which he is entitled". As a result, the Emperor ordered that "all interested parties" gather at Platt's Music Hall in San Francisco in February 1860 so as to "remedy the evil complained of".

His decree was not properly observed by the rebellious politicians in Washington. Serious measures appeared to be called for, and in another imperial decree of January 1860, Emperor Norton I summoned the army to remove them:

WHEREAS, a body of men calling themselves the National Congress are now in session in Washington City, in violation of our Imperial edict of the 12th of October last, declaring the said Congress abolished;
WHEREAS, it is necessary for the repose of our Empire that the said decree should be strictly complied with;
NOW, THEREFORE, we do hereby Order and Direct Major-General Scott, the Command-in-Chief of our Armies, immediately upon receipt of this, our Decree, to proceed with a suitable force and clear the Halls of Congress.
Much to the disappointment of the Emperor, the army failed in its appointed task, and the former Congress persisted in their disobedience to his decrees. This necessitated further decrees in 1860 that dissolved the republic and forbade the assembly of any members of the former Congress. This battle against the former leaders of his empire was to persist throughout his reign, and it appears that the Emperor eventually, if somewhat grudgingly, granted consent for the Congress to continue operating.

Despite his challenges with the recalcitrant Congress, Emperor Norton I, as a benevolent leader, took it upon himself to issue decrees that pertained to the direct betterment of his subjects. On August 4, 1869 he abolished both the Democratic and Republican parties. And the failure to refer to his adopted home city with appropriate respect was the subject of a particularly stern edict in 1872:

Whoever after due and proper warning shall be heard to utter the abominable word "Frisco", which has no linguistic or other warrant, shall be deemed guilty of a High Misdemeanor, and shall pay into the Imperial Treasury as penalty the sum of twenty-five dollars.

After examining a number of his Imperial Edicts, it is tempting to conjecture on the mental condition of America's only sovereign monarch. Unfortunately, diagnosing the precise psychological condition of Emperor Norton I is an impossibility, due to the anecdotal nature of all the documents that relate his behavior. It has been suggested by some that he may have been schizophrenic, as "delusions of grandeur" are symptoms frequently associated with that condition [2] (http://www.notfrisco.com/colmatales/norton/nortdiag.html). However, it is also possible that he was quite sane.

For all of his quirks and regardless of the precise nature of his psychological condition, it cannot be denied that Emperor Norton I was, on some occasions, a visionary, and a number of his Imperial Decrees exhibited a profound wisdom. Among his many edicts were instructions to form a League of Nations, and he explicitly forbade any form of discord or conflict between religions or their sects. The Emperor also saw fit on a number of occasions to decree the construction of a suspension bridge connecting Oakland and San Francisco, his later decrees becoming increasingly irritated at the lack of prompt obedience being exhibited by the authorities:

WHEREAS, we issued our decree ordering the citizens of San Francisco and Oakland to appropriate funds for the survey of a suspension bridge from Oakland Point via Goat Island; also for a tunnel; and to ascertain which is the best project; and whereas the said citizens have hitherto neglected to notice our said decree; and whereas we are determined our authority shall be fully respected; now, therefore, we do hereby command the arrest by the army of both the Boards of City Fathers if they persist in neglecting our decrees.
Given under our royal hand and seal at San Francisco, this 17th day of September, 1872.
This decree, unlike most, was eventually carried out; construction of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge began in 1933 and was completed in 1936.

Life as Emperor
The reign of Emperor Norton had a fairly well documented routine. His days consisted of him inspecting his dominion (the streets of San Francisco) in an elaborate blue uniform with tarnished gold-plated epaulets (given him by officers of the United States Army post at the Presidio of San Francisco), and wearing a beaver hat decorated with a peacock feather and a rosette. Frequently he enhanced this regal posture with a cane or umbrella. During his ministrations, Emperor Norton I would examine the condition of the sidewalks and cable cars, the state of repair of public property, the appearance of police officers, and attend to the needs of his subjects as they arose. He would frequently give lengthy philosophical expositions on a variety of topics to whoever was in earshot at the time.

It was during one of his Imperial inspections that Norton is reputed to have performed one of his most famous acts. During the 1860s and 1870s there were an unpleasant number of anti-Chinese demonstrations in the poorer districts of San Francisco, and ugly and fatal riots broke out on more than a handful of occasions. During one such incident, Emperor Norton I is alleged to have positioned himself between the rioters and their Chinese targets, and with a bowed head began to recite the Lord's Prayer repeatedly. Shamed, the rioters dispersed without incident.

A scandal occurred in 1867 when a police officer named Armand Barbier arrested the Imperial Majesty, for the purpose of committing him to involuntary treatment for a mental disorder. This caused monumental outrage amongst the citizens of San Francisco and sparked a number of scathing editorials in the newspapers. Police Chief Patrick Crowley speedily rectified matters by ordering the Emperor released and issuing a formal apology on behalf of the Police Force. Emperor Norton I was magnanimous enough to grant an Imperial Pardon to the errant young police officer who had committed the (perceived) act of treason. Possibly as a result of this scandal, all police officers of San Francisco thereafter would salute the Emperor as he passed in the street.

Emperor Norton I was clearly much loved and revered by his subjects. Although penniless, he regularly frequented the finest restaurants in San Francisco, and the proprietors of these establishments took it upon themselves to add brass plaques in their entrances that declared "By Appointment to his Imperial Majesty, Emperor Norton I of the United States". This vanity appears to have been tolerated without complaint by the Emperor. By all accounts, such Imperial "seals of approval" were much prized and a substantial boost to trade for such businesses. No play or musical performance in San Francisco would dare to open without reserving balcony seats for the Emperor and his two mongrel dogs, Lazarus and Bummer. (As a sidenote, the death of Lazarus, in an 1863 accident with a vehicle belonging to the Fire Department of San Francisco, led to a period of public mourning. In 1865, when Bummer died, Mark Twain was sufficiently moved to write an epitaph for the Imperial Canine, saying that he'd died "full of years, and honor, and disease, and fleas".)

Emperor Norton I did receive some small tokens of formal recognition for his station; the census of 1870 records a Joshua Norton residing at 624 Commercial St, and lists him with the occupation of "Emperor". The Emperor would also issue his own money on occasion in order to pay for certain debts, and this was generally accepted as legal tender by local businesses. (Typically these notes came in denominations of 50 cents to five dollars, and the few notes still existent have fetched thousands of dollars at recent auctions [3] (http://www.zpub.com/sf/history/nortm3.html)). Certainly the city of San Francisco honored its sovereign; when the uniform of the Emperor began to look shabby, the Board of Supervisors of San Francisco, with a great deal of ceremony, appropriated enough money to buy him an appropriately regal replacement. In return, the Emperor sent them a gracious note of thanks and a patent of nobility in perpetuity for each Supervisor.

Here are some of his other decrees:

September 17, 1859 – Joshua A. Norton, who lost his money in an attempt to corner the rice market, today declared himself Norton I, Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico.

December 2, 1859 – Norton I dismissed Gov. Wise of Virginia for hanging John Brown and appointed John C. Breckenridge of Kentucky to replace him.

February 1, 1860 – Decree from Norton I ordered representatives of the different states to assemble at Platt’s Music Hall to change laws to ameloriate the evils under which the country was laboring.

July 16, 1860 – Decree from Norton I dissolved the United States of America.

October 1, 1860 – Decree from Norton I barred Congress from meeting in Washington, D.C.

February 5, 1861– Norton I changed the place of his National Convention to Assembly Hall, Post and Kearny, because Platt’s Music Hall had burned.

September 17, 1861 – A new theater, Tucker’s Hall, opened with a performance of “Norton the First,” or "An Emperor for a Day."

October 1863 – Death of Lazarus, Emperor Norton’s dog.

February 14, 1864 – Norton I arrived in Marysville to join the celebration of the opening of the railroad.

November 11, 1865 – Mark Twain wrote an epitaph for Bummer, the long-time companion of Lazarus.

January 21, 1867 – An overzealous Patrol Special Officer, Armand Barbier, arrested His Majesty Norton I for involuntary treatment of a mental disorder and thereby created a major civic uproar. Police Chief Patrick Crowley apologized to His Majesty and ordered him released. Several scathing newspaper editorials followed the arrest. All police officers began to salute His Majesty when he passed them on the street.

July 25, 1869 – Decree from Norton I that San Franciscans advance money to Frederick Marriott for his airship experiments.

August 12, 1869 – Decree from Norton I dissolved and abolished the Democratic and Republican parties because of party strife now existing within our realm.

December 15, 1869 – Norton I, Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico, left San Francisco to seek his yearly tribute from the legislature and lobbyists. He inspected the new capitol during the gala ball celebrating the buildings’ inauguration.

December 16, 1869 – Decree by Norton I demanded that Sacramento clean its muddy streets and place gaslights on streets leading to the capitol.

August 1, 1870 – Norton I was listed by the Census taker with the occupation of “emperor,” living at 624 Commercial St.

September 21, 1870 – Decree from Norton I that the Grand Hotel furnish him rooms under penalty of being banished.

March 23, 1872 – Decree by Norton I that a suspension bridge be built as soon as convenient between Oakland Point and Goat Island, and then on to San Francisco.

September 21, 1872 – Norton I ordered a survey to determine if a bridge or tunnel would be the best possible means to connect Oakland and San Francisco. He also ordered the arrest of the Board of Supervisors for ignoring his decrees.

January 2, 1873 – Decree from Norton I that a worldwide Bible Convention be held in San Francisco on this day.

March 18, 1873 – David Belasco made his stage debut at the Metropolitan Theatre playing Emperor Norton in the play “The Gold Demon.”

January 8, 1880 – Norton I dropped dead on California St. at Grant Ave. He was on his way to a lecture at the Academy of Natural Sciences.

January 9, 1880 – Headline in the Morning Call: “Norton the First, by the grace of God Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico, departed this life.”

Here are some other sites:
http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/GENERAL/norton1.htm
http://jubal.westnet.com/hyperdiscordia/emperor_norton.html
http://www.notfrisco.com/colmatales/norton/index.html
http://www.notfrisco.com/nortoniana/
http://www.molossia.org/norton.html
http://www.macreativedesign.com/norton/norton.htm

Do a search for "Emperor Norton" and see what comes up! We don't hear anything about him on the east coast, but he's part of our history!

Day Seventeen - Jo Jo, Napoleon Dynamite and Emperor Norton I

2004-08-03T15:07:15Z

Our last full day in Santa Rosa for a few days. We've decided to come back! Most of what we really wanted to see, we've already seen, so we're coming back for the weekend. We'll get here the night or evening of the 7th.

So today Nikki's pal, Jo Jo, who oddly lives in Santa Rosa, came around. When she walked in the door, Cole recognized her as the girl she gave grapes to at The Market. Small world. They went out of breakfast, then we all met up and attempted to see the movie Napoleon Dynamite.

It was playing at 1:30, but we went to the wrong theater. So we went out to eat instead. Our food took a little long getting to us, so we missed the second showing, at 2:30. We took our time eating some amazing Indian food and then almost missed the 3:30 showing because (surprise) Nikki had to pee.

After finally seeing the movie, all I can say is that it is amazing. Just wonderful. Insanely weird and funny. Though I don't think my mom would like it. My dad would though. He should see it. Nikki thought it was ok. Ashley had problems with it, but doesn't know why. I think she liked it, but doesn't know why. Cole didn't seem to enjoy it much either. But everyone else I've ever talked to about it has loved it. Maybe it's a movie for a certain type of person. Not sure.

Here's the official site: http://www2.foxsearchlight.com/napoleondynamite/epk/index.php
Here is the trailer for the film: http://www.apple.com/trailers/fox_searchlight/napoleon_dynamite.html

After that, Jo Jo had to meet up with other friends, so we said our good-byes and hung out a bit at a bookstore.

Ashley and I were hungry again, so we all trekked to Subway, but only the two of us ate. There was a creepy guy who was semi-hitting on Ashley, but mostly just being... I can't describe it really. He was just really goofy and told really bad jokes and then explained them. It was like something out of the movie we just saw. Just not as extreme.

From Subway, we tried to get to an all vegetarian restaurant about 30 minutes away from Santa Rosa in a town called Guernville. It's a mostly gay town, but it was also Monday night and everything was closed, including the place where we had hoped to eat (again).

On the way to Guernville, I stopped to look at this cute convertible VW bug. I'm in love. I've gone through a series of cars that I would like to have. VW Bus, Mini Cooper, Stella scooter and VW Bug. The bus and the scooter are still things that I would very much like to have and eventually will. The Mini is just too far out of my price range and is becoming somewhat of a status symbol, which is something I could really do with out. True, it's better than a gas-gussling status symbol, but still. The Bug is actually something which I *could* afford. Ashley offered to drive it behind the car all the way to home. But I think I'll look for something local after I'm through with my car payments (January).

We found ourselves back at Cole's and on the computer looking up things on Emperor Norman I, the Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico. He's a very wonderful character who lived in the mid to late 1800's. He's sort of a local legend in these parts, but at the time was known all over the US. I mean, come on, he was emperor. See:
At the pre-emptory request of a large majority of the citizens of these United States, I Joshua Norton, formerly of Algoa Bay, Cape of Good Hope, and now for the last nine years and ten months past of San Fransisco, California, declare and proclaim myself the Emperor of These United States. - September 17, 1859 .

If you haven't already, check out the post about him.

Around 9pm, the girls left and not even an hour later came back with an all vegan cake with a buttload of candles on it (THAT many??... wow). We all had cake and it was quite yummy! Woo! Hurrah for cake!

That was our day. Here are the...

Stats
Miles traveled today: 86
Hours on the road: n/a
Miles traveled in total: 5556

Pictures
Pictures from Eric's Camera.
No pics from Ashley yet again!

Where are we?
Map showing where we are today!
(Purple = where we've been. Red = where we traveled today.)

Day Sixteen - San Francisco... The City!

2004-08-02T15:50:04Z

Today was San Francisco. Not a lot to write about, really. Some highlights were the all vegetarian Chinese place. We also spent about 4 mins looking for a place to park only to realize that all city parking on Sundays is free. What luck.

We first tried to drive down Lombard Street, but I took a wrong turn and wound up on an old Army base that they want to turn into condos. Hey! Let's tear down history and build over-priced housing for white people who drive hummers and have nannies.

Anyway, our only plan for the day was to find a certain vegetarian Asian restaurant. We drove past it, since the directions we got were pretty good, but parking was pretty bad. On a few streets, the cars were parked two-deep. We kept seeing this and were pretty well just flabbergasted. But it turns out that on Sundays, for church, they park you in. I guess too many people were leaving mid-sermon.

Finally, we found "free" parking. One crazy guy with a cart told us that this was a bad neighborhood and that we shouldn't park here. He wasn't mean or protective about it, just being nice. Another crazy guy in a stupid shirt told us that it was free on Sundays. We, of course, didn't believe him. Then we found a sane guy and he had no idea if the place was actually free, but he had been parked there all morning. So we took the chance.

However, we were so far away from the Asian place that we were basically lost in one of the worst parts of San Francisco. This statement deserves and explanation. Yes, it was the worst part of San Francisco, but it really wasn't all that bad. A bunch of homeless, some street urine and that's about it. We never felt threatened or even too out of place.

We walked around part of the Tenderloin for maybe about 30 minutes, then stumbled onto the vegetarian place, almost accidentally.

The food was really good and I took a bunch of pictures of the girls eating. Almost all the food there was fake meat. I got a beef teriyaki with shrimp. Good, but kinda creepy too.

Back on the street and an attempt to find the car. Not so bad, we did remember the streets where we parked. On our way back, there was a bearded street-dweller who was in the middle of the road and traffic was beginning to get backed up. The driver closest to him honked his horn, the man looked up, raised his arms and shouted "I WILL SURVIVE!"

And so he has survived another day.

We found the car and decided it would be a cool thing to find the intersection of Haight and Ashbury Streets. Nikki and Ashley had no idea why and even after we explained it to them, they really didn't get it. I just wanted to see what it looked like now.

This took up the bulk of our time, and though it turned out that we were only a few blocks away from it, we drove almost the entire city before relenting and buying a map. Imagine our giggles when we discovered just how close we were! It was nice seeing the city though.

One of the things that I really wanted to do was drive up Lombard Street. We sat waiting in traffic on a hill that went straight up. When a car would get sick of waiting and would turn around and go straight back down the hill, the rest of the cars would pull forward. But when I'd let off the brake, my car would drift backwards. So it was a race between my foot and gravity. If I would lose out to physics, the guy behind me would be none-too-pleased. I wasn't really used to this, and I hit the gas hard, making my tires squeal each time. It was funny at first, but since this was happening quite a lot, it got old. On my part, it was just a nervous reaction to the possibility that we could drift backwards into the bay. And, as Bill Cosby said, "If you drift backwards into the Bay, you can't go to heaven. You go up and see Saint Peter and he asks, 'how'd you die?' 'Oh me and a Volkswagon drifted backwards into the Bay.' 'YOU GO TO HELL!'"

Not wanting that fate for any of us, I turned onto the next street and will try Lombard Street some other time.

We finally found Haight and Ashbury and it was mostly depressing. Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream had one corner, The Gap had another. Some trendy clothing store and a cafe. There was one shop just down the street that sold Haight & Ashbury tourist stuff, but we hit the Anarchist Bookstore. We all picked up something, Ashley got a book on animal ingredients in food and a book about skating. I got a cookbook and two travel books. Cole got some zines and Nikki got some smaller books.

There was a cool record store next door, but nothing to buy. Nikki wanted stockings because her legs were cold, so we stopped at this ridiculously overpriced glorified thrift store. This is the kind of cool retro store that scours regular thrift stores for cool retro clothing and then sells them back to us at four times the cost. Robbery. They had a back room (called the Meat Locker) where they featured clothing that they altered themselves. For example, there was a white button down dress shirt that they added a zipper too (on the side), some spray painted words and a few other "punk rock" touches. The price tag: $100. This is why we should really consider having a maximum wage as well as a minimum.

I took a bunch of pictures before reading the sign that asked customers not to take pictures. Then I took a bunch after that too. I always thought that it was a stupid rule. It's really an anti-theft thing. When people want to case a joint, they'll take pictures first (so they say). No one asked me to stop, but still, stupid rule.

Nikki bought purple and pink striped stockings and we went about our way. Back to the car and quickly found our way out of the city. We had a map now, this would be easy. And it was! Woo!

Once back in Santa Rosa, Nikki and I ate Indian take out (I love this place) and we settled down for the night.

All-in-all, a really really great day.

Stats
Miles traveled today: 149
Hours on the road: n/a
Miles traveled in total: 5556

Pictures
Pictures from Eric's Camera.
No epics from Ashley today.

Where are we?
Map showing where we are today!
(Purple = where we've been. Red = where we traveled today.)

Day Fifteen - Santa Rosa Fun!

2004-08-01T16:25:21Z

For the next few days, this will be just a brief overview of our happenings. So when I say brief, take it as it was taken in Hamlet when Polonius said it.

We woke up and took Cole to work at 7:30. Santa Rosa needed exploring and the car needed an oil change (the idiot light told us so). So we got ourselves together and thought, "hey, let's take in a movie!" Napolean Dynamite is playing nearby and no theater around where we live would ever play it because we live in the middle of no where. So anyway, let's go!

When we got to the theater, but it wasn't playing when their ad said it was. Jerks. So we went back into Santa Rosa and got the oil changed, checked out the market where Cole works and hit the record store. I got a Shel Silverstein CD and it's wonderful!

After Cole got off work, we hit the beach. On the way, she took us by the street where this junk artist has made his neighborhood a ton of really cool sculptures! Also wonderful. Check out the pictures.

The beach was chilly, but it's California, right? It's supposed to be cold! Whatever. It was pretty anyway.

On the way home, we stopped by an organic bakery and Cole and Nikki got sweet bread.

The rest of the day was spent mostly just hanging out and not driving. YAY!!

We're all in good spirits and this stop-over has really helped us out. Woohoo!

Actually, that's partially true. On our way home from our final outting, only a block away from Cole's we passed a really bad accident where some wingnut in an SUV had run over someone on a bike. It had just happened probably a minute or less before we arrived. The person was literally half under the SUV and half in front of it. The bike wasn't recognizable. The man was Hispanic and was pretty obviously dead. He was making a left turn and the SUV was driving way too fast down the street. Yes, he bicyclist didn't have a light, and that's pretty stupid, especially in a world where motorists don't give a damn about pedestrians or those on bikes.

Seriously folks, if you're driving at night, PLEASE drive at a resonable speed and keep an eye out for those who may not see you. A lot of people are driving SUVs and those kinds of cars show little mercy on smaller cars, what to speak of bikes. So please compensate and "share the road."

Stats
Miles traveled today: 101
Hours on the road: n/a
Miles traveled in total: 5407

Pictures
Pictures from Eric's Camera.
No pics from Ashley today.

Where are we?
Map showing where we are today!
(Purple = where we've been. Red = where we traveled today.)

Day Fourteen - Big Sur... no wait... Santa Rosa!

2004-07-31T17:22:21Z

So here we are in Santa Rosa. It's about an hour (well, more than that because of traffic) north of San Francisco. We're we supposed to be in Big Sur for another night? Funny you should ask. Yes. We were going to be in Big Sur for another night.

This morning, while I was finishing up the daily report, Nikki comes into the tent and says, "We can't stay here tonight." I ask why we can't and she tells me that we can't stay here because there are no open spaces available.

But how could that be? We had reservations, right? Yes, it's true. We did have reservations. But what happened is that because I left the itinerary at home, we didn't realize that there were two Big Sur campgrounds. We had reservations at the other one, which has zero to do with the one where we stayed.

When Nikki called to change the date of the reservations, she actually called the other place, which was right, we just didn't show up. Does this make sense? Basically, we went to the wrong campground.

So thinking that we had reservations at the campground where we stayed was a mistake. There were no open spots available so our day full of big trees and hiking and all around fun was shot all to heck. Sucks.

I was seriously not happy. The first place (aside from the desert) that I actually liked in California and it's gone just like that. How horrible.

We decided to drive to Cole's in Santa Rosa. The drive, needless to say, was not a good one. Traffic was ok, thank God, but I was just in a bad mood. I wanted to stay in Big Sur for another night. We all did, but I think I wanted it more. Or at least, I was affected more by the fact that we couldn't stay. I didn't blame anyone but myself though. If I would have remembered the itinerary, this wouldn't be a problem.

I don't remember much of the drive. We didn't stop, but to get water, gas and bathroom breaks. Nothing really sticks out in my mind.

No wait, that's not true. Ashley and Nikki cheered me up a bit while on Route 1. There was an RV in front of us. It had a cute little plush turtle peek-peek-peeking out the rear window. Adorable. So I giggled a bit and smiled.

The back story to the turtle thing is that since we left, the girls have insisted that I'm a turtle. I'm not really sure why since I'm speedier than both of them put together. I don't really have much of a shell either. I play along, but am, for the most part, lost.

San Francisco was interesting. We didn't stop because we're going back there soon, but it looked like fun. The traffic coming out of "The City," as everybody anywhere near the bay area calls it, was horrible. Yeah, it was rush hour, but still. Not sure what was going on. It finally cleared up around 7pm. And then we happened upon our exit to Santa Rosa.

A few turns later and we pulled up in front of Cole's house. It's a ranch house in an older developement. She lives with five other people. A married couple, Hope and Cogen (pronounced Co-jen) own the place and have turned it into a little community. Two other roommates live in the house, Cole and another roommate live in the backyard. The other roommate lives in a small shed/cottage and Cole lives in a Yert, or more technically, a Yome. It's a huge canvas tent like thing. It's not a tent though. Hard to describe. It's got a wooden floor and wooden frames. The walls are about six feet high and then the ceiling is a six-sided dome, coming to a point roughly ten feet high. What's more is that it's insulated. I quite like it.

I've known Cole for three years and three months. She has an amazing memory, which means I don't win any argument or debate with her. That's just how it goes. Great girl, seriously one of my best friends ever. She moved to California a year or so ago and has been missed very much since then. She's found a really great place to call home. I envy her quite a lot more than I let on.

The house itself is spacious and folks who live there are nice. At least Hope and Cogen are. They're the only ones I've met. Cogen (who Nikki and Ashley didn't meet because they were sleepy) looks a LOT like Nikki's cousin, Chip. I'll try to get pictures. Hope is a down to earth hippy (for lack of a better word - she's not really a hippy, but most people from Pennsylvania would think so).

Everyone here works at a job and also works in the garden and around the house and pays rent. Just like a big community, except with six people. I could really go for something like this, and the more I think about it, the more I think it's something that I will eventually do. Why not? Life is too short to get stuck in a cycle that makes you miserable, right? That's what this whole trip is about, right?

There are four cats, Princess being the youngest and loudest. All were "rescued" in some way or another. One was rescued from people who were going to eat him. It's a different world out here, but aside from Big Sur, I think I really like Santa Rosa. Maybe northern California in general.

We went out for Indian food (which was to die for) and then came home and just hung out.

Tomorrow Cole works from 7:30 till 2. So who knows what we'll do. Find out!

Stats
Miles traveled today: 234
Hours on the road: 8
Miles traveled in total: 5603

Pictures
Pictures from Eric's Camera.
Pictures from Ashley's Camera.

Where are we?
Map showing where we are today!
(Purple = where we've been. Red = where we traveled today.)

Day Thirteen - Route 1, California

2004-07-30T20:28:42Z

California is strange. Not strange like in the hippy/new age way (though it is that too), but strange how you can go from 125 degree desert to sprawling city choking itself with smog to beautiful beach to a forest of trees bigger than I've ever seen. All in a day or two worth of travel.

Morning and a normal start. There's free WiFi at this cafe in the town we called home, Carpinteria, California. So we pack up our things (well most things) and pile in the car for a quick ride to the Chamomile Cafe. Nice little place, homey with over-priced normal breakfast food. I settled for a bagel with peanut butter ($4.75). It was alright. Certainly not worth $5. Everyone who worked there was quite nice. That is, except for the owner. She was just miserable. You could tell she really didn't think highly of those who worked for her. She didn't think highly of us, either. Or of anybody who wasn't (for lack of better words) a certain way (meaning income). But we only had to deal with her once, when we were updating the site. There is a policy that we must buy $5 worth of her over-priced mediocre food to be allowed to use the internet. However, there's no password, etc, so technically anyone could use it. She gave me an evil look and "politely" asked if we had ordered anything. We said yes and she went about her miserable existence.

We ate, updated the site (or so we thought) and left. US Route 101 and California Route 1 weave in and out of each other for a bit. We took 101 till 1 permanently dislodged itself from the US Route, following the state road up the coast.

Along a stretch of road between 101 and 1, we drove through a burned out area. Possibly from this year, but more than likely from last. It was recent though, because nothing was growing in it yet. The shrubs were completely gone and the larger trees looked like black skeletons of their former selves. Whole mountains turned black on either side of the roadway. It was the first time we had ever seen anything this huge before. And by the looks of it, this was a smaller fire.

Route 1 is famous for its views and its curves. And we experienced both in full. Most of the stop offs were beaches, and we hit several. This far north, it's took cold to throw on a bathing suit and jump in the water, so we threw on jackets and took some pictures.

Nikki braved the weather and waded in up to her toes until the Pacific had other plans, a large wave sent her scrambling for higher ground. It's on video. Trust me, she's goofy.

There's quite a bit of traffic, though nothing like the interstate. Most people who drive Route 1 aren't doing so because they're in a hurry to get some place. They take it because it's beautiful. They want to see the ocean, the cliffs, the nature.

Ocean and cliffs I've seen before. Not really in this magnitude, and don't get me wrong, it's amazing, I could look at this every day and never tire of it. But what I've never seen before were elephant seals. It's not like I'm sitting around thinking, "hey, wouldn't it be great to see a bunch of elephant seals?" Though after seeing them, maybe I should have.

We pulled off the road noticing that a lot of other people had pulled off too. There was no beach access, it was fenced off. Groups of people had crowded the fence and were taking pictures and pointing. Not wanting to miss out on whatever it was they were seeing, we stopped and joined in the fun.

On the beach, lying in rows closer to the shore, were huge elephant seals. Ugly, yet somehow cute as well. Like nothing I've ever seen. Two huge seals had broken off from the group and must have hauled their blubbery bodies 25 or so feet to catch the warming rays of the sun. Another was trying to get to them. He'd maneuver his body, flopping it towards the other two, for several feet, then rest... and rest... and rest. Then he'd try it all again. They must be very graceful in the water, maybe even fast. They'd have to be or their species would have died out thousands of years ago.

They made this grunting and snorting noise, which sounded nothing like an elephant (they get their name from their floppy noses). It was distinct and kind of goofy. On the way back to the car, Nikki had already begun mimicking it. I tried to talk to her, but she said, "say it in elephant seal, that's all I can speak anymore." She grunted a few more times and I dropped whatever conversation I was attempting to have. Nikki was obviously too far gone.

Back on the road, I ran out of water. Thirsty, I asked Ashley for another bottle of water (she's in the back seat, she's the keeper of the beverages). She hands it to me and I give it to Nikki, asking her to open it for me.

"Make the monkey noise." She demanded, "Do it."

Now, the monkey noise isn't really a monkey noise, it's more of a combination of the goofy noises that Nikki makes from time to time for little reason at all and a tan-tan from Empire Strikes Back. For some reason it makes Nikki laugh.

"Do it! Do it! Do it!"

"Nikki, please open the water!" I was thirsty!

"No! Ask me nicely in monkey talk!"

But now both Nikki and Ashley were chanting "do it!" over and over. This lasted for four or five minutes than I asked Ashley, "Ashley, do what?"

"Uhh... um... open it.. no wait..." She couldn't remember, but Nikki reminded her.

Ashley soon faded off, but Nikki kept insisting that I ask her to open it in monkey talk.

Fine. I relented and "made the monkey noise" for a second. And did I get the water? No, of course not. Why would I?

"That wasn't good enough, do it longer!"

I refused. I wanted the water.

"Ask me nicely in monkey talk or I'll pour the water out the window."

I was curious. Would she do it? Would she pour my whole 1.5 liters of water out the window? No. Of course not. Who would do such a thing? It was the only water I had left. The only other water in the car was a few swallows of her water. She wouldn't dare.

Right. We're not dealing with someone who is all that logical, remember? This is a person demanding that I asked for the water nicely using the monkey language. Anything goes.

And my water went. All 1.5 liters out the window. The road was winding, twisting and throwing us around. And most disappointing, there was no place to turn off and beat Nikki up. Oh well, she could take me anyway.

The water thing bugged me, but mostly because I was thirsty. It was all in good fun and I understand that. No hard feelings. However, revenge will come. Oh yes, stay tuned.

We had our sites set on Big Sur State Park, and around 5:30pm, we pulled into the park. Earlier in the day, Nikki had called the park to find out if we could change days. Because we're a day ahead of schedule, we've been trying to figure out what to do with Big Sur. Luckily, we could change the day and all would be wonderful! Big Sur tonight!

But when we pulled up to the ranger station, that wasn't exactly the case. The ranger had no record of our reservation change. We asked if it was still posted for tomorrow, but he didn't have tomorrow's printouts yet. They get them in the morning and he wouldn't know that until tomorrow morning. You could tell that he really felt bad. Nikki told him that she had talked to someone who said that we could change reservations and it wouldn't be a problem. He emphasized, but said he couldn't do anything. Just as I was ready to relent and suggest a motel in Monterey, he told us that he could sell us another site for $25. It's cheaper than a motel, and why not? This was a beautiful place! He also said that since it didn't look like our reservations were actually changed, if we wanted to, we could stay an extra day since it was already paid for.

We weren't planning on staying two nights here, but upon looking around, we all decided that we'd really like that.

Our site is in a great spot. We unloaded, set up the tent and headed into Carmel (the closest town) for some food.

Ashely has informed me that it's pronounced "car-MEL" not "CARM-el." We went back and forth with this for a bit, but when the ranger said it as Ashley said it, I rolled my eyes and concluded that they both must be wrong!

The mood was up again and this is good. We go through periods. Sometimes serious and somber; sometimes goofy and jovial. Naturally, the goofy and jovial periods are best. There's almost always an air of good mood, but when things get goofy is when things get really fun.

We ate at a pizza place and got some stuff at Safeway. My dad called and said that we hadn't updated yet today. That's strange, I thought I had. We wandered around this shopping complex with the computer turned on, waiting to catch a WiFi signal. We finally found a good connection and checked out the site. Yeah. I had forgot to push "Post entry." Brilliant me. So I posted with my tail between my legs.

After everything was updated (hopefully) and we had all checked our emails, etc., we headed back to the campground.

Driving Route 1 in the dark is quite a fun little experience. But we made it without driving off a cliff. Surprising when you check it out during the daylight hours.

Before I sleep every night, I load the pictures onto the computer. To do that I need a USB cable that I've been guarding with my life this entire trip. When I went for it tonight, it wasn't there. I searched my bag and the car. It was just gone. More accurately, it was just on the floor of La Casa del Sol Motel in Carpinteria. So no pictures tonight.

Frustrated, I went to bed, awaiting the full day of hiking and taking in the gigantic trees all around us.

Stats
Miles traveled today: 340
Hours on the road: 7
Miles traveled in total: 5072

Pictures
Pictures from Eric's Camera.
Pictures from Ashley's Camera.

Where are we?
Map showing where we are today!
(Purple = where we've been. Red = where we traveled today.)

How to view videos...

2004-07-30T03:28:34Z

Someone recently told me that they couldn't get the videos to work. I assure you, they are there. If you're having problems, here's how to work it.

1) right click on the link
2) select "Save As"
3) save to your desk top
4) it should download
5) when it's finished downloading, play it with your favorite video player (Windows Media Player works just dandy!)

Full update tomorrow or the next day. We're in Big Sur right now and it's really beautiful. Here is a photo site with crappy pictures, but you can check it out anyway.
http://www.cyberhikes.com/HBSP01MP.HTM

Oh and check this out. It's a big file, so you'll have to wait, but it's worth it.
http://www.sitproperly.com/bmm/images/this_land.swf
This is basically my take on the whole election thing. It sums it up pretty well.
Oh, and it has sound, so use your speakers, ok? OK!

Oh and Ashley says "Hi Ma!"

Nikki has nothing to say right now.

Day Twelve - Driving in Los Angeles

2004-07-30T03:10:31Z

If you can avoid driving in Los Angeles, please do. Driving in LA is the travel equivalent to a root canal. I don't mind the actual city driving, you know, from street to street, etc. But driving on a freeway or interstate through a city, in this case Los Angeles, is pure terror. Throw in rush hour and 12 lanes and you've got yourself a holocaust waiting to happen.

They should ban all cars from LA. From every city. Built huge underground parking garages and shuttle people into downtown. It would be quicker and save everybody a LOT of trouble, not to speak of the environmental aspects.

And do they really need to drive Hummers? Yeah, yeah, I know, "What if i hit a curb?!" I hit a curb once in my neon, we're talking MAJOR body damage here. I seriously put a five inch scratch in my plastic hubcap. That wouldn't have happened if I had been driving a Hummer. I wouldn't have even noticed backing over the curb... or hitting the mailbox... or flattening the old lady with the walker.

Anyway, our day started quite nicely. This was the nicest motel I've stayed in for awhile. A Best Western. When I was a kid, we'd go to Ocean City and stay in a mom & pop place. Nothing special, two beds and a bathroom with a TV that got four channels if you jiggled the knob a bit. It wasn't the slums or anything even close, but my parents realized that we just needed a place to crash. We didn't need a gym, room service, valet parking, a jacuzzi in the room or late night cable porn. We didn't even need a pool, what with the whole freaking Atlantic Ocean only a few blocks away. All we needed were two beds and a bathroom. And that's what we got. My childhood was not adversely affected by this.

Best Westerns have cleaned up in recent years. While we had two beds and a bathroom, we also had an iron and ironing board, a hair dryer, a microwave and a fridge. Not bad. Since there was also a desk and WiFi internet, I woke up and started writing. I like writing in the morning better, but that's not always possible.

After the writing and posting and fixing the errors and then fixing the errors created by fixing the first errors, we were off! 10am! No schedule, just a drive into Laguna Beach and then who knows.

Laguna Beach is strange. While I don't hate it, I can't say that I like it. It reminds me of Lewisburg during Bucknell parents and alumni weekend. Only with a big ocean and rich kids who carry around surf boards. Make no mistake, this is a well off town. Even the beggars on the street are dressed better than any of us.

This one white guy, wearing expensive Nike sneakers and name brand shorts and shirt asked us for some money to get some food because, "I don't get paid until tomorrow." My heart went out to this boy, who was smoking and probably had a bit too much to drink at the sports bar last night. I remember when I didn't get paid until tomorrow. I realized, "hey, I don't get paid till tomorrow, I better not spend all my money because I don't get paid until tomorrow. What a jerk.

We did have some great Indian food though. And I found a record store that specialized in New Wave records. Not CDs. I picked up an early XTC 12". Happy time for me.

I saw no blacks or Hispanics in Laguna (which is one of the reasons it reminded me of Bucknell parents and alumni weekend in Lewisburg). I saw Asians and Indians (the kind from India), these are the acceptable races. They make good food. Yeah, you have your occasional "Mexican" restaurant in Laguna, but it's upscale. Really upscale. Probably not Hispanic run. Very strange.

Again, it's not that I hated or even mildly disliked Laguna. I just didn't feel comfortable there. I felt that I wasn't rich enough. Actually, I'm not rich enough. I couldn't afford to live there. Even if I got one of the many jobs from the "Help Wanted" signs, I couldn't afford to live there. Laguna is a town where the people who work there, can't afford to live there. That always bothers me. It's intentional. "You can work and slave for us, but go live in the slave's quarters, not in the master's house." Laguna very much reminded me of the master's house. Plantations are beautiful to look at and even nice to visit, but if you know what's going on, you'd rather be some place else.

I'm not sure if this was felt by anyone but me. I know Ashley really likes it there, and I don't want to change that. It really is a nice place, but I don't think it's possible to live there unless you're either squatting or making $60,000+.

From Laguna, we got back on Interstate 5, heading north. Traveling through LA, as I mentioned, is hell. It should not be done. We took I-5 to US101. It took almost four hours. What a waste of time. We had decided that our destination would be McGrath State Park. Enough of motels, let's get back to camping.

But before that, let's drive on Mulholland Drive. Through the hills of Hollywood. It's a fun road that goes through a ton of houses owned by people who we all know from movies and TV. We didn't see anyone famous, only housekeepers and lawn care guys. Almost all were Hispanic. Mulholland came to an abrupt end when our map said that it would go for miles and miles and miles through a forest. No forest, just a dead end. I think that it started up on the other side of the valley though, but we were running short on time (daylight).

It was around 6pm. We fought our way very slowly through traffic. It was the most aggressive 20mph that I've ever driven. Very amazing how everybody is vying for the perfect lane and treats the interstates like a NASCAR track, only at 20mph. SUVs get the right of way, as do motorcycles. Then it's determined by how expensive your car is. If you are going to be in an accident, and there's nothing you can do about it, make sure that you hit the less expensive car. If you've got the choice between hitting the Jag or hitting the mid-90's Chevy Sedan, you better hit the Chevy. Seriously. And if it goes to court, you can always get off by explaining to the judge, "well, at least I didn't hit the Jag."

We finally got to McGrath State Park. "Camping Full." Lovely. We turned around, craftily avoiding the "Severe Tire Damage" spikes that are placed around California to punish people for commit the heinous and unforgivable crime of accidentally driving the wrong way in a state park. Their next step is missile launchers. Because, come on, what if terrorists had entered our country and planned on driving the wrong way in a state park?

I've always wanted to drive Route 1. I got a taste of it the night before, but it was in the city. So was this, pretty much. LA has oozed it's way up and down the coast for 60 - 70 miles, swallowing up towns and making more roads.

Low on gas, we stopped at this little beach town that wasn't even on the map. It was quaint and cute. Run down, but in a really cool way. You could tell that it was the perfect little sea-side hamlet before they widened Route 1 to a six lane highway and put up a wall between the town and the beach. Now it was the Californian equivelant to Port Trevorton. You could see the ocean, but even if you'd risk your life crossing Route 1 and jump the wall, there was no beach. The road and the wall had swallowed it whole.

A few miles up the road was another state park. We checked it out, but that was full too. The camping traffic on a Wednesday is insane here! I think it always is. This park was in a town called Carpinteria. It's kind of like if Mifflinburg had a beach. I really like it here. We all do. It's got a nice downtown with shops that close at 7 (so we didn't do much aside from window shopping). It's got a few well-to-do streets (like Mifflinburg) and a few not-so-well-to-do streets (also like Mifflinburg). There is no obnoxiously rich estates or mansions and there's no slums or ghettos. Everyone is, economically, "middle class."

We played in a park around the sand marshes for a bit, taking goofy pictures and watching the sunset, then we figured that we better find a motel. Yeah, a motel again.

We're staying in La Casa del Sol Motel. It's not the Ritz or even Best Western, but it's got a charm to it. The guy running the desk was super nice too. The walls of the room are wooden and it reminds me of a cabin. If not for the palm trees out the window, I would think we were staying in a little cottage somewhere in the Ozarks or wherever people stay in little cottages.

And then we ate Subway and went to bed. It's amazing how much Subway we've eaten. Jared would be proud. But it's got veggies and that's quite nice. Raw veggies. Good for you!

That was our day. The vast majority was spend sitting in LA traffic. Pretty evil if you ask me. And people do this every day? No thank you. If I ever go to LA again, I'm going to try to find a better way to do it. Train maybe. That might be better.

Tomorrow is.... we'll find out tomorrow, when it happens.

Stats
Miles traveled today: 195
Hours on the road: 9.5*
Miles traveled in total: 4732

Pictures
Pictures from Eric's Camera.
Pictures from Ashley's Camera.

Where are we?
Map showing where we are today!
(Purple = where we've been. Red = where we traveled today.)

*Again, let me explain how this is measured. It is the between leaving where we stayed the night before and getting to where we're staying for the current night. Example, we left the Best Western at 10:30am and finally checked in at La Case del Sol at 8pm.

Day Eleven - Route 66 to the coast, Route 1 to Laguna Beach

2004-07-28T15:45:49Z

What a day this has been! I can't believe we made it. It's sad, actually. I'm left with the feeling of "now what?" We all seem to feel that the trip is now over. Our journey is at an end. All because Route 66 is finished. She gave our excursion a purpose. What have we now? I guess we'll just have to see.

We woke up in some crappy motel in Needles, California. What were we doing in Needles? Let's get out of here as fast as we can. We stopped last night because of the heat. This morning, the heat isn't a problem. It's morning in the desert and once we get out of town, it will be a perfect day.

We tried to follow Route 66 out of town, but had to use the interstate. Here was the problem. Getting on the interstate was fine, but getting off was impossible. Not because it was busy, but because we were supposed to exit at 133, but hey, California, ever heard of using some freaking numbers to label your exits?! NO! NO, of course not! Why would you?! That's right, California hardly EVER numbers their exits. And what's even better is that they rarely have mile markers on the sides of the interstates.

Thank god that most of our travel today was on 66. At least that is well-marked.

We finally figured it out and were on our way through the last day of Mother Road (at least for a little bit).

The road through the desert is bare. There is nothing to see and no cars anywhere. For the first 30 miles the only cars we saw where: a broken down van, a broken down car and a state worker. How ensuring! But we loved it.

Goffs was the first town we his (after 20 or so miles) and I really wish we would have stopped. They have restored an old school house and I've heard the town is quite nice. It sets off to the side of 66, so we didn't even know what we were missing. We did, however, find a neat little graveyard with a few unmarked graves and a Civil War soldier from the 16th Kansas Cavalry.

The road between Goffs and the next few towns has a strange hill on the north side of it. It's obviously man-made, but what's strange about it is that all along the 30 mile stretch, people (not sure who, probably many different people) have arranged stones to spell out words. Mostly initials and names dot the hill and make for some interesting reading.

I had the idea that we stop the car in the middle of the desert and see what happens. We spent about 15 minutes and made our very own "bunmonmou" sign along 66. Now we are famous!

Towns are so spread apart here that the time between them flies by and in memory, seem like hardly anything at all. But actually, the scenery is beautiful, at least to me. It's empty and grey in a lot of places, but that's how it is. I really like the desert. Not too sure why, but there's something about it that draws me to it. Before leaving Needles, I was really nervous about breaking down in the desert, running out of water, going crazy, wandering out to some mirage, dying with our bones bleaching in the sun. Well lucky for us, that never happened! Yay!

Quite the opposite, though through the day it got hotter, I never minded it. I really really liked it. And now, sitting in a motel room overlooking a green mountain with lots of trees all around me, I feel oddly desertsick (like homesick, but for the desert). It's simple there. You've got big grey mountains, one road, a couple of houses, dirt and a few joshua trees. That's it. Very simple and easy to figure out. Yet there's some mystery to the desert. Not all desert is the same and I'm not even sure which desert I like best. Maybe I should go explore and find out. Maybe next year.

While driving, we'd look at the map, "Hey! The next town is coming up, it's Amboy!" And then we hit Amboy and there's a cafe. That's it. Amboy, California was offered on Ebay two years ago for $1.5 million dollars. Nobody wanted it. I can understand why.

What Amboy did offere was the chance to see a big dry lake. You could almost picture the water, still in it. Mirages are common here. Tavelers have claimed to see not only water, but an oasis, a city, and even mountain peaks. See, the mystique of the desert!

For miles we could see a volcano looking thing with a bunch of black stuff (rocks? plants? sand?) around it. As we got closer, it looked more and more like a volcano. We flew by a road marked "Amboy Crater Road" stopped and turned around. As we drove down the road, we noticed that it was protected by the US Bureau of Land Management, meaning that it's basically a state/national park. But it's free.

At the end of the road, there was an information table and restrooms. We used each. While called a crater, it's actually not. At least not in the normal idea of crater (as in being created by a huge rock hurling itself towards earth. It's a volcano, and probably the youngest volcano in the US. It last errupted about 500 years ago, spraying lava over a 24 mile radius. That's what the black stuff all around it was. HUGE black boulders of old lava. We couldn't believe it. And the volcano looking thing (which actually turned out to be a volcano) had trails going up and probably into it. Since it was roughly 115 degrees, we chose to stick to the parking lot. Maybe some nice Feburary, when the tempreture is only 85, we'll try it. Maybe.

Here is the Aboy Crater's official site: http://www.ca.blm.gov/needles/amboy.html

We took some more pictures, piled into the car and vanished into the desert. Luckily, at least we knew where we were. We were on the road to the bustling town of Bagdad, California. Home of the old Bagdad Cafe, two saloons, a few churches, a post office, a school, a few Hotels and a booming population! Well, that was in 1910. Now there is a tree. That's right. Just one tree. No nuthin.

The Bagdad Cafe was reopened (in name only) in Newberry Springs, a few miles down the road. The movie Bagdad Cafe was filmed here and a few years later, the place was bought and the new owners officially changed the name. Today, MANY tourists from France go there. Seriously. We checked out their guest book (and signed it too!) and there were all these people from France. We couldn't believe it! I asked why and the woman behind the counter (the only person there besides us) said that the movie was really big in France, so everyone comes here to see where it was filmed. Strange people.

The mood of this place was great. Pretty much a greasy spoon, but with style. Much like many other places on 66. You could tell which places those are. The places that "get it." The places that can really capture the old mood of Mother Road. This place did it. The girls got English muffins and I got a tall glass of OJ.

We were told to watch out for "General Bob." He's the local crazy guy who claims to be 105 years old. He claims to be a five-star general, the mastermind behind US war planning and a serving marine. As he also claims to have assassinated Adolf Hitler and walked from Ireland to Scotland, a journey that would have involved walking on water.

Dagget, the next town, was a little bigger, but still nothing much. A few good pictures were taken though.

Barstow was a city. It seemed out of place here and just bothered me. I don't think we even took pictures here. At least nothing more than a shot to say "we were here."

There were two things we really wanted to see in this part of the desert. One was Elmer's place.

Elmer is a fellow who has, for some reason, taken it upon himself to create a forest of bottle trees. These are actually monuments to such things as Route 66 and 9/11. It's run down and just bizare, all at the same time. If you ever get to Helendale, California, please stop by and see this.

The other thing was the Exotic Museaum of Burlesque. We heard about it and thought, like with many other things on 66, "why not?" It's not a porn shop or anything like that. And it's more of a Hall of Fame of Burlesque than an actual museum. But it was actually very interesting. Our guide, Miguel, knew ZERO about ANYTHING. He was humorous at first, but the just wasn't. He wasn't mean or creepy or anything like that, he was a really nice guy. But he shouldn't have been giving us a tour. I picked up the Exotic Museum Virtual Tour CD-ROM because of this.

Very strange place. It's like a commune for retired strip tease artists. Just very strange.

I had no idea that we were getting this close to the LA area. I also had no idea the LA area was this big! I mean, I guess I did, but when we drove into San Bernardino, we saw a sign for Los Angeles. It was 50 miles away. We drove through 50 miles of city, all along Route 66. All of it was interesting, but really, I could have done without it.

California was already on by poop list for the exit sign thing, and this didn't help at all. I don't like cities. Luckily, it wasn't rush hour. Or at least, it didn't feel like it was. It was 5pm, but we were going into the city, not trying to get out of it.

There's not much I can really say about this part of the drive. It was 50 miles of nothing. If you think the desert is vacant, just go to Hollywood. Yeah, there were some sort of interesting things to look at, but mostly, it was just boring. We had a good time, talked and giggled even more than usual, but I don't think that in 20 years (or even 2 days) we'll remember this part of the trip at all.

We bid farewell to our friend for the past week, dear Route 66. It was sad and, like I said before, made it seem like our entire journey was at an end. But it's just beginning. We immediatly started a new leg. This one was unplanned.

Turning left, we were on Ocean Blvd and then onto Route 1, South. Actually, first onto Route 1 North, but then I turned around. Thanks California for marking your roads so well! You're up there with New Jersey. Watch it....

And then I saw the Pacific for the first time. I didn't want to hit anybody, so I mostly saw it out of the corner of my eye, but I'm sure it's nice. Maybe I'll see it again sometime.

We had no real idea where we were staying tonight, and the plan of "let's go to Leguna Beach" was one that left us in a town (Leguna) with no motels... well, no motels that would take us in for less than $200. It was dark now and I was having trouble seeing stuff like other cars and street signs (California is poorly lit too, lovely).

So we thought we'd try the interestate. And with luck, three unnumbered exits later, we found a Best Western! And that is where we are now. Best Western, somewhere off of Interestate 5, somewhere in California, probably sort of near to Leguna Beach.

California has thus far not impressed me. As a kid, I remember wanting to come out here. I think every kid goes through that. And now, I just can't see why. It's not that I hate it here or am having a miserable time, not at all. I'm with two great friends and am having a blast. We all are. I just wish they'd mark their freakin exit signs!

Ok California, let's see what else it's got in store for us.

Stats
Miles traveled today: 436
Hours on the road: 15.5 hours
Miles traveled in total: 4537

Pictures
Pictures from Eric's Camera.
Pictures from Ashley's Camera.

Where are we?
Map showing where we are today!
(Purple = where we've been. Red = where we traveled today.)

Day Ten - Arizona and California

2004-07-28T05:10:56Z

The room where we stayed was small with one very large bed. It could have slept five. The girls crashed long before I did, as usual. I stayed up writing. This is routine now. In the midst of all of this constant churning, this bobbing from town to town, we've managed to develope a routine. This suits me. We're up by dawn. Or soon after.

Today was no exception. I woke up first, which is also usual, and checked to see what the sunrise was up to. Beautiful. Brilliant yellows and just a few clouds. I grabbed my camera and a train jumped in the shot. It happens. Around 70 trains a day come through Flagstaff. Maybe more.

We loaded up our gear and hit the Mother Road once again. Today was going to be a real treat. We're going to be travalling over 150 straight miles of Route 66. What's even better is that it strays far away from the interstate.

But first, there were a few small towns to check out. To get there, we drove along old, nearly forgotten parts of 66. Along these parts were earlier incarnations of the route. You could see it zig-zagging around you. At one spot, a cut in the woods gave you a clear view of exactly how it must have looked so long ago.

The Arizona Forestry Commision has marked out the old Route 66 very well. It's sort of odd that a government forestry department would do such a thing, but they have, especially in western Arizona.

Before we hit any towns, we drove an abandoned section of 66. I turned a corner and saw a little fuzzy furry thing scurry into a hole. Stopping the car I exclaimed, "OH! Fuzzy thing!" And then two more popped their fuzzy little heads up from their holes. Then more showed up and soon it was a prairie dog fun fest! We watched them for a few mintues, giggled and took pictures then finally had to say goodbye to our new friends.

Our first town worth mentioning was Williams. We fueled up at the cheapest gas station for miles ($1.89 - every other town was $2.29) and got out of town. Ash Fork was next. A nice town with a very homey feel greeted us.

For the next part of 66, we had to do some fancy driving over VERY rough roads. It was more pot holes than road, actually. All to get to a bridge with a tree growing up out of it. It sounded pretty cool when I read about it, and was even cooler seeing it in person. How often do you get to see a tree growing through a bridge?

Seligman, on first glance, looks like a town built too close to a nuclear power plant. It's almost a surreal, mutated, halucinization. The first building we saw was, I think, supposed to be an ice cream parlor, The Snow Cap. It's got ... well, check out the pictures. I can't even begin to describe it. Just amazing. We walk in the very small area for ordering and the guy behind the counter immediately starts messing with Nikki. It's hilarious. All she wanted was an ice cream cone and he's talked her in circles and was this close to getting her to buy a cup of chipped ice with cream on top of it (get it?). Either that or she was a few seconds away from crying. He only picked on Ashley a little bit and was pretty straight with me. I wish I had it on video. It was a whole routine and Nikki was just perfect for it.

They downed their cones and we moved onto Angel's barbor shop. Angel is this wacky old guy who ran a barbor shop in Seligman for years until one day he realized that Route 66 was disappearing. He then took it upon himself to inform the world of this and to help out. He's largely responsible for the Route 66 resurgance. And he was hilarious. I think he was also the uncle of the guy running the Snow Cap.

We shopped around a bit more and ended up buying a few things. I got a Route 66 sign, one of the smaller ones. I want one of the big ones, but they're $50. I just haven't talked myself into it yet. Maybe. We'll see.

A few other small towns flew by us. Some small towns on 66 are nothing but a few abandoned buildings. Some are nothing at all.

Hackenbury would be nothing at all, if not for the Hackenbury General Store. It looks like it belongs in Seligman. Had a charm about it, even though the woman behind the register was kind of grumpy. I think she was having a bad day. I got a bottle of Route Beer (get it?) and a post card.

Then came the desert. It was long and relentless. The Black Mountains in the distance seemed to beckon us and mock us at the same time. We drove for what seemed liked days, but what was actually about 20 minutes. The scenery changed very little in that time. I kept an eye on the temperature gage the entire time. Ever since I blew a blew out a head on my own VW Jetta due to overheating (the waterpump died), I've been a freak about engine temp. The car we're using for this has a temp gauge that tells you the actual degrees. Usually the car is around 210 degrees. It got up to 220. Made me nervous.

The Black Mountains in the distance crept slowly closer and closer to us until finally we found ourselves driving what seemed to be straight up. For roughly 5 or 6 miles, we zig-ziagged, made several 180 degree turns, drove 10 mph (and that was sometimes too fast!), feared for our lives when there was no guard rails and feared for our lives when there was. We got a vew pictures, but it's truly a sight to behold. I'd love to drive it again. It was a challenge! Going up the hill, the car got to 225 degrees. More silent freaking.

But nothing could prepare us for Oatman. The town is mostly known for one things: burros. The burro is the sacred animal of Oatman. They roam the streets, stand out in front of cars and basically do whatever it is that they want to do. The tourists and the towns people tolerate it. Actually, the towns people love these guys. Each burro has a name and most of the population seems to know each and every burro. Charming.

This was also the town where they shot the film "How the West Was Won." Also, Clark Gable and Carole Lombard spent their honeymoon here. Why? No one knows.

This road is so insane that in the 40's there was a towing company who would tow your car up the hill for $3.50. There were seven gas stations in town at one time. Then in the 50's Route 66 was moved to a "better" location (one without the crazy hill). The day after it was moved, six of the seven stations threw in the towel. Today, the closest station is 17 miles away.

The girls ate at a small cafe and I bummed Nikki's pickle off of her. One of the best pickles I've ever had. Ashley kept hers and I could see by the look on her face that she was afraid I'd ask for it. Clearly, these are pickles to be reckoned with.

We spent about an hour, maybe more, there. And I think we all fell in love with it. Wouldn't want to live here, but a great place to visit.

By this time, we had pretty much agreed to stay the night in Needles, California. We drove through more desert, across the Colorado River and into California. Needles is almost right across the boarder.

It's an ok town. Certainly nothing special. It was 4:30pm and we grabbed a motel. I'm not too keen on the motel idea. We've done it a lot, but I do apreciate not having to set up the tent.

After getting the room, grabbing cold showers and tidying up, we found a chinese place (the food was really good). The rest of the evening was spent talking about the trip and going through today's pictures.

Right now the girls are sleeping and I'm writing. I always enjoy this time to myself. My memory is usually pretty rotten. This project has helped me greatly.

I've been told that I'm too long-winded. While I do know that I am and that I'll do everything I can to work on it, I apoligize, but at the same time, this is how I'm remembering everything. If I don't get to write it down with the chance of talking about it with someone, I just go crazy.

And to the reader, I am sorry. I'll do what I can about that.

So in the spirit of short-windedness, I'll end it there.

Tomorrow is the real desert. Wish us luck...

Stats
Miles traveled today: 443
Hours on the road: 13
Miles traveled in total: 4101

Pictures
Pictures from Eric's Camera.
Pictures from Ashley's Camera.

Video
Video from a lonely section of 66.

Where are we?
Map showing where we are today!
(Purple = where we've been. Red = where we traveled today.)

What are we doing?

2004-07-26T13:08:32Z

Well, we're not totally sure yet. We're back in Flagstaff and sorting it out. Route 66 today though. Maybe Needles tonight. Who freaking knows! woo!!

Thanks to everyone for their comments. We don't have time to reply just yet. but we will.

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