Cross Country Drive

August 2009 - Houseboat on Lake Shasta

2009-08-17T18:49:00.000-07:00

March 2009 - Panoramic Shots

2009-03-16T22:12:00.001-07:00

I've discovered a new, free software program from Microsoft for stitching panoramic photos together: Microsoft ICE.

Click on any of these photos for the full-size version.

It actually works pretty good and I've gone back to a bunch of photos taken in the past and created decent panoramic shots out of them.

This is three photos taken in the Marin headlands, facing wast into the Pacific. Feb 2009.

Humboldt County, January 2009

Humboldt County, January 2009.

Below is Elizabeth at a scenic outlook in Redwood National Park, facing west to the Pacific in Humboldt County, January 2009

Lake Tahoe, SugarBowl Ski Resort, March 2009.

February 2009: The 'Beat Poetry" Museum

2009-02-17T11:58:00.000-08:00

Just a 14 blocks (and two neighborhoods) from my home due East on Broadway is the 'Beat Poetry' Museum.

How did we end up there?

Elizabeth and I were going to spend part of Valentines weekend running a few errands:

1. Stop by my friend Anup's place, drop off some gear he left at my ski house.
2. check out the Cable Car museum
3. then go to the Gym together.

We ended up drinking wine at Anups and being too late for the Cable Car Museum and too polluted with wine to go to the Gym. (working out is not advisable even with just one or two glasses of wine)

So we went to another free museum in San Francisco that I've been meaning to hit since I moved here AND stys open 'til 10 PM: The Beat Poetry Museum.

It was a bookstore, a clothing store, a Beat Poetry version of the Boston store Newbury Comics, selling posters, books, music, plus a beret-toting clerk who eagerly asked us what we knew about Jack Kerouac. The actual museum is in the back. There was a $5 admission, but we didn't want to be oppressed by 'the man' so we snuck by the ticket-taker-less turnstile.

One interesting thing I saw in there was the 'Six Gallery' reading of The Howl. What made this interesting was that it took place in the Cow Hollow/Marina neighborhood, just a few blocks from my place.

I actually need to go back: I want to find out if there is any place in SF anymore that has 'beat pooetry' readling nights, or 'poetry slams' like some friends of mine were into in Boston.

I bet the guy in the Beret knows.

There was also a theatre, 8 seats in all that had a loop of a documentary playing on a large TV.

It was not a bad museum, it's unique and far more interesting that some of the stuffy art museums around the city.

I gave Elizabeth the obligatory tour of the nearby 'Citylights' bookstore. Yes, I have been to Citylights and I have picked up some excellent fiction novels there. My favorite: Already Dead: A California Gothic I wish the book was searchable on the Citylights website so you could got a copy from them, but it doesn't come up.

January 2009: Trip to Mendocino

2009-01-19T14:00:00.000-08:00

Elizabeth and I opted to travel to Humboldt and Mendocino Counties in Far, Far Norther California this weekend, instead of Tahoe.

This was a part of California I've been meaning to visit for some time. Yosemite is also on the list, as are many, many other places.

I contacted a couple in Eureka through Couchsurfing.com and they agreed to host us for a weekend.

I include the map with the driving route because I want to show just how big Norther California is. SF is just the start of northern California. NorCal goes for several hundred more miles further north. And we still had another county that actually borders Oregon that we didn't get near, Del Norte.

We departed late morning on Saturday for the 5 hour drive, stopping at an IHOP in Marin and a couple of grander sites in the mountains, closer to the coast.

We stopped at Riverbend Yineyards in Myers Flats, CA. We had a 'flight' of their white and red wines (a free 1/2 oz tasting of each wine) and picked up two bottles of red wine, one we shared with our Couchsurfing hosts, the other we left with our hosts.

Eureka was a quiet town, even considering it was a small town on a weekend night. It WAS one of the biggest towns in the area, but the nightlife was very understated.

On Sunday we explored the small town of Arcata, the shorline and the Redwood Forests of Redwood National Park. This was WAY better than Muir Woods.

On Sunday night we did another walk on the town, had dinner at a brew-pub and almost went into a live show of some kind, but Elizabeth left her ID at that IHOP in Marin. :-( No Entry for us that night.

On Monday we started back to San Francisco. The only important item on the agenda was the County and town of Mendocino.

Once you get off the main highway, the road to the coast is VERY twisty and hazardous. The road hugs the craziest terrain and the 15 MPH signs are no joke in certain spots.

We saw more hairpin turns in one road that you could see in all of NH, for example.

The last thing we did (aside from stopping at that IHOP to get Elizabeths wallet and ID) was drive through Anderson Valley, south of Mendocino.

At some point, we started seeing vineyard after vineyard after vineyard lining route 128.

They all had signs advertising tasting rooms. Since it was past 4 PM and these places typically shut down around 4:30 or 5, we stopped sooner rather than later at Handley Vineyards. We scored a wine glass for Elizabeths collection and I scored a bottle of champagne that we opened soime weeks later on Valentines day.

January 2009: Our Mexico Trip on YouTube

2009-01-17T12:49:00.000-08:00

Yes, all segments of our 2005 trip to the Mayan Ruins of The Yucatan are on Youtube, in Playlist form:

Also, I discovered that YouTube limits palylists to 20 segments, so the second half of the videos are here:

November 2008 - Monterey & Carmel

2008-11-10T19:16:00.000-08:00

My buddy Pete from Boston was visiting San Francisco for two back-to-back trade shows. He had the weekend to himself in CA and was interested in doing some kind of road trip. I suggested Montrey & Big Sur as places we could go overnight, see some sights and see some nightlife, too.

My 'Lonely Planet' travel guide for California describes Monterey as having a cool downtown area and a 'Tourist Ghetto' of Cannery Row, made famous by Steinbeck.

The cannery Row area has an unfortunate touristy tackiness to it, complete with a 'Bubba Gump Shrimp Company" restaurant. It felt like Fisherman's wharf in San Francisco. (Not a compliment)

However, since it was raining when we showed up, we had to find some sort of indoor activity, so we hit the much-talked about Aquarium. It was quite a sight. Lot of sharks plus bird habitats, a 40' high kelp forest, sea otter habitats, all focused on the local marine life.

That night we hit the town and met up with Suzanne, who was a travelling consultant. She hung out with us until about 1 AM, when we called it a night.

The next day we lucked out. It was pouring in the morning, but it cleared up by 11 AM, totally blue skies. Pete and I drove around '17 Mile Drive' towards Pebble Beach Golf Resort and onto Carmel. Yes, that place that Clint Eastwood was Mayor of in the 80's.

We stopped by the famous 'Lone Cypress' of Pebble Beach with multi-million-dollar mansions on 5 arce lots. We also saw the 1.2 million-dollar gold-plated cottages in Carmel on 1/16 acre lots.

it was a nice overnight. next time i'll budget enough time to get to big sur.

July 2008: trip back to Massachusetts, plus NY and NH

2008-07-28T18:57:00.001-07:00

I just got home from a whirlwind tour of NY and New England. It was a blast.

The two fun adventures I had were both in NH. I spent the first weekend at 'Tubing Trip 2008' a marathon-party at my old ski club in NH.

The second was a Monday hike to the summit of Mt. Monadnock, NH. This became an adventure when it started to downpour as we reached the summit. It was an ordeal to negotiate a 3,000' descent over wet, slippery rocks and trails that had turned into waterslides. We were soaked the the bone at the end. The lobster-bake back at the house was a real treat and then it was off to NYC for a sales call in my companies Downtown Manhattan office. (talk about a change of scenery)

This video is near the summit. I put the camera away after this clip ended. We were soaked to the bone.

July 4th, 2008 Wildfires & the red sunset

2008-07-08T20:57:00.000-07:00

July 4th, 2008. I step out on my balcony to the smell of burning leaves. there are severla hundred wildfires burning around northern california. So many fires that their soot pervades the towns and cities. A thin layer of fine ash coats my truck. I do not bother to wash it as the soot will return.

These three photos, taken from my balcony, are high-resolution. Clicking on any picture will open a hi-res window to view the full image.

There are three photos because I played with the light a little bit on each one.

June 2008 - Chihuly Ar t Exhibit at the De Young

2008-06-29T09:54:00.001-07:00

My friend Laurie and I went to see the Chihuly exhibit at the De Young. It was a great time as seeing the De Young museum was on my 'to do' list of cultural stuff in SF.

I'm getting in all the arts & touristy stuff I can while I'm able to walk but still unable to have aggressive excursions to places like Yosemite and elsewhere.

From Wikipedia:

The controversial new M.H. De Young Museum building was completed in October 2005. It stands near the San Andreas fault, where the original De Young had been severely damaged in 1989 by the Loma Prieta earthquake. The terrain and seismic activity posed a problem for the designers Herzog & de Meuron and principal architects Fong & Chan.

To address the problem of the fault, “[the building] can move up to three feet (91 centimeters) due to a unique system of ball-bearing sliding plates and viscous fluid dampers that absorb kinetic energy and convert it to heat” (Ashmore).

Location in the middle of an urban park has also been controversial, and San Francisco voters twice defeated bond measures that were to fund the project. After the second defeat, the museum itself planned to relocate to a location in the financial district. However, an effort by supporters arose keep the museum in the Park.

In reaction to this history of controversy, the designers were sensitive to the appearance of the building in its natural setting. The entire exterior is clad in 163,118 ft² (15,153 square m²) of copper, which is expected to eventually oxidize and take on a greenish tone and a distinct texture to echo the nearby eucalyptus trees. In order to further harmonize with the surroundings, shapes were cut into the top to reveal gardens and courtyards where 48 trees had been planted. 5.12 acres (20,700 square meters) of new landscaping had been planted as well, with 344 transplanted trees and 69 historic boulders.

The twisting 144 foot (44 m) tall tower is a distinctive and controversial feature, and can be seen sticking up through the canopy of Golden Gate Park from many areas of San Francisco. (Source- “De Young By The Numbers.” San Francisco Chronicle).

Chihuly at the de Young is an exploration of the groundbreaking artwork of Dale Chihuly. From the Mille Fiori (a 56-foot garden of glass) to the Saffron Tower (a 30-foot neon sculpture), this exhibition challenges convention with a feast of bold color, dramatic forms and extraordinary composition.

Podcast Interview with Dale Chihuly
In April we sat down with Dale Chihuly to talk with him about his art, the exhibition Chihuly at the de Young, and his own unique collections, many of which have directly inspired his work. Listen to the interview by downloading one of these files:
Chihuly Interview M4A (enhanced with images) »
Chihuly Interview MP3 »

Chihuly at the de Young is Dale Chihuly’s first major exhibition in San Francisco, and includes eleven galleries of new and archival works representing the breadth and scope of the artist’s creative vision over the last four decades. The de Young Museum is the only venue for this exhibition.

About the Exhibition
Chihuly at the de Young takes a comprehensive view of the artist’s dramatic, colorful, and textured works that generate instant international recognition. This exhibition represents all the creative periods of the artist’s career, from drawings to single vessels to architectural installations. Included in the exhibition:

Glass Forest #3 recreates one of Chihuly’s earliest installations. Comprised of white milk-glass and neon, the first version of this work was exhibited in New York at the Museum of Contemporary Crafts (now the Museum of Arts & Design), and has not been viewed in the U.S. since 1972.
Five Chandeliers will dramatically transform an entire gallery. Their titles suggest a feast of color and form, characteristic of one of Chihuly’s most celebrated series: Ruby Red, Turquoise Icicle, Orange Hornet and Eelgrass, Chiostro di Sant’ Apollonia, and Palazzo de Loredana Balboni.
The Tabac Baskets will be displayed in the context of objects that have served as sources of inspiration to the artist.
A 56-foot-long Mille Fiori garden of glass composed of bold forms in vibrant colors provides a powerful conclusion to the exhibition.

Prior to the opening of the exhibition, Chihuly created several installations that take advantage of the spectacular settings and architecture of both the de Young and Legion of Honor Museums. These ambitious installations debuted in April and offer museum visitors a preview of Chihuly at the de Young. They will remain on view throughout the duration of the exhibition.

Other collections they had that were excellent:

American Painting
1,100 Works, 500 Digitized

The de Young houses one of the finest collections of American paintings in the United States. Strengthened by the acquisition of the Rockefeller Collection of American Art, the de Young's treasures include more than 1000 paintings that represent a spectrum of American art from colonial times into the twenty-first century. Gems of the collection include George Caleb Bingham's Boatmen on the Missouri, Frederic Edwin Church's Rainy Season in the Tropics, Richard Diebenkorn's Ocean Park #116, and 20th-century treasures from artists such as Georgia O'Keeffe, Edward Hopper, and Grant Wood.

Art of the Americas
2,500 Works, 1,000 Digitized

A walk through the de Young's collection of objects from Mesoamerica, Central and South America, as well as the West Coast of North America reveals the richness and complexity of art that links the Americas. Notable treasures include the largest group of Teotihuacan wall murals outside of Mexico, a Peruvian mouth mask of hammered gold from the Nazca culture, and a ten-foot totem pole from Alaska.

Explore the de Young's important collection of Teotihuacan murals in our new online feature:
The Harald Wagner Collection of Teotihuacan Murals »

Oceanic Art
900 Works, 25 Digitized

The Oceanic collections were charter collections of the de Young Museum, their nucleus being formed in 1894 at the California Midwinter Fair. Over the past century, additional works have been gifted and purchased.

A recently revealed tino aitu figure [pictured left] from Nukuoro Atoll in the Caroline Islands is on loan from Mina and Edward Smith. Through the 19th century, tino aitu were venerated in temples and decorated with pigment and flowers. Less than ten monumental figures of this type have survived. An unpublished report by Douglas Newton [PDF] specifically addresses the place of the figure within the corpus of Nukuoro sculpture. Roger Neich reveals new research concerning the figure in his recent report [PDF].

http://www.chihuly.com/news.html

June 2008 Industrial Light and Magic

2008-06-28T19:33:00.001-07:00

I met up with some friends about a mile from my place, at a Starbucks. The Presidio is the new home of Industrial Light and Magic, the company George Lucas owns and makes movies, TV, video games and other types of entertainment.

What was pretty cool about this was a celebrity sighting. George Lucas himself walked into the Starbucks with a colleague, got a coffee and walked back to the ILM offices.

The ILM campus is very understated, but if you look, you can find a couple of cool sights.

One of the sights is a statue of Yoda. The Yoda is in a very ragged robe and is standing on leaves.

This is the 'Empire Strikes Back' Yoda (Episode 5) and not the Yoda of Episode 1, 2 and 3.

Aside from the visit to Sony Pictures Entertainment, this past week I got to do a sales call at Pixar, the day before 'Wall-E' opened in Theatres. Pixar is HQ'd in Emeryville, CA. This is the town in between Oakland and Berkeley, just a few miles away from home.

This picture is a 20' tall inflatable 'Wall-E' stature. Pixar is really cool and has a lot of props from their movies in their large atrium lobby. Mike and Sully from 'Monsters, Inc', the family from the 'Incredibles' and lots of 'Wall-E' cardboard statues around the place, like the ones you see in theatre lobbies. I wish I got a pictures of the 20' high 'Desk Lamp' Logo of theirs, pointed at a 6' diameter bouncy-ball.

May, 2008 - Broken Ankle

2008-05-06T17:35:00.000-07:00

I fractured my left ankle and tore three ligaments while snowboarding at Squaw on April 26th. I should be back on my feet & in physical therapy by July. I hope to be 100% again for my trip to Boston, July 18th to the 27th.

After I left the clinic (who knew they had a medical practice RIGHT there?!) I met friends at Le Chamoix a.k.a. "The Shammey" during the apres ski party.

The crutches are magical at clearing space in the hottest parties...People gave me a wide clearance and space to sit in the middle of crowd.

These pictures are some of my ski club friends who were also at Squaw that day. The next day we went back and saw the 'pond skimming' competition.

My friend Rich took these pictures. Yes, this one of me with Kayla and Nick appears to be half Black and White and half Color. They actually do look like that. I think its something in the water. (Just kidding)

I think Rich, the Snowboarding Chiropractor was getting creative & artsy.

the 'cookie cutter' explanation:

I was at Squaw, coming down Granite Chief...fast. Right where the last steep part bottoms out before the chair lifts, I lost my balance and went end over end about 3 times in the very sticky, slushy snow. I jammed my board hard in the snow to stop myself and I stopped..short, like I jumped out a second story window. I fractured the Talus bone and tore three ligaments, including the Achilles. I limped over the Shirley Lake lift up and slid from there (do not try this at home) almost a mile to High Camp and took the Cable Car down. A liftee wheelchaired me to the clinic from the Cable Car. A week into it I can drive to meetings and sales calls, I mostly work from home. I'm hiring maid service, have groceries delivered & for other things friends are helping me out. I'll be back on my feet in July.

All Photos courtesy of Richard Lubin, the Snowboarding Chiropractor.

From left to right, Mel, Leland, me, Kayla, Nick.

April 2008; The Golden State Warriors

2008-04-16T22:48:00.001-07:00

My friend Jen and I went to the last Warriors game of the 2007/2008 season. We had great seats and enjoyed a really competitive game.

The Warriors were out of contention for a spot in the playoffs. This was due to an extremely competitive Western Conference, where thte top 8 teams were within 3 games of each other in the standings. Jen and I enjoyed the game regardless.

I was excited to see my first non-Celtics NBA game and Jen had not been to a Warriors game in a couple of years.

From the Chronicle:

The Warriors closed out the 2007-08 season on Wednesday night with a 126-121 loss to the visiting Seattle SuperSonics at ORACLE Arena. Golden State finishes the year with a 48-34 record, marking its most successful regular season in 14 years. Monta Ellis had 24 points to lead the Warriors and Marco Belinelli electrified the home crowd with a career-high 17 points in the season finale, while Andris Biedrins collected his seventh-straight double-double with 20 points and 17 rebounds. After the game, Fan Appreciation Night concluded with the players giving lucky fans the jerseys off of their backs.

March 3rd, 2008, One Year Anniversary

2008-03-03T11:48:00.000-08:00

On March 3rd, 2007 I pulled up to Folsom Street in Bernal Heights, San Francisco. Since then...

1. I've acclimated to California
2. Made friends
3. Figured out a better part of town for me (Pacific Heights)
4. Had success at work
5. Traveled back twice to Massachusetts, three times to Colorado, twice to New Mexico, once to Mississippi, Louisiana, countless times to Lake Tahoe and Nevada.
6. I've figured out a few things about working and living in the Silicon Valley environment (trust me, it's different here, there IS a learning curve)
7. I'm managing two ski cabins in Tahoe
8. I hosted 15 friends from Boston & elsewhere at Squaw for a week.
9. Bought as mountain Bike and have added that to my routine.
10. I run from Fort Mason to the Golden Gate Bridge and back a few times a week.
11. I 'Californi-cated' my truck with larger rims and tires.

Things I'm still working on:

1. Still have much more to learn about the Silicon Valley community
2. Still have to figure out California women, or rather, misunderstand them less.
3. Need to travel to more of Northern California. (Yosemite, Oregon, Mammoth Mountain, SoCal, Mendocino, Washington State, Bug Sur, many other cool places and festivals, too many to list.
4. Still need to visit more museums and experience more culture.
5. Need to ride a Cable Car
6. Need to see Alcatraz.

California agrees with me & I'm here to stay. I still miss everyone greatly back in Boston, but the opportunities here are too great to pass up.

Tevis and Chet at Northstar, Lake Tahoe, February 23rd and 24th, 2008

2008-02-24T22:38:00.000-08:00

Visit to Lake Tahoe; Squaw Valley and Heavely

2008-01-28T21:48:00.002-08:00

My friend Sarah visited from Boston and we went on a tour of the Bay Area: Muir Woods, Napa and Lake Tahoe.

On Friday morning we drove from Napa to my ski cabins in Truckee and South Lake Tahoe. We went to Squaw on Saturday, had a blast here are some videos.

Well, that video was kinda lame, unless you were there to experience the Tire Chains in person.

Here is some Squaw Valley footage:

Here is some heavenly footage from Sunday:

Video from Mississippi

2007-12-20T22:48:00.000-08:00

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/week1115/feature.html

Here are some other videos: (A bit evangelical)

I'm in Albuquerque, New Mexico for a few days closing a deal for my company. I wasn't supposed to stay for more than a day-trip, but was forced to stay three days. I'm getting my christmas shopping done...lots of of cool navite american art & jewelery is available here. It's really nice here, the people are very nice, the native american architecture is really cool.

Another cool thing is that 'Route 66' slices right through downtown Albuquerque. It's straddled by a cool nightlife district. Lots of neon,

I'll be flying back to Boston Sunday night. Now that this deal is done, I may extend my stay back in Boston for more than the planned 72 hours.

This week I was sent a PBS news report about the group I worked with in Mississippi.

December - Visits to Tahoe and 3 days in Boston

2007-12-18T15:41:00.000-08:00

I'm returning to Boston on the 23rd, then turning around and coming right back to SF

Here is some holiday cheer:

November - Trade shows, concerts, ski houses

2007-11-18T08:00:00.000-08:00

This week featured the Oracle OpenWorld show - the biggest technology show I have ever been to.

There were some big names performing at the Wednesday night concert: Billy Joel, Stevie Nicks,

Lenny Kravitz, En Vogue, The Smithereens

Stevie Nicks and Mick Fleetwood

The Smithereens

Last week I went to see my new ski house(s) for the first time.

Yup, there are two ski houses. One north of Lake Tahoe in Truckee and another in the town of South Lake Tahoe, about an hour away. I'll be managing the north house primarily.

The ski house I'm managing is a Geodesic Dome structure. Its really strange inside, I predict I'll be banging my head on the ceiling a lot.

I carpooled with the interim South cabin manager for another event she was managing: a 'spelunking' expedition, we went caving through old gold mines in Angel Creek. This was really cool.

We were fooling around making a 'Blair Witch Project' style video.

The South Lake structure is more 'vanilla'.

2007-11-11T22:58:00.000-08:00

Mississippi Commentary: Profit motive and National Policy

2007-11-11T22:57:00.000-08:00

After thinking the trip over for a bit, I began to see the situation in Mississippi fall into a pattern of behavior (US Gov policy) that I first started to notice when I was in college.

I sent the following to Ella and co. a few days after I got back from the Gulf Coast:

One thing that I forgot to share with Ed and Irene was a story I had, very relevant (I think) to the source of the problems of fixing coastal Mississippi: I was overseas for a year in college and had a fascinating conversation with an Australian who was a medic in

Viet Nam

. He helped me understand the way that war played out by asking a mind-blowing question: “Why win a war, when you make more money by losing?” That one question snapped 50 years of modern US Policy into instant focus for me. In this context, one can start to see a pattern of behavior in the decision making of our current administration; just ask yourself that question about Iraq and Afghanistan. In 2007 Mississippi, you can ask yourself: If there is no profit motive in dealing with these towns on the Gulf Coast, will our government bother?

FROM ELLA: This is the political side of the trailer situation here. Although my documentary focuses one positive side of the recovery efforts, I have met too many people who are suffering ill health to ignore the trouble with trailers. A volunteer who is an engineering professor from the University of Washington can no longer stand idly by waiting for the government to do something.

http://www.comingalongside.org/Home.html

She has been writing and calling FEMA, CDC and NIOSH to offer her professional help. They have not committed to a plan (as evidenced by the articles below) so Denise is coming to the Gulf Coast at the end of November to test trailers for formaldehyde. I am going to work with her to connect her to residents who are in trailers. We are doing this because the window of opportunity for data collection is closing. Health of the residents who are already under stress is deteriorating.

Chet sent me an eloquent email the other day about how Policy is managed in our country. It resonated for me with an entry in my journal shortly after my first trip here:

WHO DOES INACTION SERVE?

At first, I thought that it was ignorance that was causing the delays in distributing grant money that is essential in getting people home again. Then I thought it was ineptitude in managing such a huge program administratively. Turns out it may be fiscal in nature - in this case concerns about legal liability when the test results for the trailers are in. Sierra Club was talking about this story for 18 months before our government held Congressional hearings in July. There was a lot of talk at that time about Doing Something...and now another delay.

Just one more reason for more volunteer trips - getting people out of the trailers faster!

Back to editing...
Best, Ella

November 7th, 2007 - Photo Album from Mississippi

2007-11-07T09:23:00.000-08:00

Here are Kathryn's pictures from the trip, there are some real gems in here...

The Silly pic...

Who's House? PIPES HOUSE!!

autographing our work, and leaving a 'welcome home' sign for Gloria...

Patty; Gloria's daughter, showing off her new home, 100% volunteer built....

Marie Ralphs House

John and Jen at Gloria's House

Charlie, Chris and Chet on Gloria's Roof.

Danielle, Roofing Gloria's House

Extreme close-up of Danielle Roofing

Some scanned postcards I picked up at the Gulfport international,

All-Planet,

Interstellar,

Intercontinental Airport

November 2007 - Four days in the Gulf Coast

2007-11-04T13:31:00.000-08:00

So, my friend Jen has been making a couple of trips a year for the past two years to D'Iberville, Mississippi, since shortly after Hurricane Katrina. She has been asking me for the past year and a half at least to go with her on one of her 1/2 week of full-week trips. I promised her in 2006 I'd go, but the timing didn't work out until now.

I flew from SF to Dallas on Wednesday, Oct 31. From Dallas I was to get onto a small regional jet and fly to Gulfport, Mississippi. The nearest city of any size is Biloxi, known for its beaches and casinos. The Economic pillars of this area are:

Tourism
Fishing
Shipbuilding
Military

Post-Hurricane Katrina, residential and commercial construction and re-construction have now been added to this list.

While in Dallas I figured out what I had forgotten at home: my camera. Hence, all pics and videos on this blog are from my Treo.

The rest of my Boston group arrived at Dallas the same time I did. I was thrilled to see my friends Jen, Charlie, Dean and Lisa.

I also met Chris, who knows Jen and was also recruited to rebuild houses in D'Iberville. We had lunch, killing time waiting for the American Eagle flight connection, making guesses about how small the plane would be.

Wednesday afternoon we all arrive at the brand-new Gulfport airport. From the air we can see some ruined structures, but mostly re-build commercial buildings. Buildings are either in ruins or they are gleaming-new 'post-Katrina' construction.

Jen has a new item to add to our agenda. We were diverting to a Boys and Girls club and will volunteer our support to running some kind of halloween festival. Te were told to go hang out with these kids and do various things, like read books to them or art projects. I was sent into the gym to coach basketball drills.

The rest of their night was going to be devoted to 'Trunk'r'Treating' Because many of the residents didn't have houses for kids to go trick'r'treating around town post-katrina, they started a tradition where the parents show up in the school parking lot, each with boxes of candy in the trunks of their cars. The kids now walk around the parking lot in costume going from car to car. This is the third year they've done it & it may continue even after everyone is in proper housing again.

Jen wanted up to see a nearby town that doesn't have a volunteer group, 'Waveland' where whole neighborhoods were completely wiped off the land and little reconstruction has taken place. We were looking at things forensically. "That used to be a gas station...that used to be a retail store...that was a residential street..." ...just by looking at the foundations that were left behind. The residents were gone & not coming back.

We had a little time to kill waiting for 'Pipes' to arrive at the airport and we were hungry, so we stopped at the ultimate 'southern' eating establishment: 'Waffle House' All I could think of was that 'Bloodhound Gang' song and smile while I had some covered, smothered waffle house hash browns.

Thursday: Maria Ralph's house - Roofing

Thursday night: "Red letter night" Biloxi re-opened a major bridge that was destroyed by Katrina. We saw fireworks & After Katherine was carded at teh Casino, we took off & had beers in Ocean Springs. We were completely beat by 9PM and called it a night.

I gradually figured out that D'Iberville has no city center to speak of. Its a rather quiet place, a suburb of a resort town and an Air Force Base. The schools and town offices half-occupy their old buildings and the rest are in temporary structures. The commercial areas are new-construction strip-malls. The only civic life I felt was the mayors gas station/restaurant/convenience store at the end of the street where some of the reconstruction projects were.

Friday:

Met Rusty, the Mayor of D'Iberville

Friday Night:

Interview with Ella.
'Devotional' meeting with Honors for Jen.
Cheap drinks and apps at Beef O'Bradys. This is a sports bar & hey has the NBA opening night games on: we watched the Celts playing Wizards, lots of Boston fans in the bar.

Saturday: Gloria's House, Marie's house in PM.

Visited patty's finished house across town.

Saturday night: Packed up, drove to New Orleans. Went to Frenchmans area, hit the DBA Bar, then Bourbon Street until 4 AM.

Sunday: Toured New Orleans. This city agrees with me: It's all about eating well, drinking well and having fun.

Sunday night: On the flight back to California, I was sitting next to a woman from Dallas & we started chatting about things & asked if I was from Dallas or San Francisco. I told her about the D'Iberville trip & she was very interested in learning all about it while I bought a $5 Heineken for myself from the stewardess. I settled into a nap later while the woman next to me started chatting with the stewardess. When she learned the stewardess was from Mississippi, they woke me up and said: ''Thank you SO MUCH for that work you were doing in Misiissippi...here, do you want another beer?" She said this as she was already handing Heineken #2 to me with the tone of 'I'm giving you this beer, mister.' and a minute later she handed back to me the $5 I paid for the first beer. That wasn't enough, of course: She pulled out sandwiches & snacks & then, spotting an empty beer cup, said "We're out of Heineken, would you like a Bud or a Miller lite?" ...as she's already handing me beer #3, no payment required or asked for.

Karma...

Sunday night, 11PM. As I in my comfortable San Francisco apartment overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge & the bay, I'm still trying to process all of this. The 'how' and 'why' of this situation on the Gulf Coast is rather complex & I haven't sorted it all out yet. I can say that I cannot have any real dialog about this with others until you have gone there, picked up a hammer or a nailgun or paint brush and have actively worked to solve this yourself. I can't talk to someone about this who themselves is not going to do anything, but only ready to just talk about it.

October - Trip to Mississippi

2007-10-18T18:37:00.000-07:00

My dear Boston friend Jennifer, a darling Southern Belle from the Carolinas, has been organizing relief worker trips to D'Iberville, Mississippi ever since Hurricane Katrina. D'Iberville is near Gulfport, MS and was wiped out by Katrina, just like many other towns in Louisiana and Mississippi. Unfortunately, there has been very little attention paid to D'Iberville and a lot of other towns away from New Orleans and there is a lot of rebuilding that needs to be done.

After putting off Jennifer's repeated requests for me to go there with her on one of her 4-day trips, I finally agreed to go on her October November Trip and help out rebuilding houses and other work. I leave Oct 31st and return Nov. 4th.

I'll put in 8 hour work-days and serveral of my closest Boston Friends are going to be there, too. We'll go out at night & have fun in the Deep South.

405 houses completed out of 1240 damaged and 370 destroyed. 410 in progress.

The following is from another person involved:

The team will be helping with the Blitz Build program - "Get 'em home for Christmas". Residents have been displaced for more than two years and we are working to get as many as possible out of the FEMA trailers as quickly as possible...hopefully, before they have to celebrate their third Christmas in a tin box.

www.reelrelief.com is my blog about the people of the Gulf Coast.

To give you a glimpse of the people in the community, here is a link to a video I created.

http://www.youtube.co...

Abby Young, D'Iberville resident and Katrina survivor, shares her story.
It paints a picture of the difference our attention as volunteers has made in her life.
It is the latest in a series of short stories that will ultimately be a documentary.

Please watch, rate the video (to support my chances of winning a distribution deal), and consider supporting the volunteer team heading to Mississippi on Halloween night 2007! That is less than 2 months away.

Money to support those individuals volunteering (each trip costs about $525) and/or cash donations to the D'Iberville Volunteer Foundation will all be well appreciated and utliized. See a list below for the names of our crew!

Chet McNeil, San Francisco CA
Chris Martens, South Boston MA
Ren Johns, Somerville MA
Dean Volungis, Reading MA
Lisa Last, Reading MA
Sue Sheehan Flanagan, Bar Harbor ME
Andy Flanagan, Bar Harbor ME
Jen Denley, Somerville MA
Charlie Roffe, Brookline MA
Tom Hamel, Boston MA
Jane Hamel, Boston MA
John Goodin, Auburn AL

D'Iberville Volunteers Foundation

Damaged D'Iberville home.

Our mission is to provide for the redevelopment and rebuilding of D'Iberville, Mississippi, and to assist in the provision for future growth and cultural enhancement of the citizens of D'Iberville, Mississippi, by providing for the education of the citizens in the history and culture of D'Iberville. In addition, the foundation seeks to assist in provision for the health and welfare of the citizens of D'Iberville.

---The City is composed primarily of middle to lower income households. It is a diversified community with a Euro-American, African-American, Vietnamese and Hispanic population. There are no similar programs in the area. The only barriers to service are monetary. The devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina created a financial need of exorbitant proportions that have been exacerbated by the lack of insurance responsibility.

Presbyterian Disaster Assistance banner

---The primary goal is to establish a program to provide rebuilding assistance to the City's 8,000 residents devastated by Hurricane Katrina. A secondary goal is to establish fundraising projects to assist the Foundation in offsetting its non-profit endeavors. This effort was begun in September immediately following Hurricane Katrina with the establishment of emergency services. Over the next 6 months the process moved forward with the assessment of damages, repair and rebuilding and the establishment and running of a Volunteer Village to house and feed volunteers from outside the Gulf Coast area. Daily reports are generated of work completed and in progress. Every 90 days an assessment is taken of the reconstruction needs and reconstruction progress of the entire City.

---Of the 1906 homes that have been assessed or are being reassessed in D'berville, approximately 1250 have been damaged and more than 370 have been totally destroyed. As of May 1, 2006, 410 D'berville homes are in the process of being repaired or rebuilt and 405 have been completed. It is anticipated that this reconstruction project will require a 3 to 5 year time frame. Our objectives are measured by the number of homes worked and repaired and the number of families assisted and returned to their homes.

October 6th, Fleet week

2007-10-08T11:12:00.000-07:00

Last weekend the Blue Angels were in town for the Annual 'Fleet Week' event.

They were flying six F-18s as well as a C-130 Hercules "Fat Albert"

My neighbor Kelly threw a combo Fleet Week/Rooftop & Birthday Party on Saturday. There were a ton of people in the roof & we all had a great time.

From our vantage point the jets were flying eye-level with us part of the time and then buzzing over our heads at low altitude.

NOTE: Any picture can be clicked-on and you'll get the full-resolution image, suitable for printing hard-copy.

One other treat: This year the USAF F-16 and P-51 Mustang will fly together commemorating United States Air Force air power through the ages.

Another random treat was seeing an Airbus a-380 take off right before my eyes as I was sitting at my desk in my home office. It was conducting test flights that happened to take it across the US to San Francisco.

September - Angel Island and the start of the Fleet Week Air Show

2007-09-29T07:25:00.000-07:00

On Sept 21st I took a day trip to Angel Island. This is the uninhabited island that takes up 1/3 of my view of San Francisco Bay. At night it is a light-less mass in between brightly lit inhabited portions of Marin County.

The Ferry was $14 round trip. there are two concentric roads, one a paved perimeter road that goes through ghost towns of old military & other government installations. Moderately challenging with some steep hills around the island. You hike or bike up the mountain to get to the unpaved fire road.

This is mostly level and makes for excellent bike riding. The top of Mt. Livermore is off-limits to bikes, you hike to the tip, almost 800' high for excellent views of the city & the bay. Yes, ther e are 'Segway' tours of the Island, Segways outfitted with Monster-Truck Tires. ...only in San Francisco...

The ships in the harbor are two museums. One, the Merchant Marine Ship served in World War II. JEREMIAH O'BRIEN LIBERTY SHIP, EC2-S-C1 TYPE, the last active survivor of the D-Day invasion of Europe in 1944

The Submarine is also a museum.

USS Pampanito (SS-383) is a World War II Balao class Fleet submarine museum and memorial that is open for visitors daily at San Francisco's Fisherman's Wharf. Pampanito made six patrols in the Pacific during World War II during which she sank six Japanese ships and damaged four others.

On Sept 26th I saw the following taking place outside my window:

This is practice for 'Fleet Week' A week of Air shows over San Francisco Harbor.

Summer Trip to Tahoe

2007-08-19T22:51:00.000-07:00

In a spontaneous moment last Friday, I decided to get out of the city for the weekend. I called my snowboard buddy, Rich, to see if he wanted to get out of town, too. he thought about it for 5 seconds and was all over the idea of joining me. We set a meeting place in Fairfield, right on Rt 80 where he could ditch his car and we could carpool the rest of the way.

We drove straight to a nightclub show at one of the North Lake casinos, 'Eclipse' a really good Pink Floyd cover band. They did a fantastic job & we were out til 3AM.

I got up at 9 on Saturday to go mountain biking. I got to meet fellow Apres Ski Club members Joseph from the Virgin Islands and hi friend Jen. You can see us relaxing together on the 'big chair' at the Squaw summer festival.

Nick, the ski house manager, started off just showing me where the trail was but it turned into giving me a 90-minute Mountain Biking clinic on one of the easier trails. I was sucking wind after about two minutes on the bike, before we even got out of the King Beach Neighborhood. Something was wrong & I couldn't figure out why, until I remembered that I was at 6,300' altitude & my lungs had not dealt with this altitude since the end of the ski season. Once the hard pedaling was over, the ride was great. The trail was challenging for me, learning how to really use my modern mounting bike on rocky, dusty, muddy trails and finally getting dust and mud, getting some 'mountain' into my mountain bike.

The Ride was exhausting & I called it quits for the day at 2PM, opting to spend the rest of the afternoon at a music & beer festival at Squaw Valley.

The festival lasted until about 8PM, so we hit the Biltmore Casino for a great $5.95 gambler-subsidized Prime Rib dinner.. I have been missing these since the end of ski season. THe heavy dinner, however, killed the rest of the night for us; we headed back to the house, too tired to have any more fun that day.

Sunday was great, with a less taxing pavement-only bikeride along the lakeshore. The bike still has dust and mud on it, so its got some credibility now.

I stopped at a beach for a while and saw these cool granite slab cutouts that together compose a 3-D representation of Lake Tahoe.

We hit the Squaw festival again Sunday afternoon and headed home around 5, spotting in 'Old Sacramento' What a treat this was. Sacramento has a 4-square block area long the river that is a 'wild wild west' frontier town. The buildings are the genuine article, the touristy shops that now inhabit them are not. We got $5 burger plates at a cool 'old west' saloon restaurant.

It sounds rather touristy - but it is definitely a cool thing to see with 2x8 boards for sidewalks and riverboats, like mississippi river boats along side this 'old west' town within Sacramento.

I finally got back at 10PM and called it a good weekend.

California Fords Car Show Mustangs and my F-150

2007-08-11T23:43:00.000-07:00

One of my Customers runs a Ford owners enthusiasts group in his spare time, California Fords.

I promised to be at his show on Saturday, so I drove over to UC Hayward and paid the $15 to enter my truck & get a really cool club T-Shirt.

PLEASE NOTE: most of these pics are click-able to get to full-res versions of the pictures.

There was a DJ spinning records
food stand
Raffle for care-care products and HorsePower rating services
80 to 100 cars in the show
Awards were handed out for 1st, 2nd and third place in over 10 different categories.
Vendors, including an insurance agency sporting cute girls in tight tops trying to sell insurance. (works every time)

The highlights:

'73 Pinto, totally tricked out, huge engine under the tiny hood.
'2000 Ranger with no fewer than four LCD video screens showing the 'Transformers' movie. This pic is the 'theatre' This truck got my vote for 'Best in Show'
A personal favorite was the Thunderbird SC, or SuperCoupe. A T-Bird with a super-charged 3.8 liter engine. I drove one of these for a short ride back in High School and loved it.
Two mustangs with 'Gull-Wing' doors
The Steve McQueen 'Bullitt' mustang
The Batmobile 'Stang
The 'Spyder' 'Stang
Matts Dad' '36 Ford Pickup.

And there among the pimped-out trucks was my humble, totally understated 2004 F-150.

The Video playlist is a series of 7 clips I took during the show. the last segment is an interview with the man in charge, Matt Zimmermann.

Tour of Jaimie's House

2007-07-23T13:44:00.000-07:00

July 10th; the All-Star Game

2007-07-11T14:26:00.000-07:00

I got to go to the All-Star game, riding George's coattails into a luncheon at Tres Agave (very good Mexican
food and premium Tequila drinks) and then there was a no-show for the game, so I got a ticket.

We had a blast.

thats all there is to say.

No customers were at the event. The only prospective transaction was Michelle of Oracle offering to fix me up with her single friend, Andrea.

They had the 'worlds biggest red carpet' rolled out, 2000+ feet long, the players were driven down the carpet, waving to the fans.

Papi!!

July 8th, Sunday Symphony Orchestra in Stern Grove Park

2007-07-08T21:41:00.001-07:00

I hung out with Margaret of Urban Diversion plus Tom, Annie, Raj and a few other folks at Stern Grove this afternoon. It was really nice, relaxing.

The only catch was the hill we were camped out on over the orchestra was really steep and made of loose, dusty sand barely held together with thin vegetation. It was really easy to start sliding down on top of your buddies below you if you weren't careful.

The show lasted for almost two hours. Not bad, considering its totally free, run on donations only.

July 7th; All-Star Weekend

2007-07-07T21:12:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I got to participate in a really fun corporate event related to the All-Star game. Funny how we never found out what charity was being benefited from this.

The event was called the 'Softball Challange" and it starred a bunch of pro-athletes playing softball in the Giants Minor league park in San Jose.

The Athletes were mostly current and alumni players of Bay-Area teams like the Warriors, the Kings, the Raiders and others.

George and I got some pictures with cheerleaders from the Raiders, the funny thing was, the only guy around who could take the picture was Art Thoms, Raiders Defensive Tackle from '69 to '77. He took a good picture.

Speaking of the Warriors, I spotted Matt Barnes of the Warriors here. SInce I've arrived the only Bay-Area team I've paid much attention to was the Warriors during their short but intense payoff run. Matt Barnes was a key player, here we are, 6'7" Barnes and 6'5" me. (he's slouching a little)

The thing that impressed me about Barnes & all the other players was how gracious they were to all the fans. They took the time to talk to people, sign autographs, chat about the game & the league & the season they just had, etc.

I also opted for a photo with the GS Warriors cheerleaders.

The softballs they were using were ridiculously huge. 16" around!! I think the idea was to have a ball big enough that you can't get hurt with a line-drive to the head. You also can't hit it out of the park, either.

After the game ended, me, George and one of my customers, Bryan of Quantros, went onto the field to hit the 'beach ball' around. The day was a lot of fun, it was well-run & the staff made sure we mat all the athletes. I was sunburned & beat when I got home. Can't wait to do it again, really!

Mt. Tam hike and Stinson Beach

2007-06-24T06:23:00.000-07:00

Stinson beach is a great place to go hiking and hit the beach in the same day. Huge mountains rise straight up from the other side of this one-street town.

Me, Kristen, Eve, Dustin, Geri and Tim.

It was great niking in all the redwood trees.

Apartment Tour, furnished

2007-06-23T08:53:00.000-07:00

I got a membership at Costco to outfit the place with the Kitchenwares I needed. It felt like I was buying everything one needs for a wedding registry. The bills at Costco, while I was getting great prices on things, still made me wish there was such a thing as a 'single guy moving & getting new stuff' registry.

The next thing I have to pick is a mountain bike.

The furniture was found on 'Craigslist'. The TV was an afterthought. I went to buy a $30 dresser from someone who was moving. He had all these new plasma TVs, so, of course he needs to also unload the one-year-old 52" Sony LCD TV. I gave him $350 for the TV, the dresser, the entertainment center and the bookcase that is next to my desk.

The pub table is one creative thing that I thought would be good for the place. It takes up little space & it looks right, being next to the kitchens bar-counter.

Home office with view.

This is the view sitting at my desk.

I haven't hung the framed artwork yet. That's the last job.

The two camping chairs I have turn out to be great balcony furniture.

How big is California?

2007-06-18T13:51:00.001-07:00

I've had a couple of people ask about visiting me when they go to "California" unfortunately, this state is on a completely different scale than New England. I'm located on the coast opposite the 'elbow'; 2/3 the way up the state. LA is 1/3 the way up, about a 6 hour drive from San Francisco. San Diego is 3 hours south of that, at the very southern part of the state near the Mexican Border. I superimposed a scale map of California onto the Northeast to give some scale comparison....
I've enjoyed having visitors to the Bay Area, however, just because you're flying into LA, doesn't mean we can get together for lunch. :-)

Road Trip to Santa Cruz

2007-06-17T21:36:00.000-07:00

My friend John and I went to Santa Cruz on a business trip for a week, for NaviSite in 1999.

I went back today. I hung out at the Boardwalk, an area I didn't get to hang out at much while I was here last. John and I had a lot of fun back then and I got a BIIG smile when I happened to drive past the hotel we stayed at, the hotel where I took a 6' tree-plant from Johns room and tossed it into the hotel swimming pool, three stories below, for fun right after out first day from the office.

I came across a couple of sea lions, too. One huge adult and two pups. They didn't do much.

Next week Eve and Kristen are planning a camping trip to a park area somewhere near Stinson Beach.

Haight Street Fair review

2007-06-11T22:41:00.000-07:00

I went to the Street Fair with Hilary, Eve and Kristen, as planned. The Fair was fun, but not the 'crazy' party that I was told it was going to be. The Union Street Fair in my 'well to do' neighborhood with the yuppies was more boisterous in some ways.

Here is a 'hold the camera over your head and snap" angle shot of the fair. It stretched for 8 or 10 blocks. tens of thousands of people were there. Maybe over 100,000?

We initially met up at the 'Asquew' restaurant. Good Eats, good value for the money.

Here are the girls in the Hammock Booth, I got this photo after several failed attempts, shooting pictures while reclining in the fuzzy 'cookie monster' colored hammock. There was some concern that I was too heavy for the hammock. It held, but maybe the next guy bopped his head on the street.

After the Hammock, we had a detour through the Ben & Jerries Shop. Hmmmm.. Sundae

The fair wrapped up at 5:30. We were tired, but well worth it. This is one of the two major stages in the street. Just past the stage is the end of Haight Street and the start of Golden Gate Park.

Street Fairs

2007-06-10T10:16:00.000-07:00

Something that San Francisco does very well are 'street fairs'. This is a city of neighborhoods, many of these host 'street fairs where the main street in each neighborhood is cordoned off and the local merchants set up booths, food vendors & restauranteurs dish out their finest, bands set up to play music & beer gardens get totally packed with people.

The Union Street fair happened last weekend. It was a great time. This weekend is the Haight Street Fair, the 'hippie' neighborhood of SF where Janis Joplin, the Greatful Dead, Jimi Hendrix, Jefferson Airplane all called home. Its still quite the off-beat neighborhood despite all the pricey retail stores & businesses that added a gold-plated sheen to the hippie grunge. I'm planning to go this afternoon, it should be a wild time. Today my friend Hilary is going to come over an inspect the new apartment. If you recall, she was coaching me through my apartment hunt. "I'll show you the spots in town you need to look at. Russian Hill, great, Pacific Heights, Great; Lower Pac. Heights, even better. If you move to the Marina with all the yuppie scum, I'll disown you!!"

Here are some shots taken from my place, they're real 'hack' panoramic shots, several photos spliced together. A photo taken during the day and another at night. (The night shot is from the roof deck)

Anyway, Hilary and I will hit the Haight st. (pronounced 'hate') Fair. I'll give Eve a call, too, she's also interested in going. I should have some fascinating images to post after today.

Hilary was in some snowboarding videos with by buddy Rich. However, Hilary had her own project a while back, a video produced about 'single living' in San Francisco. Its rather amusing:

I'll have a house-warming party in July. I think if everyone I know shows up, I'll pack the house.
This is NOT my place, its one the the many old $1+ Million Victorian houses next to my apartment building.

The new place in Pacific Heights

2007-06-05T00:41:00.000-07:00

I've now spent one week in the new place. The dust has settled enough for me to get caught up on things with the blog. There's plenty of video and photos.

JUST SO EVERYONE KNOWS; HERE IS THE NEW ADDRESS:

Robert McNeil
1790 Broadway St. #304
San Francisco, CA 94109

Here is a photo-tour of the new neighborhood.

The Octagon house is a museum, apparently is one of the last remnants of a brief design craze back in the 1800's.

Here is Jen, shes a neighbor of mine from Bernal Heights. This pic is from a night her and I were hanging out on Cortland Street, at the 'Stray Bar'. This girl has an ambitious schedule. She's returning from Italy and the UK on June 11th, she's then going up to Alaska to run a Marathon for a Leukemia/Cancer fund raiser on June 19th. If you'd like to contribute, the link is here:

www.active.com/donate/tntgsf/tntgsfJPhelps1

The 90-second video shows everything except the amazing view. That is what the second and third videos are for. Luckily the houses in front of my apartment building are 100 year old victorians that are not going to 'grow' in height anytime soon to block the view.

I have no ambitious plans for June. My freinds in the 'Dresden Dolls' are touring this month; I'll see them at the 'Greek Theater' at Berkeley. Aside from that, nothing ambitious until the MLB All-Star Break here in San Francisco in July.

Later in July I'll be back in Massachusetts for 5 days. Arriving Monday night , July 16th, I'll be in business meetings for two days, Tuesday and Wednesday and then I have a couple of days to visit friends and family before going up to NH for my old ski clubs 'Tubing Weekend' always a great time, best weekend of the summer.

Colby gratuates today.

2007-06-03T11:02:00.000-07:00

I came across this photo of Colby and I in Cozumel, Mexico two years ago. Colby is Graduating from High School today & will attend UMass Amhearst in September. He's also finishing up the work required to become an Eagle Scout in July.

Napa Valley, Aquarium and Golden Gate Bridge

2007-04-23T18:41:00.000-07:00

My friend Robin came out from Massachusetts for a weekend to visit and we hit a couple of things on my 'to-do' list in San Francisco:

1. Chinatown
2. Napa
3. The Aquarium
4. The Golden Gate Bridge & Golden Gate Recreation Area

Golden Gate Recreation Area
The obligatory Golden Gate Bridge Shot

Squaw Valley and Kirkwood

2007-04-16T12:51:00.000-07:00

This past weekend I stayed with yet another ski club, the Snowdrifters in Truckee. They are the youngest group I've encountered so far and and their house has an energy I really like.

Saturday I drove to Squaw and hit their very windy, icy slopes for about 3 hours. The place has great terrain, but the conditions were really tough, like a 3000+ acre version of Wildcat in NH.

Laura made Margaritas when I returned and made all sorts of snacks for everyone.

Sunday came and I headed off to Kirkwood. It south of Lake Tahoe and it took over an hour to drive there. I was fortunate enough to run into a large group of people from a Solar panel manufacturing company, they had a few 'guides' among them that showed me some hidden gems of terrain at Kirkwood, areas that would take a season for me to find on my own.

On my way back to the City I discovered a really amazing part of California: Calaveras County, Stanislaus National Forest and San Joaquin County. I only found out on Monday that I was just north of Yosemite National Park. What a treat this part of the state is, between Lake Tahoe and Stockton.

A nice treat was Patty, who was visiting californis and skiing with the group. She and I did a bunch of runs together at Kirkwood and she called me Tuesday afternoon, the 17th. We met up and walked through the Haight-Ashbury part of town. We walked through part of Golden Gate Park, then drove up to Twin Peaks for an amazing view of the city. At 11PM we had some food and she took BARt back to her friends house. I woudn'd ahve seen Haight-Ashbury or any of that with out her visit. I'll have pictures of this night out on the town in a week or so.

More pics of the truck

2007-04-13T16:41:00.000-07:00

I cleaned up the truck and took some more snapshots of it with the new tires.

It looks great with the black tonneau cover, new rims and new tires.

Did I mention that the old set of tires had one tire dead, another tire had a gash in the sidewall ready to pop and all four were running down tread at 70,000 miles.

It really looks great when its clean. Thats the trick with black vehicles, they don't look good dirty.

In total:

1. New Windshield
2. new wipers
3. Aftermarket: Tonneau Cover
4. Aftermarket: 17" rims
5. Aftermarket: Bridgestone All-Terrain tires.

Surprising thing about the tonneau cover was how much more utility I got out of the whole truck. I store stuff in the back differently now than before, usually with bungee lines running side-to-side along the tailgate. Its secure because its "out of sight, out of mind" for anyone who'd break in, the tailgate locks, too, so a thief would need to cut through the vinyl to see whats inside. The weather doesn't get under the cover, so tarps and stuff are not needed, it has free'ed up room in the cab, where I can have things strapped in the bed that used to be in the supercab. I finally have a truck I really love.

Another great weekend in Lake Tahoe

2007-04-09T07:14:00.000-07:00

I made arrangements over email and a phone call to stay at the Carmel Ski Club. This is a gold-plated version of every other ski club I've been to.

The equity arrangement has this club set up with all the funds it needs to upgrade/repair/replace anything it wants to.

Unfortunately, it was a singles club until about 5 or 10 years ago, now its solidly in the 'family' ski club category.

Anyhow, I finally discovered Squaw Valley. My friend Jennifer in Boston was on-target. I should have started here, this is where there the active social scene is to complement the great terrain. The village area had a 'Whistler' typ layout (Whistler/Blackcomb Ski Area, B.C., Canada) and there was tons of energy there, energy that was missing from Kings Beach and South Lake Tahoe. I got to get back to this place fast. One strange thing, there was an illuminated 1000' high rock face and a strange glow coming over the top of the mountain. I have to ask about this. The Glow was propably light from the grooming machines refracting through snowmaking operations at the top.

On Sunday morning I drove around the East side of lake Tahoe and met up with Rich and Hilary. We had 5 great hours at Heavenly; spent a lot of time in the rocks.

Chetmobile; California style

2007-04-03T07:51:00.000-07:00

After two weeks of cruising on my spare tire, I really needed to upgrade the wheels on my truck. I ended up with OEM 17" rims for $150 (all four) and Bridgestone all-terrains for $160 each. The truck sits ~2" higher, rides a lot better and runs at 25% less RPM at highway speed. It looks like a real truck now, too. The great thing about wheels in CA, so many people lift their trucks and put monster-truck tires on their vehicles that there is a great after-market for stock stuff like what I wanted.

Pimp my Ride :-)

Apartment Photo Tour

2007-04-03T01:16:00.000-07:00

I scored my San Francisco Apartment really last minute, in the mad scramble to get my life picked-up and moved accross country in a week. It was found through Craigs List, of course.

The landlord made a leap of faith with me, as I wasn't able to get her a check before I arrived on March 3rd.

The House is on Folsom Street, in Bernal Heights, San Francisco. The landlord keeps a small unit in the ground floor, the upper floor is the larger unit.

There are views from the large picture windows in the fron, west face of the house. The back deck has views to the south and there is a small, fenced-in back yard.

The place as an '80's' feel to it, but its a big improvement over the clean but plain Allston Bachelor pad.

Most of the house has Brazilian cherrywood floors. Very nice touch. The bedrooms are carpeted.

The entryway and the bathroom both have skylights. This is a very nice 'industrial' designer touch.

The pastel exterior is also cool.

California Snowboarding

2007-03-25T18:57:00.000-07:00

Part I: The Snowboarding. Oh Boy. I showed up late, around 1AM and the only person awake was some guy waving to me from the jacuzzi. Rich introduces himself as the Snowboarding Chiropractor and gives me a quick run-down of house procedures before launching into a rant about how lame the rest of the house members are for not staying up and having a beer or some tequila on Friday night. I get my stuff into the house (I got my own room - YAY!) and decide to join him to learn about the ski club and what I should expect for the duration.

Lake Tahoe has about 10 ski areas within striking distance of the 'Apres Ski Club' Ski Lodge in Kings Beach.

I turn in around 2AM and feel reasonably rested when Rich barges into my room at 9:20. We're on the snow at Northstar by 10 AM and hit the slopes hard until 3:30 PM.

Part II: The food. Oh Boy. Kings Beach, where the Ski Lodge in located, is a town two miles from the California/Nevada Border. You drive around a bend in the road where you see the border, it's marked by the start of 10,000 neon signs for the Casinos. It was recommended that we go to the Casino for the 'Prime Rib Special' Gambling is an activity I find about as enjoyable as burning $20 bills with a bic lighter. Thank goodness the casino owners find it profitable to reel in the gambling addicts with cheap, good food and drink. This restaurant, the casino and the whole town had a 70's kitch feel about it. However, as long as they keep serving up those meals at those prices, I'll tolerate the pervasive tackiness until I get fed and then get back to the neon-free, flashy-light-free California side of the border.

Rich Mark, Marks girlfriend and I went to the 'Biltmore Casino' and sat down for Dinner in their smoke-free restaurant. Rich and I each had the Prime Rib Special, Mark and his girlfriend each had the steak and shrimp special. The tab was 11.90 for BOTH prime rib dinners. $5.95 each, it was very good quality, huge quantity and I was so happy. Big Prime Rib, Baked Potato, Salad, veggies. I've found paradise for folks like me who have big appetites.

I totally ran out of steam at the end of dinner and I knew I wasn't heading out for any partying after we got back to the house. We returned, I was down at 10 PM and didn't get up til 8AM Sunday. The days snowboarding had me beat.

Sunday morning the Casino-subsidized feast continued. I went for a walk to the lakeshore, then hopped in the truck and drove straight back to the Casino. I walked right past all the noisy slot machines to get the $2.50 breakfast special with a $1.50 pot of coffee. $4 total for all huge plate of eggs, ham, hash browns, toast and coffee...I could get used to this.

One nice hospitality touch they have here - the first thing the servers give everyone, every time without asking...a big glass of icewater. The dry climate here does a number on you without you realizing it.

March 17th; Sonoma County Day Trip

2007-03-20T23:28:00.000-07:00

Melissa and Chet visited three vinyards and saw a lot of pretty countryside in Sonoma County, California.

We went to the Benzinger Vinyard first. Their tour came recommended from my friend Jeff who used to live in San Francisco. After that we went to the 'Imagery' Vinyard which was having quite a party. It was St. Pattys Day Afterall. This was the place where I felt like I had stepped into the movie 'Sideways'.

The best part of the day came, however, at the Gloria Ferrer Chapmagne Caves. THey had a great patio overlooking 1,000's of acres of vinyards. Check out the Panoramic shots...

PHOTO ALBUM:

http://www.kodakgallery.com/BrowsePhotos.jsp?&collid=97676798403.672160386403.1174607163708&page=1

First Impressions of San Francisco

2007-03-10T07:06:00.000-08:00

March 10th; week one.

Well, I'm an official state resident of California: I got the Cali License Plates on my truck. Somehow I passed the driving test, (got them fooled, heh, heh, heh, heh!!).

One observation about this place...how unremarkable a lot of things are. I was told by many to expect a freakshow with the people here. Not so...none of the stereotypres people warned me about are very accurate. SF is politically left of Boston, but not by much. There are no fewer Hybrid Cars here vs. Massachusetts, there are slightly more gas-guzzling F-150s and other big trucks like mine out here, most with bigger tires than what I got. There ARE a lot of lesbians in my neighborhood, (I've found out that the Sunday Night screenings of 'The 'L' Word' at the Wild SIde West Bar a block from my house is THE event to be at around here. However, aside from that the gay culture isn't in your face, mostly what I see are down-to-earth California people who are laid back & nice to talk to.

The Wild Side West has a great beer Garden and a friendly crowd. I think I'll be taking friends there when I have visitors from the East Coast.

Cross-Country Drive; Day Six: SLC, UT to San Francisco, CA

2007-03-03T22:24:00.000-08:00

Day 6: Salt Lake City, UT to San Francisco, CA; 737 miles

Ben and I lounged around his kitchen for a while longer than I should have. It was nice to not rush out the door first thing to get behind the wheel for another marathon session behind the wheel.

I was actually anticipating this stretch of the drive more than any other. It's not jsut becuase i would be at my destination at the end of the day, but I heard so much about driving across the emptyness of Nevada.

I headed out of SLC on Rt. 80, due west. I was back on hte original road that Google said I should be on.

Something I never saw in my month in SLC back in 2002, surprisingly, was the Great Salt Lake itself. The city largely turned its back on the lake and it's too salty to have a lot of recreational activity like pleasure boats, jet-skis or any activity involving people.

I top off the gas tank in one of those Hollywood classic desolate-gas station in the middle-of-nowhere spots.

Nevada turns out to be one of the most pleasant surprises of the entire trip. All I had ever seen before of Nevada was Las Vegas, Lake Mead and the area in between. That was super-arid desert. Northern Nevada, along Route 80, was rich in steppe vegetation, scrub trees, tall grasses and many, many scenic mountain views.

What was also surprising was that even though the desert expanse was indeed vast, the towns that I passed by did have wholly-developed economies, office towers, car dealerships, housings tracts, high schools, railroad yards, factories, farms, everything a self-sustaining economy needs.

Around mid-afternoon I had to stop for gas and lunch. My truck was once-again completely grubby after the Utah snowstorms, so I got some of the most expensive gas I've ever seen and a $7 'touchless' automatic car wash that did a good job on my truck.

That done, I looked at my options for lunch. There were some fast-food joints that weren't too appealing, and of course, being Nevada, there was the Casino Restaurant. If it was anything like Vegas, the food would be good, big portions and cheap.

I walked into the Casino through to the restaurant and saw the rejects who would net be permitted into Vegas Casinos: desperate looking people chain-smoking cigarettes, gazing absently into video poker screens. Since I don't gamble, because it holds no thrill for me, I was saddened to see these people, viewing their situation objectively.

As predicted, the Casino delivered a huge sandwich and a great salad bar. The staff was nice, but many had a look of 'I wish life had lead me somewhere else than here'

I plowed on from this not-as-good-as Vegas town onto Reno. From there it should be about three hours to San Francisco. I'm excited to pass through the Lake Tahoe Region; it'll be my new stomping-ground for snowboarding.

Around 5:30PM I cross into California. Talk about a HUGE weight lifted off of me. I go screaming through the mini-vegas that is Reno and catch glimpses of some ski slopes in the Lake Tahoe region.

Another precarious stretch of driving commences in California: a rapid, twisty descent at 75 miles per hour on Route 80 from the state border down into Sacramento. This is a descent of 5,000 feet within 30 minutes at 75+ MPH. These long stretches of 6%, 8%, 9%+ grade descents call for down shifting instead of burning ones brakepads. The engine isn't entirely happy revving to 4000 RPM to manage the trucks speed.

I chase a sunset into the ocean as i cruise into Sacramento. Once there, I see my first-ever California Traffic Jam. It's only a delay of 15 or 20 minutes, but it is still annoying. It's evening now and I'm tired. Almost there.

Around 8PM I'm getting into the San Francisco metro area.

At 8:15 I hit the tolls for the Bay Bridge (not the Golden Gate Bridge, that is different) and cruise right up to 4005 Folsom Street.

Elaine, the owner of the house and my landlord, comes out to greet me. I've never been so happy to see someone I've never met before. It's 8:30 and I'm in San Francisco.

We discover my truck to too long to fit in the garage. I'm too tired to deal with anything, however. I bring in the bedding and other essentials and get to bed nice and early on Saturday night in the City.

Cross-Country Drive; Day Five: Snowboarding in Utah

2007-03-02T21:52:00.000-08:00

Day 5: Solitude Ski Resort, BigCottonwood Canyon, Salt Lake City, UT; 20 miles

It's snowing on Friday morning. This promises to be a great powder-day at the mountains.

I take off around 8:30 and get to Solutude right around 9:00 AM. This is the one time this season I'll pay full price for a lift ticket. $63. I get out there for a few runs and it can only be described as perfect. It's still overcast and snowing hard, but I'm knee-deep in 'hero powder' where I can do no wrong on the slopes: tackling the steepest terrain, no matter how aggressive I get, i instantly get back under control with the flick of my hips or ankles.

I got about 5 runs in before I had to take a break. The clouds start to pass and the sun comes out. The one unfortunate thing was this mornings weather was SO intense, they had to shut down little Cottonwood Canyon. This diverted all the Snowbird and Alta skiers to Solitude and Brighton. It was a crowded day for Solitude. At least, that's what all the locals were complaining about. i couldn't care less. it was a perfect day for someone used to Eastern conditions and Eastern Crowds.

Around 2:30 I called it quits. I was tired. My legs were shot from all the deep powder. It felt Great.

I ran some errands back in SLC and met up with Ben after he got out of work. We went to a club just outside of the downtown area and saw a cool Reggae band.

We had to stop for late-night drive-through Burritos on the way home, they were great. It was better than most of the food I had when I lived here in 2002.

We got back late and I needed some rest for the long drive to San Francisco on Saturday.

Cross-Country Drive; Day Four: CO and UT

2007-03-01T21:38:00.000-08:00

Day 4: Burlington, CO to Salt Lake City, UT; 698 miles

Colorado is flat. Eastern Colorado, that is. It looks exactly like Western Kansas. That should come as no surprise, really, but it's only now that I'm realizing the entire eastern half of this state is completely ignored in favor of the scenic western half, where all the excitement is.

A girl I used to hang out with met a guy from this area and moved out here to marry him. She said the locals called it 'Coloransas' Flat is where its at.

This picture is my first sighting of the Rocky Mountains. They're really hazy and the mountain range isn't too visible on the video clip.

This feels SO well earned.

Route 70 cuts straight accross downtown Denver. An odd thing you notice, Denver is a big city. When you're approaching it from the East, however, it is a speck of matchsticks backed up against a 1,000 mile long, mile-high wall of rock. It seems so insignificant in relation to the mountains it sides up against.

Once in the city, you have to drive right past a Purina Dog Feed Factory. It stinks and it's right in the middle of the city. I guess the locals are used to it.

Immediately after passing through the city, you're launched straight into the Rockies. The trucks engine starts gunning at 3,500 RPM, already under a lot of weight, already at 5,000 feet of thin altitude and climbing much higher.

As I pass the first few towns, gas is running low and I stop in Idaho Springs. This town had streets made of packed snow. Just how 2-wheel drive cars got around here was unclear to me. The Sinclair gas station (my new favorite gas retailer, like Amerada-Hess back east, Sinclair gets almost zero of their petroleum from the Middle East) The octane ratings were 85, then 89, then 91. I'll have to look into why. My truck needs 87 and I have to get a premium grade here?

I climb higher and higher on route 70. When the road takes a dip, its mile-long stretches of 9%+ degree slopes, windy as anything and covered in snow. Not to mention the occasional, momentary white-outs from snow-squalls and you have Tractor-trailers all around you, grinding along at highway speeds.

The truck has already in 4-Wheel Drive since the gas stop in Idaho Springs. I have to drop into 2nd gear to control my descents on this white-knuckle highway. I haven't been nervous about anything on this trip until now. This was classic 'Double-Diamond" Driving. That I haven't seen it this intense since December of 2003 in NH.

As I grind along, the road heads higher and higher into the mountains. I come across a familiar spot: Vail Pass. The sign reads '10,866 feet altitude' My truck has never been nearly that high before. It's doing well, stretching its legs under the weight, incline, altitude and highway speeds.

After the blizzard at Vail, the first steep descents give way to kinder weather and more shallow grades, coming down the other side of the continental divide.

The slopes give way to very scenic canyons. In fact, it looks like I'm cruising on an interstate laid straight through the Grand Canyon itself. Morning turns into afternoon and I keep sailing past town after town in Western Colorado. Back in Burlington, I got some advice re: importing contraband Beer to Utah. Grand Junction was the best place to stop.

Most folks know that Utah's population is 70%+ Mormon. What you may not know is that the Mormon society has passed a whole collection of State Laws to uphold their fundamentalist lifestyle. This is detailed very effectively in the movie 'SLC Punk' with Ben Affleck.

One particularly annoying law is the practice of watered-down beer. All beer produced or sold in Utah can be no stronger that 3.2% alcohol. The result is a beer that tastes like dish washing detergent has been run through it.

I spoke to my friend Ben over the phone. The plan was to stay at his place in SLC Thursday night, hit the slopes Friday, stay at his place Friday night, and head to San Francisco Saturday morning, to hopefully arrive in San Francisco before I got too tired on Saturday night. My rent: REAL BEER FROM COLORADO. Ben requested
"Anything from New Belgium" These were the makers of Fat Tire. When I finally got to Colorado springs around 3PM, I pulled into the local loquor store and found four varieties of New Belguims products: Fat Tire, the very last of their Winter Ale, Summer Ale and their Wheat Beer. The tally was 6-twelve packs. (three cases or 72 bottles or beer, however you measure it) Ben would be very happy.

Once I hit Colorado, I did make a diversion. I sopped in a town to not only top off the gas tank, but also to de-louse the truck. The truck had become encrusted with an opaque layer of road-crud. Salt, dust, dirt, mud, schmegma, and other assorted grime. It had this ashen-color to it. before I got to SLC, I also went to a car wash in Southeastern Utah. Of course, the temperature was 37 degrees when i was driving through town. When I pulled in and started washing the truck, it magically dropped to 28 degrees, and all the water started freezing into the truck, making a proper wash impossible. I scrub off the ice and get back on the road. On the highway it proptly returns to 37 degrees. That was frustrating. The truck is not 100% clean, but its far better off than before the ice-wash.

It looks like I'm getting into town on schedule. I call ben and he's at the office, after 7PM. Since he can take the train, he doesn't have his SUV with him. I pick him up and we head out to 'The Bayou' for a nice dinner.

Ben has to work on Friday, so I'm going off on my own to Solitude Mountain. Solutude is probably the one Utah mountain I didn't hit in the month I lived in SLC during the 2002 Olympics.

Cross-Country Drive; Day Three; MO, KS and CO

2007-02-28T21:36:00.000-08:00

Today is the day of the long-haul; a very flat, boring haul. I know I can’t make it to Salt Lake City. I have to call ben and tell him I’m putting him off for another day. I’ll just have the truck pointed west, cover as many miles as I can and likely make it to SLC by Thursday night.

One surprising thing about Kansas; it’s perceived as flat and featureless. The eastern half of the state is surprisingly hilly and scenic. As I roll west, the landscape gradually becomes drier and I start spotting tumbleweeds sprinting across the highway in high winds.

Night falls. Kansas develops into something else after a while: its BIG. I’m glancing at my atlas and as the afternoons fatigue turns into the evenings exhaustion, I depressingly track my slow progress between the dots on the map that represent highway exits/towns/cities.

As the night starts to wear on me, that same stupid thought crosses my mind: you’ve only covered two states today. “You have got to make it to Colorado before calling it a day.”

One bit of excitement came from listening to the local news station: not only was I racing a storm system, but there are tornado warnings being issues for 5 counties, including the ones I’m driving through.

At this point the snow starts to come down. As if the marathon-drives weren’t enough, I’m catching another bank of the snowstorms that are dumping on the entire country.

I pull over just 15 miles inside Colorado. The only postcard of Burlington, Colorado is a picture of a Merry-go-round. The sight I was pleased to see was the BIG $10 steak and $1.50 Draughts of Fat Tire Beer at the restaurant next to the hotel.

Cross-Country Drive; Day 2: Ashtabula, Ohio to St. Louis, MO; 610 Miles

2007-02-27T23:23:00.000-08:00

It’s still snowing in the morning. I haven’t seen more that 500 feet away from my truck at any point on the trip so far. The Hotel offers a basic breakfast of fruit, pastries or biscuits with Sausage Gravy. Little did I know this would be a staple of my breakfasts until I got to SLC.

This is the place I woke up to after my first day. This is actually a stock photo. Everything was covered in snow under dark gray skies.

I was already developing a 'camping' bio-clock. The sunlight woke me up in the morning. I had all day to Drive and I'd get tired at night, exhausted from ten or twelve-straight hours of paying attention to the road, snow covered roads, snow-covered roads with more speedtraps than I'd see in a year in MA.

The forecast is still looking rather rough; Des Moines, Iowa is getting two feet of snow, the upper plains are really getting nailed with tough weather. A week earlier, my colleague Bob Richardson gave me some hard-earned advice about the countries mid-section: Divert south and take Rt. 70 across the plains instead of Rt. 80; you’ll avoid a lot of weather. It was looking like he was right. I divert to Rt. 70, which will take me through St, Louis, MO, and then across Kansas and Colorado en route to Salt Lake City, this seems a lot easier vs. taking Rt. 80 across Iowa, Nebraska and Wyoming to Salt Lake City.

Once I pass by Cleveland I start entering territory I have never covered before in my life.

An opportunity occurs to me: I have a prospect in St. Louis that I’ve been trying to get someone in front of to talk to. If I can get there tonight, I can meet with them tonight over dinner or tomorrow morning.

I had no idea archways were so popular in the mid-west. Leaving ohio, I cross into Indiana. There are farms, cornfields, cows, farms, cornfields, cows….
There is no perceptible change in anything from crossing into Illinois from Indiana. The only part of Illinois I’ve seen before was Chicago.

I knew the rest of the state was cornfields, now I get to experience the rest of the state for a good portion of todays drive.

I resolve to finish up in St. Louis. So I've touched four states today.

Day 1: Boston, MA to Ashtabula, Ohio; 583 Miles

2007-02-26T22:35:00.000-08:00

February 26, 2007

The morning greeted me with snow at 6:30 AM. Checking a forecast for an entire quadrant of the country takes a little creative thinking. You have to not only think about what is happening when and where across a much bigger section of the weather map, but the fact that you are a moving target across whole weather system complicates things even worse. The forecast said the moving weather system would keep snowing all across the northeast for the next 36 hours. I can’t catch a break; the drive was not going to be an easy one.

It’s about 15 hours of driving to get to Chicago. Kristen and Jeff are looking forward to hosting me tonight. The snow may get in the way of that.

I actually hit the road at 8:30 AM and get on the Mass Pike. That closing scene in the movie ‘Good Will Hunting’ when you see Att Damon’s car getting to the end of the Mass Pike, starting his drive to California to chase that actress, I think it was Minnie Driver?

Anyhow, I have to stop for gas in Upstate NY, just short of Syracuse. There are some pressing things going on in the office that I have to take care of, so I stop at a Barnes & Noble in Syracuse. 5 phone calls, 20+ emails and 90 minutes later I get back on the road.

The forecast is not looking good and it’s pretty certain I’m not seeing Chicago tonight, at least, not before 2AM.

After Syracuse it’s still snowing and there is no sign of it letting up for another day. I talked to Ben in Salt Lake City; he only had 23 seconds to talk to me because he was in the middle of a mad powder day at Solitude Mountain. The idea was for me to make it there by Wednesday night. I don’t think that is going to happen.

Around 7PM its getting dark, it’s still snowing and the fatigue is starting to wear on me. As I pass through Buffalo, I think to myself that this will likely be the last chance for a very long time that I’ll be able to have real Buffalo Wings in Buffalo.

After Buffalo I try to find a shopping mall to pick up a new Lonely Planet: USA so I can find places to stay that are cooler than Motel 6 or the Best Western. I fail miserably; wasting time running around snow-covered strip malls what have no bookstores to speak of. Just driving to places where you see bright shiny lights is no guarantee of finding what you need in Upstate NY.

After dinner it occurs to me that I’ve only covered two states so far today. That’s rather pathetic. I resolve to put a couple more states behind me so I can feel better about the progress I’m making. This is actually rather easy; PA has a panhandle separating NY State from Ohio. Just another two hours of driving will put me across the panhandle and into Northeast Ohio. It’s not a huge deal in the scheme of things, but it feels like a much bigger accomplishment to me, at least.

As I cross into Ohio, all I can think about is scanning those ‘Gas Food Lodging’ signs for a hotel chain that I recognize. This first major town has a Clarion and a Holiday Inn Express. At this point, the fatigue and a sense of grubbiness is really setting in. I pull over at the Holiday Inn Express, check in and sleep like the dead until morning.

Bretton Woods

2007-02-18T16:25:00.000-08:00

Stock Photo Post

2007-01-25T15:49:00.000-08:00