home sweet home

hi y'all. been a week since i put anything up here. computer access was a problem. this past week saw us in several of the np's in southern utah. the highlight to us was definitely bryce canyon np. the hoodoo's, that's what they call them. they are spires of sedimented rock that remain after all the surrounding softer rock has crumbled away. so instead of a ridge, all that's left are these free-standing hoodoo's. i'll put some pix up. anyway, lots of colors, from whites to yellows to rose to rust and red. probably after the grand canyon, this was the most unusual thing we saw.


Bryce Canyon N.P. video

monday the 9th was the big transition day. we did about 300 road miles, went up in altitude about 4000 ft, from the flat plateau country up into forested mountains, topped out at 9400 ft on a pass over boulder mtn. it's really hard to breathe up there! even for an athlete like me! i got out of breath pulling my zipper up and down.

tuesday was a depressing day. it starts cloudy, cold and threatening. i slept like shit the night before, maybe it was the weather and/or the altitude, or just being homesick. when we went out to see bryce, and went up to 9000 ft to start our day, it was snowing and blowing like crazy. winter in may. it was not a topless day.

woke up wednesday morning the 11th, there was about 1/2 inch of snow on the cars and on the ground. thank god it melted by 10-11 am. travelled to zion np. the trip was very scenic, but we found zion disappointing, compared to other places we'd seen. seemed like more of a hikers' park than the casual tourist's. 15 yrs ago this day my father died. RIP, miss you.


Valley of Fire S.P. Nevada video

on thursday we went to vegas, via the valley of fire state park about 30 miles outside of vegas. that was really cool. valley of fire because the rocks are so red, in the sunlight they appear to be on fire. that's what the marketing people put in the brochure anyway. but it was pretty cool. very hot day out there, easily 90 degrees, maybe more in the middle of the day. topless, sunscreen and yankee hat. it was very quiet, just the birds chirping, the flies buzzing, the sun baking us, that dry desert heat, that even with long pants on didn't feel that bad. and the white contrails against the blue blue sky of the jets heading west into LA. red rocks against blue sky.

then out of the park and on to vegas. same as when we started out, yellow wild flowers roadside, guiding us along. and so the circle is complete.

so a day and a half in vegas to decompress; is that an oxymoron? anyway, saw kim and we went to fremont street experience on thursday night. all the world's there, and the light show is brief but i'm sure unmatched anywhere. saw mr. yamaguchi from the karate kid in the irish pub at palace station, gambling at the bar. saw him again the next night at the pub, doing a little jig to the irish band that was playing that night. won 260 dollars at keno. finally a gambling game i can maybe get into: passive, sedentary in a nice leather chair, inexpensive, and they give you free drinks, even jameson. arose at 430 am saturday morning for our 700 am flight home. home sweet home. 7692 miles on the road.

thanks to anyone who has been reading this stuff. and thanks to miguel for being a great travelling companion. i will definitely miss seeing him in his underwear everynight. but i do have those photos.... call me miguel, we'll talk....

happy mothers day from moab, ut

Valley of the Gods S.P. video

on saturday we spent about 3 hours in valley of the gods park, near mexican hat. nice park, a mini-monument valley as they billed it, lots of photo ops, and small enough that the size of the place was not so overwhelming like monument valley was. driving a "native surface" road through the park. we didn't know what that meant exactly, but it's dirt and gravel, but drive-able without a 4 wheel drive. one minor mishap, not really even a mishap. mishap means something happened right? nothing actually happened, it just would have shown up as a spike in the day-long chart of our blood pressure and heart activity. we're driving along on the native surface road, actually i was driving along, and we had pretty much finished picture-taking, and the native surface road had straightened out and was pretty smooth, so we're, i'm doing like 40 maybe, and all of a sudden there's a curve and a dip down maybe 15 feet at the same time, then another curve the opposite way coming out of the gully. it was like a scene out of a movie where the bad guys are getting away. down and turn hard and brake at the same time. well on the native surface roadway, the brakes just locked, meanwhile we are headed into a barranco, so i let up on the brakes and just steered through the S, at higher speeds than i would recommend to my children, and salvaged the fish-tailing at the end. so nothing really happened. miguel, on the surafce at least, was not pissed off at me. although he did offer that his gastro-intestinal status was somewhat compromised. all's well that ends well right? then onward, uneventfully on a regular surface road.

so in the latest chapter of this never-ending saga for scenery, photos, and self-discovery, we find ourselves in moab utah. pretty cool little town, it has 2 best westerns, so you know it's really a tourist hub. it's a mountain biking center for these canyons; we didn't do that. it's a mountaineering center for these canyons; we didn't do that. it's a off-roading center for these canyons; we didn't do that. it's a hiking center for these canyons; we did do some of that. went to arches np for most of today. the day dawned sunny with blue skies, like many others recently. the difference was that it stayed sunny all day, even now at the end of the day it's very clear out. and warm for a change.

impressions from my sunday stroll. so we take a bottle of water each and head out on the trail to see these amazing arches eroded out of the stone. the rocks and formations are bizarre and eerie, some like huge chess pieces of the gods, strewn everywhere by the one who lost and tipped over the chessboard. some like dripped columns of chocolate that hardened, some like the easter island carved heads, some like the extended heads of egyptian pharoahs and queens, or erikah badu. and, turn away now if you are prudish or easily excited. but everywhere there are penises, saluting the sky. and i am comfortable enough in my sexuality to point this out. but this is some sort of phallic geological joke. there are all sizes, some circumcised and some not, rows of them stacked together. some, the most massive of them, get to stand alone, just flaunting their penile qualities. ok enough of that, someone is reading over my shoulder and i don't want him to get the wrong idea.


Arches Nat'l Park video

after hiking just .9 miles on the hiking trail, we come to a fork in the trail. .9 miles? not even a whole mile? i feel like i've been walking for days, the sun is beating down on my cheap irish skin, and i'm beat. like some retard i didn't think i needed my yankee hat, so i left it in the car. at least i put sunscreen on, but i was worried that the sweat that was pouring off my brow was taking the sunscreen with it. so at the fork, where the sign says ".9 miles back to the trailhead" and the other sign says "1.2 miles to the (fill in the blank) arch", there is a brief conversation between miguel and me. he says he's continuing on. i said i'll see you at the car. so we take off in opposite directions. i'm sweating, there's no shade at all to stop in, unless i want to crawl under a bush with the lizards and red ants. meanwhile, the trail is up and down, up and down, we're at 5000 ft plus so my breathing apparatus is already straining. i had somehow gotten a scratch on my elbow, no big deal, but a slight break in the skin. and don't you know those desert flies or whatever they were, found this tiny opening in my derma, and starting landing there and biting me or sucking my blood or whatever they were doing. so, it didn't hurt a lot, but it was an added distraction and a little painful every time i had to whack one away off my arm. so in my near delirious state, i'm starting to have a flashback to another life where i was left for dead in a desert somewhere and the bugs and crows and buzzards all ate me up. i started to understand how spending 40 days and nights in the desert could turn you into a mystic. so, in the end, that .9 mile hike (each way) was definitely one of the highlights of the trip so far.

tomorrow it's off to ruby's inn utah, i think it's by bryce np. hope the weather holds up, it's a pretty long drive. thanks for reading.

where's mexican hat?

is that a place? yes it is, in southern utah, just north of monument valley. this is where we are staying tonight. the san juan inn and trading post. it's old, at least the original building, and it sits on the banks of the san juan river, which actually has a lot of water in it. it's very nice, and we have a river view 2nd floor unit. this is really a small town though. i mean maybe 200 people live here. there's some bikers and some other tourists staying here, even a french couple. i heard them ask for a "rrrhhoooommm", like peter sellers in one of the clouseau movies.


Canyon de Chelly video

so here's the day: started out in chinle az, with a visit to canyon de chelly. it was very photogenic, like a mini grand canyon. you're looking at it from above. lots of sun, good pix, no way to post them from here, sorry.

then we hit the road for monument valley. this place was one of the main reasons i wanted to do this trip, to see this place. i had that big picture of it in my office in red bank and then in piscataway. don't know why really, but i was always taken with the photographs of it. the ride up was good, maybe 100 miles or so from chinle. top down, nice enough day. but the wind today is really strong, blowing up the valley from the south, 30 mph gusts at least, felt like we were being pushed along in the car. lots of tumbleweed stuck up against fences along the road. wild flowers are making a comeback for the last day or so. it was a while since we'd seen any quantity of flowers. today we had bunches of purple and orange on the side of the road. the yellow broom (i think it is) is just about ready to burst into flower, like we had tons of it in california. the grasses, just fields of low grasses, moving in unison with the wind, like Gaia's cilia pushing us along, digesting us. and again, the big open spaces with 180 degrees of sky in any direction. long long straight streches of road, laid out in front of us, reaching to the horizon at times. cruising along at 70-75.


Monument Valley video

so as we head into monument valley and these huge red monoliths begin to appear, we've got the top down, the wind is roaring, stronger than it's been all day; the big high top darker clouds have been building all day on the horizon. i put bruce live 75-85 on the cd player, thunder road, blasting in the car, singing along, playing it really loud just to hear it over the wind. you with me? then the road turns a bit and now we're turned sideways to the wind, and it's getting even crazier, 2 hands on the wheel kind of driving, so the wind doesn't push me across the lane into that truck that's coming down the road at 75 mph. then, second song on that side: adam raised a cain. WOW!! it was a perfect fit to the elemental forces we were experiencing. the wind and bruce both screaming, he's singing about murder and bad blood, the most elemental hobbesian side of human nature, in perfect harmony with nature unleashing her forces upon us, the human intruders into her stony, desolate red world, where wind and rain rule. halfway through the song i'm thinking what an amazing time i'm having with this unplanned confluence of natural and musical forces, when bang, bang, bang, huge raindrops start pelting the windshield. i pull over to the side and quickly raise the top so we don't get drenched. we had to submit to nature and button up tight. what an amazing 10-15 minute span though. i hope i was able to convey the feeling of it all, just a little bit.

so mexican hat, great name, not sure why it's called that. but even in this very tiny town in utah, they have internet access. i'm glad al gore invented it. so i see us eating supper in this place. i think it's the only choice. whiskey and cigars after supper, overlooking the river, or on our balcony if it rains again. oh, i forgot to say: when we got into the middle of all the famous red monuments, there was no sun, and picture taking there was a bust. so i think we're going to come back tomorrow morning (it's 20 miles south of here) and try to take some pix in the morning light. it would be a shame to leave here without some decent photos of the place i wanted to see the most.

ok that's it for now. bye, love you, miss you. a week from tomorrow!

from chinle arizona

where's that? it's right outside the entrance to canyon de chelly park. from what i've seen, it looks like fabulous scenery and anasazi ruins. that's for tomorrow morning. today we left taos nm via interstates for about 150 miles to make faster time. then we went off 40 and onto state 53, a scenic route, to el morro monument. it's a big set of mallos, not unlike some other things we've seen. ate lunch at the ancient ones cafe in morro nm. buffalo burgers, yum.

great lyric from a country music song:
"she put him out, like the burning tip of a midnight cigarette".
i just thought that was a great image.

since taos, we went to santa fe for 2 nights. saw some old churches on the way from taos, only about 60 miles. one of the churches had a lot of crutches hanging there, because it has some dirt that is miraculous there. i guess you rub it on you or something and it 's supposed to cure you. i figured i need a miracle to get thin, so i ate a little of it. it wasn't bad actually. i don't know how long it's supposed to take, but i'm still fat, and hungry several times a day....


Santa Fe video

santa fe is a nice old town, the downtown part is pretty small and contained. i found that two symbols of new mexico are the color turquoise and dried braided red chile peppers. they're everywhere.

went up to taos pueblo to visit it, but there was a cop blocking the road into the pueblo. so we asked him what was going on and he said the pueblo was closed until tomorrow, they are doing some kind of ceremonies or something. so we didn't get to see it. but i mean, the indians, you know we gave them all this land with nothing on it but nice scenery, and they don't want white people to come to their village. what's that all about, oh we're having a ceremony, have to keep the white folks out. after we gave them all this land and let them put gambling casinos everywhere. jeez!

the only good thing about tuesday was that we didn't have to worry about getting stuck in any forest fires. it rained almost all day. it was very depressing driving throughthe rain and low clouds so you couldn't see what was supposed to be beautiful mtns. the low point of the trip so far for me. passed 6000 miles on tuesday too. took my picture next to the continental divide sign next to the road. but it was a little muddy. i don't think i've had that much mud on my shoes since i was about 8 years old. what a mess.

wednesday was alot better, top off the car again,did some local sightseeing around santa fe. i wrrote about all the roadside shrines we've been seeing, well in nm they are major projects. they really are little shrines on the side of the road. it got me looking at the skid marks on the road again, and just imagining the accidents that caused the skids. pretty scary, especially when the skid marks are coming into your lane from the other side. then i started noticing the marks on trees off the side of the road, where they would be missing big chunks of bark, and there would be a big white spot on the tree. and then i realized that most of these trees were located on curves, where the tangent of an automobile leaving the road would have hit. some of these marks were like 20-30 feet off the road. that was scary too. the possibilities were just horrendous.

so today, thursday, was another very nice day, a little warmer too. topless again, lots of sunshine. there is nothing more enjoyable than driving down these roads where you can see forever out in front of you, and the sky is enormous, and the clouds are just works of art. and you have some great music on the player. and the wind is just blowing in your face and the sun is warming your brow...that's what this is all about for me.

so as we left nm and came back to arizona this afternoo, those huge wide-open spaces returned too. i mean we saw lots of wide open spaces almost everywhere we've been, but out here in the sw desert, man it just goes on forever.

i put about 30-40 new pictures up on http://howlinatthemoon.buzznet.com
so check 'em out. 8 days and i'm home can't wait. love you miss you.

san ildefonso pueblo

from taos nm

hi everybody. we got here this afternoon, crossed over some pretty good size mtns, including the continental divide again. drizzling, sleeting, then snowing up the mtn, but not sticking on the road thanks god. anyway, taos is like new hope or flemington with a sw flavor to it, and a little more upscale in some ways. i'm noticing a lot of old hippies out here, not just here, i mean pretty much everywhere we've been. there is a definite counter culture out here, but they are now small business owners. for example, i'm sitting here in this cyber-cafe, wired, and for the last 40 minutes it's been non-stop hendrix on the sound system. very pleasant. and i also noticed that everybody smiles at you. everybody. if you make eye-contact with them you are going to get a smile or a nod at least. very friendly open people.

so i put another 40 pictures up this afternoon, more or less. they include pictures i took today 90 minutes ago here in taos. what cool technology this digital thing is. so as of today, the pictures are as current as they could be.



added later: short video of some NM churches and chapels, accompanied by my buddy Ron Orlando. Check it out...You gotta get right with Jesus.

weather kind of sucks. rainy a lot over the last 2-3-4 days. snowy at the highest elevations. since rawlins, at least we haven't been held up by snow. forecast is for more of the same over the next couple of days, so i don't think we'll have that great weather back until we get to arizona and monument valley the end of this week. looking forward to that big time. haven't had the top off the car in 2-3 days i guess.

only 12 days left on this odysseyan (a word?) journey. you know what i mean. it's a good thing that the end of the trip has some really cool places like monument valley and the np's in utah to look forward to. because i'm ready to come home now.

ok that's it. miss you all, love you. check the new pix! thanks for your time...

durango colorado day 2

nice town we like it. went up to the mtns this morning, silverton. had to go through the pass at 10910 feet!!


Snowy Colorado Rockies video

it was snowing on and off, flurries. but there was a lot of snow still on the ground up there. coming down the mtn, stopped on the side of the road to take a picture, and there were wolves or coyotes making a lot of noise off in the woods. so i answered them, got out the video to see if i could record their howlin. they answered back, but i don't know yet if the microphone picked it up; i think it probably did because it's pretty sensitive. i thought of the night camping up at high point when we were howling at the moon.

went to eat last nite at scoot n' blues, heard some live music. at 1130 last night i plugged in my camera battery charger like i've done almost every night on this trip. and blam the lights and all the electric went out. we got the night manager, he had no access to the electric panels, and we wound up in a suite, that'll be for tonite too. silver lining of having to pack up and get out at 1130 pm like a couple of rousted gitanos.

i put a ton of pictures up on the other website this afternoon. go there: http://howlinatthemoon.buzznet.com and see for yourself. some discs i still can't load pictures from, so there are some gaps, but there must be 50 pix there now. enjoy!!

off to new mexico tomorrow and i hope some warmer weather.

short cut to more pictures!!

to see a bunch of photos that i put on the other website, just click on one of the ones here. it will redirect you to another website where i've put a bunch of pictures today, along with the ones that are already in the blog. get it? just click on a picture, you'll see what i mean. enjoy. more to come now that i've figured out this shortcut. bye.

durango colorado

that's where we are today, saturday the 30th. sounds like the name of a tv show. DURANGO, starring clint eastwood or something like that. nice town, good size, nice shops maria, you would like it. lots of restaurants, some art galleries. so i've been trying for at least 30 minutes to get more pictures up, but alas, no luck. i will keep on trying. i can't figure out what the problem is, sometimes it works, other times no luck at all. and i do the same things every time. wtf????

so we went to mesa verde this morning, spent about 5 hours there i guess. brought our own lunch, as it was recommended to us. good idea. went to the cliff palace of these stone homes built into and under a cliff. kind of like san juan de la penya. really cool. lots of steps down, and then back up. breathless, i was left. we're at 7000 feet, so the oxygen we're getting is a lot cleaner than what's in NJ, but there's a lot less of it. a lot of nice pix, if i could only post them...

i think tomorrow we're going to take one of these rr trips up the mountains. durango to silverton. they say the scenery is fabulous and much more than you could ever see from your car on the road.

two weeks from today we come home. looking forward to it. all the hotel rooms are starting to look alike, and it's kind of hard (for me at least) to remember exactly what happened in what town and when.

we go to taos on monday. have to cross the continental divide again, and we will have no choice but to cross via one or two of these 10k + feet passes. hope the weather is okay.

so after about 4 weeks of seeing these many towns, i find that almost all of them have a strip on the outskirts of town where all the "new" commercial activity is going on. that's where you find the BK's, McD's, Walmarts, the hotel chains, the applebee's, in and out burger, etc, etc. all the things that the corporations are doing to homogenize the american - make that the world - lifestyle. i hate it. the strip-malling of america. it's not only NJ, the strip-mall state. i've ranted about this before. that's why i like doll's better than bennigans. that's why you will never find me in a red lobster restaurant. this is a serious cultural problem in america. meanwhile the original downtown areas next to the strips are left to decay and are left for marginal people; not to stereotype, but that's what it looks like to me. the good thing is there are exceptions. new brunswick has done a nice job bringing the downtown back. this town we're in now, durango, is a nicely maintained downtown with lots of viable businesses thriving here. that's at least what it looks like.

i'm done for now. i'll try the picture thing again. see you soon. miss you all. 2 weeks to go.

from cortez, colorado

so we escaped from rawlins wyoming. what a disaster!. we get there and everything is cool, then they start predicting a snowstorm to start that night. so it did. the next morning there's maybe 3-4 inches of snow on the ground at 8 am. not bad, but it's supposed to get a lot worse and snow for several days. stuck in rawlins with the blizzrd blues again. they had closed I 8O east but we weren't interested in that, we wanted to go west on 80 for 25 miles and then take a state road south. then we heard that 80 west was closed. facing the prospect of being stuck there for days was very depressing. we got conflicting info over the next 2 hours from the internet and the tv and the telephone, so finally i said let's go see for ourselves. so we did. and it was open going our way. we left and had to deal with the icy snowy rt 80 for 25 miles, and then the state road for another 40 or so before we drove into the good weather in colorado. thank god.


Colorado National Monument video

so from the prospect of being snowed in at rawlins, we went to grand junction colorado, found an amazing park there, colorado national monument, that was like a mini grand canyon. lots of good photos. top down drive through the park, whiskey and cigars on the veranda after supper. it's a good life.

today we had to change the itinerary again because of snow in the high passes, 10k-11k feet. we didn't want to chance it, so we took an alternate route to cortez. found another great scenic drive, we had the road to ourselves, a little rain after a glorious morning, but more great photos. i can't seem to get them up here. but i'll keep trying.

tomorrow we head to mesa verde and then durango for 2 nights, then into new mexico for 3 days.


Mesa Verde N.P video

it feels like we've hit the far turn and are starting to head home. frankly, i can't wait to get home and back to the family routine and all. not that i'm having a bad time, not at all. but i wouldn't do this kind of trip this way again. too long and too many 1 night hotels; sometimes it feels like the only reason we're going somewhere is because we have a reservation there that night. don't cry for me argentina, i'm not looking for sympathy. i'm just saying hindsight is 20-20. so thanks to the nice people at best western in cortez, who are letting me use their office computer for free.

eroded stone cavity

on the road, sw colorado

erosion

930 pm, rawlins wy

i think i got one more picture up, but it won't let me do anymore. very frustrating, but i'll keep trying.

it's snowing like a bastard out there, just starting to stick on cars. tomorrow will be a very interesting day trying to get 200 miles south of here.


From Yellowstone, to the Grand Tetons, into Rawlins Wyoming video

STILL on the high plains

we're in rawlins wyoming. just a travel day today, down from jackson and the tetons. good day for laundry and catching up on bill paying and internet stuff, since it's actually free here. our drive today was still more sagebrush and not much else. crossed the continental divide again, third time now. snow is predicted here tonight, not much, maybe a couple of inches at most. change of plans decided on though. we were going to continue east then south into rocky mtn nat park. internet tells me that the main attraction, the ridge road at 12,000 plus feet is still closed for snow removal. so, we're going south tomorrow away from any snow, adding 2 days to durango colorado and 1 day to santa fe. that will give us about 2 1/2 full days to explore 4 corners area from the colorado side. and an extra day in santa fe. all of which promise better weather than our more northern route.

saw some more antelope and deer today, they were playing i think. and we saw quite a few buffalo roaming in yellowstone. and i think i only heard one discouraging word since we've been out here. and today at least since we left jackson, the skies are not cloudy all day. but i wouldn't want a home here. it's just too far from anything approaching civilization. it's gorgeous country and all, but it baffles me why people are living in some of the places we're been through. nj guy talking i guess.

crossed 5000 miles today in the car. getting our money's worth for sure.

les grands tetons

otherworldly, yellowstone

n cal coast

from jackson wyoming

dick cheney's home state, one of my favorites. well, it's been a few days, i only got one picture posted before the computer started effin up. sorry. i have lots more when i can get to a cooperative computer.

more high prairie in idaho. many miles more of fence posts, telephone poles, snow plow markers. sagebrush must be the most common plant form in the US. had to stop in mud city, idaho (not a made-up name). had to stop, as in jaca- had-to-stop. of course, in the gas station/cafe/post office/deli/pizzeria/bait & ammo store that we stopped, the lady at the cash register, right next to the bathroom doors, was the sister of the wicked witch of the west, and of course there was a sign on the mens room door saying out of order. so like it or not, i had to initiate a conversation with the witch, in my very agitated gastro-intestinal state, as to whether or not it would be okay if i used the ladies room. she nodded her approval. it all worked out in the end...


Yellowstone N.P. video, part 1

so yellowstone and teton parks both still have major road closures due to snow removal ongoing. it added some time and miles to our trip. the parks are amazing. i know i've used that word before but, that's what it is. you want animal sightings? wolf twice, this morning right in front of the car, i video'd him. moose this afternoon in teton. tons of elk and buffalo. yesterday when we saw them for the first time, it was like oh wow how cool is that, taking pictures and all. today, when we came upon about 30 buffalo in the middle of the road, i was cursing at them to get the hell out of the way. it's a metro nyc thing i guess.


Mammoth Hot Springs, Yellowstone video

yellowstone with all the thermal activity going on is as if we were neolithic man thousands of years ago and seeing what it was like for him. from our rented car of course.

the tetons, the GRAND tetons. named after women's breasts by explorers who were away from home and their women for who knows how long. they see these magnificent projections from the earth and think of womens breasts. i can relate. they are magnificent and mesmerizing to watch. just like... never mind, PG.

so tomorrow we are leaving the tetons for rawlins, and then into colorado the next day. we've turned the corner, we're on our way back south again. i miss everybody. sorry there's only one picture. i'll try to get some more up when i can.

sf icon, late afternoon

from ketchum idaho

hi all. well, 3 weeks of sunshine and going topless has come to an end. it's pretty cool here, drizzle on and off, and i'm afraid the week's forecast isn't very good, but what can you do? may be better for wildlife sightings if it's cloudy. so we crossed oregon over the last 2 days, a lot of high desert, it's really beautiful in a stark kind of no-frills way. a lot of sagebrush, some trees, not many. a lot of flat spaces in between the rolling hills. not really mountains. so which came first, the color "sage" on someone's pallette, or the plant?

i saw a ton of roadside crosses and flowers today and yesterday, all along the way, had to be 2 dozen easily over the 500 miles. these things are in the middle of nowhere. and it kind of made me sad that someone just expired out there on the road and no one (maybe) was around... and now someone else cares enough to drive out to the middle of nowhere and put flowers out there. true love, very sad.

on a funnier note. we went to the cemetery here in ketchum this afternoon to see mr hemingway's final resting place. we found it easily enough, small cemetery, big stone. right there, in the middle of the stone (it lays flat on the ground) right there above his name, some kind soul has left a pint of jack daniels. some things are more important in the after-life than others. whiskey surely must be one of them. we got a chuckle and documented it photographically. sorry, no way to post photos on this computer, you'll have to wait. afterwards, i was wondering if the intent was for visitors to have a shot with ernie, or not. surely that must be the intent. but we didn't go back and do it...


Hemingway Grave video

passed 4000 miles today, with a lot still to go. saw some more antelopes today near the road. local celebrities in this town include bruce willis, tom hanks, clint eastwood, demi and her young b/friend. it's really dead here, very very early spring, the town seems empty, we're totally out of season which is just fine.

the redwoods in humboldt were amazing, what large trees!! spectacular and awe-inspiring, make you feel small compared to nature sort of feeling. we also saw millions (no exaggeration) of wild flowers all the way up the northern california coast and into southern oregon, amazingly beautiful. besides the redwoods, there are beautiful eucalyptus and ponderosa pines.

i miss home badly, but like i said before, the sights are truly amazing. will try to get some more pix up as soon as i can.

mary hoagland, sorry i wasn't there. RIP.

see ya. miss you maria.

2nd night in sf cal

before i forget, i wish i had taken a picture of this sign when we were in the desert on I-10, here it is: 2 signs actually, one under the other. top sign real large font:

"CALIFORNIA STATE CORRECTIONAL INSTITUTION

EXIT 3

1/2 MILE"

second sign under it:

"DO NOT PICK UP HITCH-HIKERS

SF Bay video

ok, so today was a boat cruise this morning to see the golden gate bridge up close; a ride to sausalito over in marin county, very cool money town, kind of mediterranean-esque in that it sits terraced on a hillside over the water.


Marin County, Sonoma video

then out to sonoma, walked around the old town and saw the mission there; then to the marin cty headlands, the hills overlooking the golden gate bridge across from sf. great views of everything there. very high up.

tomorrow we're off to the north coast and redwoods for 2 days. don't know when i'll get a chance to get to a computer again, so here's a few new pix. thanks for reading. miss you guys!

Van Morrison Suite

Point Reyes video


Humboldt County Redwoods video


Across Oregon into Idaho video

capitan, yosemite

this is where the voices came from...

somewhat disconcerting

morro bay, remember maria?

big sur coastline

rambling thoughts

pictures are taking way long. i'll just ramble a while...on saturday we drove from monterey down to fresno. across the central valley. flat flat country. toatally devoted to agriculture. we drove through the garlic capital of the world, the artichoke capital of the world, and the raisin capital of the world. then we drove though an area with orange groves, i never smelled that before. wow, for miles it smelled like the cleanest and sweetest restroom you could ever walk into. it was crazy.

the sierra nevada mtns: first you see a dim very dim line across the sky, not even sure that it's really there. then you see a line of what might be clouds out above the horizon, a thin line of clouds, but again, you're not really sure what yo're seeing through the haze. then you get a little closer and like an image appearing out of the air, you see the line of clouds is actually the snow-capped peaks and ridges of these really big mtns. very cool.

there are flowers all over the place. it has been very rare that wherever we were, we didn't see any flowers. it is like the roads are lined with gold to show us the way. like paint splashes of a mad artist in yellows, oranges, blues, violets, reds, whites. beautiful!!. the foothills, covered in what looks like green velvet, dotted with chestnut brown or black cattle grazing the hillsides. and always the sky, blue, sometimes hazy, other times a deep azure. and the clouds, when they do appear, just add a little dramatic flair.

stellars jays. we've seen a few of them, irridescent blue in the sunlight, with their black ninja-hooded heads.

thanks to ADA and the handicapped people of the world. because of the laws passed to help them out, a somewhat fat, somewhat lazy person like myself can have easy access to some of the wonders of our national parks.

all across the central valley and into sequoia and yosemite, they have numbers for their roads. just little side roads and drives and avenues and streets. it's very starnge and shows a severe lack of creativity on the part of the founding civil engineers here. why do they have 632 street? 205 avenue? 390 road? please come up with some real names for these places.

breakfast yesterday in coarsegold california. just a little greasy spoon for our eggs and....
elvis singing "little sister" on the radio. that's for you ron.

solvang cal was nice, a danish town, very quaint, if not a little like stepford.

well i've rambled enough. this is a great trip, i'm seeing some amazing things and places, and it's something i've always wanted to do when i retired, and miguel is a fine companion. but it's kind of bittersweet without you here maria, it's just not the same....see ya down the road.

from sf cal

hi all, about to go meet emily for a drink or dinner. weather still phenomenal. sunshine every day, all day. going topless a lot. 3 days in southern california, venice beach, santa monica, universal studios, santa barbara, the mission there. HEARST CASTLE!! second time i've seen it and it really is worth a trip. american royalty. then up the big sur coast, stopped at a few places on the way - ragged point, nepenthe, julia burns pfeiffer park with the waterfall into the ocean! -took lots of photos. will try to get some on here.


Ragged Point video


Whale Watching at Ragged Point video


Yosemite video


Sierra Nevada Foothills

since the grand canyon almost 2 weeks ago, i would have to say the nicest most amazing thing was yosemite. the scenery there is just jaw-dropping. every curve in the road brings a new and gorgeous vista. another "has to be seen" stop for sure. the giant sequoias in sequoia nat. park weren't too shabby either. we saw the largest living organism on the earth, some humongous tree. saw some coyotes on the way out of yosemite, got them on video. no bears yet, damn.
hey! what's up with our effin yankees?? i stop watching them for a few weeks and they go to hell. let's go guys!
let's see if i can get some pix on here. later.

hearst castle

CaliFlowers, Hearst Castle, Big Sur Coast

california humor, i guess

santa barbara mission

Santa Barbara video

new pix!!

takes a long time, but here's a few new ones. leaving so cal tomorrow, off to santa barbara, then solvang. next day to san simeon and hearst. monterey, sequoia, yosemite, and san fran. see you monday, em.
see ya

wild "gil" hickock, my traveling companion

1st day sunburn, potential male hair model

a town that used to be

1st day out of las vegas...

from so cal

i guess the best thing i can say is that the weather has been fabulous, great driving weather, not hot, just right. since the last post, we went from sedona's red rocks, SW across arizona and crossed into california at I10. Highway Country 101.5 FM helping us along. quite a few flowers out in the deserts, which don't at all look like the sahara desert, lots of different plants, flowers, joshua trees. it might look a lot different by the middle of the summer, but right now it's real pretty. and BIG. the spaces out here are so BIG, compared to what we have in the NY metropolitan area, it's mind-boggling.


Welcome to California, On the Road, Joshua Tree N.P.

on saturday the 9th, we drove up to death valley junction, through joshua tree NP. very unusual looking trees, like something out of an ancient geological age. sorry, no pix. this computer won't let me do it. lots of wild flowers there too. the scenery driving through the desert with big mountains on your sides and in front of you was spectacular.


Amargosa Hotel & Opera House video

so then we arrive at the amargosa opera house and hotel in death valley junction. this is an entire story in itself. the only thing happening out there is the weather. the "opera" on sat nite was the most fellini-esque event i have ever personally attended in my life; and don't forget, we were young and crazy in the 70's...

Marta Becket's Masquerade
About this video: It is pretty long, almost 13 minutes.

i was able to video the show, and you'll see for yourselves what i mean. so after the show, we were starving, but all there was at the amargosa hotel was a vending machine with fritos. fritos and whiskey, in our dumpy room, weren't going to cut it. we asked around where was the nearest place to get something to eat at 930 pm, and we found out that 7-8 miles down the road in nevada, there was a casino. so we set off. when we got there, it was saturday night in amargosa valley, so there were lots of cowboy hats, and the women were in their best bluejeans. there was also musical entertainment at the bar: a guy about our age, and his female singing companion, 50-ish. he played an electric keyboard, actually 2 of them. they had some other instrumental parts in their laptop. it was exactly like the will ferrell SNL routine. it was worth a laugh, and at least we ate. miguel won a few dollars. what a surprise.

then there was the peacock. i'll leave that for another time.

so we decided to leave death valley a day early, especially since the highway we were going to enter the park on has been closed for repairs since an august flood. anyway, kind of a blowout, but the scenery made up for it.

so as i sit here in sherman oaks at kinko's, i think it's santa monica, venice beach and malibu tomorrow.

Venice Beach, Santa Monica video

then off to santa barbara and the wine country in the hills above it. the same area as the movie sideways was filmed in. weather report is still great for the rest of our week.

gas!! how about 3.19 for an effin gallon of gas! that was the most expensive, but it's been consistently 2.50 - 2.70. goddam bush and cheney and their friends in oil.

time to go. sorry i couldn't get any pix up, will try next time. bye everybody. miss you guys.
jh

3 pix

to show you a little bit. takes a long time to make these happen. will try again from next stop. enjoy...

from a cafe in sedona az

sorry it's taken me so long to get this in. we'll see about pix in a little while, for now, some impressions. today is friday, day 5.


Vegas video

las vegas: the strip, bigger than i pictured it; glitz; neon; under construction; tacky; went to the venetian, it's not italy but it's a beautiful fake. had a drink with kim that night. miguel won a few bucks as he always does. picked up our new (621 miles on it) chrysler sebring convertible. buzz and todd on the road.

leaving las vegas: tuesday morning. top down, Taj on the stereo, bright sunshine all over.

Joshua Tree Forest, AZ video

on the way to rt 66 in az, stopped in dolan springs and the joshua tree forest that's there. what a cool sight, miles after mile of these weird looking joshua trees, all up the mountains. a forest indeed. that afternoon, peach springs az. hualapai lodge, ownwed and operated by the local indian tribe, it actually sits on indian land. at the risk of being politically incorrect, i'm sure the translation for "hualapai" must be "paybacks are a bitch, white man". the hotel itself was fine, the problem was that a rr crossing was about 100 yds behind the hotel, and it was a very busy line. several times an hour, the bells would sound, then the train would pass through, blowing its horn three times, all night long. it wasn't funny. even a few JD's didn't help my sleeping that night. i got so sunburned with the top down that i thought for sure they would give me a discount when we checked in. no sun for me for the next couple of days. gas was 2.19 a gallon, not horrible.

day 3 wednesday: on the way to the grand canyon. it's really far from anywhere, but everything seems far from anywhere out here. BIG places, BIG spaces. first view of the grand canyon was just like i've read: it takes your breath away. no words, at least not mine, no pictures can do it justice. has to be seen to be believed. just the most enormous beautiful natural sight you could ever see.
elk munching the grass out back of the hotel, like 30 feet away. had a cigar and some JD outside at night.


Grand Canyon, Sedona video

thursday 4-7, grand canyon east rim to sedona az. east rim is maybe nicer than what we saw yesterday, less development, more open, less tourists. saw the painted desert from a distance, it really does look "painted", many colors: red, shades of rose, beige, light brown, and BIG. saw charcoal gray lava beds, who knows how old? huge areas covered in dark gray lava. sedona: worth a couple of days visit. red rocks all around. very similar to los mallos in riglos spain, but all over the place, every where you look there are these beautiful rock formations.


Montezuma's Castle, AZ

today: we leave sedona, heading sw across az to the border w california. staying tonight in ehrenberg az, next to the colorado river. tomorrow, into mohave desert and death valley. weather is spectacular so far.

i miss everybody a lot already. let's see if i can get some pix in here. later.....

it's not venice, but...

grand canyon

sedona red rocks

4th of july, monmouth junction nj

me and maria

just me

a couple of road trip pix from last year

so i'm slowly figuring out how to do this picture thing. not really very difficult, as you can see below. i guess when we're on the road, you just download your digital pix into this free website, and then publish them to your blog. i think i can do this. it would be so much better to be able to post a few pictures along the way, rather than me just foaming at the mouth here, so to speak...by the way, these 2 pix are matt's. thanks pal.

Champagne & lemon sorbet, mmmmmm

Matt, Miguel, me, Michael, Pamplona July 2004 It's 11am, must be time for champagne and lemon sorbet!! We're in some bar upstairs on the main square.

After dinner Patxaran in Pamplona, July 2004.
That's me, my son Michael, and our friend Matt. We're enjoying a drink after a fabulous dinner in Pamplona.

the sea inside, 'mar adentro' in spanish

no i'm not out on the road yet. but we went to see this movie yesterday. WOW. it has immediately jumped into my all-time favorite movies list. this is a story about a man in spain who when young, dove into the ocean and broke his neck. he was a quadripilegic the rest of his life. it is about the right to die when one chooses to do so voluntarily, given this type of extreme circumstance. it is supposed to be based on a true story. it is such a powerful movie that at the end of the movie not one person in the theater got up for several minutes. it grabs your emotions and does not let go. you become totally engrossed in the story of this man and his caring family and the friends around him. it is extremely well-acted, all the characters are very well done. it won the academy award for best foreign language file. it also won awards in europe i think. anyway, very very highly recommended viewing.

starting off

so this is my new blog. i'll try not to bore you with any extraneous bs. although, life is always more than it seems at any given moment. sometimes it's the little things that mean the most. you know the little corner of the big picture. kind of like the bosch painting. there's shit happening everywhere, not just where we're looking.

so as my brotherinlaw miguel and i go off on our trip to find america, i'll keep you posted. if i can figure this thing out, maybe we'll even get a few pix in the mix too. i suppose we'll find internet access in the places we go.
so if you're reading this, thanks. and you really should make better use of your free time...jh