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.