Phound Photos

I finally looked at my SD card from Hawaii and the cross-country drive and stumbled across a few other shots that I like. 

Moon-rise over Manua Kea.

Some photos from the cross-country drive:

Dylan looking at corn fields, 80mph.

Sunset in Nebraska.

 

Dylan at scenic overlook.

Picking burrs off of Dylan's face after he hunted field mice.

Manifest Destination

Last Thursday, we made it to Seattle after a fun four-day cross-country drive.  If you're ever driving cross-country with a pet, you'll be happy to know that all Motel 6 locations are pet-friendly.  You can, of course, find other places that are nicer and more expensive but it's comforting to know that this ubiquitous chain is there and will take you in for a modest little price.  Depending on where you stop, you might have to contend with their progressive, hard-hitting "No Smoking" campaign designed to stop anyone from even thinking of lighting up in the room.

What deters smoking more than an overturned ashtray with a sticker on the bottom?

Hard to say ... an in-room lighter, maybe?

Mostly, we drove 12-hours a day with exception of the 3rd day when we drove a leisurely 7 hours into Salt Lake to visit Big Mike, my college buddy, and his lady. We took in an outdoor concert, had a great time catching up with the two of them, and enjoyed the break from the highway. The next day, we woke, had breakfast, and pressed on from SLC into Washington.  Along the way, we stopped at a great overlook near Pendleton to drink in the horizon and let Dylan harass some field mice.

After a brief stay at my apartment near campus, Winning Run and I headed to Seattle to prepare for moving her into the apartment.  I knew that she'd like the place but it's pretty cool, if tiny.  A few blocks away is a great park on the shores of Lake Union with great views of downtown, loads of people flying kites, and plenty of seaplane watching.  Compared with the weather we left in Atlanta (100 degrees, 1000% humidity), the climate here is amazing (early morning temp in the 50s, afternoon high in the mid-80s).  Dylan loves it.

More pics:

 A windswept rest area in Wyoming.

Overlook near Pendleton, WA.

Dylan in the morning.

Dylan in the afternoon.

Cool kite at sunset.

All in all, it's pretty nice to be in a big city again.  I love the energy of it and the people in it.  After a year with my wife and dog on the opposite side of the country, I can tell you that having them in the same time zone feels like I've pulled off a coup.  It's freaking amazing.

Next, I'm off to move into my apartment and to hear about Winning Run's first day at hear new job.

Good Morning, America, How Are Ya?

In the immediate aftermath of finishing summer semester and passing my finals, I had little time to revel in the joy of officially becoming a second-year student.  Instead, I had to pack my things, move them out of my apartment, and get them into storage before I left for vacation.  As I abhor moving, it was only natural that I'd be spending the majority of my summer break moving myself into a new apartment, then going home and moving my wife across the country to Seattle. 

After an endless week, I managed to shove the last bits of my things (mostly the remaining 300 rolls of toilet paper from a Costco pack) into the storage bin and get the hell to Seattle onto a plane to Hawaii for a week of R&R with my wife's family.  I cannot explain how amazing it was to actually be in the same place as my wife for more than 48 hours.  Good stuff, indeed.  Two vacation shots:

Moon rise from the Joint Astronomy Center at Mauna Kea.

 

Waterfall at our lodging near Hilo.  

Swimming was great but the water was frigid.

After the vacation, I returned to ATL to help empty our house and, once more, drive across the country.  In case you didn't know, the housing market sucks for sellers and we were beginning to really freak out at the prospect of having an empty unsold house.  A few days before we left, however, we found some tenants for our place...big sigh of relief.  The rest of the time, we spent on the "Winning Run 2010 Farewell Tour" seeing friends, visiting family, and eating and drinking too much. 

We began our drive on the 11 JUL with our dog and hope to be in Seattle by the 15th.  Yesterday, we drove 700 miles and have stopped in central Missouri.

 

 Gateway to the West.

I gotta say that it's pretty damned strange and a little unnerving to be in a motel with your dog.  In good guard dog fashion, he's barked occasionally at strange noises which is followed by pleading cries of "Shh!!!! No bark!!!!" by the two of us.  Guess it's not like the first night in any hotel is ever restful, I suppose.

#1 Dad

This afternoon, I put my dad on the shuttle back to Seattle for his flight. On my drive back to the craphole, I fought back tears. After arriving, I managed to wallow in my own homesickness for a little while. Holy shit, I was one step away from watching "Of Mice and Men." That would've been happy-go-lucky. Anywho, it made me reflect on the past week.

On our cross-country drive, we were listening to The Moth podcast. A woman was telling a story about her mother and made the comment that "parents are so much more forgiving of their children than children are of their parents." It stuck with me and made (makes) me want to be a better son, to be more patient with them, and the like because no matter how old you get, you're always their child and, if you're lucky, the beneficiary of their unconditional love.

At this point in my life, I've lived away from home for as long as I ever lived at home. Since I left for college, this road trip has been the longest time me and dad have spent together by ourselves. It was a pretty fun drive, I must say. It was pretty damned cool seeing dad excited, like a little kid on a family vacation drive. If I had a dollar for every time he called my name and pointed to something he saw on the freeway, I'd be a rich man. It's nice to see your folks full of wonder.

Checking out St. Louis from the arch.

Snapping shots of the "fireball dropping out of the sky."

Studying the roadside, getting ready to point out something.

I suspect that, in part, this trip was something that Dad really wanted to do as an adventure. I also suspect that the equally important reason was that he was the family ambassador sent by Mom to come with me on this journey, to lay eyes on me and this strange new town so many miles away, and to once again turn me loose to the world.

I am lucky.

You Have Died of Dysentery

Friday, we woke and started final leg of the trip with promises that we'd be in-bed and well-fed early in the night. It seems like all week long, we ended up driving really late and going to bed hungry. In retrospect, it seems like more punishment than was necessary but, at the very least, dad was a great sport about it.

The stars of the show.

On reaching Oregon, we were constantly amazed by the scenery, the mountains, and the farmland. At one point, the highway rounded a mountain and opened into an utterly staggering vista before dropping for six miles at a six percent grade. Once more, the descent was harrowing in a moving truck towing a car. Dad and I both got a chuckle out of the fact that my mom would've been absolutely unglued had she been in the car with us.

Click on the image to enlarge it.
No matter the size, it won't do it justice.

Best Rest Stop in the Country: Weatherby, OR
In dire need of "rest," we stopped at a rest stop in Weatherby, Oregon. After narrowly avoiding ruptured bladders, we wandered about the place and read about the Oregon Trail (the real one, not this one) which passed through those very mountains...with horse-drawn wagons...a hundred and sixty years ago. Ridiculous.

The next time you get pissed that you have no bars on your mobile phone in the middle of nowhere, think of a family spending six days trying to navigate one single stinking mountain while watching loved ones die. We're sissies every one of us.

View from the rest stop at Weatherby, Oregon.
Dad was checking out the educational signs.

He Was Right
A few rest stops we bumped into some folks that, evidently, were traveling the same route. They were the grungy, black-clad, dread-locked, pierced hippies. Dad walked by them on the way to the can. On returning he says, " Sax was right, they are dirty hippies. That girl had dirt and grime all on her elbows. She stank." Classic.

Arrival and the Great Underwhelming
At about 3:30pm on Friday and 2682 miles after starting, we pulled into the apartment. Did I mention that I rented it sight-unseen? Did I mention that it was half of a duplex, the other half of which is occupied by four female second-year med students? Did I mention that I was hopeful that it would be great?

To say that I was underwhelmed would be a fantastic understatement. To say that I simultaneously wanted to choke the shit out of the landlady and weep with frustration would be getting warmer. The place was dirty, strewn with dead insects (beetles or something, not roaches). The kitchen has a terrible drop ceiling with plastic lighting tiles. It has about 17 bazillion light switches that control something non-intuitive. It has a pair of metal exterior doors in the middle of the living room wall that lead into the other apartment. It has teal effing carpet with matching cheap-ass honeycomb paper blinds. It has the DSL modem and wireless router for the girls on the other side. It has the mailbox where all the mail for the duplex is delivered. It has a 1/5 share of all the bills for the duplex but no untilities of its own. It has a toilet that constantly runs. It has a garage that can easily accommodate a 16-foot moving truck and, I assume, an RV.

It does not, however, have a happy tenant. I'm not unpacking just so that I can entertain the notion of moving the hell out of here after Winning Run arrives on Tuesday. Wish me luck and patience.

Salty Lake and Potatoes

Yesterday, we finally made it out of Wyoming following a stay at a motel in Green River and a breakfast with the weirdest waitress ever. She looked like she'd just come from a fight club boxing match and answered "You Betcha" to everything with a saccharine sweet laugh.

Another wind farm in Wyoming.
Notice the truck near the base of the turbine in the foreground.

We headed into Salt Lake City to visit with Big Chief Mike, a friend from college. Driving into the city, we headed down a few steep grades. When we finally got to Mike's place, smoke was still coming off the brakes of the truck which was a little disconcerting. During lunch, I phoned the roadside assistance to bring a new tire because we'd noticed an increasing bounce in the front. When the guy showed us the tire, it had worn clean through to the tread. He told us it was a good thing that we called when we did because he didn't think we would've made it too much farther on that one. So, we got to visit Mike with the ability to stop and without having my things scattered all over the highway courtesy of a high-speed blowout. I feel like a winner.

After a fantastic lunch that Mike had whipped up, we headed out and, after an eternity, made it to the north side of Boise, Idaho. Today, we've got around 500 miles to get into Yakima. Hopefully, it'll be uneventful.

States Covered
Wyoming, Utah, Idaho

Through the Arch and Into the Plains

On Tuesday, we crossed into Missouri and decided to stop at the Arch. I have to admit, it was larger and much more interesting than I thought. We searched for a parking space and decided to take a break, walk over to it, and ride to the top.

Approaching the St. Louis Arch.

For the record, if you are the least bit claustrophobic do not even think about riding the trams to the top of the arch. Imagine being stuffed into a coffin with four other people and making a slow ascent 600 feet up a metal arch. It was pretty cool but maybe a little unsettling.

Dad about to get into the tiny coffin-sized tram to the top.

After leaving St. Louis, we headed up to Lincoln, Nebraska to visit with my dad's first cousin. It was pretty nice to meet him and the rest of the Nebraska family and to see my pop so excited to just hang out with someone.

Corn is King
Driving west through Nebraska, one thing becomes readily apparent: corn is king. Unless you live in the heartland, you really have no idea about the scale of the farms in this country. By the way, I don't pretend to have a great idea from only driving through a few states but I will say that it's staggering. In western Nebraska, corn seemed to give way to wheat. Amber waves, indeed.

Wyoming is Big
We were pretty amazed at how the topography changes pretty quickly after entering Wyoming. Plains change to rocky, rolling hills. You climb some hills and descend into an enormous plateau. Hell, at one point, we drove absolutely straight for about 10 miles before a tiny curve in the road. Our country is enormous. The terrain is pretty cool and you eventually tire of seeing so damned many antelope just grazing, grazing by the highway.

A monument to Lincoln on the Wyoming Roadside.

The plains of Wyoming.

Storm cloud and the setting sun.

Dad shooting the sunset.

The Green Initiative
In addition to being awed by the vast emptiness of the state, we marveled at the wind farms that we crossed. On television, the turbines look big but that pales to being near them. The photos don't do justice because there isn't really anything to determine the scale or the distance and I didn't have a lens wide enough to get the hundred or so into a single shot. They're pretty damned cool.

Wyoming wind farm.

Another view.

The Gas Miracle
Our fuel was running low as we neared Laramie. Somehow, we didn't exit the freeway because we thought there was one more exit for the town. With fuel dwindling, we hit the Garmin for info on the nearest fuel station and headed west toward it. The fuel light came on as we approached the abandoned gas station. Luckily, there were a couple of guys there working.

"How far to the nearest fuel?," Dad asked.

"Which direction?," the weathered guy replied.

"West."

"80 miles," he said with almost no expression.

"How about east?"

"20 miles."

"Okay, thanks."

Dad and I looked at each other uneasily and headed back toward Laramie.

"Hope there are three gallons in the tank," dad said.

"Me, too."

On the ride back, we drafted an semi to conserve fuel and lamented that it was uphill most of the way. Personally, I used my Jedi mind trick to keep that damned truck moving. The twenty minutes back was silent and tense. Inside 10K, I knew that I could run back to the station for fuel and began to rest. After an eternity, we coasted down the hill into the gas station, sighed with relief, and laughed a bunch.

We put 32.1 gallons of fuel into a 32-gallon tank. Close one.

States Covered
Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Wyoming

The Man of Metropolis Steals Our Hearts

Boy, leaving is ridiculously tough. I'd done pretty well in getting ready and telling most of my friends goodbye. As expected, I got really emotional when I was leaving Winning Run and absolutely blubbered when I said goodbye to Dylan.

At the truck rental place, I was pulling the car onto the car carrier when dad and the rental guy started dancing around and yelling at me to stop. Turns out the trailer wasn't connected to the truck and had come unhitched with me on top of it. Awesome.

We stopped for the night just outside of St. Louis and will aim for at least Lincoln, NE to stay with dad's cousin. Fun stuff.

My finger is still bleeding from the nailbed and is unusable; unloading should be interesting. I'll post pictures later with forewarning for the gore.

Highlight: the giant Superman statue in Metropolis, IL.

Truth, justice, and the American way.

Handy camera work from a perfect stranger.
(Not Balki.)

States covered: Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois.