ERT Day Two: The Muffler Man & 953 graves

An easy start today (On the road by 8:15, after filling up the gas tank).

The last of scenic rout 395, but worth a drive-through. Paused to take photos of the "Now Entering Nevada" sign. First state-line crossing of the trip :). Stopped on the way to Reno at a place called the Chocolate Nugget in Washoe city to take a photo of the Miner (one of those huge plaster men so beloved of old road-side stops). Then on into Reno.

Reno was worse than I expected. Traffic-y and torn-up from construction, it was such miserable going that I decided to skip getting lunch there (it was only 11:30 when I reached it, maybe?) and get lunch further on the road.

Fortunately this was not a catastrophic mistake (although it could be, if you are hungry and about to start down I-80, for the love of all that is holy, STOP AND GET SOMETHING TO EAT, vast swaths of I-80 are desolate, un-inhabited wastelands.

Aaand, according to the rest stop near the Carson Sink, it always has been so. Funny, because before I saw the signs at the rest stop I thought, "Gosh I hope no one ever tried to cross this place." Evidently LOTS of people did, and, as a result, LOTS of people (and animals) died.

Ohhh right, I thinks reading the sign, I've heard about the California Trail, I guess I just never heard about this particular part of the California trail. Desolate isn't even the word, it's almost grimmer than that. So little resources that even the rest-stop didn't have running water. Looking at the map I decided that there was as good a place as any to have lunch, so I dug in the cooler and grabbed my lunch and ate it at a table, then climbed back on the road.

There really wasn't much to see along I-80 except for afore-mentioned wasteland, so my next stop wasn't until Winnemucca, where I visited a charmingly tiny museum and stared in wonder at all the 50's style hotel & casino signs.

The road between Winnemucca and Elko prettied up some, climbing up into the mountains, taking on more character. So, though i'm quite tired, I have to say i'm still really enjoying my roadtrip. Let's hope I can keep it up a bit longer.

ERT Day One: Palmdale to, eh, somewhere more north than Palmdale

I'll go ahead and confess up front: I got a late start today.

Now, that doesn't mean that I did not get up at 5:30 a.m., because believe me, I did, but rather it means that I followed my brother into work around 6:30, got my oil changed, then called my Mum, who made me a cup of coffee. We sat around and chitty-chatted and then, i'd say around 9:45, THEN, coffee'd and fed, I climbed into the car, put on the Buffy compilation (a long-standing road-trip tradition in my family) and hit the road.

The 14, for the most part, was dead empty. Just me and the road and wide-open desert vistas. Naturally, just as I was hitting my grove there was road construction, but that couldn't be helped and, since the tunes were good, I could hardly complain.

First official stop of the day was a piss-break (naturally, two cups of coffee, what WAS I thinking?), which held a VERY good sign. A group of classical-car enthusiasts must be cruising 395, because there were perhaps twenty at the gas station filling-up, most appeared to fall in-between 1920 & 1950, but i'm crap at cars, so I can't say for sure.

I will say that it was a fine gathering of stunning vehicles. I snapped a few photos, which I would happily upload here, if my connection here at the hotel were such that it would allow me.

For the moment, it is nothing so sophistocated, it turns out.

Anyway, the first PLANNED stop of the day was at Fossil falls. I like fossil falls a lot for a lot of reasons:

1) It's a good place to get out and do an easy leg-stretch.
2) Snakes can sometimes be easy to find here.
3) I just love the worn-down volcanic rock at the actual 'falls' itself.

So, I did the easy hike out, snapped a few photos, then hiked back to the car and then back to moving. I like driving through the sierras, something about the jagged-jawbone of the mountains just does it for me. Unfortunately viewing was at a low, since there must be a fire somewhere (or perhaps a controlled burn?) because there was a heavy pall of smoke in the air throughout the drive.

Next official stop was, naturaly, Schat's bakery in Bishop home of one of the best pastrami sandwiches i've ever eaten, some amazing apple-cinemon pull-apart bread aaaaaand macarons that have to be tasted to be believed. Anyway, after a few brief stops in Bishop (needed to pop into the bank), I hit the road again and decided I wanted to see Mono Lake.

After Bishop the air improved considerably, allowing for excellent views of the surrounding mountains and valleys and for perfect weather at Mono-lake.

The alkali-flies (I believe that is what they are called...) were out in force. They really are the weirdest fly ever. They just swarm away from you, never buzzing up higher than your knee, just dodging away and landing again in a little buzzing flurry. The California gulls like to plow into dense areas of them, their heads held low and beaks open, trying to snap-up a mouthful of them before they swarm out of its way.

Having watched this for a bit I can say that it appears that the fly is much faster than the gull, the main part of the swarm always just ahead of it, parting like the red sea.

It was a bit too windy on the lake to watch the fresh water bubbling up beneath the salt like oil, but that's okay, it was so pleasant to walk around the tufa domes and watch the gulls and grebes that I didn't feel cheated in the least.

From there more "gosh isn't this pretty" and to here, where i've settled in early, admitting defeat to the extraordinarily small amount of sleep I got last night. The city I am in is really pretty and was worth a nice wonder-around taking photos.

And so for now, dear readers, that is all you get.

Caution: Leaving your house is dangerous

But if you don't leave it, you'll miss a lot of truly marvelous things. I shall be leaving it today and venturing forth into the wilder part of the world for but a short time (three weeks). I shall see you all upon my return with plenty of photos to post.

To keep you company, here's a couple of Tolkin quotes I keep in my journal:

Remember what Bilbo used to say: It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to.

“The Road goes ever on and on down from the door where it began. Now far ahead the Road has gone, and I must follow, if I can, pursuing it with eager feet, until it joins some larger way where many paths and errands meet. And whither then? I cannot say.”

Cat's Paw

I am in the habit of sitting on the sofa in my office when I'm going to veg (or work for that matter) on the laptop for a few hours. Something about the height of my desk vs. the height of my chair hurts my knees (dangly feet syndrome, allllllll shorties get it, you know you do!). Anyway, as he is wont to do, Bob came over and curled up next to me on the sofa and that's when I noticed it.

Mr. Face's back feet were both encrusted with cat-liter. Like...hard-core. I can only imagine such a thing happened thusly:

1) Abbey took a shower.

2) Bob (being the weirdest cat in the world) climbed into the wet bathtub to lick the dripping water from the faucet and shower curtain (I have asked the vets about this, it's as much a mystery to them as it is to me. Bob is a strange creature, and yes, before you ask, there are two giant water bowls in the house, both completely full. Bob prefers the dog's water bowl to his own though, oddly enough...).

3) Bob, who now had wet paws from being in the shower, decided it was time to go visit the loo and, presto, crusty feet.

Anyway, the point is this: They were crusty and it needed to come off, because that was looking like infection city.

So, I ask Charles to help me pin the cat while I scrub at his foot with a wet towel.

This....was not Bob's favorite thing in the world. Charles gets scratched and the cat goes off thinking we are picking on him again (also, he may never trust us again when we start using the weedle-Bob voice).

So Charles makes the mad suggestion: Let's fill the bottom of the bathtub up with nice, warm water and then toss the cat it. His feet'll get soaked, it'll loosen up all that clay, and then we can rub him down and get most of it off.

Well, I didn't have a better idea so said sure, why the hell not. So, I fill the tub with two inches of lovely warm water, we tempt the cat into the bathroom with treats and the weedly-Bob voice and shut the door behind him. Then I pick the cat up and, very gently, set him down feet-first in the water.

And...Bob does nothing. He stands still, then starts to try to walk to the other end of the bathtub (not in a panicky way, just in a casual cat way) but when he realizes that that way lays more water he just assumes this peculiar stiff-legged stance and stays put. I'm not kidding, the cat stood, willingly (I just had my hand gently on his back to encourage him to stay that way and keep him calm) for I'd say three minutes. Then we let him jump out, scrubbed his foot off (we'll probably have to do the other paw again tonight) and let him go.

He seems to already be in the process of forgiving me.

But let me just point out that my cat DID NOT FREAK OUT. What the hell sort of cat doesn't wig when it ends up in water?

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying I want him to wig. I'm just saying he's an odd cat. We'll put this in his "weird things Bob will do" column, right under "lovin'-up on the dog."

Can't sleep the clowns will get me...

So, on the agenda for tomorrow: Attend Greek Orthodox morning service as part of class project, fret about Steam Expo next weekend, finish Moby Dick, fret about Steam Expo next weekend, write some papers for my classes, fret about Steam Expo next weekend, make supper, fret about Steam Expo next weekend, find myself unable to eat said supper because I'm fretting about Steam Expo next weekend.

Is it over yet? AGH!

I'm sure I'll have a charming time, and if I'm not having a charming time, I'll bone out, go visit the museum and spend the evenings writing long, boring pages of prose.

Still no sign of Amber.

Fear Bowl

When my father was stationed in Kuwait he spent a lot of time (without the government's knowledge, I'm sure) with the bedouin tribes. When he was leaving, one of the tribesmen he had become close to gave him a gift, an engraved silver bowl.

My father told me it was called a Fear Bowl. Inside, in Arabic, was engraved words of love and calming copied out from the Koran. The idea was that if you were in doubt, or afraid or confused, you took this bowl to an oasis or someplace quiet, you filled it with fresh, cold water and you read the words inscribed. When you were done, you drank the water and then Allah would take your fears and doubts away and, sometimes, inspire you with an answer to your troubles.

I could really use a Fear Bowl today.

After a short delay, ADVENTURE! (Okay, not adventure, exactly...)

So in case you missed, my two beloved readers, this is how my day started.

My flight was originally supposed to depart LAX and be on its merry way to Denver International at six a.m. on the nose. Which means we woke up at 2:30 to be on the road at 3:30 for a five o'clock check-in, giving one plenty of time to pick up a hot cup of Starbucks and one of those suddenly difficult to find Cinnabons.

Alas, this was not how it went. How it really went is we checked in at five o'clock and then spent two hours standing in the security line and then were told to hoof it at double-speed to the other side of the airport or risk a flight miss-hap. To add to the charming situation they decided not to inform us (the passengers) why we were being held-up for two hours. So we were standing looking at the TSA line, which was filed with employees who were looking hyper alert in the opposite direction of us. This made for a line of grumpy people with no sense of when our purgatory would end.

I think that if one has to stand around for that long without anything happening the least they could do is to make the flight twice as exciting. Instead what it was was the usual dull routine flight.

One Upside: Bose noise canceling headphones (a christmas gift from my husband not yet tried out for their intended purpose) not only made the relentless airplane drone go away but turned the screaming baby across the aisle from me into a mime at the flick of a switch.

This is the only way to fly, remind me to do something nice for my husband.

So, after two-and-a-half hours of Wait Wait...Don't Tell me! which I cleverly had saved up for this occasion we arrived in Denver and collected our bags.

Things to like about Denver International Airpot:

1. They play little country jingles when the train arrives and departs and when the doors open and close. Perhaps less practical than the Underground's signature "beepbeepbeep," to warn one of moving parts, but infinitely more amusing in a sleep addled state.
2. The baggage claim terminal has a peculiar peaked, canvas roof. Something about it is completely mesmerizing.
3. It had a separate up-right baggage claim for skis. I'd never seen one of those before. I found it tres amusant! Also, it's been ages since I was that tempted to do something that would get me arrested on the spot.

Things to give you pause about Denver International Airport:

1. In the event of a tornado: go to the bathroom! No, seriously. The restrooms were also designated tornado shelters.
2. The DIA airport personnel uniform: Jeans, a denim shirt, a tan vest, a cowboy hat and cowboy boots. Need I say more?
3. Two words: cowboy chips. (the issue might make more sense if you've grown up on a farm.)

Soo...I don't know what I expected Colorado to look like, but what I've seen is not what I expected at all. This part of Colorado (which is to say, the area around Denver) basically looks like the desert I just left, except all the interesting plants (Joshua Trees, Creosote bushes, cactuses etc.) are gone. And in place of them is just lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of grass and flat fields.

Which is great! I love big sky country, it's what I'm used to. Honestly, sometimes being in a forest makes me feel a bit claustrophobic. But what it did instill in me was a sudden vision of what the first few weeks of my Epic Road Trip (The ERT, if you will) are going to consist of.

Mental Note: Buy more audio-books for ERT.

Things to like a lot about Colorado: I was in the state proper for approximately thirty minutes when I saw my first prairie dog.

Life is sweet.

Right-o. I'm done havering on.

Tomorrow on the schedule: panels on writing in the child's voice, writing flash fiction and mixing folklore into your fiction.

Then I've got a long list of grad schools to chitty-chat with.

Mooore testing!

YAY! Just learned how to publish photos on here using the HTML and linking it back to my flickr.

I told everyone I was computer inept...

I iz lerning kiwk tho, rite?

Jungle road, Panama

Jungle road, Panama
Originally uploaded by wickedundertoe

Discovered today that I never took the photos from my Panama trip off my camera.

So, here is a photo from Pipeline road in Panama. It was hot, humid and buggy and soooooo cool I'd trade my eyeteeth to go back again.

Right-O then

Sooo...

Thought it might be nice to have a blog up-and-running so that when I'm on the road I can, you know, write about it.

Also, when was the last time I had an actual blog? It was a long time ago...a long, long, long time ago.

I'm far more interesting now.

Probably.

Maybe.

The Winter Adventure Hat

abbeyhat
Originally uploaded by wickedundertoe

Everyone needs a wooly hat to keep their ears warm, right?

Yes, this is me just testing this whole flickr to blog thing.

And also the blog thing.

Why am I doing this again?

Please Hold

While the blog you are looking for is created :D