i just went and saw charlie and the chocolate factory for the second time. i will always be a huge fan of the first one, but wow wow wow.

did i hear from mel or someone else that the squirrels are real? and really trained? craziness.

i also stuffed myself full of vietnamese eggrolls, which i shall soon be sad to not be able to eat. after last night’s tex-mex extravaganza, i’m feeling a bit overfed. much like augustus gloop. heh.

i also picked up my own copy of napoleon dynamite at best buy. i think i will need to send a copy to both of my brothers, too. heh heh. other movie acquisitions include a copy of the new live-action cutey honey, compliments of mel and dwain, who, knowing my adoration of cutey honey, felt that i deserved their copy, and they’ll get a new one. yay!

i’m feeling the need to purchase music as well, but didn’t have my list on me while driving past best buy today, so did the movie thing instead. it was a great moment in sharon consumerism, really. i usually avoid best buy, but i was “shopping,” having already gone to el burrito for mexican food supplies, and hmong abc for a few books. i was thinking about hitting the indian food store on central for some instant palak paneer, but decided to drive past the source instead, and ended up at best buy. didn’t stop at the source at all. don’t need any new games or comic books. had to convince myself of that fact while riding past. eek. when sharon consumerism is bad, it’s bad.

right. i’m babbling, and a cat is awaiting my attention, none too patiently.

well. here i am back in st. paul. interesting to find the feigal-stickle clan gone. they are at the cabin. i think it’s damn funny how determined minnesotans are to call their lake homes “cabins.” they’re cabins like a yacht is a rowboat. anyway, i find them not here. and really, that’s for the best. i am SICK TO DEATH of people. ok, small talk, really.

if one more middle aged, t-shirt and baseball cap wearing, yuppy in a station wagon with child seat in the back makes a stupid comment about how much nicer it must be for me riding now that it’s cooled off, i’m going to stab him in his fucking playstation belly. no, moron, it’s not actually nicer. i’m freezing my ass off. when it’s hot, i’m going very very fast. i hardly notice. when it’s cold, i wear all my clothes under my jacket, and i’m still cold, and i’m all stiff both with cold and too many layers, which makes my body hurt. so, no… it’s not nicer. i’m not happy at all.

i can’t find my good knife. no, i haven’t lost the cool spyderco one that hangs around my neck, nor the two itty bitty ones my dad and brother gave me. but i lost the actual useful one. the one that makes me feel like a bad ass. no, as you may recall, it’s not big either, but i know how to use it. 🙂

the last couple of days have been rotten. did i mention that??? everything after the top of logan pass in glacier national park was rotten. pretty much. i mean, there were good moments, but they didn’t last.

border crossing was the worst. i will save that for another time. apparently, flickr tells me i can’t upload anymore photos without paying for an upgrade. so perhaps i’ll wait and see if matt can help me with adding photos without using flickr. it sure was easy with flickr. too bad. but i’m cheap, and don’t want to pay.

not that border crossing had any pictures. and i’m wondering if that’s where i lost my knife. but the guy there said all my knives were still there, and i guess i believed him. anyway…

since there are lots of things to share about this trip, i will do it as i’m in the mood to. that means they won’t be in any particular order. just whenever i feel like typing for a little while.

drank margaritas tonight at bar abilene with mel and dwain. said hi to luke and jonny. remembered what it’s like to be around friends, after a couple of days of horridness. did i mention all the white people in eastern montana and north dakota are horrid???

they are. i’ll explain later. the story has to do with the oregon trail. trust me.

hi!

last night, lynn joined me for a night at symes hot springs hotel in hot springs, montana. it was a good time, and we soaked in the waters a lot. it was super cool that she was able to join me! (hi, lynn… i’ll know you will read this! i hope your drive home was pleasant!)

waking up really sucks sometimes, but fortunately they have an espresso bar at the symes, so i indulged right away before getting on the road. at the moment, i am about to start the going to the sun road through glacier national park.

this area of montana (if you ignore ugly cities like kalispell and columbia falls) is absolutely beautiful. the ride has been fantastic. it makes me want to buy land in elmo, overlooking flathead lake, which is gorgeous. matt, that’s where we were taking all those pictures last time.

the people at the welcome to canada stand here think i should be allowed into and out of canada, but to check with the u.s. customs people at the border before entering. so, if i manage to find internet, my next post may be from canada.

i don’t have time to check my email, so …

matt, if you read this, i love you!! see you in a couple of days. and could you call your folks and tell them i should be in by friday night? thanks.

well, it’s been a good couple of days. i’m at my friend lynn’s apartment in seattle now. i should be sleeping, but i’m clearly not. the computer was here, and i felt i should use it while i can.

yesterday, after hanging out with family for the morning and early afternoon, i went up to see nathan in olympia. we went first for pizza, which was delicious, although the gas i had all night and the next morning afterwards from all the roasted garlic was horrendous. hell, i just showered and put on my pajamas a few minutes ago, and my pajamas still smell like fart. nasty.

after pizza, we went for beers and had a great time chatting in… um, i’ve forgotten the name of the bar (and the pizza place). damn. nathan, if you actually read this, you could supply the information in a comment. then, deciding we’d been talking music and movies for a while and needed to listen/watch, we went back to his place. we stopped for beer and candy on the way home.

included in weirdnesses: talking to voices from the past on the phone. i am NOT good at talking on the phone, but it was sure cool to speak with chris schluter, chris lytle and erik felch. it’s been a FUCK OF A LONG TIME. and to hear news of some of the other people who make up so many of my major teenage memories. what if we all really get back in touch? that’d be really fantastic.

nathan showed me sealab 2021 and napoleon dynamite. both very cool. and i loved all the geek rap (mc chris, etc.) and also the… crap, i really liked it… neat covers of old movie theme songs. and kompressor. very very cool.

finally could barely keep my eyes open.

today, noon, headed up to seattle. poor dusty, was SO sleepy when i got here. we went for YUMMY mexican food, then took the bus into capitol hill. we had a great time wandering around, and i showed him where lynn and i used to live on 12th and yesler. but the sun eventually got to me, and we went back to his place, where i completely zonked out for a while. dusty finally had to revive me from my sun-induced stupor with some rallying games of tetris and then… a back rub! damn, i needed that! (super thanks again, dusty!!)

also, he played some mc paul d… (shit, forgot again) for me. nathan, take note, if you read: dusty also likes weird ass geek rap. he also needs friends in the seattle area. cool guy, great taste in music, unfortunately living with boring roommate in fucking bellevue. know anyone to hook him up with, interest-wise?

around 9pm, lynn called, ready to roll. i headed to her place, and she and ryan and i went for coffee (decaf for me… i NEED to sleep). it is great to be here.

dusty, if you can do lunch tomorrow at around 1pm, lynn and i will join you. she’s busy until about then, so i thought i’d hit the market until lunchtime, and invited her along. i’ll call you in the morning too. i only mention this here because i know you’re probably up all night messing around on the internet, and might actually read it.

tomorrow night i’ll be at alicia’s. tuesday morning i head for hot springs, montana. YAY!!! relaxing sulphur water so nice and hot, under a huge, star-filled sky!!

until later…

and this is me with my brother and family:

jack, glesy, orin and karsten.

in front of their new house.

hi everyone…

having a great time. this is me and dad last night on his patio. we slept out there last night and the stars were beautiful. the buildings you see down there are where the farm i grew up on was. so this is the lincoln creek valley.

yesterday was very nice. i spent the morning helping jack move furniture from dad’s old barn to his house in town, then went to olympia to visit with nathan for a couple of hours. then back to jack’s for dinner, then out to dad’s to sleep.

dad’s fire station has a pool table now, so dad and i took a ride up the valley and played a few games of pool. i’m ashamed to say that i lost 2 out of 3. but all the games were pretty close, at least.

i’m back at jack and glesy’s now. my other brother kyle is here and they’re all working on the garage. i’m mostly getting in the way, but it’s nice to hang out with everyone.

unfortunately, i won’t be able to make it down to portland. i’ll be heading north instead.

well, i’m going to go and check my email now. more sometime.

it’s amazing. as many road trips as i’ve taken, and i continue to be amazed. it just stretches and stretches. and so much of it is incredibly beautiful.

i’m at my brother’s house. jack and glesy have two boys, my nephews: orin and karsten. orin is almost 2 years old and cute cute cute. and a bit crazy. karsten is just a few months old and really really chubby. he looks like a little smiling buddha. for some reason, jack’s computer is not wanting to read my camera, so i don’t have any pictures today. sorry. i’ll try from my dad’s house tomorrow night.

so, staying at mike’s house was WEIRD. i took a picture of his house, but it just doesn’t do it justice. it’s several miles outside of riverton, wyoming. it sits on a dirt road next to a junkyard. he has a lot of land, and it’s mostly high mountain desert. scrubby. the house itself is decorated on the outside with various animal skulls and interesting sticks, etc. the inside is… extremely messy. i wouldn’t have been surprised to see rats. really. he has buffalo skins on the walls and floors. a knife collection sitting on a shelf. an old sheet acting as a non-slip pad in the shower. dirty dishes on the living room floor. a cooler instead of a fridge.

anyway, it was fun hanging out with him. in the morning he made me breakfast and then showed me around the property. then i took off. i headed north into the grand tetons and then yellowstone. wow.

the grand tetons are beautiful. they just appear out of nowhere, and before you enter the park part, you can ride as fast as you like on wonderfully curvy roads. ah, the joy.

yellowstone was much as i remembered it, although much of the forest that had been destroyed by forest fire many years back has grown in much better now. i was there last time 16 years ago. i got really lucky, and got to old faithful just a couple of minutes before it was scheduled to blow. i stood there with some other bikers i’d met at a previous stop, and we all took pictures of one another while we chatted and watched the geyser blow. then i headed out of the park, west, again on 20.

speaking of which, a quick guide to my trip by map.

DAY ONE: i took 169 south out of minneapolis through MINNESOTA and IOWA, to sioux city, where i got onto US route 20 into NEBRASKA. the first night i camped in valentine, nebraska, at 523 miles.

DAY TWO: out of valentine, i continued on 20 into WYOMING, until it met up with route 26, which i took to riverton, wyoming, at 1056 miles.

DAY THREE: out of riverton, northwest on 26 into grand tetons national park then yellowstone national park, where i met up with route 20 again, and entered MONTANA, then IDAHO. got a cheap motel room in arco, idaho at 1507 miles.

DAY FOUR: out of arco, stayed on 20 to craters of the moon national park, where i hiked, then back on 20 until it met up with interstate 84, which i took through OREGON, then crossed into WASHINGTON at umatilla, taking route 14 west along the columbia river gorge to goldendale, which is actually not on 14, but a little north on… um, 93??. camped at 2071 miles.

DAY FIVE: out of goldendale, stayed on 14 westbound to vancouver, then north on interstate 5 to centralia. am now at jack and glesy’s, at 2278 miles.

so, to continue my story, let me describe arco.

a god-forsaken town in the middle of idaho. right. so, at idaho falls, idaho, i passed into 68 miles of desert, with a big sign proclaiming, “entering government testing area”. it’s barren, and there are these huge buttes rising over it, one of which is covered in antennae. finally, after all these miles of fun speeding adventures, arco appears. i stopped at the gas station at the edge of town and inquired after good food and cheap motels, since i’d gone through a really nasty rainstorm and had been drenched through (much earlier). as i was pulling into town, i received lewd comments from several carloads of inbred young men. ick. i decided there was no way in hell i was camping in this town.

anyway, the guy at the gas station gave me some advice, which i was lucky in time for, as 30 minutes after i checked in, some other people tried to check in and were told that the place was full, as was every other place in town.

did i mention that sturgis is this coming weekend??? this whole region is FILLED with motorcycles. everywhere you look. and a pretty high number of non-harleys, too.

well, that was arco. it makes a better story in real life.

the next morning, i woke up early, chatted with some bikers from a couple of doors down, and headed for craters of the moon. there’s a nice loop drive that i took, but i also stopped and did a little hiking. a really weird thing: in the middle of nowhere, i started receiving text messages!! first one from matt, then one from dick, then one from mel. i actually got matt’s before i left the motel. but my phone continued to say “no network available.” so, it was kind of nice getting messages while standing looking at the bizarre landscape that is craters of the moon park.

after leaving the park, the ride was miserable. i took the interstate because i really wanted to drive through the columbia river gorge, and it’s the only way to get there. but i got REALLY sick of desert after a while. especially when i hit the gorge, and found that that eastern part of it is really pretty boring, after the first joy of greeting my old friend the beautiful columbia river. also, i kept seeing cops, so speeding was out of the question.

since i was going right past, i decided to stop at goldendale, where there’s a large amateur public telescope. i got in around 6:30, just enough time to set up my tent, shower, and get up to the observatory for the evening, which starts at 8. again i was lucky. it was the night before the new moon, so very dark, plus clear skies, plus not many people. fantastic. i was there until midnight or almost, and the stars were beautiful.

oh, and there was a dutch guy there, of all weirdnesses, so i spoke a little dutch!! i think he was as surprised as i was!

another weirdness: the people i camped next to know my aunt. small world.

this morning i had an easy ride ahead of me, and a GORGEOUS route along the western part of the gorge. i stopped for a proper espresso, and had a long chat with the cafe owner. then i had a pleasant ride home. it’s so nice when you know you’ve hit the west side of the cascades. the greenness. i always know i’m home when i see all that green.

if i’d known ursula and aimee’s phone number, i would have called them and visited in portland, but i didn’t, so i just sped home on I-5. not a nice ride, but very homish.

the plan so far is this:

tonight, i spent time with jack and glesy, and then briefly visited my other brother kyle and his wife katy. i sleep here tonight.

tomorrow, i will help jack move some furniture from out at the farm to here, then i’ll go up to olympia to visit with my very old friend nathan, whom i haven’t seen in something like 5 or maybe more years. then i’m expected to dinner at my dad’s, where i’ll sleep.

saturday, i will hopefully see some of my dad and also kyle and katy. i was hoping to get down to portland, but i think maybe i won’t be able to. sunday i head up to seattle.

dusty, darling, when are you free??? will you send me a regular email and we can discuss? or you can call me: 651-329-9878. i have many people i want to see in seattle, so i’m giving it 2 nights. i must leave pretty early tuesday morning, so i think i’ll try to spend monday night with my friend alicia. otherwise, you have dibs on first choice for right now.

and that’s the western washington plan. yay!

hi everyone!!

well, my phone hasn’t been in network range, although the lady on their customer service line said it would be. sorry to matt and anyone else trying to see if i’m alive.

yesterday i went south on 169 to sioux city iowa, where i headed east on highway 20 into nebraska. both highways were very beautiful, and it was super nice to be off the interstates. amazingly, they were also pretty fast as well.

last night i camped in valentine, nebraska. notable memories for yesterday were the funny vibrations i got at my first gas stop, where if i tapped on any part of my body, they twanged like loose metal. the other notable memory was the bird that flew into my head at about 70 mph. ouch. thank goodness for helmets, but i still got a headache!

people in nebraska have a notable twang.

early this morning i crossed into mountain time zone, and later into wyoming. highway 20 continued to be gorgeous and fast. i was going 125 for a long way. unlike my fazer, this triumph doesn’t vibrate at all at that speed. sometime later in my trip i’ll go faster.

i haven’t seen a single cop in two days.

i hit 3 nasty thunderstorms today. short but fierce. the first was especially scary for the lightning that kept hitting closer than was comfortable. had there been any place to take cover, i would have, but there was nothing around but me and the highway. and the scrub.

i’m in riverton wyoming now. i luckily drove right past (and noticed) the cedars bar, where mike sartain is part-owner. so i parked and walked in. all the regulars wondered who i am, so i asked the bartender if he was mike, and said, “i’ve got a stick horse named beaker that says hello.” he came around and gave me a hug then introduced me to the bar.

i’m at one of his friends’ house now using the computer, then i’m heading out to his place to shower and grab some food, then i’ll probably head back over to the bar to chat a bit.

tomorrow i’ll go through the grand tetons and yellowstone, first on highway 26 then meet up with highway 20 again. i’ll try to be in idaho before nightfall.

i know i look like shit in this picture. see that grey in the background? that’s the 3rd storm, which i’m about to ride into.

until next time!

well, it’s sunday morning. i am awaiting my delicious custom breakfast as made by ceese. i should be somewhere in south dakota tonight, and i don’t know if i’ll be able to post. we’ll see. monday night i’m trying to make it to riverton, wyoming, where my dad’s old friend, mike sartain, lives.

mel took this picture of me last night, so that i wouldn’t have to do it all this morning. i don’t have a lot of stuff, and a lot of the bulk of it is the camping gear. i also have 2 liters of motor oil. but there’s room to expand both the saddle bags, and the backpack strapped to the top isn’t full either.

wish me luck! i should be gone in the next hour to hour and a half.

well, i forgot to write last night to tell about the fun we had watching the roller girls practice, then going out for a chat with zhac. but it’s too late now.

tonight, since frostbite was cancelled, we went to the party at laurie and jeff’s. we chatted with people, and saw dan, which was a huge surprise. i wouldn’t have recognized him had i passed him on the street!!

anyway, he was talking about climbing the landmark brewery building, and that sounded like a GREAT plan to me, so i talked matt into it, and zhac jumped on board too. what fun, and what a lot of stairs up the first part.

in this picture, we’re actually on top of the skyway leading to the tower. it’s quite a ways up, and we had to climb up onto it from a catwalk below. the roof that we were walking on was a bit wiggly when we stepped, and there were loads of pigeons. afterwards, we climbed up onto the tower, and sat around lounging on lawn chairs while watching the stars. cassiopeia (sp?) was especially lovely, i thought.

the view was great, and it was a great way to see dan again after so long!

tomorrow, oh sadness, matt leaves to go home. we are both feeling a bit ready to go home, but of course i am also really looking forward to my trip. i’m all outfitted now, except for earplugs. i’ll get them tomorrow somewhere.