the video (13 MB)

3 months, 12,000 miles, 9 states, 3 provinces. There are a lot of places I went, a lot of places I didn't go, and a lot of places I'd like to go back to.

I enjoyed north of the border more than south of it. BC, Yukon, and Alaska were very impressive and unique. Not to say places like the Redwoods, California Headlands and Colorado Plateau aren't also cool. In different ways.

It was a great experience, I've learned a lot, have seen many things, finally traveled outside the Pacific time zone, and yet have only covered something like 4% of the world. I hope to take a trip like this again some day, only next time I'll go someplace outside North America.

Photos

Las Vegas is a silly place

Prior to arriving in Las Vegas, I stayed a day at a $35 motel, which had wi-fi, cable, and a shower. What else can a man ask for?

In vegas, I managed to avoid gambling, whores, and marriage, and yet still had a good time - despite the Star Trek Experience having closed a mere two weeks before I got there.

Driving through the desert is rough. I spent much of it sweating out all the water I was near-constantly ingesting. The Desert Bus guys have it easy.

The Colorado Plateau, where all the parks are, has a lot more to look at. In Zion, they give biblical names to a lot of the rock formations - I'm not sure if this is because of their glorious majesty, or just because it's in Utah.

I managed to fall on my left knee while climbing on some rocks I wasn't supposed to climb on. This has ruled out any hiking for the last couple days.

Thankfully I didn't fall into the canyon; there are a surprising number of places where this is very possible thanks to no railings or barriers.

Video: Lizard Action

Photos

Also, old fact: Unlike other states' picture of a tent with the "no" symbol through it, the "No Camping" logo in California is a Vanagon with a "no" over it.

San Francisco

It's a pretty cool place. I managed to at least briefly take in most of its districts. Just walking through them kept me busy for several days.

On a small, public beach, a man built a sand sculpture of a mermaid. He began talking to me about it once he'd finished, saying things like how he "built it from memory" and "knows exactly what she looks like." Maybe he was a mythical sea creature in a past life.

I was in a bar which was also occupied by a drunken crazy man, who decided to repeatedly kick a porsche which was parked outside. The bartender, after seeing this, called the cops as the man drunkenly wandered down the street. Shortly thereafter, The porsche owner and his wife returned to their vehicle to find it freshly kicked. The bartender explained the situation to the car owner, who then went looking for the perpetrator while his wife stayed with the car. Minutes later, the car kicker stumbles back to the scene and begins hitting on the car owner's wife. She calls her husband, who comes back and holds a casual conversation with the car kicker as a way to keep him in one place until the police arrive. The car kicker was arrested.

Photos

Pictures and stuff

I'm on CA highway 1 now. It's called the Pacific Coast Highway, but I can't see the pacific coast because it is really foggy.

Recent pictures

Older pictures includes the coolest thing in Ellensburg

Videos:

Driving through redwood forest

Drive-thru tree (note: soundtrack added because this was pretty boring otherwise.)

Llama face

mayonnaise sandwich

I'm back on the road. I became a bit nervous when confronted with the idea of once again being without a home, but quickly warmed up to the idea of continued adventure while looking out at Crater Lake from the summit of Mount Scott.

I needed to break a $20 inside a shopping mall in Oregon. Carl's Jr. has a 99 cent chicken sandwich. Knowing an opportunity when I see one, I ordered said sandwich, forgetting to specify "without mayonnaise." The cooks took this omission as a reason to apply a week's supply of mayo onto what was once known as my "sandwich," but could now only be referred to as my "foil wrapped mayo."

Outside a friend's house in Eugene, I was rummaging through my car, until I was interrupted by someone shouting "HAAAEEEEEHHHGH." I turned around to find a homeless woman standing about 25 feet from me, near a futon mattress which had been discarded in a carport. I responded "uhhhh... what?" and the following conversation ensued:

woman: YOU GOTTA HELP MAH BACK
me: "what?"
woman: I LIVE OUTDOORS. IT FOLDS RIGHT UP
me: "uh, what?"
woman: GOTTA TAKE THIS MATTRESS TO CARL'S JR
me: "okay?"
woman: IT FOLDS RIGHT UP! MY BACK!
me: "I have to go somewhere."

I parked my car on the next block.

While driving from Crater Lake towards the Redwood Forest (I think this is only about a 4 or 5 hour drive, I did not expect that) I encountered a sign advertising "Sweet Cron." I was stunned. About a quarter mile later I found another sign advertising the very same "sweet cron." Those clever Southern Oregonians succeeded in grabbing my attention with their intentional misspelling. Cron.

Yakima River Float

Last weekend involved a group of about 40 people, myself included, tying inflatable rafts together and floating down the yakima river for about 14 miles. Understandably, this flotilla was hard to control, and spent a fair bit of time bouncing off the edges of the river.

One instance of this involved my raft colliding with a jagged rock, possibly a series of them. The raft tipped over and unceremoniously dumped me into the river, before its now utterly lacerated self moved on with the rest of the group, leaving me stranded. I got to my feet to see the uncontrollable mass of rubber, beer, and partiers several hundred feet downstream, a distance which could not be regained by swimming. Luckily, the road between Ellensburg and our campground paralleled the river, so I scrambled out and ran along the road, to the serenade of half the floaters singing "flight of the valkyrie" while the other half sang the theme song from Rocky. This lasted for what seemed like at least a quarter of a marathon, until I nobly rejoined the party.

By the time all that was through, everyone knew my name: The Karate Kid. I'm not sure how they came up with that.

Two-Tone Macbook

I'm temporarily back in the Pacific Northwest. I knew I reached Seattle, because people drive like they have mad cow disease. Since my return I've been enjoying such luxuries as couches and running water.

I think I'll set out towards California around Labor Day. Since I've been out for two months already, I've pretty much written the east coast out of my plans; I'll save it for another trip. The west should keep me company for as long as I feel like being out.

While having a place to do some work on my laptop, I replaced its inverter board to fix its chronic flickering screen. While I was at it I replaced the inner plastics with those from a black macbook, and here is the result:


click for more pictures

Black and white stylin'. I looked up other bi-color macbooks only to find they were all done by circumstance instead of by intention, making mine the only one of its kind (I think). Until people find out they can do this for something like $80.