I'mbackI'mbackI'mbackI'MBACK! ! ! ! !
cross country drive- check
stop in Denver to see family/ folks- check
in my Portland rented room- check
WITH WIRELESS, BAYOUCH!- check
Where to start?? Well, cross-country trip. As I just told pygmy, the quaintest city I saw was Cumberland Maryland, right in the early stages and I'd never seen it before even though in the DC area forever. It was an arresting pile of fin de siecle houses dotted all over Appalachian hill-mountains in all directions. It contains Haystack Mountain!... but I didn't see the haystack. Wheeling PA was similar, with added river scenery and gambling on some nearby casino island. Ohio and east Indiana were pretty blah, although I was excited to stop for the night in Dayton- Home of GbV!- before going on.
The farmland of Indy, Illinois, and onward was interesting in the opposite regard of the West Virginia/ Maryland/ Pennsylvania corridor. The latter were hilly; IN, IL, and Iowa were FLAT. Amazingly flat. Being on the east coast, the only horizon I'd ever seen was the Atlantic Ocean from Rehoboth and the Outer Banks. It was weird to be able to look left and right and see the horizon, over land.
So that was a lotta farms... I owa added the bonus of tornado weather! Yeah. My second day trip was extended in duration by the fact that 1) it was pouring and windy, 2) I saw the blackest fucking clouds of my life, 3) there were tornado watches and I didn't want to hunker down for the night in said areas. I saw four overturned 18-wheeler trucks in the space of about 2 miles. They'd been blown off the road. I settled in to Walnut Iowa, the only place I had to stoop to Macdonald's for dinner.
Omaha + cows = Nebraska. Seriously, if you want a cow, go to Nebraska. I saw about 5 hours of cows.
A good thing about red states- All that type-A personality aggression means the locals support high speed limits. At one point in Nebraska the speed limit was 75, and in construction zones they'd warn you that you had to slow down to 70. "Slow down" to 70 mph!!
northeastern Colorado = LOTS of open land. So if you have a few free billion bucks and want to start a large city, I suggest northeastern Colorado.
Denver- Met up with RockZombie! Also many other peeeps of the Rocky Mts. RattFinkPink, Ramby, plumfairy, Lacey, and I'm sure more others... folks named John, or Chris? We bowled, and relevantswitch would've been happier to bowl against me out here as I sucked. The highest I got was 138; it would've been a good average-making game for me but 1) I got a spare followed by a 1, 2) I had a chance for my sixth spare on the last frame and missed the 1 pin left. A week ago today, we hung out at the Streets of London. Some okay ponk ruck playing, Guinness and curry fries, and BILLIARDS. Scratched on the 8-ball; perhaps the 2-bank 8-ball shot not really my forte (and remember, folks, it's pronounced "fort," not like Rappin' 4-Tay's "last name").
I was very lucky concerning delays/ traffic on my trip. Only in Indianapolis did I run into traffic, and it was only like 15-minutes worth. Some lanes on a highway merge area were closed there. In Peoria, I had to go around the Peoria beltway due to construction, but that literally took 6 minutes or so. NOT like Washington DC's beltway at all!
I had to leave Ogden Utah at 8:30 in the morning cuz it was starting to pour snow... then the sleet was a bit sticky... but I got by okay. Iowa, Nebraska, Wyoming, Utah, and Idaho were ALL very windy at the time I went through... plus some of that area is windy all year. They have those big, white electricity windmills up in Wyoming and Idaho.
PORTLAND- I've already done quite a bit!
Fri night I saw The Fruit Bats and equally-good-opening-band Amandine (I want their CD, damn it- good piano and violin sound there). I was meeting ex-SGer Mikael buuuut he had to dog-sit and missed the early show, which was rushed to allow some DJ to play. The DJ was not hypnogogic, though, so I was miffed. Amandine only got to play 3 songs. The Crystal Ballroom needs cheaper booze. :^/ I got to meet up with Mikael and his deeude Kyle and the dog, who is Les's parents', a charming brownie Lab whose name I forget!
Saturday, it was Ryan's Bday bowl, eat, and strippers! ....although Devil's Point pulled a LAME card on the Sat night by having no strippers, some deeude there's birthday usurping Ryan's, and a band that spent the night setting up and not playing. But I'm ahead of myself. We bowled, and I did worse than Denver. REALLY bad. And my hand hurt. There's something fucked up with my middle finger. I stepped on it.... yes, I stepped on it a few days ago, and it really hurts. Also, the ball was giving my thumb a blister almost, gack. Dinner was good, and I went back with Mikael to Kyle's, then we met up w/ Les, then we went to Ryan and Spanky to find out no DP goings-on, so we went back to Ryan's for an endless, awful game of Uno (no worries, it was just an awful game to all involved, not due to company!).
Also, SAW bankerboy, hippomonki, hypnogogic, LadyBelmont, and many folks at the bowling and dinner. Also, loved talking to our photographer friend up from LA, d23!
Last two days- Not too much going on. laundry. Groceries. Found some neato CDs at the local library! Blue Cheer, Byrds, and now I can burn "Sushi Girl" for all the sushi fans out there with The Tubes's best-of. Also, hey- Barbra Streisand covered "Life on Mars"! I HAVE to hear that.
My apt is ON the lake, a lake rectangularly-fitted to be under the apartment porches. While I was on the phone with my mom yesterday morning, a stork flew down the length of the lake and settled on the 2nd-story roof opposite me. Frogs. Ducks. I'm less than a mile from a state park.
cross country drive- check
stop in Denver to see family/ folks- check
in my Portland rented room- check
WITH WIRELESS, BAYOUCH!- check
Where to start?? Well, cross-country trip. As I just told pygmy, the quaintest city I saw was Cumberland Maryland, right in the early stages and I'd never seen it before even though in the DC area forever. It was an arresting pile of fin de siecle houses dotted all over Appalachian hill-mountains in all directions. It contains Haystack Mountain!... but I didn't see the haystack. Wheeling PA was similar, with added river scenery and gambling on some nearby casino island. Ohio and east Indiana were pretty blah, although I was excited to stop for the night in Dayton- Home of GbV!- before going on.
The farmland of Indy, Illinois, and onward was interesting in the opposite regard of the West Virginia/ Maryland/ Pennsylvania corridor. The latter were hilly; IN, IL, and Iowa were FLAT. Amazingly flat. Being on the east coast, the only horizon I'd ever seen was the Atlantic Ocean from Rehoboth and the Outer Banks. It was weird to be able to look left and right and see the horizon, over land.
So that was a lotta farms... I owa added the bonus of tornado weather! Yeah. My second day trip was extended in duration by the fact that 1) it was pouring and windy, 2) I saw the blackest fucking clouds of my life, 3) there were tornado watches and I didn't want to hunker down for the night in said areas. I saw four overturned 18-wheeler trucks in the space of about 2 miles. They'd been blown off the road. I settled in to Walnut Iowa, the only place I had to stoop to Macdonald's for dinner.
Omaha + cows = Nebraska. Seriously, if you want a cow, go to Nebraska. I saw about 5 hours of cows.
A good thing about red states- All that type-A personality aggression means the locals support high speed limits. At one point in Nebraska the speed limit was 75, and in construction zones they'd warn you that you had to slow down to 70. "Slow down" to 70 mph!!
northeastern Colorado = LOTS of open land. So if you have a few free billion bucks and want to start a large city, I suggest northeastern Colorado.
Denver- Met up with RockZombie! Also many other peeeps of the Rocky Mts. RattFinkPink, Ramby, plumfairy, Lacey, and I'm sure more others... folks named John, or Chris? We bowled, and relevantswitch would've been happier to bowl against me out here as I sucked. The highest I got was 138; it would've been a good average-making game for me but 1) I got a spare followed by a 1, 2) I had a chance for my sixth spare on the last frame and missed the 1 pin left. A week ago today, we hung out at the Streets of London. Some okay ponk ruck playing, Guinness and curry fries, and BILLIARDS. Scratched on the 8-ball; perhaps the 2-bank 8-ball shot not really my forte (and remember, folks, it's pronounced "fort," not like Rappin' 4-Tay's "last name").
I was very lucky concerning delays/ traffic on my trip. Only in Indianapolis did I run into traffic, and it was only like 15-minutes worth. Some lanes on a highway merge area were closed there. In Peoria, I had to go around the Peoria beltway due to construction, but that literally took 6 minutes or so. NOT like Washington DC's beltway at all!
I had to leave Ogden Utah at 8:30 in the morning cuz it was starting to pour snow... then the sleet was a bit sticky... but I got by okay. Iowa, Nebraska, Wyoming, Utah, and Idaho were ALL very windy at the time I went through... plus some of that area is windy all year. They have those big, white electricity windmills up in Wyoming and Idaho.
PORTLAND- I've already done quite a bit!
Fri night I saw The Fruit Bats and equally-good-opening-band Amandine (I want their CD, damn it- good piano and violin sound there). I was meeting ex-SGer Mikael buuuut he had to dog-sit and missed the early show, which was rushed to allow some DJ to play. The DJ was not hypnogogic, though, so I was miffed. Amandine only got to play 3 songs. The Crystal Ballroom needs cheaper booze. :^/ I got to meet up with Mikael and his deeude Kyle and the dog, who is Les's parents', a charming brownie Lab whose name I forget!
Saturday, it was Ryan's Bday bowl, eat, and strippers! ....although Devil's Point pulled a LAME card on the Sat night by having no strippers, some deeude there's birthday usurping Ryan's, and a band that spent the night setting up and not playing. But I'm ahead of myself. We bowled, and I did worse than Denver. REALLY bad. And my hand hurt. There's something fucked up with my middle finger. I stepped on it.... yes, I stepped on it a few days ago, and it really hurts. Also, the ball was giving my thumb a blister almost, gack. Dinner was good, and I went back with Mikael to Kyle's, then we met up w/ Les, then we went to Ryan and Spanky to find out no DP goings-on, so we went back to Ryan's for an endless, awful game of Uno (no worries, it was just an awful game to all involved, not due to company!).
Also, SAW bankerboy, hippomonki, hypnogogic, LadyBelmont, and many folks at the bowling and dinner. Also, loved talking to our photographer friend up from LA, d23!
Last two days- Not too much going on. laundry. Groceries. Found some neato CDs at the local library! Blue Cheer, Byrds, and now I can burn "Sushi Girl" for all the sushi fans out there with The Tubes's best-of. Also, hey- Barbra Streisand covered "Life on Mars"! I HAVE to hear that.
My apt is ON the lake, a lake rectangularly-fitted to be under the apartment porches. While I was on the phone with my mom yesterday morning, a stork flew down the length of the lake and settled on the 2nd-story roof opposite me. Frogs. Ducks. I'm less than a mile from a state park.
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I have a MySpace page, but dont' use it much. I don't like supporting anything owned by Rupert Murdoch, but then I do watch shows on FX, so...
I suppose I'd probably start using it more often if I bailed out here. I have an LJ page, too...I think.