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I'm home again. No more flats.

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Sulphur and Black Rock Desert
June 18 – Sulphur and Black Rock Desert – The night was a bit scary in the beginning, with the solitude and the rain and the wind picking up. But once asleep, I was ok. The morning was perfect weather. I actually parked within a few hundred yards of the site of Sulphur and I spent the morning checking out the remains. There was a lot more stuff than at Jungo, but nothing really standing enough to walk inside. I found an old coke bottle and some pieces of sulfur and generally had a fun time just looking around.

I began the drive to Gerlach. About 10 miles into the drive (30 miles to go), I began to hear a weird noise. I thought maybe it was the techno music I was listening to, but it didn’t go away when I turned the volume down. It sounded bad and was coming from the wheels. I stopped the truck and got out to check the car. Just as I had been fearing all along, the left-rear tire had gone totally flat. Well, I was expecting this and it happened. I knew I had a spare, so I didn’t get pissed off or anything, but just changed the tire. Luckily there were some good instructions with the jack on exactly how to change the tire, since I think this is the first flat tire I have ever had in my life (on a car). Most of the trick was figuring out how to get the spare tire, since it was held in place with a cable winch system and without the instructions, I would have been baffled. While I was changing it, a guy came by in a Jeep and offered some help, but it seemed like everything was ok. I got the tire changed and continued, about 30 minutes later. I kept on wondering if I should immediately get the spare fixed or if it could wait 100 miles (Reno) or 300 miles (home). I figured that (a) the tire that went flat was the same tire that I had repaired earlier in the trip, so it isn’t totally unrealistic to believe that that tire was weaker than the others and that the other tires were stronger; (b) I had driven 10000 miles on this trip, and the probability of another flat in the next 300 miles was very small. As I drove past Gerlach, I stopped by the Burningman Office to say hello. They told me that the Shell station in Gerlach would repair tires. I noted that, but decided that I didn’t need to get the tire fixed there. The reader is probably wondering why I am fixated about getting the tire replaced. This is known as foreshadowing. I took a 60mph spin around the playa, trying to find the site of last year’s burningman without success. I’m not sure if it is the weather or earthmovers that have removed all traces, but there was no trace at all. Back in Empire, I got a celebratory coconut and pineapple ice cream, Starbucks cappuccino, and Hansen’s supersize energy drink. Things were going pretty good on the ride home, with perfect weather. I stopped at the funky looking Indian museum in Nixon. About 5 miles past Nixon, I noticed that the truck felt kinda funny. Oh no, not another flat. Yep, another flat, except the right-rear tire this time. The tire wasn’t totally flat, but had the pressure of a kids balloon. I decided I had enough pressure to make it back to Nixon. At Nixon, I didn’t see any repair stores, so I entered the police station. For some reason, they have a loud car alarm go off when you enter the door that scared the shit out of me. They told me the closest repair place would be in Fernley, about 18 miles away. So I slowly drove the 18 miles to Fernley, stopping at one repair place that didn't have time to fix it but directed me to the big tire place on the other side of town. So, that is where I am right now, at the tire center, waiting for my tires to both be fixed. And when I leave, I get to encounter the traffic fun in Reno because GW Bush is visiting there.

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Idaho, Utah, Nevada
June 17 – Idaho, Utah, Nevada – Woke up in the forest campground and talked to the host for a while, who told me about the several beaver dams right next to the campground. So I checked them out and also saw the beaver “house”. I’m not quite sure why beaver’s build dams, but they were very impressive. Then it was basically a lot of driving for the rest of the day. Near Salt Lake City, I saw an advertisement for a suit clothing company that said “Missionary Approved”, so I knew that I was in Mormon country. I listened to some Mormon radio show later in the day, where he described heaven in great detail. It is a perfect cubical city, 1500 miles on a side and the streets are paved with transparent gold. The illumination comes from the Lord himself. There are angels at each of the gates to the city, only letting in the Christians. It sounded like you could leave Heaven City when you wanted to, if you felt like travelling. This of course all comes from the book of Titus, in the third testament. At the salt flats and took my car for an illegal spin right off of the freeway. Then a few miles later, there was an official rest stop where you could stop and walk out on the salt. It tasty pretty good. Later, in the town of Wells, NV, I stopped at the tourist information center for the Emigrant Trail National Thing. There wasn’t anything useful there, but I ran into a woman, and after talking a bit, we realized that we had both gone to Burningman and she was going to go again this year. So look out for Katie, from Idaho but originally from Alabama (the accent will give her away).
In Winnamucca, I tried using the McWiFi at the McDonalds, but after lots of fiddling around with the too-smart-for-its-own-good WinXP wireless settings, I discovered that the WiFi wasn’t free, so I finished my caramel Sunday and left. It took me a while to find the Hwy 49 to Gerlach. This is a dirt road “short-cut” that goes straight west from Winnamucca, 100 miles to Gerlach on dirt road. I got to the first ghost town of Junga, and it really was a ghost in the sense of the word. There wasn’t any sign of any structure what so ever, but several piles of rusty cans in the various trash heaps. I found a few scraps of glass that were pretty and took them for my museum. It seems that all the good stuff has already been scavenged. That was about 35 miles down the road, and it was just time for sunset, so I drove another 20 miles in the twilight/darkness until I got roughly to the site of the ghost-town Sulphur, and I’m going to camp here tonight. There is a huge industrial mining operation nearby, with a tailings pile about a mile long. I’ll have to check that out tomorrow as well.

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Yellowstone
June 16 – Yellowstone – The first thing I remember was that I looked at my upper arm and saw a large brown skin spot that had gotten to the size of an apple. I thought, oh shit, I’ve got skin cancer. I should have gone to the skin doctor sooner and had that thing removed! I’m sure that it is mestaticized (sp?) and I will die in a few months. Then I woke up from that dream. Whew. However, another thing surprised me. The window was covered with snow, as was the entire forest! I had snowed about a half foot over night. That is why I was a bit cold in my crappy sleeping bag. So at the ungodly hour of about 6am, since I was cold, but also because I was curious to see the park with a dusting of snow, I got up and drove the truck out back to the Grand Canyon and took some pictures. It was very pretty, and I was only the second person to get there. Then I headed out towards Old Faithful, but I since I stopped at nearly every single geyser along the way, I got to Old Faithful around 11:30am. I think it was only like 40 miles, so you can see how many times I stopped. I took a ton of pictures too. Old Faithful itself was 15 minutes behind schedule, but the second showing was right on time. The Riverside geyser was also right on time, even though the error bars were 30 minutes. It was fun to see all the geysers and also the huge number of bison. I saw one heard of about 100 at the side of the road. [oh shit it seems to be raining now] After Old Faithful and all that, I drove on to Grand Teton park and basically just stopped a few places here and there. Then I got out of the park and looked for a motel, but luckily found a convenient National Forest (== cheap, $5) campground just about where I wanted to stop driving.

Btw, I think June is National Highway Repair Month, since I sat in several construction delay lines all day,and even the next day.

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Wyoming
June 15 – Wyoming – [I think it is actually snowing right now as I type this, but it is so slow that I don’t think the computer is going to get wet. It’s probably about 45-50 degrees, so not terribly cold. ] Not much happened today until I got to Yellowstone in the late afternoon. Mostly just driving with endless road construction delays. I must have experienced at least 4 major road reconstructions where the road was restricted to 1-way traffic, with flag people and lead cars. At least the last time I had to wait, there were some bison immediately near by to look at. Anyways, the trip through the Big Horn mountains (?) was scenic and the pass was nearly 10000 ft, so that is the highest that my truck has been (that I know of). The elevation isn’t bothering me. The amazing this is the quickness that the scenery changes. The pass was an alpine meadow with snow; in literally less than 20 miles, it was barren desert.

I did check my email in Cody, the last town before Yellowstone. I saw the mud pits and sulfur geysers, then got lucky and got one of the last 3 (of several hundred) camping spots in Canyon campground, but that was due to my power of positive thinking. After securing the campsite, I checked out the rather amazing Grand Canyon of Yellowstone, which I think was prettier than the real Grand Canyon but much smaller scale. I think I viewed it from about 5 different view points, each with their own special surprise. One viewpoint instilled vertigo in several tourists, me included. The “Uncle Tom” trail was especially exciting, with the 230+ steps going down, which you could see through (because they were a grating) and that got me a little weirded out.

I had my first camp cook out of the trip – I heated a can of Hormel chili on my portable stove. [ My fingers have suddenly decided that it is a lot colder than 45, it is freezing ! I’m almost done for tonight] Then I went to the so-so ranger talk about the human history of Yellowstone. And now it is time for bed.

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South Dakota, Wyoming
June 14 – South Dakota, Wyoming –

Aside: Nebraska has an interesting law. Each town must provide a free “campground” (or at least a place to park an RV). I saw this to be true in each town I was in. Each town also seems to have at least one motel AND a museum, no matter how small the town (like population 100).

The mini “bad lands” I was camping in were scenic, although not super impressive. I wasn’t expecting too much, given that I had to drive 14 miles on a dirt road to get there. I took the little 1 mile self-guided tour, and saw some ancient fossilized bison tracks which was cool. The Toadstools themselves were not impressive, perhaps because they have eroded and collapsed since they were named. Then I drove on and discovered a ghost community of about 10-15 buildings. Some were clearly marked “no trespassing” but one wasn’t, so I explored it as much as I could without going inside and risking the roof or floor collapsing. It was actually full of stuff still, like appliances and clothes. My guess, based on analysis of trash, is that the place was built around 1940 and abandoned around 1965. The former was based on the style of the interior and some book fragments that were dated in the 40s. The later was based on the ancient diet soda cans in the trash. It’s really cool to see something like this, basically 100% intact as it was left. I’m glad that other people haven’t found this abandoned house, although that might be because there are just so many abandoned buildings in Nebraska. I found a town that appeared to be entirely abandoned a few miles later (I was hoping to get a coffee, but that didn’t happen).

Eventually, I got to the Black Hills, where the scenery dramatically changes from nearly flat rolling prairie with nobody to reddish-earth mountains with lots of pine trees. I drove through the cute town of “Hot Springs” (sorta like the one in Arkansas, but more western), then got to Wind Cave, and decided to check it out. I got sucked into an 1.5 hour tour of the cave, which was ok, but not super impressive. There were a few cave structures that were very unique to the cave, but overall it wasn’t too exciting. I guess everything just seems like small apples compared to Carlsbad Caverns.

Continuing on to Mt. Rushmore, I’m glad that I came in via the “back” way, since it didn’t taint my impression of the tourist attraction (and there was a long delay for road construction, which forced me to stall at a very pretty lake, so it was actually nice). I was taken back at the parking lot at Mt. Rushmore, which looked like an amusement park entrance (and $8 to park). The new viewing area was impressive, but the sculpture on Mt. Rushmore was a little disappointing because it wasn’t as large as I expected. I took the required number of photos and then left. I was disappointed also that the concession building featured in North by Northwest was destroyed to build the new viewing area. I wanted to review the famous staged shooting of Cary Grant inside the cafeteria, but that can’t happen anymore.

As I exited Mt Rushmore, I encountered Keystone, the town that is the equivalent of Pigeon Forge, Wisconsin Dells or the Grand Strand in the rest of the trip: crappy tourist traps. Oh well.

I needed to get more maps, and decided I had a chance of getting them if there was an AAA office in Rapid City and I could get there before 5pm. I was 4:50pm when I got to Rapid City, then I tried finding the office based on the hope that the street I was looking for (St. Joseph) crossed Hwy 16. I was very confident this was true, but I didn’t know and I didn’t have time to find someone to ask And I was correct, I found the street and even then it didn’t go the right way, I got there and got my maps! I’m pretty excited about my skills at finding places without a map or directions.

Last stop of the day was Devil’s Tower in Wyoming. I skipped the payment ($10 !?) and just drove in anyways and got some pictures. The surprising part was the field of prairie dogs – hundreds of them popping up and down in their prairie holes! I had never seen them before, nor was I expecting to see that many. There seemed to be a lot of wildlife in this area, including lots of deer all over the place.

I got a $20 motel room in Buffalo, WY, by getting lucky and getting a room that had only been half made (but that was all I needed - I don't need two beds). That is cheaper than a camp ground, which cost $16 for a pit toilet/no shower, or $38 for the KOA.

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Nebraska
June 13 – Nebraska – I’m typing this in the dark, at a campsite right now. I think if I keep my momentum, then my fingers will naturally find their home at the keyboard.

This morning I ate at the Range Café, which was connected to the Bassett Hotel. Very old school style. I read up on some of the news clippings and historical society pamphlets, and it seems that the hotel was originally built in about 1887, although it must have been modernized in the 50s. The telephone switchboard looked like it came from the 30s (and supposedly still worked). I took a unauthorized tour of the rest of the hotel and discovered that every room was decorated differently, with different wall paper and bed covers. Cute.

Basically, the rest of the day was a journey down US20, which is probably the 2nd most scenic road in Nebraska (behind Hwy 2, which is supposed to be the best). I stopped at a railroad bridge that had been converted for pedestrians and talked to a local guy giving his guests a tour of the area. He was a park ranger and gave me a lot of interesting facts about the area. The bridge goes over a nice river that is supposed to be the best canoing area in Nebraska. The scenery was very pleasant, and I could see living here for a while (near the town of Valentine). I also saw a Mud derby getting ready to start, and some other minor stuff on the road that caught me attention. Nebraska is very similar to Nevada, except there are slightly more people and there is slightly more vegetation and greenery.

Eventually, I got to Carhenge and took a zillion photos. It was basically just like I imagined it, except for a little more texture on the cars due to the various exhaust and drive shaft lines formed on the bottoms of the cars. I decided to continue the Hwy a little more to the Chimney Rock Nat Hist Site, since the ranger earlier in the day had recommended it. It was interesting and I walked out to the actual rock, although that was a bit scary since I saw a rattle snake almost immediately on the very unused trail. But I did see any more snakes and I came out ok. [ I just had to get up and chase the two little mice (or where they rats?) away from my feet. There is also some large animal making strange noises about 100 feet away – my guess is it is cattle or bison or something, and there is a fence around the campground, so I am not worried. The mouse just came back. I hope it doesn’t get into my truck.] Then I drove and drove and drove across very uninhabited land until I got to this campgroud, called Toadstool in a National Grassland. I’ll give a report tomorrow, since it is dark right now and I can’t see anything.

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Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska
June 12- Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska – The day started with the SPAM museum, which like most things with low expectations, was better than I expected and fun. The best part of the SPAM museum is that they don’t take themselves very seriously, and actually have Weird Al’s SPAM song playing, and an exhibit on the Monte Python skit that made SPAM a cult favorite. And the best part, it was free. An hours worth of amusement for $0. I did buy a can of SPAM at the end, since I realized that I have never actually had it before. They did give out free samples, so I can’t say that is true anymore, but it is fun to have a can of SPAM in the truck on the seat with me.

I had lunch across the street that advertised itself as some sort of SPAM-centric diner, but they didn’t have anything with SPAM in it, only SPAM as a side order. It wasn’t terribly exciting, but I was stuck there and had a greasy patty melt. Next stop was “Welcome” MN, which I stopped at just to take a picture of the town sign, but I also got a Mountain Dew from the only open place in town, the KAO. Eventually, after a lot of driving, I got to “Le Mars” Iowa, which I realized was the Ice Cream Capital of the World, so I had to have an ice cream there. I was planning on stopping there anyways, since there was supposed to be a quirky museum of musical instruments in town. The ice cream was mediocre (and confirmed in a press clipping that they had, where some taster gave it an “eh” rating.) Supposedly, this one town makes more ice cream than any other town in the world, although Boston claims to eat more, per capita. And it isn’t the best ice cream either. I stopped at the library, to read an email from my Dad saying his car had totally burned. His friend was trying to weld a new plate under the car to fix some minor damage from road debris, but the heat from the weld caught the car on fire and it was totalled. Luckily, the garage didn’t catch on fire and no one was hurt, just the car. Then I stopped at the museum about 15 minutes before it was to close, and the lady was so happy that someone came to see the musical instruments, that she opened up the special display (I guess it is not normally opened up – I was going on advice from a 16 year old Reader’s Digest guide) just for me. I talked to her for a while and she also showed me some of the photograph players and music boxes that still worked (~100 years old). There was a harp that supposedly came from King Tut’s tomb, but I find that hard to believe. It was made of wood and in excellent shape, like it was only 100 years ago. I think it was a reproduction made about 100 years ago, not 3500 years ago. Wood just does not last like that. All the instruments were collected by one guy that lived in the city (and the docent knew him when she was a child). So that was fun. Next stop was Atkinson, Nebraska. The only reason I stopped there was because I looked down a side street and saw some neon or something blinky. I had to check it out. It turns out, the town was having a street carnival. I think the town population is about 1000, and think they were all there.

Aside: When I was in Niagara Falls, walking down Clifton Ave (the tourist area) I decided that if I found someone making funnel cakes, I would buy one. Unfortunately, I could not find any funnel cakes (and had to settle for a dairy queen ice cream). But then my hopes rose again when I was in Wisconsin Dells, and saw a closed trailer that promised funnel cakes if it was open. And then I hit pay dirt in Atkinson. In the carnival, there were funnel cakes. Ah.. I don’t think I have had a funnel cake for 15 years or so. I remember getting them in Knott’s Berry farm. Anyways, it was delicious until I couldn’t eat any more. Back to the main story.

After Aktinson, it was time to find a motel, so I was placing my bet on Bassett, NE. When I got there, I didn’t see any motels at all. I turned around and looked again, but did see any on the main drag (nor any signs). So I turned towards the “business district” and looked some more and saw an old building with a faded neon sign that said “Bassett Lodge”. I wasn’t sure if it was a real accomodation, or some sort of fraternal “Elk Lodge” meeting place. But the light was on, so I went in and found an old man watching TV. I asked if there were rooms available, and he said “Sure!”. So now I have the most interesting room of the entire trip, a real “old west cowboy” hotel room that looks like it was last updated before the war (WWII that is). Yeah, it is faded and the mattresss sucks, but the hotel has a lot of character and I’ll willing to pay for that. Even the phone system looks like it is from 1935. All for only $30! I’ll have to explore the rest of the hotel tomorrow. I think I am the only one staying here tonight.

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Wisconsin
June 11 – Wisconsin – I had to take care of some business at the motel, so I spent that time on the computer until about noon. Then I realized that the day was almost shot, so I hurried out on the interstate 94 towards Baraboo, where the “forevertron” and Dr. Everet’s art sculptures where. I got there about 3:30, but there wasn’t a clear entrance to the place, and it wasn’t even clear where it was (although I did see one sculpture near the road, so I knew that I was hot). I walked around the surplus store (which superficially looked amazing) to the back and then found a foot path through the junk, through some trees and then into the art garden. There wasn’t much information there, and more importantly, there was no one there. I walked around this amazing collection of welded sculptures – hundreds of welded birds, weird animals, robots and 19th century high-tech time machines. It was really cool, especially since it seemed to be abandoned. I took a lot of pictures. Definitely, definitely worth the drive if you are into weird Burningman-esque industrial art.

North of Baraboo is Wisconsin Dells, the entertainment center of Wisconsin. Just at the south end, I found an ice-cream place and probably ate the largest amount of ice cream in a single sitting for me: 4 scoops, with caramel, pecans and whipped cream. Amazingly, I didn’t pass out after eating it, but since I hadn’t eaten lunch and it was dinner time, I was really hungry.

I wasn’t quite prepared for the scope of Wisconsin Dells, considering Holland was supposed to be a big tourist destination in Michigan, and it sucked. Wisconsin Dells was actually over-the-top touristy, with several amusement parks. If I had been a kid, I would have had fun. I went into the White House Top Secret adventure thing, which was just a scare-house with an aliens-in-the-basement-of-the-White-House-conspiracy-toxic-waste-coverup theme. There was a dated reference to Bill Clinton and his intern, so that indicates when the attraction was built. Not worth $12, but actually “scary” if you don’t like things popping out at you. I was jittery at the end to be sure. I almost went into the Mt. Olympus theme park and for $18 it would have been worth it, but amusement parks aren’t really fun unless you are with a friend, so I skipped it. They had some neat looking coasters, and were building a new coaster right in the middle of the parking lot, with the tracks actually going underneath the parking lot.

After a lot of soul searching, I decided that I really didn’t want to go to Minneapolis/St.Paul, so I drove west on Hwy 90, and drove through some pretty tough thunderstorms, with bad visibility, hard rain (approaching hail) and lots of lightning. I would have pulled off the freeway, but there wasn’t any place to stop. So I just plugged along until I was though it. The lightning was fun to see. And when the sun came out for a final dramatic sunset, it was really quite impressive, something I hadn’t seen before. This is what travelling is all about, new experiences.

I’m staying in Austin, MN, and I saw signs for the SPAM museum a few exits back, so I’ll have to check it out tomorrow morning.

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Chicago
June 10- Chicago – Holland was a big waste of time and a disappointment. Including the nearby towns. The town did not look anything like Dutch, and there were several tourist traps that sold Dutch wooden shoes. Big deal. I drove down the downtown, which was nicely kept up, but nothing special. The little town of Allegan had a lot more character than Holland. Perhaps the real appeal of Holland is that it has a huge boat harbor. So I decided to just blow Michigan, and drive to Chicago. So two more states to check off (Indiana for about an hour on Hwy 94) and Illinois… I think I have been to about 24 states or provinces now.

The traffic going into Chicago really blew. It was bad for miles and miles. But I found the correct off-ramp, circled the block, realizing that parking would be pricy so I just paid at the first lot that I saw. It seemed a bit muggy, but not rainy, so I made a conscious decision to leave my rain jacket in the car, because it would probably be more of a hassle. Some street guy hassled me (well, it started out very friendly). He began to tell me all this “useful” tourist information, like (a) the Chicago Merchantile (futures trading) was closed already because of the holiday tomorrow (Reagan’s Funeral) and that there was a free tourist shuttle that went around Chicago. Then he demanded a tip, and when I told him no, he became very unfriendly. What a jerk.

The Chicago Merchantile was not closed, and extremely funny to watch. I couldn’t help but smile and giggle. It just seemed so childish to have all these guys yelling and screaming to close deals. It was pretty entertaining to watch from the observation deck. I wish I could have taking some video, but that was prohibited. They were in the S&P500 futures pen. The other markets had already closed for the day (like any day).

Next stop was the Chicago Art Institute, which was just a few blocks away. A very good collection of art (duh) comparable to the other best museums I’ve been to (Paris’s D’Orsay, London’s Tate, DC’s Smithsonian). They only had 3 pre-Raphaelites, which isn’t enough for me. But there were a lot of 1500-1600 European paintings that I surprisingly liked. I guess that was pre Raphael. The “contemporary” art was 95% utter crap. I really do not like post modern “art”. I had this vision that if someone took one of the 16th century masterpieces and stuck it in the contemporary hall but pretended it was “new”, it would blow all the other crap away.

Outside the museum was … the Chicago Blues Festival! However, it had started to drizzle at this point, so all was not perfect. And I’m not a blues fan. It all sounds the same. But I got a burrito (I was craving a burrito for a few weeks now) and coffee and that made the rain go away. But after the coffee was finished, it drizzled harder, and harder, and harder, until the drizzle was now rain. I decided a low cost thrill would be to ride the elevated train system around in circles until I got bored. I eventually road it out of the loop to some random station, got out, circled the block and bought some orange juice, then took the train back to the loop. By this time, it was really raining. I got one final look-see at the canal and the interesting looking bridges, then hurried to my truck to get dry.

I pulled out my list of things to do that I made while I was staying at Lauren’s place, and for Illinois, it mentioned 3 things:
1) Chicago Art Institute
2) Chicago Blues Festival
3) Superdawg hot dog stand
So I figured, well, I did #1 and #2, I have to do #3 now. Unfortunately, my map didn’t show where Superdawg really was, only the beginning of the street (Michigan Ave). It turns out that Superdawg was 59 tedious blocks away, where every signal seemed to be red. I tried finding the freeway 94 that I thought paralled Michigan, but that just made the journey longer. I finally found it, and got a superdawg. It was pretty good as hot dogs go, but I’m not sure it is justified in being in the “top 1000 things to do before you die” list. Maybe I needed to order everything on the menu. The little kids next to me exclaimed that their cheeseburger was the best meal they had ever had. I’m not sure if their parents had something to do with that thought. Superdawg is a old fashioned drive-in, but I didn’t want to eat in my truck, so I ordered from the window in front, then ate at the little eating area on the side. It definitely has a lot of things going for it, with the neon and the kitschy-retro designs. The designs were too kitschy to be real – they must have been redone recently to appear more kitschy than real life.

Back on the road, Hwy 90 west, when it was really raining hard, so I decided to splurge and stay at an medium level hotel (Country Inn & Suites) instead of the crappy places I’ve been at recently. At least I got internet service here!

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Michigan
June 9 – Dearborn, MI – I got screwed on this motel. For $48, I got a shitty bed, dingy room, AC that didn’t work. Oh well. I drove to the nearby Ford museum complex, and decided that I didn’t really want to see the museum, but the factor tour sounded interesting. However, I noticed on the billboard that all tours for the day had been sold out (by about 11AM). Darn! But I wasn’t detered. I asked if I could bribe someone, and the lady at the desk suggested I try to find someone at the bus departure area if they had an extra ticket. I was pretty sure this was going to work. I asked all the normal tourists if they had any extra tickets, but they didn’t. However, there were only about 10 normal tourists, but the busses seemed to hold a lot more. A few minutes later, I understood why, since hordes of school kids descended on the bus stop. I had told the ticket collector that I was looking for a ticket, and in the process of getting all the kids’ tickets, it was discovered that the chaperone had 1 extra ticket for a kid that got sick. Woohoo! I think the ticket collector just gathered the difference in price ($14 vs $6.50 for kids) for himself, but whatever. The tour was pretty well done. There was a historical movie, which was well done on 3 huge screens, then a Disney-style immersive multimedia show that artistically detailed the production process from raw ore to finished product testing, complete with shaking floors, smells, and 7 wrap-around screens. It was done well enough that it wasn’t cheesy and I had fun. The kids loved it. They thought it was the best thing they had ever seen. The final part was a walk through of the new assembly plant, which was also well done and got into details that ordinarily wouldn’t be interesting, like assembling the rear view mirrors. I had fun. However, I missed the 1:30 bus back, so I had to sit around for 30 minutes. Then it started to rain, rather hard. When I got back, I heard talk of a tornado warning, and confirmed it on the radio. They said there was a chance of a tornado just east of Ann Arbor, which is exactly where I was headed. Yay! I actually was looking forward to seeing a tornado, and the wind actually picked up in a few gusts while I was on the freeway and it certainly seemed ominous with the dark clouds. But nothing happened. So I just drove and drove and drove. In Battle Creek, I stopped at the Kellogg’s Cereal City, even though it was closed. I figured there had to be something photographically tacky about the outside, and I was not let down. They had a giant box of Froot Loops, of which I took several intimate photos. The town smelled of breakfast cereal, and judging by the number of buildings with the word “Kellogg” (like the library, the hospital, etc), I don’t think there is anything in town that is not part of the cereal industry. More driving, when Dave called me up for an emergency debug session, which took place in the public library in Allegan, MI. More driving to Holland, then a lot of driving around Holland trying to find the stupid state park. It was not very well marked, and it took miles of random driving to eventually find it. And it wasn’t too impressive at night and they wanted $26 to park in the camp ground, so I said screw this. I found a motel for $38 instead, managed by the fattest man I think I have ever seen. He must have been at least 600 pounds. He must have had custom clothes made for him, since this man was a virtual mountain of flesh.

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Niagara and Detroit
June 8 – Niagara and Detroit – First thing in the morning was breakfast at the donut place that I can’t remember the name of. Then, down to the crapola section of Niagara (it has a name. Tha name is Clifton Hill) to park and ride the Maid of the Mist boat into the waterfall. The trip was pretty short, but the whole thing was pretty exciting, even waiting in line. I’m not sure why. It just was. We got blue plastic rain coats, so everyone looked like a homeless person. It was fun to hear the squeels of the crowd with every wave of heavy rain to hit the boat. And it was a nice day to get wet. The rain coats are so waterproof that you get almost as wet on the inside from internal body sweat not getting out. The next stop was the Journey Behind the Falls, which was a disappointment. You can only see the falls through a relatively small hole (about 7’ in diameter) and it looks just like a white sheet of water and did not convey much information. Staring at a white wall would have been about the same experience. Not worth the $10. You can see the magnificent view at the top for free, but on the same fee scale, the free view would have been worth about $73 (plus tax). The Maid of the Mist trip was a bargain at only $13. I think that the Maid of the Mist might be run by the state, while the “Journey” is a private thing, since there was no tax for the Maid of the Mist, while there was for the “Journey.” That might be an interesting way to determine the quality of an attraction – see if there is added tax. I also stopped to see the whirlpool, which wasn’t terribly exciting, but a nice view of the river downstream. Then I wasted a lot of time trying to find the CAA (AAA equivalent) which was marker on the map, but the map shows only 3 roads for all of Niagara Falls, the city. Eventually I found it after asking for directions at the local DMV, after circling the town about thrice and spending about 40 minutes. (Later that day, I accidentally walked by the AAA office Detroit. Without even looking for it).

Then was a long and boring drive to Windsor (border town with Detroit) and got rid of the last of my canadian money at the Arby’s. The border crossing was brutal, as it took about an hour sitting in stop and go traffic, in the 93 degree weather, a new record for the Detroit area. Just my luck. Once in Detroit, I found the public library – after circling the city once. The map was wrong, but I also missed 2 exits, since I was flustered by the map showing an exit and there wasn’t one. Reading the map while trying to cross several lanes of freeway is difficult. The parking lot for the library was very scary. It was an underground lot, and I was nearly the only one there. There was NO sign of life anywhere. Hearing horror stories of Detroit, I was wondering if this was a good idea, being the only person, alone, in an underground lot that had very low ceilings and dingy lighting. But I figured, it can’t be that bad. And it wasn’t. I made it to the library, read my email, read the “Ruins of Detroit” website (excellent website, highly recommended) and got back to the car. Then I drove to the older part of town, and took pictures of many of the old buildings. It is amazing, that (a) the city was largely abandoned and a ghost town and (b) someone is spending a whole lot of money trying to get the city back into shape. The buildings are very impressive, and the most impressive downtown architecture I have seen in the US(perhaps NYC and Chicago are better, but I haven’t really been there yet). It is hard to compare to Paris or Vienna, because the styles are so different, but the detail and quality is evident. I’m thinking that maybe it is a good time to buy some property in Detroit as an investment, since it does look ready to spring back into a world class city with world class property values. There is an incredible amount of construction investment going on right now. It is very impressive, especially considering the risk of no one moving back into the city.

Lastly, I decided to spend the night in Dearborn, so I can see the Ford museum tomorrow. The motel caretaker was a very Italian woman that seemed like all the stereotypes of Italian old mothers. Maybe this motel is a mafia front?

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Ontario
June 7 – Ontario – The trip out of downtown Montreal was relatively stress-free and I was soon on Hwy 20 towards Toronto (about 500 km). I wasn’t sure how far I was actually going to get, but Niagara Falls was a natural target (another 100 km). It was weird crossing the border into English-speaking Ontario, since all of the foreign mystique was suddenly gone. It seemed like I was back in Oklahoma. I had lunch at Tim Horton’s, Canada’s Starbucks, which also serves sandwiches and soup. Most of the drive was not very memorable, but I did take a 100km detour down a scenic bypass called the Loyalist Hwy. The Loyalists were “Americans” that sided with the British in the war for Independence, and fled the lower colonies for Canada when they were losing. That’s all I know about the history of the area. The road followed the edge of Lake Ontario. At one point there was a ferry and I thought I had gotten lost, but I wasn’t. I just hadn’t seen it on the map, since it was a short hop. On the other side of the ferry crossing was a quirky park called “Lake on the Mountain” which was a real lake at the top of a mountain. The information plaque made it sound like no one understood how it formed, since there are no rivers flowing into the lake. Someone must know. The plaque also said it was the most amazing thing in Canada. Funny how there weren’t any gift shops, Ripley’s, casinos or haunted castles there. Just one small restaurant on the lake, where I got a beautiful slice of cheesecake served with strawberry and raspberry sauce.

Toronto is a huge megalopolis of urban sprawl that reminded me of driving through LA, including the smog. I wasn’t going to stop, but then I remembered something about a really tall building owned by CNN or something. I’m not sure why CNN would have a Canadian building, but that is explained later. Eventually, I saw some tall buildings from the freeway, but realized they weren’t tall enough. A few miles later, I did see the huge tower I was expecting, but it took a several mile detour to get back from the freeway. The 401 main freeway through Toronto is perhaps the biggest freeway I have been on, with at least 7 lanes in either direction for perhaps 30 miles. I found the tower, found parking and got a ticket for the Sky Pod at the CN Tower (I bet the C stands for Canada or Canadian, not sure what the N stands for, but I might guess Network). Another case where they take advantage of the tourists, charging $25 to ride the elevator. The Sky Pod is a smaller observation deck above the main deck, but it wasn’t worth the extra money, since you can’t even tell that you are any higher. What was the best thing were the glass floors in the main deck, and watching all the people freak out. It is very disconcerting to walk over the glass and look down 1000 feet or so. The view was interesting, but you get the same view from an airplane. Well, at least I don’t have to scratch that itch any more.

On the road to Niagara Falls, I found a cool boat wreck on the side of the freeway that looks even cooler with the sun setting behind it. (See photo album at http://www.lakata.org/album )

At Niagara, I found a cheap motel (run by Indians, who’d’ve guessed?) and then drove down to see the Niagara Falls spectacle (both natural and human made) at night. There seem to be 3 parts, the actual falls, illuminated by color lights, the upper-end Casino area and the lower-end family fun area with Ripley’s (and the competing Guinness), several haunted houses, souvenir stands and just general tacky crap. This is not the tacky crap I have been seeking out on my trip, because this was all designed to simply separate money from the tourists. I like the crap that is built by people that are somewhat insane and has no practical reason.

Sidebar: Windshield wiper squeegees. In California, gas station squeegees are made for the purpose of clearing the dust off the windshield. In the rest of the country, squeegees are used for vigorously scraping the bug guts off the windshield. I realized that my gentle Cali technique for cleaning the windshield doesn’t cut it out here; you need to use both arms and really scrub. Also, never attempt to use the car’s wipers to clear a juicy bug splat, since you will get a giant circular smear instead. Just let it dry out and wait until the next service station.

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Montreal Sightseeing
June 6 – Montreal – Breakfast wasn’t anything memorable, but I’m glad to get a morning cup of coffee without hassle in the hotel. Usually when I travel (at least recently) I have either a backpack or a rain jacket with big pockets, but today it was nice and I didn’t need either. I was able to fit my camera in my front left pocket, my keys in my left rear pocket, my LP guide in the right rear pocket, and my wallet in my front right pocket, thus obviating the need for a backpack or jacket! Of course, I look a little lumpy at the hips, but no one knows me here, so it is ok.

First stop was the mountain behind the hotel, called Mount Royal, or Mont Royal, or … Montreal, get it? Actually, it isn’t terribly clear if that is where the city got its name, but it is a theory. It is a big park with lots of dense trees and joggers. And because it is a mountain, it has a good view of the entire city. Otherwise, not too exciting. I’ve seen several city parks in my time… On the way down, I found the local hippy hangout, complete with circle drummers, people selling stuff on a sheet (including pipes and bongo drums), dredlocks, grafitti on the fountain and lots of people raising their consciousness. I did not see large amounts of marijuana smoke, as I would expect since it is somewhat decriminalized here, although I did see a smoke shop the day before with marijuana growing in the window and it was called “Weedstock”.

Then I began the long walk from the mountain to the Old City, having lunch at a cheap place on the corner (I ordered a “Sous-Marin” which is literally a Submarine sandwich.) There was some huge bike race/marathon going on in the city and thousands of bikes road down the main streets which were blocked off. I saw one guy eat it (just flipped over his bike for no reason what so ever) but I think he was ok. Another guy had done something else bad that required paramedics. Its sad that if you bring enough people together to do something that is basically very safe (riding a bike on a street with no cars and almost totally level), someone is going to get hurt. The old city was a bit of a disappointment, compared to other “old cities” I’ve been to. I wouldn’t go to Montreal just to see the old city, although some of the buildings have some unique architecture. Too many tourists infest the old city. It was too small of an area to be self supporting, in the way that all of Paris is basically “old city”. I walked along the docks, which weren’t very interesting. There was a reggae festival going on on one of the docks, but it was like $60 to get in. It didn’t seem to have very many people inside. After seeing most of the old city (and craving hand scooped ice cream – and not finding it! Barbarians!) I took the metro under the water to the island where a “Piknik Elektronique” was happening, supposedly. Actually, it was pretty easy to find, just a skip from the other metro station, and there were a bunch of “mature” ravers (mean age of the crowd seemed to be in the 30’s, not 20’s or teenagers) listening to some deep techno. It wasn’t compelling to stay, but I took note of the event. The rest of the island was not too interesting, although there was an enormous geodesic dome from the last world’s fair that was impressive. I think it was a 20th degree dome, compared to our 3rd degree dome.

Took the metro out to the 1976 Olympic stadium which was impressive from a distance, but somewhat squalid and hastily constructed on closer inspection. I guess I was biased, since the stadium has suffered many engineering failures in its history, so I was being critical. The concrete appeared to be low quality. Look on the web if you want to find out the failures. Took the metro back to the hotel, checked out a little of the “underground city” aka the underground shopping mall that is several miles long. Sounds much more interesting than it is. It was basically several basements of buildings connected by tunnels. Good for winter shopping. Dinner was at Reuben’s, which specialized in the local delicacy, “smoked meat” aka pastrami. And now I am back in my hotel.

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Vermont and Montreal
June 5 – Vermont and Montreal – As I left the motel in the morning, many of the roads were blocked off and there appeared to be some sort of car show in the main street of Barre. Luckily, I “knew” the town by now, so I figured out how to get around the roadblocks. I drove out to the Rock of Ages, which was supposed to be a huge granite quarry. The name got me a little worried, since it sounded like a religious quarry, but since their main product is for gravestones, it makes a little more sense. It wasn’t some religious-quarry-cult. The tour cost $4 and I was the only one on the 9:15 tour! There wasn’t much to the tour. It was basically a tour of the “back lot” where a lot of pieces of granite were strewn around (they also make industrial granite work benches and also granite rollers for the paper industry) and then a drive in the van up to the lookout point where you can see the whole quarry. It was impressive, but I would have liked to get a little closer to the action. It also would have been nice to see the quarry in action, but being a Saturday, I couldn’t fault the tour guide. In fact, all the tours I saw that day were kinda dry without worker bees in action. The next stop was downtown Montpelier, since I was starving and looking for something like a cranberry muffin or a scone and a coffee. Well, I stumbled on the farmers market and wouldn’t you know it, a young lady was selling homemade scones. I also bought some Vermont maple syrup (you can’t buy this stuff in California, although truthfully, the Canadian stuff tastes identical), a glass of homemade lemon-ginger soda, and some chinese veggie rolls. It was a very nice day and a perfect day for a farmers market. It was interesting to see so many people on the street, compared to other dead places like downtown Johnstown. Montpelier is the capital city of Vermont, but it is pretty small. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was smaller than Mountain View.

Next stop was the Ben & Jerry’s Factory tour. I skipped going to the Cabot cheese factory, because there would be no work in production, and cheese making is very hand labor intensive, so there wouldn’t be anything to see at all. The Ben & Jerry’s tour was also not very exiting, but at least they gave samples out at the end, including a new flavor that may not have penetrated the market yet, Oatmeal Cookie, which had a lot of cinnamon flavor. Pretty good. I liked it, although I think that it has one of those oils that I am allergic to. Or maybe it was the Heathbar Crunch, which I ate before. For $3, the tour was ok, but it was obviously a little past its prime, now that B&J is a mega-international corporation and Ben and Jerry have nothing to do with it any more. Btw, I noticed (after hearing about it) that Vermonters and New Hampshirites love ice cream. I saw several places along the road with long lines of people buying ice cream. There was something that most advertised as a “Creemee” but I didn’t get a chance to try it. I’m not sure what that is. It doesn’t really make sense that people living in the cold would want to eat something colder, but then again, maybe it does make perfect sense – they like to be cold! Next, a quick stop at the Cider Mill. Remember the handy saying, “If its clear and yellow, you’ve got juice there, Fellow! If its murky and brown, you’re in Cider town!” I was hoping to see some apple hats, but I didn’t see any. I did get two cider donuts, and sampled the cider BBQ sauce, but honestly, I couldn’t taste the cider in either one.

Next stop was Burlingame, VT, which had only one attraction for me, which was the “world’s largest filing cabinet”. I find out, just like the instructions on the web lead said. I’m not sure why it was there, but many cabinets where welded together into a single cabinet about 40-50’ high? There was no sign. Perfect. I hate it when good art gets marred by a stupid title or some stupid symbolism. I also saw the two whale tails diving into the ground near the freeway, but it was impossible to stop and take pictures. Nearby, there was a pretty good antique shop, but I didn’t find anything. I almost bought a very old adding machine, since it had glass sides (why?), but I didn’t. Finally, with my trusty cartoon map I got at the Vermont visitor center, I found the Jiffy Lube and had my oil changed.

Vermont, by the way, has a law against billboards, so instead, they have little information kiosks all around the state with information on local attractions, accomodations, restaurants, etc. I think it works pretty well, but mostly because Vermont is such a small state and you can literally list every attraction on a single map. In fact, they did and I have it.

So I continued up the road, towards the border, but realized that I really knew nothing about Montreal at all, other than it was a big city in Canada and lots of people like it. So I figured I should really get a guide book, to help find a hotel first, and also to just figure out what is going on. I couldn’t find anything in St. Alban, and that was the last town before the border (I went to 3 stores, and only one store had 1 book on Montreal and it had no hotels). So I figured that Montreal would have some mega book store somewhere easily accessible from the freeway and I could grab a copy of the Lonely Planets guide to Montreal or Quebec. I had strong faith in this belief. Just before the border, I decided to get some gas, so I did a U-turn back to the last hamlet that had a gas-station. In the store, 3 young boys on bikes were talking in French already, so I knew that I was close… Back on the road, I hit the border crossing. I wasn’t 100% sure if a California ID was good enough to get across the border. It seemed that everyone else in the queue was Quebecois, and they all had their passports in their hand. I asked one couple, and they said that they thought that all you needed was an ID card. But the line moved very slowly. It seemed to take about 30 minutes to get through about 15 cars. But I got through, no problem, no inspection, no anal probing, no language quiz. So now I am in Canada…

The first thing I noticed that suddenly the land got dead flat, unlike the mountains of Vermont. I guess that is why the border is where it is; flat and boring == Canada, green and mountainous == USA. The next thing was that all the signs were in French, but nothing looked French. It looked like I was back in Oklahoma, on the way to Oklahoma City. Poor farm houses and not much else. I was feeling weird, since it said “french” but it did’t look “french”. Eventually, I navigated the little roads (there was no freeway after the border, just 2 lane roads) and got close to Montreal. I realized that there was one more stop before the bridge to the island where I might find a suburban book store. So I pulled off… and wouldn’t you know it, there was a store advertising “Livres” (books) !. Literally, the very first store to my right as I left the freeway off-ramp. It was like a Barnes and Noble, and after a few minutes, I found an English language copy of the Lonely Planet guide to Quebec! How perfect was that? So in the parking lot, I figured out which hotel I wanted to stay at, and since my cell phone seemed to have found a service, I called up the hotel and asked them to save the room for me for 30 minutes. It took me about 20 minutes to get to the hotel, I booked the room for 2 nights, and then moved the truck to a place where I could park it over night on the street. Parking is bad in Montreal, but not as bad as SF. I found plenty of spaces 2 blocks away from the hotel. Now that I could relax, I studied the LP guide and figured out where to eat, where to get Canadian money and where to stroll around for the evening. Getting money was easy, except for the homeless bum sleeping in the ATM area. Getting something to eat was a bit harder, since the first recommended place was closed (although the sign said “Ouvert 7 jours” (open 7 days)). The second place had a line a mile long. So I settled on a vietnamese sandwhich place, and got a Bahn Mi, some green-bean flavored sweetened tapioca goo, and a drink. Then I just walked around, found an entertainment guide (in English) that led me to a club that was playing Drum & Bass and Breaks tonight at 10pm.

Now I haven’t actually said anything about Montreal at all. I must say, that I am impressed and a bit overwhelmed. This is indeed a happening city, with everyone on the streets and tons of restaurants, night clubs, strip joints, bars, for miles and miles of city. It is actually much more impressive (in a street scene sense) than San Francisco. Imagine taking the Haight, the Castro, the Mission, Northbeach, Union Square and the clubs of SOMA, and putting them in a blender and then pouring it out in a dense paste for miles and miles. There are some homeless people here and there (many comparable to SF). There are lots of young people and lots of hipsters. On one street in particular, most of the guys dressed metrosexually, perhaps they were all queer, but maybe they were just being stylish. It wasn’t leather-chaps queer, it was Queer Eye stylish. Everyone hear is also very thin and hip. Did I say that there were a lot of hipsters here? It is also weird to see back guys dressed in typical American hip-hop sports threads, but speaking French. All the signs are in French, which is mandated by Quebec law, but there are a lot of English speaking people on the street as well. Everyone I have had to talk to can speak fluent English, although with an accent. It is interesting though that when they pronounce English words, they don’t sound French, but they don’t sound native either. I can’t figure out if they are tourists or Canadians. I don’t see any foreign license plates at all (except for one in front of my hotel from NY).

As I write this, it is 11:30pm, and I was planning on going out again tonight to the D&B/Breaks club, but it is a fair distance from the hotel and I am getting very tired. Looking back on all the things I did today, I can see why I am so tired. I’m sure if I was at the dance club, I would have fun, but I doubt it would be much different than a dance club in SF, and I am really tired right now… I hate when that happens.

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New Hampshire and Vermont
I left Kent's place around noonish, after doing lots of internet surfing. I stopped back in Lowell, and did some more sightseeing around the town, which is actually kinda neat since the whole town is basically restored 4 story red-brick factories. I got some pictures of the looms, now that my batteries were recharged. Continued up into New Hampshire and had a beautiful Maple Walnut and Caramel sundae on a picnic bench behind the ice cream shop on a very nice day. It seems that all New Hampshirians eat ice cream all the time.

Kept driving and my motor was making some funny pinging noises. My dad recommended higher octane fuel, and a stop at the local car supply shop obtained for me some octane additive, which seemed to work. I hope that the truck makes it back without any problems.

Kept driving, made it to Vermont and my first taste of living without billboard signs. Luckily, they have a first rate series of free maps at the visitor center/rest stop, so I was ready to go. I decided a good stop would be Barre (pronounce Berry), and I found the eponymously named Budget Inn and stayed there.

I have noticed that throughout my travels, Indian (from India) people are nowhere to be seen, but 60-70% of the motels that I have stayed at are run by Indians. You can tell it is an Indian motel, because the moment that the cleark opens the backdoor into the office (after you ring the bell), you can smell it before you see him. Luckily, the rooms don't smell like mutter paneer.

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Lowell
I basically did nothing the entire day but surf the web, and do a day trip to Lowell, MA (about 40 minutes away). Lowell was the first industrial city in the US, and specialized in the textile mills that made cloth. In peak tourist season, they offer canal trips around the city to the different mill factories and also a trolley. But I went to see the Boott Mill museum, which had hundreds of restored looms from 1910-1920 *working* in the factory and actually running. That was pretty interesting to see and experience. Very noisy, and you had to wear complementary earplugs, and that was with only about 10% of the machines actually running. It must have been hell to work there all day with all the machines running. I'm sure they all went deaf. The floor vibrates too, and is annoying since the machines are all slightly out of phase and frequency.

What was interesting was that all of the national park "rangers" seemed to be a little psycho. The guy at the Boott Mill especially, who couldn't decide if he should give me a custom tour of the plant or just let me be, and he was just weird about the whole thing, as if I was the first tourist to step into the museum, ever. Maybe I was? The other rangers were a bit schitzo too, as if they didn't interact with people very much.

When I came back, Kent and I went out for some good Thai food and chatted away. When we got back, we spent way too much time trying to find something on the internet about the history of "Lake Los Angeles", but came up empty handed. (AKAIK, Lake Los Angeles was a Real Estate scam that sold desert property advertised as lake front property, around 1970).

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Saugus & Essex
I'm going to keep this journal entry short. I spent the day (after leaving Dane) just north of Boston, at Saugus, then Essex. Saugus has a very interesting reconstructed Iron Works, that basically is 100% complete, except they are not allowed to run the blast forge because of pollution controls. I liked it. Essex was pleasant, and the coast line around there was pleasant and recommended if you had a girlfriend to drive around with and go antiquing and looking at the water. The fried clam place was interesting (find it in Essex), even if the service was surly. I met one interesting fellow at the water. He noticed my Cali plates and began telling me his lifestory. I'm not sure why I attract people that like telling me how much drugs they have taken, but this seems to be a trend. He had lived in Haight-Ashbury when he was a teenager, but now the world is evil and everything is going to hell. He wanted to sell some Red Sox tickets on Ebay, but he didn't know how to do it, since he had "gone offline in 1996, man".

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wasted day
nothing much happened today. i spent too much time online, fighting Cingular over their ridiculous bill of $323, but I won't get into that now, because I'll just get pissed off again.

After I left Tims place, I went to see a jail or something, but couldn't find my camera, so I went back... then found the camera in my bag all along.

Stopped at the Purgatory Chasm, which was pleasant, but nothing to write home about. Called Dane and asked if I could crash on his couch, which he abliged. Amazingly, which the state map of Massachusetts and my vague memory of Dane's place two years ago (which I had driven), I was able to navigate the horrible streets of Somerville and Cambridge and get to his house without a single misstep, I mean I drove exactly to his house in the most direct way humanly possible. This was not true for the reverse drive, the next morning when I attempted to find the freeway again... nor the next evening when Kent and I spent 45 minutes just trying to get to the freeway which was probably about 1 mile away.

At Dane's, we met his friend that was also staying at his place and we had beers and burgers at an upscale bar/grill. Dane told us some interesting stories about his plans for romance.

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Johnstown
May 29 - Johnstown - I took a quick spin around the town of Scranton and stumbled on the Steamtown museum, which is a railroad museum. If I hadn't promised to me in Johnston at noon, I would have spent more time there, but I just took a quick 15 minute peek. Then I hightailed to Johnstown NY, to have lunch with my Aunt Gloria. Both my Aunt and Uncle are real characters. Aunt Gloria challenged me to two games of Upwards, I won the first, but she won the second. We had lunch then she gave me a historical tour around Johnstown, which founded around 1760 and is where Susan B Anthony lived. I also saw the apartment building that my Dad grew up in (after leaving NYC but before going to LA). The town is obviously on a downward slide. Since there is no money or jobs there, many people have left. That leaves wonderful old Victorians for sale for pennies. The Victorian house next door to Uncle Elmer went for $10,000. After it was restored (which probably wasn't cheap, but probably $100K) a house like that would sell for $2 milllion in San Francisco. The only hot properties around are the lake front camps in nearby Caroga Lake, which is in the Adirondacks.

After lunch, I met the rest of the family at Uncle Elmer and Aunt Carol's place, which was only 2 short blocks away (probably 500 feet). But my Aunt Gloria and Uncle Elmer don't talk to each other any more. Elmer gave me a quick tour of the house and his inventions and projects, which are amazing and need to be documented elsewhere. Ask me to relate stories. I met a bunch of my cousins, including Eric, Tim, Paul and Johnny, and we went to the big thing in town, the stock car races at the track in town. It was interesting, but it was hard to get too excited since no money was involved and I didn't know the racers. We did place a bet on one race ($1) and they told me to bet on the expected winner. But he didn't win, he came in second. After the races, we went to a bar on the lake where my cousin Ed was playing with his band. The place was packed and the band played a lot of good party covers. One woman started taking off her shirt (just to her bra) - I didn't even notice that she had an artificial hand that looked like wax; I was informed of this the next day. It was fun, especially since it seemed that everyone knew everyone else in this small town. I think we stayed until 1am.

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