July 15th, 2010 (another day in paradise)

July 15th, 2010:

I woke up last night to turn down the lamps, while walking around outside I noticed that it was slightly lighter than it usually is. I could actually see in the dark to

some extent. Although there was no moon out, the trees gave off slight shadows. I thought "Thats odd for 2 or 3 AM", I checked my watch it was 5 AM. Up in

these northern climes it starts getting light at 5 AM and Darkness sets in at 10 AM. During the solstice, add another 20 minutes to both ends. The down side is

Christmas time, when its still dark at 7AM and Dark again at 5:30 PM. I noticed the changes when I first moved here, other people who came up here with me

didnt notice a thing.

I stayed up till 2 AM the previous night drinking whiskey and giving the canyon a concert with my voice and guitar. Even heard clapping from a campsite 1/2 mile

away. So I hit the sack for 6 more hours and made a huge cup of coffee around 11AM. I noticed while camping w/o a schedule makes me slow down a lot. At

I might spend 15 minutes drinking coffee, Out here I took an hour an a half. I might spend 10 minutes thinking about where the stove is, another 5 to get up and

get it, another 10 minutes to pour the water and turn the stove on, ect. Since I absolutely have no place to go or anything to do today, I find it a luxury to waste

so much time. This morning before leaving the camper, I looked out the window and saw a 4 foot long coachwhip snake (fast bastards), sprinting across my

parking lot totally losing the pissed off ground squirrel that was chasing it. I didnt notice that he had a baby squirrel in his mouth. The mama groundsquirrel,

only chased it half way across the area before running back to its nest to check on the remaining young. 5 seconds later I see a baby mouse sized ground

squirrel, retracing the snakes route, and running home to mom. The snake was so afraid of mama, that he must have dropped it. Hell, the snake was big

enough to eat the mother as well, but she put up quite a bluff. This is the most amazing thing i've ever witnessed on a camping trip.

After a breakfast of Ravioli from a can, I realized that I had about 4 hours of what I call "shit time", the hottest part of the day, where there is little shade. I spent

todays "shit time" reading, scanning the cliffs for lions and goats with binoculars, reading from of "How to Write" book, and began re-reading the book

"Comanche Moon" which I last read about 6 months ago. I also listened to a mix of music I made two years ago on my little "SanDisk" music player, which I must

admit is the best mix I've ever created, although the songs range from Rock, Jazz, Rap, Punk, alternative, and country, all the songs fit together seamlessly

and some were favorite songs I didn't know I still had, or existed,. Finding songs like that are like visits from old friends. "Shit time" is a good time for reading,

listening to music, or sleeping. The Spanish tradition of "Siesta" involves putting "shit time" to good use. Us Northern European decent folks find the time ideal

for working ones arses off. I'm sure has to do with the Northern Climate, their "shit time" is often the warmest part of the year,during the winters. In Utah, there are

only 2 months that have "Shit time", but being a Texan, I am naturally prone to observe shit time in the early afternoons. I can't wait till I move to Southern

China some day. They observe the "Siesta".

2 hours from the end of "Shit Time" I drifted off to sleep, and had several bizarre, yet fun dreams. I would wake, whenever an insect bit or stung me, then return

to sleep after rubbing the bug bite. Mainly biting flys and tiny stinging wasps, but I only got bit or stung every 15 minutes, so I had 8 different dreams, but one

actually recontinued after waking up. The bugs here are nothing compared to South Texas, but I might try some repellent tomorrow, since the wasps kindof hurt!

Around 4 PM "Shit time is coming to an end, the shadows are much longer, and I begin to set this evenings festivities in motion. Since I don't drink heavy two

nights in a row anymore, I wont need to get ice today. I do have some tonic water, v8 juice and a bottle of cheap gin, only the bottles are in 60 degree water

I used most of the ice last night with my whisky and cokes. At least I quit drinking all that beer. Beer is just too expensive and gives me gout. I had a bloody

and felt good enough to get dinner ready to start cooking, then I started writing this but my poor apple battery is down to 34 percent, which means Im going to be

shut off in about ten minutes. Tonites dinner is refried beans on tortillas, cooked in a frying pan, that covered in sour cream, and pace picante sauce. Simple

fare like this tastes like a gourmet meal when cooked outdoors. I will close now, but hopefully write somemore later tonite.

Please pardon the lines, the color Blue, and all the other issues of this blog. Seems that I can't figure

out how to use Apples word processor, nor am I good at using Blogger. I need a secretary.

July 14th, 2010 (treatise on truck camping and Henry Theroux.)).

Wednesday, July 14th, 2010: Had to leave the Super 8 after a week of living the easy life, met up with my friend Roger, who kindly let my truck/camper/trailer rig, deface his house for the past two weeks. Nice to get back in the wilderness, you youngsters can have your tents,

the truck camper is the way I like to do it. Everything needed is there, little unpacking, still trying to find a space for each thing but I'm learning, keep in mind, my idea of a truck camper is a small camper on a huge truck. Yes, I got to make a bed out of the benches each night, with no sleeper above the cab. I can shut my tailgate with the camper on as well. Small camper, but lots of interesting places to store things. I live in Bear country so cooking in the camper is really a bad idea. I use a portable butane camping stove which seems to use one small canister of butane every...... well I really don't know. Mine has lasted 20 camping trips and still has butane in it! The stove folds and fits in my front pocket (minus butane can, which is the size of a can of beans. I have one 24 oz stainless cooking pot for everything. I do keep a real glass for whiskey, and a metal coffee cup, and plastic spork, and thats the cooking kit. I have 5 or 6 pocket knives, which i eat with, including a large tactical fighting knife for protection, but i mainly dig holes in the dirt for human waste, before I started bringing the shovel. Actually, I have it timed, to where I can dirt bike it to the public "Loo", in a matter of 10 minutes, but still... For entertainment, I find my Sangean radio all I really need. I do get limited internet from the "celly", but the phone sucks unless you are in the mouth of the canyon where I don't camp. I also have books, and my "Baby Taylor", small sized (big sound) travel guitar. I love the tone and action so much, I never play my two other guitars much anymore. Food options are much better with a truck camper, as opposed to motorcycle or backpack camping. I have carry cans of stuff! I can carry an ice chest! I can carry two weeks worth of clothing and the correct clothing for any situation. I do love camping in a truck. As long as I bring a small trailer to carry luxuries like an old Honda 600 dirt bike, a shovel, a bicycle, a weeks worth of garbage. My computer was really tough to bring when motorcycle camping, because it weighs 5 pounds. I now need a 12 volt converter so the battery doesn't wear down so fast.

I also bring my two twin kerosene tin lanterns while truck camping. With camping on the bike, I can maybe bring a small flashlight and a candle, so I can lay on the forest floor, with thin walls of a tiny tent, and hope that the native bears, wolves, and lions, decide not to investigate the little bag I am sleeping in. The truck camper sits up safely high off the ground,

And wild animals are not an issue from 5 feet up past the strong metal of the truck bed walls. If anything should try to get in, I have a short, 12 gauge, riot gun, that can and would cut any intruder in half.... not to mention 7 of their friends. While camping in the tiny thin tent, all I carry is a knife and a small but loud air horn. I have camped in 0 degree weather in this camper, and had no problem staying warm all night. My small portable catalyst heater, which uses propane will keep the insides fairly warm, but one must be sure to crack your windows, so the stove doesn't use your oxygen. I plan to buy a low oxygen alarm for next winter, I don't mess around with dangers like this. I like the old 19th century chinese kerosene lanterns quite a bit. They will run off a small amount of lighter fluid, kerosene, citronella oil (keeps mosquitos away), or lamp oil. I have used these for years, before replacing them, five dollars is the cost at Walmart, apparently the rural Chinese folks make and use these modern wonders as well. I simply find them to be much easier and cheaper than modern camp lighting systems, many of which produce entirely too much light. These produce enough light to read, or see your path if walking, are wind proof, rain proof, don't need batteries ect.

So its back to camping for the next 6 nights, I really don't mind, still can get to the city and go swimming during the day, what more can one want?

The sense of personal self sufficiency is gained in putting everything you need to survive, in a small space, then spend night after night enjoying your freedom. Think of what destroys our freedom.... Bills, need of lots of cash, deadlines, forcibly having to donate all your time and wake at an insane hour, just to do something your tired of, is NOT LIVING. Before ya know it your fun days are past, your suffering from a string of stress related maladies, and you probably only have a few more years before the big heart attack hits, and your children are fighting over the ridiculously small nest-egg that you were going to try to retire on. I want to get out now, while I'm still alive. Maybe teach and save for a couple years, then buy a small piece of land somewhere. Get expenses low enough ($500), to work on the things that I want to do. But a 50 thousand dollar per year addiction is tough to break. But every time I manage to spend 5 days out in the woods, I get a little closer to breaking away. Read Henry David Theroux's "Walden" if you want to know where I get this philosophy from. The difference is that Theroux, was a young man and tryed to live the simple life. Young people need to "Take on that World", "Join the Army", "Get married and raise those kids", "Make milions of dollars before age 40", and other great things. Tired old guys like me, who already raised their kids, worked for 27 years straight, with nothing to show for it. Need to relax and do the "Walden" thing. Of course a truck camper is a freer existence than living in a cabin on a friends land near walden pond. I can change neighborhoods as often as I wish.

July 11th, 2010

Yesterday was a nice lazy Saturday, nothing happened worth mentioning except: I did get to talk to my old friend "Lynette" whom I've known since age 16, Plan to hang around her the Friday before I leave Dallas, I'm sure it will be fun, since I haven't seen her in 20 years or more. She is one of the few girls I would ever marry, but it would be like marrying my sister or something. Ewwwwwwwww! She is similar to my older sis in the maternal instinct department. She only had two kids but wanted more, so she has 5 dogs instead. She has always been a hard worker, being continuously employed in the accounting dept, for the past 25 years. I have a lot of respect for Lynette.

I woke up this morning in the painful throes of Gout in three joints at once. Took some gout medication and advil, only crippled for a half a day rather than a week. This medication "colchisine" prevents salitic acid crystals from forming in the joints. Salitic acids main causes are Beer and Red Meats. I only had one beer yesterday, but I did pack in 5 hotdogs, that I made in my hotel room. Apparently the sodium nitrites, easily convert to salitic acid, so I need to keep it to one dog every other day. I've never had a gout attack involving two legs at the same time before, i nearly had to crawl to get down the two floors of stairs this morning. Yet now... I'm nearly back to normal, and I ate cornbread for dinner, with a few chasers of Gin and Tonics.

I finished my Book "The Life of Pi", which was a delightful story about an Indian boy, who joined Islam and Christianity, in addition to his native Hindu, so he was going to services three times a week, observing all the major events and holidays of all three religions. His parents were worried, because most days he was involved in one religious thing or another. But they were wise enough to allow him to find his own direction. His father, the head Zookeeper of the Pondicherry Zoo, was constantly worried that another political party might step in and cancel subsidation for his Zoo. Finally his father decided to sell all the animals and move the family to Toronto. On the ship to Toronto, which many of the zoo's animals that were to be dropped off the cities along the way, sank during a storm in the South Pacific, and the boy found himself on a lifeboat, with a zebra, a hyena, an Orangutan, and a Bengal Tiger...

I will leave the rest of the story up to you to read, this book was well written, insightful, and amazing in its descriptive abilities, read it and you will learn lots about Zoo keeping, Animal training, Zoology in general, India in the 1970's, a brief history of Pondicherry, a former French colony, Hinduism, Islam, and more than a few poignant observations about life from the Author, who is a 47 year old Spaniard. "The Life of Pi"... I give it... Two thumbs up.

Now I only have the Upanshads to read, but books that heavy, take me an hour to go through one page. I need a companion book for entertainment.....

Might be looking for an apartment soon I hope. I want something around 500 bucks with a garage. Plenty of places in town like this. I want to have a small motorcycle shop, with lift, so I don't have to sit on the ground to work on my babies. I want to put a sidecar on my old Honda 900, so I can drive it to work during the wintertime!

I got to hit the jacuzzi, call Lynette, and go to bed, got some early things to do in the morning. In two days, I will be back in the woods for another 6 days, before going to Dallas.

Nite

July 9th, 2010

Got up and the Indian front desk lady reminded me to go to room "Tree Tert Teen" seems that the "th" is hard to pronounce if your not born using it. Room "Tree tert teen" is on the third floor and is a smoking room. When I made my deal for $45 per night with the owner, he had me agree to the condition that I would move to the smoky top of the motel on Friday, since non-smoking was booked. The smell of the room was bad until I turned the AC full up, and opened the window, then left the AC on for the rest of the day.

Found out that I could afford airline tickets after the wedding, so I booked the flight, then off to see my new rent house that I could enjoy on the first of August. Went to the house and noticed two open bibles in the main living room, that seemed poised that way some how. The new landlord was her usual neurotic self, I get the impression that she was nervous about me renting her house, while she was away getting her PHD. Earlier she mentioned one of her neighbors would be checking up on the "maintenence" but since I know his family, I really didn't mind him spying on me and reporting the house condition back to her. Today, she tells me her good friend "John" was going to be checking on me too. It is clear that this bundle of nerves doesn't trust me whatsoever. Unfortunately, I have already paid her a $980. deposit, signed a contract, and she keeps adding new conditions on me 2 months after signing the contract. She mentioned "wild parties" one to many times in a joking way, just like last time, which makes me think, She thinks I will have "wild parties" in her house. I can't deal with neurotic people with vivid imaginations, so I tried to placate, by telling her "I have no friends here", so I will be quite alone as usual. ( of course I can go to the pool hall and invite a few dozen drunks, if I ever want to become a "self fulfilling" prophecy). I left, and stewed over all this crap all afternoon. So I wrote her a letter explaining how I felt, trying to put it as delicately as possible. I did mention "that I wasn't a Sub Human and I don't need people watching me". I went on to close with "Please just refund my deposit, and find someone else to live here. I don't want to live in a house where I am not trusted.

Sincerely yours,

Allen Barnes"

People that believe that all the worlds animals actually fit on an Ark, tend to be suspicious of those that see the Ark story as parable, and didn't Christ teach in "parables". I seriously doubt that Christ would want to hang around with some of these non-Christian like people.

So now I'm waiting for her reply, I'm sure she read the letter since she checks her e-mail as often as myself, but she is probably shocked and trying to strategize, in order to get all her ducks back in a row.

After I met with her (before I wrote the letter), I high tailed it to the hot dog stand for lunch, and had a nice Chicago dog, some chips, and a coke for 4.50. Then since the day was getting hot, I went to the "Sports Academy" in order to swim some laps, and to cool off in general.

The pool was nearly empty, wonder where all the annoying kids were? Didn't miss them one bit, nice to be able to swim laps without the little intruders, nearly getting mowed down by a big fat guy with foggy googles.

After only 8 laps (shouldnt swim after one eats a spicy hotdog), I opted for the recliner that

had no neighbors, where I could get my body to be a similar shade to my arms and face.

I awoke 20 minutes later with a nice looking blonde woman two feet away working on a tan of her own. I got up and smiled in appreciation of her courage to take the chair next to the three hundred pound tattooed guy, but had to leave before the sun burnt me any further.

Went to the bookstore to buy a copy of the "Upanshads", which is the oldest Hindu book in the world, and the oldest book by any of the main religions of the world. Its writers are many and all are anomonous, as not to cheapen the work buy allowing "ego" to creep in. Much of this book is old familiar Buddhist thought, since Buddhism sprung from Hinduism 2500 years ago.

Bought some goldfish for my Lionfish, who seems to be hungry most of the time. Amazing how many fish this beast can eat in a week.

Came home and ate an MRE of Pav Bhaji, which is a type of potato based Indian food, but I had no pot to boil the MRE bag in. I didn't have a microwave proof bowl either, so I cleverly poured the stew into the coffee pot, and let the pot warm the meal up for about an hour and a first class Indian meal was created. I drank it from a coffee cup. This put me in the mood to get through a few of the Upanshads, amazed that most of this was written 6000 years ago. The authors were not stupid. The picture above is the main Hindu God "Vishnu", and many of his incarnations over time. The Hindus seem to paint pictures depicting different time periods at once.

this Author is quite tired so off to bed...

July 8th, 2010

What can I say, another night in the Hindu palace. I wonder if they rent here by the month so I don't have to live in the house I rented... I would do it in a heartbeat! I've always loved hotels, cheap ones, nice ones, all the same really. Since I was a kid, and Mom and Dad would stay at the Holiday Inn, I used to love it. The ice machine, the swimming pool, the freedom of coming and going when you choose. The cable TV, AC, Free Brekkies. What could someone not like about them? Ok, I can think of a few things, but most motels/hotels are fine with me.

I made it to the Hotdog stand at 11:00 A.M. and got my Chicago and New York style dogs, proceeded to my classroom to eat them, and surf the fast internet, while entertaining my fish.

Some day care mama with a passel of multi-colored kids was hanging around in my hallway long after the free lunch, she was hanging out in the hall, sucking in the free AC, while the kids she was watching were running in and out of the building, keeping the doors open using school furniture, probably waiting for her pimp to pick all the kids up and back the the place she was illegally holding day care. They were loud as hell, and more than running Amok, so I walked down the hall without expression (which is frightening if you saw it), removed the chairs that were holding the doors open and costing my school so much money. On my way back I glared, just long enough for her to realise what a pain in the ass she was being. She didnt take the hint and her little followers, stayed loud and out of control. Tomorrow, I will speak to her if she's still squatting in the ART area, just loitering, with out a better thing to do.

Looked up the directions again to get my bike fixed, then off to Majic Mikes place to see if he could help out her handling issues. Mike wasn't there but his wife allowed me to use his tools in order to fix the problems. Problem #1 was that the fork suspension was set a little bit different from one fork to the other. Done, I removed the handle bars, and aligned the fork preload adjustments the way I wanted. Mike returned and got the back shock sufficient air for a 300 pounder. He had to pump it from 5 to 45 pounds of pressure, most 150 pounders needed 15 psi, I needed 45, the bike only had 5 pounds of air in the friggin' rear shock, which made the bike unstable at certain times, where there was stress on the frame. She is way more stable now, I want to take her on another trip.

Stopped at my son's Penthouse to say hi and have a drink but no one was home. I went to his shady back porch, so I took the luxury of drinking a refreshing can of "Chelada" which is Budwieser mixed with "Clamato", tomato/clam juice drink. Sounds disgusting but is very refreshing. I can't believe "Budwieser" had the guts to make this stuff. But I am a true "Chelada" fan. Seafood, Beer, and Tomato is a great combination. Logan's room mate, and a couple other friends, showed up and we had a nice conversation. Soon they left me to my peace and went inside to play video games. All were pleasant old teenagers.

Drove home and spent the rest of the evening in the Hindu Palace, did the Jacuzzi ritual, spent the remainder of the night talking to my sweet older sister, and reading "The life of Pi" , while dreaming about the next "Chelada" I will have.

July 7th,2010

July 6th 10:00 A:M : Check out time at the "Flaming Gorge" motel, the owner I will call him "Mr. Patel", although I don't know his name. Came out of his office to see me off. It was a very solemn occasion, I noticed a small tear as if I was going off to war. We used to talk every day, about India, raising children, the current state of America, and all sorts of things. I will miss him and his gracious wife. The Hindus are the most gentle and wise people as a group, that I know. Remember, the Hindus are the worlds oldest major religion, and that their 6000 year old texts such as the "Upanishads" knew the true age of the Earth. This fact about their religion amazes the heck out of me. I have been a believer in reincarnation since the age of 5 and remember asking my best friend sister "Robin", if she thought it possible for animals and other beings could be reborn after they died, even into different animals or unknown beings. She said it made sense to her. I doubt she remembers this conversation, but it occurred during a long road trip in the back of our Delta 88 Station Wagon.

The wind was only 10 mph, so instead of camping locally, I decided to get back to Logan. This bike should feel very stable at 80 MPH, but there is a big issue with the front suspension, and it needs to be fixed. After 100 miles I made it to the town of "Kemmerer" again, passed the subway I went to last time, because I wanted to see the rest of the town, and I wanted a real breakfast, which involves eggs, hashbrowns, coffee, toast, and bacon. Funny how that is the standard breakfast all over the country, Texas, Utah, New York, New Mexico, that is the standard cheap diner breakfast. I recently reread "Travels with Charley", and Steinbeck made the same observation. But it still rings true "John", thats the mainstay here 50 year after you pointed it out to me. (I would go on and inquire about "Johns' afterlife experience", but I try to stay out of peoples' business.

Wow! Kemmerer is a pretty big city of about 5000 souls, from the highway, you see a bunch of desert prehistoric, buttes, hills, and coyote/roadrunner, looking rock formations. Damn! I had no idea they hid an entire small city in that place. Leaving town you can't see it either.

I drove around Kemmerer and it was another lovely place, in the same lines of Green River. Trout fishing from the city docks, entire place tidy, clean, painted. Lots of well kept up old buildings, mixed with newer ones, none looked bad, no trash, no sleezy people hangin' around with nothing to do. Cops that wave at ya. This is the last stand of the Nice American town. Of course I've seen more, in Utah, Idaho, and other places in the West, but the Wyoming towns I visited this time, had the rest of them beat. Leave it to Beaver country for sure. Yet, there were quite a few liquor stores and bars, which only proves that the Wyomingites can handle their liquor!!!!!

Headed back to Logan but instead of going the same route, I opted to add 100 more miles to my trip, and headed North toward "Jackson Hole" and "Yellow Stone National Park. Since I didn't want to go to those expensive places, I turn right towards Monticello, Soda Springs, and A few other lovely south eastern Idaho places. By the time I hit Monticello, I already had 200 windblown miles under the belt, and my head was windbeaten into a trance by then (yes, the 10 MPH winds, moved up to 20, and the going was getting tiresome. So I stopped at a Mormon "Arctic Circle" restaurant, and although not hungry, still had a dollar burger and a Pepsi float (the Mormons have a buttload of Pepsi stock, so its what most Mormon areas offer instead of the superior "Coke" product. Funny how the word "Coke" means three things. We also went through "Coke Ville" Wyoming, which referred to a type of high grade processed coal. Actually the first meaning of the word "Coke". "Coke" as in the Cola was the third meaning. Take a wild guess, the second one.

From Monticello, Idaho, I spend through the high hills and valleys, all irrigated and green from the neighboring, Watsatch, Caribou, and Teton mountain ranges, which go from Ogden, Utah, up to Jackson Hole and beyond. Since they are all connected, they really should give them all one name. The mountains that pass Logan, Utah's East Side, have trails, where the insane can possibly walk from my future house, up into YellowStone, without leaving the mountains. Hope the big grizzly bears, Wolves, and Buffalo, don't start hiking their way down here. (the wolves have started), But it's nice to know that there are wild places like Yellowstone, but leave all that shit up there where it belongs!!! Its only 200 miles away after all.

Hit the lovely South East Idaho town and the county seat of Caribou County, and did a bit of site-seeing, had to catch some photos, of the "Soda Springs Geyser", which was actually made by when the opportunistic town's people, back in the 30's tryed to drill down into the rocks, and find some geothermal spring source for there swimming pool. But they got a big fuggin' Geyser, only they were smart enough to learn to turn it on and off, and they have it timed for once an hour. Fortunately, I got there while it was spouting! Otherwise, I might not have waited for it. All 5 of us onlookers were in awe at the sight of it.

Since I was only 80 miles from Logan at this point I had to stop for an afternoon beer, in order to counteract the effects of the coffee and Pepsi, earlier in the day. I got to talk to an old bar prophetess and we had a nice chat bantering about the five different routes to Logan, Utah. I told her that I preferred the "flattest" route, since I preferred the flat lands, coming from Texas and all. So she told me the quickest route, was a beautiful way to go, and yes it had some mountains, then weren't cliff hangers or anything, and that the trip was well worth it. Then as she told me about her five husbands, and her old three wheeled trike motorcycle that only goes 50 miles per hour, and how much she prefers "living in Soda" and not Logan, since it is a massive metro area, and it scares her to go there, and so on and so on. I finished my one beer and got the hell out of there. Against my better judgement, I took her advice, which turned out quite good, and turned south, with a nice wind at my back, going from valley to valley, all green and harvesting alfalfa, with the ubiquitous "Bear River" running hither and thither, to my right then my left, which also runs through Logan to guide me. Hilly but not quite mountainous, it was a joy ride, and the views were breathtaking. Easily the loveliest place that looks like Switzerland, except all the big Mormon farm houses, which used to house the various brides of the lone farmer, until the 1890's (wink wink), do not resemble the Swiss mountain villages in the least, but terrain sure does. I hope this part of America will never be discovered. A 50 mile drive that followed the prettiest valleys I've ever seen in all my travels. Too bad there were no places for a tourist to sit and grab a beer. Next time, I'll bring my own, and a lawn chair, and sit at the overlooks and just watch and dream.

After I drove through, what I will call the "Grace Valley" area, which were actually about 4 smaller valleys, with the introductory town called "Grace", the road steeply winded south, into the familiar town of Preston, Idaho, which was 10 miles from the Utah border, and at the beginning of the huge valley where I live known as "Cache Valley" (population 100,000 plus), so I was 30 miles to my lovely city. The road was a wide 4 lane all the way from Preston, and I just cruised on home, sad that my journey wasn't all the way to Texas, but happy to do a 500 + mile trip, which is about as far as I've ever gone by motorcycle. I was 29 the last time I made that distance. Call me what you want but I am proud of my accomplishment, through rough driving windy conditions, on a bike that needs some serious, front end work.

nb

I landed in my favorite hotel "The Holiest Super 8 , with the hot tub now known as "Shiva", and where you will awake in the many arms of "Gonesh", feeling like a new man. Vishnu and Krishna, are permeating this place in spirit and I could continue to exaggerate and pull your legs, but you get the idea how much peace is felt around here.

For breakfast, I had the "Carbon County" make your own giant waffle, that most Super 8's allow you to cook, a genious machine actually. With all the cold cereal, orange juice, danishes, no meat but plenty to eat. I talked the owner into a 45$ per night weekly rate, and plan to stay here for the next 6 days.

After that, I might fly to Dallas, or I might take another motorcycle trip over to Santa Rosa California, in the red wood and wine country. I really want to try out the bike once I fix it tomorrow, but me and the luggage overloaded it by 30 pounds, and I want to really make sure the new front end adjustments, and rear end , will work. I also need either a taller windshield, or simply cut off the one I have so it's not blowing a super fast draft of air up my chin, and i do not want to crouch like a bug to get behind the thing. Riding this bike was not comfortable for me, except for the seat. My butt never hurt, but I think its cause my legs were so bunched up on the high pegs, my butt barely touched the seat. Ok, less about my butt!

I did little today, but find out how to fix the bike, check mail, do fish tank maintenance in my classroom... etc. I did find my student "Keiths" parents famous Chicago Hot Dog stand, near the court house. Keith was telling me about it, and since I love hotdogs more than any other Texan I know, I sought to find the place. I got there 15 minutes late, and Keiths mom promised to give me my hot dogs the next day, if I could make it by one PM. I will be back.

So I went to the local A and W, the only place in town besides convenience stores that sell hot dogs, and pissed the owner off by demanding onions and relish, rather than chili and cheese on my dog. Since the A@W is really a hamburger joint, he really didn't get while I wanted sauerkraut, at least relish and onions. So I got what I got, and he sneers, while I applied Tabasco sauce to his mustard onion monstrosity he served me. The dog was a top quality all beef dog, and the tabasco really helped! They did make some incredible onion rings, and the meal was a good one. Too bad the manager was such a dick. Oh well, I will get the real thing tomorrow, and probably dream about it the rest of the night.

I spent the rest of the evening calling old friends (not frienemies), and drinking a few Gin and Sprites, then heading down to the legendary jacuzzi which I call (Shiva), after the Hindu goddess of the underworld, which will straighten me out in less than ten minutes, which is Shiva's nature after-all.

Then I watched TV and wrote for the past three hours.

Nite all.

Good Nite!

July 5th, 2010

Slept in after a late July 4th, wide awake and ready to take on the local pool. Nice to have one full week of vacation, Last year it was Waikiki, this year..."Green River", not too many differences really, both were a pain in the ass to get to. Both places, have a lovely sky and unfamiliar terrain to see. Both were agreeable in the weather department, with few blood sucking insects due to the winds. Both had unique cultures that were interesting to learn about. The main difference, was that I hadn't been able to swim here.... Yet! I found the Green River City Recreation center, and it has a very nice pool. Maybe not as nice as the hotel in Waikiki, where I could go from pool to jacuzzi, back to pool and so on. But I got to swim a half a mile, and get the swimming need out of my system. Of course the $4.50 fee was ridiculous enough to prevent me from going back any time soon. Judging from the 4 people in the pool, I think the rest of the town is avoiding it for the same reason.

I took my clothes to the majical laundromat, which will turn your grey old socks back to white, a phenomenon not seen by this laundromat user ever. Plus there were intelligent magazines to read, and cnn on the tele, so it was a pleasure to spend my three dollars, and the hour and a half of time there.

Hit McDonalds for a cup of coffee and a double cheese burger for brekkies, by then it was 2 PM.

The winds were gusting up to 37 miles per hour, so my attempts to leave town and go on a scouting mission, were literally blown back. From what I've read: The stock Concours windshield, and top heavyness, combined with a 7 gallon tank of fuel, makes her a scary ride in the high winds, and tough to manuever in parking lots for this reason as well. The turning radius rivals that of my F250, I drove back to the hotel and tried to find people selling their big cruiser bikes who would trade with me. Then I put the bike officially up for sell. I bet nobody wants it. Their competition bike, the Honda 11oo ST, is a much better choice. Other Concours owners will disagree, but I'll take the ST anyday, but they are never for sale for some reason. To be fair, since 2007, the Kawasaki Concours is a much larger and more substantial bike, its a 1400 cc, and probably will give the Honda a run for its money.

After putting the bike up for sale, I checked the wind prospects for the next couple days, and tomorrow I will escape and head down toward the "Flaming Gorge" lake, and I plan to go camping at a place in the high desert call the "Fire Hole", which is entirely in the high desert, yet I can jump in the water when things get too hot. After that, I don't know what to do, but I'm sure I will figure something out.

Tonite I'm trying to eat the rest of my hotel food, watching Anthony Bordains, Travel Channel show, read a bit, and turn in early, so I can break this camp.

Nite all.

July 4th, 2010

I still love this town, it is never boring. I finally have a cool place to read books, watch a bit of cable, surf the net. When that gets old, I jump on the bike and site see. This part of the state is called the High Desert, and is extremely hilly covered with sagebrush and some pretty cool rock formations.... plus a big giant river, which most of the desert clearly doesn't get to drink from. Green River was the Kick off point that the great explorer "John Wesley Powell", started and eventually made it through the Grand Canyon, many miles south of here. A nice statue of Mr. Powell stands in the front of the Green river museum, which I need to visit soon.

Put my bike up for trade on the same site I bought her from "KSL" classifieds. KSL is the main Salt Lake City newspaper, but does cater to South Western Wyoming as well. I am not happy with the way the bike behaves in high variable cross winds and doesn't feel stable on it at speeds past 70, when its windy. Part of the reason is my heavy weight combined with my heavy camping gear. During high wind episodes you have to constantly push against the winds to avoid being pushed into the oncoming traffic. One slip and your done for. The bike also feels unstable during these conditions at 70 plus speeds. Although, its a good bike and a thrill to ride under normal conditions. I want to trade her for a Cruising bike of 1100 cc or larger. No windshields, unless its very small. I will try to trade her ASAP, and continue my trip, or I will head back to Logan in another week and fly to Dallas. Trading on KSL is quite popular, so I am hoping for the best.

Meanwhile, I am having fun here, the people are friendly, I have no schedule to adhere to, the weather is cool and nice, the daily storms are fun to watch, and food is cheap and plentiful, as long as it can be cooked in my microwave. Tomorrow, I'm going to go for some laps at the Rec Center which I just now learned about. At some point I plan to stay at the "Fire Hole" camp ground on the big lake below, and see what the High Desert is really like! I also have plans to hit the three bars down the track facing the Railyard, known as "The Brewery", "The Ambassador", and the "Green Gander", which I believe I've mentioned. The rail worker next door came stumbling home tonight and he said he'd introduce me to the locals there. I do want to go for the historic value of these three antiques, but not to be a bar-fly, an hour at each place should satisfy my curiosity. That will leave about 10 other bars I have not been, and I don't plan to. Bar people are the same miserable bastards everywhere, bars serve mainly as places to escape your loneliness. Most frequent patrons, should practice a little "alone" time. I would rather read a book in a cheap hotel parking lot and listen to the traffic, than pay to listen to bar talk. I have learned this from years of bar experience. But these old places by the rail yard do need some exploring and I'm just the man to do it.

I stocked up on a few cheap microwavable dishes this evening, including an Indian dish consisting of some dahl, and pea curry with tofu and rice. The pungent smell wafted to the out side as I left the door open, and the motel owner, an Indian gave me a huge smile as he was working on the light fixtures outside. I might spend a month in India instead of China next summer. The cheap costs of living in either place would pay for the plane ticket and cost the same overall as staying in Logan would be. Tomorrow morning I plan to microwave some bacon and eggs with some instant coffee. I haven't used a microwave oven in 5 years, but I am rapidly gaining a new appreciation for the microwave craft. Hummmm, I wonder if I can make fresh eggs in the micro?

Around dark (about 10 oclock up here), the fireworks displays came from the other side of the rail yard and river, I found a perfect spot a couple blocks down main street from my room, and a half a block down an old deserted side street, where I sat on a bench, and watched the event alone, the side street was dark and near the edge of a dusty old town. Between the fireworks display and me, was a tremendous sea of ancient, dark, giant, oily, gravel parking lots as long as the town which it sprawls next to, the massive rail yards, huge and poorly lit, a 1000 yards wide and two miles long, with old iron scaffolding, and eroding ancient buildings, many closed for all time. But the yard is alive! With old trains and engines, with various amounts of rust and graffiti, the sounds are constant and eerie. No humans can be seen anywhere, this is a land of tar, rust, and steel. This is a place where human life is cheap, this is in the realm of the old ghosts of metal and broken bricks, this is the black iron nether-world, where all your dreams stop, because this yard wants you to acknowledge its supremacy and bow down before its majestic greatness.... The explosive night pulsating through that strange land is emanating from a large unseen river, where the fireworks were based. The lights from the firebombs, producing shimmering sparks of hell, passing through a burnt forest of iron desolation, combined with the thunder of the explosives and the groans of the massive snarling hellish yard between, was a scene out of Milton or Dante.

It was the most beautiful firework display I've ever seen.

July 2nd, 2010

This is in neighboring "Carbon County", 180 acres for 39,000 dollars. I will retire around here and spend the rest of my days watching the sky. Nothing like the skies up here in Wyoming or neighboring Montana. These vast untouched desolate areas remind me of being far out into the ocean, with nothing but your imagination to keep your attention. Times like this, a passing insect, a thought, a book, an AM radio, will quickly become your best friend. I am no stranger to these places. I like them, as long as I can be back in town in less than an hour.

Today, I explored most of the city, driving my bike around in search for the hidden laundromat. Really took a couple hours, and that was after I asked the Hotel manager. I like these Indian (from India) motel owners. This one is putting three kids through college from the proceeds of his hotel. Nice to donate my $35 per night to a decent cause.

While I was out on my laundry mat search, I was also trying to locate the elusive grocery store.

It too was hidden in another backwater of town, far away from the main roads and shopping centers. I bought some hot dog making supplies, while the clothes were drying. I plan to save on some restaurant bills. Even bought coffee and danishes for breakfast. Dyamn this Wyoming wind was blowing the bike all over the place. If I go through here again, I'm trading this in for a big heavy cruising bike. My CB 900 custom, would do much better in these winds, due to heavier weight, and low center of gravity. To hold this bike on the road in windy conditions, takes all my concentration. We had gusts up to 45 today. Winds are supposed to let up around Sunday, then I'll get back on the road.

Sat on the bench in front of the room reading an interesting book "The life of Pi" instead of going to the bars. Only went to a bar on my first night here, didn't enjoy it all that much. I think I have grown out of the bar scene. Live music, might be another story, but these bars are places for long time friends to congregate. As far as I know, I have no long time friends around here.

"Pi" in the book is a kid from India, who is a Hindu, but became a Christian and a Muslim, whos father is a zoo keeper at the Pondicherry Zoo. Book does give some keen insight on the Hindu religion, which makes more sense to me than the Western Religions. The Hindus long ago figured out that the planet is over 6 billion years old. They also knew that it was only one of billions of planets. The late Astronomer Carl Sagan, a devout atheist, devoted one of his hour long "Cosmos" series to the intelligence of the ancient Hindu beliefs.

Spent most of the evening with the book, and a small bottle of Jim Beam, so here I am after midnight writing all this. Very non eventful day, but quite nice all the same.

July 1st, 2010

Woke up late, and added another day to staying in my $37 per night hotel, there is more in this vicinity that I want to see. So I mostly chilled, watched tv, and went exploring the town and taking pictures. Add a strange breakfast at the "Krazy Moose" restaurant, which looks like a big elks lodge on the inside. The morning special was "Huevous Rancherous", which I;m sure was intentionally misspelled since the dish consisted of a bunch of beef, and potato leftovers?, dumped on a tortilla which sat in a bowl with two fried eggs on the top. Lots a white gravy in the dish. It was less than palatable, but more than cheap and filling so bitch doth not I.

Slept off the meal, and awoke to "All in the Family" which I watched a few episodes of, before jumping on the bike to get some pictures of this lovely town. Most of the pics sucked, I need to review and hone my skills using this old Konica-Minolta camera.
I used to take smashing pics with my big Nikon, but it was to cumbersome to travel with. This Minolta does do a good job, when it is operated correctly.

The awesomes storms started up during my photo shoot, so I hid in my hotel room and waited another couple hours to go to dinner, again at the Moose! Dinner was far better than the breakfast, and the beer prices were more than reasonable. I had the
hamburger steak with onions and mash under an exquisite brown gravy. I perused the local newspapers, and places to see, while I piled down this food, since I been starving for two days now it seems. Spent the next hour or so enjoying the cool post rainy weather, sitting on the bench in front of my room, until an old Navajo indian, my next door neighbor pulled up and
we talked for over an hour, comparing jobs, kids, ect... I enjoyed the convo, not meeting many indians, but the Navajo seem to be the best adapted of most of the tribes I'm familiar with. Had several Navajo students these past few years, and they are quite in tune with both sides of our societies. The indian question is still unsolved, but clearly we can't give back to them all we have taken. Its still sad how the reservation systems, haven't kept up with modern times.

Not sure If I will stay here in old Green River tomorrow or go camping up in the high desert, I am interested in this place, so I
don;t plan to move down the road for the next few days. It sure is nice being out on the road with no real destination or purpose, other than to learn. No deadlines, no expectations, no promises to keep...what will happen we shall see. I really love this Wyoming high desert area, can't explain why, but all things I like in a place can be found here.

June 30th, 2010 (for real) Logan, to Green River, Wyoming

Got up at 8:00 ate a big free breakfast at the "Holy" Super 8 in Logan, then crashed back to sleep, dreaming of Hindu goddesses, and remembering things I still needed to do. ReAwoke at 9:30 then processed to intellegenly begin to pack the bike's saddlebags (both really need to weigh the same), then pack the tail pack which includes my computer, meds, and things that can;t take 110 degree heat which will cook things in my saddlebags, due to the heat enimating from my tail pipes.

11PM: Left the holy place, stopped at the school to feed my fish, met with my Dean of students, who was painting my room, and we bantered about a bit of next year student strategies. Held me up for an hour, then I checked my mail, and went to repay my son Logan for a hundred dollar loan. Logan was doing fine in his new place, and I took off like a bat from hell up Logan Canyon! Wasn't happy with the handling of the bike, and didn't feel confident in the twisty roads while going over the cache mountains, In fact, I was scared shitless much of the time, but I have an unNatural fear of hightes, cliffs, and things like that.
Don't know why, but it is real. I faced this fear and drove 30 miles through the bastard mountains, before descending down into the Bear lake area. After that, all was flat, like I am used to, being from Texas. It was funny: A group of elderly BMW riders, passed me going up the mountains, then I joined them in a big rest area overlook, but was to ashamed to talk to them. I hurried up and left down the other side doing 40 mph and they re-passed me going down to Bear Lake. Fortunately, they went left to Idaho, and I went right to Wyoming! Glad not to have to explain my phobia, to such accomplished veteran long distance riders.

Stopped at the south end of Bear Lake to grab a beer, to lessen the coffee in me, and get some much needed sun screen for my bare shoulders. Distance from Logan: 50 miles only. The 50 miles took me nearly two hours, due to my phobias, and my stopping to stretch my legs, which are two long for this bike. This bike feels unbalanced or something. Me thinks, that their is way to much weight on the tail end of this bike. I really miss my CB900 Custom right now. It is a low and heavy piece of metal, with a very nice automatic air suspension. This bike feels overloaded, and fishy, I will figure this issue out in the near future.

Drove out of the lake area and headed to "Kemmerer" Wyoming, after many miles of dry Wyoming sagebrush desert, with a bunch of smaller windy hills, so the road is curvey but not too scary for me. The winds are a bit unpredictable, and there is a
high number of mining trucks, all of which prefer to go 90 MPH, while I am doing 60 due to the winds affect on my sail-like windshield.

So, after 3 hours of stopping and driving slow, I finally made "Kemmerer", Since it was around 4 PM, I opted to eat a subway sandwich, and buy a map, since I had little idea where "Kemmerer" was! Yes, my cell phone has a "Google" Map, and GPS system, but "Kemmerer"? It say "Me savvy no signal", which really isn't the same as a map is it! I really thought that paper maps, were obsolete for me. Hahaha, So by a real map, I was barely past the border of northern utah, and barely into the south western corner of Wyoming. Nice. All that shit for little map progress! But I AM NO LONGER IN UTAH! AND I FACED MY DEEP FEAR OF DRIVING ALL THE WAY THROUGH THE MOUNTAINS TO GET THERE! All my Logan friends consider this an easy thing to do. Sorry, this easy thing was tough for me. I don't mind cliffs at a slow dirtbike speed, or to walk near them. But driving 50 mph, along one is not for me. Nuff said!

So the extremely cute Wyoming chick at Subway clinically made me a nice sandwich, and the not so cute (she was nearly my age) chick who sold me the map could flirt the chrome off a trailer hitch (yes, I heard the nasty version of that analogy), and I
managed to hang out there in "Kemmerer" for quite some time. My legs were locking up due to the proximity of the seat to the foot pegs. And I needed some solid food, since I ate last in the early morning, and that wasn't made of MEAT!

Remember those sandpiles we would play in as kids? Where we would scoop out gullies, and ditches, then try to plant the occasional sprig of grass, or substitute using dead twigs and chit like that? Try building a little town in the middle of the deepest depression of that, add a Subway/gas station, and few cheap motels, houses, other assorted buildings and Viola! KEMMERER! They built the town down low out of the wind. From a distance, you couldn't tell it existed. Many of the buildings and streets were "oil company funded" brand new. I actually liked the little town, but a bit small for my tastes. The next town however, I will retire to at some point..

Leaving Kemmerer, the sky looked like a brownish BLACK curtain 2/3rds to the direction I was going. Two miles down the highway, I caught a small shower of giant cold rain drops, which bespeckled my sunglasses, which are all the eye protection I
have with me! (I really need some ski goggles, as I am wearing a semi openfaced dirt bike helmet. Then the winds got crazy. Couldn't predict where the would hit, but they were yanking my 1000cc bike all over the road like an evil kid with a play toy. I slowed down to 50 Miles per hour. I had more control of the bike, but the veritable plethora of big fucking, double tractor trailer trucks, were running me down every couple minutes! I am beginning to think of Wyoming, as a big giant mining pit, that Dick Cheney plays in, like a little kid, while sticks the valuable ore in the pockets of his shorts, so as to put a few more coins in his piggy bank... LOL! (the mind starts to wander in scary assed positions such as this one.) So then the torrential rains start to smash into me, as I duck my head behind the opaque windshield, and dropping the speed to 40, while more violent trucks attempt to run me off the road, in order to get their contents to their happy place, without a minute to spare.

The wind was even more violent, and goody! Lightning was crashing all around, while I blindly tried to out run this strange storm and avoid the trucks from smashing me into a pancake. This hell lasted for nearly an hour.

The sky finally broke a little, then I was driving in the bright sunshine, with a buttload of rain still smacking into me, but since the winds abated, the only thing I had to watch for was the copious amount of TRUCKS! Most trucks showed some respect, but one or two literally drove me into the should, covered me with their wash, which blinded me for a few seconds, and really pissed me off! One in particular, I wish I could meet again.....

So now I'm happy, driving though the water on the road with my new tires, confident that I wont hydroplane, and now the rain stopped, the winds quit, and I am back up to 65 miles per hour, with little worry in the world. At 65 trucks will still need to pass, but not nearly as often as when one is going 40. After the 15 minutes of relief after a few hours of total fear and hell, I started to enjoy the trip (although Kemmerer was a fun stop), then I got to Interstate 80, which Eisenhauer planned back in the late 50's as part of the "Super Highway System", and is a much nicer road, than the little assbag trails that I came from.
I was able to wind the bitch up too 75 MPH for the first time in my short journey. I have gone 75 many, many times in my years of biking, but this bike doesn't feel right. Yes, it was still a little windy, but the bike doesn't feel stable or something. So I laid my big belly on the tank, in order to counter balance the 70 pounds of cargo, in the back, and the bike felt far more stable. This bike, is one that the rider is required to lay on the gas tank, in what is commonly referred to as the "crotch rocket" style. Only problem with crotching it for long is the 8 inch risers, someone put on the handle bars, in order to sit straight up! Well... Sitting straight up, with a bunch of luggage in the back, makes for an unstable ride. I bet the thing would go into a "death wobble" or something, if I went beyond 100 mph. Next time I drive it, I will load, 35 more pounds, on the tank area, and off the tail, which will help immensely. I also plan to buy the goggles, remove the dirt bike visor (it occilates up and down, which annoys the shit out of me), and a tank bag to put my heavy objects in, like my camera and computer and stuff. I might even get a front fender pack in order to balance her. I also need to find a bike shop who can add a few more pounds of air to the front suspension. All this should make for a much better ride. Motorcycle riding does take a few adjustments in order to keep things pleasant and safe.

Got to the beautiful city of Green River Wyoming, after 30 more miles on the highway (by Ike). Nice drive mostly, but still getting passed while doing 70. But now they have a lane to pass in, and nothing coming from the other direction. Super Highways are far safer than farm roads, or smaller highways. Its a fact that most road deaths are on secondary, non urban roads. People just drive too fast for these roads. My kids and I used to see at least one or two burning flipped over cars and trucks, on our 20 miles commute to school back in the old days, deaths were usually involved, Oh well. Now we know how the general public views death. I take life seriously. Life is a gift afterall. I will risk my life if I have to. But I don't enjoy it, and generally take the safest route possible. Looks like Super Highways will bring me back to Texas.


God I love this city! Green River Wyoming. It has a certain ancient Atlantic seaboard since of architecture to the downtown area, mixed with the clean, new money look and the secondary tourist trap thing going on. Hard to describe overall, but it
is nice, clean, friendly, and has 12 bars in a town of 11000 people. This doesnt include restaurants with bars.
Logan utah, for example has 3 bars and 55000 people. Guess which city I prefer? Ok, enough of that, and you folks know by now that I do love the Mormons, and teaching their kids. But Logan Utah, ain't no Green River, and never will be! I went to the "single feather" bar tonite, which I walked to from my stately $35 dollar a nite hotel, had three beers and a bowl of smokin red hot pork rinds...... the fare was only $7.00. Three Pints of draft beer. Sheesh!

I found a clean comfortable room with internet for only $35 called the "Flaming Gorge", tomorrow I plan to view the actual "Flaming Gorge" and possible do some sailing or kayaking. Heck, this is my vacation and I know I won't see a nicer place than this town, so I might just spend a few days here, Once I get to Nebraska, I will do those 400 mile days. But not here in Green River. This place also has a huge county library, a big museum, a first class central park, a working old time train station, need I say more? I only explored the area for 30 minutes or so, and haven't seen the river or the newer part of the city. But I put this first on my list of retirement places. Although, I don't plan to retire for at least another couple decades.

My Virgin mobile phone doesn't get service here, but I still choose to give my hard earned money to a space pioneer like Richard Branson, than the corporate money gluttons that run ATT. I did get to contact Mom and another friend with the free WIFI at this excellent motel. Unfortunately I will have to walk a couple blocks for brekkies, at the "Crazy Moose" restaurant, which is part of the "single feather" bar. The bartender told me of the other good bars, and I told him, that I don't slut around
and cheat once I found a bar i approve of. More on this wonderful city tomorrow. There is rumored to be an even more wonderful city 18 miles down the highway called "Rock Springs", although its a college town, I doubt it can compare to Green River. But I might have a gander.

June 30th, 2010

The bike came out of the shop after 7:00PM with new tires. The handling and lack of strange road noises were noticed immediately, the old tires were so cupped in places the bike tried to slide out from under me yesterday while turning a corner. A very hard "foot plant" into the concrete is all that kept the bike from going down in the street, with a car behind me. This scared me enough to postpone the trip another two days, and shell out a considerable amount of money for the tires. The difference noticed in the bikes handling while, driving back to the "Super 8", is far more important than things like money and time. God only knows what would have happened had I tried to go to Dallas on those old tires? At best I could have been stranded, at worst?? I don't want to think about it. One should never compromise when it comes to safety, especially on a motorbike.


Second night in the Logan "Super 8" motel. I love this place, wish I could rent a room by the month here. Sure it smells old and dank in the main hallway, and some of the furniture should be chopped up and burned, but the Indians that run the place put off such a friendly vibe, combined with the best damn Jacuzzi on the planet, make this place excellent in my book. $50 per night, makes it the second cheapest place in Logan, but I much prefer it to the far more expensive Best Western I stayed in two weeks ago. Actually I prefer the two nights I spent, in the truck camper, behind Mikes house, in the Middle of the valley, out in the country with a marsh full of cattails and frogs to keep me company. This jacuzzi is 100 degrees in heat, with hundreds more jets than the standard ones. The size was big enough for 10 people and no danger of brushing against your neighbor. The force behind the water flow, was reminiscent of the Pratt and Whitleys of a 747. The best Jacuzzi I have have sat in, and the nice cold 5 foot deep, indoor pool, is the perfect place to jump into afterward. It was heaven.

Nite all, leaving for Wyoming in the morning.

June 29th, 2010

Hell, where do I begin. I know I should blog more, but during the school year nothing of merit seems to happen. I live for the summer it seems. And this has been quite a different summer than before.


I got the call from my landlord that "she was selling the house and I needed to move this summer", so I decided to move early and be homeless for six weeks, while traveling, I would save rent money. I could tell ya the whole story later, but this suffices for now. So I spent the days between June 16th and June 29th, homeless basically. I spent 8 of these days camping and living in the camper in the back of my truck. 7 of these days were in hotels of some form.


The trouble with constant camping is that I have been running constantly every day, mailing out EBAY auction stuff, which will enable me to go on my big motorcycle trip, and I spent sometime getting help from my doctor and dentist, which was well needed, but I had to do some magic document dynamics, in order to be reembursed for the extreme expenses that medical care requires nowadays.

So my dream is to ride by motorcycle to Dallas and back, which is really not much of a dream, considering that I have several friends that have driven their bikes, trillions of miles, with no big deadly problems. I just bought a 2000 Kawasaki Concours, which is a "Ninja", tamed down with a drive shaft, and a few other compensations, but the bike is pretty, looks new , and is fast as hell!

I have spent over 1200 dollars, getting her perfect for this voyage. All my EBAY effort has been in order to counteract the price I paid to get this 10 year old bike in perfect condition.

I have been writing most of this "transition time" but havent learned how to upload all that onto this forum. I swear, the things I have experienced and noticed, will have you in stitches for many years to come. But I have a need to put down a new page, after slacking for so long. I hope I can entertain you viewers with some cool stuff pretty soon.

I set out today at 8:00 AM to: 1. Mail a fuggin huge 130 pound package to some cajun man in Opelousas Lousiana, which consisted of a "Warn 9000 portable Winch", He paid me 900 bucks for it. He will be able to pull out a house with this thing. But I am finally rid of the big heavy equipment, so I am a happy man! Then I went to my classroom and proceded to figure out why my "Lion fish" is sooo distressed. Since my saltwater tank chemistry was fine, I brought out my "Salt content", device from the bowels of my storage shed, and it indicated, that I have not checked my salt level in some time. My classroom tank was close to the same levels as the fickin "Dead Sea", which I spent 2 hours of water changes in order to bring the tank to normal. My attention to my fish, has brought happy results.

Then I had to take the truck camper, with camping trailer (dirtbike, bicycle, and trash), to my old buddy Mr. Burninghams house. Unfortunately, Mr. "B" has more shit than I, but he claims that he has a place to park it. Mr. "B" is the heart of the
Art Department at Logan High, and I attest that he is a damn good man!


"Then I went back to my other best friend "Mike Nelson", who was working on my bike. "Mike" is an incredible human being in his own wright." Mike, not only has an excellent motorcycle shop in his own garage, but he also leads motorcycle tours for some company in Los Angeles, CA. He is also the local Captain for "BACA", whose organization is an advocate for abused kids, which gets involved with helping out the unfortunate, and they go as far as they need to help these people. I might become a member at some point.

At Mikes, we noticed the sorry condition of my tires, but today we couldnt find any new ones locally. So tonight I'm in a "Super 8" motel, waiting for my tires, which should come in tomorrow.

April 9th, 2010

Ok, its really close to midnite April 9th, but it is really April the 8th.

Just doing the Spring Break thing, staying up late at night and partying down by myself. Been playing music by my favorite Blues singer "Buddy Guy" much of the day. Had lots of Ceviche left over to eat today, it was ok, but I prefer the fresh stuff.

I was reading thru another "Truck Camping" site written by a 30 something couple, and they seem to be living a free life. I still envy and seek to emulate these folks one of these days, but I seem to be addicted to my current salary and job, which I do like. I hate the regementation of a 50 hour a week job, and my blood pressure gets worse every year because of this. But a good job is as addicting as heroin or tobacco, I simply can;t bring myself to break from a fifty grand per year job, during this economy. If I don't, I will likely die from a stroke (knock on wood).

I spent this Spring Break, focusing on eliminating salt from my diet and eating less. I have lost 15 pounds so far, but it isnt much, considering I now only weigh 3oo pounds (I am 6' 3" but I still feel like shit much of the time). Confined to a specific area, interacting with hundreds each day, while having to wake at 6 am. and the other responsibilities, as totally foreign and unnatural to my entire existance. Hard to describe it, but I feel like a freakin cow, doomed to life in a feed lot. I never liked the career thing, but since moving up here to Utah, at least the job is much more pleasant than my previous place of work.

I really envy this couple, who are making it as work kampers, plus a few online enterprises, who travel the country and enjoy themselves while still in their 30's. Check out their website, which is simular to mine, but Im still dreamin and they are out there enjoying their freedom... http://hitekhomeless.net/2008/05/free-at-last-free-at-last-johnny

I wish these people the best, its obvious to me that they know what they are doing.

After I return from a month in South East Asia this summer, I plan to fulltime it in my camper for a month or more. Hopefully, I can break away from my little pen in a few years.

My observations on Truck Camping so far is this:

1. Far more convienient than pulling a camping trailer: I generally go much farther up the trails than the trailer peeps. They enjoy the space, I enjoy the solitude. I enjoy the much-improved gas mileage, and driving ease in the towns and cities. I also have much more "Stealth" ability, since I can park on the street, and the cops are unlikely to catch me! I also, have the luxury of pulling a small trailer for motorcycles, kayaks and other toys!

2. Cheaper to heat.. Up here in the Northern Rockies, its nice to warm up your home, 5 minutes just by making coffee on the stove. A luxury to die for, believe me.

3. Quicker to get the hell outta there! I can bug out of a campsite, in 5 minutes. Try doing this as a tent camper. I twice had to bug out during my tent camping days, once due to a storm, another due to some weird asses who chose to camp next to me and my three little children, on a beach where I was the only camper.

4. You have to be mindful of the huge blindspots, but you learn to move much slower when the camper is on. (I am a lazy ass, so I leave the camper on full time).

5. Get the smallest truck camper rated for your truck, otherwise your camper will be wagging the dog, rather than the truck wagging the camper. (this statement might make little sense to the layman). But yes, overload and your asking for it.

6. Truck Campers are way too small for fulltiming, unless you can create a nice outdoor patio, where you can lounge. Don't forget the sunshades, and camp chairs here. You will not like being emtombed for days on end.

7. I enjoy myself more if I bring a bicycle and motorbike, for alternative exploration.

8. Keep your rig lo-tech as possible. No satillite internet, cell phone access, need for much electricity. Keep it all batteries, and propane. My little shortwave on 4 batteries, lasts for days, and provides much entertainment, when combined with books. All inside camper lights, are led battery powered, or kerosene lantern. If I was really fulltime, I would pack a laptop with a wifi antennea, plus an inverter to charge the batteries.

9. A dog is a better companion that most humans. Think before you add that passenger!

10. Always bring 5 gallons more water than you;ll think you need!!!!! Pack a 0 degree rated in the sleeping bag in your rig at all times.

11. An emergency first aid kit and a few army MRE/s are essential.

12. Bring a guitar and a bottle of whiskey for each wilderness place you camp. This way you can get it out of your system, and few will be forced to hear it.

April 7th, 2010

Damn this cold assed weather during "Spring Break". Since "Spring" involves two 8 inch snow storms, within 6 days, the ground is trying to melt enough to where the cold air makes this place a swamp. Up in these climes, the sun goes down pretty quick, so its only warm (50's) for a few hours, then the temp plummets even before dark. Hate to bitch but its been snowy and cold since late October; Why the fuck would anyone want to live here for climatic reasons. As endearing that I find the "Winter Wonderland", and I do complain less than the locals, but the fact remains: Eight cold assed months per year just chaps my ass. And Yes! I said 8 months, meaning October thru May (and June isn't all that warm). Better have some warm clothes in those months or your screwed.
Today we got up to 40 degrees, of course it was below freezing most of the day, but the sun came out and burnt off much of the snow. I managed to sit in my sunny back yard for one hour and can attest that it was pretty nice out for 30 minutes today, while the rest of the day was cold as hell.

I was dreaming of the tropics, and went to the local Mexican grocery, and bought some ingredients to make "Ceviche", which is a very tropical sort of fruit and veggie salad, centered around fish. True Ceviche calls for one to marinate the chunks of fish in lime and lemon juice for an hour or so. This actually cooks the fish. The flesh turns "cooked" in that time from the chemical reaction with the acidic juice alone. They say, that some of the bacteria, on the dead fish
dies during the "cooking process". I washed the heck of of the fish before making the dish.

Salmon, Tilapia, y Camaron Ceviche' con Requeson....

1 pound of Salmon and Tilapia fillets plus 1/4 lb small shrimp.

(I prefer the cheap vac-sealed Walmart fillets frozen from China. Although the Tilapia does grow in rice paddies fertilized by human dung, I swear that i neither smelled nor tasted it while eating the uncooked fish!)

One finely chopped big Jalapeno.

5 large cloves of finely chopped Garlic.

2 smallish tomatoes of the "on the vine" variety.

1/3 chopped cucumber.

2 oz of finely chopped cilantro.... make sure its fresh and all that.

one good sized rotten avocado.

One orange chopped well.

4 limes, plus reconstituted lemon and lime juice, you might need it.

Honey

Tabasco sauce

Corn tortillas

Requeson cheese (heavenly stuff, I think it either comes from goats or indian maidens, not too sure of its origin).

Sour creme

I didnt use any onions due to my roommate, but some onion should be required.

INSTRUCTIONS:

Rinse the heck out of your fish.

Blot fish dry then blot some more. Cut the fish into 1 quarter inch squares. Dry again. Mix salmon, shrimp, and tilapia, in a a bath of lime juice, I squeezed the inital lime juice bath then added the reconstitued stuff, once that was soaked up. The fish looked pretty cooked after bathing in the first lime juice.


Add a copius amount of Mrs. Dash seasoning, to the fish and mix with your clean hand. Cover and let cook the the fridge for an hour mixing once at least.

Chop your veggies, drain marinade from fish, add honey and tabasco, then mix the veggies into the fish and take your time stirring, keep it all cold.

Heat up a corn tortilla on the greasy skillet.


Toss a little "requeson" cheese on the tortilla, then put some of the ceviche on it, put a wad of sour cream on the cervice. Eat with reckless abandon.


enjoy...

March 13th, 2010

Robin and Vanessa's birthday! Dos Pisces mommas; I wish them well!

Snow is falling today. Pretty snow; like in the fall, before compressed, dirty, slick, old snow forms into ice, therefore; putting a treacherous element into all things outdoors for four months.

Now that the old crap is clear, I welcome a nice blanket of new snow which will soon dissappear, like snow is supposed to do. Time for spring anyhow!

Today, I am making 5 more gallons of Mead (honey wine), which is now my favorite drink. Sorry Beer!!! This is the most ancient drink in the world; they have archeological evidence of this. Mead is easier to make than beer and wine. It consists of honey, water, and yeast. Takes 30 minutes to make 5 gallons, and a month to drink it! For less than 2 bucks a bottle...

Also marinated some asparagus (tis the season!), and salmon, to be grilled on the stove, due to inclimate weather (The weather here is known for its "inclimantness").


Thats all for today, Im too hungry to write..

Ok, I ate the Salmon and aspharagus and it was so good that i feel like sharing the recipe with you:

*when cooking fish you best be extra vigilant! One or two minutes here or there will cause problems. The trick is to take it off the heat exactly in its proper time. Salmon is easy to cook since the red flesh turns white when cooked. I say keep it at a light whitish pink for edibility purposes. Otherwise its either raw , fishy, or dry as shit! This is how I cook a 2/3 inch thick, 3/4 pound salmon fillet:
(do each step like I suggest or your screwed!)

1. rinse fillet off in cold water, this will remove all surface bacteria, fish pus, and other foul things.

2. Blot filet on paper towel till fairly dry.

3. Sprinkle on your favorite dry salmon cooking spice. I use either garlic powder/oregano/ cayenne pepper/ black pepper/ lemon pepper, and some other fish spice I cant recall; or I just hit the fish with a sprinkle of Mrs Dash original spice mix.

4. Rub the spices in good and let sit for ten minutes or more.

5. drizzle a bit of lemon juice on the bastard, let sit for ten more minutes.

6. Put fish in ziploc bag pour olive oil all over it and squish to distribute.

7. Refrigerate for an hour or more.

8. Do the same to the aspharagus using the same spices as the fish.

****REMEMBER TO SNAP THE BIG ENDS of the ASPARAGUS OFF WITH YOUR FINGERS FIRST OR YOU WILL BE EATING A WOODY PULP!

9. Either grill your Asparagus direct on the grill (MEDIUM HIGH HEAT), keeping them moving every minute and basting with marinade; or just make a rectangular foil boat, with sides about 3/4 inch high, and allow the olive oil to gently fry the asparagus on the cooler side of the grill. In a frying pan just gently grill on low/medium for 20 minutes turning on occasion. Sprinkly a little soy sauce mid way, which is all the salt we add for this.

10. Since the veggies take longer, we do them first and wrap them in paper towels to keep them warm and remove some grease.

11. Get the grill or stove up to medium hot (setting 7 or 8 if you are dim).

12. Place the salmon filet meatside down for 4 minutes, or till the white gets about half way up the thickness of the meat.

13. Flip it skin side down, and dump a bit of soy on the top to taste, wait a couple minutes and splash a bit of wine on the fish. Then let sit for about six minutes until the cross section of the fish, looks white on top and bottom and a sliver of pink in the middle.

14. Remove fish, toss on the plate with remaining wine/soy/oil gravy.

IF YOU MADE THIS LIKE I ASKED, YOU WILL BE IN HEAVEN!

Night all, I hope you enjoyed your cooking lesson today.

AL

MARCH, 4TH, 2010

My God, where does the time go? Had a lot of personal crap the past three months, involving my kids and stuff. January and February will not be discussed. March is here and the snow is melting quite early this year. I got the house cleaned up nicely, and my son moved into a flop house with a few of his co-workers. Kind of nice being alone for the first time since age 23, I think I can dig this!

Turns out one of my students parents has an excellent motorcycle shop in his garage, complete with bike lifts, and all the best tools. He charged me a mere 45 bucks per hours to get my pristine Honda CB900 Custom in perfect working order. I paid about $2000 total for a beautiful, well kept 30 year old bike that runs and looks almost new. I get far more compliments on this ride than I did with my brand new 2007 Suzuki v-strom, which I enjoyed as well.

The Honda, growls like an angry cat as it quickly strips away through the power band, and the gears fall into place. Its long touring design, includes a drive shaft and air suspension, makes it feel more like a an old Fleetwood pimp machine, which slithers around the corners and takes off with a long push before the final blast off! Its ancient two-toned colors and near perfect chrome gleam like the dreams of millions of Japanese, rebuilding their society after the chaos of the second world war. Funny, my bike was made only 35 years after WW2, and is more solid and reliable than the junk they are sending on the road today.

December 23rd, 2009

Yeah, I know I been bad and didnt write for many months....

But I did write today!


I spend much of my time reading and learning about sailing, since I fully plan to sail across an ocean before I die. This has been a life long dream, and I never cease to stop reading and learning more about what is involved with it. I can and will do this at some point and time.
Today I was reading differnent forums of other dreamers like me, and came across
a topic called: The Sailor's Confessional
Stories on things that went wrong while cruising. Such tales can sometimes be amusing, but more importantly, the rest of us can learn from them.

I decided to relay one of my worst sailing stories to this website. Hear it goes!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Years ago, after having quite a bit of sailing and ocean sailing experience, I bought a Cal 20, just for playing around in a smallish local lake. I got the Cal for 1000 bucks so I triumphantly brought her home. Only then did I look up her specifications on the Cal 20 owners website. Cal 20's should weigh a couple thousand pounds normally. http://pages.sssnet.com/go2erie/cal20.htm

I found that the boat had been heavily altered, including chopping off her torpedo looking keel bulb (450 lbs)! There were also a few brilliant mods, like cockpit control of the halyards. I called the seller, and he called his uncle who originaly sold it to him. The Uncle, was an elderly Australian fellow who seemed to know about boats. He told me that he also chopped the mast off by a couple feet and had the sails resized inorder to keep the boat from being "tender". He also mentioned that he customized the boat to suit him, since he was a parapalegic and couldnt really walk.

Me and one of my friends took my 12 year old son and 3 of his little friends out to the local Texas lake to do Sea-trials. Needless to say that the days weather was quite stormy and the wind constantly picked up then dropped, then picked up again thoughout the entire day.


Once we got her rigged, and the mast up, we had many hours of fun running the little boat around the lake and back, mainly under a full main and a working jib. We had the Great Cal 20 Maxxed out the entire time.....

Unfortunately a huge Texas bunch of nimbo-cumulous monster clouds poked their aweful heads, above the late afternoon horizon. I noticed, but not enough of a notice.

I being the Captain, was having the greatest time with the boat, and was running her mainly at hull speed, but made the fateful decision to sail down the lake one more time, although the weather as deteriating, before heading toward shore.

After leaving a long cove, things were looking calm, so I ordered all sails totally up, for more speed, soon we sailed past a windward point, as soon as we were past the shelter of a grove of tall pines, the squall hit like a hammer!

The alleged "not tender" boat got promptly knocked down harshly on its port side, like a whore being slapped by an angry pimp! The Captain (me) was steering on the portside at the time, and got washed out of the cockpit by the rush of water coming over the coaming. This all happened in an instant! I GOT WASHED OUT OF MY FRICKING BOAT!!!!. THE CAL 20 IS AN OCEAN GOING BOAT!!!! WTF????

I managed to grab a tailing rope on the way out, and was being pulled across the lake like a cod on a line, skidding on the surface and full of fear! The boat came back up pretty fast but was starting to get knocked down again under the pressure of the 60 mile per hour squall! My son doused the main, while his little buddies were crawling on the spacious deck, like a bunch of little ants. Since I released the jib as I got sucked out of the boat, that was no longer an issue.


Once the main was doused, and a few hectic minutes had passed, I managed to get back to the boat (thank god since no one on the boat knew how to sail, or turn it around to get me)...

I flopped my big ass onto the cockpit, pulled in the jib a little and we pounded our way back to the launch area. This was a tiny lake by Texas standards. Although the storm was nasty and full of electricity, we all got the boat on the trailer and didn't even lose one kid! Then I took them all out to the local steakhouse and told them how proud I was of them for not panicking nor jumping out of the boat while it was down on it's side.

I since sold the "non tender" boat, but I fully accept my guilt in the stupidity of allowing the boat to have too much sail up, and not to leave once I noticed that a storm was approaching. I'm quite grateful that the kids on board were safe. I learned much by this experience, and will never allow such a scene to happen again. Now that I am primarily an ocean sailer, I am way more cognisant of the dangers that the oncoming water has to offer.


Nuff said tonite!

Thursday, August 3rd, 2009

Great second week of school. Lots of good students, medium ones, and very few unpleasant ones. Had to restock my fish tank, since my room got too hot during my trip to Hawaii. This time I bought a Blue Tang, Butterfly fish, 2 Damsels, and a small Lion Fish, I also got a pencil urchin, a few crabs, and a brittle Starfish (they act more like Octupi). This is enough for a 50 gallon Saltwater Aquarium. The salt water holds less air than a freshwater, and three of these fish will grown quite large. The less fish you have, the less maintanience required.

I also replaced the uber lizard with a 9 foot Boa Constrictor. She is only 5 years old, but I suspect that the snake was overfed. 9 feet is huge for a boa, and a 5 year one should be only about 6 to 7 feet at most. This guy was feeding her a rabbit every other week which is twice as much food as she requires. But she is a big one and the kids in my classroom seem to enjoy having a giant snake in the class.

Once she sheds her skin we will be able to take her out of the caage and take her for walks and stuff. We did shoot a short video, of a smart-assed kid getting sent into the snake cage. Sure hope I dont get fired for this, but it was the kids idea, and no one was hurt in the production.