The Lost Pictures...

The end of the beginning...

We cruised out of our cabin at the earliest hour possible, (for us, that is) heading out yonder to Arizona at 8am. We crossed the plateau and turned south just before Tucson (pronounced Tuck-son) for a short drive to Green Valley. We arrived into the sweltering sun just after noon, and were welcomed warmly by Ashi Bashi. He hadn't seen us in over five weeks, and despite our weekly emails from Mr Boo himself, was very anxious to feel our warmth. We treated him that afternoon to a run through the back nine, making him run ahead and not allowing him to stop for the bunnies or bullfrogs. The evening was spent relaxing and preparing for the next day's BBQ, an event to be preceded by the most wonderful golf scramble ever imagined.
The rooster crowed early Saturday, waking everyone between 5 and 6am. We weren't due on the course until 8:46, but we still had to eat our grapefruit halves, vitamins and raisin bran, warm-up at the driving range, and show off our mad putting skills. The Princess-Hollywood-Nonni-Donni group teed off first, obviously finishing first as well. We all know that golf can be a boring game, with its minimum number of shots, especially if one's a pro like myself, so I won't bore you with the individual details of the morning. Princess won the longest-drive competition, though I would have taken first by a long shot (HA!) if only my ball had gone straight, instead of off into the desert. At the end of the scramble, our team didn't win, but we only lost by one stroke, having tied for second with Princess' father's group, the Bing Pingers. The entire morning event lasted a mere five hours, and we arrived home only minutes before the BBQ began. Princess managed the appetizers (and later the ice cream) and I took charge of the grill, flaming the chicken thighs and breasts, achieving perfect caramelization and moist meat with only the minimum amount of work. The event was fun, a big meet-and-greet for the young'uns, and a Hey-Hey-Hey for the retired generation.

Sunday was our designated lazy day, spent doing laundry and putting together our US President puzzle purchased at Mt Rushmore way back in South Dakota. Arizona and South Dakota are not far apart in distance, but if you think of them time wise, with our west to east to west movement, it seems like forever! With three workers, six hands and a plentiful supply of cucumbers, onions and unsweetened tea the puzzle was done in no time. It was one of those difficult ones with lots and lots of little faces, buildings and words all over the place, forcing you to use the picture often. We headed out to the driving range for some practice shots before dark, and then dozed the night away.

On Monday, we drove out to Tuckson after our yummy breakfast, and picked up a new set of tires for George Whitney at Costco. Hopefully they will make it as long and as far as the previous set. We then drove out to Tombstone, touring the OK Corral and learning the history of the Earp family and the area's silver-based fortune. The day was warm, and the town quite empty, save for the endless souvenir shops of totally and completely useful knick-knacks extremely crucial to everyday life. We picked up some fudge (which we ironically have yet to consume) and an ice cream cone, and then contemplated a life full of midday hangings and whisky-for-water in the city park. The drive back to Green Valley did not pass thru Tuckson, this time criss-crossing the Santa Rita mountain backcountry. The ride was much smoother than Arches or the Smokies, given that our bicycles were securely stowed in the garage at home.

Tuesday was our day of adventure, as we risked life and limb to cross the border into Mexico. We drove to Nogales, AZ and walked to Nogales, MX and were immediately surrounded by men, women and children alike selling their wares for pennies on the dollar (or peso). We were led to lunch by a helpful man on the street, who invited us to his shop after our meal. We both hungrily consumed a traditional poor-man's mexican meal, with rice, refried beans, an enchilada and carne asada. A pair of Pacifico beers chased it all down, the total costing a mere $21. Yes, that's quite a bit for lunch, especially in Messyco, but could you really be offered every service in the world, including shoe shines, massages and cheap chiclets anywhere else in the world?

I have failed to mention the hot hot weather and regular afternoon thunderstorms that passed through the area, but they are quite boring (Ashi only had to be tranqualized a few times), and we've already done them on this trip.

Early Wednesday, Bing, Nonni and Ashi Bashi headed out to Napa for their annual summer escape, while Princess and myself slept in. We left the house around 9, after locking up and shutting down the golfer's paradise pad, primely located on the 13th green. A long drive to CALIFORNIA!! awaited us, but we took it in stride. We bought cheap gas in Tuckson and Yuma, before being forced to accept the $2.75 and up gas prices in Cali, an increase of more than $0.40 over every other state visited. (Canada doesn't count, cause they're not a real state, and they charge by the liter)

I-8 offered us a view of the southern border...It looked pretty quiet...

We pulled into sunny San Diego at quarter to four, and were welcomed into the arms of my uncle Jay soon after. We lounged all afternoon and evening, taking a dip in the pool before eating vegetarian for dinner at Alex's across the street.

San Diego day two started with the long awaited pampering of a Mani-Pedi!!! My long standing apprehension of letting someone else sculpt my feet was slowly put at ease with Hollywood's words of reassurance and my own inability to stop from laughing out loud. Once we were buffed and polished we headed back for a lazy hour at Jay's, before heading to the Tecolote golf course. Being a par 58, Tecolote was ill suited to Hollywood's desire to show off his long ball attempts, though he did smash one splendidly! It was a pleasant way to spend the afternoon, donating balls to the golfing gods... Emiliano's provided cervezas y margaritas and our evening meal.

A not-so-early start sent us on our way to the coast where we fought the traffic on the Pacific Coast Highway. We finally turned inland to escape the crowds and find lunch. Tommy Bahama's took care of that, toppin it off with a delicious chocolate dessert; even Hollywood couldn't finish! We arrived at Uncle Ferd's house in Anaheim, in time to settle in and catch up with Hollywood's cousin Brandon, with whom we attended an Angels' game. Even after a full dinner, I had to have a hot dog to go along with my Guinness, well, 2 dogs, since Hollywood's one bite was half my dog! The Angels won and we were lucky enough to be attending one of their Friday night Fireworks games, great show!

Saturday morning found Hollywood and Ferd taking apart George Whitney's front brakes, though the party was short as we had to attend cousin Brandon's 28th birthday. We washed our dirty little hands and walked across the parking lot, just in time to hop in the pool with all the kiddies. There was a ton of food, beverage and fun had, and everybody collapsed into their respective beds. When Sunday morning rolled around, Ferdie and I and Princess went to the garage and put the new brakes and rotors on George, pumped him full of grease steroids and put him back on the road to recovery. Princess made us all grilled cheese and chicken sandwiches and then we hopped on I-5 to Chatsworth.

The Iverson Movie Ranch is one of the original outdoor filming areas for the early 20th century movie scene. It's also the new home of my good buddy Jorge and his lovely wife Eva. Jorge took us around the property and showed us the barns full of old cars, ancient movie scenes and props and a party area showing the title and prime actors of EVERY movie filmed on the site. We all prepared dinner together and then enjoyed it outside on the patio, under the warm skies of the valley and nonstop traffic of Hwy 118. The Garibays had a secret stash of unlabeled vinos under the counter, part of which disappeared during the evening. The next day, Jorge rode off to his firehouse at 4:30am, and at noon Princess, Eva and myself drove into town. We grabbed vino and tropical salad and spreadable cheese for our bread, and then drove off to the Getty Center. Apparently, Mondays are major holidays, and therefore the center is closed, but we were given free passes to the Getty Villa in Malibu. We headed over there, enjoying the smooth ride up Hwy 1. The Villa was nice, with great views of the Pacific and lots of interesting exhibits of ancient Greek and Roman history, but we really really wanted to see the art and architecture of the hilltop Getty Center. After the villa, we drove further up 1, passing Malibu and Pepperdine U., until we got to La Piedra State Beach. We brought our lunch and blankets and towels down and enjoyed a wonderful lunch by the sea.

The road back to Chatsworth was much more beautiful and calm than the road to Malibu, as we passed through LA's miniscule wine country and the back canyons above Malibu. Dinner was simple, with more wine in the gullet, and we ended the night with the King of California. We got up super duper early Tuesday and met Sr Jorge at the firehouse and took him to breakfast. We wanted to go to Cafe Melon, but due to "staffing issues" they weren't due to open until much later in the morning and we ended up at IHOP. We are no longer allowed to go to IHOP.

We left Chatsworth at noon and drove straight up to Santa Margarita on Hwy 101. The road was fast and gorgeous we pulled into the KOA at just after four. We planned for a tent site, but for some reason we had zero interest in putting up a tent. We hopped in the pool for an hour and as Princess dressed herself for dinner, I headed into the office to upgrade to a cabin. I love KOA cabins! We had dinner in Morro bay at Windows on the Water, enjoying a bottle of Albarino with Brie and Caramelized Onion Flatbread, Prosciutto and Balsamic Vinaigrette salad, Ginger Lime Crab Cake

and Fried Small Abalone. Our server was fantastic, as was most of the food* (please ask for details if necessary) and the view could not have been better.
Wednesday: the beginning of the end. We cleared out of the KOA at 9:30 and took off up 101. Princess drove the first half, all the way to Gonzales for lunch. We stopped at Carlitos Steakhouse, with two of the cutest servers around. The owner's five-year-old daughter was the hostess and her older brother the head waiter. They promptly escorted us to our seats, took our order and served it all. They were the only faces we saw, and the only ones we needed to see. I scarfed down a sirloin steak sandwich with a pair of sunnysideup eggs, and Princess nibbled at a baked pastrami sandwich with onion rings. I took over the driving while Princess napped, stopping only for gas and a slurpee in P-town. A short while later, while enjoying a pizza at bocce, the staycation (stay away from home vacation) was over.
It's been a fun seven weeks, full of adventure and mystery and excitement and tons of oohs and ahs. For those of you worried about not having a super funny blog to read anymore, don't worry! We'll be back on the road in September, heading out of the country and even off of the continent. Holla!

To Grandmother's House we go...

Since leaving the Dragon, we've accomplished much. Three nights in hotel, two nights in basement, two nights in tent and one more in cabin.

We continued on to Nashville, spending two nights in a wonderful room on the 16th floor of the Sheraton Downtown. For our first night we did nothing but air out the tent and flex our muscles in the gym. We were so glad to be out of a tent for a few days that we lulled ourselves to sleep with 3 inches of foam, much much more than our usual 2. The next day we headed out before lunch, stopping at the State Capitol for some pictures and then walking down to McFaddens for lunch. We walked around town for a wee bit, headed to the Country Music Museum for a 2-hour tour and then walked over the Country Music walk of fame. Personally, I have very little interest in Country music, but I took a liking to the Hank Williams display. I only know his music from the soundtrack of my favorite movie, Shawshank Redemption, but I enjoyed reading his life story. I also learned that the famous Monday Night Football line, "Are you ready for some football?" is from Hank Williams, Jr. Interesting...very interesting.

After over-indulging on Country Music stars, Princess and I walked thru the rain around town, stopping for some ice cream before heading back to the hotel. We cleaned up and drove out to Music Land to a dinner theater show that we signed up for. We enjoyed our buffet of corn, veggies, salad, chicken, ham, steak, mashed potatoes, cobbler and banana pudding. The show started a little bit later, with a handful of Country music historical songs and the hilarious comedic drawls of Ken Hall. I'm sure you are all familiar with Shotgun Red from the show Nashville Live on TNN. Well, we were blessed with an appearance of his and we just about died! If you don't know who we're talking about, look him up!

The following morning we cleaned up and checked out, stopping for breakfast at Dunkin Donuts. We headed out on Hwy 24, stopping in Clarksville for an oil change. This was a simple stop - we didn't even have to leave the car! However, our simplicity ran out a few hours later as we pulled into St Louis. Our lovely technicians at the oil change facility forgot to tighten the oil filter, and by the time we stumbled into Missouri five hours later, our engine was bone dry. How nice! Luckily, and I mean extremely lucky, at the exact time we noticed the need to figure out the problem an oil change facility of the same variety appeared across the street. We pulled in, had everything replaced for free and drove out to our party.

My second cousin was having his engagement party and we doubled the invitation into a long-time no-see event. Dinner that night was a second long-time no-see event, as we had dinner with my cousin Erin, whom I had not seen in over a decade. I also hadn't met his lovely children or wife yet, so I introduced them to Princess to equalize the new people meeting contest. Home-cooked lasagna was on the menu, followed closely by six or seven rounds of Wii. The jury is still out for my approval of the game as being more superior to others, but I did walk away with a sore wrist. Too much twisting or something during Archery?

After saying goodbye to my cousins, Princess and I headed over to my friends Thubb and Bill's house for our down-home domiciling. These were our two nights in basement, which I would later regret a tad on Monday morning. Ice cream was on the menu, followed by bedtime. The next morning we got on our bicycles and rode a pair of laps around Forest Park, racing past all the slowpoke runners, eventually catching up to a pair of riders our speed. We followed them for a li'l bit, getting a taste of riding that we don't ever get to experience. We returned to the house, showered up and I drove out to see my Grandmother. She's 93, and while not on anything close to her last leg of health, is pretty far along in the Alzheimers category. I wanted to see her while she still had some cognitive functions and desire to be awake, since you never know when it's gone forever. The visit was good...I showed her pictures on my laptop of family members and of videos and pictures of this trip, and then we said our goodbyes a few hours later.

Immediately after the visit, I drove back to Thubb's, changed, and headed down the street for an early dinner meeting with some of my mom's friends from the days she lived in St Louis. They know me well, and I enjoyed introducing them to Princess when she showed up. The main point of the visit to St Louis was to see those that hadn't see me in awhile, and I think I was able to accomplish the feat sans problemme.

Monday morning rolled around soon enough, and Princess and I prepared to get in the car for a short hop over to Joplin, MO. However, while moving our ton of bags out to the car, I smacked my head on the roof of the basement. The ceiling was rated to about 6’3”, and I had to duck constantly. When I put on my hat and walked out, well, the cross beam walked into me. I instantly dropped to the floor, feigning paralysis. Fortunately, most of the pain was in my head and we soon got a move on. We stopped at the St Louis Arch for a few candids and then got back on the highway. The road was bare and pretty boring, but we got there soon enough. Just like our first night in Nashville, we collapsed early and watched TV till our eyes shut themselves.

The next day we had a lovely breakfast in Galena, KS (to add it to the list!) and then drove out to Oklahoma. We intentionally drove thru Arkansas (the list!) and then slipped into 100 degree weather. We stopped at the Oklahoma City Bombing Memorial, which was a very emotional stop. Princess was her usual bucket of tears, and I was surprised at how overwhelmed I became. No tears from this hunk-o-junk, but you can't listen to the stories without feeling something. I remember exactly where I was when I found out about it, though it wasn't until the afternoon when I was at track practice.

There was just over 100 miles left in our day, and we made it pass quickly on the road. We stopped at a KOA in Elk City, OK and spent the night relatively peacefully. In the morning both of us mounted our handy dandy two wheeled fun machines and took off ten miles down the road. I was faster, going further, but Princess took longer and therefore got more cardio. Overall even, I say! The drive out of OK was about as incident-free as the drive in. We admired the complete lack of anything across both panhandles, and were extremely happy we stuck to the highway for speed. We had lunch at Big Daddy's BBQ in Amarillo, eating some amazing ribs, steak, sausage and sweet tea. We still had our growler from Ashland, WI and filled it up with sweet tea for $1.35. That's more inexpensive than any store around...for 64 ounces! On the way out of town we stopped at the Cadillac Ranch to leave our mark. The ranch is a row of 8 Cadillacs buried up to their nose in the ground, out on the highway. They have all been graffiti'd (on purpose, we presume) and there were a handful of not-quite-empty spray cans still around. We tagged a few cars and then continued on to New Mexico.

New Mexico greeted us with puffy clouds and rolling hills. We arrived at our KOA near Tucumcari, and had an adventure setting up camp. We just happened to select the site with a fist sized wasp nest hanging off the sun shade. I captured the nest and all present adult wasps in a cup, and set them far far away to bake in the sun. Evil I know... The remaining adult wasps returned one by one to meet their demise by sandal. In anticipation of rain we pulled out our football field sized tarp and fought the wind while securing it over the sunshade frame. Then we realized that food was scarce and decided to head to town for supplies. As we approached Tucumcari, the lightning show began. Hollywood and I practiced our photographic skills of capturing bolts of lightning while standing on the roof of the car. I got pretty good at it! Back at camp we had to reinforce our tent by tying it to the car, since the wind was whipping as the storms swirled around us. We never got a direct hit, but the light shows surrounding us sure were great!

Early the next day we got a move on, driving south to Las Cruces for our last stay lost in the woods. We had hoped to go to Roswell and Alamogordo for some alien searching and H-bomb finding, but a little research the night before told us that all the hype was simply that. The actual alien landing was in Corona, but if you ever drove through there, as we did, you wouldn't know it until your GPS told you to turn around. We stopped at the White Sands National Monument for a little trudging through mounds of gypsum and white sand blindness, and then continued to the KOA. For our final night in the wildnerness we opted to stay out of the wilderness and slept hardily in a log cabin, complete with ants and a porch swing. To top it all off, we left earlier then we ever left (not counting Bar Harbor fishing), off to see Nonni and Bing in Arizona...