Sweet Home Chicago

I made it back to the Windy City safe and sound. I rolled into town a little after nine on Wednesday night. I put in a lot of miles in the last few days on the road. Yellowstone was probably the best of all the national parks I visited. It had everything: geysers, boiling mud and sulfur water, waterfalls, mountains, and tons of wildlife. I almost shit when I pulled up next to a bison the size of my car walking along the side of the road. It was about 10 feet from my car. I didn’t know it would react or not but apparently they are very used to the cars and people because they don’t even seem to notice. I had one start walking across a field toward me while I was making my dinner in a secluded picnic area. I got a little nervous for a minute but luckily he turned around. I stayed in a nice little cabin in Mammoth Hot Springs at the north end of the park. It was pretty damn cold in the morning so I’m glad I didn’t camp. That night as I was heading for Mt. Rushmore and the Badlands in SD I literally came within inches of another major set back. I had been seeing deer on the side of the highway all night and as I was coming down this mountain there was a great view so I checked it out for just a second and when I looked back at the road there was a fawn about 10 feet in front of me. I slammed on the brakes and steered left just missing the poor little bastard’s ass by less than a foot. Thank god and Chevy for ABS. I’m sure that fawn was thinking, “That little bastard needs to watch where he’s driving.” That location was even more remote than Bastrop, TX. But I made it out of WY safely. Mt. Rushmore was cool and quick. It only takes about two hours to see everything there. I almost decided to skip the Badlands NP but decided to at least drive through. It was impressive but after all I had already seen on the trip it was pretty tame. That night on the phone my brother asked if I was going to stop at the Field of Dreams movie set (baseball field) in Iowa. I had never even thought of that but I’m glad he brought it up. I headed straight there the next morning. It was pretty sweet. They let you bring your own equipment and play right on the field. I shagged a ground ball for some Japanese dudes and “had a catch” with a little five year old. I’d like to go back with some friends sometime and take some BP or play a little game. The Field was my last stop on the epic cross country journey.

32 days and over 7000 miles on the road. It was a fun and amazing trip but it feels nice to be back home. I went out with former SEC colleagues on Thursday night and Lee and I were out until after one last night. I’m getting settled into Dragan’s place nicely. I have a great view out my bedroom window of the Sears Tower and west side. I even saw fireworks at The Cell out the dining room window after Dye hit his 9th inning homer tonight. This will be the first night in my own bed in over a year. Hard to believe. Things are still booming here in the south loop. Dragan doesn’t get back from Serbia until a couple days after Labor Day so I have the run of the place. Dragan said he is happy to have company so anyone is welcome to visit. I hope everyone enjoyed the posts along the way and I appreciate your comments.

It's Grrrrrreat!!

San Francisco is a great city. Even though the temperature never broke 70 in mid-August and the first day it maybe hit 60. But I guess it a city would be pretty nice when it is only 7 miles square with a median home price of $750k. Tends to keep the riff-raff out. I stayed with T-Bone for three nights. Not only is the city beautiful but the girls are also incredible. This place puts Minneapolis to shame. No offense to my lady friends in Jax, you guys come in a solid third. The first morning I went down the Fisherman’s Wharf to see what all the hype is about and to check out Alcatraz. This was a Tuesday morning and they were sold out until Sunday. After I spit on the glass of the ticket booth I settle for a one hour bay cruise. I thought the Wharf was nice but it was just an oversized Navy Pier with too many tourists and expensive parking. I enjoyed the National Park at the end of Jefferson street. It was foggy that morning so I took the cruise on Wednesday. I enjoyed the cruise and it reminded a lot of the cruise I took around Sydney harbor (but it was warm in Sydney). Tuesday night we hit a local restaurant for dinner and a crepe place for dessert. T-Bone’s neighborhood is very trendy with lots of little shops and the like. Wednesday night we went to an A’s game. About what I expected from Oakland fans. Similar to Philly fan but this was actually a sell-out. I think that was because it was dollar dog night. The lines for hotdogs were ridiculous and while we were waiting three drunk chicks cut in line behind us and wanted to get in front of us to get to the dogs quicker. They offered us a little extra to cut in but I told them that I turned down a chick in Vegas twice as good looking. ;o) The stadium sucks but the A’s won and everyone went home happy. Wednesday afternoon I checked out the cities two main parks, The Presidio and Golden Gate Park. They set the city apart from any other on the trip. I would like to come back some day and bike around the city for a day. Overall it was a great stop and the apartment was better than any hotel I’ve stayed in yet.

On Thursday I headed over the Golden Gate bridge and out of town. Many hours later I arrived a cool little seaside town just south of Redwoods NP. I spent the day at Redwoods on Friday. The cold fog prevented visibility along the coastline all day but a quarter mile off shore it was warm and sunny. I started at a visitor center and then did an easy one mile hike. Next stop was Trillium Falls Trail. The trail was 2.5 miles of rough dirt and rocks with a big ascent at the very beginning. It wound through thick groves of 500 year old, 300 foot tall redwoods. It took about an hour and was a highlight on the trip. There were hardly any other hikers so it was very pleasant. I found it strange to think that at the same time I was walking amongst the giant Redwoods on one coast my brother was walking amongst the giant buildings in NYC on the other. Like the other national parks I would love to come back and do more hiking and biking again here someday. I think I’ve determined that I need to marry a teacher or someone who is self employed so we can take long outdoor vacations every summer. I’ll take referrals.

After Redwood I decided that I’ve had enough touring and I’m skipping Portland and Seattle. I’ll get there someday. I spent today driving through Oregon and Idaho. Tomorrow I should hit Yellowstone about noon and will be staying in a cabin. (Too cold to camp, mid-30s at night. Where’s the drunk Vegas girl when you really need her?)

Pictures: cool B&B in Eureka, me inside a Redwood, windmill, flowers, and me in SF

Vegas, Sequoia & Yosemite NP

Well, I rolled into Vegas last Thursday morning about 1:30 a.m. and settled in at the Super 8 at about 2:30. Travis promptly called and woke me up at 9 a.m. Seems like everyone came in on separate flights but by 11pm everyone was in. Thursday night most of us headed down to the little outdoor bar/stage area outside Harrah’s where we were staying. We closed that down at 3, put T-Bag in a cab for Mandalay and went to bed about 3:30. I couldn’t fall asleep and ended up only sleeping from about 5 to 9, which I knew was going to bode well for that evening. On Friday night the group decided to hit the Voodoo Lounge at the top of the Rio just off the strip. I usually wouldn’t waste $20 on cover at a club but it was all for Travis and I wanted to see the view from the 50th floor. Turned out that I really liked the club. It had glass elevators up the side of the building, two huge balconies on the 50th and 51st floor with an outdoor staircase connecting them, and girls (pros not the amateur drunk patrons) dancing on platforms overhanging the 50th floor. I thought it was strange when as soon as I walked in some chick told me that she thought she saw me in her dreams. She later groped my ass when she walked by. As the night wore on and I wore out either I got more attractive or the beer goggles were in effect because some chick (actually pretty good looking) that was talking to Luke said she thought I was hot (but she also said that about 12 other guys) and wanted me to go with her and her friends to another club. It was clear what she wanted after the other club. I don’t know if it was old age or being tired or dorky or what but I basically blew her off because I didn’t feel like chasing her around at another club for a couple more hours just for the easy score. T-Bag later explained to me very tactfully why I did it, “YOU ARE F@%^ING GAY!!!” Well, we all have our opinions but I can produce eyewitness testimony to refute his position. That was my first experience in a real $20 cover club. I think I may have to go more often after that experience. I think I’ve concluded that if I drank I would score a lot more tail (pardon the terminology) but I don’t know that I would be any happier for it. I’ll likely never know. I left Vegas on Saturday and headed for Sequoia NP.

I made it a little more than halfway on Saturday night. I spent all day at Sequoia checking out the giant trees and trying to keep my car on the crazy winding roads. I’m more than a little impressed with the trees. They are freakin’ huge. Sunday night I ended up scraping yet another campsite that I already paid for in favor of an overpriced hotel outside Yosemite because it was getting dark and I was still more than 2 hours from my campground on the other side of the park. Yosemite was also very impressive with its granite cliffs and waterfalls. I had a lot of fun climbing on the granite boulders from the paved path to the based of Lower Yosemite Falls. I would highly recommend both parks. Like the Grand Canyon I’m definitely looking to come back to do some real hiking and biking around the parks. Enough for now. I’ll write about my time in San Fran and Redwoods NP next.

Surf Class

After the Grand Canyon I headed for the coast. I was worried for a while about whether or not the car would make it through the desert. I swear that boarder between AZ and CA is as close to Hell as you can get. I stayed in Oceanside between San Diego and LA. It was a great little city with a nice downtown and trains to the cities. I could live there....if it didn't cost a billion dollars for a house. I have a picture of a sunset there. I was in the water within 10 minutes of hitting the coast and that water is a hell of a lot colder than in Jax. So I went to surf class the next morning. They showed us a few things on the beach and sent us out into the water within a half hour. There were about 15 in the group and probably 5 people older than me. The instructor pushed my board with the first wave and I jumped up and rode it all the way in. It was great. Four hours later I was burnt, exhausted, and bleeding. It was tough to fight through the breaking waves on the way out every time. It took its toll on lil' Jonnie. I was ready to call it a day at lunch. I spent the rest of the day dragging my ass around Oceanside just chillin. The next day I decided I needed more breaks so I was stopping every 15 minutes for a 10 minute break. I held up better but pulled something in my back (big surprise, I've since recovered). After class I headed down to tour the aircraft carrier in San Diego. That was cool. I walked through downtown and had dinner in the Gaslamp district at a little Mexican place. It was probably the cleanest and nicest city I'd seen up to that point. I can see why everyone wants to live there. The next day I drove to LA, had lunch on the beach in Santa Monica, went to a Dodgers game, and drove to Vegas to meet the boys. I'll cover Vegas next chance I get. Take care.

Grand Canyon

I finally got a power cord, not mine but I'll take it. So I'm going to play catch up on the trip. Here goes.

I guess first I should say that Albuquerque was very nice. It had a clean and cool little downtown with a lot of little cafes and bars. There were also a lot of alternative looking people with mohawks and colored hair. The Atomic museum was pretty cool but they are having a campaign to raise funds to build a new one. I’ll have to come back to check it out some day. As far as El Paso, I wasn’t impressed with the little I saw of it.

I stopped next at the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest. Most of the good stuff in the park is north of I-10 in the Painted Desert. South of the Interstate is where most of the petrified wood is. Now I’ve been nervous a couple times but I’ve never had petrified wood. I’ve been waiting a while to drop that one. Anyway, the wood is cool but once you’ve seen it you’ve seen it and you are ready to go.

I arrived at the GC just before sunset so I had to hurry and set up camp. The first thing I noticed was that it was the coldest weather I had felt in probably 4 months. I could have used a lady friend in the tent with me at night when the temp dropped to a chilly 50 degrees. But I had to settle for extra blankets in my sleeping bag. I spent the next full day in the park. First, a four hour bus tour to the watch tower on the east end of the park. After lunch I took the shuttle to the South Kaiba trail and hike down about 700 feet into the canyon. I actually found it easier coming up than going down. It took me a little over an hour even though the sign said it should take 2. The top picture is the begining of the hike. (Note the size of the people at the bottom of the pic.) Next I took the shuttle one stop from the west end of the park and hiked a little over a mile to Hermit’s Rest. Then I watched the sunset from the village and walked about 2 miles to the campground. I would say that I walked a good 10 miles that day. I would really like to go back someday and spend a week camping, biking, and hiking. I want to try the hike all the way down and back. I slept well that night and headed for San Diego the next day.

….To be continued.

Ahhhh California.

Grand Canyon, Painted Desert, former Enron HQ.

Can write much because I left my power cord in Alburquerque and I only have 50 minutes of battery left. I'm heading to LA today and LV tomorrow. I surfed the last two days. Lots of fun but lots of pain. Good thing I was only doing 2 days instead of a full week. I wouldn't have survived. I'll write again next week when I get to T-Bone's house and I get my power cord back.

I Made It Out of Austin, YAY!!!!!

That’s right, after 10 nights in Austin my car is fixed and I’m back on the road. The stay in Austin wasn’t terrible as I got to spend time in Dallas, San Antonio, and Houston. I went to Houston last weekend primarily to watch an Astros game. I got a tour of the stadium before the game and watched the ‘Stros win 3-1. Great performance by Oswalt. I also took a couple pics of the former Enron HQ. The buildings are awesome. The next morning I went to the Houston zoo to see if they have anything the other zoos are missing. I don’t think they do. But I can’t really remember. It was too hot, I think my brain melted. On Monday I went swimming at Barton Spring, the natural spring in Austin. It was very cool, literally and figuratively. They have it set up like a huge community pool. It was a good 100 feet across by about 1000 feet long and the water is always 70 degrees. For someone coming from the Atlantic Ocean, that’s damn cold. I spent Tuesday hanging around Bastrop waiting for my car to get finished, which it did at 6:00 pm.

I decided it was too late to head out of town on Tuesday night and gave up all together on my hotel reservation in Oceanside and the surfing camp. My new plan took me to El Paso yesterday. I stopped by LBJ’s ranch and state park on the way over. I stayed in a crappy HoJo last night but had the best night of sleep so far. I had my first Little Ceasar’s pizza in years for dinner last night. It was okay but I’m looking forward to some Chicago style when I get home. I drove up to Albuquerque today. They have a nice little downtown here. I went to the National Atomic Museum this afternoon. That nuclear shit is really interesting. After that I took a dip in the pool. I splurged and decided to stay at the Hyatt downtown here since I’ll be camping the next two nights at the Grand Canyon. Now I’m at a little café eating pork chops and using free wireless. This is a good place to visit if you are ever driving through this way. Lots of freaky punks walking around this area. Almost like what I see in Canada all the time with the mohawks and piercings.

Although the trip hasn’t gone as planned so far it is still enjoyable. And my car has held up to the 80 MPH Texas speed limits like a champ. I think I might be a quarter of the way through with the trip in terms of miles. They are replaying the Cubs game right now.

Sorry there aren't any pics but I'm having problems with the website tonight. I'll try at the next stop.