Vagabender

Hello! It's been a while. I'm pleased to say we've got more in the way of updates here. There are some bloggy notes from the road below, as well as two new entries in our travelogue, where I try and chronicle what happens in a collected and thought-out fashion. We've also got a bunch of new photos added as well.

We've been 2,800 miles, burning about 180 gallons of gasoline. We've been through LA, Joshua Tree, Las Vegas, Zion, Bryce Canyon, the Grand Canyon's North Rim, Goblin Valley and now Moab. It's been a wild ride. The goddamn Space Lion drank all our tequilla.

The current situation is that we're in Moab, Utah. We stayed last night in the Lazy Lizard Hostel, treating ourselves to a cabin. We took in the sunset at Arches National Park then made some food and went out to take in some local nightlife. We've been six days in the desert without much in the way of real human contact, so hanging around playing pool with some seasonal workers was a pretty good thing.

Our next move is South, down to check out some Pueblos and canyons, and then to stay in Tucson for the 4th of July, sticking there for a few days after while Old Shifty gets a little love from a mechanic we know there.

More to come in the next weeks, including some audio content which we're all pretty excited about. See you on the road!

The Road To Goblin Valley -- Notes For Travelogue

Jacob's Lake Inn, that's where all the cooped up and attractive service industry girls are at, just so you know. We'd thought for a minute that they might be at the North Rim Lodge, the Rough Rider Saloon. No dice there, but on our way out we stopped off for breakfast in Jacob's Lake, a tiny junction town just outside the Kaibob National Forest. Shazam. Good coffee and a staff of bright young faces spending their summer getting rustic. The prettiest one was from Alaska and since Mark was talking about working up there on the slope (the pipeline) we had a little exchange that was human rather than commercial in nature.

I know this can all sound a bit skeevy, but we're perfect gentlemen in these situations. We may have a crass conversation about the situation later, but for three guys on the road, these are some of the moments we live for; a little talk and attention from a pretty girl. Quite a treat.

After that it's a day of hard driving.

(there's more)

Joshua Tree National Park was more or less deserted when we got there. No need for a reservation and most of a campground to ourselves. The site was next to one of the big rockpiles that are scattered all over the park. I climbed up and took a bunch of photos hoping to make a panorama.

Well, stitching them together with photoshop turned out to be problematic because I didn't do a real good job of making them on the same plain. However, I was able to make a quickie movie out of it. It captures a little of the atmosphere. Click here to peep it.

You can click on the photo too. It'll do the same thing.

We're taking a two-day stay on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. We got in on a cancelled reservation yesterday and decided to try and extend it if we could, which we could. A day of cleaning, planning, getting orderly and relaxation are in order and they have showers and laundry and a little general store and it's a 5 minute walk to an unmarked point with a pretty good view of the canyon. Nice place to stay if you can swing it.

We just got done planning out the rest of the trip. There's a fair amount of flex built in because who knows, but the general itinerary is set, which is a good feeling. It's a lazy afternoon now. I'm writing up the travelogue, Luke is noodling with the guitar, Mark's hanging out in his tent. I've just drafted 20 emails to go out checking up with friends and looking for places to stay down the line.

It's beautiful here. The early morning clouds have blown over and the sky is clear. I just had to make a break for some sunscreen. In an hour or so I'll go take a shower. It's a good place to drop down for two nights.

(there's more)

I really have to apologize for another non-meaty post. I'm working on writing up the log of what's been going on: heading down the coast and into the desert, and then Vegas, baby, Vegas. The atmosphere and energy is continuing to gain momentum now that we're in undiscovered country and we've had some time to break eachother in, loosen up a bit.

We're all getting tan, and the truck is getting systematized to the point where it's pretty friggin' sweet. A rhythm is developing. Right this moment I'm sitting on a curb outside a Quality Inn in St. George, Utah, sipping up the free wi-fi. The sun is beginning to set and the air smells of smoke from an enormous brushfire just over the ridge. We're headed to Zion tonight, and should be in the desert for the next week or so.

It's been hard to find time to write, and in truth there's nothing earth-shattering to tell. Of course, there's everything to say and many photos to upload. My plan is to finish up some travelogue and get the guys to write a few things tonight and tomorrow. We have our deep cycle marine battery and inverter setup so we can keep the machines alive sans civilization, at least for a couple days.

I'll do an email when all that's together. For real this time.

This is from notes taken at the time; minimal editing has been applied.

"I'm on the same trip as you are, man!" He talks by shouting and then shout-mumbling. It's a weird thing, and kind of unnerving but the big meth-head seems to be a gentle giant of sorts, just scratching his legs in an absentmindedly bugged-out fashion as we gassed up in 29 Palms, California. He had beautiful red-nosed pitbulls in the back of his El Camino, a blacked-out swastika tattoo, and a gut that spoke of prodigious beer consumption along with whatever else kept him running. "It's 150 miles to the river, man! Just head out east and don't turn left, or else you'll end up in Vegas!"

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I'm posting this from some open wifi at a sleepy strip mall in Palm Springs. It's not going to be much of an update. We're headed into the Desert.

It's been a good run down the coast, feeling more and more like a real Road Trip the further we get from familiar territory and the more we work out our routine. Visits with Mike & Emily in Santa Cruz, Mark's Grandfather, Aunt and Uncle in Lompoc, Molly & Greg & and my Sis down in LA, all good and enjoyable. More on all that and the settling of group dynamics later.

Right now we're going to camp at Joshua Tree for a day or two. The heat is already intense, but we've got plenty of water for a couple days in the desert. The truck is running strong... the LA freeway traffic triggered our old tranny problem, but we handled it ok. Getting to be a little rountine now.

Anyway, we're off. I'm taking a snapshot of the website to carry with us off the grid so we can work on it by starlight and inverter. Next stop in civilization is Las Vegas. See you all then.

We're getting ready to head out of the bay. I'm staying behind to work on the site a little more while Luke and Mark take the recently repaired truck out for some errands. Brian's going to lend his identity to a CostCo run, and there's some hardware to pick up in richmond so we can effectively lock our canopy.

I don't know how much I'll be able to finish before we take off, but I'm hoping by the time we leave LA we can have enough content piled up and organized to justify a mass email.

Until then... Update: The mechanics fixed NOTHING! Well, they may have fixed something. The hard shifting phenomena is gone, but the truck still sometimes doesn't shift at all.

We're thinking about just getting out on the road with it anyway. You'll be informed.

As many of you may have heard in email form, we're officially off. We're also officially bogged down with our first (and probably not last) mechanical problem.

The automatic transmission stopped working right as we were coming down over the Richmond bridge on the 580. It would stick in the lowest gear, meaning top speed was 30mph with the engine fired up to 5,000+ rpms. Luckily pulling off and putting it in Park for a minute seemed to reset it and we were not forced to drive the back roads of Richmond at high volume and low speed. So, in the intersts of not being stranded down the line, we're going to have it looked at here in the Bay where we know some mechanics and have places to crash.

(there's more)

I spoke briefly with Luke and Mark today. They're up in Westhaven without much in the way of net access and they've got a job doing some carpentry up there to work up the money to get a new oxygen sensor put into the truck. With any luck this will be the last repair needed.

Everything seems to be cruising towards a June 14th launch date. I'm making some more improvements to the website -- yes, I know the header image is busted at the moment -- and I hope to do a soft launch after Memorial Day weekend.

Upcoming content/functionality:

• Google-Map integration to relate content and geography
• Various donation-pushing things to help finance our lifestyles of bohemian excess
• A suggestion form for places you think we would enjoy visiting
• The ability for people like you to sign up and post your own vagabenderish ramblings
• More backstory, bio and manafestoesque "about this journey" stuff
• Photo galleries, duh
• Podcasts -- cause you know this joint is buzzword compliant
• Wicked bawls shots

I'm looking forward to it. Hope you are too.