Hello!!!!

we have moved!

and I've not posted since the road trip many months ago.

time to start again!

rather then make this big one, I'm going to post this one and 2 others.

..........

so, we've left southern california! Been there all of my 39 years, but my parents are escaping so we took the chance to also!

we now live in sunny (well, sometimes!) and rainy (well, sprinkley!) west seattle, washington.

where the hills are green, rather then brown!

and on a landform that extends above the surrounding terrain, overlooking the puget sound no less!

I call it 'los west silverlake feliz seattle', because west seattle is really the los feliz and silverlake of seattle. it does have it's echo parkey parts, but for the most part its upwardly mobile youngish people. there's a LOT of Subarus around these parts! :-P

I should even add santa monica in that mix, because of california ave SW, which is pretty much 3rd street promenade, with bars, restaurants and trendy shops.

here's some numbers for you.

153 feet above sea level, 823 feet from the water (down a biggie staircase), 1.2 miles from alki beach (which has real sand and expensive ass condos) and 2.2 miles from downtown. From the window next to my puter, I see the 'sound and 6 big shipping container loading cranes, which I call storks, because it wouldn't be as fun just calling them crains.

if we didn't live in an area that had green belt status, we could trim the trees a bit and have an AMAZING view of the downtown seattle skyline, with the space needle and all. but alas, we can't, even though the vines the city planted are killing the trees anyway.


there's lots more to say, but I'll just start with some pictures, then end!

(it's lunch time)

the flat:

this is the view from the computer/music room
(its kind of a hazy day, we just got done with a NASTY rain yesterday):

here's a picture of the cool train drawbridge you can see from the porch:

our stairway to the water:

and this is the view we'd have from our place if the trees weren't there:

on a clear day or night, this view is amazing.

0-0-0-0-000---0-0---000-000--00-0-0--

ok, that's about it for now.

but one more thing!!!

our landlords!

we've got so amazingly lucky!

the owners, ray and nancy...who are also our neighbors, are amazing!

Super nice, funny, witty and friendly (or is that same as nice?)

ray is a contractor and has a garage full of tools so i feel right at home!

we all share lots of common interests and loves

getting along smashingly!

alex and I both feel so lucky that we've found a nice place with
nice people (expecially after what happened to the last 2 places we rented)

over and brockout!

old and newked

there is a good chance I'll never update the glog with the 2nd half of the trip home from cheese land.

sorry.


but now going on a new venture

the greater seattle area of wishingtom.

will update on this front!

if we don't die on the little plane taking us there.

over and brockout.

3 states...two museums

Oklahoma to Texas to New Mexico!

I'm going to make it quick, mostly pics...cuz
we're going to bed soon to get up early!

it got even worse! some places were 50 @ night. :-(

I can't remember correctly,
but I think it was 'biggest cross in north america'.
only in texas!

I remember going here in the early 80's.
if you ate the 72 oz steak, it was free.
if you didn't finish, it was like $100+

KABUKI!!!!

then new mexico:

the first real 'mountain' i'd seen in over a week!!!

and it looked like a boob!

-----

they were hanging powerlines!
it was cool to see how they did it,
cuz we'd never though about it.

the UNSER racing museum.

I took a lot of pictures of old race cars, but I'm only giving you 2 now

then the J & R Vintage Auto Museum

a lot of very cool cars and a few trucks.
----------------
and now were aprox 16 miles from the NM/AZ border
tomorrow we're going to leave early and make a run
for phoenix, to go to the penske museum.
------------
last but not least, let me tell you about the city
we're in now. I can't memeber the name this second,
but it sucks.
Gallup - I just looked it up on googlemaps
we're at a motel with a spanish name.
we ate at a mexican restaurant tonight
that sucked so hard my dad gave the guy
7 minutes of what-for when paying.
'new mexican restaurant' is what the guy called it.
if 'new mexican' means ONLY ground beef in
every thing from burritos n tacos to enchiladas,
you can keep it! to make matters worse, when
waking across the street to the place, I thought
'I finally don't need to bring my tapatio!!'
(which I've been caring around for I don't know
how many states now)
I get my food and ask...WRONG.
they don't even know what any of the 3 major
hot sauces I named were.
complete puzzled look!
I'll take a picture of the place tomorrow and add it.
------
oh, and the motel!!!!
we open the door and find there's no table!
so we moved some stuff around and made one:

that's it for tonight. got to get some shuteye.
goodnight, from gallup, an indian reservation/army
munitions dump/new mexican city...

tuesday - 5 states

started in Minnesota, then Iowa, Missouri , Kansas, and now Oklahoma!!!

a new record (for this trip), we drove 700 and
some miles (so I think)

-------------
here's a picture of a small silo in Missouri (look close!):

just before we crossed the Missouri river, which is
the Missouri / Kansas state line:

in the picture below, check out the red truck crossing
towards us:

it's a snowplow!

------

just after crossing the river, we came on this train yard!
massive!
-----

we stopped in kansas city, kansas at the
American Truck Historical Society

I don't have pictures cuz I was in the truck, cleaning, reading
and talking to my hunny.

we then stopped at a bbq place down the road:

and now we're in Guthrie Oklahoma, 70 miles from Oklahoma City.

in the thunder, lightning and rain.

in the next picture, all the blue is lightning (2 second exposure)

it's raining hard, but you can't see it because of the long shutter.

that's all you get now cuz I'm going to unplug the puter
so it doesn't get zapped.

until tomorrow!

brockout.

lagging...

I've really got too much to say and show.

here's the short version:

on the 7th (thursday), we rolled into iowa. Went to the National Motorcycle Museum in amamosa. it was AMAZING...pictures to come!

then we drove to the worlds biggest truckstop, 'iowa 80'. they had an amazing truck museum, with so many cool trucks, I can't start to tell. the pictures will knock you out.

and last but not least, we rolled into moline illinois for the john deer pavilion!!!

lots of green wonderfulness, both new and old!

this day was the most amazing day of museums so far.

thursday night, we rolled into uncle bob and aunt kathy's in west allis (a south milwaukee suburb).

sleep, then hanging out until thursday afternoon, when we went and picked up alex and mom at ohare airport in chicago.

i'll tell you about the next 3 days soon.

this morning, we got up at 6am and drove up to northern Wisconsin.

we got to medford, where my dad was born and grew up (until 11th grade).

visited my grandparents grave.

drove around medford and saw lots of cool old places.

then we drove to someplace in upstate minisota and picked up a vintage flat track bike for my dads friend tom (and I'm going to put a picture up, since it's the 2nd to last picture on the camera):


and then we drove across minisota and ended up where we are now, at the super 8 motel in albert lea, minisota (10 miles from the iowa boarder).

we just had some interesting dinner, which I call 'taco bell in an alternate taco john's universe'!

believe it or not, it pretty much tasted like taco bell, but a little different (and not as good).

they did have a salsa stand though, which had pico de gallo, red salsa and some kicking hot salsa verde!!!

very UN taco bell.

Anyway, there's something in minisota that I'm allergic to and have been having a rough one.

just took one of the weird vanilla mint benadryl strips that sandy sent with me and am ready to crash.

good night.

brockout.

ps. dont yell at me if any of this post makes little or no sense. :-)

pps. next day...I woke up and my dad already had proofread it! and there were mistakes.

day #4 - state #7 to 9!

started in Salinas, Kansas,

a wonderful place, 33 bucks for a single with wifi! (and very nice decor!)

then on this morning to Marquette, to 'kansas motorcycle museum'.

(I dont have a pic of the front, it's in dad's camera)

but first breakfast, with old people
(the only people up that early on main street):

then the museum when it opened.

this guys name is stan engidehl (or so) and he's an old flat track
racer from so far back, I couldn't tell ya. He's a harley guy,
tried and true (but when I say that, I mean racer, not hells angel!)

some wonderful old indians.

A harley ice racer (old as hell)

I'm going to stop talking about these bikes,
cuz I don't know what era they are.

This bike (sans the triumph sticker) is the same one as my first bike!

and here we have my last race bike, a '74 can-am mx1.

this is, stan sez, the first motorcycle dyno made.
by him, out of a tractor dyno.

harley sprint.

lots of dirt bikes, with old crusers (and some with motors)
hanging from the roof.

the story behind this bike was amazing.
it was a bike built from scratch from the machinests on uss saratoga,
a ww2 airplane carrier. stan told us how each part of it was made,
and what they used to make it.

some pictures of stan racing against modern flattrack bikes,
on his old '40s harley (I think). I'm not sure but
I think he said he was in his mid 60's when he did this race.

also, the bottom picture is of 2 guys in the same race
bailing in a lake/mudhole.

a russian bike.

yamaha gator, of which neither of us had ever seen or even heard about.

next door was a little shop full of old gas station signs and stuff!

my battery died when I was taking pictures in here.
I didn't go back to get pictures of the 'chicken poop' chapstick he
was selling there!
-----
and a block down, was a british bike museum...but it was closed today
so we just took some pictures of me goofing around.

we found the reason that buick is NOT ever going to be killed off!!!

The mid-west!!!

we saw lots of them, both brand new and less then 5 years old!

note where these two were parked in front of. :-)

another museum!

then down the highway, we ran upon this place!
it wasn't on our list.

kansas auto racing museum

I could write lots about this place, but it's after midnight
and we're getting up and rolling at 6am, to hit more museums
in Iowa tomorrow.

we were there for hours, the owner had so many stories to tell,
just like stan at the motorcycle museum.
my dad likes to talk even more then me!!! :-)

a few last pictures for today!!!

Missouri is kind of messed up, mainly because they have
mile markers every 2/10 of a mile!!!

This was some wierd thing for the truck scales, but I cant
member what the deal was.

had to snap a pickture of this mile marker.


this was a county road!
you know who i was thinking about!
:-D


last but not least, a crazy casino sign in iowa.

now we're in a motel 6 outside of de moins iowa.
snagging wifi from the Bosselman truck stop next door.

while driving thru the truck stop, I learned a new bit of
trucker speak!!

LOT LIZARD

the hookers/skanks that hang out around truckstops

we saw one walking between the motel and the lot behind
the truck stop where all the trucks are parked.

now you know it to, if you didn't!

until tomorrow!

(and I'm sorry if there are any typos or other
nastyness...I have to go to sleep now!)