So, I decided to get out of the perpetual truck-broken-annoying-limbo-state, ship the truck back east, rent a car, put the Airstream in storage, and do a mad dash across the country. Four days later, here we are, back in PA, eating some good food and takin’ it easy. (one would assume it would be easy to take it easy in redwood forests and southern california beaches too, but that gets complicated when you don’t actually have a vehicle that works..)

It’s nice being back around my family. Not much has changed, besides the fact that my dad now has a very mighty beard. But, they say that personal relationships and a close family life are the real keys to happiness — that’s one thing I haven’t focused on much in the last few years. I’ve certainly tried a lot of other things, so maybe it’s time to give that a whirl for awhile.

Anyway, I’ll try to keep this thing updated as the adventure continues. Will be a bit of a disgrace as the airstream theme is on a bit of a pause, but hopefully that can be taken care of soon. (Anybody know of a cheap way of getting an RV shipped across the country? DAS wanted over 4 grand!!)

Well, faithful friends and readers, that’s all for now. Drop me a line via email if you like:

                                    THE STRANGER
                         Take it easy, Dude--I know
                         that you will.

               THE DUDE, LEAVING, NODS:

                                     DUDE
                         Yeah man.  Well, you know, the Dude
                         abides.

               Gazing after him, The Stranger drawls, savoring the words:

                                     THE STRANGER
                         The Dude abides.

               He gives his head a shake of appreciation, then looks into
               the camera.

                                     THE STRANGER
                         I don't know about you, but I take
                         comfort in that.  It's good knowin'
                         he's out there, the Dude, takin' her
                         easy for all us sinners.  Shoosh.  I
                         sure hope he makes The finals.  Welp,
                         that about does her, wraps her all
                         up.  Things seem to've worked out
                         pretty good for the Dude'n Walter,
                         and it was a purt good story, dontcha
                         think?   Made me laugh to beat the
                         band.  Parts, anyway.  Course--I
                         didn't like seein' Donny go. But
                         then, happen to know that there's a
                         little Lebowski on the way.  I guess
                         that's the way the whole durned human
                         comedy keeps perpetuatin' it-self,
                         down through the generations, westward
                         the wagons, across the sands a time
                         until-- aw, look at me, I'm ramblin'
                         again.  Wal, uh hope you folks enjoyed
                         yourselves.

               He brushes his hat brim with a fingertip as we begin to pull
               back.

                                     THE STRANGER
                         Catch ya further on down the trail.

Indeed.

We’ll also be doing a three-day stint with no hookups from Thursday-Sunday.  Not a big deal for water, but I’m not sure the engine will be running enough to keep the batteries charged.  Makes me wish I had made the investment in a generator or solar — though probably not worth the money at this point.  Maybe next year.

While I will miss the redwoods, great hiking trails, living next to a stream, and the friendly staff at Saratoga Springs, staying in one place for too long sortof defeats the purpose of airstreaming in the first place.  Lesson learned – one month stints are the new rule, unless there is some very compelling reason to do otherwise..

530pm departure for Chico.  See you out there.

Cameraphone sucks, but there is some amazing scenery around the San Luis Reservoir on route 152 between the 5 and the 101.

What I’ve found though, is that the first 2000 miles of the trip from PA to CA are fairly uninteresting, no matter which way you go.  Even in western oklahoma, things look fairly similar to other east coast sights.  The northern route (70) gets you the gateway arch and the great plains, which are both great sights, but the great plains turn pretty monotonous after the first few hours.

The really interesting times begin within the last 1000 miles of the pacific — deserts, mountains, etc.  Luckily we timed things to have the most available daylight today on what was basically the most scenic day of the entire trip.

Last night reminded me of how annoying east coast light pollution has become.  The skies in nowheresville, NM are incredible — reminds you what 99.999% of human existence experienced at night until we f’ed everything up.  While some amount of nightlight is inevitable, the blindingly animated billboards are  the epitome of this disgrace and just make me sick.

We lost track of jrand last night on the way to Amarillo.  While looking desperately for gas (which should never happen on a major interstate, wtf?), we stopped in Groom, NM, and basically froze to death when we got out of the truck.  22 degrees and 38mph winds, windchill was 9.  Not good motorcycling weather.  We pressed on, and coincidentally that’s where John ended up crashing for the night a few hours later, probably not too far from frostbite..  endurance riding rules, though I’m definitely enjoying the warmth of this mobile commandpost.  Laptop RAM mount, best purchase ever.

We’re pressing on to Palm Springs and making it a relatively early (midnight-ish) night.  John took the southern route through Phoenix to add some warmth; we’ll meet up with him in a few hours for our last night on the road.