Shot this today driving back from breakfast on the hill.
Later on, I shot this quick video of Piper on the driveway:
Category: Travels
Traveling around the country
Easter Brunch
I drove up to Grand Targhee this morning for Easter Brunch. I also thought I’d run into George, who’s a server up there. I first saw him in the Valley a few months ago, riding smack dab in the middle of the southbound lane of Hwy 33 on a fat tire snow bike. You don’t see many black guys in the valley, much less pulling that trick.
He ended up riding on my bus to Victor a couple of times, so I got know him. He’s a very interesting guy. This morning he was my waiter!
The Branding Iron opened at 0900, I had a reservation and I was there at 0855. I loitered around and watched George vacuum.
Grabbed a window seat…
This was round one, I really came for the crabcake bennies.
Second round…
There was lots of other food there, but this did my lightweight stomach in. Oh, and my friend Karen mentioned me in her Blog last Wednesday.
SlideShow (Easter Brunch)
Road Trip
I really needed to clear my head this weekend so I took Lucy up to All American in Victor yesterday morning for a major tuneup while I had breakfast at Scratch with my sister Lorelle and nephew Brian.
My favorite mechanic John tuned her, lubed her, and set her free. Three and a half hours later I was in Evanston, WY.
As I’ve stated in other posts, my 87 Mazda 626 LX with 250K miles on her is the most amazing vehicle I’ve ever owned. Granted I’ve cared for her well, but still, this car has a heart and soul that loves to cruise wide open spaces!
Here are some photos I took on the return trip. My GPS guided me perfectly and the morning scenery was spectacular!
I plan on running this shot through my painting program…
This is the Afton Cone. It shoots water out the top to self-perputeate.
Here’s the Palisades Reservoir covered in snow. Very cool!
Finally, back at the ranch… :-)
Update: Here’s six total minutes of Video shot handheld from behind the wheel…
SlideShow (Road Trip)
Secret Beach…
Riley and Jess just got back from a trip down into Oregon and they made a point of venturing over to the Oregon coast before arriving at their spa destination. My boy has picked up a lot of my adventurism from me. We made a point of including the Oregon coast in a couple of our vacations.
We’ve also done Secret Beach together. This is a very special spot south of Carmel, CA. where my ashes will be scattered. Here’s some photos:
It’s funny to look at old photos, I notice my gig line really sucked in some of them :-)
And yes, that’s a young Riley walking by the big rock…
SlideShow (Secret Beach…)
Cold
My inner body temperature is really cold. I’m trying to keep the air around me somewhat warm without driving me into debt, but it’s hard. The temp outside is 9 degrees now. We warmed up to 30 midday and Piper and I hung out for a while in the garage enjoying the sun, but it’s plunging downward. I better turn the water on…
I can’t keep the house warm without burning through a ton of propane so I hunker down in my office with the electric space heater. I warm the house up for a bit with the Rinnai, but as soon as I turn it off, frigid!
Piper hangs out and plays with me here in the office for a while, but she soon bails for the bedroom where I keep the floor heater and the electric blanket running.
I remember a summer back in the seventies where I spent two weeks in Mexico and then two weeks in Hawaii, back to back. My inner core was very warm, skin was brown.
One day I was hitching out of Georgia, trying to get back to California, and this nerdy older guy picked me up driving a brand new Cadillac. As we’re cruising through the countryside he decides to pass another car.
Not good, he wasn’t using the right gear to do it, so I reached over and snapped his shift lever into what I’d noticed was a passing gear. Saved both our lives! He then pulled over, confessed he was a terrible driver, and asked me to take over.
I did. Driving has always been my thing. I know I have well over a million miles under my belt by now, approaching two!
We were heading to Houston and along the way we stopped at a Mexican restaurant for lunch. He bought because I didn’t have a dime in my pocket. Really…
Then he told me his story. He was a rocket scientist, recently hired by NASA, given a rental car and summoned to Houston. Over lunch he drew a diagram on a napkin illustrating how NASA planned to put a man on the moon. This guy was going to be part of the project! It still gives me a chill and I really wish I’d kept the napkin.
That was a good chill, this one sucks…
Boise Leftovers
These are photos left over from my recent trip to Boise. The shots were taken downtown, and on the college campus.
SlideShow (Boise Leftovers)
Boise
Well, nobody offered up a guess as to where I was on my little mini-vacation so I’ll just spill the beans. I was hanging out over in our state capital, Boise, Idaho.
I stayed at the most expensive place in town…
And my posts originated from the BusDriverJim mobile office.
SlideShow (Boise)
Where Am I, Day 4
I’ve been on the move today, currently located at 43.7231082 /-111.1111034.
Update: If you clicked that link and zoomed in, you would see I’m back home!
Where Am I, Day 3
The local boys won their bowl game last night, 56 to 24. Meanwhile, I wandered around this morning and ran into all sorts of eclectic photo ops…
The picture below was on some artwork depicting 19th century ads in the local paper.
A real live homeless panhandlers sign, found abandoned at a bus stop.
I could comment, but I’ll just let it speak for itself…
A view of the state college through a cool oval thing.
Every county in the state has a sign along Capitol Blvd.
A wooden walkway to the edge of the river, downtown by the campus.
Some cool architecture on campus.
SlideShow (Where Am I, Day 3)
Where Am I, Day 2
Walked uptown in this mystery city today and took some photos. There are a few clues that are blatantly obvious, like it’s the capital city of some state.
Their bowl game is tonight. I’m not a college football fan, but I think I’ll watch.
SlideShow (Where Am I, Day 2)
Where Am I, Day 1
I’ve taken a trip to escape the holiday pressure, and charge up my depleted batteries. Having arrived at my destination I will start to slowly feed out clues about the location. Feel free to comment if you get it!
Clue: It’s a college town with a bowl bound football team, and no snow on the ground. Tired from travel, much more tomorrow :-)
Mesa Shoot
Steph found a photo on her camera of me shooting video at Mesa Falls last October. I applied my barrel lens effect to it and here you go…
Grain Mill
Steph and I drove down to Rexburg today to do some Walmarting, and finally escaped from there minus a little less than a pair of Benjamins.
We came back home thru the little Idaho burb called Sugar City. The town was hit bad by the Teton Dam collapse, back in 1976, but this hundred year old grain mill survived.
Now they can’t decide to tear it down, or make it an historical monument. I go with the latter, but the local kids have figured out how to get inside, so they need to secure it.
Here’s a Map.
SlideShow (Grain Mill)
Mesa Falls
Hooked up the GPS receiver to Lucy today and said Take us to Mesa Falls! I had to do the driving of course, but shortly we were at the beautiful waterfalls known as Mesa.
A spectacular day with nobody around, and perfect for capturing videos.
SlideShow (Mesa Falls)
Videos:
Stuffy Snot Hole
a.k.a. Jackson Hole, Wyoming, with a forest fire in the near vicinity.
Headed over the pass this morning to make the last Farmers Market of the season, and check out the free food. Almost turned around when I saw the smoke…
As to the title of this post: Steph rolled over in bed last night, and uttered those words in reference to her own nasal issues. I bolted to my office, and wrote it down. :-)
SlideShow (Stuffy Snot Hole)