Cooler than Todd's I-Phone!

When we arrived at Steve and Joan's place, home to Scottish Deerhounds, Galgos, and alien Pugs, the first thing Steve just had to show us was his AmazonKindle Reader. I'd heard about them, but didn't really know much, and frankly, was prepared to be underwhelmed.

Hah! Where to start...? 10.3oz, with a display that looks just like a paper page. (No back light! At night you have to turn on your reading light, just like a real book!) No glare, either. That's a good place to start. I hate reading articles and books on a laptop.. blogs, and newspapers' online sports sections are about all I can handle. I can handle this. And my aging eyes can sure handle scalable fonts!

It's priced about like an 3G iPhone, and is packed with about as many features, (except the phone part, of course). $359, available only from Amazon, includes the EVDO data network, so you can download books right off the NY Times best seller lists, and more, including magazines, blogs, and on and on and on. No need to find a hot spot. The only wires you ever need for it are attached to your ear buds, if you download a talking book!

Instead of listing everything it can do, I'll just point you to the link above.

There's lists of features and functions, videos of testimonials, and more. I'm pretty sure we'll be carrying fewer pounds of books around in the Express come Christmas...

HT to our "hand model extraordinaire", Steve Garth. ;0)

Land of Enchantment.

New Mexico has the most amazing, and constantly shifting and changing, cloud formations.

On the other side of the Sandias, the sun is setting, giving those of us on this side a spectacular light show. And the people who live here get this every single day!

We want to be those people.

Aliens in New Mexico

So.. who remembers The Adventures of Buckaroo Bonzai Across the Eighth Dimension ?

Hmmm? Am I right? Hmmmmmm? Am I?

Save the Planet, Be Humiliated on the BBC

Apparently, it's a real... car... quadracycle. Don't get caught dead in one.

Summer Hunting With the Family

Yes, it's possible. If you get up really early on a July morning, even in New Mexico, you can get your dogs out in the field before it gets too warm, and the snakes wake up.

Early means 5:00AM if you want to get to the fields near Moriarty at the crack of dawn. We loaded up Sandia with his sister, Maya, and his aunt, the notorious Camille, in Steve's Explorer and headed out at 5:30 in moderately cool 58 degree temps.

By 7:30, we'd run two jacks, and the temperature started to rise. We headed back to the vehicle, and by 8:30 we were meeting Joan and Margaret at the once-closed, and now re-opened with new owners, East Mountain Grill, (No web page). As good, or better than we remembered.

This is our "day off" from travelling. I've got a little project to finish on the motor home, and mostly we're just kicking back. Maybe we'll go ride the "World's longest aerial tramway" to the top of our Galgo's namesake mountain. Or maybe not, now that I've checked the rates. :-(

Maybe we'll just sit tight, and await tonight's next powerful thunderstorm.

Day 5, Mile 1502- Edgewood, NM

Sandia's back in the town of his birth whelp.

More tomorrow... we're gonna have us some fun.

Day 4, Mile 1347

Tucumcari tonight! If that sounds familiar, it may be because it's on countless billboards from Oklahoma City to Santa Monica, and from El Paso to Yellowstone. Or... you may remember that I've also used it before.

And your math skills haven't left you if you figured out we only drove 258 miles today. Needing dog food, and that all-important Route 66 bumper sticker (and a couple of T-shirts, as it turned out), we didn't leave Elk City until after Noon.

The museum looks nice, but we didn't have time to go through it. In fact there are a cluster of museums, and they can all be viewed for one price; $4 for AARP members.
The view from "The Road" (above), and proof (below) that "everything old is new again". This trailer was hand-built, using plans published in Popular Science (or a similar magazine), before WWII.

Seen one lately?

Smaller, by orders of magnitude, than what you see on clifftops throughout the West and Southwest, this "wind farm" was at the Farm Museum, which is also part of the Route 66 complex.

*******

Dinner tonight was at Del's in Tucumcari. Been in town at least 4 times and have never eaten anywhere else, and they don't even have liquor! So that should tell you something.

Hey, You Care!

I guess everyone's fed up with ObaMcCain...

My Cabinet meetings will be held, appropriately, at the liquor Cabinet!


(Shamelessly stolen from Patrick Burns' Terrierman blog. HT to Patrick!)

Day 3, Mile 1089

Those who read the comments on these posts, will already be aware that this bridge was built by reader Pam's father. Those who don't read the comments, well, here's a bit of what you miss:

"Wow! Y'all are in my hometown! Forest Manor has been there since before I was born. Head just a little ways down Millcreek Rd and you'll see a house with a pretty little covered bridge in front. That's where I grew up. My dad was a big fan of covered bridges and built that little jewel, using all local materials and old-timey building techniques."

We've known Pam (and Glen) for a number of years, and I don't think I ever, in a million years, would have pegged her as Lebanese ;-)

So, whose hometown are we in tonight? Elk City, Oklahoma, some 450 or so miles down the road from Lebanon. I know one thing: Somewhere right near this exit is the National Route 66 Museum, and you'd best believe we'll stop in for a little visit before we leave in the morning. Funny... it's not like we haven't gone this route a dozen times before; it's just that we're treating this trip as kind of a vacation, because no matter how much business we do at the events in California- it ain't gonna cover the gas!

We'll probably have one more long day's run like we did yesterday and today. There's a method to our madness.. we get the long ones out of the way early so when the going gets more, uh, interesting in New Mexico, Arizona, and California, we'll still have plenty of time left to shorten up the daily trip legs. We also want to spend more than a day visiting with friends in New Mexico.

Meanwhile, my discipline with my right foot's paid off, as we logged an impressive 8.6 MPG on the last fill-up! This machine's never run so good; Knock wood.

Day 2, Mile 637

That's more like it. 387 miles today. Over 1/5th of the way to Lompoc. 637 miles in the books. Got our second fill-up at the Flying J in Sullivan, MO, and we're getting 8MPG. You laugh, but that's good mileage. Dropping to 58MPH seems to do the trick.

After "sleeping" without power last night, in the humidity and sound of droning big rig diesel engines, we decided tonight would be a campground night. Smart campers that we are, we belong to Passport America, so Margaret perused the campground guide for cheap places on our route, and here we are at the Forest Manor Motel & RV Park in Lebanon, MO. It's on "The Mother Road", and it looks like it's been here since Route 66 was the only way to "motor West". We'll spend some more of this trip on this historic highway, so stay tuned. I realized that among the bumper sticker collection we have on the rear of the Express for places we really, really like, we're missing one for Route 66. We'll have to rectify that, maybe once we get into New Mexico.

The rain and humidity have begun to abate, and with it our "Service Engine Soon" light has gone off. I wish I knew which sensor where was causing it. High humidity and/or heavy rain light it up. The induction system's been cleaned, and I recharged the K&N air filter, (and I'm really embarrassed about how filthy it was). The beast really ran well when I left Rob's shop... but that was a low humidity day. We'll get it figured out eventually.

Tonight, it's a shower and a viewing of "There Will be Blood", and tomorrow we'll sleep in! Next stop should be somewhere near the Oklahoma/Texas Panhandle border. Stay tuned.

Day 1, Mile 250.

Yeah. I know. We didn't get very far today. That's us... the blue line, parked for the night at a rest area just West of Indy. Sign says no overnight parking or camping, but we've stayed here before, and so have most of the trucks that surround us and keep us safe.

The green line is Microsoft Street & Trips recommended route. Reality check, and experience led me away from it immediately. Only a fool would take 80 south of Chicago... on a Friday night... or any night... or day.

We'll be on the road much earlier tomorrow.. especially if the state cops boot us out. Unlikely.

UPDATE: 8:30 am, day 2, still sitting at the rest area as the rain is falling at a rate of an inch an hour. Did I mention our initial fill-up yesterday was $260? What a fun trip this is going to be!

Mile "0"

It's been a while, hasn't it. I could lie and say I was waiting for more guesses on the previously posted "quiz". Guess three is all I'm going to get, and all three were correct. The answer was, of course, "Twin Peaks". "But what about the Harry S. Truman clue, Dan?", you ask. He was the sheriff. Margaret's son, Tony posted the most creative answer. Check 'em all out.

Meanwhile, in just a couple of hours, we'll embark on our longest trip in 2 years- (thus, the "Mile 0" title... ). We're going to the Scottish Deerhound Club of America's national specialty in Lompoc, California. We've got 10 days to get there. I really wanted to leave earlier this week, but before we tackled the heat and long climbs of the trip, the Express had to get a new radiator. So for the past two days we sat at Margaret's brother Rob's shop, getting the job done.

That's Rob under the Express. (Note to Sherita: be glad... be very, very glad... there was a lot of profanity under there.) Rob's happier working on E-type Jaguars, so this was a bit of a challenge. But it's done, and we're running around 50 degrees cooler. Mission accomplished.

We'll try to chronicle the trip on a regular basis. Our route will take us through IN, IL, MO, OK, TX, NM, AZ (I-40 mostly). If we're going past your house, get out on the overpass and wave! Better yet, invite us to dinner.

We'll leave you with a nature image of a very cool moth:

UPDATE: Since inquiring minds wanted to know, I did some googling and can now tell one and all that this is a Great Leopard Moth, (Hypercompe scribonia), as if that shouldn't have been immediately obvious. ;-)

Lest You Think I Hallucinate...

Occasionally, I come prepared.

"She's Dead....... Wrapped in Plastic!"

It's quiz time, kids! Having nothing better to do last night.. (Margaret's still in Ann Arbor selling everything).. I decided to start watching my Christmas present.

Margaret originally got me the first season of 30 Rock (see? not a jealous bone in her body). But I had already watched it on Netflix, so she had to get something else. What did she get me?

(I'd prefer not to get Google-assisted answers... let's just hear from the folks who actually know without looking it up) ;-)

UPDATE: We've got two guesses so far... I'll post all the comments when I decide we've had enough fun. I think, though, it's time for a hint: One of the main characters is Harry S. Truman.

Using the Tools.

Click to see bigger image.

The Nikon D300 has a built-in intervalometer, (think of it as a self timer on overdrive). It allows me to place the camera up on a tripod, and set it to take pictures at any interval that I select, from every second to every "X" number of hours. It can also be set to take more than 1 image each interval. It's useful for doing things like flowers blooming, capturing the life on game trails, or my big plan: Set it up high inside the Express and see what these hounds do to amuse themselves while Margaret and I aren't at home.... But first I had to test it.

This was set at one image every second for 40 seconds.. (the first three images were culled).

I know, I could have just taken the Fuji, set it on movie, put it on a tripod and just make a short film, but.... what fun would that be?

Flora.

We don't always see interesting fauna when we walk the park's trails, although the diversity is amazing, being this close to civilization. Sometimes it's the flora that gets our attention. We need our anonymous botanist from last year's mystery "Cardinal Flower", to pipe in again with this fairly ubiquitous blossom. I really like the color- almost the same color as the Texas Bluebonnet.

Some flowers are already done blooming for the season...

And for you fungus fans... just hang on as they're only now beginning to erupt. Probably throw some images up next week before we take off for parts known, and unknown.

UPDATE 1: I've done a little looking around, and it would seem that the blue flower might be some type of Lupine... which would explain the similarity to the bluebonnet, which is also in the Lupine family. Still looking for specifics..
That seedball reminds me of some of my fireworks pictures.. or a fountain I've seen somewhere; probably in a mall.

Walkin' the Dog.

Bar Mitzvah! He's a "man" now...

And have I mentioned what a pain the deerflies are when we're walking? Oh, I think I have. Illustration:

Who is That Guy?

This has been driving me crazy.. ever since the first "McCain for President" TV ads started up here... (running incessantly about every 15 minutes). They always end up with this picture of some guy..

...supposedly this is John McCain. Does he look like this guy?

Now that looks like McCain.. (doing his best Pete Coors- well known right wing Nazi- impersonation; love the way the pocket flaps wave in the breeze!). Could it be that the first image has been manipulated to make him appear more... oh, I don't know... younger? Presidential? ...instead of like the old guy in your neighborhood who stands in the yard in his bathrobe, shaking his fist at all the cars, and yelling at them to "slow down!.. whippersnappers!" Hey, it works for all the fashion magazines.

Preparing to Travel.

We've been sitting still- and therefore not burning expensive fuel (at least in the Express... the Escape's another matter altogether)- for over two weeks now. Got another week to sit (although not necessarily to relax), and then it's off to Metamora, MI for 3 days of lure coursing trials.

Then we'll be off on a "leisurely" 2+ week trip to Lompoc, CA, where we'll be shooting a whole lot more lure coursing, plus LGRA racing. Specifically, we'll be there for the Scottish Deerhound Club of America's National Specialty, but there will be other Regional specialties going on, including greyhounds, and a couple of other breeds.

We've been told Lompoc is a "must experience" at least once. Beautiful surroundings. Cool nights, warm days, and near the ocean. As it turns out, the coursing and racing will be taking place in Santa Maria, about 30 miles away, so I'm not sure how much Lompoc we'll get to "experience".

In our "Year of Meeting Bloggers", we'll add Christie Keith of Dogged Blog, Pet Connection, and other blogs, to the list we started back in February with Steve B. As we're both Deerhound owners, I guess this meeting would be inevitable... eventually.

Once the Lompoc event is done, and we haven't yet experienced an earthquake, wildfire, mudslide, traffic jam, inversion layer, or any of the other events that make California.. special, we plan on hanging around to do the lure coursing trials up in Hollister, California. The folks there have tried to get us to come out for a while now, and this is the best opportunity we'll have. Hollister is best known for the 1947 "takeover" by motorcycle gangs that was the inspiration for the movie, The Wild One. Cool- I hope there's a museum!

After that? We're workin' on it, but I'm sure we'll be tired of the People's Republic of California by that time and will be working our way back East.

Stay tuned, and watch the schedule.

Lure Coursing, Racing, and OFC stuff..

It appears some friends of ours have decided to advertise with the big "G"... and as luck would have it, because of the subject of many of of the posts here, their "link" has shown up in the bar above... so if you're looking for really slick coursing or racing "attire"... or slips... you might want to check them out. Hint, hint. I've had this business linked below for a long time, but it works better for me if you "look up" ;-) You'll figure it out.

There.. that should be vague enough to not violate Big G's terms of service.