A New Adventure

One adventure has ended, and another is beginning.

I've decided to completely customize the one road bike that I found in the garbage a couple months back. The frame is mostly solid, with just a bit of rust. I've already stripped most of the paint and am going to be sanding it down soon. Bare, beautiful steel is my goal for now. Of course, the priming and painting and coating afterward will come soon enough...I love when the paint strips off.

And this is what it looked like last night:
The rest of the paint should be off by the end of today. Then sanding it tomorrow or Sunday and prepping it to be sprayed.

I can't wait to really get going on it. It's going to look amazing when done. I'm thinking solid yellow with a small argyle pattern on the crossbar. Eventually yellow rims and tires, and a seat if I can find one. We'll see.

To do with your own hands
is to learn the way of the world.
To love what you do
is to truly live.

Home at Last

Home a bit early, I know, but it was time.
A familiar bed was calling me.

I ended the trip a couple days early after a bit of frustration in Chicago led me to arrive home at 6:30 yesterday morning. What a drive that was..

I spent last week in Iowa, visiting family (my aunt, uncle, and two cousins). It was great to see them after five years. So much had changed, but at the same time, it felt like I just saw them a couple weeks ago. They were so nice, hospitable, and welcoming. It was a great way to end the trip. While in Clive (right outside Des Moines), I took a couple bike rides and did a lot of relaxing.
On one bike ride I came across quite a few interesting bridges, which led me to the Bridges of Madison County the next day. I only saw three of them, but I had an idea of how the rest would look since they were very similar. It was just a very calm time.But now I'm home and back to the daily happenings. I'm sure I'll have more images to show once I get all my film developed.

It's been long,
but it's been fun.
It's opened my eyes,
and I know I've changed.

The Long Road Home

Who knew that the I90 was so long?
I sure didn't...

I found the Lego Cowboy riding through the Redwood Forest..Let's see. I left off in Seattle? Or on the way to Seattle?
Well, I took CA 1 all the way up to 101 before getting to Seattle. It was great.I could honestly say that the best part of the trip so far was the few short days I spent visiting Curtis in the Emerald City. I could say it was magical; I could say it was an eye-opener; I could say it was perfect. Overall, I'll just say that I wish I never had to leave. I'm sure that would have been an inconvenience for him and his wife, but I think I would have loved it. I don't even know where to start, besides at the beginning.

I arrived in Seattle at around noon on Monday morning and I drove up to Curtis's house and he met me at the door and gave me a hug. It was such a rush to see him again after such a long long time. Over a year. I brought my bags into the house and we walked down the street to a nice little coffee shop (a lot of the shops in Seattle are independently owned so it was nice to get away from those crazy chain places. We walked to the park at the end of the street and sat down for a minute and stared off towards the horizon of water, boats, and mountains. It was a great view.

Then we walked back to his house, got in my car, and drove off to get my oil changed since it was already like 6500 miles overdue. Jiffy Lube. Pretty sketchy looking place. Then we drove back to his house and we took a bus downtown to see the fish market. It was really cool, and people were just throwing around fish like some crazy people. It was pretty neat to see, and there was a wall in an alley that was absolutely covered in chewed gum. The colors melded really cool and some people even wrote their names or words on the wall. Then we took the bus back to his house and he showed me the work that he was working on at the time, and we messed around a bit with the iron filings. Then Lauren came home (his wife) and they made dinner and a couple of their friends came over and we all ate together. We had salmon, pasta, and salad, which was all cooked really well and tasted great.

On Tuesday we went to Mt. Rainier and walked around for a while. There was still a lot of snow up on the mountain top so we didn't get much of a chance to walk around and hike those trails, but we did take a lower trail that crossed the river flowing through, and that was the perfect place. I took a couple pictures there and we picked up some old man's beard and then hopped back into the car and went home. The drive was long, but we managed to see some really great sights and standing there on the bridge was an amazing feeling in itself.On Wednesday we took a trip down to the locks and were able to see a couple boats go through, although the salmon ladder was closed for repair so that was a bit of a bummer. We rode our bikes and had a chance to see some of Seattle closer up. On the way home we stopped at Red Mill Hamburgers and had a couple of burgers and some fries. One of the best burgers I've ever eaten. After that, we headed over to the gallery space where his show was going to be and we set everything up except for the one frame that the glass broke on. It was late by the time we got finished so we stopped at the store and bought some frozen pizza and headed back home to cook it up. It was three meat pizza which had a really confusing description of what the meat was. I don't even know.

Thursday was the big day, and in the morning we went out and bought a new piece of glass for his frame and then went to a nearby town (Fremont, I think) and had lunch at a nice little Greek place. Very good, fresh salad. Then we went home, got changed, and headed on out to the show. Since it was First Thursday, which is a big art walk thing every first Thursday of the month, a lot of people came into the gallery to look at his work. I was so happy to see so many people interested in it and willing to stop and talk to him and ask him questions. It was a long night, which concluded with a bunch of friends coming back to his house and playing a game of celebrity soup bowl. I think that's what it was called. Anyway, it is a game where everyone writes names on a piece of paper and then puts them in the middle pot. They then go around and pick pieces of paper and have to try to get their partner to guess the name on the paper by giving them clues.

Then came Friday. We stopped and grabbed some burritos from Taco Time and went out to the Golden Groves beach and ate it on the sand. It was so nice and calming and a perfect way to end my stay there. I was very reluctant to finally leave, but with a long drive ahead, I finally drove away at a little after 3. On the beach we found some really cool crabs and shells and other little things that we played around with for a while.

All day Friday I drove and slept at a rest stop.

Saturday I drove to Yellowstone and spent about 7 hours there before leaving. I saw a lot of the hot springs and saw Old Faithful go off. I was planning on camping there, but when it started snowing, I though it was time to leave so I just drove for a couple hours and slept in the car again. It rained the whole day and was very miserable. Maybe I should head back west?
Yesterday was a drive to Bismarck where I just hung out with my couchsurfing hosts, and today I made my way to Fargo. It rained again all day so I haven't been taking pictures. I'm sure I can find something on the way to Iowa tomorrow.

Until then..

Steam blows from your ears
as your hands clench into fists.
I turn to walk away
from your screams in my direction.

The Camera Has Returned

I should update.
But I don't really feel like it..

I still have to plan out what I'll be doing when I leave here. More later.

Rocks and trees and shrubs
reach from the ground to a brighter day.
The sun peeks out from the clouds
just to say hello.