Cow Shit Smells Sweeter in California

We have made it to Holbrook, Arizona. It smells nasty in this town. The strength of the smell is comparable to Westbrook with a different aroma like a musty wet rug which compliments my frozen dinner at the Motel 6 to perfection. I'm going to work backwards to catch up on our journey because honestly it is hard to remember where we woke up this morning. We visited the Grand Canyon today. It is so vast that it just doesn't look real. It's like god dropped a painted tapestry down from heaven just to put a smile on your face. However, it wasn't the vastness of the Grand Canyon was so impressive but the full blown snow storm we drove through as we left the park. We woke up this morning in Kingsman, Az, a favorite stop along the historic Route 66, after an extremely long day of driving yesterday. Yesterday was Saturday. We drove through the California Golden Valley, hundreds of miles of farms, windmills, orange orchards and happy cows. The sweet smell of cow manure filled the warm California air. We are convinced that cow shit smells sweeter in California because the cows are happier. They seemed to be full of energy playing games with each other like cow tipping is a game the cows actually play together. We woke up Saturday morning in San Francisco. We did the whole tourist thing at Fisherman's Wharf and ate some fine pasta in North Beach which is SF's littte Italy on Friday. We are now on a direct route back to Maine.

Rain or Shine

Let's Chant: Rain, Rain, Go Away, Come again some....no, just go away. Angie and I have been driving in the rain for four days now. Out of Seattle, out of Washington, into Portland, down the Oregon Coast and into California. The dreary gray is so oppressive we are continuously singing to the sun gods to encourage Sunny California to live up to it's name. We have been attributing description words to the cities we have been visiting. Seattle wins the most conscientious award. These people actually stop for people in the cross walks and the pedestrians wait for the walk signal. They compost their coffee cups and have electric public transportation. Portland, Oregon wins the award for best vintage clothing. Even the men are all decked out in bell bottoms and swaggy jackets. Hawthorne Street is lined with fantastic free trade coffee shops, global gift stores and lots of second hand clothing shops. Although the backdrop of our trip is smeared in grey dullness and pelting rain, the Oregon coast does it's best not to be out done. The storm creates massive waves crashing against magnificent rock formations that jet out of the beach down the entire coast line. We stopped at the World Largest Sea Cave which was pretty spectacular. This cave is the home to the Steller Sea Lions. There weren't any sea lions in the caves today but we did see two groups playing in the surf just along the rocks outside the cave. Tonight we crashed in Santa Rosa, CA. We went to the Russian River Brewery on Fourth Street for wine and pizza. Fantabulous!!

Night of the Living Dead

Angie and I have made it safely to the West Coast. We are up early this morning due to the time zone change and day light savings time. So I'm taking advantage by catching up on our Halloween adventrue. Friday night we arrived in Salem, MA dressed as punk rock vampires. Well, Allie and I were vampires and Angie was our victim. Check out the vampire bite on Angie's back. Nasty!!

It was a mass of controlled frenzy to the tune of 100,000 zombies. We couldn't get into any bar so we walked to my favorite haunted liquor store, The Bunghole. We had to wait in line outside for twenty minutes just to buy a bottle of champange. To escape the madness we wandered out to one of the oldest and creepiest cemetery's in Salem. Also, a favorite haunt of mine. There the mushroom magic peak'd. We howled at the moon and hissed at ghosts while smokin' cloves and drink'n champange out of the bag. True to the old world. Eventually, we motivated to go dance with the mob but to our outrage and disbelief the whole city was shut down by a police parade wearing full riot gear; helmets, shields, batons, atv's, dogs marching through the center of town square demanding that everyone leave. THIS WAS AT 11:30!! It was full of intimidation and threat. It was so surreal given our state of mind. The crazy thing is that by midnight 90% of the mob cleared out leaving an erie feeling of loss like in the Shining where there is a 1920's ballroom full of dancing ghosts and only pale apparitions were wandering the street. Due to the this mass exodus it took us 2hours to get a cab and we didn't get home until 3am. It was a crazy night indeed. Saturday night we toned down the madness down and just slit our throats for
dinner.