Well, I haven't had any travelling adventures for months now, and I'm overdue.
I'm starting to formulate a plan to ride my motorcycle through Idaho, Washington, Oregon and down to the upper northern parts of California, then back to Idaho.
I'm still working out the details and trying to get feedback/advice on various legs of the journey, but I am preparing by trying to find someone else to come along as well, and to start getting my body back in shape to handle a several days long ride.
I'm planning 5 to 10 days round trip.
I am gathering maps and weather and site to see information. I'll be posting updates in the extended text portion of this article.
...

I HAVE to stop at the following locations en route:
(POssibly Moscow, ID).
Cheney/Spokane, WA.
Bellingham, WA.
Eugene, OR.
Medford, OR.
(Maybe check out Klamath Falls).
Mendocino, CA.
Ukiah, CA.
Chico, CA.
Then some route back to south eastern Idaho.
SO far, the proposed route is:
Malad City, ID up I-15 to Pocatello.
Then I have to decide whether to take I-15 north through Montana,
I know the route through Arco towards Challis is rolling desert lava flows. I've no idea what takig i-15 straight north is like.
Asuming I take the northern route through Montana, it looks like I'm stuck in the Internstate all the way to  spokane.
If I take a different route, such as highway 93 via Arco, then I pass through some area I've not seen in years through Challis, and Salmon, then eventually end up back at I-90 in Montant again.
Or a more winding (more pleasant?) path by taking I-86 at pocatello heading west.
Then route 75 north at Twin Falls.
Then passing through Sun valley and Ketchum to stanley.
Then take 21 west thruogh Lowman to Banks.
Then north on 55 to new Meadows, then north on 95 through Grangeville, Lewiston, up to Moscow.
Then take 95 north to Cour d'Alene.
Then West on I-90 to Spokane.Then to Chaney.
Anyway ,after Cheney. it looks like.
I can take a number of routes to Bellingham.
here's the current one I'm considering:
Highway 2 west to Wilbur.
Then 174 northwest through electic city, continue west on 174 Bridgeport which changes to 173 continue west to Brewster, then to Pateros, then North on 153 to through Winthrop, continuing west on 20 through the Cascades to Burlington.
North on 9 to Deming.
Then west on 547 to I-5, then North to Bellingham.
For the Southern leg, I think I'll just stick to  I-5 following the coast for a while through Seattle, Tacoma, Olympia, Tumwater.
Then continue South on I-5 to make better time straight to Portland, OR.
Then Continuing a faster track for the rest of the trip (little less scenic) down I-5 to Eugene. then Medford.
Then I-5 double back a bit to 199 west to the coast to Crescent City.
Then down 101 following the coast to Eureka.
Then inland for a bit on 101
until hooking up with 1 back to the coast.
Down to Fort Bragg. Then to Mendocino.
Then 1 to 128.
then on 253 to Ukiah.
Then north on 101 to 20.
Then East on 20 north of Clearlake (I've already been on the south and west sides of it before).
At Williams hop onto I-5 north.
Then hop off at 32 east to Chico.
Then 99 north to Red Bluff, then get on I-5 (or is that 273 paralleling it a better ride?) north again until reaching Redding.
Then continue north on I-5 to Weed.
Northeast on 97 to Klamath Falls, OR.
Then east on 140 to Lakeview.
Then north on 385 through Valley Falls, up to 20 to Burns.
Follow 20 east to Payette.
Then 30/I-84 to Boise.
Then just take I-84 East to Snowville, UT.
Then take the back way (38) into Malad City, ID.
So, please comments and suggestions for making the most of this trip.
I'll be taking video and photos galore on the way.

Not a lot to report on the return trip.
<br />
Had the motorcycle tire turned around correctly tueday morning. Hit the road by 11 am. Frantic to beat the stormfront rolling in. It was already raining and occasional hail as I headed down 195 to Lewiston Idaho.
<br />
I have to comment how striking Lewiston is being what seems a thousand feet below the higway coming from the North on 195/95 with the Snake river (and reservoir) by it. Probably beautiful in the spring.
<br />
Continued racing south down 95.
<br />
Beautiful ride from Lerwiston to New Meadows but wet winding roads, hail, cold, and nasty 30+ mph winds disturbed most of the enjoyment that would have been there, as well as the ever increasing and darkening storm clouds of the main front and the dropping temps.
<br />
I made it over the pass(es).
<br />
Just as I was coming up on a small town called Council Idaho, an oncoming tan early eighties pickup truck swerved into my lane and the teenage punk driver driver opened his door while he and his passenger grinning maniacly as I swerved to the shoulder white line to avoid being smacked by his door. They swerved back just shy of me and the driver pointed his hand at me (still laughing) in the shape of his hand holding a gun and pulling the trigger...

I was obviously considerably irritated, but rode on.
<br />
About a mile down I came across the county sheriff's office and decided to report the incident. Then rode on.
<br />
I made it to Boise without futher incident other than stronger head and cross winds.
<br />
The county Sheriffs office called and said they had found the culprits and the the driver admitted to swerving, but that he said it was to avoid an animal in the road and denied opening his door. I recalled a dead animal in the road about a mile earlier, but of course it was still a bogus response. However the Sheriff had spoken with the kid's parents, and apparently the mother didn't buy the kids falsehood, and was very upset with the kids, and were dealing with it. I said I wouldn't press charges at this point unless the sheriff thought it would do any more good, than the parents already being informed. So i didn't press charges since I would have had to come al lthe way back up there to testify.
<br />
Hit the road the following morning.
<br />
Note, except for Twin Falls to Burley (about 30 miles) the ENTIRE 1,500+ mile round trip I had either headwinds or crosswinds. The winds from Boise onwards were 30-50 mph gusts. It was weird from TF to Burley having a tail wind because there was almost NO wind resistace even at 85 mph because the wind behind was so strong.
<br />
From Boise to I-86/-84 interchange was cold but clear (and windy).
<br />
After interchange heading towards Pocatello and Idaho falls to do some quick information security work for a client who asked for help, it mostly hailed, and rained, and blustered intermittently and became colder and colder. Left I.F. around 6:30 pm.
<br />
Summit was cold above Malad going down I-15 snow was at the 6,000 ft mark, the summit is about 5,700 ft.
<br />
made it home by 8 pm. Very cold and sore, though nothing like the FEbruary trip the previous year's winter from California.
<br />
Now have to find buyer to take cycle for financial reasons. Very sad to do so, but must sell by October.
<br />
So these adventures are all finished on the cycle alas.
<br />
If anyone is interested:
<br />
2001 Suzuki Bandit 1200 "naked"
<br />
Metallic Red (Stock).
<br />
Corbin "Beetle" bags
<br />
Givi Tail bag 40 liter cap.
<br />
Tailblazer strobing (safety) headlight and brakelights.
<br />
New rear tire (< 800 miles)
<br />
New front tire (< 3,500 miles)
<br />
New rear wheel spoke and chain (<3,500 miles) gearing is changed two, to increase top end speed/gas mileage.
<br />
35-40 mpg.
<br />
Bike has 15,074 miles total.
<br />
Most mileage is highway/freeway through 12 states.
<br />
Never been laid down.
<br />
Body in great shape.
<br />
Always been reliable.
<br />
Has had every manufacturer recommended servicing and maintenance.
<br />
I have to sell, though I don't want to.
<br />
Remaining balance owed to Suzuki Corp is ~$5,600 ($209/mo).Pictures at www.hawkes-haven.com website in the motorcycles section.
<br />
Please email hawke(at)hawkes-haven.com if you know anyone interested.

Lots of travel this past week.
Started out Thursday morning (behind schedule) from Spokane, Washington, and made it to Idaho Falls by night. Wife and kids all along for the ride, heading out for various family gatherings in Utah and Idaho. So, it's now Wednesday of the following week, it's gone reasonably well. although the first 30 minutes of the trip started out rough.. (click the read more link for details)

We had given all the kids Dramamine (motion sickness meds) to keep them from getting sick about 15 minutes before heading out. Apparently that wsn't enough time. Not 15 minutes after leaving the house, and only 5 minutes from getting onto the freeway. our youngest "hurled" in the car!
Ewwwww.
So we pulled over. and started cleaning him and his pillow and the seats up (and some that he'd spewed onto his older brother). We pulled back onto the main road (Division), and just then I thought to look back, and realized I'd left Drake's pillow on the roof of the car, and watched it fly into the middle lane of the road. Argh!.
So Karina pulled off, and drove back up some side streets, pulled in a parking lot, while I dodged traffic going after the pillow, which miraculously only had a sligth tire mark on one corner.
Luckily, that was about the extent of our (mis) adventures that day.
Took some nice pics of the family (with me included - shocker!) by the falls in Idaho Falls, Idaho.
Friday evening, we arrived at the Homestead in the Heber/Midway area of Utah for the Meagher family reunion (my mother's mother's side).
Enjoyed being there Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
Meeting relatives i hadn't seen in many years.
Kids had a blast with the hot springs heated swimming pool the giant gold fish, geese, ducks, swans etc, and playground.
We then spent two nights in Salt Lake City, Utah.... more later, have to go....

We came across Deer Park, didn't find anything interesting there, so we headed east.
We found a small country road just east of Highway 2, I belive it was called canyon road or gorge road, something along those lines.
We followed it north in the Bronco until we came down to a bridge crossing what I think was the Little Spokane river.
We followed a rocky road until it dead ended, hopped out and went exploring.
William, Brennan, and Drake had a great time.
We saw horses, the remains of what looked to have once beena damn, with just a tower of it remaining, and much more.
Heading back after the hike (in the Bronco), we saw an outcropping of rock, and decided to try some rock climbing in the twilight hours.
The film from that day hasn't been developed yet, but I've some of the digital camera (very poor quality) pics handy, so here are some links to those:

• Brennan (6 years old) up a ways smiling, with Drake looking up from below (oh, yeah, we were ALL wearing head bandanas on this day btw ;-) )
  


• 8 years old William up higher, clinging nervously, telling me to "hurry and take the picture daddy", heh heh, with Brennan and Drake below
  


• Drake doing a great job (for a 4 year old) finally overcoming his fears and giving the climb a shot, way to go Drakey!
  


• I was egged on to climb to the top, so I did, with William taking the pics. Alas, they didn't really turn out, but I posted them anyway, what the heck. He accidentally didn't take the victory shot with me on the top arms raised skyward in melodramatic fashion. ;-) &nbps &nbpsAnd here's the other pic
  

This may fit under the "life stories" category better than the motorcycle section, but since I've not been doing any adventuring on the bike in a long time, and this was a "mis-adventure", I figured I put it in the Motorcycles section. The short version is: My sport bag, with many possessions, slipped onto the exhaust of my motorcycle, while I was on the freeway, and caught fire. A portion of the motorcycle is ruined/melted/burned, and just about everything in the bag was scattered over a 1.3 mile area. To read the long version, click the "Read More" link at the end of this article for all the gory details of my stupid actions exacerbated by more stupid actions. At least I wasn't hurt, and no one else was hurt. At least, that's what I keep trying to tell my self. ;-)
Here's the photos (click the image to see fullsize version):

Burned motorcycle mudflap and melted turn signal, rear view.	Right Rear View
Right Rear View.	Right side view
Burned Items - Black shirt (mostly gone).	Burned items - portable folding keyboard (salvageable, but hinge damaged, I'll have ot jerry-rig something to keep it together). This is the external wireless keyboard to my Zaurus handheld.
Burned items - Green kung fu uniform.	Burned items - White kungfu uniform.
Burned items - Notebook, keyboard, black kung fu pants.	Burned items - blue kungfu uniform, tshirt, belt, sport bag (3/4 of bag completely gone from fire).
Burned items - books, papers, bills.

I'm very tired right now, and it took longer to get the first part up (photos and all), than I expected, so I'll post the long version of this event later on when I've had some sleep. Check back in a day or two if you want the gory details.

Click images for full size view.

Yes, I did that. at 5 MPH. ARGH!
I'll post more when I'm less upset about it later on.
:-(

A friend has asked me to help with my technical skills in a business meeting coming up.
I'll be catching the flight this Thursday, and returning back Monday. If you need to get a hold of me, I'll still have my cell phone with the same number it's been for many years (since California).
I'll be driving from OKC down to Houston On Saturday, and driving back Sunday.
It's also a great reason/excuse to visit him.
He hopefully will come along on the road trip as well to what he says is the best seafood anywhere. Some place called "Willie's" or some such?

While I'm at it in OKC, I'm going to see if a client down in TX might want some face to face time to help train them on the data system I'm nearly finished with, and maybe visit some old friends in the are too if there's any time.

Doubt there's be much adventure to report, I'm not taking the motorcycle or anything adventurous like that. However, I will report back on how the seafood turns out. ;-)

You never know....

Yes, I should be doing (tons) of homework right now, but I wanted to try to hurry and catch up a little on the photo/stories postings as quick as possible (so they're going to be very pithy and less bloviated). ;-) So, let's start with Priest Lake photos. I've a lot more (higher quality/artistic) photos on film/slide that I haven't processed yet, but I'm uploading a few of the digital ones of the family right now.
(Click the small photos to see the full size photo)
First, the Bronco loaded up (with 5 mountain bikes on the back!):

Rear view


Side view


Wife and kids fishing on the dock


All three boys, mirror smooth lake in background. Early morning, the day we left.


William's first (caught) fish, in the net. He did a great job staying calm, and reeling it steadily in, even though this cut throat fought furiously! He was sooooo happy!


Here's his fish in his hands (ewww, slimy!). It measured 18" long, and 1.75 pounds! And it was tasty!


Drake (with Ducky) on the dock on mirror smooth lake.

There's lots to tell about the priest lake trip, but not enough time right now, maybe some day I'll come back and add more information. Onward to the next posting...

I've made the many pics and videos of the various offroad adventures of myself and my friends.
Over time I'll add stories explaining each pic and video, but for now you can view all the directories here:
http://www.hawkes-haven.com/images/04192000/
http://www.hawkes-haven.com/images/04262000/
http://www.hawkes-haven.com/images/07012000/
http://www.hawkes-haven.com/images/09052000/
http://www.hawkes-haven.com/images/09092000/
http://www.hawkes-haven.com/images/09102000/
http://www.hawkes-haven.com/images/09132000/
http://www.hawkes-haven.com/images/09142000/
http://www.hawkes-haven.com/images/09152000/

The "geekmobile":
http://www.hawkes-haven.com/images/geekmobile/

And here's pics to my motorcycle:
http://www.hawkes-haven.com/images/cycle/

I hit the road on a pleasant Thursday evening (September 11th ) after finishing celebrating my birthday with my family as soon as the boys were back from school.
The trip was very enjoyable and I was making great progress and was about 80 miles southeast of Salmon Idaho on Highway 28.
I was doing about 85 on an open stretch of straightaway with slight rolling hills (lava flows) really enjoying the ride, planning to spend the night camping in Salmon.
All of a sudden there were a couple of sickening thumps from my rear wheel (of my motorcycle) the all too familiar feel of a tire going flat, but never before experience on a motorcycle. I felt maybe 2-3 of these thumps, did not feel it hit anything before that, and then the back was trying to go down on my left side. I leaned heavily on my right, and started applying the front brake to slow down from 85, and of course, the back end tried passing the front end on my right side, so I was using all my strength to keep the bike straight on the road as much as possible and keep it from going down on the left side as chunks of rubber flew off the back.
Once I made it down to about 25 mp I headed for the gravel shoulder hoping to save the wheel rim and it was getting harder to keep the bike up and since I had gear on to protect me from road rash or gravel rash, if I was going to go down I wanted to do it on softer earth instead of the hard road, plus I didn't want to get run over by any traffic if any showed up suddenly from the rise just ahead.
I skidded to a VERY wobbly stop at long last.
Put both feet on the ground.
And stood there shaking, and swearing up a storm.
Hopped off the bike and...

sure enough the tire was shot.
The left side of this Dunlop tire sidewall had completelly separated at the seam from the rest of the tire!
I reached for my cellphone, and NO SIGNAL.
I waited a few minutes and saw no vehicles.
So, i battended down my gear. Taking off the heavy one piece outer suit and helmet and gloves. Then started hiking to the rise in the direction I was heading, hoping that I could get signal.
A few vehicle drove by and a few trucks, none of which stopped for my outstretched thumb.
Finally about about 20 mintues a fellow in a pickup stopped. He gave me the bad news that there was no cell service until just outside of Salmon. He kindly offered a ride to the nearest town befor ehe was going off the highway, at Leadore.
There at a bar I asked around for anyone willing to haul my bike with a pickup up to Salmon.
It took a while, but we tracked down the local towing owner and he arranged for a kid with a pickup and his buddy to help me load the bike. Then we took, it up to Salmon.
We arrived there around 10 pm. The flat happended around 8 pm.
We left the bike in back of one of two shops we hoped would have a tire.
Cha-ching, $120 gone for the tow.
Cha-ching, $50 gone for the dump of a motel, since the other less expensive and nicer motels were booked up from fire brigades staying in town.
The following morning, I was there at the shop and as soon as the owners came up explained the situation.
They checked. They only had an 18" tire. I needed a 17".
They called the other shop in town, and they only had a 16".
Both shops did about 99% dirt bike business not street bikes.
So, now the nearest town that had a shop (after much more calling around and waiting) with the right tire was Al's in Hamilton.
So we tried to find a person with a pickup or a rental pickup to take the bike up to Hamilton about 120 miles north.
No one had anything except the car dealership, and they stuck it to me.
Cha-CHING! $150 just to drive the truck one way 120 miles for a few hours. argh!
So, finally arrived in  Hamilton around 1:30 pm.
They commented they had never seen a tire blow the way this one had.
We inspected it thoroughly and couldn't find anywhere that had been penetrated.
Here's the real kicker. I just bought both tires back in Oklahoma City last year, when the bike was around 11,500 miles, I was now around 13,800 miles. So these were practically new tires, and I was already eating one.
Worse, this shop stuck me (with a "generous" 20% off) a $190 bill to put a new tire on.
So, this flat ended up being a $500 flat tire!
And it wasn't over.
I was over the summit from the Montant Idaho border and stopped in Wallace Idaho to chat with some motorcyclists, one from Idaho, the other all the way from New Jersey.
I shared my blowout story with the Jerseyite and then he grimaced as he looked at it and said:
"I hate to burst your buble, but they put your tire on backwards."
I looked and sure enough the directional arrow was the wrong way for rotation. ARGH!
I finally made it to Spokane.
By the time I had a chance to go to a shop Saturday evening, I missed the shop being open by 10 minutes.
I ran into one of the workers in back. He wouldn't authorize any work after hours since his guys had left (I thkink he was either an owner or manager). He said the directional only affected the tire's ability to resist  hydroplaning. I'm worried it also affects traction.
Also, I know radial tires don't like to have their direction changed once they're worn in a particular direction.
So, I'mhere in Spokane, Monday, at a Cafe with wireless internet (the Spike on Monroe St.) and hopefully tomorrow morning (Tuesday) whent he shop's open (They're all closed on Monday here) hopefully they'll have time to hurry and change the tire in the morning.
There's a major storm coming that is supposed to snow in the passes.
I have to ride back to Malad by Wednesday night to catcha  Thursday morning flight to Arizona.
If they don't have the time for me I'll have to risk it. But I'm not a happy camper to be sure.
Who knows what the hazards are to that tire being backwards?
Please let me know.
Thanks,

Well. the move to Spokane happened a little less than a year ago.
The snow was coming down so heavy, we had to rent a Uhaul, to move our stuff to the Moving truck. heh.
And the snow and wind kept piling up the snow in teh back of the uhaul, so we had to keep shoveling the snow out of it.
Then when they tried to leave, apparently they jackknifed the semi and had to spend the night.

Meanwhile, due to my insistence, we went over the summit (Malad, Idaho), and apparently they closed the summit to ALL traffic about 5-15 minutes after we passed.
I was in the 4x4 pickup, and poor Karina and the kids were in the Crown Victoria.
On the freeway, snow occasionally piled up on her bumper.
Then at the base of the hill in pocatello, on the freeway, Karina hit an icy spot, lost control, and flew off the freeway (I saw the whole thing happen in my rearview mirrors,and was talking to her on the CB when it happened).
They flew down the center embankment, and almost into oncoming traffic.
We had to have her towed. luckily everyone was physically ok, but all were quite shaken up.
They closed the freeways in every direction (north, south, east, and west) so we had to spend the night in Pocatello.
The next day we made it (white knuckles) to Missoulla, MT. Where we had to wait out more storms a few day(s) before the passes were clear.
We finally made it to Spokane, and the drivers made it a few days later, and then the brakes on their trailer seized, so they had to leave the trailer there for many days before it could be towed away.
Pheweee!
Here's some of the pics from that misadventure.

• Mover shovelling snow out of back of Uhaul pic #1


• Mover shovelling pic #2


• Uhaul (foreground), snowstorm, and moving van (Mayflower Moving) in the background) pic #1


• Uhaul (foreground), snowstorm, and moving van (Mayflower Moving) in the background) pic #2


• Uhaul backed to Mayflower for loading pic #1


• Uhaul backed to Mayflower for loading pic #2


• Brennan and William, playing snow king of the mountain(or at least mound)


• William tossing snow with the snow shovel


• Brennan shovelling snow
  
• The Crown Victoria stuck in the snow after flying off the freeway


• The Crown Vic again, this is how close she came to flying into oncoming traffic. About 6 feet, after flying about 120+ feet through the snow.

Well, it's been a long arduous road, but I, and my family finally made the move to Spokane, WA.
The whole process started back in July/August 2003 (See archived articles for details), and it is now January 3rd, 2004, and the movers are finally unloading the truck today.
Unfortunately this is only temporary for the next six months, but the next move will be a far shorter distance thankfully. (Click Read more, for rest of this article).

We are renting a place up on "Five Mile Prarie", just above the Spokane city. The house is a bit small, and rather "cabinish", but it will suffice for the next six months while we house hunt for the purchase of a permanent home.
It's been snowing like crazy for days. Karina drove the car into the center ditch of the freeway (over 300') just south of Pocatello. Luckily all she suffered was whiplash, and the car by some miracle didn't get any damage.
 It's been a trip from Hades. I will come back later and fill in the details in this article later in the next few days. At least we made it in one piece.
I'm back to continue the tale of our trials and tribulations as we travelled through our travails.
Monday, the movers arrived with their 48' semi.
It had been snowing record storms for days in Malad City, Idaho, and was continuing to do so. And now the winds were really kicking in too, and the snow drifting like crazy.
The drivers, through Crown Transit, part of Mayflower Movers (I don't recommend them after this experience) showed up. I had just driven my 4x4 pickup truck out onto the side of the highway in front of the driveway to wait for the drivers who were somewhat lost trying to find us in the snowstorm.
I parked the truck just off ot the side, I was at a complete stop, when the truck just suddenly slid sideways, and towards the ditch. I released the brake, and put it into gear and reverse, but couldn't get out. So I had to have a neighbor quickly pull me out as the movers arrived.
The this was all before getting breakfast. I drove off to get breakfast while they stood deliberating about how to pull into the driveway.
When I returned from Burger king, they were partly jacknifed in the driveway and highway, and feet from taking out the fencing, and completely stuck in the snow. The fools hadn't bothered to chain up before trying to pull in, and were now thoroughly stuck. They were trying to put a chain on, but a bit too late.
Eventually a snowplow with the county drove by and stopped, and called in a 10 wheeler. They arrived, and with a chain from a neighbor (same chain and neighbor who kindly helped me out before), pulled the semi and trailer back out.
They had not brought, or arranged of a shuttle" to go from the house to the trailer.
So I ran down and rented a 24' (they didn't have anything else available) Uhaul truck for $60 for the day.
.... continuing in a few hours....

I post this story at ADVRIDER as well.

There was a break in the weather long enough today for me to take a trip to the surrounding areas and try taking some photos with my new zoom lense. I'll get into the photography details more in the Photography News, here I'll just describe the trip.

I rode my trusty 2001 Suzuki Bandit 1200 "Naked" motorcycle,

which has over 9,000 miles on it now and I've ridden it less than a year from California to Idaho, Idaho to Oklahoma where I am currently styaing for a few months...

I rode North on I-35 looking for fields with Sunflowers, but didn't find any, the ones I saw a month ago are either already harvested/plowed under, or else further north into Kansas, further than I had time to go. Though I was tempted. As I neared Perry about 60 miles north of Edmond, there were many dark storm clouds to the North, so I opted not to risk it.

I stopped in at Perry and saw a hopped up roadster with some people looking at it, I stopped and asked an older local fellow about the area. His eyes lit up. He explained how there was a fair today in downtown Perry, and that they had all sorts of tractors on display. He was obviously excited about these tractors. He said there might even be a steam powered one running. I feigned interest, maybe there would be something interesting...

I followed him downtown a few miles away. On the way, I saw much to my surprise, WHITE cattle. Entirely without pigment. Ok... I thought, that's worth taking some shots. Then I passed some old train cars, that looked good for some black and white shots. And maybe a few color ones with the digital Mavica, that would make good compter desktop backgrounds. We arrived downtown and sure enough it was quite crowded and the downtown streets were mostly shutdown for the fair and live bands and street vendors hawking their wares, etc. I saw a long row of 20, 30 or more tractors.

in various condition, and spanning about 100 years. Most were totally uninteresting to me, but one caught my aye. Someone had made it look like a sort of 40s to 50s car bright yellow/orange coupe, but it was most definitely a tractor. That I HAD to take picures of and did.

 It was bright Orange and yellow. I wandered around for a few more minutes, but nothing else was of much interest to me in the town, so after shooting a few shots and wandering around for a bit, I hit the road back to to the train cars. Using black and white film with the Nikon F5, and a few shots in digital color with the Mavica I caught a few nice photos.

A little further down the road I shot the White cattle (I hear that's that a hanging offense in these here parts :) ), and some of the funky streamlined water towers they have out here to resist tornadoes and high winds. While getting close to one of these towers, I stepped in a lot of the really bright (iron red mud they have around here. so on the way back I stopped at the cattle guard in the road to scape the mud off my boots. Well, foolishly I slipped right through the grating and nailed each of my legs just below my knees! Ouch that hurt considerably, and later that day and onto the next few days I had a lot of trouble even walking and was pretty badly brused, it could have been a lot worse though. Then I slowly climbed out, noticing that the strap on my Nikon had come apart! Ack, that's a 4,000 dollar camera! Well, I definitely to need to get a stronger strap for that. I limped back to the motorcycle, my left boot coverred completely in red mud now past my ankle. I scraped off what I could in the grass and put my equipment away. I then proceeeded back on to the highway.

I kept trying to find some good old Oil rigs that I could get close enough to to shoot without trespassing, but didn't have any luck for a while. Finally I stoppeed in Guthrie, heading back south from Perry, getting a little nervous about the storm clouds continuing to gather and darken. Guthrie apparently was the previous capital of Oklahoma long ago. Now a small-ish town.

I rode around west, came across a sign - that at first I thought I misread - for a town 2 miles west of Guthrie called called Cedar Valley Oklahoma. I thought it said "Golf Land USA", but thought I misread it, as I continued on I realiszed, no, that was what it had to say, because I was in mile after mile after mile of nothing but golf courses, never ending golf courses, as far as the eye could see. I kid you not!

I doubled back, and and took a shot of my motorcycle in front of that sign. I'll post that photo later when I get access to a floppy drive to up to uipload it from. My Vaio alas, doesn't have a floppy drive, and my "tank" laptop is still in the shop. I rode back to Guthrie.

I thought a bridge I passed over might be interesting from underneath, it turned out to be an ugly modern style cement type bridge underneath, however on the train tracks were some nice older abandonded red passenger train cars. ">I took a few photos of those. I road around the town, there were some buildings that once were nice (American) gothic style buildings ,that would have made some good black and white shots, except that they had modernized sectinos of them, and so that ruined the look I didn't bother to shoot them.

I rode further south back on the freeway hopping off at every exit looking for more stuff to shoot. Finally at the northenmost Edmond exit I found an oil rig close enough to shoot. It had a nice contrast in content to it. The old style oil rig was turned off and rusting, and next to it was running a brand shiny new (blue) tiny little contraption that had replaced it, and was not at all as impressive as the big "hammer" style one. I took some black and white photos that will hopefully look better than these digital color ones. I shot them side by side as a comparison of old and new, using my last frame of black and white.

Then I headed to lake Arcadia on the east side of the I35 freeway in Edmond. It's a very large man made lake with large parks around it. and camping areas. It cost me 3 bucks to even go in. It would cost a vehilce 6 for just a visit, even more for overnighters. It was nice enough though very artificial.

I found a nice field though in the undeveloped area, with lots of sunflowers, not a farm full as I had been looking for, but a small wild field and enough to get some decent shots, though not as dramatic as what I wanted to shoot that must have been in Kansas. Right now only the Mavica digital shots are online, I'll try to get the nicer Nikon shots online later. I manged to get some good shots and used both the wide angle and the new zoom, which was perfect for shooting some of the bumble bees on the flowers without scaring them off, I think I have one or two good ones there hopefully. --Update, after looking at the develoed photos, they're good, but it would have been better to use a tripod, asome are a hair blurry due to shaking, a tripod would have avoided that, I forgot about zooms doing that. --

I saw a nice cluster of dead trees sticking out of the water across the lake, and tried to find a way to get close enough but it turns out, that end of the lake was owned by private property so I did not have a chance to shoot that, ah well. I took a quick shot of the bike by the lake, nothing pretty, just for the travel shots section.

I finally headed down towards Okalhaoma City to drop off the film, and then swing back to the house just as it started to rain and lightining, I cut that as close as I could.

Now I'm limping, but feel a pleasant fatige, of a pleasant unstressful day other than some minor injuriies. It was fun. Until next adventure. This is Hawke, signing off for now.