almost to the playa

Well Amy and I are in Reno and it has been a trip. We drove the night before last until Elko Nevada from Reno with the Warning light popping on every20 minutes and the stop light coming on every 2-3 x of that. As soon aas i would stop they would go out and we could resume. I finally decided to stop and rest a spell and went into one of the casinos to gamble. I lost a bunch but the dealers were real cool and gave me back one of my bets where i semi-called my bets off but not really, it helps to tip. i went back to the RV to see how she was doing and the warning lights were on again so i decided to camp in a Wal-mart parking lot and get some sleep. After last years wal-mart experience i was a little nervous but this went smoothly.

We drove on in the morning with no warning lights until Winnemucca, where we said maybe now is a good time to do our shopping. So we we filled the RV with H20, fuel and propane and dumped everything at the truckstop then went to shop. Funny thing about Burning Man is you have to shop a lot. I don't know if it because you keep remembering things you forgot or if your scared you might not have something you need on the playa either way you stop like 20x to shop a little more.

We stopped again in Reno for contacts for Amy and the last supplies for the Hookah hut. We hit one last supermarket and a Kinko's to print out our early arrival passes. Then we had lunch at an AWESOME gourmet pizza place called Blue Moon Pizza, if you are ever in Reno try it out. Finally we decided to stay in a nice hotel the last night before the playa. I boooked a room with points at the Peppermill, one of the nicer hotels in Reno if not the nicest. We got there thouroughly exhausted and in need of rest and a nice room and Amanda the front desk girl hooked us up with a wedding suite. It was definitely a nice room but there was no jacuzzi bath or even a bath tub at all, which for a wedding suite i think should be a must. We decided to go to the pool which closed right when we got there, making us think our luck wasn't getting better. But being the addict i am i decided to try gambling after a long shower. We had a great night i won a couple of hundred and Amy and i had a blast and got hammered.

Well now its up early and off to the playa....thanks for reading I'll have tons of stories to post after and tons off pics.

Hey boobooMineral Springs and waterslide park

Today was by far the nicest day of the trip. It started with Ames and I going to the mineral springs and waterpark. It was a smll park and we only spent a few hours. The park had 2 slides a tube slide and a longer open slide. Amy liked the open and i Liked the tube. It's crazy to slide in hot mineral water but it was fun.

This was followed up by some quick action in the RV and lunch at taco Johns. Then it was to the road again.

The drive was unbelievably beautiful. We drove through Wyoming and Yellowstone. We saw old faithful and weren't overly impressed but at least now we can check it off the list. We met a nice couple who were traveling from alaska to louisiana so the guy could report for duty and we made many jokes about geyesers that were not PG. The sky at sunset was spectacular all purples and oranges. What you may not know is that old faithful is only one of many many geyesers in the park and others were actually more spectacular. It's odd i often find when i see somehting i have heard about all my life in person i am often dissapointed because my imagination makes it largr than life.

The drive was pretty smooth except my brakes went mush for a bit before we got to the geyser, which when going through the mountains is quitee scary especially when you add in the fact that the high winds are constantly buffetting you.

Finally we made it to our campground which thankfully had a hot tub and pool and is very nice. In the hot tub we met a really cool russian guy named daniel and made a new friend. On the way back you could see the entire night sky which was so bright, vivid and free from light pollution you could actually see the milky way.

By far today was my favorite.

Go West Young Man

We spent a great evenng in Met a potential new friend, Alli, at the Keg, a little dive bar with GREAT food. They have a mixed berry salad that is world famous and rightly so. Alli told us how awesome Manitou and Colorado in general is to live in. I haven't met one person who lives in Colorado who isn't a big fan of it. I am looking forward to moving here. We even met a hippie kid who was stranded there that day after a girl who was traveling with him tried to attack him an even he said he didn't know what it was but manitou felt like home.

With that in mind we went to check on the house that we bid on and meet with our realtor. She informed us that the lawyers who are in charge of the estate that is in bankruptcy can't go below a certain level and that our offer was below it. Our agent was very knowledgeable but she flip lops first the place wasn't worth it and we should buy a much more expensive one but then now we should spend the extra $25k and buy this one. She is just out for the sale and perhaps not our best interest. It was a real turn-off. Funny thing is we didn't have a car to go look at the property and she only had a scooter that she uses around town so she called out a friend Nate to take us up there. We hit it off with Nate and he warned us against going higher on price and took us through some other places een though he si not an agent. So we made a 2nd friend in manitou. He also taught us that manitou is the God of the Animal gods for several native american cultures. We left Manitou reluctantly and headed to Boulder to check it out.

Boulder is a really cute college town and it was a perfect day to sit and people watch as kids played in the public fountain. It had a good energy but it was certainly no Manitou. After that we took the drive to Flaming Gorge Recreation Area. The drive was pretty uneventful until we were about 1 mile from the destination where there was a lot of construction. One of the construction signs looked like it was in the road and i skidded to avoid it almost killing us in the process. I luckily managed to safely avoid it and get back on the road with only a major shifting of contents and a lot of adrenaline pumping.

Well now the open road calls and Amy and i are headed to Thermopolis probably the World's largest mineral hot spring... good times.

2 days of rest and one nonstop drive...

Our propane troubles continued into the morning of Friday, which meant only dash AC and no fridge until we met Sam at Camping World who took 10 minutes and got both our propane and our fridge working. Afterward we drove to Baton Rouge and stopped into a restaurant owned by one of Amy's family friends called Luis D'angelos It was great food. but sadly we didn't get to see any of her friends. To complicate things we also found out we were going to be hit by a hurricane... and not be home to manage it. Right after this the water in the fuel light came on and I had to get drenched in diesle fuel and take and outdoor hose shower at a truckstop to get it to go out. As you can see the troubles on this trip have been numerous but surmountable.

Then it was on to Austin, if this sounds like a lot of driving, thats because it is. Texas is a BIG state. The major bonus however was Sonic burger, man that place is good. Try the Island fire burger. That Habenero sauce is the best. We got in too late to see my dad and i was exhausted as i pulled up next to his house. So exhausted that i scraped the new wrap on either a bush or the mailbox which i didnt see till later. That will have to be fixed when i get back. Amy and i popped open the slide turned on the Olympics and promptly fell asleep.

Saturday we went to see my dad in the hospital. For the record he is doing GREAT a complete 180 from where he was when i was in Austin 2 weeks ago. He is walking and talking and should be ready to go home this week. After visiting my dad amy and i did some shopping and ran some errands, nothing exciting and then went back to spend time with my dad and watch barrack Obama speak on religion. Later we were slated to meet up with another of Amy's family friends, the sister in the D'angelo family. On our way we stopped and grabbed some awesome Vietnamese food, Pho rocks!

Austin has an awesome music scene an a weird style to it Daniel, Amy's, friend knew a friend who was playing a gig at a vintage western wear store (that's Austin) but when we got there it was pouring and most of the venue was outside with all the covered seats taken... I wound up getting rained on, which by this point was par for the course of the trip. Finally we got some covered seats and could enjoy the show which wasn't bad the singer was Noelle Hampton, not bad in a rockabilly sort of way. Afterwards Amy and Daniel caught up and we talked with a friend of Daniel's who was christian even though she believes the hindus have it right... Religion goes deep in texas...

Both Friday and Saturday i woke up in the middle of the night to generator problems. i still haven't figured them out but I will. I think it's a short in the system. Regardless I have yet to get a full nights sleep.

Sunday we woke up and visited my dad and the order of the day was Schlitterbahn. Schlietterbanh has been rated the best waterpark in the US and for good reason. It was awesome and Amy and i had the first real fun in our trip. We really enjoyed ourselves. And i even went headfirst down a speed slide. I lost my sunglasses and went to lost and found to upgrade but they actually found my real glasses so i took them.

We wound up rushing back to meet my friend Kenda and her family at the Oasis for dinner and drinks, which by the time we had gotten there they were done with. The Oasis is known for it's views of Lake Travis and the sunset, we had a view of a deluge. Kenda and her family left sshortly fter we got there and then the slick waiter tried to stick us with a second bill even though we saw them pay, thought you were slick didn't you Bryce?!? Douchebag.

After Oasis the plan was to take a nap and then drive through the night to Manitou, our future home in Colorado. After napping for 2 hours i drove pretty much 18 hours to get us here. The main problems on this leg were the mirrors which are essential and the people who did the wrap completely fucked up. I had to stop like 10x to fix them or do without them for 50 mile stretches. Alas we are here in beautiful Manitou, and i am going to eat and pass out. I am sure there are things iforgot but i haven't really slept in 2 days.

Danger WIll Robinson DANGER!!

Well yesterday we got off about noon and headed to Orlando with no problems. I stopped by the EBG office and saw all the growth that has happened since i left. It actually hit me pretty hard. It's sort of like a baby... when it's born it needs you so much and you have to be at it's beck and call. then it grows a little and you only need to be there 85% of the time like a toddler. As it grows it becomes like a teenager and eventually an adult. EBG has fully matured past my initial parenting and it just really struck me when i visited. We got to spend some time with Dante which is always nice and then we left to meet up with my step dad, Dave.

On the way to meet Dave, we had some time so we decided to pick up some propane for the generator, which is currently like the Chanukah oil and has gone on for 8 days! We stopped at U-haul to get the propane and when the lady went to fill it the hose popped off spraying propne everywhere, the pop was so loud Amy and i took off running. She tried 4 more times and was unable to get it to work so we left without propane. On the way to Dave a red warning light went on and then brakes went a little mushy. We pulled into the parking lot and had dinner and i had Dave come look at it, when he returned with us it was fine. It remained so until 3 hours later when it came on again, i pulled over and it went off, it's playing peekaboo with me. i will have it checked when we stop longer in Austin.

So after all this i stop for some diesel and I realize the people who wrapped the RV have wrapped and sealed the gas tank door shut... a trusty pocket knife use later and we were filling up, only to have my credit card declined. It is always so embarrassing when you have to assure the counter clerk that you haven't over extended yourself. I called the credit card company and they said
declined it because it was a large high risk gas purchase. After arguing for 10 minutes they assured me the rest of the trip would have no problems...we shall see.

So that leads us to today... Jeff and I in an effort to haul all of our bikes and originally 3 more we had a platform made to accommodate them all. After initial testing we knew that it wouldnt hold the weight of all of them so we decided against the 3 on the bike rack on the rear s there was no way it would hold the weight. We were so right .... today while driving to have my bikes tuned by their creator the whole platform broke at the weld and we dragged it for about 20 meters. The oddest part was when i called Dan the bike builder and told him where we were he told me it was across the street from the coffee house he owns... weird small world. Dan came out with his friend Ira and rescued us and now here we sit waiting for all the repairs. Dan is making the platform stronger by adding welds and said the first weld was crap to begin with and i still think that guy over charged us... Jeff you should get our money back! Hopefully we will be back on the road in an hour... then we are on to Baton Rouge and Austin. N'awlins will be for the return trip.

More Hiccups

The problem with going bigger and better is often you don't have more infrastructure to do so. Jeff and i had a special platform built for the back of the RV and our bikes it was costly and may not even make the trip. We were up till 2 testing the thing out and finally decided we were unable to take our bikes plus 4 others so we had to leave 3 behind. During our late evening work we had the cops show up and ask us if we were stealing the bikes. We told them that thieves always put the bikes back on a trailer when they are stealing. They sat around chatting for like an hour then took off in a hurry, so much for taxpayer money... we leave in the morning.

The Wrap

Well it's been a crazy time getting ready. On the way to get the RV wrapped with the Premium Seats USA logo the transmission light came on and I thought uh oh this trip is in trouble. After much fretting and alternative planning it turned out to be the batteries and alternator, $2000 later we were back in business and on the way to get it wrapped. After being promised that it would be done over the weekend and then again Monday night it finally got here this morning at 11. The wrap looks AMAZING. Now for the loading to begin.