Tuesday, May 22, 2007

everyday a new day.

I would like to begin this post with a statement regarding the sheer greatness of modest mouse. Modest Mouse is undisputedly the band that i can enjoy all of the time. If i were trapped on an island with only one cd and a solar powered cd player, i would bring a comp with every modest mouse song ever on it. Maybe that's bending the rules a little, but i don't care. This is my fabricated scenario, after all, and it is really just an illustration of my high regard for Modest Mouse.

That said, damn! there were so many people at that show! Stupid everybody loving the band i love. Stupid universally applicable music. (Universally, as used in this sentence, should be understood to encompass only people between the ages of 13 and 30 who reside in western countries. Maybe with a few outliers.)

But enough! This is such a small part of what has happened, and there are no photos worth posting. On to more interesting (possibly) adventures.

We left San Jose on Thursday, and headed straight to the Sequoia forest. California, with all of its bounty, blessed us with a few fruit groves full of ripe things to eat. So we stopped, and picked, and ran away. Here is an example of one of these actions:



There are a number of amazing trees in the forest, but the most renowned is probably General Sherman. Here is a little taste of what a big tree it is:







We circled back to the highway after spending a day in the forest and drove all of the way to Bakersfield, CA. I think that Anthony's dad said a lot of people from Oklahoma live there. Maybe they do. All i am sure about is that it smells like engineering and a fox jumped on our car in the middle of the night. And i think i woke up sometime and set the clock ten minutes forward.

Oh, on the way, we saw the most incredibly honest gas station we've ever seen. The people there weren't even fazed by the name.



It is!


Soon after Bakersfield (maybe the next day?) we drove to New York and Paris. Just a joke! It was Vegas!





Las Vegas is a strange town. It is hot all of the time, and we were constantly bombarded by advertisements for strippers. We were not bombarded by impressionists. We saw a lot of fish and some lions, and a lot of people were either happy or apathetic. I can't remember anyone that wasn't trashed being sad. But, by four in the morning, most people were trashed. Yay, free drinks!

I won ten dollars on a quarter machine. I really just played it for the old-timey pull handle, but hey, I didn't mind free money.

We drove to the Grand Canyon the next morning, which was Sunday. We drove over the Hoover Dam on our way.



Sunday night we camped the Canyon, and we woke early to commence some life-risking experiences. We are mountain goats. Or just lucky. Or lucky, lucky mountain goats.






From the Grand Canyon, we drove to albuquerque, where we are currently sitting on a couch in a coffee shop and soaking up some air conditioning. We are scurrying home, excited about friends and showers and beds. Yay, home! We're ready for you! Get ready for us! Prepare your arms for hugs! Prepare your mouths for conversations! Prepare your hearts for love!

Yay!

j

Tuesday, May 15, 2007

It has been a long road since last we wrote.

Highway One and California have treated Jeanie and I very well these last few weeks.

After leaving Crater Lake (last post) on the fourth, we headed south to Medford, Oregon. While we were there, we hung out at a local coffee shop, dumpstered a bit, and got into the movies. It was a really fun night. We saw about twenty minutes of 'The Condemned' (booo), all but the first few minutes of 'Hott Fuzz' (woooo!) and all of Spider-Man 3 which wasn't too bad. We got in on opening night for free so that made it a lot cooler. Later that night we crashed in the car and headed south in the morning.

Our first stop was a beautiful Redwood grove.

(be prepared for way too many pictures)











Before we left the grove, each us gave a biiiiggg tree a biiiiiggg hug.






The first town we arrived in California was Crescent City. We started talking about how nice a shower would be, so we decided to stay at a motel for the night. It was only our second time to stay at a motel on the trip and the last was in Virginia Beach. So, we hung out and took long hot showers and enjoyed having a bed.

The next morning we went down to the water and saw the sights! (The ocean was beautiful!)












After Crescent City we drove south along Highway one. Every now and then we'd stop in cool small towns to hang out on the beach. At one point we snuck passed the toll booth and drove through a redwood tree. (wooo, we are such tourists!) Then later we watched the sunset in Mendocino. (a proud town of 500). Actually, they called it an 'official village', which meant that there weren't any coporate chains or street lights, only stop signs. The town was beautiful- as was the sunset.










Goat Rock in Sonoma National Beach was an amazing find. It seemed that it took pride in being named the second most dangerous beach in Califonia. There were warnings all over about sleeper waves that would take you under if you swam or even wade in the water. So- we waded in the water, chased birds, saw seal along the shoreline (!), and while we walking we discovered drift wood huts on the beach.














After we walked the beach we drove back into the closest town Jenner, bought some Fat Tire, went back down to the beach, made our own tipi style hut and stayed the night on the beach. It was really awesome night.




The next morning we got ahold of Anthony who recently moved to San Jose. We left our beautiful tipi hut and headed south on Highway One to San Jose. Driving through San Francisco we saw the Golden Gate bridge in person for the first time. Though it was covered in fog, it was an exciting moment. Then we had pay the toll to get through- booo.







So, we made it to Anthony's houses. We've been hanging hard for the last few days. We visited Brandon at Stanford, hung out on the beach in Santa Cruz a lot,



we made a fire on a secluded part of the beach with Anthony and his cousin,







and we stenciled the streets a bit. I'm not sure what it means, but there are arrows on the streets and sidewalks pointing different directions with 'USA' sprayed underneath- so we added our own homage.



We hadn't spent much time in San Francisco so yesterday we made a sign and caught a ride to Golden Gate Park. From there we walked around the park, saw beautiful flowers, walked around Haight-Ashbury, talked to traveler kids, and accidently ended up at a free Dinosaur Jr. show at Amoeba Records. Then we made a sign and caught a ride back to San Jose.







So, today is our last day in San Jose. We're going to get the car all ready to go, pack up everything, and then go to Man Man and Modest Mouse show tonight! Woo! They're playing in San Jose tonight and Dylan got us on the list because he rules at being awesome. Yeah!

See you super soon friendlys.

Love,
Marshall

Friday, May 4, 2007

This is the time to slow down.

We've been through three states since we left my aunt, our second mom (and good friend), in our second (or maybe eighth) home of Lyons, Colorado. We left Monday and drove to Estes Park in attempt to drive west through Rocky Mountain National Park. The South exit was closed for winter, so forced to turn back we made our way around the park. We saw a few different forms of wildlife along the route.




Elk!





Goats!


We drove through mountains until stopping in Steamboat Springs. Steamboat resides in the most beautiful valley on earth ever. We hung out there for the night and had a good meal and some wicked fat tire ale. The next morning we began our drive to Salt Lake City.

During this drive we opted for smaller highways and it was well worth it. We had some fun with a town named Parshall, hiked a dinosaur bone trail near Dinosaur, and we watched some beavers cross the road somewhere in between.













and we saw petroglyphs!




Then we were in Utah. We drove into Salt Lake City Tuesday afternoon and headed straight to the mormon square. (we were excited) We spoke to a young woman in the only temple open to visitors. (it was pretty) We walked around the square for a while before going to the public mega-library.



Temple of doom! (kidding)



Beehive Behave! (btrb/jeanie)



John the Baptist passing the aaronic lineage (while doing pushups off their heads?)



Mega huge mega library!



Absurd stack of fireplaces!




Can you guess what this is?


The library was really awesome. It has a rooftop garden that you can access from a huge ramp that circles one half of the courtyard. We hung out in the library, checked out the university of utah's campus, and then slept under a tree for the night.

The next morning we got our second oil change of the trip and started out of Utah. We decided to stop and check out Antelope Island which resides in the middle of the salt lake. (amazingly glad we did) We climbed rocks, saw buffalo, drew in the sand, skipped rocks in the great salt lake, and took showers in the bathroom. It was amazing. (again)













The island is a little less than eight miles off of the main land. There are around six hundred free roaming buffalo as well as other wildlife (including antelope-duh!). We climbed to the top of of Buffalo Point and for this I felt victorious.



We then drove through super windy Idaho and stopped in Boise for the night. The next morning we ate at a mom & pop diner and then drove to Bend, Oregon. We took isolated highways and on the way we saw this marvel of man kind!



The shoe tree! (jeanie exchanged shoes with its greatness)



And this may have happened.



(hahahahaha)

We slept in Bend and then drove to Crater Lake this morning. It is a beautiful blue fresh water lake on top of one of the Cascade Mountains that was caused by an eruption many years ago. (look it up! it's interesting to boot) Also, it is the deepest lake in North America at nearly 2,000 feet deep.








It is super snowy there this time of year, with an average 66 feet of snow per year! (see- interesting!)

We left Crater Lake this afternoon and drove South. Currently, we have stopped in Medford, Oregon. We have been driving quite a bit lately, so from here we hope to take it slow. With plans to make our way along the West Coast from here, we could stretch it out for a while.

We hope all is well with you where you are. Live well with love life livers.

Safe travels and all the love,
Marshall