The

God Knows Book and Skate Tour

continues

(This is page 2. Click here to go back to page 1.)

 

December 23rd, Richland, Washington -- I'm here at Dad's. Nothing much is happening, and that's fine with me. Dad's not feeling well though. That's not so fine.

I drove up the Oregon side of the Columbia River Gorge on I-84 to get here yesterday. Got a really nice view of Mt. Hood on the way. The windy gorge was something to see, too. This waterfall was eaten up, not once, but twice by the wind.

When I entered Washington, a sign proclaimed it "The Evergreen State" . . . which was amusing considering I was entering the brown hills of dry Eastern Washington.

 

December 24th, Richland, Washington -- Dad's better today, and that's good. He was laid up in bed all day yesterday and wasn't feeling good at all.

This Christmas, I've been reflecting a lot on "peace on Earth, goodwill toward men." When Jesus came, God showed in the biggest way that He wants us to experience His peace, His joy, and His love. And He acted in the biggest way to bring that about by sending His only Son.

May you experience His peace, joy, and love through Jesus Christ this Christmas. Amen.

 

December 27th, Seattle, Washington -- Hope you had a great Christmas. Mine at Dad's was quiet and sleepy with plenty of good food. After all the touring, that was nice.

Yesterday was not sleepy. I drove over to my sister's here in Seattle. Driving over the Cascades was easy -- and very pretty with lots of fresh snow. When I got here I immediately started playing with my five year old nephew. He is so cool. We later went to Easy Street Records. H. D. is already into the music scene, can identify different bands, and likes thumbing through CDs at hip stores.

Were you THIS cool at five?

Among other things, Easy Street Records has a telephone poll complete with rooster.

I like Seattle.

Later, H. D. had me play chess with him. He's still learning the moves, yet is already beginning to learn chess notation. And that's even though neither of his parents play chess. He loves the game already. Then we watched "Destroy All Monsters." He goes nuts over old monster movies. Then he stayed up later than I did -- a lot later. No, he is 5, not 15.

 

December 28th, Seattle -- And he slept until about 11am. I wonder what he'll be like as a teenager!

Yesterday, my sister and brother-in-law took me to the Experience Music Project (EMP). It was built since the last time I was in Seattle and it is awesome. The building itself is freaky, designed by Frank Gehry. Inside, among other things, there were these booths where you could try different instruments. There I discovered I got to get a keyboard. I have exactly zero experience, yet I can make cool ambient music with one. That really surprised me.

an arty pic inside EMP

There was also a vintage video of Nirvana that I watched. Later, we drove through downtown Seattle. I had no idea how cool it is.

Well, I gotta get to church to meet an online friend. I took some arty photos yesterday and might post a couple later.

Later: The service I went to at St. Dunstan's Episcopal was excellent. That parish may be a bit more liberal than I am. (I know some people out there are laughing at that one.) But the music and liturgy was beautiful, in both simplicity and creativity. It really helped me to worship. The setting is nice too, in a heavily forested lot even though it's in a very urban area.

Hanging out with Bob and friends was fun, too. He sure likes to talk, but he is so intelligent and interesting, I don't mind.

December 29th, Seattle -- It's sunny and cccold this morning. I'm going downtown to explore in a bit. Then I'll visit my other cool nephew (and my sister and bro-in-law, too, heh).

At St. Dunstan's, there's a statue of Spokan Garry, carved out of a dead tree.

He was a man of peace, an American Indian of Anglican Christian faith who served his people well. The city of Spokane is named after him.

Later: Oh man, I love Seattle. I went around the Pike Street Market area downtown and had a blast. Among other things, there was this guy with a cat training booth on the sidewalk to raise money for a cat shelter. He had three cats there and gave tips on cat training.

There's a number of interesting book shops around Pike Street and one of the best newsstands I've ever seen. I also visited the first Starbucks store and got a mocha, of course.

Oh, and the day was spectacular. I've visited Seattle a lot in the past, but never have I seen the Olympics and the Cascades loom so clearly. (My digital pics don't do it justice. I'll post a film pic or two after I get back.)

Then I helped my nephew (different 5 yr old one) build a lego jet. He's amazing with legos . . . much better than I ever was. My sister made a great dinner, and it is cool visiting with her and her husband Charlie. We swapped presents -- literally. We ended up giving each other The Complete Far Side.

I've always said I need to do the US 101 thing along the coast sometime. With I-5 being messed up by a blizzard, the next two days is that sometime.

 

December 30th, Reedsport, Oregon -- I can't believe there's high speed internet in Reedsport, Oregon on the Pacific Coast, but there is. Good thing, too. I needed to check a lot of weather and such for the roads ahead. The verdict is I can't make Chris Cretcher's New Years Eve fun in Redding. (Sorry Chris.) Heck, Redding's been snowed under, so there's no guarantee Chris can make it.

So I'm going to stick to U.S. 101 for a while. Especially since I didn't make it very far down the coast, partly because Oregon doesn't know how to keep traffic moving. You don't want to get me started on the government of Oregon, so I'll stop there.

Today was still cool, though. Among other things, I saw a bunch of seals being lazy at this one spot. My favorite one was this one:

I loved how content -- and fat -- he looks.

Earlier, I got views of Mt. Rainier and Mt. Saint Helens that nearly made my eyes pop out. Later on, I had an awesome lunch of clam chowder, snapper sandwich, and marionberry pie at the Otis Cafe. Yum. All for $10, too. Well, I don't want to be on the net too much tonight. So bye. (Hmm, for some reason, I can't connect to the web site server. So this will be posted late.)

 

December 31st, 2003, Laytonville, California -- No, this isn't the most happening place on New Years Eve. Heck, I can't even watch the New Year come in -- my hotel T.V. has HBO . . . and that's all. Well, "Sex and the City" is coming on, so I'm turning that off, too. (No, I didn't pick a very good hotel this time.) And internet and cell phone? HAHAHAHAHA!

But I had a happening day. I saw the redwoods for the first time. Something weird about redwoods -- their cones are only the size of a large olive. Yet they can grow to over 100 yards high. If Jesus were in California, he probably would use a redwood cone in his parables instead of a mustard seed. Heck, I might use a cone I picked up off the road to give a talk at the skate park back in Denton.

When I was getting a little sleepy, I stopped at this place in Eureka.

This theme of the place was caffeine-addicted cows. And the sweet girl there made a good mocha, too.

I also saw some impressive surf. It's a shame the water is so cccold here.

But the highlight of the day was an accident. I was driving earlier in Oregon on 101 when I saw a fantastic view. I saw an unmarked dirt turn-off, so I got off the highway so quick everything in the truck shifted to the left. This is what I saw through the rain after I parked on what was left of the gravel road:

Do you notice anything strange about the big sea stack at the right? I didn't either. But I wanted to get a better view down the coast. So I hiked down this trail a bit. Then I wanted a get a better view of something else. So I hiked a little more. And you get the picture. I did not intend to hike all the way down to that beach that leads to the sea stack, but I did. Then I heard surf from the side of it. I thought it was just sound bouncing off it until I noticed that there was a big hole in the stack. (You can see the hole on the left side of it.)

I climbed up a little to the hole. And, sure enough, surf was coming through a cave underneath the sea stack. The surf in the hole didn't look very strong . . . until I heard a low rumbling coming from the cave. I held on to a boulder beside me. Then out of the cave came a big white wave that crashed and filled the hole with spray. It was great. I watched a few more waves like that before I hiked back up. I must have said "Wow!" afterwards about 50 times.

By the way, I continue to dodge the winter weather. It snowed 3 inches in Seattle the night after I left. And it's cold and wet enough here that I think I'll again adjust my plans and cut over from San Francisco to I-5. Remember the earlier plan was to cut over to Redding. With it being New Years Day tomorrow, city traffic shouldn't be a problem. I haven't made a lot of miles since I left Seattle, but that's o.k. 'cause I wanted to enjoy the coast. Tomorrow I should get going. I ready to hit some warm sun anyway.

Mono's One More Step and You Die (a new CD I got at Easy Street) sounds really good when driving through a dark forest.

 

January 1st, 2004, Indio, California -- A few years ago, I was here on New Years Eve night on a big road trip and now here I am again. Swam in the big pool like last time, too, so I'm feeling good.

I was the road warrior today cause I wanted to make it to here, and I made it before dark even. The first 200 miles weren't easy though as there was a big rain and wind storm from San Francisco on north. The SF Bay was rocking!

Partly because of the weather (winter warnings north of SF for one thing), I figured I should just go through L.A. I've always been paranoid about L.A. traffic, but I figured it would be o.k. on New Years Day. And it was easy even. I drove right by the Rose Bowl while the Rose Bowl game was going on. But I couldn't see it from the interstate. I don't get how you can't see something that big, but there you go.

Sorry I didn't update the past couple days, but I couldn't. Now I want to chill out. Tomorrow, I skate Phoenix again weather permitting. I want to do Freestone and Pecos again. Then Saturday I begin the last stretch home.

Going home is one of the cool things about road trips, you know.

 

January 3rd, Big Spring, Texas -- I do chose exciting towns to stay in, don't I?

Yesterday in Phoenix, I just didn't feel like posting, so I didn't. It was a great day, even if a bit predictable: I had fun skating Freestone and Pecos and ate my last In and Out burger for a long time. At the skate parks, I ran into some skaters I met on the way out before Christmas.

Oh man. Did I discover this great mexican food place in El Paso today. I think it's called Casa Jurado. Best enchiladas I've ever had. Oh, there was this funny, but good radio station in El Paso. It was a mix of English and Mexican music. Among other things, they played Mexican ska.

I was weird seeing the Arizona-New Mexico border all sunny when it was snowing on the way out.

I'm tired. Tomorrow I go home.

 

January 4th, Denton, Texas -- It's good to be home.

When I got here around noon, Sent (who was watching my apartment for me) was completely out. He didn't hear me come in or haul my luggage in or anything.

I might add a few pics and post more later. Oh. I still have a big bruise, really big.

 

January 12th, Denton, Texas -- I've really enjoyed being back home. Road trips can be a good reset in that way.

A couple things I learned or relearned on my tour:

1. God knows how to guide us as we go along. And sometimes that guidance comes right when we need it instead of way ahead of time. Some examples from my tour:

a. Finding out about the Pecos Skatepark just after I got to Phoenix. That place was great and very close to my hotel. I skated there three times.

b. I avoided icy weather. That was really God's providence. The day I wanted to drive to Seattle was the best day to cross the Cascades. And I left Seattle just in time. One day later, and it would have been tough driving as Seattle got 3 inches of snow easy.

c. Bad weather inland pushed me to finally drive US 101 along the coast. I really enjoyed that . . . and gained a mascot. (See the front page.)

2. Big things can grow out of small beginnings. That's how God has made things. Those big redwood trees grow from small cones. My mammoth bruise grew a lot, too, heh.