Friday, May 23, 2008

Stuck inside of Tempe with the Palmer blues again

OK this is a long delay but it has been a very lack luster trip. Best that way but hey it's always nice to have something interesting to write about. So the trip has been slow, loaded with bad weather avoidance and in doing so I have missed out on some pretty scenery for less rain, no tornados and now I am in a low pressure system that has brought, wait for it, SNOW to northern AZ in May. Yep it's snowing in Flagstaff and I have to rearrange my trip again to avoid the crap on the road. So instead of going north through AZ to UT, MT and Canada I have to detour to Vegas then shoot back east and north.

So far my travels have taken me to VA where I visited with a friend from the Navy, to Knoxville TN to visit with a friend from my childhood, to Baton Rouge, LA for the night and into San Antonio TX for a short visit with other friends from the Navy. It was nice to see everyone and visit place I have never been before but it added time and miles to the trip and now at my oldest brother's house in Tempe AZ (tool retrieval stop) I have to either wait or reroute to do weather avoidance again. Weather avoidance is the option I am exercising so I can get back to it.

Don't get me wrong I love spending time with my brothers but my tools are all packed in the RV, gas prices keep rising and there's not a lot to do in Tempe. I have visited friends here, seen my oldest nephew did some project with my brother but it's still painful to see the stuff packed and not fire up a lathe for this long. So tomorrow I brave the weather, head north west and northeast then straight north if the weather holds long enough. But for tonight it's beer and a free Nova G3 w/35MM stepped jaws then road tomorrow. BTW there is still no better pie in the US than the Julian Pie Co, deep dish Apple but a Country Peddler in Buffalo makes it's way into second place.

Sunday, May 11, 2008

The New Adventure Begins

For the past few weeks I have been attempting to tie up loose ends, finish jobs I started, get my affairs in order, all the stuff you do before embarking on a new adventure. Well I suck at all that stuff so I am just going anyway. My 25 lbs of crap is stuffed into a ten lb bag and it is warming up in the driveway now. What started out as a way to beat the heat of AZ last summer has turned into a year of living in a town where I grew up and seeing why it is that I cannot stop here for very long. I did some nice work on the lathe, made a few sales via the internet, gave away a lot of stuff to family and friends but found out that this is not the place for me to work, live or get too comfortable.

My family, my brother Randy was entirely too generous and patient with me filling his basement with sawdust and tools. He actually built me a shop down there out of an old coal cellar room, ran power, cleared stuff out and let me come and go as I liked. His home was always open for me to stay and come and go as I liked. Thanks Bro! you rock. My sister in law Laura and her family. What a bunch. The biggest hearts of anyone I have known here and a lot of fun to boot. Her boys Michael and Brian are awesome and will do great things in their lives. Thanks Sis and the boys. And congratulations to my niece Kelsey for earning her Masters in Education, Spanish Language. Kelsey is the hardest working woman whom I have ever met and does not take life too seriously nor responsibilities lightly. Great things are in her future as she takes on the hardest job in America now, teaching!

My other Brother Jim and his bunch. Thanks to you too for making this stay fun. My nephew Cory and I enjoyed two Marvel Movies and just a bunch of goofing off. I do recommend IRONMAN for all you Marvel nuts out there. Good flick and pretty true to the original except the villians were Arabic and not Chinese. Guess you have to make it more believable for the times. Chris and Ashley, sorry I did not spend as much time with you as you would have liked. It was winter and the tires on the Jeep sucked.

So all of you I am leaving behind but not forever. We will see each other again. Just not for so long and not in winter. Ugh. Snow. Blah.

More later. I will be reviewing more dives and diners along the way. The best pie is still in Jullian, CA but a close second goes to the Country Peddler in West Seneca NY.