|
O.K., it's not June 15, like it says above, but I haven't had much time to work
on my website until now. To be honest, I'm currently in Knoxville,
Tennessee, which is best known for... um... let's see. That's a hard one.
Oh yeah, Knoxville is the home of
"Survivor - Outback"
winner Tina Wesson.
Speaking of "Survivor," I
visited Colby's home state of Texas a few weeks ago, but I didn't stop by to see
that flag-waving Texan since he was kind of weird. I mean, what was that
thing
about his
relationship with his mother, anyway? I didn't see Jerri either while I was in Los Angeles,
because she was out flying around on her broom. I thought I'd stop by Tina's house
here in Knoxville and get some tips on
surviving the Australian Outback, because she seemed like a nice person and
because we
both love Doritos, but I'm sure she's out having some more
plastic surgery done. Boy, didn't she look goooood on that final
episode?? The next stop is to visit Jerri's oh-so-cute-but-evil twin
sister, Amber, in Beaver, Pennsylvania.
There's a joke there somewhere but I digress, so enough
"Survivor" talk.
I'm
currently writing updates for my other major stops across the country so far,
including:
-
Austin,
Texas
-
Corinth
(accent on the first syllable),
Mississippi, and
-
Here
in Knoxville,
Tennessee
I've
got the photos ready and I'm currently writing the text for those
updates. I've got some good stories to pass along and have met some
terrific people here in the Deep South (and one creep in Austin, which I'll
describe as well), and I'll post those updates soon, but I thought I'd pass this
one along now and show you some pictures of what I think is the most beautiful part of
America: Utah -- home of slickrock sandstone, polygamist Mormons, and the
2002 Winter Olympics. Utah
is a great place to visit but I wouldn't want to live there. As opposed to
the Midwest, which is a great place to live but I wouldn't want to visit there.
All right, now
that I've offended Midwesterners, Utahns, and Tina Wesson, let me get you caught
up. Here's
a quick summary of my trip so far:
-
Utah
was beautiful, hot, and dry.
-
The
Deep South was beautiful, hot, and steamy.
-
I've
thrown my schedule, which I had carefully created in
Portland before I left,
right out the window. I'm taking things at my own pace now, which
means that I won't be visiting you folks in the Northeast and Midwest until
much later than we planned. A profound thought hit me after I left
Austin: what's the point of being on a vacation
if you have to stick to a schedule? According to The Schedule, I was
supposed to spend exactly one day in Tennessee but I've been here for a
week and a half... so there.
 |
|
|
|
A
Note About E-Mail
I
really appreciate receiving e-mail from folks, so please keep writing. However, I ask that you be patient with me in getting back to
you, since I don't stay in motels very often and it's pretty hard to download
e-mail in campgrounds!
After camping for a solid week, I finally got a
motel room the other night and responded to everyone. It
DID take me 8 hours, but again, I'm not complaining!
I always respond to e-mail, but it
just might take a while. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Mea
Culpa
When
I left Portland in June, I was hoping to update my website every week, but I
obviously haven't been able to do that. The main problem is not
lack of interest, because I've got a lot of stories to tell and lots of photos to
post, but rather not enough
time.
I typically travel all day, pull into a campground around 8 p.m., eat dinner, then work on
the digital photos that I shot that day until it's bedtime. I've been shooting
over 100 pictures a day (more than 3,000 since leaving a month ago) with my new Canon
D-30 digital camera and I spend an hour or two
each night processing them. It's a lot of work... but I'm not complaining! Photo processing
also eats up my laptop's batteries which I carefully
charge each day via my truck's AC/DC converter that plugs into the cigarette
lighter, so I don't have much juice afterwards in the evenings to work on my
website.
O.K., enough excuses. I'll be
posting another update next week and a major update in two weeks after I get to my brother Don's house in
Syracuse, New York.
By
the way, on those nights in the campgrounds that I've been able to work on my
website, I always get a lot of strange looks from my fellow campers. I
mean, who in their right mind would bring a laptop computer to a
campground? It's fun, though, to sit at my picnic table at night and type
away by the campfire. The only downside is that the light from my laptop's
screen attracts all kinds of bugs, which I squish if they land on the screen
while I'm typing. After a while, though, it gets hard to read what I've typed because of all the squished bugs on my
screen.
New
Things
My
website is a work-in-progress and will (hopefully) continue to grow over the next
year. I
added several new pages this past week, including:
-
Close-Ups,
which includes more detailed stories and photos on certain topics related to
travel, which I'll continue to add to over the next year. I even put
a page in there about
Mormons and polygamy.
And check out
The
Best and Worst of the 50 States to find out which states have the
friendliest people, the worst drivers, and the prettiest women.
-
I like taking
pictures of funny signs and will be posting them on my
Humor
page, along with other funny things I run across during the next year.
I also revised some
of my other web pages, as you'll notice if you click around. In fact, I
posted a picture of me sitting on the roof of an outhouse for your
amusement.
O.K.,
on with my trip. This page is getting pretty long, so I posted my
trip update at News: June
15, 2001 -- Part 2. See you there!
Next
News
June
15, 2001 -- Part 2 (Zion Nat'l Park, Utah)
Previous
News
June
14, 2001 (San Diego, California)
June
11, 2001 (San Jose, California)
June
2, 2001 (Bellingham, Washington)
May
19, 2001 (Hillsboro, Oregon)
April
30, 2001 (Hillsboro, Oregon)
April
19, 2001 (Bellingham, Washington)
April
5, 2001 (Bellingham, Washington)
* * * * * * *
* *
Home >
Travels (2001-02) >
U.S. Trip >
June 15, 2001 (Page 1) |
