I Am Now Accepting Applications to Help Me Drink All This

 

My last three travel adventures along with a more prolific than usual spring brewing season has left my booze fridge almost full.

Getting Ready for Walkabout 2012

Whelp, we are now exactly one month away from that time of year again where I travel to exotic locales in order to find myself*. 

Five years ago I embarked on my first Walkabout.  In this inaugural Walkabout I drove from Dallas to Seattle and back; stopping off at as many National Parks as I could.  Why it seems like just yesterday in which I battled the elements while lost in Sequoia National Park and battled the horrible food of the Village Inn.

For Walkabout 2012:  Yet Another Return to Seattle, This Time It’s Personal, I will again be traveling by automobile again to Seattle, but taking a much different route.  The currently planned schedule is the following:

Date		Destination
Friday Sep 14		Amarillo
Saturday Sep 15		Grand Junction CO
Sunday Sep 16		Arches NP
Monday Sep 17		Salt Lake City
Tuesday Sep 18		Boise
Wednesday Sep 19		Bend OR
Thursday Sep 20		McMinnville OR
Friday Sep 21		Portland
Saturday Sep 22		Seattle
Sunday Sep 23		Seattle
Monday Sep 24		Spokane
Tuesday Sep 25		Glacier NP
Wednesday Sep 26		Glacier NP
Thursday Sep 27		Bozeman
Friday Sep 28		Yellowstone NP
Saturday Sep 29		Yellowstone NP
Sunday Sep 30		Jackson
Monday Oct 01		Casper
Tuesday Oct 02		Mount Rushmore
Wednesday Oct 03		Colorado Springs
Thursday Oct 04		Amarillo
Friday Oct 05		Dallas

 

So I know what you must be thinking.  “Those are some kick-ass places to visit.  I sure wish I could join Steve and bask in not only his beauty but also that of our American wilderness.”

Well, you can.  If there is a portion of this trip that intrigues you and you just gotta see** then leave a comment or email me or call me or text me or message me on Twitter or leave a note on my car and let me know. 

And if you don’t want to join me, but know of a “oh shit man, you need to check this place out” spot on my route, please also let me know of that as well.

 

 

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* By “find myself”, I mean stuff delicious foods and beverages into my delicious foods and beverages hole.
** Seriously, who doesn’t want to see Amarillo?

SoS Flashback: Calgary 2002

Calgary 02 VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Ten years ago this week a couple of crazy Canadians dragged me and Pokie up to Calgary for Stampede.  If The Summer of Steve had existed ten years ago, there would no doubt have been this posting. And, yes, this is pretty much only posted today for everyone to enjoy that last picture of Pokie.

Delayed Blogging: Seattle Day 2–U2

Seattle U2 VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Delayed Blogging: Seattle Day 2–Cruisin’ the Sound

Seattle 2011 Day 2 VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Delayed Blogging: Seattle 2011 Day 1

Seattle 2011 Day 1 VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Spring Break Havasu: The Quasi Live Blog [Day 2]

My final day in the land of street-legal dune buggies and penicillin resistant syphilis.

Havasu	I failed to mention that our hotel smelled like someone had fouled up a bathroom 20 minutes ago but didn’t properly ventilate.  Apparently there is a city-wide sewage problem and the whole town smells like that. The complimentary free breakfast looked as if we were in a Cocoon casting call.  And people really were eating those preprocessed frozen egg disks. What is Ellen Page doing running our call center in Havasu?? Dangit, they’re ordering in for lunch.  No second trip to In-n-Out.
Pre-Flight	We got to Vegas 2 1/2 hours before our flight.  Time enough for a swing by Hooters Casino (formerly the great [cheap] San Remo). All my times in Vegas and I’ve never seen the famous sign.  Like the Mona Lisa, it is much smaller than I had imagined. I would classify this as an near epic win.  Three free gin&tonics, up $70 bucks on blackjack and I got to ogle the double Fs of the dealer for 45 minutes, all in lieu of sitting at a dreary airport terminal.
The Flight	Seriously, dude in the center seat of my row.  You went ahead and boarded with your “zone” so you can get properly situated in your coveted center seat?  Do you not know you’re supposed to wait and board last so that if there’s an aisle seat you can take that one instead? US Air has some cute, perky stews.  At least the Vegas-DFW run does.  I was too tired to notice on the flight to Vegas.

Spring Break Havasu: The Quasi Live Blog [Day 1]

For reasons that are known to almost no one, the IT department of National Motor Club is heading to Lake Havasu to visit the our call center. Luckily this is the beginning of spring break and I have brought along a duffle bag full of Girls With Low Self Esteem trucker hats so as to entice a comely coed back to the room for a quick shower.

Pre-board	It always amazes me the number of people up and commuting at 5:45 am.  Seriously, how do you people do it every day?  I guess I didn’t mention my flight was at 7:30am.  Good times. That sure is a long line at “Express” Check In. Why is it that everyone in front of me at ticket counters or car rental counters take forever to process their business and when I get there it takes maybe a minute?? Can we have a Retard Line and a NonRetard line? Center seat.  Awesome!!! Oh yeah, that’s why I haven’t had a Bacon, Egg and Cheese Croisandwich in almost a decade. The hot chick in the almost see through white pants is greatly offset by the heavy-set braless chick in the aquamarine baby doll.
The Flight	No one in the aisle seat of my row.  Zoink!! Great Success!!! Oh, good Christ, Omar Little is three rows in front of me.  God help us all if the plane is out of Honey Nut, yo. I can certainly understand taking pictures of the Grand Canyon from 35,000 feet.  But, hey asshat, did you really think the flash was going to fill in the dark shadows of the canyon?
Havasu	So this is what Garland would be like if it were a major tourist destination. Can it get any better than eating an In-n-Out burger in the shadow of the London Bridge? There’s a church in Havasu that seems to continually protest abortion.  But really, do you want the people of Havasu to reproduce?  This place is ground zero of the growing Idiocracy. Anyone who has spent two seconds on this blog will realize that I like to eat and I like to eat good food.  So there was a bit of disappointment when it was decided that we were going to dine at Shogun, a Benihana knockoff. They must not sell much unfiltered sake here.  All of the unfiltered solids were caked at the bottom and the bottle had to be shaken vigorously to release their heady goodness. The chef challenged our table to a sake bomb race.  I couldn’t pass that up.  That SOB was done before I even go the glass to my lips. To my great surprise, the food was very good.  I am not a fan of Benihana and would usually power down when we would go for lunch during my Nortel days.  I had the filet and scallops and both were very good.  B+.

Top 10 of the 2000s: Trips

I'm sure JT's list is going to kick my list's ass. His list will include many exotic locales. But did any of his trips almost involve a beheading?? I think not. Unless it was his own. Or potentially being eaten by bears?

10. SoCal 2008 – This might have rated higher had I not had 10-12 hour work days to contend with as well. Two weeks of southern California getting to listen to my idol Adam Carolla live, all on the company dime. Highlights of the trip included seeing my Stars beat the Ducks, Van Morrison at the Hollywood Bowl and the discovery of Stone's Vertical Epic.

9. Hudson River 2001 – You don't realize how much of US history all took place along the banks of the mighty Hudson until you've driven up and down it. Driving up the west bank and then back down the east back, I kept thinking "OH, that's where that happened!!". Doing it in the fall also made it extra pretty.

8. Calgary 2002 – Some Canadians lured Pokemon and I up there for the Stampede. We never saw much of the Stampede, and by "much" I mean "any". And really, what better way to celebrate the 4^th of July than getting drunk in America's hat?

7. Vegas 2006 – A fabulous meal at Circo and a second viewing of Cirque du Soleil's O make this THE Vegas trip of the 2000s.

6. Mardi Gras 2003 – My last trip to Mardi Gras was the best.

5. California 2000 – Ultimate + Disc Golf + Wine Country + Sushi for the first time == good times. And somehow I mustered enough self control not to chop Sarah head off in Santa Cruz.

4. Walkabout 2008 – This was the Walkabout where it was cemented in my brain that I'm a west coast kind of guy. There's just so much more beauty heading west from Dallas than heading East. Highlights included discovering Rehoboth DE and the Dogfish Head brew pub, pie in Waterbury and all kinds of food in Pittsburgh.

3. Colorado 2003 – For a trip that was thrown together almost the last minute for a Labor Day weekend trip, it turned out pretty awesome. Although it took nearly four years to act on it, this was a huge inspiration for my Walkabouts. Highlights included taking the cogwheel train up Pike's Peak and Silver Jack's in Montrose.

2. Walkabout 2009 – It took me a very long time, but I finally made it to Europe. They sure do talk funny over there. But, man, do they have some good eats. Highlights included the much written about U Fleků, seeing President Obama, Tarte Tatin and floating in the Mediterranean Sea.

1. Walkabout 2007 – I guess most people at one time or another get that bug up their ass to hop in the car and see America. Luckily Nortel and its generous severance package afforded me an opportunity to do just that. Highlights included Seattle, Portland, Yosemite, Joshua Tree, potentially being eaten by bears, lots of halibut and beer – oh the beer.

Live From DC

Observations and general snark.


It's good to see the million dollar bomb detector now being used as a utility closet. I get it. It's broken. But could we garner a little cofidence in the system by not putting an old ladder in it??

There is absolutely nothing Super about the Super-80.

I believe one of our stewerdesses (that's right I said stewardess) is the chick from that old Star Trek episodes where different colored subterranean brains bet 500 Quatloos on Captain Kirk. She later went on to do porn. Now she's a stewardess.

No wifi. :(


-- Post From My iPhone

It's Just Like a Mini-Mall

My flight to Newark left from the new Terminal-D at DFW. I checked the AA website before I left and it said I was leaving from C30. So, of course, I parked at Terminal-C. I got there and the flight had been moved to D16. So not only did I get to see the new terminal but I got to use the new SkyLink people mover. These are special times we live in.

In other travel related news, I am reporting that Sue from Survivor:Borneo and Survivor:All Stars was on my plane and sat in the row in front of me. I'm not 100% sure. But it sure did look and, more importantly, sound just like her.

Also sitting in the row in front of me was, what I have since learned through the miracle of Wikipedia, a monk of the Syriac Orthodox Church. His strange garb, long ungroomed beard and middle eastern looks quickly had me rolling up magazines so that I might later save the plane from this obvious terrorist. Then he turned around and I saw that he was wearing a cross and I let out a "Oh thank Christ!!".