Entries this day: Grand_Canyon Leaving_Grand_Canyon Lockett_Meadow No_connectivity Now_Albuquerque Rabbit_Run continental_divide kinkos_access leaving_albuquerque zzzz

Grand Canyon

6:11am PST Saturday 28 December 2002

I've paid my $20 to see the Grand Canyon. Sun is not yet over the horizon, but it's definitely dawn-ish.

I've parked at a little turnout on the south rim road I think.

BRRRRRR!!

7:06am

Wow. The earth certainly is big compared to me.

I can tell because a point on the earth's equator rotates over 1000 miles per hour with respect to the sun, yet it took fucking forever for the earth to rotate enough for the sun's photons to directly hit the lower portion of the canyon walls.

I did a little dance to keep warm for that hour (almost made it an hour!), humming a medley containing snippets from "Santa Claus is coming to town" the Navy march song (that Sam Malone sometimes plays to close his morning show around 9:40am weekdays on 104.1 KRBE in Houston), Ants And Cheese, The Addams Family, and something else but I can't remember.

Watching the sun rise over the Grand Canyon was pretty cool. Like a small light had been flipped on when I first noted a tiny bit of rock shown more brightly than its comrades. Like a great idea, the brightness crept down the striations, always saturating along a careful horizontal line, like a painting unveiled from the top.

7:37am

Okay. My plan is to continue along 64 on the south side of the canyon and then take 89 south to Flagstaff, to my next planned Kinko's location. There are patches of ice on 64 here, even in the well-touristed area right beside the canyon, so I'm wondering how much ice I'll encounter on 89, which is some ways away from the canyon.

5363 miles since Dallas.

Surrounded by juniper and leafless oaks, none more than 30 feet tall. Snow covers the ground - about 6 inches average. Road is rough asphalt, undivided, 1 lane each direction, spotted with occasional icy spots.

8:34am

Just visited the Tusayan Museum and Ruins. The museum is small, holds some artifacts left behind by some old school cats. The ruins are estimated 800 years old, as discerned by noting the pattern of ring growth in the juniper.

5383.8 miles traveled.

8:38am

Stopped at another outlook .25 miles away. There's a recycling bin here, so I grabbed my plastic bottles to recycle. The gallon water jug is like a balloon! Totally inflated as it was sealed at sea level, and now it's at 7000 feet. Wow!

Oh, by the way, I'm at the Grand Canyon, but this inflated carton is really neat!

9:30am

Wow!! I just met Moritza, who appeared to be traveling alone, so I asked her, "are you traveling alone?" "Yes." "Cool; me too." "Where are you from?" "Houston." "Really?"

She's a CPA and loves to travel; has been to Italy, Egypt, Japan, and probably some other places as well.

She inspired me that i'm on the right track; travel travel travel. Meet people. Get into adventures.

I definitely gave her my adventure card.

5385.9 miles traveled.

We met while poring over the Hance Rapids sign at Lipan point off 64 on the south side of GC

Leaving Grand Canyon

10:07am PST Saturday 28 December 2002

I'm driving across a huge leopard of snow and little spots of grass growing up through it. Completely overcast now; I don't know if it's my lower elevation, or maybe I'm on a different side of a mountain now; really that's the same thing.

Passed lots of Navaho Jewelry markets, little flea market lookin' places with old painted signs and weathered plywood structures to vend their wares.

I didn't stop.

I'm settled in for the drive to Flagstaff, where I'll stop at Kinko's and upload all this stuff.

10:56am

Crested a pass at 7276 feet, and then turned off the highway to a road that climbed up into the forest and to the top of this mountain, where I passed a small sign saying "hard hat area" blah blah but I pretended not to see it and then passed some family with sleds playing around in the snow.

Now I'm parked in this gravel quary with big scoopers and conveyer belts and piles of gravel, all sprinkled or covered in snow. No other people seem to be here.

I'm going to go walk around.

11:45am

Wow. That was more or less fun. There were other people there; a girl sledding down a small portion of the snow covered gravel, and a trailer with a minivan parked in front of it.

I walked around anyway, and forgot my camera!!! so I couldn't take a digital picture of the sharp contrast between virgin snow and brilliant blue sky.

While I tried to call Bibby's, a guy came up the hill from the other direction. "This is private property" and all that.

I apologized profusely and thanked him for looking after me.

They were mining pumice he said, but now they are piling the dirt back into the mine because they're done, I guess.

I drove out, found the gate locked, presumed I had gone to the wrong gate, but hadn't checked it. Even if it wasn't locked, it might be that I'm going further into private property, so I turned around, followed the left hand edge of the road and ended up back at the minivan and trailer. That had to be the gate. Went back, opened it, closed it, wondered why Sam hadn't told me he had closed it, then realized that the other family must have closed it on their way out, for they were no longer at the hill.

So that means Sam thinks that *I* specifically opened the gate and then claimed to not know it was private property. Ahh well.

Lockett Meadow

12:00pm PST Saturday 28 December 2002

I'm at Lockett Meadow now, a little parking area near the top of the mountain, with four other cars here, counting the one that seems to be leaving or lost.

I flipped a coin to decide whether to come here or go back to 84 and get back on my original planned path to Flagstaff.

I'm going to go walk around, and this time I'll bring my camera.

12:47pm

Fun.

Climbed way up a hill, had to use my four paw drive to get up. Sliding on gravel and snow... Chilled at the top of a bluff, but not the top of the mountain. Called Wende to say what's up. (answer: me! at 7500 feet!)

On the way down I tried to slide on my back, but the snow was too soft to really get any speed. Plus lots of trees and logs in the way. But, for the record, I would have invented snow skates after this adventure, had they not already been invented. I see them as about 18 inches long and about a foot wide, super slick bottom and rounded like a snowboard. One for each foot, for extreme sliding excitement!

1:34pm

Though I seem to have lost my hand drawn map, I drove right to the parking lot of Kinko's in Flagstaff!

1:40pm

heehee; found my map; it was in my backpack.

No connectivity

2:38pm PST Saturday 28 December 2002

So I plugged in my computer at Kinko's, like I do at every Kinko's and this cat comes up to me (after a couple minutes of connectivity, enough time to upload all my entries before this one) and he's all, "are you connected to our network?"

"yeah."

blabber blabber some bullshit about how I'm not allowed to connect because if I bring a virus into the system it will corrupt all their machines or something totally wiggidy wack like that and I'm all, WTF? What a fucked up policy, EXPECIALLY considering the DHCP-enabled CAT 5 cable is on the desk of the cubical just like all other Kinko's I've ever visited and he's telling me I can't use it???

I can't believe how pissed I am over this, and part of it is that I'm pissed at myself for actually disconnecting even though I know it's a fucked up policy made up by some non-computer-genius cat who's scared of the internet.

Argh.

All I wanna do is send the five emails that I wrote and are waiting in the inbox to go. I'll do that and then roll out. I can't engage this guy in conversation; I'm too mad about it all.

Now Albuquerque

4:09pm PST Saturday 28 December 2002

Just turned over 5555 miles on this trip.

We're rolling toward Albuquerque now. There's a great plume of smoke ahead, which may just be water vapor from a power plant. From here it looks like a huge short broccoli with white stalk and dark top.

Quite stange. The top is definitely smoky or cloudy and the bottom looks solid. It's gotta be from a power plant. Yes. I'm sure that's it.

5561 miles now. 250 or so to Albuquerque. 1 mile to Jackrabbit Road.

6:11pm

Woah. I crossed over into New Mexico and didn't even notice until now, 24 miles into the state. I'm quite awake; I've been spitting Eminem's "Rabbit Run" pretty effectively. I still can't figure out some of the words, and those i just skip so I won't learn them rhongly, but the rest i can pretty much rap at the same speed as he.

Rabbit Run

6:15pm PST Saturday 28 December 2002

Let's see if I can type the lyrics that I know:

(screen off to save power)

some days I just wanna up and call it quits
I feel like I'm surounded by a wall of bricks
every time I go to get up I just fall in pits
my life's like one great  big ball of shit
if I could just
put it all into all I spit
instead of always tryin' to swallow it
instead of starin' at this wall and shit
while I sit writer's block sick of al this shit
can't call it shit

all I know is I'm about to hit the wall
if I have to see another one of mom's alcoholic fits
this is it
last straw
that's all
that's it
I ain't dealin' with another fuckin' politic

I'm like a skillet bubblin'
till it filters up
I about to kill it 
I can feel it buildin' up
a probably spilled enough
I concealed enough
my cup runneth over
I done filled it up

?????  explode fill my guts
you think I only stand here and feel my nuts
I'm gonna show you what
you gonna feel my rush
if you don't feel it
it must be too real to touch
feel the dutch (?????)

(something I forgot)

goose pimples
yeah
I'm gonna make your hair stand up
??? stand up
I'm gonna show you who I be
I'ma make you hate me cause you ain't me

you wait
it ain't too late
to finally see
what you closed minded fucks
are too blind to see
whoever finds me is gonna get a finder's fee
out this world
ain't no one out their mind as me

need peace of mind?
here's a piece of mine
all I need's a line
but some times
I don't always find the words to rhyme
to express how I'm really feelin' 
at the time
yeah sometimes sometime sometimes
just sometimes
it's always me
how dark can these hallways be?
the clock strikes midnight
one two then half past three
this half assed rhyme
with this half ass piece of paper

I'm desperate at my desk, if I could just
get the rest
of this shit off my chest again
stuck in this slump 
can't think of nothin'
fuck I'm stuck
oh wait, here comes somethin'

nope 's'not good enough
scribble it out
new pad
crinkle it up
throw the shit out

I'm fizzilin now
thought I figured it out
the balls in my court
but I'm scared to dribble it out

I'm afraid,
but why am I afraid?
why am I a slave to this trade?

???? spit to the grave

[i forgot]

I can rip it any style you want

I'm a switch hitter bitch
Jimmy Smith ain't a quitter
I'ma sit here until I get enough in me to finally hit a
fuckin' boilin' point
put some oil in your joints
flip the coin bitch
come get destroyed

an MC's worst dream
I make them tense
they hate me
see me and shake like a chain link fence
by the looks of them
you would swear that Jaws was comin'
by the scresms of them
you would swear I'm sawin' someone
by the way they're runnin' 
you would think the law was comin'
it's now or never
and tonight it's all or nothin'

Mamma Jimmy keeps leavin' on us
he said he'd be back
he pinky promised
I don't think he honest

I'll be back baby
I just gotta beat this clock
fuck this clock
I'ma make them eat this watch
don't believe me watch
I'm gonna win this race
then I'll come back
and rub my shit in your face
bitch
I found my nitch
you gonna hear my voice
till you're sick of it
you ain't gonna have a choice
if I gotta scream till I have half a lung
if I have half a chance I'ma grab it
rabbit
run

continental divide

6:35pm PST Saturday 28 December 2002

5707 miles since Dallas. I have just crossed the Continental Divide. I didn't see what was the elevaation.

kinkos access

10:09pm PST Saturday 28 December 2002

See, this Kinko's is like all other Kinko's (except one!)

Free access and it's great.

Oh, hey, I'm switching my timezone to CST, considering I've been in MST for a while and still using PST; this will slightly balance it out, by skipping MST altogether.

12:10am CST Sunday 29 December 2002

Gosh it's late. I must be tired!

12:14am

Dammm. I just looked over the "Rabbit Run" lyrics.. that's a lot! I continue to be impressed with Eminem's skillz.

leaving albuquerque

12:41am CST Sunday 29 December 2002

Aight. I'm as done online as I'm going to be tonight. There is a rest area one hour away from here; I hope it's open; a couple rest areas in NM along I-40 have been closed.

In any case, I'm going to drive east more until I get to the rest area or some other spot that looks good for sleeping.

1:03am

Ah; I found my next Kinko's in Amarillo. It's near a street called Mockingbird. Close! But wrong city.

zzzz

1:53am CST Sunday 29 December 2002

Well, I've driven almost an hour; I wonder how close I am to the rest area. I'm too tired to care; I'm parked in the parking lot of a topless club that is deserted. No tops, no customers, no nothing except a bunch of 18 wheelers parked nearby to sleep. I'm out of their way I hope.

5868 miles since Dallas. About 600 miles driven today.

Good night.