Hey all,

Here is Andrew's and Hardy's trip report. It is 10:47 Sunday night and we are relaxing after doing the dishes and making dinner. We left VT this morning a little later than Hardy had told Andrew, but we were on the road by 10:10. The top on the Boxster was down until Fair Haven and we put the top up just prior to heading into NY. Good thing, it started to rain not far into NY. When we got to the interstate I87 in NY then Andrew took over driving so that Hardy could nap. We took several pit stops for stretching and soda. Along the way we saw some of the most amazing sites...there was the Hillbilly Fun Center, the Zippo Lighter Factory Tours, the Air History Museum, the Corning Glassware Museum, Cooperstown Baseball Hall of Fame. Finally we arrived in the Allegany State forest in Red House, NY as our first planned overnight stop at 7:40.

After we scoped out the campground...we got here late enough that we haven't paid for anything yet we decided to head to Jamestown to find a store to pick up dinner and a store to purchase some books on CD for the next legs our of journey. On the way to Jamestown the sky started to clear and we saw the sun for the first time in 7 hours. For those of you who know northern PA/southern NY grocery stores we found a Quality market. These stores are unlike any other stores in the country because nothing is in the normal place. We were walking up and down the full length of the store for hours to find stuff. Finally, we found it. The throw-away bbq!!!! Complete with charcoal for only $3.99. Next stop were for the gourmet hamburgers...six garlic peppercorn burgers for $2.99, rolls for $0.69, water for $0.79, and sadly the dinner mints were a whopping $0.55. Driving back through Poland we memorized by the amazing sunset over the Allegany mountains.

After hours of searching we found the perfect campsite under an oak tree in a clearing in the woods on a hill over looking a gently rolling brook -- Andrew things he can see salmon swimming up stream, but Hardy doesn't believe him...although we did see either porcupines or ground hogs and several deer. We unloaded the tents form the Boxster and proceeded to set up the tents. Hardy had his tent up within a couple minutes and then he helped Andrew set up his borrowed tent. Next was onto dinner. Andrew preheated the throwaway bbq. While the bbq was preheating Andrew had some gourmet crackers (cheddar cheese and orange crackers) for appetizers. The fun started. Hardy had to blow on the bbq to heat up the briquets faster and sparks flew all over. Four burgers went on the grill and then the buns were toasted to light brown perfection. The hungry travelers gobbled down the burgers and then cooked the last two using only a 12" stick and a Buck knife. After dinner we did the dishes in the portable dishwasher which you might recognize as also our portable bbq.

We need to be up at 7:00 a.m. to head to the windy city where we will be staying with Hardy's friend Ben.

Signing off at 11:17.
Andrew and Hardy

Hey all,

Here is Andrew's and Hardy's trip report #2 (NY-IL).

We awoke in the erie predawn with a thick layer of dew on the tents. We quickly broke camp to get on the road. Breakfast consisted of some poptarts for Hardy and Andrew didn't eat. At lunch time we found a mall to eat the same kind of food that you can eat at any other mall in the country, but we were in pop country. The cashier asked Andrew if he wanted pop. He stood there dumbfounded for a couple seconds, but quickly regained composer and said yes I'll have a Coke-soda. After lunch Andrew bought a new Yankee's hat and Hardy bought a couple books on cd to help pass the time and we were back on the road. The rest of the trip was uneventful and we listened to The Phantom Menace on cd as we approached Chicago. There were a couple mishaps with directions in Chicago, but we eventually got to Ben's place. Lake Shore Drive along Lake Michigan is very pretty.

Ben has a very nice place, too. We took showers! For dinner Ben chose a restaurant called FlatTops. On the way to FlatTops Ben, the ex-race car/taxi driver, gave us a fast paced tour of the city including pointing out Oparah's studio about a block from the restaurant. FlatTops is an all you can eat - make your own stir-fry. It was excellent food. You scoop a bowl of rice, put some vegies on top, douse it with 3-4 ladles of sauce, then scoop few meats and season the meat then give it all to the stir-fry guy who fries it up and brings it to your table in five to ten minutes.

When we got back to Ben's place Andrew discovered that he had his mom's keys to the car. (Which he will mail home when we get to a post office.) Andrew then wandered down to the park by the lake to take pictures of the skyline. Hardy and Ben played videos games until Andrew's return. Then we watched some scenes of The Matrix on DVD on a very large screen TV with an amazing sound system....Hardy is jealous and has added a few toys to his Christmas list. After the best scenes from Matrix we watched Fight Club. Andrew sat with a confused look on his face for a good part of the movie. When the movie ended we retired to bed.

Here is Andrew's and Hardy's trip report #3 (IL-MO).

We stopped by Ben's office on the way out of Chicago. It was raining when we left the city. We continued listening to the Phantom Menace. We stopped at a Steak & Shake for lunch. Andrew tried ordering a Ceasar salad but for the second time in just as many days he was denied his salad. We think there is a salad conspiracy going on...we will continue to investigate it. Outside of St. Louis we sat in traffic for an hour which was a result of a tractor trailer rig off the road. Andrew continued driving across Missouri. Finally, Hardy couldn't take Andrew's driving and took over. Andrew made several comments about how much better it is to drive while Hardy is asleep. But, within 30 minutes Andrew was very glad he gave up controls to Hardy. The rain which had been off and on all day started to come down very hard. Visibility was cut down to "I think I can see tail lights of the tractor trailer in front of us" by only a couple seconds. The rain was so hard we stopped the audio book and switched to the radio where we were greeted with the long beeeeeeeeeep for the emergency messages. There were tornado warnings for the next county we were coming to. We kept an eye out but didn't see any. The rain let up after about 30 minutes and the sky started to break. We decided the rest of the country needed some of Vermont's rain.

We made it to the hotel in Kansas City. Hardy called a business associate to meet for a business dinner. Augi took us on a tour of KS City on the way to dinner at the Savory Grill. Andrew and Hardy were in shorts and sandals and felt a little out of place, but they seated us anyway. We sat at Harry Truman's favorite booth. Andrew wanted to order the Ceasar salad on the menu, but it was for two people so the waitress wouldn't let him order it. Augi ended out saving Andrew by ordering the other half of the salad so Andrew was finally able to order his Ceasar salad. Augi and Hardy ordered a bottle of wine and the waitress came back with three glasses and poured Andrew a glass, too. It was very good wine. The waitress made the Ceasar Salad from scratch in a big wooden bowl at the table. After salads she returned to serve the entrees and served all the entrees while standing on Andrew's foot. After dinner we went back to the parking garage were the car was but we couldn't figure out how to get out of the parking garage. Finally we found an exit that had a money machine, but then had to pool our ones together so we could pay to get out. Augi gave us a tour of his new offices on the way back to the hotel. At the hotel Andrew went to work out and Hardy went to bed.

Andrew and Hardy

Hey all,

Here is Andrew's and Hardy's trip report #4 (MO-CO).

The day started with us scoring a free breakfast at the hotel. Then it was off across Kansas at 7:30 am. We pointed the car west on the road and then tied the steering wheel so that it wouldn't move. The road didn't have a turn it in for 400 miles. We saw wheat fields with the wheat eaters munching, oil wells, the world's largest prairie dog, Bob Dole's home town, and the town of Liberal,KS. A black Mercedes passed us going fast so Hardy let it get about a 1/4 miles a head of us and then we started pacing it at 120. After 15 or so minutes the radar detector went-a-blaring, Hardy slammed on the brakes and a police car u-turned just in front of it. It started out really slow, but picked up speed in chase of the black Mercedes. A couple miles down the road the black car was pulled over. We pulled over for food and gas so Andrew could drive. The biggest accomplishment of the trip was Andrew learned how to drive in the right hand lane. Every 10 or so minutes Hardy looked in the side view mirror of the passenger seat and noticed there were no cars within site yet Andrew was driving in the left lane. Hardy would cough, start snapping his fingers, or just yelled in Andrew's right ear "RIGHT LANE!" Eventually after 300 miles, Andrew figured out that the left hand lane is for passing only. Andrew also had the honor of making the only two turns along rt-70 (old-route-66).

Somehow we lost a day. We spent 30 minutes trying to figure out what day it was. We knew where we had stayed, but couldn't figure out why we both thought today was Friday and thought it should have been Thursday. When we stopped at a rest area the papers said it was Thursday, but we still weren't sure it the papers were correct.

As we approached Denver Hardy took over driving because Andrew didn't want to drive in lots of traffic. The top was put down to drive up I70 into the Rockies. Some of the mountain peaks still had snow on them. We were making good time and arrived in Vail at 5:30. We pulled into the Vail Post Office to mail the keys to Andrew's mom's car back in VT. We parked at Dan's house (Hardy's friend Dave's brother) in Minturn. Hardy said hi to Budah (Dan's dog) and then the dastardly duo walked downtown to the Minturn Saloon for some mexican food. We had a nice waitress, Dana, who quizzed us: where you from, where you going, where you staying...I said we were staying at Dan's house. Dan works at the Saloon, but was out kayaking. Dana came back with an order of ribs and cheese sauce for the nachos and said they were on the house because Dan would want her to take care of us. After dinner we headed back to the house and hung out the rest of the night.

Andrew and Hardy

Hey all,

Here is Andrew's and Hardy's trip report #5 (CO-AZ).

The most scenic part of the trip was Colorado to Arizona. We said bye to Dan at 7:30 am, picked up some pop tarts for breakfast, and headed into the mountains. The first town we passed was a ghost town that was abandoned in the 1980s. Going through Leadville one of the mountain pass towns we started to see people on bicycles. For the next hour we watched crazy-pyscho-nutso people peddling bikes up the mountain and we couldn't figure out why anyone would ride 20+ miles up a steep mountain. We drove over the Red Mountain pass. We saw old mines, lots of hairpin turns, and plenty of beautiful scenery. The top of the Boxster was down over all of the mountains. We turned more in 1 minute and we did in all of Kansas. We both could drive though the mountains of Colorado again tomorrow, but we have to get to CA.

We took a side trip to Mesa Verde to see the Cliff Dwellings. We took a tour of the Balcony House. We didn't buy a ticket, but the ranger just asked Hardy if Hardy was Andrew and Hardy said yes and he let us go. We guess the ranger thought Andrew had both the tickets or something. We toured the cliff dwelling which required a climb up a 32 foot ladder and to crawl out a twelve foot long tunnel that was only two feet wide. The dwelling was first built around 1200. AFter the tour we gave a donation to pay for our tickets -- to buy the tickets for the tour we would have to drive 20 minutes back to the welcome area.

We were falling behind schedule so we got back on the road. We almost passed by the Four Conners so we turned around and snuck into the site right before it closed. Both of us took our turns standing in all four states at the same time. We headed to our camp site in the Grand Canyon. We didn't get in until 12:00 and the camp ground was full so we parked the Boxster in on of the overlook turn off and fell to sleep fairly comfortably.

Andrew and Hardy

Here is Andrew's and Hardy's trip report #6 (AZ-CA).

We were up at 5:30 to watch the sunrise into the Grand Canyon. Then we hiked down into the Canyon. 3 miles down a bunch of switch backs. The hike back up required a bit more energy, but was still pretty easy.

We arrived at Karen's house around 6:00. Played cards and drank.

Trip report #7 (CA):

Saturday morning we woke up and went for a run on the beach. Came back an chilled out. Then went over to the reception hall to help set up. Then we went to the wedding. Hardy took pictures. At the reception we ate Maria's egg rolls, drank, and danced. Afterwards we went back to Keith's and Karen's to play cards and drink som more. Andrew lost a bundle of money playing cards. Hardy won.

Trip report #8 (CA):

Hardy's getting tire of writing trip reports ;-). Andrew is playing Deer Hunter on the computer and everyone is watching Mighty Joe Young. We are going to be down to the beach for a day of volleyball, horseshoes, boogie boards, and bbq'ing.

Andrew and Hardy

Here is Andrew's and Hardy's trip report #9 (CA) 6/26/00.

This is the last trip report with Andrew in it because he is flying out tomorrow morning, we think. Andrew waited 4 days hoping for his tickets to arrive at Karen's house, but they never arrived. He called South West Airlines to see if he could just show his ID, but they said he'd have to buy a new ticket and get his other ticket refunded. The kids and Andrew where playing video games and the adults and Hardy were playing cards.

After a few days of cards and drinking both Andrew and Hardy were getting restless and decided to head to San Diego to find Andrew's friend Jake from grade school. The reason we had to drive to find him was because we tried calling him for 3 days and his phone was busy at 8 a.m., noon, 6:00 p.m., 9:00 p.m. and Andrew even called him once at 3:00 a.m., but even then the phone was busy.

We headed to San Diego. Andrew had visited Jake a couple times in the past, but only had a faint idea where Jake lived. After an hour of driving around we stumbled upon Jake's house, but no one was home. So, we left notes on the front and back doors telling Jake to call us. The next mission was to find Jake at work. Andrew thought he worked at a hardware store, but we looked around the store and didn't see him. Hardy started to ask a guy if Jake worked there and just then Andrew saw Jake. Jake stood there dumbfounded. He didn't know where we came from or what to say. He was helping a customer and forgot what he was doing. We drove back to Camp Pendelton, picked up Andrew's stuff, and returned him to Jake's so that Jake's mom could bring him to the airport in the morning.

Andrew and Hardy

Here is Hardy's trip report #10 (CA) 6/27/00.

I haven't heard from Andrew yet so I guess he made it back to VT ok. Since Andrew isn't participating in the trip reports anymore then I won't speak in the third person anymore.

Mom rented Ford Expedition to take Keith's parents and Keith's and Karen's kids to the airport. We drove up to Bill's house at Fort Irwin. I drove the Boxster separately so Karen started out riding with me. We had to stopped at a roadside stand to buy California oranges for Bill James. For lunch we stopped at InOut Burger for some pretty decent hamburgers. Karen and mom switched places so mom got to have her first ride in the Boxster. I started her out slow by taking the 25 mph on ramp at 50 mph ;-). Toward the end of the drive to Bill's house I could tell she wanted to get to Billy's faster so I passed by Keith who was driving the Expedition and took the Boxter up to 125. Mom didn't mind the speed all that much, but she didn't like on ramp.

Fort Irwin is at the end of a 30 mile road in the middle of the desert. The air condition is on all of the time at Bill's. The plan was to pick up Bill and Maria and drive up to the Sequoia National Forest to camp and to see big trees. We arrived at Bill's late so we scrapped the camping plans and played cards and watched movies. The new plan was to wake up at 3:00 a.m. (?? egad don't ask me why) and drive north.

- Hardy

Here is Hardy's trip report #11 (CA-NV) 6/28/00.

3:00 am: I'm still sleeping! Bill & mom are up.
4:00 am: I wake up and decide not to go with everyone else and instead head to the Las Vegas.
5:00 am: I'm driving on I-15 with the top down. It's a beautiful dessert morning.

In Baker, CA, I look at the map and decide I'm too close to Death Valley to skip it. I drive north in Baker to see Death Valley. I choose not to go deep down in to the valley, but instead go to Dante's View to overlook the whole valley. Dante's View is at 2000+ feet looking down into the Valley which is 286 ft below see level.

I head back out of the Death Valley. While driving (there are no other cars around so it is fairly safe) I'm looking at the map trying to figure out the quickest way to Las Vegas. At the rt 190 intersection there is a sign "Shortest Way to Las Vegas"... great a short cut! The only problem is the road isn't on my map. I figure it must be one of the great Macia short cuts so I take it.

I arrive in Las Vegas. The short cut worked!! I stop in a mall to buy a battery for my camera and then head up "the strip". I drive up the full strip. Turn around and pick a place to park. Even though I've been to NYC a few times in the last months I parked at the NY-NY casino at the four corners...guess I was subconsciously missing NYC and I wanted to ride in the roller coaster.

The roller coaster wasn't open yet so without anything else to do and being in a casino I found a money machine to withdraw $200. Exchanged a twenty at a taxi cab changer into quarters and started playing the slot machines. After getting board at slots I wondered around a bit and found a table where an employee was teaching people how to play a few different games. After learning the new games I found a black jack table and played for a while. I ended up slightly ahead and moved to a different table where I lost it all! Not all-all, but the $80 I decided I was going to play black jack with. I finished out my quarters at the slots and left only $90 down.

On the way out of Vegas, I got lost. I wanted to find the mall again because on the way in to town there was a Bose outlet store. I found the mall, went into the store and was giving a free movie demonstration of Bose speakers. Talking with a sales person I found out there was an outlet store in Manchester VT so I'll be stopping there sometime over the next year to purchase a real speaker system for my house.

Next stop was the Hoover Dam. The mammoth government project that killed off all of the salmon from spawning in the Colorado River because the river no longer makes it all of the way to the ocean. It's still a damn big dam. It was crowded so I was going to have to wait 1-2 hours for any of the tours. The tours cost between $8 and $25 depending on which one you wanted to take. I overheard someone say the fees for the tours pay for the staff and the tour buildings. I did they quick see it all Hardy tour and walked across the dam so I could cross the NV/AZ state line.

Arrived back at Bill's house around 8:00 p.m. I thought the rest of them would be back soon, but they didn't arrive back until midnight. I might have driven 400 miles today, but the others drove over 800 miles. We watched their video tape of their trip. Big Trees!

- Hardy

Here is Hardy's trip report #12 (CA) 6/29/00.

Hung at Bill's house for most of the day and drove into Anaheim for to register for the Libertarian Party National Convention. Grabbed a couple snacks and drinks. Met a couple new friends and a few old friends. Headed back to Karen's for the night.

Here is Hardy's trip report #13 (CA) 6/30/00.

Up early and headed north to Anaheim for the start of the Libertarian Party National Convention. Friday was a little slow, but there were some good speakers. A lot of talk about Peter McWilliams who died three weeks ago because the federal government would not allow him to use medical marijuana which was the only drug that would keep down his AIDS and cancer medicine.

Here is Hardy's trip report #14 (CA) 7/1/00.

Easiest thing to say would be watch CSPAN. CSPAN carried the whole convention. I was on TV a few times according to Karen who had watched the convention for most of the day.

Here is Hardy's trip report #15 (CA) 7/2/00.

Big News is Harry Browne was nominated to be the LP Presidential candidate. . This is the first time in the 25 year history of the LP that we nominated the same candidate twice in a row. Browne showed the TV commercials that his campaign had produced generating large laughs and applause from the crowd.

Here is Hardy's trip report #16 (CA) 7/3/00.

Convention is still rolling along.

Art Olivier wins the LP Vice Presidential nomination. www.olivier2000.org or maybe http://www.artodesigns.com/index.html.

Jim Lark is elected as the LP Chair and Dan Fylstra is elected vice-chair. Fylstra was the inventor of Visicalc the first ever spreadsheet for a personal computer and co-founder of Byte Magazine. Opening Pandora's Box: An Open Letter about the Politicization of the PC Industry by Dan Fylstra -- http://www.frontsys.com/pandora.htm

Convention wrapped. I'm headed north toward San Francisco, but no real plans beyond that yet. It has become an interesting trip north. It is 10:09 pm and I'm sitting in Vista Point pull off that over looks the Pacific Ocean along route 1 in CA and I must right this while I'm still in the twilight zone. At 8:20 I had stopped for gas in Ragged Point the service man had just closed the pumps. I needed gas because route 1 is 80 miles long and the dummy light for gas is on in my car. I know I have about 4-5 gallons left, but that only gives me 80-100 miles and I decide that I can't tempt fate. Also, I'm not supposed to make any sharp turns while the little orange light is on and, well, route 1 along the coast is all little sharp turns...Porsche terrain :-) So, I head north slowly hoping to find a camp ground or a pull off to stay for the night and I'll turn back around in the morning to fill up on gas. I don't find the camp ground instead I enter the town of Gorda. Gorda's 76 station is still open so I get gas. It is full service and the service man asks me what I'd like. I say "fill it super". He says "really?" The hairs on the back of my neck stand up. I look at the price per gallon and it is $2.999 per gallon. The mid-west don't have it too bad. We chatted for a little while as he pumped and he said that "the guy that owns the town" -- seriously one guy owns the whole town. The population is probably only 10 people plus tourist. I tell him to only give me 15 and change my mind to $20. I thank the man filling for the gas because for the service he was providing. Yeah, I could sleep and go back to the cheaper station or chance making it to Monterey.

I decide what the hell and go into the one cafe in town. It's late and I'll need to eat before camping. I get the menu and the hamburger is $12.95!!! I go for the quesadia appetizer which proves to be a good bet. It was sort of tasty, but I'm thinking about SmokeJack's Duck Quesadias while I'm eating this one. There are probably 10 people in the cafe. I'm about done and a guy walks in to and buys a bagel for $2.95 on his credit card. He comes up to me and asks if I'm from Vermont. Then he says "do you need a boyfriend - only kidding." It takes me about a half second get his joke about the same-sex marriage stuff going on in VT. I've heard about other incidents around the country and was actually kinda of expecting it at some point. So, I finished up my meal and kept thinking I should go out and check on my car to make sure he didn't key it or do anything else to it. But, I reassured myself if he was stupid enough to do that then I had his credit card receipts that my lawyer would just have to sepina to track the guy down. I left the waitress a twenty - which covered my lemonade, quesadia, and the tip - and left. I've pulled off a couple times to listen to the ocean, watch the stars, and stare at the moon. It's a beautiful night. I'm going to head north some more and either find a camp site or pull off and nap in the car again. The mornings are supposed to be foggy on the coast so a foggy morning or dark night for driving the coast won't make much difference.

Hardy

Here is Hardy's trip report #17 (CA) 7/4/00.

I wake up around 6:30. It isn't foggy as the forecast had tried to predict. The drive up the coast is pretty. I approach Monterey and see signs for "17 Mile Drive". Since, I've heard of this road... Pebble Beach golf course, nice houses, and other sites are along the road. I decide to take it only to find a toll gate charging $10 per vehicle. I can't imagine any sites much more beautiful than what I had already seen earlier that day so I reconsider and decide $10 would be better used finding a place to eat breakfast. I drive into downtown Monterey, find a place to eat and take a seat at the counter. I ordered an omelet with tomato, cheese, and avocado. I'm back on route 1. As I drive through San Francisco I'm pass within a few blocks of Karen Chapman's apartment so I call just to say hi to say I'm passing through, but she was gone for the weekend. I drive over the Golden Gate bridge to leave San Francisco and there are a lot of people walking on back and forth across the bridge. It's a little foggy, but I see Alcatraz. I drive into the Muirs. It is another park with trees. I drive down a twisty road a ways to get to the park, but it looks full and people have to park along side of the road. Since, I need to get as far north as I can today I skip the tree park and continue up route 1. When route 1 meets the coast again things get fun.

Route 1 along the Pacific coast is probably the most scenic road in the US and also the longest stretch of road designed specifically for the Boxster. There are signs telling slow traffic to pull off to let the faster traffic through and everyone lets me pass them as soon as they can. I do a lot of braking, turning, and accelerating. I pushing the Boxster to about 80% of what I can do with the car. Every corner is banked just right so I'm hitting the right bank and then the left bank and the Boxster just grips the road and wants me to drive it as hard as I can. I continue to get the same euphoria I get when I'm snowboarding on a good day. I do some site seeing when I get behind a car, but the road and car were made for driving. The speed limit on the road is 55 mph. There are a lot of 15,20,25,30 mph warning signs for turns, but I find out the Boxster can take most of the turns easily at twice the posted speed so I'm whip the Boxster around a lot of 20 mph turns at 40 or so. (Oh yeah, the top is down for this part of the trip.) At some point I see a motorcycle in my rearview mirror. It's not catching up, but it will if I get behind some traffic. The cycle catches up and passes me and the couple cars ahead of me on the inside at a construction light. The cars let me pass and then I start to catch up to the cycle. The cycle pulls over at one point to do something so I get ahead. I try to stay ahead of the cycle, but it stays on my tail. Then my cell phone rings so I slow up a let the cycle pass. I drive about another hour through twisty redwood roads. I look at the clock and I've been driving for 7-8 hours, but have only driven 250 miles. Usually, I can drive 400 miles in 7-8 hours on a normal interstate.

Right before I get on the main highway (meaning a highway without many turns) I see signs for Chandler Tree. The redwood tree that you can drive your car through. I drive through.

I stop in Cresent City CA to watch fireworks. Fireworks are legal in CA so there are firework stands all over for families to buy fireworks. There are thousands of people (families, friends, ...) on the beach lighting off their fireworks and partying. I walk up and down the beach. After the fireworks die down then the city's fireworks start up. I watch most of it then leave. I drive a little bit further and find a campground called Grassy Flats.

Hardy

Here is Hardy's trip report #18 (OR) 7/5/00.

I leave Grassy Flats campground by 6:30 and cross the Oregon state line in 30 minutes. I'm headed to Crater Lake National Park. It is still early so no one is manning the south gates and I pass on through. I climb up the mountain. Crater Lake was created by a collapsed volcano and filled with rain water. This part of OR receives 30" of rain water each year. Crater Lake is one of the deepest or is the deepest lake in the US. It is 2000 feet deep and crystal blue. The problem today is that it is very foggy so I can't see down into the crater to see the lake. I drive on. Driving down the mountain a deer crosses the road.

There is still snow at this elevation, but the snow has streaks of red through it. I'll ask Jimmy about the red snow later in the day and he says it is because they use cinders on the roads in OR instead of salt. I'm not convinced this is the real answer because tomorrow we'll be hiking and I'll see twinges of red in snow far away from road contamination.

I leave the park through the north gate. There is a person in the gate this time. I slow down to pay, but there is a sign in the windows still that says the gate is closed so I continue on.

I get into Bend, OR, at 11:30. I call Jimmy from my cell phone, but his phone is busy. I spy a car wash and decide my poor car needs a really good cleaning. I vacuum and wash the car which takes about 30 minutes. I try calling Jimmy again, but this time the phone rings and rings. I head to downtown Bend to look around. I pass through downtown and try to find Jimmy's street. My only clue is that he is in the nw/ne part of the city. I see streets that end with NW so I figure I must be getting close so I turn left and cross cut all of the NW streets. I give Jimmy another call he answers. He asks where I'm at and I say such an such a street. It turns out that I'm only about 2 minutes from his house. He tells me to turn left and left again and I see him standing on his front steps.

I meet his two black dogs (1 year and 1.5 years old). We had lunched at the microbrewery he works at. After lunch we took the dogs for a hike. We had sushi for dinner at the restaurant next door to the pub that we had lunch at. Then we met some of Jimmy's friends for a drink and they decided to see "My Myself, and Irene" with Jim Carey. I opening of the movie was funny, but I can only deal with grade school humor in small doses. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.

Here is Hardy's trip report #19 (OR) 7/6/00.

We met Jimmy's friends for brunch at a restaurant called Colors. It had bright red, blue, and yellow walls in each room. I had a very good omelet. The group that went for brunch took the dogs hiking again. This time we hiked around a lake. It was cloudy both days that I was in Bend, but Jimmy kept reassuring me that Bend was actually surrounded by large mountains. After hiking about halfway around the lake a few of the mountains finally appeared. I still never saw all seven mountains, but I did take a few pictures of the lake with Mt. Bachelor in the background.

Hardy

Here is Hardy's trip report #20 (OR-ID-WY) 7/7/00.

My plans were to drive about halfway across Idaho and find a place to camp, but I started driving and decided that I could make it all the way to the Grand Tetons in WY. I drove through Jackson Hole, Wy around 10:00 p.m. and started looking for a campground. The first campground was full, but the second campsite had space.

Here is Hardy's trip report #21 (WY-MT-WY-SD) 7/8/00.

Up early again and entered into Yellowstone. I charged my credit card $20 for the park fee. I found Old Faithful on the map and went to watch it erupt. I walked around the hotsprings and gysers holes for about 30 minutes reading the little signs, but returned to the Old Faithful seating site to wait. I only had to wait another 15 minutes for it to erupt. I clicked my pictures and got back on the road. Heading out of Yellowstone I pulled over a couple times to click pictures of buffalo and elk.

After Yellowstone I entered Montana. I had hoped to be able to drive really fast through MT, but about 9 months ago the MN legislature reduced the speed limit from 90 mph to 75 mph. The other problem was the roads in MT were the worst roads that I had driven on my whole trip -- they were similar to the I89 north of St. Albans.

I headed south back into WY so to head to the SD BadLands. I'm getting tired and see signs for Battle of Little Big Horn. I stop and watched an half hour presentation on how indians lived and then drove out a 5 mile stretch of road to see all of the points of interest spots (where General Custer had his last stand, where Gen. Custer watched another division get beaten back by the indians, ...). The interesting part of the 5 mile drive was a sign that said from this point forward is private land. I was shocked the state or feds didn't try to take the land from the land owner "to protect" the great historical battlefield of little big horn.

I drove north east next to Devil's Tower. Devil's Tower was another place high on my list of things to see. I wanted to climb the tower and sit at the top to meditate like the old indian shamans, but when I got there I had no money left. I asked the fee collector if they took credit cards, but they didn't. I asked if I could go to the top and he said no you can any walk around the bottom. So, I said thanks and turned around and headed to my next destination the Black Hills of SD. As I approached the SD state line the clouds to the south were getting very black. I continued to drive for another 2 hours. I pulled into a little town to find a bank (there were now banks in WY). I'm driving through town when a camero pulls up along side me and asks if I want to trade cars for a day. I chuckle at them and find a bank. I must decide if I want to chance camping out when it looks like a bad thunder storm will be coming through or if I just stay at a motel. I hear on the radio the t-storms will be scattered so I chance the camping. It takes me about 1 hour to find a campground, but I set up the tent and then wonder around a little bit to see what's happening at the other campfires.

Hardy

Here is Hardy's trip report #22 (SD-MN) 7/9/00.

I wake up and head to Mt. Rushmore. I see all of Mt. Rushmore from the road that I want to see so I drive through the fee gates which are still empty because it was early and I drive out. I pulled over and snapped a couple pictures. I ate breakfast in the little town and then headed to the Badlands.

I approached the Badlands from the south and had to drive east to enter from the eastern entrance. Once in I drove 26 miles west to exit. It was a cute drive. I stopped a couple times to take pictures and walked around. I wasn't as impressed with the Badlands as people built it up to be.

I drive east at a moderate pace, but also need to be in Minneapolis, MN by 7:00 p.m. to meet a friend. I'm on the phone when a car passes me so I pull in behind the car to follow it. There were two other cars following it so we have a little caravan going. We are going about 95. After an hour or so of being in second position I move forward and take the lead position. I'm step up the pace a little bit and we are driving just shy of 100. After a couple hours of everyone following me, I pull off to get gas. The three cars behind me pull off also. We all gas up, but my fuel pump is slow so the other cars all leave. Or so I thought, I drive around the back of the gas station to leave and the three cars are waiting for me to lead again. I take the lead and decide to see how fast they really want to go. There is no other traffic on the road so it is safe to drive fast and the roads are in much better shape than the MT roads. I take the car up to 115, but the others don't keep up. I let off the gas and they are happy driving about 105. I settle in with the flow of traffic. We keep a steady pace for a while and then a car passes me. I speed up to keep up with it and we pick the pace up another 5 mph for a few miles, but slow back down to under 100 for the next hour. By the time we get to the MN stateline only the original car that passed me was still with me. But these two girls who are from MN slow up once we enter MN, so we are now only driving the customary 10 over the posted speed. I pull off to a rest stop and wave goodbye to the girls in the car as it passes.

In the rest stop I stretch my legs and read the "what happened around here" sign that all rest stops seem to have. I get back in the car after my short 5 minute break and put down the top and continue eastward. After a couple hours I need gas again so take an exit and drive about a mile to a Texaco station passing on other station along the way. When I pull in the two girls who were the last part of the convoy were pulling out waving at me. I was hoping they would wait up for me again, but they don't and this was the last I saw of them.

I arrive at Steve's house around 7:30. Steve is an old friend from the earliest of my Newton programming days. He sent me the one of the original software development kits before Apple had released them to the general public. He also has the distinction of being the first person who paid for my software by bartering a fifth of JŠgerMeister for PocketMoney. The funny thing was, but isn't all that uncommon in the internet/computer field these days is that I had never personally met him before so tonight was the first meeting. His wife answered the door because Steve was putting down his 2 year old. Then Steve and I go to a bar that is located on one of MN's lakes. It's an upscale bar with fancy boats and scantily clad girls docked about 10 feet away from where we are sitting.

After dinner we had back to Steve's house. It's a nice house in a nice area. During dinner Steve talked about Anisette (?) a liquor drink that he makes. It was very fashionable for writers such as Mark Twain, artists, and others to drink this in the pre-alcohol-prohibition era. There were bars designed for serving this type of drink. It is made with a 100+ proof of alcohol, wormwood, anise (black liquorice flavoring) and some other spices. The wormwood reacts in a certain way with the alcohol to give you a different kind of drunkenness. Normally, alcohol makes you foggy, but the Anisette gives you a clear headed high. He pours us a shot each of his Anisette homebrew and I try it. We only drink one shot so I can taste it so I don't get to experience the unique effect of this alcoholic drink. It wasn't clear, but I'm not sure if this drink is still illegal or not. There are books on it and websites dedicated to keeping the tradition alive for those that want more info.

We watch the trailers of "It's a Bug's Life". Which are hillarious when you consider in animation you don't have goofs like normal movies, but the animators spent hundreds of hours creating some standard acting goofups for the end of their movie. Steve also has DVD and a nice TV that makes all the difference in the world when you are watching high quality movies. I turn in for bed.

Hardy

Here is Hardy's trip report #23: MN-IL 7/10/00.

I woke up and worked a little bit before leaving Steve's house. We were meeting another old Newton friend, Chadburn Bloomquist, for lunch. Chadburn now works for Palm. I left for Chicago after lunch.

I parked illegally near Ben's apartment in Chicago. We were going out to dinner right away so it wasn't too big of a deal. I let Ben drive the Boxster. We went back to FlatTops. The experience was better the first time at FlatTops because it was new to me, but the food was still good.

Here is Hardy's trip report #24: IL 7/11/00.

I was ahead of schedule to get home so I spent the next day in Chicago. I borrowed Ben's bike and rode down the bike path along the bay for several miles to the main pier, thingy. The real reason for extending my stay was Ben's weekly high stakes poker game that night.

Several of Ben's friends came over to illegally gamble. Gambling is illegal in most states unless it is a State run lottery. Like many laws, millions of people break multiple laws everyday. This was at least the fourth law I broke in the previous two days; speeding, changing lanes without singling, and illegally parking were the others. I lost several hundred cents gambling. I taught the Chicago boys how to play "Guts" my way and also "Pres-Pres" a Philippino game I learned from my brother Bill and his Philippino wife Maria.

Hardy

I left Ben's early. I was planning on camping in the Alleghany National Forrest again on my way through, but I was making very good time and I headed straight for my dad's house in Philadelphia. This required another audio books. The audio books are expensive if you only listen to them once. Someone told me that you could rent books from a chain of convience stores and drop them off at the next store you were at. I never saw any of these stores.

Here is Hardy's trip report #26: PA 7/13/00.

I stayed at my dad's for another day.

I went to NYC and stayed with Nicole for the weekend. I got a parking ticket for parking in a spot that wasn't marked very well.

I drove Nicole to work in the morning and headed back to Vermont.

I put 11,000 miles on my car in 30 days. I saw most of the country at ground level traveling about 55-75 mph. I saw a lot of things that most people don't get to see when they are just zinging back in forth at 30,000 feet in a plane. I had a great time and so did Andrew.

My next cross country trip will be at a rate of 30-50 miles a day on horseback in either 2002 or 2003.