The old Auckland Customs House, seen from Auckland Harbor

Best. Board. Ever.

This sign was outside a pub in Auckland, on the waterfront. We didn’t eat there; instead, we found an Irish pub with some great fish and chips, and some excellent Irish brews.

While touring the Bay of Islands, we encountered a pod of dolphins who were more than happy to entertain us for a bit.

Gollum and me

Matamata is where the cast and crew of the Lord of the Rings trilogy made their base as they created, and filmed, the Shire scenes. Unfortunately, we didn’t have the time to take the Hobbiton tour.

Beautiful Wellington Harbor

Wellington is known as the “San Francisco of the South Pacific,” and views like this make it easy to understand why. We weren’t there nearly as long as I’d have liked to stay, so I guess we’ll have to go back someday.

Franz Josef Glacier

Only a couple decades or so ago, the glacier would have filled the foreground.

Where Arwen forded with Frodo, fleeing the Wraith Riders

This 4WD excursion was a lot of fun; unfortunately, I can’t seem to locate some of the better views of Queenstown from above that I was sure I took. Be sure to check out the South Island photo library, linked below, for some cool videos of bungee jumping. (No, I didn’t bungee jump. Maybe next time!)

Waterfalls at Milford Sound: There were, literally, thousands of falls pouring into the sound.

Our tour manager kept telling us she hoped it was raining when we got to Milford Sound, because so many more waterfalls are visible. She was right! And when I say “literally” thousands of falls, I do mean “literally.”

For more photos throughout the North Island, look here. And, for more photos of Wellington and the South Island, check out this library.

Something Different: New Zealand Pictures! is a post from: Kestrel's Aerie

 

Our New Zealand tour was outstanding in just about every aspect. We met great new friends from the United States, Canada, and England. Our tour manager was superb, and our drivers (who do the commentary and interpretation in NZ) were equally fantastic. The food was plentiful, and excellent. Braised lamb shanks may be my new favorite meat dish. We sampled just about every kind of ice cream the Kiwis make, and I also did a reasonable sampling of the local brews. Tip: NZ makes some of the best pinot noir, pinot gris, and sauvignon blanc you can find anywhere.  Check ’em out! 

The day before the earthquake struck, we were supposed to drive into Christchurch for our last couple nights on the South Island before flying home. Fortunately, we’d seen a bit of the city a week earlier. Our tour company, Collette Vacations, did a superb job of rerouting us, finding us rooms for the last two nights, and making sure everyone made their flights out of NZ. I can’t praise them enough, and you can be sure we’ll be looking to Collette for our future tour plans. Highest recommendation!

In the coming days, I’ll sort all the pictures and videos I took, and post again with links to same. In the meantime, it’s great to be home, and I can’t wait to start working on the rewrite of Obsidian Throne.

Home From New Zealand! is a post from: Kestrel's Aerie

 

In addition, you probably found a couple extras in your feed reader this morning: Turns out my update to WordPress 2.9 was apparently not quite as trouble-free as I assumed. Somehow, an addon interefered with the ability of FeedBurner to grab my RSS feed, so the guest post from Krizzlybear as well as my own post on the 22nd were not updated in FeedBurner.

I was able to get a chance to do some troubleshooting Christmas Eve, and after disabling all addons (except Akismet and WordPerfect Stats), then pinging the site from FeedBurner, those articles appeared in my feed, and, I trust, in yours. So there you go: Two more gifts from the Aerie this Christmas Day!

We’re all having a wonderful time here on Kaua’i: Alie can’t get enough of the beach, but was persuaded to accompany the rest of us as we went in search of shave ice this afternoon. And while I was considerably under the weather Thursday morning as a cold snuck up on me, I was recovered enough by midafternoon to go as well (although I had ice cream instead of shave ice: I wasn’t too sure how well the syrups would do for my somewhat sore throat, and Kona coffee ice cream is not something to be passed up).

Christmas Dinner will be a luau at the Sheraton resort a couple miles away; we’re all looking forward to the wonderful buffet as well as the traditional dancing that will be presented.

Finally, as a further gift to all my wonderful friends and readers, here’s a video I took on Tuesday at a small blowhole across the street from our vacation house:

Kaua’i Blowhole 

Merry Christmas from the Land of Aloha is a post from: Kestrel's Aerie

 

It’s supposed to snow in Rapid today or tomorrow. On Kaua’i, it’ll be in the low to mid 70s, and no rain in the forecast. 

 
As the tee-shirts say, "Life is Good!"
 
Aloha!

Aloha From Kaua’i! is a post from: Kestrel's Aerie

 

About 3 minutes ago, I was reading Darren Rowse’s latest update at ProBlogger. While my blogging empire isn’t as expansive as Darren’s doesn’t exist, I dimly recalled stating this was going to be a more personal blog. Maybe, just maybe, I should start writing some of those more personal posts. So on a lazy Labor Day (happy holiday to my American and Canadian readers!), I think I’ll do just that.

The Blog

A few weeks ago, I undertook a significant redesign, and, in the process, I learned quite a bit more about the Thesis theme I use. I’m quite satisfied with the look of the site now, but of course, I’m an inveterate tweaker. Sometimes, the tiniest changes give me the greatest pleasure. For example, I’m very happy with how the subscription area looks now.

Speaking of subscriptions, I should note the Aerie turned two a few weeks ago (August 17, to be precise).  So for you numbers oriented people, here’s what two years (and a few weeks) of blogging have generated:

• 366 posts (not counting this one)
• 13 categories (down from a LOT more, when I was blogging exclusively about World of Warcraft)
• 284 tags (up a LOT, since I converted a lot of WoW categories to tags; I may further refine those soon)
• 2,063 comments (thank you!)
• 9,292 spam comments caught by Akismet
• Roughly 100 spam attempts per day blocked by Bad Behavior ¹
• ~800 RSS subscribers ²
• ~360 Twitter followers ³

The spam got so bad a couple weeks ago, I finally started blocking IP addresses via my .htaccess file; since then, I think the Bad Behavior numbers have jumped up a lot, but the number of comments I’ve actually had to delete via Akismet has dropped by a roughly corresponding number.

World of Warcraft

Yep, still playing, as evidenced by the WoW page here. (The link is in the top level menu.) Quite a few new achievements being reported, including finally getting Osprey credit for Stratholme! (I was there again to finish up my Argent Dawn rep, for the Argent Crusader title.)

In July, we were running 25-mans regularly, but some drama caused by one jerk (yeah, I said it) caused most of the Oroborus members to leave our merger with Closed. My friends and I stayed in Closed, and at least we’re getting some 10-man stuff done (which, sadly, is more than The Oroborus is doing at the moment), but we’re really disappointed not to be running 25-man Ulduar and ToC.

Right now, we’re stuck on Mimiron in Ulduar, and the Faction Champions in 10-man ToC. (I don’t think we’ve downed Freya yet, either.) The Faction Champions fight sucks. In fact, I could probably devote an entire rant to how much I hate that fight and the concepts behind it. Suffice to say, there a LOT of reasons I don’t like PvP, and almost every single one of them is embodied in that fight.

So that’s where Osprey is. Oh…I also bought another 24 mounts, so he could get his Albino Drake. Why? Because I could! 

Kestrel has run some Naxx-25 and gotten a few pieces of gear, so he’s doing okay. Falken, my level 80 rogue, got into Heroic Gundrak twice this weekend, as well as Drak’Tharon Keep once, and got some nice legs out of the former on Sunday. He’s my jewelcrafter, and has started to get back in the money making business. I’m holding steady at 10K gold, down from around 14K, but much of that loss is due to buy materials for crafting and selling.

I’ve also been playing my Druid, Owlhawk, and have him up to level 36. More recently, my second rogue, Talons, has been getting some playing time. Since he’s my enchanter, I thought it might be good to get him to 80 before the expansion.

Almost forgot: Yesterday, I finally respecced Osprey’s off-spec from Discipline, which I used once about a week after dual-specs came out, to Shadow. I then did the Tournament dailies, in his Holy gear. In fact, I haven’t even re-glyphed him for Shadow yet. (By the way, thanks to the bubblicious one for her Shadow spec, which I shamelessly copied. (She was the only person I could recall, at the moment, who has a SPriest.)

So, let me just say: Playing Shadow is so damned easy, it should be considered an exploit. I mean, SERIOUSLY! As Holy, I can kill anything; I have no problem soloing any Northrend content. It just takes a while to kill stuff. As Shadow, undergeared, unenchanted, unglyphed (Prayer of Healing?) and ungemmed (okay, I do have some Int & SP ‘chants and gems, but my +Hit is 86, alright?), my DoTs were killing stuff before I could initiate a second Mind Sear. Redonkulous!

Workshop Renovation

We’ve lived in our house for 21 years. In that time, I’ve always had some kind of work bench in the garage, but over the years, accumulated junk has rendered access to that corner pretty much impossible. In mid-August, my son Bryan and I built a garden shed for Mrs. Kestrel, and she was able to move some of said junk (okay, maybe that stuff wasn’t junk) from the garage. We had an understanding that once her shed was up, I would be able to clean out the garage and reestablish my workshop.

I intend to do a more in-depth post in a week or so (with before and after pics!), but suffice to say, except for one storage unit on order from Sears, the project is about 95 percent done. I still need to complete some organization of tools, but we moved a few large trash bins of stuff out of the garage and reorganized much of the rest. Huge props to Mrs. K for her help in going through all the cra…stuff in the garage, and helping with moving larger pieces of gear. We can still park both cars in there (something we never sacrifice is the ability to keep the vehicles out of the elements!), and I can actually get to all of my tools without fear of having a ton of junk burying me alive.

Sports

The baseball pennant races are in full swing, and my beloved Dodgers are clinging to what once seemed an insurmountable lead in the NL West. As the LA Times noted today, the team really needs an identity. While Manny Ramirez is seen by many as the face of the franchise, I see him more as a hired gun. I appreciate his contributions (not including his 50-game suspension earlier in the season), but it seems he did a lot more at the end of last season than he’s done this year.

The Dodgers really need a clubhouse leader to emerge, to energize the team and point them to the postseason. Joe Torre’s done a fantastic job as manager since arriving in Los Angeles, and I hope he stays several more years. But the real work gets done on the field, and it seems to me it’s been a long time since the Dodgers have had a galvanizing force on the field. I thought catcher Russell Martin might be that force, but apparently that isn’t the case. Except for Manny, the Dodgers are generally a faceless team, and faceless teams don’t win World Series.

College football kicked off this weekend, and I spent all of Saturday with the television on one game or another. Kudos to BYU for knocking off Oklahoma; I thought they could do it and it was nice to see my hunch proved right. I also caught the last quarter of UCLA’s season opener against San Diego State. The Bruins looked pretty good, considering how they imploded after their season-opening upset of Tennessee last year. We play Tennessee again next Saturday, and while I expect we’ll get beat, the Vols better not be complacent.⁴

I’m hopeful UCLA will improve on last year’s 4-8 debacle, and end up in a bowl game at season’s end. Doubt they’ll play in January, but on or after Christmas Day would be nice. I look forward to watching the game from Kauai!

Next weekend (well, Thursday), the NFL season starts. I don’t have much hope that the Kansas City Chiefs will be significantly better than last year: Their offensive line is pretty, well, offensive. However, I think there’s a chance the St. Louis Rams could shake things up a bit in the NFC West. That said, I’m picking them to lose to Seattle on Sunday, but I expect the game to be close.

I’m not a fan of either of the more popular teams here in South Dakota: the Denver Broncos and Minnesota Vikings. The Broncos don’t have much hope of surpassing the San Diego Chargers (my choice for the Super Bowl), and I don’t think they’ll even be in contention for a wildcard spot. The Vikes, on the other hand, have Super Bowl aspirations with Bret Favre at quarterback. However, both Green Bay and Chicago will have a lot to say about who wins the NFC Central. If nothing else, that race should be an exciting one, which is good, since those are the games I’m most likely to see on Sundays.

Finally, our minor league hockey team here in Rapid City is about to start its second season. Bryan and I went to a game in December when he was here for Christmas, and I think I’ll try to get to a couple games this season. Might even get Mrs. K to come along! 

Personal

Mrs K is leaving at oh-dark-thirty Wednesday to visit her best friend in San Jose; she’ll be gone for 10 or 12 days. When she gets back, we’ll be going to see "Mamma Mia!" in a touring production here in town. Mrs K saw the London production several years ago, and we both thoroughly enjoyed the movie version last summer. Yes, we’re ABBA fans, but then, we’re old enough to be!

I’m continuing to work on lowering my weight, but the traveling and then all the company we’ve had this summer has compromised that a bit. However, I’m down 11 pounds from when I consciously started working on it in April. With daily weighing, as well as knowing when I abuse my diet, I’m confident I won’t gain that back. At some point, I want to devote a more in-depth post to this; right now, I just want to acknowledge there are several blogging friends out there who have inspired me, and I will definitely recognize them in that upcoming article.

It looks like we’ll be heading down to the St. Louis area in late October (Halloween is the target date, right now). And last night I was informed our route will take us through Des Moines this time, so Mrs K can visit a large quilting festival there. I’ve no idea what I’ll do that morning. Any Iowans want to meet up in Des Moines for a couple hours around the 28th?

Finally, as I hinted above, we’re going to celebrate Christmas in Kauai this year with the family. We’ve already paid a deposit on a large house to rent for 10 days, and our tentative plans are to leave here on the 21st, then fly back on New Year’s Eve, getting home about midday on January 1. Mrs K’s brother and his wife will also join us after Christmas for a few days. Alie is already pretty excited about that (I think because she gets to see both of her uncles again; Uncle Bryan is almost as silly as Grandpa!).

So…for not having much to say, I’m glad I was able to squeeze it into such a small article! *snicker*  As always, I’m interested in your thoughts: Feel free to share in the Comments!

The State of the Kestrel and of the Aerie is a post from: Kestrel's Aerie

 

Welcome back to what is part 3 or 4 (maybe 5?) of our four-week journey last month from Rapid City to St. Louis to Los Angeles to Los Osos and back to Rapid City. Whew! That took almost as long to type as it did to drive!

Los Angeles

As I related yesterday,, we arrived in L.A. on Wednesday the 18th, a bit later than originally planned. Nonetheless, we were not at all late for dinner; in fact, there was definitely time for a couple of Bill’s homebrews beforehand. One of the nice things about being “grownups” is that Bill and his sister (my wife) get along very well. Mrs. K and Bill’s wife Cookie are as much sisters as any blood relatives. And I manage to fit in pretty well too (convenient, no?).

One thing we all share is a love of good food and good drink. I believe I’ve mentioned before that not only does Bill brew his own beer, but he and his friend Jim make their own wines as well. They’ve won awards for reds and whites, and Bill’s Zinfandel is a particular favorite of mine. Every time I visit, I be sure to snag a few bottles to bring home.

On Thursday, we were all up early. Mrs K and Cookie went to Curves, and dropped off the van at the Toyota dealer. I watched what little coverage there was of the first round of the U.S. Open.

Later that morning, while Bill was at work, the other three of us took a large amount of investment coins (Mexican Libertads, a couple Krugerrands, some Canadian Maple Leafs, and some US Eagles) and a bit of jewelry (all of which had belonged to my mother-in-law) to the Torrance Women’s Club, where three numismatists/gemologists from a local shop were holding an appraisal clinic. 

While we were in California in March, I’d inventoried many of the coins and researched their values using current spot prices for silver, gold and platinum. Thus, we had a ballpark idea of their worth. When the appraisal of the 100 silver Libertads came in within $100 of my estimate, we were confident we were going to get a fair price for our coins and jewelry. To make a longer story shorter, we walked out about 90 minutes later with almost $10,000 in cash.

We celebrated with Mexican food at a nearby restaurant (not quite fast food, but very good nonetheless), then went shopping a bit. We needed some necessities of some sort at Target, and since we happened to be very near a Wild Birds Unlimited store, we stopped in and I selected my anniversary present: a Tilley LTM6 Airflow hat in natural with green underbrim. If you noticed the picture of me in the preceding article, I need considerable head protection from the sun. While baseball caps work, they don’t protect the ears, and they don’t travel well. The Tilley meets both requirements splendidly.(Thanks to @Llanionfor the recommendation!) (And no, that’s not me in the picture, although the hat does make me look almost as dashing! Courtesy, Tilley.com)

We then returned to the Toyota dealer to pick up the van. The oil was changed, and so were the wiper blades. Turns out the large black plastic piece we found outside Needles was in fact from the Previa: It’s an air vent filter; nothing critical. We once again tossed it in the van and headed back to Bill and Cookie’s.

Friday, we went to lunch with our friends Karen and Mike, as previously documented. Saturday was a pretty leisurely day, although Bill and I did spend an hour or so wandering around Fry’s Electronics. I tried not to drool over all the gear available, and to my credit (or shame; you be the judge) I didn’t buy anything.

Saturday evening, however, was a meal to remember. Bill smoked some pork ribs, and I promise they were every bit as good as those from the best Kansas City barbecue houses. Every. Bit. My birthday wish-list contains one item: A Weber Smoker. We also had the best macaroni and cheese ever, and that’s coming from someone who generally does not like baked mac’n’cheese.

Sunday was breakfast at the Lighthouse Deli in San Pedro, with Bill’s friend Jim. Sunday breakfast at the Lighthouse is a weekly tradition for Bill, Cookie and Jim, and we’ve joined them whenever we’re in town. For the first time since we’d been in L.A., the “June gloom” (morning overcast, or “marine layer” of fog) wasn’t present, so we sat outside. The food is great, good portions, and some unique dishes. Bill, for example, enjoyed the beef stroganoff omelet. I stuck with a somewhat more traditional buckwheat waffle. The coffee is excellent, and they’re quick to keep you topped up. All in all, a great Father’s Day breakfast!

Once we got back to Bill’s, we loaded the van, then the three of us (sans Bill) headed up the coast to Los Osos. After a quick food stop in Santa Maria (and to pick up a lug of fresh strawberries) we arrived at “the cabin” around 4 PM.

Los Osos

The cabin is Mom’s mobile home, a very nice double-wide she bought about five years ago. She had all the inside walls and ceilings plastered, as well as several other upgrades, so it looks much more like a real house than a mobile home.

The reason we call it “the cabin” is because when Bill and Janet were young, their folks build a bungalow in Morro Bay, which was always called the cabin. So the mobile home (located in a park for folks 55 and older) has become cabin #2, since we decided to keep it as a vacation home rather than sell it (at least for the time being). It’s within easy walking distance of grocery stores, banks, hardware store, bakery, cafes, and Los Osos is ideally situated in the heart of the Central Coast wine country.

The next few days were filled with sorting and pricing items for the estate sale, scheduled for Friday for the park residents, and Saturday morning for everyone else. I’ll not bore you with the details; suffice to say, my mother-in-law managed to accumulate a LOT of stuff over 81 years. Since we are keeping the house, there wasn’t a lot of furniture to move, but what there was, was plenty heavy and awkward. Bill came up Thursday morning, so he and I spent some of Thursday and then Friday morning moving stuff around.

Bill and Mrs K also spent some time on Thursday dealing with their mother’s estate, transferring accounts under the trust she established. All I’ll say about that is, between my military retirement pay and my wife’s inheritance, it’s nice to be able to be retired in our mid-50s.

Friday evening, Cookie’s daughter Deana drove up from L.A. Deana’s one of my favorite people in the world: Her joie de vivre is contagious. Besides that, she enjoys beer as much as Bill and I do! On Saturday, while Mrs. K and Cookie collected cash, Deana, Bill and I put a serious dent in two pots of coffee and made sure things didn’t fall down (i.e., we leaned against them to keep them in place).

Shortly after noon, we started boxing up the remainder (which was a lot!). About half went to the mobile home park for their annual yard sale; the other half we donated to Hospice of the Central Coast. The money we earned from the sale is being reinvested into paying bills and upkeep on the cabin (less what we spent for dinner Saturday night).

At 6:30 we arrived at Giancarlo’s in Morro Bay for dinner. We had reservations, but our table wasn’t available yet, so the hostess offered us a glass of wine while we waited. This was our first indication that the evening would be a memorable one. This was, again, one of the five best dining experiences I’ve had. Certainly, the company had a lot to do with it. But the food, wine, and service were top-notch too.

I had a lamb shank osso bucco that was just perfect, full of flavor. Mrs. K had the Crab Cioppino, and the waiter offered to buy her dessert if she could finish it. We ordered four desserts and were charged for only three. Deana had a swordfish steak that was firm and flavorful; it almost made me regret my choice. And Cookie’s scallops…my favorite mollusk…mmmmmmm. Bill had a duck comfite that was the best duck I’ve ever tasted: Firm, flavorful, well-seasoned.

There was also a two-man combo playing “old standards” (well, not that old—they played some great Elvis ballads). They were good, played to the diners, and we were very appreciative. When we realized that this year marked the 60th wedding anniversary of Bill (Sr.) and Ginny, Bill and Cookie’s 25th, and our 35th, we requested a song in Bill and Ginny’s honor. To say it was quite an emotional moment would be stating it quite accurately.

We finished up with dessert, as I mentioned. As is my habit, I ordered the tiramisu. It was good, but not great. I am starting to get the feeling that truly outstanding tiramisu is a myth. Or perhaps I really don’t care for it as much as I used to think I did. It’s a truism that no two tiramisu are identical; given that, I should probably abandon my quest for the World’s Best Tiramisu, because if I ever find it, I’ll continue to be disappointed ever afterwards.

Sunday morning we went to breakfast at The Sculptured Egg in Baywood Park (it’s hard to tell where Los Osos ends and Baywood Park begins; essentially, they are twin cities). We’d eaten there in March, and it’s probably one of my favorite spots for breakfast. Mrs K and I split a stack of pancakes and a cinnamon roll. After we returned home, Deana headed back to L.A., while the wife and I started loading the van.

We had a cedar chest, a jewelry chest (48” high with base), a wine chiller, and two sets of china (among other things) to put into the van. By lunch time it was filled, and I could still see out the back window. But it pretty much precluded any shopping stops on the way back to South Dakota! I suppose I should have taken pictures; I guess I’m still very much not a photojournalist. I’ll try to do better in the future.

Sunday evening we went out for fish and chips at our favorite place on The Embarcadero in Morro Bay. Monday morning, Bill and I loaded up his truck with all the stuff he and Cookie were taking to Hospice House in San Luis Obispo. By 9:00 AM, Mrs K and I were on the road.

The Trek Home

Our journey home was optimized for time, and we wanted to make the trip in two days. The first day (Monday), we traveled to Bakersfield, then Barstow to Las Vegas, cutting through a corner of Arizona before heading north on I-15 in Utah. The desert was hot, the drive was generally boring. Thank heavens for the iPod. After eleven hours on the road, we spent Monday night in Cedar City, then headed out again about 8:oo AM Tuesday.

We had no trouble getting through Salt Lake City, although there was one slowdown for a rather nasty-looking accident shortly before we hit the Loop around the city to head up to Wyoming. While the climb through the mountains from Salt Lake to Evanston, Wyoming, is quite beautiful, our poor loaded 4-banger struggled with the climbs, dropping quickly from 75 to 65 to as low as 50 mph in spots.

In Rawlins, we turned north on US-287 toward Casper. We ran into a few showers, and saw considerable lightning, but managed to avoid the really serious thunderstorms. From Casper, we headed south on I-25 for a bit, then hit US-18 towards Lusk, north on US-85 to Mule Creek Junction (yes, it really is called that), where we hit US-18 east through Edgemont, SD, up through Hot Springs, and into Rapid City. We walked in the door, after 14 hours in the saddle, at almost precisely 11:oo PM. We were in bed by 11:30…although the cats were so happy to see us home again (especially Mom), they pretty much ruined any chance at a really good night’s sleep.

The End

The cedar chest was moved to the guest bedroom this morning, and the jewelry chest will head down to Eric and Diane’s, either in August, or more probably in October. And now, it’s time for me to find a place for that wine chiller in the basement.

Coming up in the next few days, I’ll be writing about some personal goals I’ve set for myself, and showcase a few websites I’ve added to Google Reader in the past few weeks. I may even squeeze in a WoW article or two!

Finally, thanks to all of you who have continued to subscribe to the Aerie’s RSS feed, including the 20 or 30 new subscribers in June who pushed me comfortably over the 800 subscriber mark, despite only three articles all of last month. I promise to do better!

Odyssey Concluded is a post from: Kestrel's Aerie

 

Amarillo to Winslow

On Tuesday the 17th, we woke early and were on the road for what was a short day (thankfully, after the marathon of the day before). We soon hit the New Mexico state line, and stopped at the New Mexico Welcome Center. Over the years, I’ve become an expert on rest areas, and state welcome centers are generally among the best in a given state (I must say, though, that Missouri sure seems to have some of the best rest areas in the country, along I-70). New Mexico’s I-40 welcome center, just west of the Texas state line, rates an A+ for comfort, design, information and friendliness of staff. My wife practically had to drag me out of there!

So we continued on toward Winslow, Arizona, our stop for the evening, as I mentioned earlier. The trip was uneventful, and for the most part, the scenery is pretty wonderful (as long as you like deserts; however, the Painted Desert is definitely a pretty one!).

We arrived in Winslow by mid-afternoon, and were able to check into our room at La Posada Hotel right away. La Posada was everything we expected, and more. The rooms were quaint, and each is named for a famous former guest. We had the Jimmy Doolittle room, which was great, as this airpower pioneer is a hero I’ve long admired. The grounds are extremely lovely, and inside is a veritable museum (although some of the artwork is a bit…different).

Since we had some time before dinner, we thought we’d take a stroll down to the kitschy, Route 66 part of Winslow.¹ We even took each other’s pictures on that street corner made famous by The Eagles:

Well, I’m standin’ on a corner
In Winslow, Arizona
And such a fine sight to see
It’s a girl, my Lord, in a flatbed Ford
Slowin’ down to take a look at me.
Come on, baby,
don’t say maybe
I gotta know if your sweet love
is gonna save me.

We resisted the temptation to buy any of the souvenirs at either of two corner shops (in the picture, I’m facing one; the other is across the street to my right), figuring our pictures would suffice.

Dinner: The Turquoise Room at La Posada

That evening, we enjoyed one of the five best meals I’ve ever had, at La Posada’s Turquoise Room restaurant (and please don’t ask me to list the other four!). In the photo below, our table would be the one in the lower left corner (you can see the tops of two chairs, but not the table).

To follow along, check out the dinner menu. We started with an appetizer, Piki Bread with Hopi Hummus.² (I was also enjoying an absolutely fantastic draft lager from a local microbrewery; unfortunately, the name escapes me. From now on, I shall be taking copious notes on food and drink for this blog!)³

For her entrée, Mrs. K selected a sampler (not shown on the linked menu), which included a range-raised quail and a chili of bison, elk, lamb (and probably armadillo as well, according to her brother!), and tamale in a cactus flower, while I thoroughly enjoyed the Locally Raised Churro Lamb Sampler Platter, with a glass of MonteVina Syra. One thing we decided even before we arrived was that we would be saving room for dessert! From the menu:

Yeah, it was that good! Can’t think of a better way for us to have celebrated our thirty-fifth wedding anniversary (even if it was a few days early).

Winslow to Los Angeles

Wednesday, we woke early, decided to pass on breakfast at La Posada (next time, though!), and got on the road by about 7 AM. We had hopes of pulling into my brother-in-law’s driveway about 3:30 PM. Alas, the best-laid plans…

The previous day, we’d encountered a fairly strong crosswind while driving across New Mexico and the eastern half of Arizona. As we approached Flagstaff, it seemed to me that somehow our front-end alignment had gotten out of whack, and I mentioned to my wife that in addition to an oil change (which our Toyota service hadn’t provided when we asked them to make the ‘92 Previa “road-trip-worthy”), I would have the alignment checked in L.A.⁴

Flagstaff is a beautiful city, and is the gateway to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. It’s also home to Northern Arizona University. It was drizzly as we climbed the mountain toward Flagstaff, and we actually had some rain in and around the city. As we headed down the western side of the mountain, however, the drizzle tapered off and we had one of those gorgeous days you get in the desert, with the bluest of skies, peppered with big, white, fluffy clouds.

As we continued on toward Kingman, I noted again how much the van seemed to be pulling to the left. Suddenly, I heard (and felt!) a loud “THWAP-WHACK-WHACK”. Of course, I was in the left lane, having just passed a semi. I immediately took my foot off the gas, checked behind me to be sure I could safely cross to the right, and hit the button for the emergency flashers. I pulled over as quickly and safely as possible, stopped, and we got out to survey the damage.

Surprisingly, all four tires were fully inflated. Even more surprisingly, and somewhat frighteningly, the tread from the left-front tire was wrapped around the axle and CV boot! It had completely separated from the tire at 75 mph. No, the tire was not a retread. It was, however, about 6 years old, and for the past 3 years has gotten little use, except for sitting out in South Dakota’s fickle, and extreme, weather. More on the implications of that in a bit. My first concern was that none of the cables (brake, power steering) going to the wheel were damaged; fortunately, everything appeared to be just fine.

Now, I was praying the (full-size) spare was inflated; it was! We had the tire changed in 30 minutes, which wasn’t too bad considering we’d never had to change a tire on the Previa before. On pins and needles, we drove the last 20 miles into Kingman.

Our trusty Garmin GPS had located a Goodyear tire dealer right off the first Kingman exit, so we went there. The manager took one look at the tires and noted they had considerable sidewall rot from exposure to weather over the years. He also noted that tires should generally be replaced about every 5 years, to preclude just the sort of thing that happened to us.

When I’d taken the van in a couple weeks before our trip, to ensure everything was in good shape, I’d made a point of asking the service manager to (a) check the tires to be sure they were up to a 5,000 mile trip; (b) replace the wiper blades. They didn’t do (b), and as for (a): He assured me we had “plenty of tread.” Well, duh! The tread went all the way to Lincoln’s chin!⁵ 

I had been fully prepared to replace the tires, had Toyota indicated it might be advisable. So it was with no hesitation that we had the Goodyear folks put on four new tires, while we walked over to a nearby Denny’s for a belated breakfast. In the meantime, my wife phoned our sister-in-law to let her know our arrival would probably be closer to 4:30 that afternoon.

An hour after arriving in Kingman, we were on our way again, and I was feeling a lot better than I had the last 20 miles, believe me! Soon, we hit the California state line near Needles. As beautiful as the Painted Desert is, the desert between Needles and Barstow is some of the most Godforsaken land in the US. And I’ve seen a LOT of the US!

About an hour past Needles, we stopped at a rest area (California, you get a C-minus on I-40, and I’m being generous). As I pulled into the space, I heard and felt my tire hit something; sounded like it was under the left-front tire. Oh great! I got out and pulled out a large, black plastic piece of automobile, but no way to tell if it was from the Previa, or had possibly been there and I hadn’t seen it. It had a gash in one side, which may have been caused by me hitting it; it was also hollow, and had some dust or dirt inside. So who knows how long it had lain there? I took a quick look under the van, but couldn’t see any immediate indication that it came from the Previa. The absence of fluid on the ground (other than AC condensation) was encouraging at least.

I went to the restroom and came back to the van. I asked Mrs. K to watch under the vehicle as I started it and backed out, to see if there was any evidence that we had a problem. As I turned on the engine…a dash light came on and didn’t go out. Now what? “Check engine oil.” Well, first I checked the owner’s manual: This indicator, if it comes on and stays on, indicates oil level may be low; check and add oil if needed. Okay, fine, we may be a quart low. Not a problem; I can get a quart at the next service station. Still, it was unsettling. As for the mysterious plastic piece: We tossed it in the back, and decided to see what happened if we drove on.

After about a minute, the oil light went off, and nothing else untoward happened as we continued our trek. At the next opportunity, we pulled off at a convenience store, and I added a quart of oil. The oil light didn’t re-illuminate, so I was completely confident we were fine there.

Eventually (about 4 PM.) we approached L.A. Throughout the entire trip to this point, I’d driven within a couple miles of the posted speed limits (generally, 70 or 75 mph on the Interstate). As we got closer to Los Angeles, the speed limit dropped to 65, then 60, and finally down to 55. I tried to follow suit…and was passed by everyone! Understand, I basically learned to drive on the freeways of Los Angeles, and I still feel comfortable there, but things have changed—a lot!—over the past 30 years or so since I’ve driven there regularly.

We saw a diamond lane (carpool lane, 2 or more people per vehicle) and since we had quite a ways to go on that particular freeway, I hopped into it. Soon, I was doing 70, then 75, and cars were still exiting the lane, passing me, then reentering. Sorry, I was NOT going to do 80 there.

As we moved from one interchange to another, the gas gauge started dropping (the last quarter tank in the Previa seemingly disappears in 15 minutes of driving). My wife was concerned that we might not have enough to reach Bill’s house. However, gas stations are not as ubiquitous at every off-ramp as you might think.

Eventually, we got off the freeway—at 5 PM., the height of rush-hour—in Bell. Yeah, right where I wanted to be, in the barrios. Not. It is an unfortunate fact of life in East Los Angeles that anglos aren’t completely welcome in all parts of that area of L.A. However, we drove around, finally using the GPS to locate a gas station, got $10 worth, and pressed on.

We were perhaps 15 minutes from my brother-in-law’s at the time; I think we could have made it, but hated to chance running out of gas on the freeway. We pulled up at Bill and Cookie’s driveway at 6:00 PM. on the dot. The first thing Mrs. K said to her brother was, “Steve needs a beer.” (He brews his own, and it’s excellent!)

Tomorrow: Odyssey Concluded

Odyssey Continued is a post from: Kestrel's Aerie

 

It’s been ~25 years since I last drove through Texas, and while this time, we’re only traversing the panhandle from east to west, I’m still confident I didn’t lose anything here to come back for. We finished up my son’s deck on Sunday, despite having to start over (he had a small issue with post footings, trying to do too much by himself in one day before I got there), despite the weather, despite the mosquitos (western South Dakota, at least where we live, is almost mosquito-free: I have enough bites on me atm to more than make up!), and despite the various and sundry things that seem to go wrong here and there.

On Monday (yesterday) we left Illinois at 7am and drove through rain in eastern Missouri. By the time we hit Oklahoma, skies were blue…and hot. Our 17-year-old Previa, which we’re driving because of the cargo room for stuff we’ll be carting back from California, doesn’t cool off quite as well as my ’03 Nissan Murano! Add to that, the fact our legs were cramping up due to our exertions on Sunday…well, a 13-hour day wasn’t a lot of fun. But we made it just fine.

It’s just past 7:30, and within 10 or 15 min we’ll be on the road again. Shorter day today though: Only going as far as Winslow. 

Mrs. K is giving me the look: She wants to check e-mail. I’m outta here!

Quick Update is a post from: Kestrel's Aerie

 

The first leg of our trip takes us to suburban St. Louis, where I’ll be helping my son build a deck on the back of his home the next couple weekends. Early next week, we will also see Miss Alison in a ballet/tap recital.

On the 15th we’ll head towards Los Angeles, with a stop in Winslow, Arizona at the historic La Posada Hotel. In California, we’ll spend a couple days at my brother-in-law’s, then drive up to Los Osos to prepare for the estate sale at my late mother-in-law’s. That will take place on the 27th; we figure to start our return trip to Rapid City on the 30th.

I have a whole raft of blog articles percolating in my brain (that’s an uncomfortable mental image, to be honest), and I vow that most of them, if not all, will make their appearance here before the end of July. As time permits on the trip, I’ll be posting some as well, but if you are living or dying on seeing much here this month…well, you might want to get the number of a good florist.

Oh…you want more of a tease? I dunno…I might scare you off! Well, alright then, here’s a taste:

• A how-to on attracting readers to your blog and feed and how to keep them, or send them away.
• Some personal entries on where I’ve been, where I am, and where I’m going in this life (no, not a travelogue, although some of that may show up in coming months).
• General articles on blogging, blogging resources, new Internet stuff, free software for Mac & PC, and general geekiness.

Until then…keep rolling on those epics!

In case you miss me… is a post from: Kestrel's Aerie

 

Sunday will be a large family brunch in honor of my mother-in-law and her approaching 81st birthday (Feb. 29, so she really doesn’t get one this year). All told there will be 15 of us at brunch. Our immediate family will stay in the area through Wednesday, when we’ll drive back down to the Los Angeles area for some sightseeing and a Thursday trip to Disneyland for my 4-year-old granddaughter (not that the rest of us won’t be enjoying the Magic Kingdom, either!)

Friday night my brother-in-law is hosting dinner, complete with his home-brewed beers and homemade wines. Should be a fantastic evening. Then on Saturday, back to reality (i.e., freezing temperatures, snow, ice; in other words, winter in the Midwest).

So for the next 8 days, there won’t be much going on at the Aerie; however, I do have an add-on review scheduled to debut on Monday morning. In the meantime, Happy Valentine’s Day, Happy Presidents’ Day, and enjoy Love is in the Air!

On the Road Again is a post from: Kestrel's Aerie