Down 66 & then on to Vegas!

Tuesday, 12 July.  I was up fairly early as I had a goodly distance to drive today.  A breakfast at Denny’s got me going.

For the first part of the trip I was going to try and take as much of route66 as I could.  I was able to follow Route 66 all the way to the Bagdad Café.  I’d stop here on several occasions.  And as I found on earlier occasions, there were a number of tourists driving Route 66 at the café.  I had decided to buy another Bagdad Café T-shirt and noted to the manager that the earlier T-shirt had fallen apart and laundry.  He asked if it was a black T-shirt, and when I agreed, he noted that they had had a problem with said T-shirts several years ago.  He gave me a discount because of this on the one I bought.

I had a nice conversation, while a partial conversation, with two carloads of French tourists.  We more or less made ourselves understandable to each other.  One of the chaps photographed me in Red Shift.

I drove a little way down route66 but returned to the interstate as the road was really pretty bad.  I then backtracked from the interstate to Amboy where I got some gas, a Pepsi, and some chocolate.  Lunch for the road.  Gas was cheap by European standards.  It was only$4.99.9 a gallon for premium.  Later on I passed another gas station where it was even higher.  From Amboy I continued on route66 all the way to Goffs.  There I picked up US95 and headed up to Vegas.

It was an easy drive.  I got to Vegas just in front of rush-hour and had no problem driving to Barb’s place.  It was nice to get out of the sun.  It wasn’t that hard but the temperature was right around 100.

Then came the fun.  Are the forgotten the key password so that I could connect up on the wireless.  After several hours things finally worked, for short time.  All of a sudden I was no longer connected to the Internet.  At this point the chap from the geek squad who had set up Barb’s computer back in September answered our call to him.  I then spent the next 20 minutes or so working with him to reset the routers and various geeky computer things.  At last, I was on the computer and connected to the universe.

Who is also time for some food.  It was late so we ended up going off to Denny’s for actually a reasonably decent meal.  On the way out we ended up chatting for about 15 minutes with another customer.  He also was a transplant and been in Vegas for about 15 years.  It also turned out that he had graduated high school the same year I did.

Sob, sniffle.

On the 14^th I sniffled & sobbed as Red Shift was driven to the truck to take it to CA.

I follow after it on the 25th via the train.  If all goes well, I’ll pick her up either late on the 28th or early on the 29th.

 

“Reticence of Ravens”

When one reads a book by a relatively new writer, who is a newly acquired friend, there is a little bit of trepidation.  “Will I like the book?”  “If I don’t, can I continue to be friends?”

Well, I’m glad to say, this is not the case with “Reticence of Ravens” by M. M.  Gornell.  I had met Ms. Gornell on the Route 66 e-Group.  Her mystery novel had just been published & is set on Route 66 near Newberry Springs.  I thoroughly enjoyed the novel.  It is a page turner.

Having “met” Ms. Gornell online I was most happy to meet her in person at the International Route 66 Festival in Amarillo.  After a very enjoyable chat I purchased “Reticence of Ravens” to read on the flights home.  A very good move “Wombat!”

A secondary benefit may be to inspire a few more folk to drive the roads less travelled, especially Route 66 and New berry Springs.

Looking Spiffy

I just received my VIP [Vets In Perfection] polo shirt with my Vette’s name on it: RED SHIFT!   Woot!

Keep on truckin’!

Okay Engineers, get on the road and help these guys make it so!http://www.wimp.com/solarhighways/

The cast is died!

I have connected up the folk who will transport Red Shift with the Chevy dealer out west who will receive her.

I just bought my train ticket for the trip out west.

The thick plottens!

I’m shipping my car out west so I don’t have to drive both ways. Training out, will pick it up in the east Bay area, then start a 10 or 11 week road trip.

See you at Westercon & Worldcon?

Me & Red Shift will be hitting the bitumen for some… fun roads.

RED SHIFT, single, red 2010 Corvette Coupe seeks beauteous young ladies for photo op!

Now that I have your attention, I can proceed.  🙂

When I first started talking about buying a Vette, several female friends inquired about getting their pictures taken with the car.  I said, fine.  Then they asked if I was going to put the photos  together in a book when I got enough.  Hmm.  This is something else.  Oh, what the hell.

So I got my “Model Release Form” prepared and am ready to move on.  Any beauteous young lady [All ladies are beauteous and young by definition.  If nothing else, I’ve learned THAT! in my 71 years.] who wishes to be photographed with “Red Shift” should contact me so that we can arrange for the shot.  [I live in upstate NY, but Red Shift does travel a little bit.]  The lady will choose the apparel for the day.

I have no idea if I’ll get enough photos to make up a book, but this will be done with an eye on having fun.

Red Shift can be contacted thru his driver & servant, jan howard finder at jan.finder@gmail.com .

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

Vroom! Vroom!

My Chanukah/Birthday Present has been ordered.

RED SHIFT was ordered on the 28th: Order #: NSGMO7.

I should get it in 6 to 10 weeks!  Whee!

Giving away the bride

On 26 SEP I was privileged to give away Kara Haff at her wedding to Jerome Conner.  I had introduced them a few years earlier at an SF con.  How cool!

Loverly people I love.

The End of the Route!

Saturday, 13 June 2009.  Alas, all good things must come to an end.  I got up fairly early, had a light breakfast and headed off to Barstow.  I wanted to cover the last remaining portion of Route 66. 

When I started out, it was overcast.  As I drove to the hills sheltering LA, I even ran into a few showers.  The clouds quickly melted away as I came off the hills and onto the desert.  It was even warm. 

I started by taking some pictures of old buildings in Barstow before slowly heading back down 66 towards LA.  While in Barstow I was followed around the corner by a chap who used to live in Albany, New York.  He had at first noticed my New York license plate and then the frame which indicated to us from Albany.  We had a nice chat.  He is a professional comedian who is trying to make it into the big time.  

The road that was Route 66 was mostly empty of traffic.  I got some pictures of empty road that at one time used to be bumper-to-bumper.  I had a little bit of excitement when I pulled over to take a picture of a sign along the road.  The shoulder was a much softer than I expected and I nearly got stuck in the soft sand.  I was able to back out of it without having to call a tow truck. 

In Victorville I stopped at the Route 66 Museum and spent an enjoyable period of time there.  It deserved more time than I spent there.  While there a couple tourists from Europe dropped by. 

Onward and upward as I was now climbing up to Cajon Pass.  I stop there for a nice lunch at the Summit Inn.  While there I ran into a young couple from Switzerland were touring the Southwest and wanted to do portions of Route 66.  I dragged out my EZ Guide to assist them in their planning.  They noted that if they drive through Victorville, they can pick up the second edition of the EZ Guide at the museum.  I then continued down the other side of the pass checking out a few the broken segments that used to be Route 66.  One short segment leads to a monument to the Mormon settlers who cross the mountains. 

I eventually entered San Bernardino from the east and slowly drove the segments of I hadn’t covered earlier.  It had been a long day so I hopped on the interstate and headed back to Kim and Susan’s.