Chicago

Lets see spent Presidents night in Lincoln, NE. I felt that was appropriate for the holiday. Last night I stayed in Chicago at Cory's place.

Chicago is a fun city!!!! Got to love deep dish pizza. Tonight I am in New York. Hopefully make it back to Boston tomorrow. Depends on what this storm does......hopefully not too much snow.

Wow I am tired of driving

happy presidents day!!!

Heading out early today on this great president's day. Got to make some miles!

So who is you favorite President? Besides Bush, I am going with Pesident Scrooge from Spaceballs. He did a great job trying to get some air for his people. Would our president do that for us???

I got some random thoughts I will put up tonight. Got to roll.......

WY

Well, made it to Wyoming today. Another awesome scenic drive. Amazing is all I have to say. Epic journey's continue.

Update Update Update

I left Hood River this morning to drive east. Staying in Boise, Idaho tonight. The drive from Hood River to here was awesome. Scenic moutain drive.

It has come to my attention that some people thought my blog name was misspelled. Some thought it was called Brainstorming, which actually would not be a bad name. But it is Barnstoming. The definition of Barnstoming is to travel from place to place making brief stops. And that is what I did and I am doing again.

So is anyone still even reading this blog? More updates tomorrow.

East? you got it.

Ok, Ok. wow I have not updated this thing in a while. Here's what I got going on since the last update.

I already flew out east the 2nd week in January and stayed for about a week or so. Damn it was cold out there.

The west was great. I had a lot of fun out west. Big bro Matt thanks for everything. Sorry I am not staying. If you got a problem with me just tell me via Facebook.

What else have I been up to. Skiing!!! Skied Mt. Hood a bunch of times. Went to the coast for a while and hung out with Steve, Kate and Sieane.

Saw Steve fly the helicopter and practice some cliff rescues. Wow that was awesome.

Hood River!

Well, I fianlly made it to Hood River on New Years Eve, Wendesday Dec 31 for those of who did not know. I guess I can say the trip is finally complete.

But I am going to keep the blog. I has been renamed Easy Come, Easy Go for now.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! What will 2009 bring? Good stuff for everyone! That's it for right now. I will put a longer update up in a day or two.

Good bye beard hello moustache

I had not shaved in almost 2 months. Decided that it was time. Except I needed to keep the moustache. Classy if you ask me. Any thoughts?

MAP UDATE

I will call this journey complete. I am in Ilwaco, WA. Still have not made it to Hood River yet, as the roads still are snowy and I am not really in any rush. I have been staying at Steve and Kates since I got here.

It was a good journey.

Merry Christmas

Beer Closet

For some crazy reason Steve keep's all his empty beer bottles. I think these are from last month.

Astoria

Made it to Oregon on Sunday night, Astoria!!!! Well, Actually my car made it to Warrenton, OR. The snow was coming down pretty hard. Steve and Kate had to come pick me up the truck. They live in Ilwaco, WA. So I finally made it. I can't get to Hood River where my brother Matt lives as all the highways are shut down. Hopefully I will be able to get there in a few days.

Just hanging out here for the time being. Relaxing from the long trip. I will figure out my final millage tomorrow. It was a good trip. Not going to do much until after the holidays.

More to come, as I don't really feel like blogging. I think I might keep this blog going, maybe rename it, update it ever week or so...... what do you think?

Wine Country

Spent the night in Sonoma County, wine country. My new breakfast is merlot. All the wineries open at 10AM. Perfect. Stopped at a few on the way out of town. It was a cool drive up through into Eureka, Arcata. Also a very cool area. The highway then leads into Redwood national park. Dang those trees are big. Awesome drive!!!

Then I finally made it into Oregon!!! Stayed the night in Coos Bay after driving further up the coast. I will be in Astoria by Sunday afternoon.

map update

That's one big bitch!

I mean bridge. Drove over the Golden Gate Bridge today. Wait, not only did I drive over it, but I parked my car at the visitors lot and rode my bike over it too. It was huge. Very cool. I only saw 5 people jump, which is a slow day from what I understand.

I started the day in Morro Bay, and drove up the coast through Los Padres National Forest and Big Sur. Beautiful coast. So many vistas, look outs, small towns, picnic areas, pull outs, places to hike down to the beach, etc.... Almost no people too. I think this is a good time of year to do this. Other then it gets dark at 5:30 and is cold. Pictures don't do the coast justice. Anyone that has not been on the coast needs to. I could have spent a week exploring.

The road is incredibly winding. Just like switchbacks hiking up mountains. So, it is a slow drive but well worth it.

I did leave the coast north of San Fran, at Jenner which is almost a 100 miles from the city. It was dark and could not see much anyway so I figured I would hit the highway for a little bit. I am staying the night in Santa Rosa, which right in the middle of wine county.

Maybe a wine tour tomorrow before I head to Eureka and Redwood National forest. I have decided that I am going to go all the way up the coast of Oregon too. With any weather coming, at least it will just be rain on the coast. Doesn't look like it will take me much longer really. So, I may be in Oregon tomorrow, or Sunday. And will go to Astoria first, spend a few days there and then go to Hood River.

Morro bay, CA

Stayed the night in Morro Bay. Cool little beach town. Today I plan to try and make it north of San Francisco. Got a few really cool pictures.

Day 24, Mile 4850.4

Wow that is a lot of miles and I still have around another 1000 to go. Leaving to head up the coast today. I got a few recommendations of places to stop at. The average high temperature for Southern California is 68. The high today is only going to be 54. Maybe I will camp tonight??? I feel like a weather man after this trip. Most of the highway's in the mountains around here were still closed this morning. Even Vegas got snow last night. Crazy. I wonder if they were taken bets on how much snow they would get.

Too many choices?

When I was in Albuquerque a few days a go, I asked someone where there was a good place to get some New Mexican food. And yes there is a difference between Mexican food and New Mexican food. The bar tender was nice enough to narrow the selection to about 30 good places. WOW. I was instantly overwhelmed. I just wanted to know one place. Finally a gentlemen sitting next to me suggested one place. Ok good. I did go there the next day and it was very good.

Now the next day something very similar happened. I was looking for a good time, and by a good time I mean a place to get a cup of coffee. I was down in the Nob Hill area of Albuquerque. I would call this area the downtown for University of New Mexico. I asked someone where a good place to get a cup of coffee, they said there were about 10 on this side of the road and another dozen or so on the other side for the next 15 blocks. Wow, not again. I found a place a few blocks down that looked good, and it was.

Now as an American consumer shouldn't I like that I have this many choices? I guess I like small towns where there aren't many choices.

map update

The City of Angeles

Just drove from Phoenix to Venture, CA. That is about 60 miles north of Los Angeles. The first part of the drive was cool driving through the mountains. Mostly sunny, the mountains were huge. Tons of wind farms.

I guess I did not plan as well as I thought for rush hour. I got close to the city about 3PM. To go about 100 miles it took 4 hours. The first 2 didn't bother me. Miami had prepared me for anything. The last two was just boring. Oh ya, did I mention it was raining ans snowing too!

Well here I am on the coast. I would not be able to go much further north right due to the highways being closed because of snow. I think I may go get some chains for my tires, just in case. I can't see the ocean right now, but I shall find it tomorrow morning. Rumor has it that there is a brew pub in town. I will give a full report on the quality of the beer tomorrow morning.

Here is some good trivia for you. Did you know that California has the most number of breweries of any state. Last count 238.

Where Am I? check out the map