Yosemite

After my trip to the Reagan museum I drove north to see friends in Fresno. The city itself has fairly little to show for, but it's less than two hours from lovely Yosemite National Park. Tuesday evening I had dinner with my old friend Roslyn, her hubby Rob and a couple of their friends. I also got to meet Roz' dog Jackson, a friendly little Pomeranian.

Wednesday we drove up to Yosemite and the trip was made extra super special cool by the fact that Roz brought a couple of walkie talkies so we could stay in touch during the drive. I felt like a kid again, and we had fun with various codes like "roger", "over" and the immortal "10-4". At the park entrance I bought the $80 annual pass that gives me free access to all federal parks and monuments through June 2010.

We started out with a 1.6 mile walk at Mariposa Grove to see some Redwoods. Daymn, them things are big. Here I am in front of a fallen tree (no, I didn't lean on it, it was that way when I got there, I swear!) the sunlight makes it look like I'm some kind of armless, radiating alien...


Roz and Rob, perfect hosts throughout


Famous view of several well known mountains. I believe the granite thingy on the left is called El Capitan, the jagged top in the distance is Half Dome and the waterfall is Bridalveil Fall. Very, very purdy.


Down in the bottom of the valley we had lunch (Roz had packed a huge cooler full of all sortsa goodies), and we were soon surrounded by some local wildlife. This little fella was very strategic, he went around to all newcomers and tried to look cute.


Famous and purdy Tuolumne Meadows


I took lots more pictures, you can find the rest here.

The Gipper

Tuesday morning I drove up to Simi Valley, to the Ronald Reagan presidential library & museum. I was interested in politics and history from an early age, and RR was inaugurated a few days short of my tenth birthday, so he was the prez through most of my "formative years". To us on the right (in both senses of the word - nyah, nyah) he became an icon for his vision of a free economy and a free world and his enormously important part in bringing down Soviet communism.

As always with politics and history, realities and facts are more complex than the cardboard image we usually make of our heroes and enemies, and of course there are things one can legitimately critize Reagan for, also from my side of the political spectrum. But he was, by and large, the right man at that point in history and his ability to communicate the eternal truth of freedom is unsurpassed in modern times. Young people need someone to look up to and Reagan was my hero, that's just how it was.

The museum lies on top of a hillside, with great views over the Simi Valley. The admission price is a steep $12, but I advise you also get the $5 audio guide. It's definitely worth it. Inside you'll find information about Reagan's life from childhood, his college years and his early work as a radio presenter, actor and budding politician. There's a lot about his time as California governor and of course his presidency. They have a full scale replica of the Oval office and the piece de resistance is of course the actual Air Force One used from 1973 till 2001. It is surprisingly small, I gather the current one is quite a bit larger.

Afterwards I went outside, to see the memorial garden and the actual gravesite. Again the views are stunning here; this part of California looks like Tuscany on steroids. It is a very fitting resting place for the great man who loved this landscape and spent so much of his spare time enjoying the scenery of this beautiful state. I get a lump in my throat just thinking about it now. RIP, Gipper. You earned it.


Air Force One and Marine One:


Now tell me if this doesn't look like Tuscany...


The Oval Office and a statue of RR at the museum entrance.


The memorial garden.


The gravesite.


All RR library pics here.

What a long, strange trip it was

Aight, biatches! Time for an update from your traveling hero!

Quick recap: I bought a cheap ticket to Los Angeles by way of Philadelphia with US Airways. I'm driving around the western US for 30 days.

First a few words on the flight... The plane was surprisingly small, a regular size thingy with just three seats on each side of the aisle. I'm not sure if it was the pilots or the control tower who fucked up, but we were almost an hour late out of Oslo due to a runway mixup. There was very little entertainment on board - just some TV screens in the ceiling, and you had to pay $5 to get a headset. The movie was called "The Bride Wars" or something equally stupid, and from what I saw I made the right decision by saving my money.

I was initially placed next to a woman with a young kid and a baby who could probably make good money as the next face of Duracell. Some passengers traveling in groups had been scattered all over the plane, and there were several requests for changing seats. I eagerly volunteered to move as the Mother Unit next to me was cranking up the noise level of her little energizer bunny by engaging the little snot magnet in a loud, long game of peekaboo. To my astonishment my wish was granted, but universal balance was seemingly restored when I realized I was being moved to the seat right next to the toilets. This did prove to be a nuisance throughout, but not as bad as I had feared.

Fortunately I was seated next to two nice Norwegian girls in their 20s, who were also on their way to LA for a road trip. They were sadly unprepared for the trip, and with only the vaguest grasp of American geography. Little did they know who they were sitting next to... they soon realized I knew my shit, and were asking me all kinds of stuff and refering to me as their "google". Hero status was sealed when I gave them a couple of chocolates from the mountain I had bought at the airport.

We were worried about making our connecting flight to LA, but things went smooth in Philly and we actually landed at LAX 40 minutes early, wheeeeeeeee! On a side note, I should like to state that I can't understand those who bitch and complain about how terrible procedures have become in the US after 9/11. I've traveled here three times since then and Immigration and Customs officers have been nothing but polite, friendly and efficient. The guys at Philly were very nice, and we had a brief but fun chat during the procedures.

Sadly, the time gained at LAX was lost again at Dollar (the rental car company), where using the term "glacial speed" for comparison would be a libelous insult to glaciers. The original car I'd booked from Norway did not have cruise control and automatic transmission, and the upgrade, with taxes, cost me something like $280. In addition something so basic as 24 hour road assistance was an extra, which I chose not to take. There was something amateurish about the whole operation, and this will be the last time ever that I rent from Dollar, and it will be the last time ever that I rent through a Norwegian intermediary.

Numbers

Ok, let's start on a happy note, this is my post #400, wheeeeee!

Numbers this morning, just before I head out to LA... 120,1kg, slightly down from last week. I am fearful of what will happen on this trip, since I know from experience how easy it is to overeat and not get enough exercise when you're on holiday and the US is of course the holy grail of vice in that respect. Still, I'm hoping to get in quite a bit walking in all those museums and national parks I'm going to, so maybe it won't be a total pigfest after all.

Ok, I dunno how often I'll be able to update while in the US. I would like to post pics and stories almost daily, and I'll try to read email often, but this IS a holiday after all. I've made some slight adjustments to the final itinerary, we'll see how final it turns out to be once I get going...

See ya'll latah!

Free, free, freeeeeee

Ahhhh... yesterday was graduation day, so now my life is comparatively teenager free until mid August, praise Jebus. Yesterday afternoon was spent at a garden party at the US Ambassador's residence (yes, I am a man of some standing) where I happily stuffed my face on free hamburgers and chatted with other wannabe yankees (and a few real ones).

This weekend is going to be a long, slow countdown till I leave for California on Monday. Tick-tock, tick-tock. Argh.

Still... FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

Numbers

Just realized I forgot to post yesterday - 120,8 kg, again essentially the same as last week.

Final itinerary

Methinks this will be the final itinerary for the US trip... I've had some good suggestions from you readers (both of you), and there are things I will definitely try to get in the next time I'm over, but time and money is scarce and I have to make some choices. Anyways, here goes.

Updated June 9: Today I discovered I'd booked the three nights in Portland for the wrong month. This tipped the scales so now I'm only spending one night there and venturing deeper inside Washington instead. Meh.

Updated June 22: Made a final adjustment, going as far north as Seattle...

June
22 Oslo - Philadelphia - Los Angeles - Thousand Oaks
23 Thousand Oakes - Simi Valley (Reagan Library) - Fresno
24 Fresno - Yosemite National Park - Mammoth Lakes
25 Mammoth Lakes - Yreka
26 Yreka - Portland
27 Portland (various sights and activites) - Olympia
28 Olympia - Seattle - Pendleton
29 Pendleton - Baker City (Ontario Trail museum) - Ontario
30 Ontario - Craters of the Moon - Pocatello
July
01 Pocatello - Jackson - Grand Teton Nat. Park - Yellowstone - Cody
02 Cody and Yellowstone
03 Cody - Red Lodge - Billings
04 Billings - Little Big Horn battlefield - Buffalo
05 Buffalo - Devils Tower - Deadwood - Rapid City
06 Rapid City (Black Hills, Mt Rushmore, Badlands)
07 Rapid City (Wall, Cactus Flat, Wounded Knee)
08 Rapid City - Alliance - Scottsbluff - Fort Collins
09 Fort Collins - Laramie - Medicine Bow - Ft Collins
10 Fort Collins - Lookout (Buffalo Bill’s grave) - Green River
11 Green River - Arches National Park - Green River
12 Green River - Ely NV
13 Ely - Carson City
14 Carson City - Lake Tahoe - Fresno
15 Fresno (this could change into a trip to Palm Springs/Joshua Tree Nat.Pk)
16 Fresno - San Diego
17 San Diego - Flagstaff
18 Flagstaff (Grand Canyon tour)
19 Flagstaff - Las Vegas
20 Las Vegas - San Diego
21 San Diego - LA
22 LA - Philadelphia - Oslo

Numbers

Today: 120,2 kg - essentially unchanged from last week. Meh.

Numbers

This morning: 120,3 kg - down 2 kg from last week. I rock.

Numbers

This morning: 122,2kg, which is down 1kg from last week. Still need to accelerate if I am to reach what should have been a very realistic 115kg before I head for the US on June 22. Damn you, Scottish beef! Damn you, cold & fever! And damn you readers for not doing your job of heaping abuse on me!

Numbers

Ok, bitches - where's your abuse now that I need it? Clocked in at 123,3kg today, up 3 kg in one week. I'm not paying you to sit around idly and watch me balloon (actually I'm not paying you at all, but you get my drift) so have at it in the comments!

Scotland summary

I came down with a cold the day after I got back from Scotland (I felt it coming during the weekend), and I know precisely what set it off - walking around Stirling Castle Thursday without a functioning umbrella. Fucker got blown to pieces, and by the time I'd reached the souvenir shop to purchase a new, I was already drenched.

I think I managed to convince my colleagues of the virtues of the Castle, and afterwards most of us went up and climbed the Wallace monument - the weather had improved a bit by then. Later Thursday we had dinner at a TGI-wannabe called Papa Joe's, and it was quite good. Cheaper than TGI, yet with plentiful and good food.

Friday morning most of the wimminses went shopping (bah!), or left early for Edinburgh, while the two other guys and one brave woman went with me out to Doune Castle. I was happy to see that they liked the place for the same reasons I did - all its nooks and crannies, which give the place a sense of adventure, and of being bigger than it actually is.

Around noon we took the train from Stirling to Edinburgh, and on board I got a wee lesson in Scots English. Sweet Jebus, what those people DO to their wovels. The conductor came into the carriage and started shouting something and I could have sworn he was going on about "bay corners". I believe his exact words, as perceived by my ears went something like "Mumble, mumble Bay Corners! BAY CORNERS! mumble, mumble". It gradually dawned on me that what he was in fact shouting was "bike owners"... apparently there were some bikes blocking an emergency exit, and he wanted them removed.

In Edinburgh we walked from the station through pouring rain till we found a very nice place to have lunch. I believe it was called The Dome Garden, it's in Rose Street (a pedestrian street parallel to Princes Street), down some steps. Good, plentiful food and very friendly staff. We had the Dutch waitress in stitches most of the time, anyway.

We had rented an apartment not 100 meters from the Royal Mile, and it was quite a nice place. If you're traveling in a large group, apartments are often the way to go, and if you're there for some time you may be able to save a little on food - though part of the fun of traveling is of course going out for dinner. The place was right next to the cemetary where Adam Smith is buried, and as soon as I get the pics from my colleagues I'll post a funny little story about our visit there. We spent both evenings in a pub just up the street, I believe it was called Tass. They had some folk music on Friday, though nothing I recognised, while Saturday they had a couple of guys doing mostly 50s and 60s pop - good fun.

On Saturday three of us went up to Edinburgh Castle (due to my membership in Historic Scotland it was all free, free, free and we also avoided the ticket lines, muahaha) and took in the marvelous views over Edinburgh, which is surely one of the prettiest cities in the world. We strolled through the Scottish National War Memorial, then got a quick history talk in the Great Hall. Afterwards we walked down to Grassmarket, where I bought some gifts in a tiny, second hand bookshop, then up to Grayfriars, where we lunched and then back to the Mile again.

Sunday we had a hell of a time finding a cab and getting out of the city, since they were having a marathon, and most of the centre was closed for traffic. Bastards. Anyways, I think I was able to pass on some of my enthusiasm and love for Scotland to my colleagues on this trip, and I'm already looking forward to my next adventure. I'll have to see how much money I have left after the US trip this summer, but maybe I'll take 8-10 days there in October. There's still soooo much to see and do... still no awa ta bide awa!

Numbers

Today: 120,4 kg - essentially the same as two weeks ago, before I went to Scotland. Last week was lazy, since the blasted Scottish weather gave me a cold (I'm still snotty), but I hope to start biking again this week... I just can't be bothered when I have a fever.

Quiz

It's been a long time since my last proper photo quiz, so when I saw this pic I thought it was time to have a go again.

The person in this picture looks an awful lot like:

1) Gordon Brown, Prime Minister of the UK
2) A creepy, middle aged businessman in a disco in the seediest parts of Bangkok at 3am.
3) The love child of Fred Flintstone and anything that would mate with Fred Flintstone
4) All of the above

Stirling I

Ahhhh... I'm back in Stirling again, this time with nine colleagues. We arrived last evening, and I promptly headed up to the Settle Inn, where there's a folk music jam session every Wednesday. When we got there, we found out the place was "under new management", and what a cunt he must be, cuz the folk music nights had been abandoned. Fortunately, they'd simply moved next door, to the pub Whistlebinkies. It has more space, nicer staff and the music was every bit as foot-stomping as when I was here last October.

I recognized quite a few people from last time, and eventually some recognized me too (after I'd joined in the singing...). There was a new guy there with a contrabass he was pluckin' and not only did he ask if I sang professionally, as an added bonus he thought ah wuz 'merican. Wooo hooo!

Towards the end I got in a couple of songs of my own, and we rounded it off with me singing lead on Fields of Athenry (just like last time), to the point where even the waitress put down her work and just sat down to listen. It was effin awesome, people. I didn't bring my camera, but I know several of my colleagues did, so I hope to post some shots here eventually.

Today we're going up to Stirling Castle, and then maybe to the Wallace monument (not sure if I can be bothered, as it's pouring down outside). Later tonight I hope we can hunt down another pub with live folk music...

Gran Torino

Just got back from seeing Gran Torino, and I think I saw a fairly accurate portrait of myself 35-40 years from now. Also, I'm thinking about legally changing my name to Walt Kowalski. This is the best movie I've seen in years.

(PS: I saw "Knowing" Monday and what a load of rubbish that was. I don't know how many trucks you could drive through the holes in the plot, but buying them would be enough to save General Motors.)

Numbers

120,3 - essentially the same as last week... I'm in Scotland with colleagues Wednesday-Sunday. A miracle if I don't put on anything... Scottish beef... mmmmm....

Prague roundup

Tuesday I visited a Czech friend of mine who's really into Australian Shepherd dogs. Her dog had five puppies in February and they were running all over the apartment, sniffing, nibling and chewing on everything, including my feet and fingers. Very, very adorable.

In a rare quiet moment...


Of all the lovely things to see in Prague, I think maybe my favorite area is Mala Strana - The Little Quarter. Cozy streets and buildings abound, museums, cafes, squares etc, etc. Just GO there, mmmkay?

You can find all my Prague pics here, but I'll leave you with a small selection of Mala Strana purdiness:





I was especially happy with this pic, from the John Lennon memorial wall (I have no idea who the kid is, it just seemed like a good image)


I love it when a hostel goes the extra mile for its customers - even so far as to humiliate their employees by forcing them to wear bunny ears all through Easter. Bwahahaha!


Finally, my Chinese crew, who I hung out with the two last nights I was there. They study in Sweden and Germany, very nice kids. They thought I looked like Buddha; I chose to regard this as a good thing.

Post-Prague numbers

As feared, I gained some weight in Prague - more than I should have, since I was sick for most of the time and didn't feel like walking around much. Eating and sleeping is a bad combination...

Anyways, last Tuesday, the day after I came back, I weighed in at a hefty 124,5 kg. Amazingly I've lost over 4 kg in less than a week (I still haven't started exercising again!), and weighed in at 120,2 kg this morning.

From this I draw two conclusions; one good and one bad:
1) It's difficult to eat right while on holiday
2) It seems relatively easy to lose recently gained weight

Today I'll start on the daily biking again, next week's numbers will be interesting.

Me and Maddy

There's a new woman in my life.

Her name is Madeleine and she's white. Madeleine is high maintenance; she craves constant attention and can get quite loud and bitchy when she doesn't get it. She likes nuts and fruits and baths. She also likes to nibble my fingers.

Madeleine is an Umbrella Cockatoo (no, that's not Cajun for slut) and she is to be found in a cage at the cafe just down the street from my hostel here in Prague. I read up a bit about these birds on Wiki and she seems to fit the description just fine. Very sociable, intelligent and curious but also demanding and noisy if she doesn't get her way. I know the staff often has to pull a tablecloth over the cage to shut her up.

I'm not a good imitator of bird sounds per se, but I have this one sound I can make pretty well - sort of like a cross between a sparrow and a dolphin... anyway, when I started making it, the bird stopped cold and raised the feather crest on top of her head. According to Wiki this is something they do when they're surprised. Can't say I blame her.

Madeleine giving me her wtf-look



Another thing I read about these birds is that they can apparently sense rythm. I don't know if it was just her way of trying to get attention, but I did observe Madeleine swaying to the beat several times when there was some kind of dance music on. She had more groove than me anyway...