Mile 3377

Me and my buddy Nate hit the road yesterday to Chicago which is about a 2 hour drive from where he has been living in Indiana. I will say that visually in my opinion Chicago takes New York City and bends it over it's knee and spanks it. This is the most badass city I've seen in the states. SF is visually amazing as well but Chicago just looks tuff- nothing but Iron,steel and brick all over. Every alley looks straight out of a noir film. I only wish I could have got a glimpse of it in the snow as well-probably will start snowing right when I leave Indiana. Here's a handful of pics I snapped last night...

This is Nate's grandma Elmarose. She's 92 and a fireball.

Mile 3,107

Well I arrived in Mishawaka Indiana where I'm hanging with Nate and the rest of his great family. His grandma is in her 90's and has been a collector her whole life so there's tons of cool knickknacks all over the place.  Here's a few examples...

Hanging with the dolls 2010.

                                          
                                           I miss regular telephones.

  

Got Jesus?

Speaking of Jesus....

Jesus. Alive and well in Illinois.

Here's some more photos of Kansas...

I have a bit of a train fetish and chase these things down when ever I can.

Missouri...

                                                        Abandoned school house

Well going to shack up in Indiana for the next few days and plan which route to take back. Either going to head from here to Vermont then hit the entire east coast then cut down through the south and finally home or go from Chicago through Wisconsin, Minnesota, South Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Arizona and last but not least back to Cali. We shall see...

Mile 2,443

Well I'm exhausted. I just drove all night for almost 14 hours straight minus stopping to take photos, get gas and an oil change. 693 miles in all. Now I'm cozy in my bat mobile at probably, no for sure the nicest rest stop I've ever been to. I'm only able to post this right now because the rest stop has wi-fi. Also there's a heater vent right next to the shitter so when you sit down to duce drop your ass gets all nice and warm, there's also a heater overhead for the rest. Oh by the way- Dorothy this sure is Kansas! I was having dinner with some vintage woman at a "community table" in Santa Fe last night and one of them was telling me how awful the drive is to Indiana (where I'm visiting my buddy Nate).  Well I don't think I'm going to take anyone's advice on what's ugly and what's not anymore because Kansas is breathtakingly beautiful. Don't get me wrong during the night part of the drive it was dull as shit but I didn't see one Highway Patrol and was able to hit speeds of 80-100 mph most of the way. Which reminds me, it took me several paranoid swerve's before I adjusted to the tumble weeds which fly across the highway and look like a pack of wild animals or martians.

Oh, also my popularity level in Santa Fe is almost equal to Bob Hope's in LA.

 This picture was taken on an Indian reservation where there was a sign posted that read "no photographing, painting or recording this area by order of the Governor" I felt guilty for once but come on, I might not ever see my name on a road sign again. Especially with a cross street of Bald Eagle! "Yo man meet me at the corner of Kiva and Bald Eagle" "Oh word? I'll be there in a minute."

These next two are in New Mexico the rest were shot in Kansas...

Dodge City Beef Factory.

                                
                 

                                                     Signs can be a bit confusing out here...

Morning twilight, Kansas.

MILE 1,617

 Californians sure get the shaft on gas prices. Is it because were such a liberal minded pussy state? I'm going to go with it and say yes. If anyone has a better more researched answer let me know.

Well after leaving Tempe I stopped in Tucson and hit a 16 mile detour in hopes of finding the proper shotgun. I went to a police supply and a nice cross eyed man showed me some 12 gauge pumps but he didn't have any folding wild west two shot ones so I split. I just cant let that go that easy-cross eyed gun salesman? Okay that's worse than the heavy set girl trying to sell a gun to me which she couldn't tell me how to use. I did discover an interesting parallel between San Francisco and Tucson though... and that's that there is probably as many weed dispensaries in San Francisco as there are gun dispensaries in Tucson. To compete with San Francisco, Tucson would need an online site where you can order guns and bullets at a discounted price.

        I was chasing a train for awhile and pulled off the freeway to try and flick it.. too late.

About 50 miles later I passed it again and stopped off to snap this and wait.

I was about to leave because I realized there was another track and it was getting dark. Then she showed up...

     Here's some martian hunters on the New Mexico side.

So last night I crossed the Arizon/New Mexico state line and when I pulled up the man at the little booth asked-"are you a citizen?" I didn't quite get the question right off the bat so I said "am I a citizen?" Yes, I finally figured out was the answer and rolled down the back window so he could check for martians. Never in my own country have I been asked if I was a citizen except on an application for employment. Interesting experience, I thought- citizen of New Mexico? Citizen of California? USA? What the fuck.

Anyways I pulled into the Holiday Inn and setup in a dark corner of their parking lot where I happily realized I could hack into their free internet-good to know.

                 This was the view I saw in the morning when I climbed out of my bat mobile...

There was two guys wearing jumpers over by the hotel door, so I figured they worked there and would know how to get to White Sands Monument-my next stop. When the guys turned around and responded to me I was a little shocked that not only were they French but that their jumpers also had missile logos on them. You see white sands is a missile launching site as well as air force base. There's a really great sign on the highway that reads something like this- "during missile launches highway can be closed up to an hour" Ha! That's amazing! I always thought it was pretty cool when they closed the beach in Santa Cruz and people lit off their fireworks but the government gets to shut down highways and blow stuff up. Now that's cool.

Snow? Nope. White Sands, New Mexico.

I've never seen natural light as perfect as the light at white sands.

Learning...

How to...

Float on water.