Back on the road again!
Wow…..it’s been a long time a coming but the Bike is finally back on the road again just in time for the rainy season. In fact the un-official start was Wednesday afternoon after I got the bike back from Kawasaki for some long overdue recall work, started raining 3 minutes after getting in the garage.
Looks like it’s about time to start travelling again and hopefully updating the site more often. Karen made a particularly horrible attempt at dinner tonight worth of a blog entry 🙂
Don’t forget the Multi-cam page
Lot’s of live public camera’s up other than the main streaming roof cam and more coming, just click below to see what’s going on outside. Inside cams still private 🙂
Farmer Karen
Karen just hit year 5 at Jessopland and the transformation is just about complete!
In an effort to pry her out of my easy chair we decided to start a vegetable garden in an unused corner of the back yard. Actually all of my property is pretty much scorched Earth at the moment so this can only be an improvement. Why spoil her with the 99 cent store vegetables when we can grow our own!
We prepped the soil well and everything is just taking off beyond our expectations. We have 2 different squash coming in, Eggplant, peppers, tomatoes and of course corn in the back. Herbs are in pots and would be taking over the yard if not, our cilantro is going crazy.
Atari Movie?
Wow! I have been thinking about Atari for the past few days after reading the following headline online.
"Atari Founder ‘Thrilled’ To Be Played By Leonardo DiCaprio, Talks ‘Atari’ Movie
That’s Nolan Bushnell the founder of Atari with what we think is the very first Computer Space. This was pre-Atari and his first game (first coin op video game ever) 2 years prior to Pong. This particular example is from my collection loaned to the Bushnell family along with an original Pong for an exhibit at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SOMA) in 2002.
My Atari years: 1977-1985
Atari played a significant role in my life and I’ll never forget the experience. At an Atari reunion many years later I finally had the chance to personally thank Nolan. I had not planned it but it was incredibly therapeutic, sincere and finally provided closure for those years.
Atari was a freak show, but I never met a person there I didn’t like and many of us remain friends 30 years later.
Below are some pictures with Nolan Bushnell and my Pong for some interviews.
I need to write a lot more about these years but hopefully that’s going to be in a book.
Time to get organized and moving on as we are not getting any younger.
Home sweet home
Had a great evening with some friends in Shanghai before the long trek home, thanks everyone!
Live from Shanghai
Streaming live after a late departure out of Yantai for a bumpy 2 hour ride to Shanghai. Nothing like the fine service on China’s Shandong Airways.
In addition to the awesome mystery meat breakfast sandwich served, they handed out these great “wet turbans needless wash” that you just don’t get with U.S. carriers.
After a nap a ventured out only to get caught in a monster downpour 3 blocks away and had to abort the mission and work on the blog. Tonight it’s my friends Keita and Jenny for dinner and a tour of the city. Tomorrow it’s a short stop in Tokyo and then home finally. At least I have a nice room here at the Radisson with a full size window from the Bathroom looking into the main room.
Back in Tokyo……on the cheap!
Back in Tokyo for a few days and decided to make this one on the cheap just for the hell of it. I felt bad spending an extra day on the company dime just to work on Power Points so decided to avoid the $400 a night hotels and return to my roots, the Shinjuku Washington Hotel. This is the first Hotel I ever stayed at in Japan (1988) and I always liked it, great location, good mix of western and Japanese, and it’s downright cheap. A super clean but small room with free high speed Internet is only $86 booked online even with today’s horrible U.S. exchange rates. I like to save additional money by bringing my own single service packs of instant coffee with sugar & cream included, $2.60 for a pack of 22 from Ranch 99 market. Grab some awesome cheap pastries at the local Tokyo mart and you have breakfast for days.
You get a small but complete bathroom that’s sort of a pod that you step up into. What more do you need?
EA’s Battlefield
Damn I’m hooked on the Battlefield 1942 family and especially the Desert Combat mod. I should be out enjoying the beautiful weather but once again I’m playing. Having the bike down is one excuse but I need to work on that later.
What an idiot I am!
Damn it…….dropped my ZX-14 today on Mines road in Livermore. My own stupid fault for riding beyond my comfort level.
Luckily I was not hurt except for my pride. Being the fastest factory Sportbike made my riding ability just can’t match it’s performance, lesson learned.
March 18th and Happy Birthday DJ Joey!
So who is DJ Joey? Well duh….the self proclaimed Son of Eminem that’s who! Who am I to argue with a guy holding a sign on an abandoned corner in Lorain Ohio.
Seriously, a good guy and we wish him the very best. We were lucky to run across him. Visit his MySpace page here.
Happy Birthday DJ Joey from Jessopland!
Day #3 continued = blogging woes
Ok, I’m still screwing around and discovered some issues with Windows Live Writer and needed to break up my posts with so many big pictures. So far I have to highly recommend Live Writer, you can download it for free at here.
Back to the road trip, we ran out of time for Bryce Canyon arriving at days end and not willing to spend $25 admission per car for an hour of daylight. Don’t ask me why Arches was $6 and Bryce 4 times more!
We crossed Zion at Sunset and was surprised at how spectacular this park is. I can’t believe I drove past it so many times and we will have to carve out a few days in the future for it! The only good thing was that we crossed the park after hours and avoided the $25 entry fee as a shortcut back to St. George. There we stayed in a surprisingly nice Holiday Inn and found some great Italian food down the street. Tomorrow it’s back to Vegas and a late flight home.
Southwest Day 3: Arches and back to Saint George
10 minutes north of Moab is Arches National Park and a nice place to start our day before heading back towards Vegas.
We raced across U.S. 70 in central Utah skirting Canyonlands and Capitol Reef National Parks but we just didn’t have time to stop. The country was spectacular but we had to press on towards Bryce Canyon and Zion.
Southwest visit day #1…….the Polygamists
Welcome to Colorado City Arizona and Hildale Utah. It’s a beautiful 2.5 hour drive north east out of Vegas and you drop into Polygamist central. Besides the absolutely beautiful country, the great attraction is the distant (or not so) relationship to the family of the towns founder. Most of the inhabitants have one of two last names, Barlow, or Jessop. It’s the bizarro world Jessopland.
Karen dreams of a compound at the end of the red dirt Jessop Ave!
Southwest day #2: Monument Valley and the Mooki Dugway.
For spectacular natural scenery at every turn, nothing beats Monument Valley. Every direction you look provides a new vista and changes with the Sunlight. Despite numerous visits I find myself always drawn to the valley. It’s a long drive from just about anywhere but it’s worth it.
The Dugway……heading north.
North of Monument Valley and past Mexican Hat is the Dugway. You will find it spelled many ways, Mooki, Moki, Mokee, Moqi, so I’ll just call it the “Dugway” since the signs at the top and bottom of the grade are different! The name is derived from a Navajo word for this amazing dirt road (and Utah state highway) that climbs 1,100 vertical feet up the Cedar Mesa over a distance of 3 miles.
The namesake of “Mexican Hat” Utah and Karen at the top of the Dugway.
Welcome to the Jessopland Chronicles
Let’s just see if I (we) can keep the blog updated better than our homepage 🙂
Karen and Jerry…………………