Summer of Love 2008 on Jamie Thingelstad

Summer of Love Day 43 Log

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 08:24:00 -0500

8:24 am: On the road again. 429 miles until we are home.
11:06 am: On I-35 north. We are in the final stretch!
11:30 am: Back in Culver’s country.
1:57 pm: Hello Minnesota!
3:28 pm: Home Sweet Home!
7:17 pm: Thanks for all of the Welcome Backs! It’s really great to be home again. Much to catch up on!
10:48 pm: Really happy to be sleeping at home tonight.

See full Summer of Love Collection.

Summer of Love Day 42 Log

Sun, 29 Jun 2008 12:45:00 -0500

12:45 pm: Heading home.
1:17 pm: 906 miles to go.
3:01 pm: DQ stop in Ogallala, NE.
3:04 pm: Excited to be heading home, but equally sad that our big road trip is ending.
3:04 pm: 706 miles to go.
8:06 pm: Done driving for the day. Stopping in Lincoln, NE.
8:14 pm: Stuck behind 50 basketball camp teens checking in. OMG.

See full Summer of Love Collection.

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 19:21:00 -0500

Just passed 3,000 photos for our 6-week Summer of Love road trip!

Horse Run

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0500

We are having a great time here at C-Lazy-U. Every evening they send the horses out to the pasture for the night, and the wranglers get up early to go get them back in for the day. Sometimes they send them down the main road to a pasture across the way, and it makes for an amazing sight, and sound.

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Wed, 25 Jun 2008 18:55:38 -0500

Great day rafting down the Colorado River followed by an awesome massage.

Summer of Love Day 36 Log

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 14:07:00 -0500

2:07 pm: First ride at the dude ranch was really great. My horse for the week is Buster.
10:59 pm: The Internet is exceptionally elusive at the dude ranch.

See full Summer of Love Collection.

Summer of Love Day 35 Log

Sun, 22 Jun 2008 09:27:00 -0500

9:27 am: Nice breakfast at Cali Cochitta B&B in Moab. Heading to see Arches soon.
10:51 am: Great vistas at Arches National Park.
12:12 pm: Heading out of Arches park and starting drive to C-Lazy-U Ranch near Granby, CO.
2:30 pm: Hello Colorado!
2:59 pm: U2 seems like Colorado music. Working well for us!
4:37 pm: Iced Triple Espresso from Sacred Grounds coffee shop in Glenwood Springs, CO.
5:43 pm: Still decent amount of snow at 11,000 feet.
6:44 pm: Trying to explain to Mazie why a mosquito bit her. Not going well.
6:56 pm: Hello Winter Park, CO! Shout out to Jim Bernard and Jeb Sr.

See full Summer of Love Collection.

Summer of Love Day 34 Log

Sat, 21 Jun 2008 14:49:00 -0500

2:49 pm: Hello Utah!
2:50 pm: Driving from Sedona, AZ to Moab, UT today. Quick stop in Moab on way to Colorado.
4:36 pm: Exploring downtown Moab.
6:51 pm: Nice dinner at Miguel’s Baja Grill in Moab. Trying to quick adapt Mazie to time change.

See full Summer of Love Collection.

Summer of Love Day 33 Log

Fri, 20 Jun 2008 11:55:00 -0500

11:55 am: Heading to Montezuma Castle National Monument.
1:45 pm: Lunch at Judi’s in Sedona.
2:49 pm: 104 °F in Sedona today. Yeah, hot!
3:34 pm: I still don’t understand how and when to take out the video camera. I’m so much more comfortable with photography.

See full Summer of Love Collection.

Road Trip So Long You Need An Oil Change

Fri, 20 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0500

Yesterday we passed a milestone on the Summer of Love. After 29 days on the road and driving 4,541 miles the Honda Odyssey kindly let us know that it was due for an oil change.

Before we left on our trip my friend Kent had the revelation that our trip was so long that even with a fresh oil change, which we had done, we would need to have an oil change on the way. This, rightfully so, justified in his mind an entirely new level of road trip. One that exceeds all relevant norms. In fact, after learning of our oil change he reclassified the Summer of Love as an “epic” trip.

There isn’t that much in Sedona, so on our way back from the Grand Canyon yesterday we stopped in Flagstaff to run a number of errands – including getting the oil changed at Flagstaff Honda.

Summer of Love Day 32 Log

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 09:25:00 -0500

9:25 am: Heading to the Grand Canyon today!
5:16 pm: Waiting for Tammy and Mazie to emerge from Target in Flagstaff.
5:18 pm: Arizona is really hot. Yes, obvious. You’re welcome.
5:31 pm: Qualifier for a really long road trip: Getting the oil changed. At the Honda dealer in Flagstaff.
8:35 pm: Dinner at the New Jersey Pizza Company (wha?) in Flagstaff.

See full Summer of Love Collection.

Summer of Love Day 30 Log

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 08:56:00 -0500

8:56 am: Packing up. Leaving Las Vegas and awesome Mandalay Bay. Heading to Sedona, AZ! Laundry day too.
11:01 am: Hoover Dam!
2:33 pm: Lunch stop at Beaver Street Brewery in Flagstaff, AZ.
4:24 pm: Arrived in Sedona, AZ. Cool scenery. Hot temperatures.
4:27 pm: Wondering what the fate of golf courses in the desert is once “the water wars” start.
9:36 pm: Tammy is reading about snakes and other dangerous creatures that live around Sedona, AZ. This isn’t good. :-)

See full Summer of Love Collection.

Summer of Love Index - Updated

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0500

Number of days on the road so far: 29
Mileage on the 2006 Honda Odyssey at the beginning of the trip: 48,139
Mileage on the minivan at the end of the day, June 2nd: 52,680
Total miles driven during Summer of Love: 4,541
The average number of miles driven per day: 156.59
Cost of fuel for the trip thus far: $921.78
Cost for fuel per mile driven: $0.2030
Number of hotels stayed in: 9
Total number of photographs taken during the trip so far: 1,955
Average number of photographs taken per day so far: 68.79

See first index for comparison.

Summer of Love Day 29 Log

Mon, 16 Jun 2008 04:26:00 -0500

4:26 am: I seem unable to sleep in Las Vegas. This sucks.
9:44 am: Heading down to the pool. Lazy river today.
1:52 pm: At Mesa Grill (Bobby Flay) for lunch. Awesome. Cactus Pear Margarita.
9:33 pm: Mazie: “I’m going to blog on my post. This is blogging on my post.”

See full Summer of Love Collection.

Take a Lap in the Lazy River

Mon, 16 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0500

Have a couple of minutes? Join us on the Summer of Love for a trip around the Lazy River at Mandalay Bay. Mazie’s very first time in a lazy river.

Summer of Love Day 28 Log

Sun, 15 Jun 2008 09:37:00 -0500

Heading to the pool again.
Fathers Day cake? Sure! Fathers Day cake!
Black Cherry Mojito at lunch. Yum!
I wish there was a way to rid the world of Comic Sans MS.
Left Mandalay Bay and ventured down the strip. So far, a mistake.
Todays mojitos: Black Cherry, Watermelon and Apple.

See full Summer of Love Collection.

Happy Fathers Day 2008!

Sun, 15 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0500

This year marks something that will not happen again until 2014, when Mazie turns 9. Father’s Day is the day right after Mazie’s birthday! Father’s Day is always the 3rd Sunday in June. After 2014 it won’t happen again until 2025, on Mazie’s 20th birthday. Now, I know what you are all wondering. When will Mazie’s birthday be on Father’s day? Never. It gets to the day before, and then flips back away because Father’s Day moves back due the third Sunday thing.

I love being a Dad and as the years pass I realize more and more that it’s the most important thing in my life. Your job changes, your hobbies come and go. Your family is always your family. Your kids are forever your kids. Taking this summer off has provided a luxury that I’m so lucky to have. To be able to spend all my time with my family. Completely unrelated, I was reading The Soul of a New Machine today and this passage seemed so fitting for the day (p. 279).

During that summer, West suddenly remembered bike rides he’d taken with his father on Sunday evenings, and he found time to reassert that tradition with his oldest daughter. Suddenly, it seemed, he realized that his children were growing, and apparently he intended now to guide them on their way. He said one evening: “That’s the bear trap, the greatest vice. Your job. You can justify about any behavior with it. Maybe that’s why you do it, so you don’t have to deal with all those other problems.”

I like to think that I’ve kept my priorities in order, but I think the “bear trap” reference is appropriate. Its good to remind myself what is important and where priorities lie. I’m grateful to have this summer for that, and to have Father’s Day every year to reflect on it.

Summer of Love Day 27 Log

Sat, 14 Jun 2008 11:42:00 -0500

11:42 am: Heading to the pool.
4:21 pm: Trying to figure out best Fathers Day activities in Las Vegas. Any suggestions? Thinking of Hoover Dam visit.
7:44 pm: Walking to The Four Seasons to get Mazie macaroni and cheese.
8:01 pm: Found my way to Four Seasons after several wrong turns.

See full Summer of Love Collection.

Daddy's Girl Turns Three

Sat, 14 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0500

Today my little girl turns three years old! Happy Birthday Mazie!

Mazie has been blowing my mind lately. This morning she told us “my birthday is June 14.” I know I easily suffer from being an overly Proud Papa, but she is making leaps and strides in so many areas. Clearly we are witnessing geometric growth. Perhaps this all comes at the expense of some other development. She did just figure out how to jump not that long ago.

In addition to her big jumps in vocabulary, her turn to three has also brought with it some gaming. Now whenever I tell her she can’t do something or cannot have something, apparently “Daddy is saying bad things.” Mazie is clearly establishing her own ideas and opinions and deciding what she wants to do and may, if she feels like it, take some input from you.

In return for this I now get a wonderful “Love you Daddy” at bedtime. I melt on the spot. She’s a little sweetheart with her super grin, chipped front tooth and all.

Mazie is getting to celebrate her 3rd birthday in Las Vegas. We planned this stop on the Summer of Love so that she could have her day. No driving. Morning in the pool. Chocolate cake. Presents. Whatever she wants to do. She’ll have great stories to tell her friends. Most people don’t get a Las Vegas birthday until there 20s.

Happy Birthday (Maze / Sweetie / Pumpkin Pie / Goofball)! I love you! — Daddy

Some of Mazie’s Favorite things:

Mac & Cheese from Yum!
Lion
Chocolate Cake
Mango
Ralph’s World
Charlotte’s Web
Curious George
Elmo
Water
Playing in Water

Some of Mazie’s Unfavorite things:

Green stuff on her Mac & Cheese
Milk (except chocolate milk)
Stopping Play to go to the bathroom

Summer of Love Day 26 Log

Fri, 13 Jun 2008 09:56:00 -0500

9:56 am: Leaving Monterey for our next stop, Las Vegas!
12:37 pm: Paying $4.66/gallon for gas.
3:33 pm: Starting to cross the Mojave Desert. 103 outside.
6:50 pm: 107 °F outside. Scared.
7:12 pm: Paying $5.50/gallon for gas. No joke. 60 miles outside Las Vegas.
11:05 pm: Super happy with our room at Mandeley Bay. Great setup.

See full Summer of Love Collection.

$5.50 Gasoline

Fri, 13 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0500

We’ve happened to take our longest road trip ever during the most expensive gas prices ever. We’ve been hitting gas in the mid $4 range for a while now, but today as we were nearing the Nevada border we set a new high.

$5.499 for a gallon of gas. Ouch.

Driving to Vegas

Fri, 13 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0500

After days of beautiful scenery and amazing vistas our view today is all blacktop. We are on our way to Las Vegas for the next stop on the Summer of Love. We’ll be driving through the scorching Mojave Desert on our way. We are just getting close, and it’s already 103 °F out.

Summer of Love Day 25 Log

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 11:11:00 -0500

11:11 am: Heading to Carmel this morning.
1:48 pm: Amazed with Carmel. Blue Dog gallery is dangerous.
4:34 pm: Left Tammy in Carmel for the afternoon. At house with Mazie for nap time.
4:55 pm: Ugh - carpenter starts drilling in room right underneath where Mazie is napping!
4:58 pm: Theory that we may be the very first guests to stay at this rental house is being reinforced. Not bad. But very uncoordinated.

See full Summer of Love Collection.

Summer of Love Day 24 Log

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 12:29:00 -0500

Driving down CA-1 to Big Sur. Listening to Jack Johnson. (12:29 pm)
Feet have sand on them (12:41 pm)
Amazing morning going down the coast. Early lunch stop at Nepenthe. (1:19 pm)
Amazing lunch with unbelievable view. Wow. (2:38 pm)
Possibly the best day of our trip yet. Big Sur and surrounding areas are great! (7:13 pm)

See full Summer of Love Collection.

Tue, 10 Jun 2008 18:56:11 -0500

The traveling family is taking the 4th week of the road trip to eschew a restaurant, and I’m making pasta! Yeah!

Summer of Love Day 22 Log

Mon, 09 Jun 2008 12:03:00 -0500

12:03 pm: Leaving San Francisco, headed to Monterey for next stop on Summer of Love.
2:08 pm: Pulling into Monterey, CA.

See full Summer of Love Collection.

Expansive, Powerful and Majestic

Sun, 08 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0500

Our Summer of Love trip was never intended to be a camping or hiking trip. We booked all of our visits in hotels and motels and have stuck to restaurants.

We have had three stops in national parks on the trip and they made a big impact on me. Each one of them represented another facet of nature, facets that we too often forget.

Glacier National Park: Expansive

Mount St. Helens: Powerful

Redwood Forest: Majestic

Humbling.

Sat, 07 Jun 2008 10:09:00 -0500

In line at Tartine Bakery.

Sounds of the Redwoods

Sat, 07 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0500

While we were walking with the big Redwoods I stopped for a moment to do a quick field recording. This isn’t pristine. You’ll catch a moment of wind noise, and if you listen really, really close you may hear a truck in the distance very faintly. Mainly though, you hear the birds and majesty.

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Summer of Love Day 19 Log

Fri, 06 Jun 2008 09:13:00 -0500

9:13 am: Anybody know the best, sourest, densest sourdough bakery in San Francisco?
11:19 am: Really good breakfast at Savor in San Francisco.
4:42 pm: Never realized before how impossible it is to park in San Francisco.
6:02 pm: After bricking my Linksys WTR-54GS travel router, I am back on the air with an AirPort Express (and with 802.11n and WPA2).
7:05 pm: Really happy to not be in a hotel for this stop on the trip.

See full Summer of Love Collection.

Summer of Love Day 18 Log

Thu, 05 Jun 2008 13:24:00 -0500

1:24pm: Stop at Ramone’s Bakery in Eureka, CA.
1:46 pm: Having a very nice stop in Old Town section of Eureka.
2:18 pm: Mazie and I playing with the pigeons.
2:51 pm: Resuming leisurely drive down 101 to San Francisco.
8:06 pm: Ate at In-n-Out Burger for the first time. Yum!

See full Summer of Love Collection.

Walking Among the Redwoods

Thu, 05 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0500

It has been a few days since we were up in Crescent City communing with the big trees. The Redwood Forest was one of the most amazing places I’ve been.

We were limited in our Redwood experience. We didn’t hike for hours in the woods. We stuck to kid friendly areas that were well travelled. However, the force of the giant redwoods is so powerful that it takes you aback the second you see them.

There was a word that kept going through my mind as I looked at them and walked amongst them, majestic. These were the kings of trees. This was, in a way, its own Valley of the Kings. These giant trees that can grow over 350 feet tall and live for as long as 2,000 years tower over you emphatically highlighting the scale of yourself. I couldn’t help but think of what has happened in this world in the lifespan of these majestic trees.

I don’t have the talent to express in words the experience so I’m going to leave it at this. I think these photos do a better job.

Summer of Love Day 17 Log

Wed, 04 Jun 2008 03:01:00 -0500

3:01 am: Mexican at Torero’s in Crescent City, CA.
10:55 am: Breakfast at Good Harvest in Crescent City, then out to see the Redwoods.
3:56 pm: Giant Redwoods are awe inspiring. Majestic.

See full Summer of Love Collection.

Curly Redwood Lodge

Wed, 04 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0500

We checked into our 7th hotel tonight after driving on the Redwood Highway and pulling into Crescent City, CA. Tammy did all the research for places to stay and relied pretty heavily on Trip Advisor. For Crescent City, the Curly Redwood Lodge is the only one to get great reviews. We checked in tonight and it’s a real trip. The motel is very 1960’s. The entire motel was constructed out of the wood from a single Curly Redwood tree, hence the name. The wood is beautiful and the place is kept immaculate but very much “in period.” I love this place, it’s the exactly perfect place to stay for some mingling with the majestic giants of the forest.

Tomorrow we are going to get out amongst these huge trees. I can’t wait, and neither can Tammy.

Redwood Highway (US-199)

Wed, 04 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0500

Join us for a time-lapsed view of the 40 minutes of driving from the Oregon/California border on the US-199 segment of the Redwood Highway as we come into Crescent City, CA. Gorgeous drive with amazing trees. About 3 minutes in we get to the actual Redwood Forest. Buckle up, the time-lapse is 1 frame per second, and it gets a little fast at points.

Summer of Love Day 16 Log

Tue, 03 Jun 2008 13:02:00 -0500

1:02 pm: At Full City Coffee in Eugene having a Cafe Borgia. Yum!
5:53 pm: Pit stop on way to Redwood Forest.
8:20 pm: In Crescent City. Awesome drive. Watch for video soon.

See full Summer of Love Collection.

Bricking my Linksys WTR-54GS

Tue, 03 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0500

Sometimes I really should know better. There are some things you just don’t do, like updating firmware on something when you need it right away, or hacking the firmware on your travel router, when you are in the first part of a six week road trip!

I’ve had a Linksys WTR-54GS for a while now. I’ve used it quite a bit. It’s nice to get to a hotel that doesn’t have wireless and pop the WTR-54GS in and you’ve got your very own private, secure WiFi network. This is a good thing for our trip since we are traveling with two laptops and two iPhones and WiFi is a must have.

When in Seattle I did some research on hacking the WTR-54GS and putting DD-WRT on it. This sounded great to me, since Linksys has done a horrible job supporting this device. It is now discontinued so effectively it’s dead and DD-WRT gives a great way to put a Linux based system on it and get a ton of additional functionality. Great!

I checked out the instructions and decided I shouldn’t do it. It was too risky. I may need the router at the next stop. If it went wrong, I’d have a brick on my hands. Nope, no way.

Then that just cycled and cycled. I had to. I now knew I could hack it and I therefore must. To make matters even better, I would be running the hack from Windows running inside of Parallels on my MacBook Pro. Great – even more risk. 🙂

I did the hack and everything went really great, until it didn’t. The router just died after flashing a new boot-loader on it and I can’t get it do to anything. I may be able to bring it back to life with a JTAG cable, but that is a serious amount of work for sometime when I’m back at home. Lesson learned, should have left it alone.

Of course the hotel we stayed at for RailsConf lacked WiFi, and my brick didn’t do any good.

RailsConf 2008 Recap

Tue, 03 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0500

We just left Portland today on our continuing Summer of Love trip. You wont find much about Portland from me though. Our stop in Portland for me was a visit to RailsConf 2008. Tammy did post about her thoughts on Portland. It was totally awesome that our good friends, the Tangen’s were able to come out and join us in Portland. Kent attended RailsConf with me, and Maril, Simon and Caroline hung out with Tammy and Mazie. Mazie just adored Caroline the whole time.

Let me share some of my comments on RailsConf 2008. I’m not going to dive into super detail on the Rails 2.1 release announced at the conference, or the details of various sessions. You can find that elsewhere online and many of the presentations and sessions are now up on the RailsConf wiki.

Sessions

Here are the sessions I attended:

Building Great Products Keynote by Joel Spolsky
Entrepreneurs On Rails by Dan Benjamin
Hosting and the Woes by Ezra Zygmuntowicz, Jamie van Dyke, Tom Mornini
CRUD Doesn’t Have an ‘S’ in It: Managing Complex Searching in Rails by Stephen Midgley
Flexible Scaling: How to Handle 1 Billion Pageviews by TJ Murphy
UI Design on Rails by Ryan Singer
Keynote by David Heinemeier Hansson
Rails 2.1 Keynote by Jeremy Kempter
Using Git to Manage and Deploy Rails Apps by Scott Chacon
Asynchronous Processing with Ruby on Rails by Jonathon Dahl
Build Your Own Distributed, Self Configuring Rails Cluster by Dave Fayram, Tom Preston-Werner
Custom Nginx Modules: Accelerate Rails, HTTP Tricks by Adam Wiggins
The Worst Rails Code You’ve Ever Seen (and How Not to Write It Yourself) by Obie Fernandez
De-Railing: Smashing the Rails Stack by Aaron Bedra

Sadly, I missed Kent Beck’s Keynote on Saturday evening. I hear it was really good.

Highlights

The conference started off on a strong note with Joel Spolsky’s keynote. Some of you that have mentioned Spolsky to me may have heard my immediate rant. Prior to his keynote I wasn’t a Joel fan. However, his keynote was great. He had a good message, presented it very well, and really got his point across. I liked it a lot, and take back anything bad I’ve said about Joel in the past (or at least most of it). It was really good.

I liked the Entrepreneur session quiet a bit. Unfortunately halfway through it the fire marshall ordered about 1/4th of the people out of the room because it was standing room only. Ryan Singer’s session on design and Rails was awesome. Ryan was preaching what I truly believe is the model for designers and developers to engage and work collaboratively to make great things. The world needs more Ryan Singer’s out there evangelizing and showing how this can be done to do great things. Jeremy Kemper’s keynote on Rails 2.1 was really good as well. The 2.1 feature set looks great.

Perhaps the most high-density presentation was Scott Chacon’s Git presentation. I don’t think I’ve ever gotten barraged with so much high-density information so quickly. At one point I turned to Kent and joked “I feel stupid.” Directed acyclic graphs were being thrown around as quickly and furious as could ever be done. Great presentation though, really liked his stuff. I recommend checking out his site, Gitcasts.

David Heinemeier Hansson’s keynote on Friday night was a little odd. He steered away from any technical topics and really focused on giving some input on creating great products and being a great developer. I’m not sure how the talk went over with the audience. DHH is the creator of Rails, and as a result I doubt anyone would pan it that much. He drew a full crowd back from dinner at 8:00pm after all. His talk however seemed to me to be trying to get people to appreciate the aesthetics of code. To admire the beauty of architecture. It seemed clear to me that he was trying to send a message beyond Rails, to creating great things and continuing creative inspiration. I liked the message, but I wondered how many people in the room really heard it.

Lowlights

There weren’t any bad sessions that I went to. Some could have been better, but I wouldn’t say any of them were horrible. However, I would have liked to see a bit more technical depth and heavy lifting in the sessions. Too many of them seemed to gloss on big topics of scaling, deployment and architecture. I realize it’s a big conference, but more technical depth would have been good.

The WiFi network for the conference was a general disaster. It had 14Mb and was 100% full every single day except Sunday. Not sure what was using that bandwidth, but it made even checking email painful.

With that said, I almost wish they would just get rid of the WiFi. There was simply too much social networking, messaging going on. RailsConf has an “official” back-channel in IRC at the #railsconf channel. I hopped on it at one point to see what was going on and found 200 people bitching, whining and making inappropriate comments in the channel. It was horrible. The worst of anonymous streaming spew that you could find. In several sessions I watched more than a couple of people just sit there and type into the IRC channel the entire time. Yikes!

Lastly, I really wish there was some more diversity in the developer community. There was maybe 1 woman in attendance for every 50 or 100 men. The group could use more diversity, I think it would help the developer community in a number of different ways.

Super Mom

Tue, 03 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0500

This is definitely a parent story. If you don’t have kids, you may just want to skip this. :-P Being a parent is really great. When Mazie says “I love you Daddy!” I pretty much melt on the spot. But being a parent brings you really close to things like boogers, poop and puke. Traditionally Mom’s bear this brunt more than Dad’s, and that is definitely true in our family.

Mazie is now totally potty trained. She hasn’t touched a diaper for a few weeks, even at night. She’s doing a great job. Fantastic actually. She sleeps through the night and everything. However, she wont go near a normal toilet. She insists, and will really only use, her kids potty. We have it with us as a result. It sits in the van and has made appearances all over on the Summer of Love road trip. Side of the raod potty stop, check. Sidewalk potty stop in downtown, check. Quick potty in the car while getting gas, check check.

Today Mazie announced at lunch that she wanted to “go and take a poop”. We were downtown Portland at a fabulous restaurant and had finished. Tammy took Mazie to the bathroom and she predictably decided she didn’t have to go when she saw the toilet in the bathroom. Off they went to the van to use her potty. Right there in downtown, in the van, we had a #2 stop but lacked anywhere to “take care” of the potty. So, we started driving with a window cracked open.

We stopped after about 15 miles to get gas and Tammy took care of the potty. Tammy, being a fully immersed mom grabs the ‘container’ in the potty. She doesn’t put it in a bag or anything. No real attempt to conceal anything. She just grabs it and walks right into the gas station and heads to the bathroom. Total bad ass. I chuckled to myself while pumping the gas thinking of the amount of angst that would have went into that procedure before being a parent. What are you going to do, right?

Summer of Love Day 15 Log

Mon, 02 Jun 2008 11:24:00 -0500

11:24 am: Awesome bakery stop this morning followed by an improptu haircut at a cool barbershop.
12:12 pm: Childrens Museum in Portland, OR. Very well done. Much Mazie happiness.
2:57 pm: Amazing falafel at Karams in Portland. Wow!
3:34 pm: Filling up Honda at $4.16/gallon.
3:34 pm: Leaving Portland for an impromptu 1-night stay in Eugene, OR.
7:08 pm: At Mezza Luna Puzzaria in Eugene, OR for dinner.

See full Summer of Love Collection.

Summer of Love Index

Mon, 02 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0500

Number of days on the road so far: 14
Mileage on the 2006 Honda Odyssey at the beginning of the trip: 48,139
Mileage on the minivan at the end of the day, June 2nd: 50,738
Total miles driven during Summer of Love: 2,599
The average number of miles driven per day: 185.64
Fewest miles driven in one day: 0
Approximate CO2 footprint for driving portions of the trip, thus far: 963 lbs
Cost of fuel for the trip thus far: $481.13
Cost to offset the carbon emissions of the driving portions of the trip, thus far: $2.41
Cost for fuel per mile driven: $0.1851
Number of hotels stayed in: 6
Total number of photographs taken during the trip so far: 944
Average number of photographs taken per day so far: 67.43
Fewest number of pictures taken in a day thus far: 8

Sun, 01 Jun 2008 00:19:00 -0500

Trying to find a way to buy carbon offsets for the Summer of Love. Confusing, and way too hard.

Seattle Recap

Sun, 01 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0500

I’ve been trying to post updates from the Summer of Love trip pretty regularly but we seem to have arrived and left Seattle without even a mention of the stop. So, rather than backdating some posts (which I always feel gross doing) I’ll just do a big recap post. If you get bored easily, suffice it to say that Seattle was really cool.

Put on Your Walking Shoes

We did a lot of walking in Seattle. After being in the car for three long days of driving interspersed with a decent amount of driving at Glacier National Park we decided to park the Honda and set out on foot. We stayed on the fringe of downtown, about 5 blocks from Seattle Center, and about a 10 block walk from downtown Seattle. We probably walked around 4 miles or more total each day. It was nice to stretch the legs and see the city up close. However, the downside of this was that we didn’t get much further out of downtown than our feet allowed.

Great Places

We found a number of great places to check out. The first full day we were in town we found the Elliot Bay Trail and had a nice morning walk while checking out Puget Sound. Then we had a nice coincidence of being in town during the Northwest Folklife Festival. We didn’t plan it but we really enjoyed checking it out, listening to some music and hanging out in Seattle Center.

We decided, and Mazie let us know, that it was high time she got to swing. She was looking for the swings when we got to Glacier National Park. It was high time she needed to do some swinging. We walked over to Cascade Park and Mazie was able to get a solid hour of swinging in before we went over to the Flagship REI store. I feel a little odd gushing about a store, but this REI in Seattle is amazing. Just entering it you go on a little mini hiking path and can’t help but want to buy some hiking boots by the time you get into the store. Plus, they had the perfect layout with the play area for the kids, sitting area for dad with free WiFi and the massive array of womens clothing for mom. Genius.

We checked out the Experience Music Project. The architecture of the EMP is pretty amazing, so even just visiting the building was a lot of fun. They had a great exhibit on Jimi Hendrix as well as an overview of music of the northwest, with a big spread on grunge music and related bands. It was a cool place, but not the best place for little kids. In contrast though, it would be a great place for older kids, and there were a lot of them there having a great time.

Great Eats

We had some good meals in Seattle but two places were really great. We had some amazing pizza at Tutta Bella followed with some great gelato. And we had a wonderful dinner at the Five Spot with a relative of mine that lives in Seattle. We liked it so much we made a return visit for breakfast before we left and had the most amazing cinnamon french toast I’ve ever had.

Sat, 31 May 2008 23:26:00 -0500

819 photos taken so far on the Summer of Love. At this rate, I expect to end this trip with ~3,000 photos.

Fri, 30 May 2008 20:22:31 -0500

Checking out Powell’s Books in Portland. This place is huge.

Mount St. Helens

Thu, 29 May 2008 00:00:00 -0500

Today we hooked up with the Tangen family on the Summer of Love. Kent is here going to RailsConf as well, and Marilee and kids came out to join Tammy and Mazie while he and I go to the conference. Today though, Tammy and Marilee decided to hit the town all day and Kent and I loaded the kids in the van and headed to Mount St. Helens. It was a great day.

The drive to Mount St. Helens from Portland wasn’t too bad; about 50 minutes on the interstate and 30 or so on the highway. We got started somewhat late and stopped for lunch at the last place for food before heading the final 20 miles to the Volcanic Monument. Driving through the valley presents you with evidence of the massive destruction of this eruption even 28 years later. The valley that you drive through is 100 feet higher than it was before. Before it was a gorge and now it’s a pancake flat valley settled between the mountains. All the result of the eruption.

The view of the volcano, and the very young trees everywhere, just exclaim the power of something as mighty as a volcano. Looking at the mountain inspires awe and respect. It takes a wild imagination to envision the cubic mile of dirt that was blown out during the eruption.

If your in the area, take the time to see it. Even the kids thought it was pretty cool. I’d love to come in the summer and hike around the area – although access is very limited even now. I took a bunch of pictures – good stuff.

Baby Monitor in the Hallway

Wed, 28 May 2008 00:00:00 -0500

Tammy and I are hanging out in this extremely cool, funky hotel in Portland called McMenamins Kennedy School. It used to be a school, but they converted it to a hotel, restaurant and bar. It’s very cool.

Anyway, Mazie is asleep and the monitor doesn’t quiet reach to us. We have it sitting in the hallway about 30 feet from us where we can see the lights if she started hollering for us.

The funny thing is watching people walk by. People keep looking at it. Picking it up. Listening. Etc. It’s a pretty funny social experiment. It makes me think it would be pretty funny to actually broadcast something over it and put it in the hall. Maybe the original War of the Worlds or an early episode of The Shadow. Hmmm…

Blogger Born? Smaller Than A Redwood

Wed, 28 May 2008 00:00:00 -0500

Fire up your RSS reader and get ready to add a feed! Some of you know that my wife Tammy has had a blog, Smaller Than A Redwood, for a while, but it’s been pretty much idle. She’s gotten her blogger shoes on during the Summer of Love and has been posting pretty regularly. On top of that we outfitted her with a new theme. Exciting stuff! Check it out!

Rhythm of Travel

Wed, 28 May 2008 00:00:00 -0500

Doing extensive travel with Mazie has a certain rhythm to it. I’m sure this is very familiar to all parents. I find that this rhythm provides some structure to the day, as well as some forced downtime that is good pacing. Given that the Summer of Love is six weeks long, a more relaxed “marathon” style trip is appropriate.

Each day starts between 6:30a and 7:00a. So far on the Summer of Love we’ve started the day right around 8:30a with a little variance on breakfast. Everyday at 12:30p is the search for a kid friendly food spot, and then a return to the hotel for Mazie’s nap at 2:00p. She sleeps for approximately 2 hours and then the second part of the day is picked up. Bedtime is at 8:00pm so the 2nd part of the day is always pretty short so the agenda is lighter.

For Tammy and I the result is an early start to the day, a forced two hour break in mid-day and evenings are spent usually tucked in the hotel while Mazie sleeps in the other part of the room.

So, when you see me on email, posting on the website or twittering – it’s probably timed with this rhythm.

Tue, 27 May 2008 21:04:02 -0500

Dinner at Mama’s for Mexican!

Tue, 27 May 2008 15:12:32 -0500

At Top Pot Donuts.

Mon, 26 May 2008 19:34:58 -0500

Seattle has a lot of cool indie coffee shops.

Mon, 26 May 2008 00:39:00 -0500

Attempted unwise flash of WTR-54GS to DD-WRT while traveling. Doesn’t look good. Have a brick right now. Will investigate more in morning. 🙁

Sun, 25 May 2008 12:40:00 -0500

At the REI flagship store in Seattle. When you pass away, if you have been good your whole life, you end up at this REI.

Sun, 25 May 2008 00:00:00 -0500

What happens when you give a near 3-year-old a digital camera and explain how to take pictures? You get a lot of pictures!

Summer of Love Day 6 Log

Sat, 24 May 2008 09:00:00 -0500

9:00 am: Woke up in Seattle and noticed that the F5 Networks office is right across the street from the hotel. “Hi F5!” 👋
3:25 pm: Weatherman said rain for Seattle today. Couldn’t be more wrong. Beautiful and sunny.
10:12 pm: Discovered The Blair St. Mugwumps today at a music event in Seattle. Totally whacky. Bought two albums.

See full Summer of Love Collection.

Summer of Love Day 5 Log

Fri, 23 May 2008 10:08:00 -0500

10:08 am: On the way to Seattle.
10:13 am: Going through Kalispell, MT.
2:07 pm: Relaxing lunch in Coeur d’Alene, ID. Now in pacific time.
3:41 pm: Rain, rain, rain. In Washington state.
6:44 pm: Going through Ellensburg, WA.
6:54 pm: Just paid $4.06/gallon for gas.
7:20 pm: In Seattle, WA.

See full Summer of Love Collection.

Glacier National Park Photos

Fri, 23 May 2008 00:00:00 -0500

Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer

Thu, 22 May 2008 00:00:00 -0500

I finished Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer this evening. It was enjoyable to both start and finish this book during our stay at Glacier National Park. Reading that much is just one of the joys of not having any television or Internet access in our cabin. I was excited to read this book after having watched the movie version of Into the Wild. My friend Kent lent me his copy of the book and it’s already been passed on to Tammy to read before returning to Kent.

First off, this is a really enjoyable book and just like the other Krakauer book I’ve read, Into Thin Air, this is a real page turner. Even a slow reader like myself can’t help but finish it quickly, picking it up at every opportunity to see what happens next.

For a full review of the book or to dive into it’s topics, check out the Amazon reviews or just read it yourself. I think most people will enjoy it.

The whole story of Chris McCandless, aka Alexander Supertramp, really grabbed me. Kent and I talked about this at some length because he had the same reaction. His story is beyond interesting, and I find it impossible to think about his story without also reflecting on my own life. I think that there is something about the ferocity that Alex lived and dreamt that makes me, something.

That’s the thing about Alex’s story. On one hand, he’s incredibly selfish. His entire pursuit is so inwardly focused and causes a lot of pain for most anyone that got close to him. He goes completely off the deep end, and in the end loses his life foolishly. With some basic preparation and know how he probably would have survived his ordeal in the Alaskan Interior and nobody would have ever heard of Alexander Supertramp.

But even with those negatives, you feel a sense of admiration for the young man. A sense of pride. Or even a sense of shame for not having the courage or discipline to pursue something the way that he did, or even a fraction of the way that he did.

Have any of you read this book? I would be curious to know what you thought of it and what your reaction was. I think that Chris’ story is going to sit with me for a while.

Trail of the Cedars

Thu, 22 May 2008 00:00:00 -0500

Contrary to the predictions of the weather people, today was a better day than yesterday. The temperature seemed slightly warmer and there was definitely much less rain. We stayed dry most of the day, except for our treacherous trip to East Glacier.

We had a great breakfast at the West Glacier Restaurant. The only restaurant open. Tammy and I are both confused why there are nearly 10 gift shops open in the park, but only one restaurant. It would seem that visitors in need of gifts would also be in need of dining. After breakfast we took headed up the Going-to-the-Sun Road as far as we could go, to Avalanche. It seemed like a popular destination as there were more cars parked there than we’d seen almost anywhere this early in Glacier.

Tammy and I have been trying to gauge our hiking (if you can call it that) expectations with little Mazie. As is typical, we have different worries. I’m worried about her getting in way over her head on even a moderate trail and that we are idiotic parents if we don’t have a basic first aid kit, compass, tent, sleeping bag, 3 weeks of food, etc. along if we have a small child with us. Tammy on the other hand isn’t worried about any of that, she’s just afraid of the bears.

The hike we took along Trail of the Cedars was perfect though. It’s a rare wheelchair accessible trail in a national park so Mazie could walk the whole thing. Most of the trail was a raised boardwalk. Just under a mile long with nice scenery in all directions. We had a great time and took a lot of photos. Thankfully, no bears encountered (or mountain lions!) and we didn’t fall in need of dire first aid care.

We were headed back for lunch and Mazie fell asleep on the drive so we decided to do an impromptu trip to East Glacier. First, a little background. Glacier National Park is huge. There are a couple of main entrances, unimaginatively named West Glacier and East Glacier. Tammy chose to stay in West Glacier because it is much more connected to the park. Typically the Going-to-the-Sun Road is the way to get between these two towns. However, that is closed. So we had to take US-2 all the way around the park, 56 miles one way, to get to East Glacier.

As soon as we got on the eastern side of the park is was raining and the temperature dropped 15 degrees. No good. We continued on and took the road up to where we were told a cool falls was that was an easy hike. We got there after nearly turning around a few times and decided to try the hike. Here however both my fears of hypothermia and Tammy’s fears of bear attack rung loud and after a short 0.2 mile walk we turned back to the van. There was a reasonable amount of snow there still. Not that much, but we were totally not prepared for anything. The lack of fellow hikers got Tammy thinking we were the sole prey for that hungry bear that must be lurking. So, around we went.

Since the Going-to-the-Sun Road is closed and isn’t going to open anytime soon we decided tonight to cut our trip short a day and head to Seattle tomorrow. There is much more to see here at Glacier, but it’s better seen in July, particularly if you have a toddler with you. I definitely want to return here. Next time we’ll maybe just pack our backpacks and hope on the Amtrak. We’ll be driving most of the day tomorrow.

Rainy and Cold

Wed, 21 May 2008 00:00:00 -0500

Today was our first full day in Glacier National Park. This place is pretty amazing. Our cabin is a just a couple of steps from McDonald Creek, connecting to Lake McDonald. The water moves quickly, and is so clear that you can see right through it to all the rocks underneath, even at several feet of depth.

Glacier has just opened up for the season. There is only one restaurant open, and it just started up again on Friday. We’ve been there three times so far. Today was cold and rainy. Unfortunately it looks like we will have more of this. The forecast is for rain and temperatures in the upper 40’s to low 50’s for our whole visit. We took it easy today and only really walked around for a couple of hours. Mazie spent two days in a car seat so she got some nice time to just hang out in the cabin and play with toys. With the rain and temperature, Tammy and I were happy to oblige.

I’m making my way quickly through Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer. I watched Into the Wild a month ago and the movie really struck me. My friend Kent borrowed me his copy of the book. Reading it in Glacier is a bit of a treat since Alexander Supertramp “tramped” around this area a bit. In fact, I’m sure that he hitched a ride on the rails going right through Glacier. More about this book at another time.

The Going-to-the-Sun Road is not open through Logan’s Pass since it’s early in the season. We can take it up to Avalanche and are going to do that tomorrow. Since the road isn’t open the whole way, our glacier viewing will be limited. We are still hoping to see a couple of glaciers and some good falls.

But even with closed roads and less than great weather this is a stunning place to be. There are beautiful things to see in every direction, and having nice quiet time as a family is priceless. There are no distractions here. No television. No Internet. No telephone. And we are far from even any cellular coverage. That is a treat in its own regard.

Summer of Love Day 2 Log

Tue, 20 May 2008 07:23:00 -0500

7:23 am: Up earlier than I would like. Time change to mountain time to blame.
9:21 am: False alarm roadside potty stop for Mazie.
9:59 am: Passing through Circle, MT.
12:57 pm: Lunch in Lewistown, MT.
1:28 pm: Noticed that Barack Obama is in Montana too. Wish he’d stop following me around.
4:49 pm: Through Great Falls, MT.
5:02 pm: Getting closer to the mountains.
6:50 pm: In Glacier National Park!

See full Summer of Love Collection.

Dumbo

Tue, 20 May 2008 00:00:00 -0500

Today was another driving day. We got up early in Glendive, MT and hit the road after having breakfast in the hotel. We had a full 10 hours of driving ahead of us and wanted to get it behind us quickly. I drove all day yesterday, so Tammy took the wheel today. While I spent all day on I-94, she spent all day on smaller state highways going down roads that seemed to stretch on into infinity with a perfectly straight path. This was boring stuff.

I got in the back with Mazie and we decided to watch one of the movies on the new iPod. I had purchased some new kids movies for the trip. Dumbo was one of them. I vaguely remember watching Dumbo when I was a kid and thought it was pretty cool. After watching it today I’m tempted to delete it off of iTunes.

Seriously, have you watched Dumbo lately? Watch it yourself before you have your kids watch it. In an hour this children’s classic teaches some less than valuable lessons. First, we start of with a whole-hearted reinforcement that if you are different you will be laughed at, picked on and ridiculed. The movie is completely over-the-top on this.

After starting with this, the characterization of the circus that Jumbo, Dumbo’s mother, is in is so backwards as to be offending. She is whipped and then caged for protecting her baby elephant? And there is no backstory here on how horrible and bad that is. Oh, and then it gets better. We learn when Dumbo and his mouse friend accidentally drink a bunch of alcohol that that is really funny! Hey kids, go get drunk! It’s hilarious!

Now, we start the highlight of the whole movie, the 5-minute pink elephant drunk hallucination scene. I mean really, forget about watching The Wall. Just fire up this doozy. I encourage you to make sure you are flatly sober since anything else would likely result in you hiding under your bed shaking in fear.

For its final touch Disney introduces you to the four crows that help Dumbo figure out that he can fly. Here we have black crows, that are wearing fedoras and other garish hats, sucking on cigars and doing everything they can to invoke black imagery. Wow!

If you, like me, remember Dumbo as this nice movie about an awkward baby elephant with ears so big that he can fly, I offer the following advice. Watch the first 5 minutes, and then the last 7 minutes. Done. Cut everything in the middle.

The movie aside, we had a nice drive and got into Glacier National Park just before dinner. As we pulled close to Glacier we realized that Mazie has had a different understanding of Glacier National Park. She immediately asked to go to the swings. She wanted to go swing for a while. And hey, we had driven all this way to go the park after all! Let’s swing. This presented Tammy and I the challenge of explaining to a nearly 3 year old that a National Park wasn’t the same as a park at home, and there certainly weren’t any swings here.

We had a nice dinner and got checked into our cabin. We are 10 feet off of McDonald Creek right where it empties into Lake McDonald. The water is sparkling clear. The mountains are beautiful. I’m looking forward to exploring, although Mother Nature looks like she isn’t going to cooperate and is sending cold and rain.

Summer of Love Day 1 Log

Mon, 19 May 2008 09:57:00 -0500

9:57 am: Van loaded. Hitting the road. Sleep in Montana tonight!
12:15 pm: Lunch in Alexandria, MN.
4:33 pm: In a real North Dakota wind storm. 50+ mph winds. Crazy!
4:34 pm: Going through Bismarck, ND.
6:51 pm: Dinner at Sandord’s in Dickinson, ND.
9:29 pm: Checked into hotel for the night in Glendive, MT.
11:14 pm: The WiFi in this Days Inn is far better than almost every expensive New York hotel I’ve stayed in. Plus it’s free with the room.

See full Summer of Love Collection.

All Day on I-94

Mon, 19 May 2008 00:00:00 -0500

Today we loaded up in the Honda Odyssey and started our big trip. Packing was a bit last minute, we weren’t really done until just shortly before leaving. It was a pretty busy weekend.

Today was spent entirely in the van except for two quick stops for food. We went about 15 miles from our house and got on I-94 and didn’t let it leave our site the whole day. Mazie did a great job all things considering. We fired up a bunch of different music on the new iPod Classic that we got for the trip. Mazie enjoyed a full watching of Charlotte’s Web as well. Tunes for the day included Son Volt, Willie Nelson and Frank Sinatra among others.

New iPod Classic 160G

Mon, 19 May 2008 00:00:00 -0500

Before heading out on the Summer of Love, our 6-week family road trip, I suggested to Tammy that we may want to consider getting one of the big iPod Classics. We are going to put a lot of time in the van on this trip, and the van has a full AV input that can take the audio signal as well as video. We picked up the 160G unit before the trip and I was really happy to be able to put every single on of our 15,000 songs on it as well as a dozen movies for Mazie and even had enough room to put 4 rented movies on it for us.

Today was the first day of use and I was really happy we splurged for this extra. It was just great to have all of our music on hand at any whim. It was also nice being able to play movies for Mazie without having to fumble around with the DVDs and then navigate their menus to get them playing.

I love this use case for rentals too. We dumped 4 rentals on the iPod and will just watch them as we wish over the next 4 weeks of the trip.

We also happened to have a set of compact speakers to use with our other flash-memory based iPod. I’m still getting life out of the iPod Mini that I have using it only for kids music. But now we can drop the iPod Classic in it on our stays and enjoy some tunes in between the drives too.

Sun, 18 May 2008 09:25:32 -0500

In 24 hours we leave for our 6-week trip around the western US. Much to do before leaving.

Sat, 17 May 2008 13:01:00 -0500

Have now officially begun travel packing for Summer of Love - West Coast.

Summer of Love Preview

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0500

This summer is going to be filled with a lot of travel. I’m taking the summer off after leaving my current role, before I get going on a new thing. Tammy has given it a name, the Summer of Love. We’ve even got a wiki setup to build out our itinerary.

I’ve been asked by a number of people where we are going on our West Coast tour. The cities are listed on the wiki, and you could do a Google Earth Preview of the Summer of Love, but how about a video tour!

Find and attach video that was [vimeo.com/835067.](http://vimeo.com/835067.)

The music in the video is Windfall by Son Volt. One of my favorite songs, by one of my favorite bands. Notably, it is also the traditional first song to begin a road trip with.