2,050 miles and eight days later, we’re (the Westy and me) in Redmond WA!  Great trip and all systems performed as hoped.  Only exception was getting off an exit today in the greater Seattle area and my shelf on the side door broke loose.  Everything on that door rolled all over the bus until I could eventually get to the hotel and clean up the mess.  Dang it, I knew it was a weak spot going in and should have taken care of it before I left.  Sunday morning project at Home Depot will take care of it in short order.

Nate Hendlin – Brut Man

My dad passed away last year in his one hundredth year and when going through all his things, one of the items I kept was his bottle of Brut.  I can remember even as an 8 to 10-year-old seeing his bottle of Brut on his dresser (next to his NYC Playboy Club card and in the lower drawer his Playboy collection since the inception of the magazine).   Anyway, today at a truck stop in Central Nowhere, WA, I saw in the rest room a vending machine with a shot of Brut for only 10 cents!  Shy on a dime, I thought I would pass on honoring my dad at this truck stop, plus having to touch the machine.  Then I noticed the OTHER machine and began to wonder…which is usually purchased first…the shot of cologne or the condom?  If you’re like me, and I know I am, once you have your Brut on, do you naturally want to purchase condoms?  Or if you think you’re gonna get lucky, do you buy the condom first and as an afterthought splash a bit of Brut to guarantee success?  Way too much open road thinking time.  One last thought here…who thought it was a good idea for these machines in truck stops?  How often do they run out? Who services them?  (Who services the truck drivers) Is it a franchise and we could produce their annual business conference?

Friday photos – the haze continues!

See the photos from the drive on Friday.  Haze as near as you could see.  New statement since you could not see far – duh.  Focused on covering as much ground as possible on Friday and also needed to take a 3-hour break in Missoula MT for conference calls and lunch.  Ahhh Missoula, small town, big-time rules.  Found a city park in Missoula to spend a few hours but was concerned about why this park would have access to the river, beautiful riverfront, benches, parkland, etc but all the parking was reserved – AND nobody was parked in any of the spots.  Well, I parked in one of the spots and started to work on email.  Sure enough, in 20 minutes a 3-wheeled meter maid vehicle virtually pulls a shitty in front of my bus and is now pointing at my front door in an attack position.  Realizing we now have a ‘situation’, I jump up to the front seat and exit the bus to chat with Lovely Rita.  I greet her and explain my situation and she says ‘There is no public parking here.  If you want to go to a pay lot, there is one about a ¼ mile down the river’.  ‘Understood’, I say.  Can I have 5 minutes to finish my work and I’ll mosey over?  ‘Absolutely not’ was the reply.  ‘What kind of message would that send to the others?’  And I offered ‘nobody else is in this lot, who is there to send a message to?’  Her final pleasantry was ‘Move it now’.

Friday night in Coeur d’Alene

Here are a couple photos from my RV evening in Coeur d’Alene.  Cute couple on their ‘deck’ with their two dogs.  And another shot of a tricked out campground with LED lighting AND the illuminated star at the top of their flagpole.  Linda and I will need to figure out what our ‘look’ should be pretty soon!

Meet some peeps along the way

At a random truck stop, I met Melody and Eric, Washington retirees who wanted to chat about their former bus…a 1959 VW Transporter with a flatbed behind the cab.  Those were very cool and command a pretty penny today.  Well, Melody and Eric commit 6 months of every year to volunteering at various lighthouses (yes, lightghouses) around the country.  Mostly on the west coast, but they are really champing at the bit to get to the east coast to work some lighthouses and, in particular, one that will be closing in the next couple of years.  Totally lovely couple and I just LOVE meeting people like this.

OK stonies – this next one is for you

Meet Tara, formally from the Midwest (Ohio), moved to LA to get into the marketing agency biz and wound up producing video projects as part of her work.  She told me she moved up to PNW and I thought she moved up to go to work for P&W, a marketing agency up in the Pacific North West.  HEY – PNW, I get it.  I’ll start using this term tomorrow with Keith, David and Lenny.   Anyway, she is part of an agency here where she is producing a number of videos for their client…wait for it…BOB MARLEY branded and approved pot.  She was just filming in a growing location that is approved to carry the BM name.  We chatted quite a bit about the growing issues around legalization, one in particular from our experience in Denver this summer.  Lots of consumers love the idea of legalized pot, but from the business owners’ perspective, if you are running a construction or telecom firm that requires drug testing to be on a job site, they lose applicants who can’t pass the piss test.  Lots of great tax dollars for the state, but not great for biz until a comprehensive test can be developed for THC.  I would think with all the money the pot industry is raking in, they should be on the forefront of developing testing that can determine when a person last consumed pot.  Either way, I am not at liberty to say if Tara had samples of the product she represents.  (Hey Tara!)

Linda arriving tomorrow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

In the meantime, drinking beers in an aLoft in Redmond, thinking about applying for a programmer position at Microsoft tomorrow.  Do they still have stock options for employees that make you rich in 5 years?