Ten Days Unplugged

Later this morning Sid, Julia and I are abandoning the cold, heading to the airport to fly to Los Angelas, and then to meet up with Julia's father and step mom to fly out Saturday morning for a long-planned vacation in Panama. We've had this thing on the schedule for over a year, and it's exciting to finally have it happening. Consequently I'm not going to be plugged into anything electronic for the duration, and I can't wait.

I decided to throw a bunch of mass market paperbags in the luggage to catch up with during all the airport and plane time. I'm going to plow through as many of these as I can, and they are all fun titles.

See you in ten days!

Photo Finish Friday

This week's offering is a shot through the windshield of my rental car of a stretch of Bray Road, a short stretch of country road near Elkhorn, WI.

The significance of this is that Bray Road is famous for The Beast of Bray Road, a critter some think may be a Bigfoot, or even, , a werewolf! From Wikipedia:

The Beast of Bray Road (or the Bray Road Beast) is a cryptozoological creature first reported in the 1980s on a rural road outside of Elkhorn, Wisconsin. The same label has been applied well beyond the initial location, to any unknown creature from southern Wisconsin or northern Illinois that is described as having similar characteristics to those reported in the initial set of sightings.

Bray Road itself is a quiet country road near the community of Elkhorn. The rash of claimed sightings in the late 1980s and early 1990s prompted a local newspaper, the Walworth County Week, to assign reporter Linda Godfrey to cover the story. Godfrey initially was skeptical, but later became convinced of the sincerity of the witnesses. Her series of articles later became a book titled The Beast of Bray Road: Trailing Wisconsin's Werewolf.

I've read the book, and it covers more than just the Bray Road sightings, but a history of sightings in that part of the country; throughout Wisconsin in particular, and into Michigan. These sightings continue today, and author Linda Godfrey, who I've had fun exchanging messages with via twitter on several occasions, does a great job keeping up with these stories.

So Sunday when I flew into Milwaukee I took the opportunity to drive out and visit Bray Road. I drove up and down it in daylight, then again after dark, hoping to see something . . . but the only beast out there that evening was me. I was kind of disappointed.

The skeptical inquirer may ask with a smirk, "You don't really believe in this stuff, do you?" and I will answer, "Of course I do! Life is more fun that way. . . . "




Photo Finish Friday is the brainchild of writer/blogger Leah J. Utas.

Highlights from Milwaukee

I spent the first half of this past week in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, for work. The highlight, by far, was Monday night, when I went out to dinner with Jon and Ruth Jordan, they of Crimespree Magazine fame. We met at the Motor Restaurant at the Harley Davidson Museum and basically had the place to ourselves on account of the big snowstorm that had been blowing through the city all day. After our meal we went back to their house and talked books, writers, music, comics, and a whole bunch of other stuff.

These two people are well-loved in the crime/mystery fiction community, and for good reason: they are just great folks. Immediately we were jabbering away like old friends, and it was a perfect way to spend a long evening away from home. That is something we spoke of, in fact, that this particular community of artists is so supportive of one another, and are generally every bit as cool in person as one would hope them to be. I really had a great time hanging out with them, and look forward to doing so again.

No, they weren't dressed this fancy; I swiped this image off the 'net because I didn't take pictures while we were hanging out

I can't figure out how to embed the video, but if you go to THIS PAGE and scroll down a bit you will see a little video interview with them. You'll also get a glimpse of their huge library of books that fill shelves in every room of their house. I referred to it as a Temple to Pop Culture, and that ain't far from the truth.

Other Than That. . . .

I'd already put in a full day's work at the customer site before meeting Jon and Ruth. The weather had been fine the previous day, Sunday, when I went out for a drive in the countryside (and stumbled into Lake Geneva, home and resting place of E. Gary Gygax, and the birthplace of Dungeons and Dragons!*). Monday morning it was snowing steadily, and bare streets were beginning to get covered pretty well already. It snowed all day, and must have piled up in excess of six or eight inches. Here is a shot of the customer site, and up the street where it was located.

It was a cool, if roughish, neighborhood. A pretty tasty Mexican restaurant was just down the street. I had lunch there on Monday, then went back for dinner on Tuesday.

This restaurant was just down the street; I loved the signs painted on the wall a few blocks down.

I played with the navigation thing I downloaded onto my phone, where it guides you around via GPS. That was kind of fun. The wonders of technology.

If work hadn't been something of a hassle I would have liked to spend more time checking out Milwaukee. It was beautiful with all the snow, and kids sledding down hills around several parks my navigations took me by. I visited Mystery One bookstore, but would have liked to explore even more. Hopefully I can make it back in summer some time. Julia has some family property just north on Washington Island which we keep talking about visiting. Perhaps one of these summers, sooner than later, we can head up there, with a day or two to check out Milwaukee as well.

One Other Thing. . . .

Last week I was in Chicago, and this one I was in Milwaukee. As many of you may know, the NFL season has wound down, and the Chicago Bears play the Green Bay Packers on Sunday to decide who will represent the NFC in the Super Bowl. It has been fun listening to both sides of the debate on the local sports radio stations -- this is the oldest rivalry in football, and it is heated. I almost regret that I won't be able to see the game! I don't really care who wins, all I know is whoever does win is who I'll probably be pulling for in the Super Bowl.


* I kinda hoped I'd wrap up early on Tuesday so I could head back to Lake Geneva and explore the D&D aspect a little more, maybe find where Gygax is buried, etc., but things didn't work out. Maybe next time! It was still cool, though. When I was in junior high, Lake Geneva was one of those places I desperately wanted to visit, because it seemed that all that was cool in the world at the time was originating there.

Buddha on a Bike

More about the Garden of a 1000 Buddhas, and the chopper that will ultimately bring peace to my life!

I Can't Wait

I mean, I really can't freakin' wait.

July 22nd.

Let the Travels Begin

Last week I traveled to Chicago for work. As I type, I am in a Hampton Inn smack in the middle of downtown Milwaukee, also for a work trip. I ventured out on Sunday for this trip, which I don't normally do, because I need to be back no later than Thursday in order to turn around on Friday and begin the big family trip to Panama! So this year is starting off with a lot of airportin'.

One of the things I decided to do this year is keep a better record of the things I do and observe on my travels, more as a way for me to train myself to observe things better. I bought a moleskin journal to use for nothing but this purpose. The other night while waiting for some delicious Tower Pizza to be made I sat at one of their tables with a glass of beer and wrote down the events of last week's trip in retrospect. Tonight I transcribed it, mainly out of curiosity to get an idea for how many words fit on one page in this thing (approx. 230, give or take 10 - 15). I figured since I took the time to transcribe it, which I might not always do, I may as well put it here. You'll quickly learn just how exciting this work travel thing can be!

1. Work Trip to Chicago (Midtronics) 01/10 – 01/13

01/10: Travel Day (Delta Airlines)

Early flight (6:00 AMish) Monday into O’Hare, then drove about 30 minutes south to Willowbrook. My room was at the Holiday Inn, one of those that was probably nice about 15 – 20 years ago. Lingering smell from when cigarettes were allowed, dingy carpeting in the hallways, etc. Still, the room wasn’t bad and at least the shower didn’t appear designed for Halflings.

It was sunny and maybe upper 30s when I arrived. By nighttime it started snowing, though, and was windy and nasty and cold. I had too much lunch at a Buffalo Wild Wings when I got there, but that didn’t stop me from ordering a pizza later to watch the NCAA Championship Game between Auburn and Oregon. The Ducks lost. I worked on a short story called “A Dog Named Buddy” with one eye on the game. Only ate about a third of the pizza. Stayed up too late too.

01/11: On Site at Midtronics, Day One

Made it to the customer site around 8:00. Recognized my contact from the user’s conference in Vegas last October. Nice enough guy. Place makes battery systems. Main building for office people is like a huge cubicle farm. I couldn’t work in this environment.

They ordered in lunch from that sandwich chain, Jimmy John’s. Pretty much sucked. I think one just opened up in Missoula, but I’m not sure. Won’t be going there, that’s for sure. Anyway, I hate when customers order in lunch because there is no break then from being ON. I planned to go to my hotel and work out since I didn’t in the morning, but couldn’t.

Was supposed to meet Dan O’Shea for dinner but weather snafus forced a rain check. I ended up going to this awesome market that I thought was a Whole Foods knock-off that turned out to be a Polish version of the same. All weird European labels, weird food in the deli, stuff like that. Also had stuff like Amy’s and other brands that I recognized from the Good Food Store, but it was still cool. Loaded up on a bunch of fruit so I wouldn’t eat total shit all week.

Then proceeded to go have breakfast for dinner from friggin’ Denny’s. Called Julia, crashed hard, no writing or movie watching.

01/12: On Site at Midtronics, Day Two

Customer was having network/server problems unrelated to my work, so it slowed our progress. Should have wrapped up by noon but was there until 5:00 PM. Had a meeting with a production bigshot. Crazy how out of touch so many of these guys are with what actually gets stuff out the door of their own place. It’s a lot like politics. The world is run by assholes.

Working lunch ordered in again – this time pizza. Tried to hold out but failed; intended to have my fruit for my lunch. Did, but also had a couple slices. I only mention this because my contact asked if we have pizza in Montana. I said of course we do, and we make actual slices instead of the stupid squares they cut it into in the Midwest. Then he asked if there is even an airport in Missoula. It blows me away that people ask some of these questions.

Did hit the gym in the AM, which was good, but not in the evening. Had BW3s again, worked on my story, then watched Double Dare. Zoe Bell. Yowza.

01/13: Travel Day (Delta Airlines)

Didn’t have early flight. Slept in, then drove to O’Hare. Hour delay because of weather in Minneapolis, but eventually made it. Lunch at Chili’s in Minneapolis airport for about the 1000th time. Read a bit. People watched. Then boarded to Missoula. Didn’t get 1st Class upgrade, those bastards. Got home an hour late, then truck acted like it didn’t want to start. That hasn’t happened before. Made it home, crashed.

Trip Reading Details:

Finished Dead Lift by Rachel Brady
Read Deliverance by James Dickey
Read most of The Anti-American Manifesto by Ted Rall

Wrote 1431 words

Photo Finish Friday

Last October Julia and I visited the Garden of 1000 Buddhas in Arlee, which is a beautiful, work-in-progress site. We were walking around the grounds, then went into the shed where all the statues are being made and stored, and both stopped on our heels with gasps and exclamations of "Holy shit!"

This magnificent Norton chopper was donated, and will be raffled off as a fundraiser. I know there would be much more peace and love in our house if this sucker was parked in my garage.



Photo Finish Friday is the brainchild of writer/blogger Leah J. Utas.

Photo Finish Friday

Taken with the camera on my phone yesterday while out with the Big Dog.

Is that the face of an old dog happy to be out for a walk or what?




Photo Finish Friday is the brainchild of writer/blogger Leah J. Utas.

My Wife is a Dirty Girl

While grinding up veggies for juice the other morning, I showed Julia this carrot. She demanded I photograph it. Oh, the shame. . . .

Winter Wonderland

This is why I love Montana in the winter. These were shot on a quick hike at the foot of the Rattlesnake Wilderness on the NE edge of Missoula, maybe a 15 minute drive across town from my driveway, up the canyon to the trailhead. Wish I'd used my better camera, but these shots still capture how friggin' beautiful this season can be.

Tuesday is MACHETE Day

My favorite movie of 2010 comes out on DVD this Tuesday. For over the top, pulp-influenced bloody fun, you don't get much better. At least if you're me. I can't wait. Might have to have an Awesome Movie Double Feature with this one and Black Dynamite.

Flash Fiction, or True Crime?

Got the following in an email last week:

The mom was at home asleep, her daughter and daughter’s friend were in the living room watching movies. Out of the corner of their eye, they saw someone in a dark hoodie coming up the walk way. They figured it was grandpa, taking his late night break from his Wal-Mart job. They didn’t pay any attention when he came in the house and stood in the living room. After about 10 minutes, they turned around and saw a big native guy sitting at the kitchen table, eating one of their pieces of pizza! He was really drunk, didn’t even seem to realize where he was, asked if he could use the bathroom.

Then the daughter and her friend went into the mom's room and woke her up. The mom shut them in her room and went out and told the guy to leave. He wouldn’t leave; she told him she was calling the police. She called them and went in her room with the girls. 20 minutes later the police finally showed up, but the guy had wandered out. The cops looked all over for him but couldn’t find him. They did, however, find 3 other people walking in the neighborhood that had outstanding warrants, and arrested them!

When the mom got up this morning, she discovered the guy had peed on her living room rug. Then at 7am, the cops called her to say they’d found and arrested the man. He’d been so drunk he ended up in the emergency room being treated for alcohol poisoning, and apparently has no recollection of being in her house.

What do you think, true story or fiction?

Actually it's a true story, and all this went down not half-a-dozen blocks from here. The names and source have been changed to protect the innocent. Kinda funny, really, though I'm sure at the time it was pretty friggin' scary.

New Years Eve in the Yaak

For something different, Julia and I decided to drive up after she got off work on Friday and spend New Years Eve in the Yaak. If you are wondering where the hell that is, it's a little valley in the Cabinet Mountains in the upper northwest corner of Montana, with a river and a town named after it.

Mapquest said it would be about a 4.5 hour drive. It ended up taking us seven hours to get there, though 30-45 minutes of that was for a lunch stop in Ronan to feast on burgers from Lynn's Drive-In. I used to live in Ronan; I took these shots of the Mission Mountains just south of the town proper; the peak you see is the highest point, called McDonald Peak.

It took so long because the roads were pretty bad. We had gotten an arctic blast of weather in the days leading up to the year's end, and while it was just sunny and gorgeous (as you can see) it was very cold and the roads were still covered in snow and ice. They weren't suicidally bad, mind you, one just had to be cautious. I kind of enjoy that kind of driving. In many ways, needing to be so mindful on questionable terrain seems a bit safer to me than blasting along at 80+ on a highway getting road-hypnotized.

At Kalispell we turned west on Highway 2. As the sun started going down that slowed us a bit too. This is really a beautiful stretch of highway, and as night falls the biggest concern is large animals in the road. I took this shot at sunset while I drove.

Little did I know, one of the trip highlights was about to occur. If you look at the white slope just to the right of the road ahead, a rare opportunity was lurking there. As we passed and I set my camera aside, Julia suddenly turned in her seat and shouted, "A lynx! That was lynx back there!" Now that is as rare a critter as one can see out here. Could have been a lynx, might have been a bobcat . . . but either way, it's a rare sight. And of course I didn't see it. But I'm glad she did. This is what one looks like, for those who wonder:

Finally we arrived at our destination, the Yaak River Lodge. We stayed in the Elk Suite.

This is Zippy, the stuffed badger just inside the front door.

Here is an image that crystallizes what I think of when I think of winter in the Yaak.

So why would I have an image about this place at all? I, like many people, learned of this area via the writings of author Rick Bass, primarily in his 1991 work called Winter - Notes from Montana. He's written some other books about the area, and has been a tireless activist toward preserving its wilderness status. I reread Winter in preparation for the trip, just to familiarize myself again to see how it has changed since Bass arrived in the late 80s. It's still remote, but the change is pretty drastic. From the maintained highway leading there, and the power lines, it was clear it was much different. I was curious to know what kind of people live here now, though, and how they differed from the characters in Bass's early book. We headed out to the Yaak River Tavern for their New Year's festivities to see. Here's a picture of the place the next morning.

We had a good time. There were a lot of people there, and a live band playing country and bluegrass, and some food spread out on a big table. Everyone we talked to was friendly (the real estate woman we were introduced to rolled her eyes when Gary, the guy from the lodge, told her we'd heard of the Yaak from reading Rick Bass, and said, "Well, we don't believe all of this place should be wilderness, we believe we should be able to use some of it too!"), but the crowd was not really what I expected. There weren't any ruffians there, the people were surprisingly, as Julia remarked, genteel. I asked Gary how people make their living since there isn't any real work anymore with logging in the tank, and he said "most of the husbands travel for work." So the impression I was left with is that these are folks who get their money elsewhere but choose to live in this beautiful place. I don't begrudge them that at all, I was just expecting it to be a little more, I don't know, outlaw. I expected the ban on smoking to be eschewed, I thought there would be a collection of bearded guys who looked like they'd been out in the woods for weeks on end (saw a couple of those types in Libby on the way up), etc. But it wasn't that.

Anyway, here's the arrival of midnight inside the tavern. The bulk of the crowd was still outside watching fireworks. The annoying blower of the noisemaker is my blushing bride.



Across the street is the Dirty Shame Saloon. That is the place where Bass and his girlfriend would spend time with the other people who inhabited the Yaak in the 80s, watching football on a tiny screen with the generator running, and eating burgers and drinking beer.

I asked Gary why all the action was at the Yaak River Tavern instead of the Dirty Shame, and he laughed. He said the Dirty Shame has always had a reputation as a rough place, and kind of a biker bar, but that a few years ago it was purchased by Christians who had instituted a two-drink maximum, and made it all cozy. As a result, the meat of its reputation had been scrubbed away. That should change though, as apparently they are selling out.

The next morning we had breakfast and headed out. For the trip home I turned south on Highway 56, which links up with Highway 200 about 45 miles west of Thompson Falls. That stretch of 56 was about the most beautiful drive I've ever undertaken. I should have taken pictures, but I really didn't think it would capture the beauty. It was bright and sunny, with the trees and landscape heavy under snow. Animal tracks were everywhere. The Bull River ran along the highway. It was breathtaking. Julia kept dozing off, and there was little traffic, so it felt like I had it all to myself. Calling it a "winter wonderland" doesn't do it justice. I feel like I want to go back right now!

Once we hit 200 before long we weren't crowded by mountains and trees any longer, and the skies clouded up a bit. The highway was crowded at times, however, by herds of these critters.

All told, we probably saw a couple hundred bighorns. It's a hazard, but there are plenty of warning signs.

It was a great trip, if a little brief. I'm looking forward to getting back up in the Yaak during the summer time. The country we passed through is as beautiful as anywhere in the world, and I'm reminded again how lucky I am to live here. It's simply magnificent.