August 18th, 2002
holy cow, it's all over.
i'm not gonna write much of an update here because i need to type the journal i kept while i was on the road. let's just say there's a lot of worthless crap there. anyway, i was in DC when i decided to go home. i was tired of spending money and getting bored with driving all day. ahead of me was new england and frankly they can shove their annoying accents for all i care! regrettably i did not make it to arizona, new mexico or southern utah but they're near, so i can make that little trip any time in the future. my truck is falling apart, so i had to head on home.

upon returning to the house, the cats acted as if i wasn't gone at all and whined for me to feed them. the dog smelled my feet. and my parents were pleased, of course. right away my dad started hinting that i needed to get a job. so instead of thinking about that, i made a list of DVDs i need to buy and ate pretzels.

welp, i'm tired of typing so EAT MY FUCK. the journal will be given to those who ask for it. thanks for reading, all 6 or 7 of you.

proposed next stop: my recliner!

andrew beames
8/18/2002 11:20 AM

August 5th, 2002
you don't get an update today for being bastards. yes, you know who you are.

the end of the army of northern virginia came about here at the appomattox courthouse
also here's a gift i received from some random person at a truck stop near roanoke, virginia.

proposed next stop: morgantown, west virginia

andrew beames
8/5/2002 11:15 PM

August 1st, 2002
ahoy! i have made it safely to the residence of Chipster, lawyerin' redneck extraordinare. he has no food but he's a good host anyway. a day's calories come from beer, which i have had a bit of thusfar. bud light, in true southern fashion, of course. speaking of southern dining habits, tonight i will have the privilege of eating deer. DEER. the funniest thing about this is Chip's step-brother is visiting this evening. he is a six year old romanian kid and should be the last person on earth to want to eat deer (think "bambi"). but apparently he knows more about the killing and preparation of deer than LL Bean himself. wonderful.

so i must admit that i like this area a lot between the hours of 7PM and 7AM. the other 12 hours of the day are unusually muggy and hot, which only elderly folk can enjoy.

here comes something completely tangent: driving into dunn, NC (nearby) i went past more than a few mobile homes. one of them was funnier than the others though because of what had become of their "stairway". firstly, you know mobile homes are generally 3 ft. or so off the ground, so they need stairs. usually, the stairs consist of a few planks of wood, nails and 10 square feet of cheap astro turf. sometimes, you'll find a metal staircase, complete with railing! and then there's a few cases where there are no stairs at all (i've seen this a few times and these are houses people obviously live in). however, the other day i came across the worst construction of stairs i've ever seen. the astro turf was there but the wood was not. in its place was about 10 cinder blocks, some standing some laying on their sides. these formed a rough stairway that looked like it was about to fall over. half-covering the cinder blocks was some brown turf. it was excellent. yeah i typed too much for that.

i should be here thru sunday b/c i have a fantasy football league draft to do. then i'm off to Yankee territory. LOCK YOUR DOORS, AISHA! (you may, however, unlock the doors of your sisters. in fact, i beg it of you!) later, party people.

chip's cat is scary.

i didn't take any good pics lately so here's something for the guys: Aisha!

proposed next stop: district of columbia

andrew beames
8/1/2002 3:45 PM

July 28th, 2002
so far, over the course of this trip, i've seen a lot of strange and unusual things; however, the most thought- provoking thing may be the simplist. people don't recognize the word "please". i grew up saying this word regardless of how casual or mundane the situation and it doesn't matter whether i'm at home or the middle of a ghetto in atlanta, it's habit and i'll say it again. now, once in a while i will get a genuine response like "you're welcome" or "sure" but, more often than not, i receive a "huh?" or "what?" as if the word no longer exists in the english language! i then follow up with a "sure" to clarify that i would, indeed, like ketchup with that or another glass of water or whatever. additionally, i'm pretty sure my "thank you"s are falling on deaf ears. but this is out of my control so it's pointless to worry about it. fuck you, america!

wait, i take that back. today just outside of charleston, SC i ran out of gas on the freeway. no, there's nothing (new) wrong with my car; in fact, i had told myself about 20 minutes before then to refill. unfortunately, i was listening to one of my favorite oasis songs and i have a habit of singing along and i had completely zoned out, passing several exits and their rich preserves of black gold. so i run out of gas, but i'm directly perpendicular to a rest area. running across 3 lanes of freeway i come across this mullet-sportin local and ask him if he's headed towards charleston. he is and he is going to give me a ride to the next exit and back. all i had to do was buy him a pack of cigs which cost me a whole two-fitty. turns out i was about 500 yards from the next exit, which was right around the corner. gratitude was exchanged and i was on my way to charleston.

which brings me to another tangent. if you've been to the south (which does NOT include florida, it's a completely different nation) you've probably noticed something about the place names. pretty much every town, city, or field of grass used the same formula when it was founded to name itself. it goes as such:

person's name/color + burg/ville/town/ton

this NEVER fails. i've looked at parts of south carolina on a map and noticed that like four consecutive towns on a small state route were named ville, then there's a burg, then 3 more villes. this is then repeated in some part of tennessee or alabama. it's the damnedest thing. oh, and they all have waffle houses.

picturesque Charleston harbor and its USS Yorktown

proposed next stop: rural north carolina

andrew beames
7/28/2002 8:00 PM

July 24th, 2002
i finally made it to the end of America's Wang, Florida, for some wonderful Key West action. though my truck constantly voices its displeasure by emitting a loud squeaking noise when i'm traveling less than 60 mph i trudge on. soon i will be able to stop and have it repaired while i get a free stay in North Carolina. if it remains unfixable it's going to be a hell of trip on the way back. but i'll live, annoyed. just as long as the axle doesn't fall off. i don't count this out. so get your last good-byes in now!
anyway, for a change, the weather was good while i was outside so i had the oppurtunity to enjoy the keys in all their sun-baked glory. i can see why lost souls like hemmingway decided to spend chunks of their lives there. it could be a great inspiration for the blocked, but inversely, it could contribute to lacking production by promoting a lifestyle of apathy. well, since i'm not going to repeat this twice (the journal got most of it) i'll finish up with: VISIT THIS PLACE IF YOU CAN!
and a good evening to all.
michelle, cheer up.

look at the color of the water here in key west!

proposed next stop: rural north carolina

andrew beames
7/24/2002 9:10 PM

July 22nd, 2002
first of all, let me direct you to my last update which never made it to the internet b/c i wrote it then realized i didn't have an internet connection to upload it with. so you get two updates in one this evening!
now that that's out of the way i can get down to business. yes, i'm in southern florida or as it's more widely known, "Cuba Jr." so i went into this wal-mart here because they sell sunny D for so cheap it's worth venturing into this hell hole and i felt kind of weird. now we all know wal-mart already has that odd feeling to it, but this time it was different. i couldn't place it and it was bothering me for some time while i tried to decide exactly snack cookie i was going to have for dinner tonight. i wasn't sure if i was going to go with the sensible snack wells, the always fattening oreos or some vanilla wafers. all these choices only added to my general uneasiness, especially with spanish being rattled off behind me by an irate mother whose half-dozen children each wanted their own type of cookie. it was then that i was hit with what was perplexing me: i was the only white guy i had seen in 60 miles. this included the the rangers at the everglades, the woman at the gas station north of miami and every single person in this wal-mart and not to mention the indian woman who was running the hotel i'm in now. at this point the situation cleared up and i made for the oreos. i took the ol' black 'n' white to celebrate this new occurance. it was almost refreshing. i was the odd man out for once. naturally, nothing actually came of this until i went to the check-out to buy my oreos, sunny D and boxers (i don't feel like doing laundry yet) where i encountered a black cashier. now i've paid for $10 worth of items about 100 times so far on this trip with a credit and not once have they asked me for an ID but this time was different. to this woman i must have appeared like an alien or something b/c she instantly asked for ID then concentrated on my ID, credit card and signature for a good two minutes. so this is what discrimination is about? thankfully, in this day this is all a person has to put up with. at least, i'm assuming this. i'm as far from an American minority as you get, so it's probably worse for actual minorities. but it was just unusual to be second-guessed for something as minor as a $10 purchase.
in other news, florida is a dump. sure, it's nice for 2 square blocks in each coastal city where they put the hotels but everywhere else is falling apart, filled with bugs or both. i encountered my first cockroach EVER the other day at my last hotel. it had long since died and was stuck to the floor of the bathroom. i picked it up and flushed it. then there's outside the houses. apparently, third behind only cubans and old jews, in numbers, are mosquitos here. they WILL eat you alive (sort of like the jews and your pockets. hah!). i had the great displeasure of wandering onto a trail, while i was in the everglades, that went into some jungle regions. half a mile later, having forgotten bug spray, i was practically running out of there to save myself. i'm certain i will wake up with my legs covered in little bumps tomorrow. it was the same the other night when i was trying to sleep. they were all over me. so now i'm not sure which is more disgusting: the bugs or the humidity. either way, i'm getting the hell out of here once i get done with the keys tomorrow. by the way, it's supposed to be overcast. (SURPRISE).
i itch a lot. oh and chip (for the ladies), prepare that couch.

i spotted an alligator in the everglades.

proposed next stop: the florida keys

andrew beames
7/22/2002 5:45 PM

July 20th, 2002
hello there, faithful reader(s). i've done it. i've reached the atlantic ocean! lucky for me i think there's a hurricane going down here in st. augustine, fl. the palm trees (palm trees! can you believe it?) are blowing swiftly, the lightning is slicing apart the sky and the thunder is as loud as i've heard. what's new. anyway, i know i stayed in a hotel just recently but it has come to my attention that if a person doesn't shower every couple days in this environment there's a fine film of sweat, grease, dirt, etc. and etc. that develops on you. it's disgusting. so, like a puss i have given in and here i am in air-conditioned bliss enjoying a steve mcqueen movie. for some reason the bank robbers keep stopping to eat when they're so close to the mexican border already. where's the logic?! his face is all over the paper but he stops regardless. at least there's some fine shotgunning action.
in more serious news, my truck is slowly, but surely, falling apart. first it was the coolant leak now it's a squeak based around the steering. so whenever i'm going slowly i have to hear this goddamn squeak. thankfully it let's up around 45 mph. you should've heard it before i got it lubed! if i was a religious man i'd say the devil himself was trying to dismantle my trip but then i'd sound like the people of this area. you wouldn't believe the number of churches they have around here. instead, i'll just say i am short on luck. that's just how life goes.

the field known as andersonville in georgia.

proposed next stop: the everglades

andrew beames
7/20/2002 5:30 PM

July 17th, 2002
bible belt, ahoy!

the missouri memorial located on Vicksburg National Battlefield.

proposed next stop: pensacola, florida

andrew beames
7/17/2002 5:45 PM

July 7th, 2002 - Corpus Christie, TX
yesterday, i decided it was time i find some beach here in texas so i ventured to south padre island, which is way down south near brownsville. being the consummate lucky one, i stumbled into texas' premier spring break spot. although it wasn't that time of year the beach was still infested with large numbers of families so i took off north to see other areas of the Gulf Coast. eventually i made it up to the northern portion of the padre island national seashore where one can camp right on the beach for the price of admission. for two weeks (officially, but i read stories about people who abused the policy for an entire summer) one can have his or her own private beachfront property, with the occassional fisherman driving by. well last night i pull over on portion of beach and i've got at least 200 yards between me and any others. i set up my tent and for the first time in my life saw the stars as they were intended to be seen. i'm used to being able to just make out the big dipper but here away from the city lights the sky is blanketed with distant suns almost to the point of appearing cluttered or dirty. at one point i even saw a comet before it burned itself out! i ended up marveling at the extent of it all, experienced the usual existential issues again, then went to bed specifically thinking about how grateful i was for the lack of insects.
naturally i woke up in the midst of what i can only describe as a bug orgy. it appears that the morning hours at the beach are when the horny ants do their business best because they were EVERYWHERE. there were the pathetic male ants walking about and the arrogant female ants showing off their wings. i applied some insect repellent and got the hell out of that area (they had since taken over my truck, too) to do some tanning. ten feet away, i was able to escape the wrath of the bugs only to have it replaced by ultraviolet rays, which are sure to be felt for a much longer period of time. i made sure to get both sides equally burnt and returned to the brothel after a few hours. the ants weren't really flying around anymore and i was much relieved. they had instead retreated to the shade since they were obviously spent from all the sex. the hilarious thing was that some of them apparently fucked to death. i would nudge them but they were as good as dead, or really passed out. this made them easier for me to catch as i threw them from the tent's surface and onto the sand where the large crabs would eat them (yes, crabs. they lived in the sand!).
i decided i'd stay at a hotel tonight because the ocean makes a person smell BAD and i was going to be sunburnt equally bad so it's best for me to be in an air-conditioned hotel. also, my shampoo bottle leaked a bit and mixed slightly with my water container, which had also leaked, so my sleeping bag isn't in very good condition for sleeping. i'm red like a baboon's ass at the moment and i'm positive i'm going to be sore like one tomorrow (they like promiscuous bi-sexual sex). i'm already in pain but i imagine it'll get worse before it gets better, but that's the price you pay for not being whiter than a west virginian.
now i'm hungry but it hurts to go out in that heat! oh well.

the beach near corpus christi.

proposed next stop: new orleans, la

andrew beames
7/7/2002 6:30 PM

July 4th, 2002 - San Antonio, TX
so, i'm deep in the heart of texas and i know it's taboo and boring to talk about this sort of thing, but... the weather sucks. as a long time resident of the pacific northwest i'm almost to the point where i'm tired of rain. however, each summer comes the time when the weather in the region is actually pleasant and doesn't make one regret where he or she lives his life. but for better or worse this year i decided i didn't want to experience the beautiful washington summer. instead, i was going to bless myself with the hot, humid, sticky, uncomfortable, but sunny, weather patterns of the rest of the country. this was the plan when i had first set out. for about a week it worked.. then i left the northwest. about the time i hit the rockies it all went downhill. for the last two weeks it's been daily overcasts and nightly thunderstorms with periods of heavy rain scattered throughtout. oh and did i mention it's still been at least 85 when all this is going? and oftentimes that's the night time temperature. so for a general summary: it's hot, it's wet and, oddly enough, i'm getting used to it. so used to it, i can make fun of all the people here who rely on air conditioning. NEVER do people drive with windows down and every location is freezing. up to now, i'd never given people below the mason-dixon line much credit for anything, but i had always figured they were hardy because they really lived in an awful environment. now, i just think they're pathetic. i suppose it could just be a city thing too, though. they didn't have air conditioners in 'switchblade'.
yeah it was just a weather tangent and a poor one, at that.

they have the san jose mission in san antonio.

proposed next stop: Laredo, Texas

andrew beames
7/4/2002 7:00 PM

June 30th, 2002 - Oklahoma City, OK
well, first of all, for the people who are waiting for this: kates does exist.
the night began innocently enough with me drinking a beer in the car during the five minutes to the sports bar. here's where we (jeff, mike and i) encountered the only problem of the night. being only 20, me being there was technically illegal; however, since jeff and mike had been there three nights this week there wasn't a problem... i was just one of their other alcoholic friends. so mike and i began drinking while jeff merely nursed. yes, it was shameful and surely would disgrace the gibson name if anyone knew.
after a while the girlfriend finally decided to show up. the biggest mystery since what's in mountain dew, kates proved she did actually exist and that she was actually jeff's girlfriend. she then ordered a beer and drank it; meanwhile, mr. gibson was still working on #1.
we played some trivia, made with the conversation, drank more and eventually decided it was time for some golden tee (tm) which isn't a perverted sex thing but a video game. i got my ass kicked being the one who'd never played before but i did win one skin. we played 18 holes and now i have a sore palm that i will always claim was acquired by bitch-slapping jeff during the game.
eventually, the only man who has ever called me his arch nemesis, bill, stopped by to say 'hello' and talk some sports with me. he was a really nice guy and it's a shame i have to own him at fantasy baseball. he wasn't able to stay and it left just the four of us.
meanwhile i think jeff was on #3 while mike, kate and i made leaps and bounds on the tab. i think the cardinals losing that night had an effect on the Large Mouthed Bass so he wasn't knocking them back, or he knew he'd had to drive later. either way, i forgive him. he's jeff gibson, after all, and impossible to dislike in any fashion.
i'm thinking it was around midnight or so when mike had to go back to the wife (i think) so the three of us were still there for another 45 minutes or so then they did last call and we decided to leave. by this time i was really drunk having drank a regular bottle of beer on the way and at least 6 of these large beers they served at the bar that consisted of probably 1.5 regular beers each. i hadn't eaten all day until i got some wings while i was there so i pretty much had an empty stomach.
the drive home went well except jeff wouldn't play the song i wanted to hear, but i didn't mind so much. like a true gentleman (gay?) he walked me to my hotel room which was actually helpful b/c i tried a couple times, unsuccessfully, to put my key card in upside down and he amended this. what a kind chameleon he is. oh and while we're on the topic, he is fuckin FAT in his drivers license photo.
i then passed out.
oh and there was lots of sex.

yeah, i went to the Arch in St. Louis.

proposed next stop: Dallas, Texas

andrew beames
6/30/2002 10:50 AM

June 24th, 2002 - St.Paul, MN
i will first apologize for the poor update from yesterday, but the juice was just not flowing. not much you can do when the creative energies are not readily available. instead i will just supply you all with a whopper today (hopefully).
the obvious point to note is that i am in st. paul, minnesota visiting the sister i never officially had. first of all, i am an only child, and as such i grew up without anyone to tell my problems too because you just can't talk to your parents about some things, despite what commercials tell you. at some moment, i stumbled upon the girl who would become my only place to give ALL information over the years. be it, real life or otherwise, the link was there. i didn't need to see her face to know that i could i could divulge all my issues and she would understand. it has been five or six years and i still know she is my true confidant. sure, it's the internet, but more and more people are supporting it for this sort of thing. it may be electronic but it's still there. even if i have a problem with phones i can still communicate!
anyway, i arrived in the twin cities, drove around and it pretty much started raining on me immediately, so i gave up on the touring of the city and just headed to the very fine apartment of the above-mentioned female. she is a good host and i thank her for the delicious turkey and cheese sandwich since it's all i could ever want! also, i finally saw 'chasing amy'. and nevermind the drunken rambling left on her message service from gary shields.
okay, so it didn't end up being a whopper.. at least it had a little more content. good evening to all.

here are the Badlands in South Dakota.

proposed next stop: St. Louis, Missouri

andrew beames
6/24/2002 9:30 PM

June 23rd, 2002 - Worthington, MN
i don't have much to say right now. i'm sorry.

this is the Corn Palace, which can be found in Mitchell, SD. it's really corny (haha get it!!!!@@@$##%??)

proposed next stop: Minneapolis, Minnesota

andrew beames
6/23/2002 11:50 PM

June 18th, 2002 - Salt Lake City, UT
well, i'm going to be back much sooner than i had anticipated. i'd say two, maybe three, more months, maybe sooner. i am making a lot of progress through the garbage areas at the moment. initially i had planned to drive a couple hours a day, tops. this idea quickly fell thru when i realized 90% of america is boring AND really hot. which meant less walking/sweating around places i have no real interest in and more driving around looking at the scenes at 70 mph. of course i am currently spending too much money but, oh well, it's a vacation, after all.

here's a picture from the Mammoth Hot Springs located in Yellowstone National Park.

proposed next stop: Denver, Colorado

andrew beames
6/18/2002 7:30 PM

June 13th, 2002 - Kennewick, WA
as a child my parents, dad particularly, tried to teach me several important things. there were your standard moral rules, how to throw a curveball, etc. but one tidbit he often tried to nail in my head was how great the Tri-Cities are. for those of you who don't know, the Tri-Cities consists of three cities called Kennewick, Richland, and Pasco that surround a bend in the Columbia River here in Eastern Washington. its only claim to fame is that it's near Hanford, which is a poor claim to fame, to begin with: "Hi, we're near where they make plutonium!!@". now my dad grew up here, went to college in Pullman, and swears that he will retire here. unfortunately, the same routine he's been giving me for 18 years he's been giving my mom for 30, and she has given in. which means i'm gonna have to travel to this dusty crapbucket anytime i want to visit my parents in a few years. and wouldn't you know it it's three hours from any real metro area. i think my parents assume i'm just not going to visit!

yeah it was a short update today. and it really had no point. oh well, at least this area grows good apples.

here's a picture from the Painted Hills near John Day, Oregon. no they're not actually painted. that's nature, baby.

proposed next stop: Riggins, Idaho

andrew beames
6/13/2002 10:50 am

June 10th, 2002 - Roseburg, OR
three days down and i'm still in Oregon. it's my unfortunate duty to inform everyone that the farther south into the state, the crappier the drivers get. i suspect it's the toilets with running water to vehicles ratio (potty:car) that explains this phenomenom. now one would think that a person with more cars (actually i mean trucks because EVERYONE owns a truck ((and a dilapidated camper/permanent residence)) down here) would have perfected the simple skill of directing their pile of metal in the correct fashion, according to well- established rules. however this is simply not the case. why? my theory is that because these people own so few toilets within a 5 mile radius of their homes that actually flush they are constantly on the look out for them, be it willingly or subconsciously. this explains the swerving and the sudden slowing down and the turning onto a one way street in the wrong direction or even the rampant tail-gating. it does not clarify, though, why the owner of a 1984 multi-colored, missing-its-rear-bumper-and-rear-view-mirror Nissan needs FOUR parking spots to rest said beast at the local safeway, which happened to be an older store and short on parking in the first place! i chalk this one up to inbreeding. it's required by law here.

dumb inhabitants aside, Oregon is immensely stacked in the scenery department and could certainly put the entire midwest and south to shame, combined. although this is purely speculation, i'm willing to wager a days worth of meals for me on it (that's 4 kudos bars, some cocoa pebbles without milk and water if you were wondering). that said, the city of Eugene is a blemish for the University of Oregon, if you ask me, and parks all over the state cost too much to visit. but i, again, blame that on the population of the state.

and i hate to make it a theme, but did i mention the police officer in Florence, Oregon? Florence is a town of about 14 people, which means it doesn't, god forbid, have a convenient wal-mart outlet. as a cheap RVer (sort of) i refuse to pay for a campground unless it's absolutely essential, which leaves me with wal-marts, k marts and really really shitty camp sites. Florence and its vicinity had none of these, so i was left with a rite aid. i pulled up for the night at spot marked "RV PARKING", saw no signs saying "no overnight parking" and decided it was as good as any. granted i was the only person in the lot and this had me quite reluctant to actually try to sleep here, as i haven't a large knife, pistol, broken beer bottle or even candlestick like a member of Clue, but i had to sleep somewhere. anyway, after about an hour a patrol car decides to pull up and the officer asks me the standard questions. granted, i don't blame for doing his job, until he decides to accuse me of having California plates. after i have shown him my Washington license, title AND proof of insurance i ask him to take another look, which he downplays as if i'm some dumb broad who has lost her trunk keys. only AFTER i get out of the car and walk to the rear to explain how it says Washington does he says: "OH the way that cover was on there i thought it said California!" i figure he meant "sure it's written in all caps on Washington plates and in cursive on California plates but gosh darnit they're both red! [with heavy drawl and more grammatical errors, naturally]" following this stressful ordeal i finally get to sleep, poorly, in the cab since i was not going to sleep in the back when siting solo in the lot. thank allah the seats recline a bit.

my only regret thus far is the amount of gas i've burned but i attribute this to the Cascade Mountains. oh, and don't get me started on Oregon being the only state in the union that prohibits you to pump your own gas.

here's a shot from florence, oregon

proposed next stop: John Day, Oregon

andrew beames
6/10/2002 5:00 PM

June 4th, 2002 - Vancouver, WA
the truck's canopy has been purchased, which means i now have a home for the next 6 months. white stripes concert is on friday and i leave on saturday. the time is near. i haven't been this excited since i discovered "i can't believe it's not butter"!

here's my truck.

proposed next stop: Crater Lake, Oregon

andrew beames
6/4/2002 2:54 PM

June 1st, 2002 - Vancouver, WA
there isn't much to be said at this point. i have a week until i leave and obviously i'm anxious. over the next week i just need to work on acquiring the last of the trip's necessities because i certainly don't want to buy everything when i need it. that's just poor planning.

anyway, last wednesday i decided to take a trip to Multnomah Falls to break in the new hiking boots. there's a good many miles of trail located in the region known as the Columbia River Gorge Scenic Area and i managed to walk a few of them.

after cursing at a car (with california plates, no less) who backed out in front of me in the lot i readied my camera, laced up and set off towards the beginning of the trail. i began the hike at the bottom of the falls. here you can find the lodge and, on any given weekday, plenty of bored teenagers on field trips. i felt tempted to inform them adidas trainers and baggy jeans at the knees aren't the best apparel for a mile long vertical trek, but this would have been useless. their attention was generally focused on their ice cream, the breasts of fellow classmates, or, for a rare few, the beauty that is the Gorge. most of them had no intentions of actually climbing to the top of North America's second tallest waterfall, and i had no mind to bother them. it was exercise, after all, and we all know my stance on exercise at that age (by "all" i mean "me").

and a workout it is. by the time i had reached the stop i was feeling quite exilerated and in no way was i ready to head back down already. so when i came to a fork in the trail i made the decision to go right rather than left, which would've led me back down. this new trail followed the river deep into the forest and, in fact, was more scenic than the falls trail.

after a few miles my feet were sore and it was getting late. having come to point where the trail split 3 ways, i had to return home as all of them would require miles more of walking and i would not have returned to my car before dark, and i'm the last person who should be in the woods after sundown. the return trip was almost leisurely and left me quite certain that some day i would return. except next time i will leave myself much more time so i can circumnavigate the entire system of trails in a day, if possible. there was still much more for me to see.

the day was a great success and i even took some great pictures. however, as if i wasn't antsy enough before, i am especially eager to get out on the road.

click here for a very large picture of the falls.

proposed next stop: Crater Lake, Oregon

andrew beames
6/1/2002 4:39 PM