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Sumiki

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Blog Entries posted by Sumiki

  1. Sumiki
    Our first stop of the day was Scotts Bluff. Because of a scraping noise that we had heard emanating from somewhere within the vicinage of the front wheels, we took the shuttle up there. We saw for a long way up there, across to some small badlands that are around a portion of it, as well as all the way to Chimney Rock, which was small and barely discernible from the sky, but we saw it nonetheless. The bluff, while not the highest thing that we've seen, was stunning in the fact that it rose up out of the prairie with no warning. After getting back to ground level, we walked along a stretch of the old Oregon Trail, where the ruts where the wagons and oxen went can still be seen.
     
    We got back on the road, but the car's steering was acting a little funny and the scraping, tapping noise was getting progressively sharper. so we pulled into a small Nebraskan town named Kimball. While the dealership was slammed, the folks who worked there must have felt pity for us or something, because they worked us in. Within two hours, they'd replaced a ball bearing in one of the wheels, telling us that "we'd never have made it home if they hadn't replaced it then." My dad kept threatening to trade it in for a new one, but I reminded him that the process would take too long, for he would invest more time and money in getting a new one than he would if he just paid for the repairs, because he'd have spent twelve hours at the minimum at the dealership if he'd decided on the former, as is his car-buying custom.
     
    Back on the road, we got across a significant portion of Nebraska, past both deer and more prairie dog colonies. While the wind was bad at first, it died down soon enough. Getting back into Central Time, we got to Kearney, where we stopped at a restaurant called the USA Steak Buffet. I can't say that the food was excellent, but it was alright. One could order steaks however you liked at a counter, and while I ordered mine medium, it came out well done. The next one I got was laced with fat. However, their fried chicken was pretty decent and I learned that I liked catfish. (Also, their peanut butter pie was positively glorious.)
     
    Getting into the hotel, the lady who checked us in was surprised that we had earned so many points with our consecutive stays, and "climbing up the latter that fast." But my dad misheard the last two words, thinking that the lady said something about coming to an event known as Fat-Fest. This led to much hilarity and laughter.
     
    Tomorrow: Kansas City, Missouri.
  2. Sumiki
    I forgot to mention yesterday that my dad ran over a squirrel which was limping across the road. Another car, which passed by us, spooked it, and while he swerved to avoid it, the right front tire clipped it with a thud. Like many of its kind, it had a death wish, and we can only hope we served a purpose in putting it out of its misery.
     
    Today, we did some planning over delicious omelets. Originally, we wanted to go to Mount Rushmore and the Black Hills as well as the Badlands, but since we're basically right between the two, we had to decide between them. Because we knew for certain how long Rushmore would take, we decided to see the Badlands today, stay another night, then see the other two tomorrow when we go down into Nebraska.
     
    On the way to the Badlands, we saw sign after sign after even more hilarious sign for the most famous tourist trap in America: Wall Drug. Why any drug store needs a massive dinosaur statue in front of it, or an art collection to rival those of some museums, I will never know. It's entirely possible that Wall Drug does not even have a drug store any more, though they advertise free ice water and five-cent coffee - except to honeymooners and veterans, when it's free.
     
    The Badlands are strange. I likened them to the Painted Desert which we saw around the Petrified Forest, but they are on a much larger and vaster scale. The prairie stops right where the Badlands begin, dropping down into massive stone curves and structures. We walked out into them, from marker to marker off of the trail. I'm glad I got as many pictures as I did, because I don't know how well I can describe it. The stone is like natural concrete, and takes a toll on your feet if you walk on it for too long. I rubbed on bits of broken-off stone and it basically came off like chalk in my hand. The ones that do not look like that look like swiss cheese concrete, as there are holes in them.
     
    The landscape itself undulates - every bit looks the same until closer inspection reveals it to look different. Walking out onto the Badlands is easily disorienting, and if they didn't have the yellow poles cemented into the ground, we might have gotten lost out there. Canyons just drop off out of nowhere, and mesas at prairie level jut up, featuring grass on their surfaces. It's easily discernible where the surrounding Badlands have been carved away from them.
     
    We walked around a few trails, including one that went up 200 feet in elevation around some juniper trees. I wish we could have stayed there for longer but the bugs were eating us alive. ("Look, some humans! Lunch!") The trees were beautiful, though, and kind of soft to the touch. My dad spotted a rabbit off of the trail - it might have been sleeping, since its breaths were barely discernible.
     
    Getting back to the car, we headed on down to a small store/restaurant near the park visitor's center. We ate at the table next to the one where, on a trek my parents made with my maternal grandparents well before I was born, my late grandmother put her half-eaten buffalo burger inside her purse. (I'm sure it didn't make sense then, either.) History did not repeat itself, however; my mom had no purse on her person. (She did not purseonify that statement. I think that it's a purseonal preference.) After that, we saw some intricately made, multicolored clay sculptures of various wild animals, as well as carvings made from bone, in the gift store. We bought none, but from my pursepective, I'm still amazed that people can do such things.
     
    As we wound our way out of the park, we noted two wild turkeys, two bighorn sheep that were unafraid of clamoring around on top of sheer cliffs, more absolutely adorable prairie dogs, and more deer and antelope. The only critter we didn't see a specimen of was the one species which we were warned about from the signs time and time again: rattlesnakes. This didn't stop us from hearing any, for as we walked along the boardwalks which some portions of the trails were made from, the grass along the sides would shudder with rattles all around. If you stopped, then the rattles would die down. If you walked again, then they'd start on up again. Despite all of this - which was very hard to miss - people still took their kids through the snake country off to the very edges of the cliffs - cliffs which are well known for occasionally giving way under pressure. It's stunning that some people are that dull.
     
    It was a little after 5:00 that we got out of the park, conserving what very little of the camera's battery remained for the last sight of the day: a Minuteman II missile silo, situated off a dirt road off an exit off of the interstate. We had gone by the visitor's center earlier, seen some memorabilia, and a funny sign which parodied the Domino's Pizza logo, but had a rocket on the logo as well as "Delivery in 30 Minutes or Less, or Your Next One's Free" - referring, of course, to the nuclear warheads contained within. They apparently allow people in the old silo now - but we couldn't get in. The park service had posted up a sign on the fence which told us to let ourselves in, but to remember to lock the doors behind us to keep the cattle out.
     
    This was all well and good, except for the fact that they didn't exactly provide a key. My dad and I struggled with it for a little bit, trying to see if the padlock was stuck, but alas, we could not get through. We got some good pictures from the outside before leaving, passing more signs advertising Wall Drug.
     
    Tomorrow: we see Mount Rushmore and the surrounding Black Hills, then make our way down into Nebraska.
  3. Sumiki
    Today, we went out to explore the city. Our first stop was for brunch at a place called Lori's Diner. As we entered, we came up under a jukebox, then up 36 steps. fashioned to look as if it was from the late 40s/early 50s. Posters - which look like originals - advertise war bonds, the forward halves of retro cars displayed come from walls, and small jukeboxes are featured in every booth. While we had fun taking a look at the old tracks available to play, we did not have the necessary quarters to play any. Behind us, there was a large sculpture of a cow drinking a Pepsi. The food was just diner fare, but the atmosphere made the place.
     
    We then walked down to the terminus of two of the famous streetcar lines. The Powell & Hyde line and the Powell & Mason line both end at an old wooden turntable, and the streetcars are turned by their operators pushing them. The line to get on snaked around the rope that prevented people from getting on the turntable, though the pigeon population of the city was blissfully unaware of the dangers and we thought we'd see instant pigeon paté on more than one occasion.
     
    For a big city, especially one which thrives on tourism, I saw only one policeman for the entirety of the day, and he was talking to a homeless man, no doubt about going to a shelter. Another man had fashioned a drum kit out of old wine bottles and upside-down plastic cylindrical containers, and a woman kept going around asking people if they spoke English. These vagabonds seemed normal compared to a man who pulled out a megaphone and starting screaming in what was either English with a thick German accent, or full-on German. I think he was proselytizing, but that's just a hunch. The operator of the cable car, as he finished turning the car around, walked past us, saying "is he scaring you? 'Cause he's scaring me!" We also talked to some Italian folks, who thought we were rather nuts for traveling across the country by road. They were also impressed with the sheer scale and vast scenery differences present in America.
     
    The cable car ride is bumpy, but a memorable experience nonetheless. It's a much better alternative to walking when navigating the steep hills of the city, and though they only go on a few designated routes, they're an experience that's unique to San Francisco. We passed by the top of Lombard Street, famous for being the most crooked street in the world. For some reason, they decided to put a bunch of hairpin turns at the top of it, which makes it pretty, but also makes you wonder what the street's designers were thinking. (It's a 40-degree angle, so they're basically tight switchbacks to help negotiate it - but that doesn't stop me from wondering why.)
     
    After passing through Chinatown, we got off at Fisherman's Wharf, where a gorgeous view of the Golden Gate Bridge can be seen. It was surrounded and framed by fog, making it look eerie and mysterious in nature. We then headed up to the Ghirardelli building, where we got some free squares and got some hot chocolate. After getting slightly lost (which tends to happen when the map you have tells you that not all the streets are on there, and when you always get this aforementioned map out on the unlisted streets), we hopped on the cable cars again and headed back into the heart of the city, this time seeing up Lombard Street instead of down, and seeing another little slice of Chinatown. We got back to our room in time to look up the old San Francisco mint building, but they do not have tours and are apparently converting parts of it into a place to rent out to parties and such, so we decided to skip it. My numismatic side is raging that they are defacing such history by using the building this way, but I'm not going to let that get to me.
     
    We all felt kind of tired at this point and all got some small naps. (I know for a fact that my dad snores the funniest, though my mom snores the loudest. I plead the fifth on my own.) Deciding that skipping supper would be a bad idea, we walked back out onto the San Franciscan streets in search of something to eat. We found a little Italian place that featured a kind of a hallway as you enter. Desserts are places enticingly to the left while a wall dominates the right. In the back, right where the wind and sounds from the street dies down, the room opens up. The food was basic Italian fare, and the portions were modest. We had to sample the desserts, though - triple chocolate mousse, creme brulee, and tiramisu, all arranged in order of deliciousness.
     
    Tomorrow, we head on up the coast to Arcata, CA.
  4. Sumiki

    Forever

    By Sumiki,

    I don't usually post three blog entries in a row, but those pesky Library minions are keeping me way too busy. As if I don't have enough to do already.
     

    Forever


     
    The subtle waves swept onto the shoreline, lapsing peacefully back upon the ocean from whence they came. The wind was brisk and light, with the most indistinguishable of salty tangs to the air. The sea, such as it was, was slowly and forthrightly climbing onto the shoreline, doing its best to slowly eat away at the footsteps that so marred the sand.
     
    "You think this is such a good idea?" came a whispered call. A gruff grunt and a brusque shrug was all the response that he got.
     
    "Just a little more up ..."
     
    The sheer, striated rock wall that had consistently been around a hundred yards from them took a bend, sharply descending into a mess of boulders as it met with the sea. Beyond it, the two adventurers saw, there was wood.
     
    In the dim light of the waxing moon, and the modicum of light that the stars around it provided, golden points of light twinkled on the sand.
     
    "This is it. That's the shipwreck."
     
    "Looks like it was yesterday ..."
     
    The more ambitious of the two slid down the sand that coated the greatest of the boulders, leaving his own heavy boot prints on the soft and easily scarred sand.
     
    They were gold-diggers, at heart. They couldn't help it; it was in their genes and in their blood. Gold intrigued them and enticed them as few vices could, as addictions that they could not break themselves of.
     
    "Gold!" the taller, more bearded, and slightly denser of the two yelled. As obvious as this was, this only served to excite them further. Fumbling with their crowbars for a few moments, they cracked open chest after chest, uncovering priceless amounts of riches in one after another.
     
    They were like two little boys in a candy store, heaping piles of gold about themselves, garnishing their garish and unrestricted piles with silver, crowns, jewels, and precious minerals. Easily tired, they collapsed onto beds of riches, thinking their goldbrick selves to be set for life, if they figured out how to cash in on this hunch. And how hard could it be? They were quite literally sleeping on gold ...
     
    ***
     
    The next morning, the sea had rushed up to the rock wall that it, so long ago, had hewn. Seagulls flew over, rushing down only occasionally to eat something.
     
    Far above, where the last bits of sand ran out and the lushness of trees began, bits of rotted wood floated away, small coins coming with it.
     
    Treasure, such as it was, was theirs forever, down where no one would ever reach again.
  10. Sumiki

    A Leigh Gallagher Quote

    By Sumiki,

    "Sumiki - that's a really awesome name". - Leigh Gallagher on The Three Virtues
     
    (it's paraphrased, shut up)
     
    (it's also not actually in the episode)
     
    (but you should totally listen anyway)
  13. Sumiki

    Piano

    By Sumiki,

    My 8400th post special is plugged shamelessly by my 600th blog post. How ... awesome.
     

    click it you know you want to
  18. Sumiki

    Stuff

    By Sumiki,

    Past midnight and not tired. Happening to me a lot lately.
     
    Triple Insanity Pole Vault entry about 50% done. I want it to be around 700 words (about two Word pages in 14-point Palatino) while being funny. Right now it's just a little gross and kind of random, so I'll have to really fix it up to make it really good.
     
    Will be going to grandmothers for tomorrow and the day after. Maybe I'll be able to run by the LEGO store near there.
  24. Sumiki
    I have recently been informed that people have been PMing various people about the current state of BIONICLE: Year One. I'd like to clarify a few things:
     
    1) It's still going.
    2) My acquisition of more memory or a better computer is the only thing stopping me from starting the actual game work.
    3) If you have any questions or concerns, PM me. I'm more likely to know what it is you want to know about Year One.
     
    That is all.
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