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we’ve been busy busy!

on monday we drove west into arizona, experiencing some truly intense thunderstorms. they roll across the desert — you can see them coming, the land is so big out here — and slam into you. we made it out to the grand canyon before sunset … caught some late afternoon sun at the first overlook we went to, then we rolled along the surprisingly long rim access road to “desert view” for the sunset. we were treated to more isolated lightning storms as the sun set. you should be able to see it in the pics, below. i have some movies with the lightning that i’ll be posting later!

we drove for a while hoping to get closer to zion national park (in southern utah), but the continuing rain and hailstorms coupled with the tracherous mountain roads and our tiredness equaled, for us, a detour to lake powell for some sleep. miss esquire really enjoyed those roads on her bicycle the next morning, tho!

we made it to zion on day 8 … this is the most beautiful place i have ever see on god’s green earth. and i’ve seen some pretty places. the pics don’t do the place justice; you just have to come. the drive in whetted our appetites for towering rock faces, tight canyons, orange and red and gold and white rock, dazzling green trees and foilage. so we stopped off for a pre-park hike at the “canyon view” … just a few miles of moderate hike with a bit of scramble. we loved it. we went in to the middle of the park to the visitors center, next, and took a shuttle up to the zion lodge. from there we took a more strenous hike up to the “upper emerald pool”, passing the lower and middle on the way. it was a bit on the arduous side after the previous climb, but well worth it! i can’t wait to come back to try some of the other hikes.

so here we are in hurricane, utah, heading into vega$ on day 9 of our journey. more to come soon!

here are the latest pics:

day 6 – day off in santa fe

early morning, day 7 … we prepare to leave lovely santa fe, nm and head to the grand canyon.

what’s been happening the last 2 days? on friday we crossed the rest of oklahoma … lots of big sky, some great windmills, and the “largest cross in the nort-western hemisphere”. got to love the qualifications. we drove along old route 66 for a bit, but haven’t found the cadillac ranch just yet. while in the car we had a gross-out contest involving bertie bott’s every flavor beans. i don’t think either of us won …

we made it into new mexico, and the landscapes really started changing. from flat flat flat to plateaus and amazing vistas. i took the opportunity to see how far the rav4 will go without refilling the tank. miss esquire wasn’t so happy with this experiment … we did make it to a chevron tho.

we saw a stunning sunset, framed by a lightning storm off in the distance. and just before rolling into santa fe, we rolled through several amazing bug storms … guts galore!

day 7 was a day of rest (and a sunday to boot) … we spent the day relaxing in santa fe, just shopping, walking around, eating twice in the same restaurant (the “ore house”, heh), sightseeing, and taking in the georgia o’keefe museum. a great place to spent at least one day … i’d like to see more of it. it’s gorgeous, and the folk are real nice … highly recommended.

well, time to hit the road!

some of the trip pics are up! come check them out.

day 1, nyc to harrisonburg va
day 2 – to pigeon forge, tn
day 3 – to memphis, tn
day 4 – to somewhere in oklahoma (hinton!)
day 5 – to santa fe, new mexico

good morning from “buggy” hinton, oklahoma. where the wind really does come sweeping ‘cross the plains … and the wheat beetles and crickets stream in droves out of the just-cut fields. they even find a way into the hotel room. there’s a pretty state park (red rock) right nearby, though.

yesterday we got up and had a rockin’ southern breakfast … aigs, grits, biscuits … really good stuff. i highly recommend the bon ton, right in the heart of downtown. cheap eats and as good as all get out!

from there we went to graceland, where the fans and the kitsch and the glitz and the shag-carpeted walls inspired miss esquire and i to get some permanent mementos. more on that when the pics are available. no time today, again, though. sigh. so, like, apparently elvis earned a lot of awards, and no one wants to remember his fat self … tho they love selling his recipes for “get you fat in one meal” foods. ironic!

after that it was drive, drive drive through arkansas (suck suck) and a big chunk of oklahoma. we discovered that oklahoma city has a happenin’ hangout section called “bricktown” with actual clubs, good bars and some good food. we ate at crabtown (in a landlocked state!) and had the crab boil. mmmmm. kosher! i showed miss esquire how to get at the meaty crab goodness, and we went to town. it was a blast!

after that, back on the road until we were too pooped to plod. today … destination santa fe!

goooooooood morning bible belt!

we wake to a lovely sunny day here in memphis. when we last updated we were leaving harrisonburg VA … we only had one fun stop in VA, on day 2, and that was the “natural bridge”. pretty cool but it’s a crime when a state gov’t charges you to see a natural rock formation. sigh. we did eat some cornbread baked by a white virginian pretending to be a monocan indian (who were, apparently, very good at cement work back in the 18th century).

we overnighted outside of pigeon forge TN on day 2, after watching charlie and the chocolate factory at the local moooovie theatre. it was bizarre, but definitely a thumbs-up. next morning, we got up and headed into dollywood! yep, the height of southern culture. with roller coasters. i’ve got to say we thoroughly enjoyed the coasters. they have a stunning wooden coaster called thunder ridge or summat. brilliant! no more than 55 mph but we were whipped around like crrazy. we did three coasters in all, and a water ride … lines were short and tho kitsch was high, we never really felt like we were on another planet (which was what we’d anticpated).

one lady passed out in line for the “blazing fury” ride. not all that hot there. but it goes to show ya that most of america is unfit and really needs to trim down and health up. me included! thankfully i didn’t pass out.

we were pretty beat from a day in the sun, but we managed a good 428 miles afterwards, rolling through nashville (ooh! music! ahh! culture! snap pic, move on) and meandering our way to memphis. at one gas stop on route 40, i was chased across the parking lot by a huge green shiny beetle. don’t worry, i will have pictures of all this, as soon as i can post them all.

finally, we got to the blues capital of the world and found us a downtown hotel. note to those coming here, the best western is $50 cheaper than the holiday inn. we got a quick dinner at a place called “bigfoot” — not great, not realy yummy southern food, but okay, *sigh* — and walked up and down beale st. we heard some great live blues in the peabody park area, and got ourselves a few outside beverages for the walkin’, which was just great … but to be honest the place was a little empty, a lot dirty, and somewhat skeevy. it’s a shame, it was much cooler last time i was here … maybe we came on a bad night?

today … graceland!

good morning, travelers! we’re writing to you from friendly harrisonburg VA, still in the northern bits of VA (about 3 hours SW of DC). we got a late late late LATE late start yesterday, leaving miss esquire’s apartment around 2:30pm. we had some fun on the NJ turnpike, hit a bit of traffic in DE, and throughly enjoyed a nice empty beltway. we got rained on, watched a lovely sunset, and spent the night in a motel with a pool! dinner was at iHOP. got to love iHOP.

we’ll be in dollywood in a few hours … we’ve got the bulk of VA and a wee bit of tennessee ahead of us. wish us luck …

pics will be posted @ the next stop!

ah, road trips. miss esquire and i are (finally) set to leave on a multi-thousand-mile cross country trip, to bring her out to her new temporary home in southern cali. she’s going to business school, you see, and this is the most fun way to get there. along the way we’ll see plenty of sights and take plenty of photos, and i’ll try to post updates here. check in daily!

1st stop … hopefully … dollywood!

many of you faithful readers may be wondering why i haven’t been posting pool/billiards reports for a while. in fact, i bet i’ve lost many a faithful reader since i stopped.

well, last season we had serious attendance issues, and had to forfeit around 40% of our matches. it was frustrating as he||, and try as i and roger might, we couldn’t get the attendance we needed. so this season the team voted to play on sunday evenings. now, i can’t play most sundays. especially in the summer — i go away for just about every weekend. i was up front about this during the voting process, and when the team chose sundays over tuesdays, i stepped down as captain and roger took the reins. go, roger!

so why no reports? well, the 4th week of the season i was asked to leave the team. yep. seems they were having just as many issues fielding a team on sundays as we had been on tuesdays, the previous season. i don’t fault roger … he was put in a tough position. and since i said i wouldn’t be there for most of the season, it makes sense.

in a lot of ways i’m still feeling burned because we did not cut kimba from the team last season, even though he had said he wouldn’t come most tuesdays. in fact, we didn’t cut anyone. roger and i had many long discussions about this. but apparently on sundays it became more important to the team, so i was asked to leave.

best thing for the team, i guess.

i will probably join a different team in the fall, on tuesday nights, so i can get back in the swing of things. who knows, maybe eric and i will start a new team!

good luck to scratch this in the rest of the summer season. it’s been a great ride, a great few years. hope you get into the playoffs!

need a sofa? miss esquire is selling her lovely walnut-brown genuine leather couch. it’s definitely a find, and is priced to move. currently it’s for sale on ebay. you can bid on it and make her day! or if you’d like to purchase direct, contact me or her.

you’d need to arrange for pickup in manhattan, near the union square area. we need to sell it ASAP!

so we had a nice two-day wrenching series here at the new chez kershaw … evan and gina were my first houseguests on saturday, and abe came over on sunday for some serious stuff. there are some pictures here (registration required, but feel free to use a fake email).

saturday

ev and gina rolled in mid-afternoon on “yellow ducky” (hmm, it’s not a duc tho) and after the 10-cent tour of the new abode (focusing on my visions for the garage), ev got quickly to work on the chain. i did mine at the same time. a thorough cleaning with wd40 and a chain brush, then a wipedown with a rag, then i applied some gear oil to mine. ev used pj1. i don’t have a rear stand yet so we had to alternately lift the rear end with our arms, or roll the thing down the driveway, spraying as we went. evan had removed the chain guard, so the whole process went quickly. you can see gina hard at work in the photos.

next up was the oil change, which went very smoothly. ev had thoughtfully brought his own erl, and reused the filter he done brung, so 4.8 quarts later (2.4 drained and 2.4 put back in), ducky was roadworthy. i have to say one thing though … evan is one fastidious hombre. he cleaned his swingarm, he cleaned his bodywork, he even cleaned my driveway! as soonas the bike was all buittoned up we had a mother of a t-storm. both bikes nestled safe and dry in the garage, along with the 3 of us, as we waited out the worst of it.

we went out for a bite at a local church fair on avenue D (ask gina how long she waited for her roti), brought it back and had a good time chatting in the dining room. all in all, a good day.

sunday

having whet my appetite for hosting, i was ready for something more challenging. abe came over with his “old” 86 vfr, and we tackled the cooling system and the valves. as we had to wait for the engine to cool down to check the valves, we drained the old coolant first … man, that really makes you want to pee when that stuff is shooting out of the water pump! we couldn’t figure out if the silicate-free anti-freeze i had (required for most aluminum water pumps, and for most viffers) was pre-mix or not, so we had to compare it with a fresh jug. we believe it wasn’t, so it was off to the local rite aid for some distilled water for the dilution. and some ice cube trays for my freezer. and some buckets for storing waste erl and a/f. abe was a sport and carried the lot if it back to my place!

the rear valve cover came off easy-peasy … check the pics to see what it looks like. we even found an extra spring in there! bonus. it took us about an hour to figure out why none of the feeler guages would work at all, though. apparently one manual crank around the cranking-thing isn’t 360 degrees; it’s like 90 or 270. we eventually figured it out and abe *ahem* put the number 1 exhaust valve back into spec.

most of the valves were in spec, of course (go honda!); we only really had to adjust the exhaust valves on numbers 2 and 4. or am i misremembering? abe, chime in here. she buttoned up nicely and was still noisy as he|| though; guess that’s “normal”.

then we walked abe through his first cooling system flush and fill, and had a bit of adventure with the radiator cap. i’ll let abe provide the details on that one. :O but it was a great day, and i learned a ton about checking the valves to see if they’re in spec, and adjusting them. now i’ve got to get me some feeler gauges!