Mon Jul 1 = HAPPY CANADA DAY! Almost every store is closed, even Walmart. I celebrated by running (faster than jogging) to the far end of Canadian Tire and back. For a couple of hours I organized and phoned a few Portland, OR TV stations regarding my benefit show there later this month. Then I found high quality shade in the Forest Lawn Cemetery. Here in Canada I have seen acres and acres of cemeteries. Canadians must be big on 'em.
- At the cemetery I processed my last OBX video from June 25th.
- Tonight's comedy show was neat, with host Aaron Stevenson. Young, relaxed and a good host. I finally got the gumption to do one of my improved sets rather than just trying to get the audience to laugh. They laughed anyway. No comedian at any of the two shows I have been to here in Canada mentioned marijuana (which is legal), which seems to be a perennial topic in the US (where it is illegal).
- I spent the night parked by a little tree to the west of the Canadian Tire, 1125 Wellington Rd in London, ON.
Tue Jul 2 = Today's big project was to drive all the way to the Green Leaf Vapor Lounge in Brampton, ON, only to find that Shane, the owner, has no phone and has discontinued the Wednesday night open mics without updating his website to reflect that fact. He seemed to not be concerned that I had driven 105 miles (169km), or 210 miles (420km) round trip for nothing.
There's always good news somewhere, but sometimes you have to look hard for it. I:
got a full charge on my van's house battery
had a nice phone visit with my sister-in-law while driving
took a photo of of where the two railroads cross
saw a train go by (below)
found that the Green Leafe Vapor Lounge does not keep their website up to date
could have anticipated the problem and stopped by Brampton on the way from Toronto to London
practiced relaxing, even when things don't go well
The double frog here shows that the Orangeville-Brampton line is obviously subservient to the two-track Canadian National line which crosses it here. I waited about a half hour to see this Canadian National train, which had just left the Brampton Station. Propulsion was by a pusher engine.
- Since I'd rather have my van's electrical problems addressed in the USA, I researched and phoned a number of shops in the Detroit area and found that none could take me later this week. Detroit would be the last place where I would not driving for several days until Seattle, WA. So back to my fall-back plan: Friday with Johnny's Auto Electric in London, ON.
- I drove back to London, Ontario and spent the night parked by a little tree to the west of the Canadian Tire, 1125 Wellington Rd in London.
Wed Jul 3 = Hanging around London to get my van checked, today I researched various lactose-free milk substitutes and updated my blog.
- I spent the night parked by a little tree to the west of the Canadian Tire, 1125 Wellington Rd in London, ON.
Thu Jul 4 = Today I made some TV station calls to Seattle, washed my van, spent time at the neat Jalna Branch Library, took a shower and did Egoscue at Planet Fitness and spent the night parked outside Johnny's Auto Electric, all in London, ON.
Fri Jul 5 = Johnny, the Auto Electric guy, found bare wires where the insulation had melted on the transmission at the Neutral Safety Switch. None of the options were good. We decided that he would separate and wrap the wires as best he could up to the point they disappeared into the wiring harness. Who knows what problems might exist inside the harness somewhere.
- I spent the night, heading toward the US.
Sat Jul 6 = Immigration & customs went like a breeze. It's good to be back to the US where I know by exactely how much I am exceeding the speed limit.
- My driving and my investing may involve some occasional risk, but I do not like risk when it comes to my data. Today I bought a Segate 2T hard drive for $60 from Walmart in Livonia, MI. I set right to backing up my
XPS
Dell XPS-13 computer with 13.3" touch screen, 60WHr Integrated Battery, Windows 10, Intel 7th Generation Core i7 CPU, 16gb memory and 1TB SSD
.
Although the backup is not offsite, it IS in a different part of my van than my computer.
Sun Jul 7 = My van's transmission went into Limp-In mode today. That means it stopped functioning and kept itself in third gear. In this mode you can go about 30-35 mph. I stopped in a remote industrial parking lot as all sorts of contingencies went through my head. I checked the OBD for fault codes and nothing was new. The P1784, "Low and Reverse Pressure Circuit" has appeared previously without the problem. When I started the van up, the transmission worked normally.
- Tonight's comedy show was a 58-minute benefit for an audience of 28 at The American Legion Post #396 in Garden City, MI, a Detroit suburb.
- I headed toward South Bend, IN and spent the night in Jackson, Michigan.
Mon Jul 8 = Today was spent mostly driving to South Bend Indiana. I have started to feel a little vibration, like driving a massage chair. Discount Tire companies in two different towns found nothing wrong. However, disparity in their measurements of my tire tread (up to 3/32 difference) is disturbing. The first Discount Tire shop said that the rear tires needed to be replaced and were so far gone, he couldn't balance them or even touch them. The second Discount Tire noticed no problem with my tires. Neither one found that the passenger rear tire had started to separate (which I didn't find that out until three days later).
- Since I have started replacing the 10-A fuses when they blow, I have blown and replaced 30 of them.
Tue Jul 9 = Still driving to Billings. Today I only used three 10-A fuses.
Wed Jul 10 = I-90 is a long stretch between South Bend, IN and Billings, MT. Along the way, looking at the clouds, I knew there was going to be a good rainbow. I think this is the brightest I've ever seen. I snapped this picture from my 75mph window in North Dakota.
- I spent the night in Fairmont, Minnesota.
Thu Jul 11 = Clouds do intereting things. Here you can see three sun slots for red light, and above, the clouds radiating blue light.
- My phone didn't get the new time zone correct until I restarted it.
- My van went into Limp-In mode today at 385,925 miles. Stopping, shutting it off and back on solved the problem.
- The shaking of my van became worysome along Interstat 90, so I took my van to Affordaable Tire & Alignment in Sturgis, SD. They had just closed, but were hanging around the office. We had a lot of fun getting acquainted, telling jokes and laughing a lot. I told them my sob story of needing to make it to Billings, MT to do comedy and they fixed me up. They found that my passenger rear tire was starting to bulge a little due to the beginnings of tire separation (not cought by Discount Tire). Rob switched that tire with my spare (which was identical except in good condition). Rhys (REESE) showed me his school bus conversion (even with a wood-burning stove) and bought one of my thumb drives. Eric, the manager bought T-Shirts for Rhys and Rob. They didn't even charge me anything. The world is full of nice people.
- Sometimes you get by with doing something stupid. With my good spare in place, on I-90 near mile post 73 in Wyoming I got my van up to 103 mph - fastest yet. I was hanging on and holding my breath. I would not have done it if I had someone else aboard, was married or had young kids.
- I spent the night at the Sheridan, Wyoming Walmart.
Fri Jul 12 = I got a short night's sleep. I got up early, and before leaving Sheridan, WY, I phoned Cat Country 102.9 in Billings to promote my comedy, as recommended by Rick Olson, my Billings contact. It turns out that all the call-ins are prescheduled, so I did not get on, but they DID put me up on their website. I lost some sleep in the process.
- I arrived in Billings in time to spend some time at the Billings Library. My van went into Limp-In mode in town. Stopping, shutting it off and back on solved the problem. The van never goes into Limp-In mode while I'm driving driving, just on initial start-ups.
- Rick Olson, my Billings contact arranged for me to spend my Billings nights parked at Art and Eva's place. Probably a couple acres and some trees! Perfect.
Sat Jul 13 = This morning I met Art, owner of my night spot. What a guy! He offered me his bunk house with AC and refrigerator. I declined because my van has everything but the AC.
- I took my van to Tire-Rama, 2550 Gable Rd for an oil change and tire rotation. Good guys. While waiting, I changed the batteries in my van's key fob. Now it has a good range.
- Then I stopped by the Downtown NAPA store to pick up a 10A automatic resetting circuit breaker to save the expense and trouble of replacing the ignition fuse when it blows.
- American Legion Post 4 did not have a microphone for their PA system so I used my Samson portable PA system. I was pleased that, at full volume, it filled the large room nicely without any distortion.
What a privilege to headline for the gala event to raise funds for the christening of the USS Billings. The show was PG. The most fun part for me was picking on Billings Mayor, Bill Cole (below), for which he gave me an applause. The audience loved it!
- The show set records for me:
First time I picked on a politician!
First time receiving an applause from that politician
First Comedy in Billings
First Comedy in Montana
Highest latitude for comedy so far (45.7833 degrees North)
- The least fun was forgetting that I had parked close to a bollard, which I hit with my van. Now I am the proud, but embarrassed, owner of a 10"x11" 5/8" (15mm) deep dent in my passenger front quarter pannel. By hand, I pulled out the place where the panel adjoins the passenger door so they don't scrape when I open the door. Now my van is worth less - probably $5 less, considering its age and mileage.
- I spent the night in the shade of one of Art's big trees.
Sun Jul 14 = I spent the day until about 3pm, working in my van, combining my nuts boxes, revising my Show Slips, updating this blog and shuffling my van around to stay in the shade of some of Art's big, beautiful trees. Without other driving, each shuffle, I idled my van to keep my
charged.
- The new 10A circuit breaker has blown several times. I notice when the AC pauses for about one seond.
- The rest of the day timing was bad. I went to Walmart before Office Depot. When I got to the latter they were closed so I did not get my Show Slips printed or my pink email slips cut.
- 8:00 Comedy for the VFW Post 12181 at the Plaza Arcade Bar & Grillin Billings; was not meant to be, with heavy rain and a power outage. Bad timing.
- I drove to the Laurel, MT Walmart for the night, parked in the morning shade of a dinky tree because a motor home pulling a SUV was hogging the good morning shade.
Mon Jul 15 = In spite of my small tree, it turns out that my shade in the morning was pretty good.
- All along I-90 they have crossing gates, like for railroad crossings and signs indicating that the freeway can be closed. If you know, pass the info along to me because I am dieing of curiosity and never seem to remember to ask when I stop for gas.
- Today I made it as far as Missoula, Montana. I spent a couple hours at the public library there and got all my credit cards paid off, checked my email and worked on this blog. Then I drove to the Walmart Super Center in the east part of town for the night. The north part of their parking lot looked like Good Sam's. I parked by a tree that will provide good shade in the morning.
Tue Jul 16 = Today was mostly the two D's: Driving and Diahrrea. Before leaving Missoula, MT I phoned the Elizabeth River Tunnels. I had already tried, unsuccessfully, to take care of my missed tolls online. The tunnels have no toll booths. I had seen the outside on an envelope from them, delivered to my mailbox in Phoenix with the USPS Informed Delivery.
- I spent some time at the Wallace, Idaho Public Library. Then on to Ellens, Washington to climb the Anytime Fitness Jacob's ladder for two minutes and to spend the night in their parking lot.
Wed Jul 17 = I arrived in Seattle this afternoon.
- After one of the Discount Tire stores in North Dakota mismeasured my tire tread and tried to sell me new tires and missed a separating tire, Discount Tire stores in Mishauka and here in Seattle treated me right. They replaced the tire that was separating and gave me a good deal on the other. Now all four are identical and are new or nearly new: Continental Control Contact All-Season Plus tires. I will continue keeping the tires at the maximum allowed, 51 PSI, for even tread wear.
- A slight complication was that the spare tire winch is rusty and did not work. Have you ever spent the night in bed with a spare tire? I don't recommend it. After one night of that I had to do something, so I now have my spare tire on my van's roof rack, giving me a vehicle that will not fit in many parking garages.
- I made it to the Laughs, Seattle Comedy Club 1.5 hours before the show and there were already about 11 other comedians there. It was a congenial bunch. Sign-ups were taken care of by Dave. The host for the evening for both graciously seating the audience members as they arrived and hosting the show was Skippy Sprinkles. They ran a good show. I counted about 208 audience members for me, comedian number six. Toward the end the audience thinned out considerably, since it was mostly a bringer show. Thanks, Dave and Skippy for a good show!
- I spent the night in south Seattle at a Planet Fitness. It was raining, sort of. More of a mist. After I parked, a lady, about 35, who looked more like 65 knocked on my window and, when I opened my sliding door, asked if she could sit in my van for a little while out of the rain. I had to good sense to tell her, No. After she left and I closed the door I realized the residual stinch of her standing beside my van had drifted inside. I had to open the doors for a while in order to return to normal breathing.
Thu Jul 18 = Mostly driving the next few days.
- For the past week or so, I have been eating no whole wheat bread or Allbran. Today I stopped eating dairy of any kind. When you have diarrhea, why does your urge to poop, increase exponentially as you approach the receptacle? I experienced a premature explosion. It was not a pretty sight, although not a smelly one. I guess my food is not digesting to the point of fermentation. I have also started drinking only fresh bottled water, instead of using the van's running water from its jerrycan.
- I spent the night in Tumwater, WA at an Anytime Fitness.
Fri Jul 19 = I have stopped eating lettuce (my unrefrigerated Romaine). After yesterday's premature poop explosion I did laundry. It was a neat place. All their washing machines were tumble-type (which are more efficient, wear out clothes less and clean better) which accepted money or plastic. Their driers didn't seem to be too effective.
- I made it into Oregon and spent the night at a Walmart in Wood Village, OR.
Sat Jul 20 = Diet-wise, I added fresh Romaine hearts and an apple with its core today.
- I drove down to American Legion Post 180 where I will be doing a benefit comedy show on Wednesday. What a congenial group!
- I have been spending some time contacting the Portland TV stations. Since there is a low chance that anytinng will materialize, I am not spending too much time on the project.
- I researched open mices in Portland for today and the next three days.
- I spent the night in the supurbly quiet American Legion parking lot with morning shade provided by lumber stacked on 20' high outdoor racks at the commercial lumber yard to the east of the American Legion parking lot. Just about perfect.
Sun Jul 21 = I spent some time at the Ledding Library here in Milwaukie.
- This afternoon I drove up to Arte Soleil, a little cultural gem in Portland. Linda was the host for our 10-minute sets. I was her favorite comedian, along with all the others. It made neat introductions.
- Then on to Kelly's Olympian where Chris Khatami ran a good show and I did a five-minute set.
- The show got out in time for me to drive to Hood River, OR, about an hour east on I-84, one of the most famous kiteboarding/windsurfing locations in the world. I spent the night, along with many others, at the Walmart there.
Mon Jul 22 = This morning I stopped by Big Winds. No one there remembered me from my instruction about 18 years ago. That wasn't the case next. I drove down to Hood River Water Play on the water and saw Jack Wilberscheid, the owner. I hadn't seen him for about 18 years. Since he was super busy, our reunion involved only a hug and a few words. It was good to see him again. I told him about wearing different hats.
- I did my Dominican Republic/Hand routine for a family of five on the Event Site. The first time I did it for kiteboarders :)
- I kiteboarded for about 20 minutes from the spit in dieing wind with my 8m kite and twin tip board. I went 2.75 miles and had a top speed of 12.5 mph.
- I packed up and drove back to Milaukie and spent the night on the west side of the American Legion Post 180 parking lot. The light rail went by occasionally, but it was relatively quite and there was no honking of horns. The place was a nice quiet spot until...
Tue Jul 23 = ... 6:00am the trash truck came right past my van to empty the five-foot dumpsters full of clanging and tinkling beer bottles.
- A little later, the lumber yard came alive with four fork lifts zooming around unloading and loading trucks, slaming around as they jostled their forked timber loads. Setting the white sound of my LectroFan Micro pretty high helped to mask the noise. I had ear plugs, but they were up in the driver's door pocket and it was too cold to get out from under my towel and get them.
- For comedy, I drove up to The East Side Bar and Grill. I did a seven-and-a-half minute set. Hijinks, TALL, dark and handsome, was the host.
- For the night I drove back to the American Legion Post #180 prking lot. The morning noise wasn't quite so bad since I was prepared for it.
- Here's a recent picture of all three of my grandkids (all girls). I think it's the first time I've seen them all together at once.
- I spent the night in the American Legion Post #180 parking lot. Thanks, folks!
Wed Jul 24 = This was the big show at the American Legion Post #180. Actually it wasn't as big of a deal as I made it up to be in my mind. The post considered it a success from a business point. They sold out of all their food.
- I spent the night in their parking lot again, planning to get an early start on the road.
Thu Jul 25 = I didn't even get out of town around noon until my power steering quit with a pop, a little smoke from the dash and a gergling sound from under the dash when I'd turn the steering wheel. After some research beside a road, I gingerly drove my van to Nick's Auto Care, about a mile away. With the engine idling, the fluid was running out the bottom as fast as Nick could pour it in. I arranged for his shop to fix it tomorrow morning
- Across the street, The Elks Lodge graciously let me stay in their parking lot. I think it was the first time I had been in an Elks. Really nice people! They even let me do five minutes of comedy between their BINGO games. I met Mike Creevan Sr who is a member of both the American Legion and Elks Lodge.
Fri Jul 26 = This was shop day. The rack & pinion was the culpret so they replaced it. That was a lot more expensive than I had hoped. Right now I just want to get back home to Phoenix... doing comedy all the way, of course. I got my van back around their closing time and headed toward San Francisco. The power steering started humming and was still leaking, although not nearly as much. The fluid was low. I stopped by an Advanced Auto Parts where they recommended a special power steering stop leak. It poured like syrup. I bought enough to get me to San Francisco and on to Pep Boys in San Leandro, accross the Bay Bridge.
- I spent the night in Corners, OR, near Salem.
Sat Jul 27 = Water: I disinfected my van's water tank (Jerry can) and then filled it at a Walmart bulk drinking water refill station. I don't know why I didn't think of this earlier. Only $.39 per gallon for quality drinking water.
- The drive on south was mostly through smokey haze due to the fires in the area. I even saw some fire burning beside the road at one point.
- I spent the night in Yreka, CA. In the middle of the night, it occured to me that I might be going past Petaluma, where Leo LaPorte originates his nationally syndicated Tech Guy show.
Sun Jul 28 = I sent a message to Leo Laporte's studio ticket email, got a reply so drove headed there in time to arrive by the end of his 11-2 live show. A number of things happened, including needing more power steering stop leak, a crash on the freeway and heavy traffic. I didn't get there until about 4:20, but Leo was still there, finishing up with his This Week In Tech (TWIT) podcast. He was congenial, of course, took time to visit with me a little. Now I have pictures with me and Clark, Leo, and Dave here on my on my Smart Stuff web page.
- I drove on to the Novato (northern CA) Anytime Fitness where I did a little working out and spent the night.
Mon Jul 29 = Driving down to be in an open mic at
The Hotel Utah Saloon in San Francisco, crossing San Francisco Bay twice (eastbound on I-580 and then westbound on I-80) was faster than crossing it once on the Golden Gate Bridge.
- Parking was a challenge. I finally parked in a Safeway parking garage, got 90 minutes free with my $5+ purchase and paid $3/hour for the rest of the time until just before midnight. Some walking was involved because it was about 1/3 mile from the open mic. Concerned that I might have difficulty getting my car out of the garage after Safeway closed at midnight, I walked in the cold, got my car and re-parked it about a block from Hotel Utah. The show was a lot of fun with mostly musicians. The talented musician and producer, Brendan Getzell, ran a good show. I went on at 12:30 am.
- I drove back across the Bay (eastbound on I-80), to spend the night at the Pep Boys in Leandro, CA. The middle of the night is a good time to do that drive, but not a good time to miss out on sleep, needing to get up at 7am to be first in line for Pep Boys to check my power steering.
Tue Jul 30 = It only cost me $20 to get the power steering analyzed. Mario, the Pep Boys service writer gave me an estimate of around $1200 for installation of a new power steering pump and hose, and informed me that the part would not be available for several days. Dave, the tech, said there was a little dripping at the shaft of the power steering pump. That was with the syrupy stop leak that I had been using. We concluded that I should be able to make it to Phoenix OK by adding more syrup as needed. He also said that the spare tire winch was, indeed, broken beyond repair.
- I spent the rest of the day, south at the Dublin Library. What a place! covered parking thanks to overhead solar panels.
- I spent the night in Livermore, CA at the Motel 6.
Wed Jul 31 = I made it to Bakersfield, still adding stop leak to my power steering system.
- I got my second official hair cut of this trip at a Bakersfield Super Cuts.
- Tonight's comedy was at the
Temblor Brewing Co there. Good crowd; many non-comedians.
- I spent the night at the Bakersfield 24-Hour Fitness, not realizing that my expensive Bluetooth headset fell onto the floor while I was working on my website sitting on a chair in their training area.
