Below are the 3 most recent journal entries recorded in scottn's LiveJournal:

Tuesday, September 20th, 2005
11:00 pm	Munich, ho! 7am in amsterdam, Ruben springs for breakfast -- many different cured fish, and a bottle of nice champage. Walter -- the guy sat next to him on the plane -- joined us after a while. 3ish in Munich, we found our way to the train station in the center of town, and to the hotel via taxi, with little muss or fuss. Noticing our hotel is on a tram line, Ruben asks the driver how much the tram costs. "Oh, for tourists it is forbidden to use the tram. You must take the taxi!" He laughs like it's the funniest thing he's ever heard. Nearly clips a Fiat on the way into the parking space, he's enjoying his joke so much. Yeeeeah. We grab some groceries at the corner store (our ace Spanish skills were of no help whatsoever), Dean arrives, we find some soon-to-be-monotonous meat and potatoes downtown. At the wiezen (the fairgrounds, Oktoberfest proper) we set to meandering about the crowd, getting a feel for the place and the people: "Drunk Germans and the women who love them." The first of many nights of drinking, meeting nice folks to exchange happy drunken pleasantries with, and frightening sausage inna bun to make Dibbler proud. Current Mood: curious Current Music: 1000 Red Balloons (Comment on this)
Monday, September 19th, 2005
11:00 pm	A brief trip to the other side of the world... The plane leaves at 1:20pm, w/Ruben 15 rows ahead. We chat a bit, but after the drink and food and 3mg of melatonin, I sleep the whole way. Well, mostly the whole way. A slight bump over Greenland roused me, just in time for a 5-second freefall in clear air turbulance at Greenland's east coast. I thought it was a great ride, but not everyone felt that way. Pity there wasn't more... (Comment on this)
Saturday, June 4th, 2005
12:42 pm	A long bike trip. It's so much easier to realize how big the country is when you go from north to south on the road, instead of by air. Some tidbits: 1350 miles in 53 hours. 24-ish of that was riding, including stops. Left at 2pm Wednesday, pulled in to Roseburg at 11pm (380 miles in 7.5 hours, plus dinner in Portland during rush hour). Got going 11am Thursday, pulled into Harris Ranch (near Coalinga, north of Bakersfield on I-5) at 10pm (615 miles in 10.5 hours, plus dinner in Sacremento during rush hour). The mountains were quite chilly, even in June. On the road 11am Friday, averaged 100mph for about 2 hours, lunch in Mojave at 2:30, pulled into Palm Springs at 7 (355 miles in 6 hours, plus a leisurely lunch and ride around Mojave). Playing "who fears cops the least" with the Mercedes S500 near Bakersfield was the first real challenge, but he had no stamina. The Porche Cayenne (yes, the SUV) beat me hands down! Never did catch up to that guy, but 5 minutes at 120mph made it fun trying. Wow these southern California drivers are fast. (It wasn't that crazy -- traffic was going 100.) Dunno if I'd ever have made it without my ipod. Can you call it dancing if you're just weaving around in the lane, writhing gently in time to the music? MUST get the earbuds that block outside sound instead of competing with it. Ow. Lunch yesterday was at Mojave airport, almost exactly a year after SpaceShipOne turned the phrase "private space flight" from scifi to oh-yeah-that's-normal. The place is a little different without the thousands of fans and well-wishers, but the food was still just as tasty. The trip back should provide opportunity for my required Hajj to Mr. S in San Francisco. Off to find a car wash in Palm Springs that'll do bikes... Current Mood: rejuvenated Current Music: Van Halen - Right Now (1 Comment |Comment on this)