Ft Worth Street Painting Fair

Brandon & I used to sit down at the end of all the street fairs that we would paint at & say how nice it would be to actually go to one for the first time instead of work at one.....then we would look at each other & our finished pieces & take it all back. Ofcourse, that finally did happen! My parents read an article & made the travel plans & surprised me one Sunday afternoon by taking me to the Ft Worth Street Fair. Here are some of my favorites:

Georgia O'Keefe...good use of my motto- "Broad expanses of colour."
Dali- this is the first time that I've seen someone do a surrealist.

I know that this work is a bit too Kinkade for me but I like the artist technique of starting with black back ground & adding the colour like a true pastel artist.

I had a nice conversation with this guy. The only morph work at the fair of a Koi Pond. No way that I stood could I get a good shot of this piece.

Jenny, this is for you. Pre-Raphaelites.

Homage to the Munsters:)

Homage to Betty Page....really made me miss Brandon.

This is one of those pieces that I would be willing to do a jig-saw puzzle of but never a street painting.

Just wanted to show you that each piece had a team of at least three artists. Was that required for this fair?

These girls rocked!! That's a magazine ad that they were able to make it seem like the golden dress actually glistened. But they had their headphones on so I could question them how:(

I wasn't so impressed by this work because I've seen it so many times but read the thought bubbles above the cherubs: "Do you think she will finish?" "I don't know. It's been 9 hours."

This was the first street painting fair that I went to that didn't have censors. Nudity!! Woohoo Fort Worth!

Shit I'm REALLY Diggin'

My friend Barb just sent me an email to this link about a dude that made his own Vespa out of wood. http://jalopnik.com/5135543/beautiful-hand+made-wooden-vespa?skyline=true&s=i

Daddy....can I have one!!!!!

Shit I'm Diggin'

The colours for 2009 are Black & Gold. The COSTUME for 2009 is the Girl Scout uniform. I'm not talking about the current uniform that revolves around a vest. BaH! What are we preparing our young ladies to become- greeters at Walmart?! NO! What I'm talking about is what I proudly wore every Wednesday in elementary school. Mary Janes, wool knee-high socks, jumper/penifore, sash & beret. You were part of the in crowd at Bromwell if you had the most GS pharaphinalia on Wednesdays....& I was pretty cool, I even had the short sleeve blouse with GS insignia as poka-dots plus the cardigan. Apparently you are hip now if you wear a version on the uniform. I have lady friends calling me from Dallas to Chicago telling me to join them in their troop.

One I saw today were the ladies from Pod Post a Mail Artists company. With these troopers you can earn merit badges from zining, book making & self-publishing. I want a merit badge with a Xerox machine on it!!!


If one of these troups give me a uniform in Burberry, I will be JAM-BO-REE-ing!!!! Check them out @ http://www.podpodpost.com

In Memory of Syd Harrison

Syd Harrison was the kind of boss that you would never wish ill will upon. He was my mentor & the one person that brought back my love for architecture from the brink of extinction. In a weird turn of "6 degrees of separation" my first interview with him lasted 3 hours when he noticed that I went to kindergarten with his daughter. That's just the person Syd was, an inspiring gentleman with a keen eye to detail. A trait that he honed in me hours spent on construction sites. Every project with him were tests to right side of the brain. Pushing my envelope for research & design; from follies for dining to converting ranch style homes into Japanese pagodas to boat haul design. He was a pleasure to work with & learn from. Being the sole employee, when I wanted a new desk chair he came back with a designer original that could of come out of the Millennium Falcon & when you turned around you could get a massage in it. An awesome man that would encourage intellectual discussion on ANYTHING. When he was sick, he would still come in to give me company & train me in the diverting rules between American & European croquet. At that time, all I had was Itchy & a scooter yet he put full trust in me. A big heart & a major love of croquet, that was Syd.
Syd passed on December 30th. A man that donated over 300 pints of blood in his life & he dies from a plasma disease. For men like Syd & my father who used quite a bit of blood this year, please donate.

SHOGATSU

Happy Year of the Cow everyone!! This time last year I was sitting around a light-bright table @ Endor (Mary's house) warming Sake on the potbelly stove & trying to convince my friends to eat the baby anchoives I had personally fried for the Japanese New Year. This year I went to celebrate the Japanese New Year with whom? .... the Japanese.

I really wanted to go to the Morikami Museum & Japanese Gardens for two reasons.
1) See how they did Mochitsuki.
2) Buy getta to drive my mother nuts with. (There wooden flip-flops on stilts.)
I didn't get the getta because they wanted $16 for them & I won't bother my Mum for over $5. But I did get to see the Mochitsuki.

Mochitsuki is the pounding of the rice to make mochi, a sweet rice dessert. It is called Mochitsuki because while its worked it looks like a round sphere like tsuki- the moon.



First they put the steamed rice in this ceramic urn that they pounding into, two wooden mallets that you can see off to the left & water to keep them wet so the rice doesn't stick to them.

Then the pounding starts. You see the old Grannie in her yukata with an apron over is over seeing the work. There were a handfull of back up Grannies in the shade but no Shonen (Japanese boys) to do the pounding....I won't comment on that BUT it was good that they had back up Grannies- this one got her hand hit once by a mallet. Ouch!

Here is a slow moment where the mallet is getting wetted & the Grannie is turning the mochi. After a while during the pounding she has to stick her hand in there after ever pound to rotate it. After she got her hand hit once she started calling out when the boy could hit next.

There were plenty of other events going on. (Sorry, no fried anchoives Rachel.) But what would be a Japanese celebration without Taiko Drumming?! I would love to do taiko. It looks so ventive. But then I look at the costumes of just a bib top & think about how I would look pounding a drum with my flabby upper arms.....moving on.....The had a Shishimai dancing with the drums, i.e. a lion dancer.

Here's a list of some of the Japanese events & my definitions:

Hanetsuki Two wooden pattles & a oval wooden object that looks like a fishing lure. This would be Japanese badminton, no net though.

Fukuwarai The goddess of happiness game. Japanese Pin-The-Tail-On-The-Donkey

Jan Ken Pon Activity similar to rock, paper, scissors.

Daruma Otoshi A stack of wooden blocks are hit from the bottom up with a hammer into a box with a dragons head in it. The object is to hit them all at the dragon without the stack falling over.

Karuta Japanese card game similar to Memory. Do you remember that?

Omikuji Japanese fortune telling sticks. I did this & my stick said that I was going to have an excellant year. It better be right!!

Miss you more than the chance do Kakizome & the Sado Tea Ceremony,

V

SHOGATSU

Happy Year of the Cow everyone!! This time last year I was sitting around a light-bright table @ Endor (Mary's house) warming Sake on the potbelly stove & trying to convince my friends to eat the baby anchoives I had personally fried for the Japanese New Year. This year I went to celebrate the Japanese New Year with whom? .... the Japanese.

I really wanted to go to the Morikami Museum & Japanese Gardens for two reasons.
1) See how they did Mochitsuki.
2) Buy getta to drive my mother nuts with. (There wooden flip-flops on stilts.)
I didn't get the getta because they wanted $16 for them & I won't bother my Mum for over $5. But I did get to see the Mochitsuki.

Mochitsuki is the pounding of the rice to make mochi, a sweet rice dessert. It is called Mochitsuki because while its worked it looks like a round sphere like tsuki- the moon.



First they put the steamed rice in this ceramic urn that they pounding into, two wooden mallets that you can see off to the left & water to keep them wet so the rice doesn't stick to them.

Then the pounding starts. You see the old Grannie in her yukata with an apron over is over seeing the work. There were a handfull of back up Grannies in the shade but no Shonen (Japanese boys) to do the pounding....I won't comment on that BUT it was good that they had back up Grannies- this one got her hand hit once by a mallet. Ouch!

Here is a slow moment where the mallet is getting wetted & the Grannie is turning the mochi. After a while during the pounding she has to stick her hand in there after ever pound to rotate it. After she got her hand hit once she started calling out when the boy could hit next.

There were plenty of other events going on. (Sorry, no fried anchoives Rachel.) But what would be a Japanese celebration without Taiko Drumming?! I would love to do taiko. It looks so ventive. But then I look at the costumes of just a bib top & think about how I would look pounding a drum with my flabby upper arms.....moving on.....The had a Shishimai dancing with the drums, i.e. a lion dancer.

Here's a list of some of the Japanese events & my definitions:

Hanetsuki Two wooden pattles & a oval wooden object that looks like a fishing lure. This would be Japanese badminton, no net though.

Fukuwarai The goddess of happiness game. Japanese Pin-The-Tail-On-The-Donkey

Jan Ken Pon Activity similar to rock, paper, scissors.

Daruma Otoshi A stack of wooden blocks are hit from the bottom up with a hammer into a box with a dragons head in it. The object is to hit them all at the dragon without the stack falling over.

Karuta Japanese card game similar to Memory. Do you remember that?

Omikuji Japanese fortune telling sticks. I did this & my stick said that I was going to have an excellant year. It better be right!!

Miss you more than the chance do Kakizome & the Sado Tea Ceremony,

V

Boca Raton Boat Parade

I wanted to start out my first 2009 blog entry with a little bit of the holiday cheer. This is a picture of the bourbon balls that I made using Mrs. Carrel's recipe. It called to dip the balls in chocolate using tooth picks. I searched & searched the grocery store for toothpicks & they weren't anywhere. Once again I had to use shish kabob skewers for something other than skewering meat.

Here I am in Florida with the parents. One of the traditions down here is to go to the Boca Raton Boat parade. Local boat owners deck out there boats for Christmas and then parade them down the intercoastal. This year Dad's handicap tag on the car got us prime seats at a park on the canal. We were just popping in for parking when the attendant told us that the parking was only for handicapped...ah ha! We are handicap! So we got front row seats in the bleachers. My parents never knew that this existed, they always went to other parks & just watched as they ate a picnic.

The first boat was the fireworks boat that seemed to propell itself with a constant stream of fireworks. It was my favorite & Itchy's least.

You have to excuse the low quality of photos. Its not as simple as you would think to take photos of moving boats at night. -- So, some of the boats had a more Floridian approach like this one of a marlin following some dolphins. They were judged on size classes, I think the rowboats were judged on how fast the rowers rowed:)
This one was my Mum's favorite. They're a group of people dressed up as wooden soliders lined up on deck & when the ship fired its cannon, all of the soliders fell down. Cute.



And it wouldn't be a boat parade if someone didn't have Santa reeling in a water-skiing dolphin.

Pink Hot Chocolate

In a search for gifts for those that have everything, I saw a tin of Raggedy Ann Pink Hot Chocolate @ Sur La Table. {They do have Blue Hot Chocolate too but I don't find blue appetizing.] I didn't make a spectical of myself in the store but internally I went crazy for this. I went to plenty a tea party in Fairbanks with ladies that would love to have this. I didn't get it because it was $7.50 for 8oz. Its too small that the people that I would send it too would cherish it, never use it & let it turn into a block in their pantry. So I did some research & here's a recipe for Pink Chocolate:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/rachael-rays-tasty-travels/pink-chocolate-recipe/index.html
Now this recipe uses alcohol....great! but still expensive. So we need to come up with an idea to make it cheaper. I know that you can find white mocha powder but how do we colour it pink? Adding food colouring sounds like it would stain cups & lips? Give me your ideas.....

New Way to Celebrate the Holidays

Everytime that you move you to a new city you have rediscover all of the basics like where to take your trash, which grocery store has pita bread & which ones don't, etc. Eventually the holidays will come around & you will have to rediscover who, where & how you are going to celebrate them.

This year I got lucky, I have family that lives in Chicago. More than one; an Aunt, a cousin, my sister's future in-laws, plus friends. So this year I got invited by my Aunt Judy to come to her house to celebrate a traditional Schmitz Thanksgiving. I had never celebrated an extended family Thanksgiving so this year was going to be a super special treat.

On the day itself, the boys & I stayed home & had hot dogs. Why hot dogs? First off, Jason makes the most delicious hot dogs. Secondly, Ryan's company gives them a turkey for Thanksgiving, so they decided to give it to the Women's Shelter. Later on that evening I went out dancing. Maybe that's a personal tradition? I like it; Thanksgiving is the most packed time in clubs other than on Halloween & NYE.

The next day I went to my Aunt's house for a great evening. That night I found proof, food does taste better when its made by family. Plus, there are some people out there that are capable of improving your self-respect for a lifetime. One of my Aunt's friends told me that in her next life, she wants her hair to look exactly like mine:)

Saturday I had business I needed to attend to downtown. Since I was going to be there, I decided to go down to the shops on Michigan Avenue to see the decorations. They were beautiful, the weather was great & there wasn't a huge crowd.....unless you were on the block that Crate & Barrell was on. The one store on the Magnificant Mile that can be found every five square mile in Chicago & everyone was swarming to it. They must of been out-of-towners because there were a lot of families coming out of the hotels that were there visiting.

There is a different caliber of people that shop the Mile. My first proof was when I was infront of the Walgreens. A Santa was ringing his bell for the Salvation Army. Not every bell ringer is someone transitioning from being homeless but this soul was. Now have that in mind- while I'm walking past him, a woman comes up to him & askes him 'Excuse me. Where's COACH?' He appropriately gave her a blank stare & continued to ring his bell.

Next I saw another pair of bell ringers outside the American Girl store. [If you don't know what American Girl is, its a doll store that makes dolls & outfits that look identical to the little girl. Kinda creepy.] They were women that were part of the army of the Salvation Army. Meaning that they had on the women's military uniform, hat & vintage cloak. One of the them was the bomb! She had totally prepared to work the American Girl store; she had puppet that look exactly like her, even with the Salvation Army costume! I now think that every bell ringer should have a miniature puppet of themselves:)

By the afternoon I was exhausted from sensory overload. I decided to take refuge in the Borders Cafe. This is were I regained some belief that our culture hadn't gone over board. A group of business men wearing designer suits & carrying their Monte Blanc bags sat down next to me in the cafe. Two french men & one American. When they got up to leave the two frenchmen walked away leaving their trash on the table. The american was still at the table & called out to them so that everyone in our vicinity could hear him, "Pierre, come back here. We have a saying in American that goes, 'Does your mother work here?' Meaning we bus our own tables." I'm sure they heard me giggle.

I'm clearly an unconsumer-zoned person. I used to think that I knew how to shop but I couldn't even pick out a pair of socks that day if I wanted to. I only know how to shop art stores & book stores. I don't know how to window shop. So I spent my day looking at the beautiful chandeliers @ Macy's; wondering who would buy an indiviual donut maker @ Bloomingdales (they have a Children's Home Kitchen section!); & checking out the season styles. Which if you are interested: large-gauge chain necklaces held together by vintage, diamond, costume brooches & sweater dresses that are made to look like the '20s with accordian lace.

Miss you more than tribal drums playing Jingle Bells,
V

First concert back in the Lower 48

I went to my first concert in the lower 48 for the first time since my return. I felt like an absolute tourist, planning my travel times on the train & having back up money incase I had an accident.

I went to the Dir En Grey concert at the House of Blues. House of Blues...Japanese Metal Band= bizarre. Since it was being promoted by Hot Topic the concert started @ 6:30pm. Even more bizarre. I didn't know the venue so I actually showed up on time & had to wait in a line outside. Its been ages since I did that. It was remedied when they picked out over 21 concert goers to let in first...& head directly to the bar.

The House of Blues has this automated announcement before the show starts that anyone caught crowd surfing, stage jumping or head walking would be ejected from the venue....and these kids actually listened to it!! If it was a crowd of my peers (though ejection into a Chicago winter is a deterant) it would of been an invitation for everyone to the above listed. Different crowd...lets just say if the building caught fire, it would of been one large virgin sacrifice.

Dir en Grey was great! They didn't wear their Visual Kei costumes...alas, they have been around long enough to not need them. But the image of a small tattooed Japanese man in shinny Adidas outfit hasn't quite settled in my head. Just a little too yakuza for me. The music itself was really pumping & I enjoyed myself thoroughly! The lead singer had a demonic solo that at moments I thought they were channelling Diamanda Galas & Current 93. A true sign of talent.

By the end of the concert I had one question: Why don't women ever practice scream singing?
Miss you more than being a roadie for a j-rock band,
V

RELOCATION: DAY EIGHT - ELEVEN

[Note to all friends & family that read my blog. If you can tell by the dates I have been taking my sweet time in telling the tale of my relocation. For all of those confused that have been contacting me....no, I am not moving to Canada.]

Relocation: Day Eight. I made it to the Canada/US border & the best part was that I could finally go into a Duty-Free Shop. Proof that relocating isn't as exciting as a beatnik novel. The most fancy thing that I bought there? Maple Cream cookies to bring as an offering for my new roommates. They wanted me to pick up cheap cigarettes because Chicago has over 10% sales tax, but Canada doesn't sell American cigarettes. The cigarettes need to be covered with huge pictures of heart disease & old men coughing their lungs out which the US doesn't do. They even have their cigarettes covered with curtains in gas stations.

I have some impolite things to say about homeland security but since I have to work with them when I design airports, I will mutter them to myself.

Relocation: Day Nine & Ten: Near death, I stayed in my hotel room for a couple of days. I'm respective of the hotel owners that let me stay there & let Itchy wander unattended & for Itchy loving me enough to come back to me. Forever will these days be known as The Black Days of Relocation.

Relocation: Day Eleven. I desperately needed to get to Chicago. My roommates didn't know if I was dead or alive & my cell phone battery died just as I was telling them where I was. So late night I hung out in a rest area while my battery powered up. I slept in my truck with my puppy because there is no place scarier than a Good Sam's at 1am without any working lights.

When I made it to Chicago I was almost pleased to see toll booths & bumper to bumper traffic. My roommate Jason took the day off & unload the trailer with me in under an hour. Then we went to the Uhaul 'castle' to return the trailer. To my joy, the great guys in Fairbanks gave me three extra days on the rental so I wasn't late turning it in:) And what a relief to have that thing off the back of my truck! I was free....& unencombered to try to parallel park again....with a pickup truck. Yeesh! Talk about 42 point parking job.

That night was bliss. Theres nothing as nice as sleeping in your own inflatable bed:)

RELOCATION: DAVE SEVEN

Relocation: Day Seven. Made to Winnipeg in a deluge. Very unfortunate. I had a coworker in I Alaska that was from Winnipeg & he recommended some sites in town that were all outdoors. So I didn't get to see any of the street buskers at 'The Forks'.

I did eat at this great little cafe called Eat A Samosa that served what else....all samosas. Yummy. I'm glad that I filled up because it was a long evening of entertainment trying to find a hotel that allowed dogs. I was hoping that the Queen Bee Hotel allowed dogs just to see if it was in anyway connected to the black explotation character called Queen Bee. Maybe it was for the best that I didn't stay there because Queen Bee was a huge, afro stylin' madam. Instead I stayed at a no-tell-motel near the college.

RELOCATION: DAY SIX

Relocation: Day Six. After a horrible nights rest I had another breakfast @ Humpty's. I drove lazily all day in order to make it to Saskatoon. I was hoping it would be like yesterdayin which I could make it in time to go do something in town. Saskatoon was a nice town but not even the Viistors' Center was open. But I did have a mission to make it to a book store.

While I was on the road, I got an email from an architecture firm in China that wanted to interview me when I stopped travelling. So I thought it would be in my best interest to get an instructional Chinese cd set similar to the Japanese one that I had been listening to already. It is amazing how many people don't have a clue where a local book store is in their town. Fortunately the woman at the front desk of my hotel was willing to do a mapquest for me.

I had rushed to Saskatoon to get to the Dolly Museum only to find out that it was closed for the season:( So instead I had my first Arby's in ages....have they changed the formula for a Jamocha shake?

No more pictures because I had used up my disc accidentally when I left the camera on video while I was at the Ukranian Village. One of these days I'm going to read the instruction manual.

RELOCATION: DAY FIVE

Relocation: Day Five. I started the morning off seeing a German Shepard on the side of the road eatting from an elk carrcass. Once I got close to Edmonton around 9am I took a detour to Devon. I'm a real sucker for Japanese gardens & there on the side of the road was a billboard for the Japanese Gardens at the Devon Botanic Gardens.


I drove around Edmonton to the Ukranian Village...which I got a AAA discount, yosh! Its part of the new trend to relocate historic buildings instead of tearing them down in cases of modernization. The village was possibly an entire afternoon walk about. They had the churches closed due to rehabilitating the onion domes but you could walk into practically all the buildings. They had little villages arranged from era of imigration. The first was the 1920's town that had a blacksmith there to talk to you & a shop owner. They could only respond to you in terms of their time period.



My favorite would be the pioneering hut & the 1900's farm. First, I could completely see someone in Alaska living in the hut. Very friendly chickens that I had to push out of the way to get up the path.

The 1900's house was so well built with thermal insulation & dry root storage above the rooms.


And who doesn't like the appeal of a thatched roof.

After a look @ the borsch I decided to get some grub in Edmonton @ my true destination for the day- the Art Museum.

My trip downtown was a complete wash when I couldn't get into the underground parking with my trailer @ the Art Museum! So I decided to find my hotel.

This leads me to my next story. By the time that I arrived to Edmonton I could efficiently describe everything on the road in Japanese do to a instructional cd gift from my friends Rachel & Glenmore. You add that to the fact that I can find by natural intuition either a comic book shop or asian town in any city. Now add to my honing skills that Canada has an ENORMOUS Chinese imigrant population. What happened is I was surrounded by Asian stores on every turn. So I decided to pull into a mini mall to eat at this cafe called SOU KAWAII. (If you know any Japanese, that means so cute.) It was a cosplay cafe/comic shop. What my luck! It only had paninis & bubble tea.

But when Itchy was given her own chair to eat at & my meal was delivered by a guy that looked like this I heard the girls in Alaska saying, "He's definately from out of town." [Which is AK girl slang for an attract man:)]

I spent the night in a hotel room near the train tracks because of over filled hotels. I slept through the trains but Itchy was up every hour.

RELOCATION- DAY FOUR

Relocation- Day Four: Today I tried to do a 668 km push to Edmonton. The first chance to be in a city that has a real art museum & I want to see it! Unfortunately I didn't make it.

Around Pink Mountain there was massive construction. In Canada, where there is only one lane going each way, that means waiting in line for a pilot truck to guide you through the mountains. The other direction has to wait while you come on through & vice versa. This happened three times. All of the semis that I was driving with had to come to a complete stop. So when they started back up again a lot of gravel got kicked up onto my truck. Which means that I have a crack in my windshield now.

After the mountains I got cell phone reception again! By the time I got to Whitecourt I had to eat. I stopped into a Humpty's (they are like Denny's). They have a more British diner menu so I had a Banger & Egg. Once again, like in the Yukon, the egg yolk just didn't have the same colour in it like US eggs? Is it genetic modification or do they just cook them differently?

After my egg I lost complete steam & look at the neon sign across the road there in Whitecourt. I walked across the street & stayed a night at 'The Ritz'. I was dubious but it was a great price, allowed dogs & the room was rather nice. Ofcourse, maybe I thought all of the dives that I was staying in were nice because they were not the inside of my truck.

Relocation: Day Three

Relocation: Day Three. Today is the big 600 mile push to get to Fort Nelson. The lady @ the Vistor Bureau in Whitehorse suggested that I stay the evening at the Laird Hot Springs. But after going to a hot springs the week before & having to take a worm out of my neck I decided to stay far away from Laird. That, and what do you do with a dog @ a hot springs?

So I left the hotel @ 5am to make good time....& to avoid any damage charges. I had this plan that I would dye my hair a brilliant colour for the trip so incase I was abducted, my friends could start searching on my route for a woman with fuscia hair. The bathroom was covered in fuscia even as much care & cleaning I did afterwards. The next problem about leaving that early in the morning is that the gas stations aren't open that early. In most of Canada, they don't have pay-at-the-pump plus they prefer to fill you up themselves (and to get the dogs off of you). But I did find one blessed station that was open. I was wearing camoflague pants so they gave me a 10% off redneck discount & paid for my breakfast!

My lunch break spot was Watson Lake. I made the assumtion that if they had the famous Sign Post forest that they would have food options. I was wrong. This picture is just a small segment of the forest. They are about 16 feet tall so I took the picture from across the road.

They was a lot of stop & go when I got into British Columbia. Many wildlife: caribou, elk & bison. Canada & Alaska that the only wild herds of bison on the continent. The do love to stand in the road. There is something about the gravel that they use up here that keep a certain type of burrowing flies away & so the herds love to stand on the roads. I'm not joking. So you have to patiently wait for them to move.

It was completely fall when I left Alaska so getting past the Canadian Rockies some of the green started showing up as I drove back into Summer. Very beautifull plateaus started to show up but the lakes still had the same glacial minerals that made them the aqua blue.
I think that very rarely can you find a little piece of heaven. But the last of it was in Toad Lake. I pulled into this gas station & was ofcourse greated by their freindly dogs. I went inside and the elderly store keep was baking over an iron oven. She pulled out peanut butter cookies & gave me a hand full for the road. If you were wondering what Itchy was doing this entire time. Hanging in there, tough relocation.
She needed her rest because we soon started to see fence posts! The first ones in the entire trip. Which meant that we were at the end of the Alaskan Highway, Mile 0, Dawson Creek. Dawson Creek is not to be mistaken for Dawson City where you get shots in a bar with frozen toes in them....but that's an entirely different story. We took a walk around and Itchy was a hit! You would of thought that the circus was in town. Entire groups of people were coming out of the stores to see what in the heck she was.
The land went flat after that & soon we were into Fort Nelson. I thought we would stay at the Ramada & live it up, but it wasn't that fancy. They had 'special' rooms for those traveling with dogs which meant that we were sleeping in a glorified kennel with tile floors and metal doors. The clerk was nice though & let me go behind the counter to use his computer to let everyone know that I was alive. No cell phone reception yet.

Relocation: DAY TWO

Relocation, Day Two: Awoke above the bar early to get out & have a real breakfast to get on to the status quo. Haines Juntion is a Man Camp, meaning that its mostly men working, trucking or hunting around. BUT one of my coworkers told me that they had opened a Bakery across from the Vistor Center. A hope of something nicer than gas station coffee! Unfortunately it was closed for the season. So I took a picture of the church in a World War II quionset hut then popped into the diner. When I say Man Camp I mean it, everyone in the diner was male.

My goal for the day was to drive a couple hundred miles to Whitehorse & spend the afternoon there. I had heard of Whitehorse from the Yukon Quest. Its the other end of the race. Plus, the girls from Tundra Caravan bought me a Natahlie Parenteau piece & her studio is in Whitehorse. So I intended to pop in to see her. Ofcourse, when I got there, she wasn't. So I took a walk around downtown whitehorse to look @ all of there history of Good Time Girls. If you are ever in Whitehorse during the summer, go to see their famous can-can show. They are popular in the Yukon. I got to also see something completely new. A wooden skyscraper!
I also didn't know that Whitehorse had a Beringia Museum. I love dinosaurs & was working at Bettisworth North on a Beringia Museum design for the town of Nome. So I definately had to go to this museum.

If you are unfamiliar with what Beringia is, it is the lost sub-continent that connected EurAsia with North America during the last ice age. There was actually several Ice Ages during a 70 million year history but most importantly it was when Mammoths, American Lions, Stepe Bison, Mastodonts, Gomphotheres, early horses & camels, Giant Sloths, American Scimitar Cats & Giant Beaver existed in Alaska & the Yukon. There skeletons are found everywhere & a lady once had a fence in Nome made out of Mammoth tusks!

Some funny curator thought it would be hilarious to have the women coming out of the Women's Bathroom greeted by an angry Scimitar Cat. (Note: they can't be mistaken for Sabretooth Tigers.)
They had taken down the skeleton of the giant beaver so I took a picture of the giant sloth that is 10 feet tall! The most horrifing part of the exhibit is the Giant Beavers because they were the size of a Yugo & were MAN EATERS! Can you image existing in a world that beavers ate humans! The Tlingit have a historic tale of the Wanderer that went up to a family of Giant Beavers and killed the mother & the father infront of the babies. He told them that they better not grow up or they too would be killed like their parents. And supposedly that's the reason we don't have giant, man-eating, beavers anymore.

Miss you more than fuzzy little creatures, V

Relocation: DAY ONE

Relocation minus day one I went to pick up the Uhaul trailer. I had rented from them before but this time they tell me that I have red & amber lights so I need a convertor put on my hitch so I could use the trailer. I'm in a rush at this point because my friend Rachel has been holding the Vespa in her garage & is taking a couple hours off at work to help me get it in the trailer. $239 & 2 hours later I'm out at Chena Hot Springs Road loading a Vespa into the back of a trailer on my own.

I didn't get everything packed into the back of the trailer before nightfall so I had to finish in the morning. Which means that I didn't leave Fairbanks until 9am. I made it to Delta Junction for lunch.

I finally had the chance to stop at Mukluk Land and it was closed for the season. For everyone in Fairbanks, its similar to Pioneer Park.
I was inspiring to camp that evening @ Kluane Lake since I had been there before & knew the land. It was getting late & my travel around the lake to get to a camp site was delayed by the lack of pavement. Three years & still no road. I was slowing down to pull into a campsite when I had to seriously brake....for three grizzly bears walking across the road into my site.


Sooo- I kept on driving & pulled in late to Haines Junction. One stop light that doesn't work, a plywood painted RCMP(Royal Canadian Mounted Police) car, & three hotels....all of which were full. So I went to a bar & the bartender let me sleep in one of the rooms upstairs. Not bad if you don't mind a room that has car fresheners hanging from the ceiling & a bar bell ringing to the early hours of the night.