We went on a Kaiku writing rampage on our trip. I wanted to get these down electronically before I lost the book. They are rather indicative of the general atmosphere…

From Brent:
Lieb Proudly Declares
I will cut no far before
is ripe and ready

Clouds on the mountain pass
the Sierra Nevada
we saw big cat prints

Roll away the dew
said roll away roll away
roll away the dew

Stars, fire and bright moon
the embers slowly dying
its time for more beer

Kevin will be rich
the cash from php code
will line his pockets

Infamous Kevin
he has hiked the Grand Canyon
Iron butt road tripper

From Kevin:
Drinking Biely Brew
sits there in slothful splendor
lasagna comes soon

Summer bounce and fly
around the minnie winnie
silly freaky kid

Trippin cross the states
farting burping and laughing
sucking in the sights

Up and over hills
downshift into first again
i’m glad we made it

Miles and miles of road
Caves and mountains and nature
Dreams of desert peace

Summer chuckles loud
Urban ninja stands no chance
its a bonus round

Drinking biely brew
chillin’ in the RV now
off to Berkeley soon

Summer Silly Feet
Brents bulging gas bubbles fart
Kevin must escape

Work begins too soon
monday starts a new career
Hope I don’t screw up

Miles and Miles of Road
Seemed like it would never end
landed in the bay

There is a plugin out there called XML-Google Maps WordPress Plugin (probably rolls of the tongue better in the native German). It works but boy is it a struggle.

I would like to show a map just from a link to a google map but I could not get this to work. After installing the plugin you really need a gpx file to make a map display. To get a GPX file you need to get the GMap to GPX javascript doodad. Follow the instructions on this page to make a link in your favorites to the javascript that makes the GPX file for you. When you are viewing a google map and click this thing you get an xml file you can copy / paste into a file. Then in your WordPress post simply link to this file.

Its hard. Its clunky. I probably don’t really understand how to do this right but I’m trying to do this quick and dirty. If anyone has any advice please send it along!

We had a nice, peaceful time camping in Toiyabe National Forest outside Las Vegas. We saw maybe 2 cars the whole time we camped there. We were “off the grid” again: running on our own power and water for the night.

In the morning we had a hearty breakfast and woke up all the desert critters with our horn and mandolin playing.

Map of where we were

Also testing this WordPress Plugin for Mapping inside a Blog.

I made it to Redwood City, CA today, just after dark. What a long trip! Over 4,000 miles in total over the last two weeks.

Sorry but I’ve been slacking on my posting. Seems I’ve been having too much fun and too little internet connection to make any updates. They are coming soon I promise! Pictures of the Grand Canyon, desert camping outside Vegas and Death Valley. We were very much “off the grid” the last few days of the trip, camping for free in national parks and forests.

We decided to make a side trip to the Grand Canyon. I had not been there since I was very young and Brent had only been there once briefly. And Summer had no idea what he was about to see.

Grand Canyon Map

Pictures from the Grand Canyon

Summer took this picture of a deer at Palo Duro State Park in TX. Amazing detail!

Sorry for the sporadic and delayed updates. Phone coverage has been very bad on the way through Texas and into New Mexico. The campgrounds we have stayed at (which we have liked the best) have been state parks with minimal services. Its fine by me though: I’m enjoying my vacation!

In Texas we stopped at Palo Duro state park. There were some amazing caverns and breathtaking scenery. We ended up staying the night in a very quiet campground at the floor of the canyon. It was so bone dry out there that no burning of charcoal or wood was allowed.

Link to the pictures

We stayed here overnight at a no-hookups campground. It seemed like a nice park but we didn’t get to see much as the wind was blowing hard and it was around 40f.

Blogging from the phone to see how it works…

(this was blogged from my phone as a test, it didn’t work so well…)