On the Road Again

I left New Orleans late yesterday morning with the intention of getting to Memphis before dark. I came within about 30 miles before it started getting dark and I decided to quit for the day. I stopped in Jackson, MS, and had a good visit with Ebie Jarvis and her 15 year old twins, James and Jeremy. Ebie is the widow of Mark Jarvis, who was one of the first friends I made when I moved to the USA in 1983. The friendship survived multiple moves, marriages, divorces, and career changes over the years. He died last year after struggling with cancer for a couple of years. As I've often said, life isn't fair.

I'll spend tonight in St. Louis, and Wednesday night in Columbia before heading back home with no friends on the way to harass until I get to Seattle. I haven't decided yet on which route I'll take, but I think I might head through the wilds of Wyoming through Yellowstone. I've been close, but never actually gone through the park before. I hope my camera hangs in there. Yesterday, it decided to give me the Olympus equivalent of the Microsoft "blue screen of death." After burning a half hour of airtime and cell phone battery life and coming up with nothing from the Olympus help line, I tried holding down various combinations of buttons and controls on the camera trying to find the equivalent of the three-fingered salute. Miraculously, I found a combination that worked (don't ask me what it was), and so far the camera is still working.

I posted this picture of Hal because he was whining that all the pictures I've posted of him were dorky. I replied that if he didn't always pose like a dork, I might have something better to post. Here's one of the least-dorky shots, taken at the Chaz Fest, a mini-alternative to the Jazz Fest we found.

It appears that Hal has survived another bout of Motorcycle Maintenance. His Triumph started running really poorly for no apparent reason (maybe it was the torrential downpour we had last Friday). After taking everything apart, cleaning things up and finding nothing obviously amiss, Hal was at wit's end as to what to do. The closest Triumph dealer is in Houston, and Hal was leaving for New York today. Quite a conundrum. But not long after I left, the bike started running smoothly again. Maybe it was the Zen.