Another look: The San Diego Zoo

Original post:  Day 49: Strange creature overload

I visited the San Diego Zoo this summer and saw all sorts of animals I never thought I’d see. Click the link above for my original post, with photos of a panda, koala, hippo, elephant, zebra, rhino, tiger, bear, monkey, camel, giraffe, and komodo dragon.

That list only scratches the surface of all the animals I saw, so here comes another batch of pics. Click the thumbnails for the large versions.

A nifty pic I took while standing inside the koala exhibit looking out (not really, it just looks that way.)

This was cool – a living desert. They brought in a bunch of plant species from Madagascar.

They have polar bears at the San Diego Zoo! Skinny, weird-looking polar bears.

The cheetah was kept behind a pane of glass.

There was a peacock just wandering around loose throughout the zoo grounds.

This is something called the guanaco, a relative of the llama.

These things are called chacoan peccaries. The sign referred to them as “ice age relics.” They huddled together in this ditch since it was a cold day.

 

Another panda, playing in his pen.

A huge orangutan snacks on cabbage while kids look on.

Some sort of yellow snake.

They had donkeys we were allowed to pet. I did, and it was filthy. I had to immediately find a bathroom to clean my hands.

There was one scary, large black cat, a jaguar or puma. But it stayed back in its cage. I was only able to get this picture of the cat behind the fence.

These were called Bornean bearded pigs.

A few turtles were in a tank next to the hippo tank.

I think the San Diego Zoo has spoiled me for all other zoos, forever.

I played disc golf on the road

Frisbee golf is one of my favorite solo sports. Thanks to the Professional Disc Golf Association’s website, I was able to find disc golf courses all over the place.

I ended up playing four times. Here’s the recap of my efforts.

Game 1: Charlotte, North Carolina
At some place called Reedy Creek Park I located a great disc golf course. This one was very popular – a lot of people were there. And it was challenging, at least for a relative beginner like me. I shot +28 on the 18-hole course. I made two pars, which I celebrated as if they were holes-in-one.

My tee shot on #17 went awry. I shook the tree and got it down.

Game 2: South Carolina?
This frisbee golf game was unplanned. I was driving through some back roads, I think in South Carolina, and stumbled upon a park with a disc golf course. It was early, around 9 am, and no one else was there. I took no pictures and I don’t remember my score.

Game 3: Dallas, Texas
In Dallas I found a disc golf park at BB Owen Park. This was a well-designed park with 18 holes. I took a photo of the course, which came in handy because it was sometimes hard to figure out which was the next hole.

This was an extremely challenging course. Here’s the view from the first tee. You have to go across a creek, through a small opening between trees.

I shot +20 over 18 holes, a better score than I posted in Charlotte. I made my first birdie ever and also made a 20-foot par. I took a photo of where I was when I threw the frisbee, because that 20-foot shot was my longest ever. The flag is right in the middle:

Game 4: Austin, Texas
In Austin, Jason and I hit a disc golf course on our way out of town. It was a fun course, with water hazards and really long holes.

Another look: Alabama

Original post: Day 15: Just the good old boys, never meanin no harm

I only devoted two paragraphs of the entire blog to Alabama, so it’s time to revisit that state.

I spent one day, about five hours, in Alabama, and it was entirely on the freeway heading south towards Pensacola. I passed by towns called Arkadelphia and Warrior. I encountered a traffic jam outside of Birmingham, which struck me as odd.

I regret not having enough time to visit some of the small towns in the deep south, but that’s the way it was. My only stop in Alabama was a rest stop. The rest stop had some sort of space shuttle on display.

This perplexed me… could it possibly be an actual rocket that was flown into space? I read the sign, and was still confused. Evidently, this rocket was part of a series, and one of the rockets in the series went to the moon, but not this one. So this rocket is kind of historic… or not.

So I got to touch a rocket that sort of, possibly, might’ve flown into space. Except it didn’t.

I enjoyed the small-town water towers. Here’s one from Flomaton, Alabama, near the Florida border. I’m including this because it’s the only other picture I have from the state. Thus concludes our Alabama retrospective!

Turns out I was on tv after all!

Original post: Day 53: It’s a green day on Carson Daly

Back in June, Jason and I attended a taping of Last Call with Carson Daly, where Green Day performed a bunch of songs. I never saw the broadcast, so I didn’t know for sure whether my face actually appeared on tv. Now, thanks to YouTube, I’ve confirmed that it did.

Here’s a screenshot of one of the videos. I’m in the yellow circle and Jason is in the red.

I believe this is my second appearance on national television. My first would’ve been an MTV game show called Sandblast. In 1995 when I visited Orlando, my friend Pokey and I stumbled upon a taping of the show and they put us in the crowd for a couple of scenes. But then we left, because it was so boring.

I never saw the video of that show either, but since there were only about 25 people in the crowd, I’m sure our faces must have been visible.

I’m adding both of these appearances to my acting resume. I wonder if I’m now eligible for an Emmy?

Here’s how the entire song looked. My award-winning cameo comes at 1:28. Don’t blink.

Another look: Paris, Texas

Original post: I am not as good as a wall

Paris, Texas, located north of Dallas, was one of those small towns that intrigued me as I passed through. I only briefly talked about the town in May, so here’s some more detail.

The main attraction in Paris seemed to be its town square. Around the square were a ton of antiques stores. I counted at least a half dozen. I don’t know how they all stay in business.

Near Paris is this block of real estate, which almost looks like an old-time ghost town. It’s actually just a couple of abandoned markets.

I stopped at Braum’s. The jalapeno jack cheeseburger sounded delightful, but it was out of my price range, given my daily $7 food budget. I did purchase an ice cream cone, though. Ice cream was always my top priority!

Paris was home to the infamous clothing store Stylez-4-U And More, the winner of “Worst Store Name” during my entire trip.

Which President Bush turnpike would you like to take?

I think that pretty much covers the entire town of Paris. Au revoir!

Odd vehicles and weird drivers

Here are a few more odd sights I encountered while driving.

In San Francisco, I got extreme van envy when I saw someone driving this around:

One of the craziest things I saw was a car swerving all over the parkway in Tennessee. It turns out the driver was reading a newspaper. Not a folded over newspaper, either – I’m talking about a full spread-out paper, covering the entire wheel. It was pretty much the most reckless thing ever (except maybe for the blogger who felt the need to take a photo of that guy while driving.)

This yellow car in Georgia was one of my favorite cars on the road.

Houses on wheels freak me out.

At first, I wanted to take photos of license plates everywhere, so by the end of the trip I’d have a photo of each state’s license plate. But then I lost interest. I did end up seeing all 50 state licenses, though. In Washington I saw a bunch of Alaska plates.

In the Northwest I saw a few of these Zapcars. I’m trying to understand the physics of a three-wheeled car. Wouldn’t it tip over if you go around a turn too fast?

A witty window sticker from Idaho:

The best vehicle I saw on the road was this All-American truck in Knoxville. Something tells me this guy watches Glenn Beck and attends tea party rallies!

Another look: Memphis, Tennessee

Original posts:
Day 22: Two Elvises and a King
Day 21: Whole lotta shakin goin on

I was in Memphis for a weekend and spent most of that at the Beale Street Music Festival. The photo above shows Elvis Costello coming out to play a song with Los Lobos. Here are a few more pics I didn’t run the first time around.

The entire weekend was a downpour. The festival grounds were a muddy mess.

The music was good for the most part. I got close to the stage to see hard rock act Rise Against.

Memphis soul act The Bar-Kays were a pleasant surprise.

Memphis has a statue of Jefferson Davis, the evil president of the Confederate states.

A look at some of the memorabilia for sale at the gift shop of Sun Studios, the birthplace of rock n roll.

Me outside Sun.

Among the many artifacts on display at Sun Studios was a platinum record of Johnny Cash’s “I Walk the Line” from the 1950s.

The iconic photo of Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Elvis Presley, and Johnny Cash. It’s on the wall inside Sun Studios, in the same room where the photo was originally taken.

I was just looking through my Graceland pictures, and I have a lot of great pics from there that I haven’t yet published. So many that I’m going to save them for an upcoming post. Stay tuned!

Another look: Carlsbad Caverns, New Mexico

Original post: Day 33: Caverns and aliens in New Mexico

I originally only published two pictures from inside Carlsbad Caverns. Since I took at least a couple hundred photos down there, it’s logical that I should unload some more of them. The cavern is 750 feet below the surface of the earth. We hiked to the bottom, then continued to hike through some of the winding caverns, past formations called stalagmites and stalactites.

The temperature is a constant 56 degrees there. I took both of my cameras, but because the lighting is dim, most of my pictures weren’t so hot.

The imposing entrance to the cavern:

The view looking back out of the cavern from the inside. It’s too late to turn back now!

In some rooms the rocks have formed into icicle-like shapes hanging from the ceiling.

Others looked like coral at the bottom of the sea.

Some of the formations were huge. Note the walking path in the bottom right of this photo to get a sense of proportion.

Jason spotted something interesting.

There’s an elevator at the bottom of the cavern that all guests use to get back out. There’s also a restaurant down there, with lots of signs urging you to “eat lunch 750 feet underground!” But as I recall, they didn’t have any hot foods. Or if they did, it was only microwaved foods. The food selection was no better than what you’d find at a 7-11 – mostly just sandwiches. So we passed.

Aside from the lack of tasty food, Carlsbad Caverns was a cool experience.

You’ve been struck by a smooth criminal

Current location: Gary, Indiana

On my way home from Michigan, I finally made it to Michael Jackson’s childhood home in Gary, Indiana. What was intended to be a fun touristy visit instead became a sober trip through one of the most blighted cities in America. Gary is consistently ranked as one of the most dangerous cities in the U.S., but I didn’t think a rainy Thursday morning would be a particularly dangerous time to drop by.

The house isn’t hard to find, but I was confused the first time I drove past because I was expecting to see flowers and gifts all over the place, like they were after Michael died. Those have all been removed, and now the only sign that 2300 Jackson Street is not just another house is the police tape around the place. The house was very small. It’s amazing the entire Jackson family grew up there.

The neighborhood is pretty much a wreck. Here’s a house I saw that was missing the entire back half. Incredibly, when I drove around to the front, I saw that people were actually living in this place.

I’ve read that some people want to turn the Jackson house in Gary into an official tourist attraction like Graceland. Based on what I saw, that seems like a swell idea. Anything to pump up the economy of Gary would be a great idea because it’s in pretty bad shape right now.

Two autumn days in Michigan

Current location: Buchanan, Michigan

During my summer jaunt I found great joy in secluding myself for a day or two in campgrounds. So with the hustle and bustle of the city taking over my life, and with winter fast approaching, I decided to take 48 hours and head to western Michigan at a deserted campground. No internet, no human contact.

It was nice to be back inside the van in a campground.

I brought my winterized sleeping bag which can keep me warm down to 30 degrees, but the weather was nicer than that. Because it got dark so early (7:30 pm), and I’ve been staying up til 2 am lately, sleeping was a tricky adjustment. On the first night, I went to bed at 8, then woke up and it was still dark. I looked at my phone, expecting it be 3 or 4 am, only to find it was 11:58. Not even midnight yet.

The next day I did a lot of reading, practiced some volleyball setting and golf tee shots, and did some hiking.

The autumn leaves were full of color.

I spotted a birds nest that had fallen out of a tree. It was amazing how sturdy it was and how intricately woven together the sticks were.

On one hike I stumbled upon an abandoned building. It literally felt like I was in the movie Jeepers Creepers, stumbling upon an old house by myself in the woods. It was one of those moments in horror movies where the characters say, “Let’s go investigate that place!”, while you as a viewer are screaming, “No! Don’t do it!”

So I chose the second option and opted not to investigate. Otherwise, it was a quiet couple of days and I feel refreshed.