dolari | You should realize that marriage is about as useful as swimming in a tub of cream pudding.

Monday, February 23rd

Emily had gone home that Friday, after her Best Birthday Ever (Thank you, everyone at Casa Lindsey, wish I could have been there). And I had another friend in the area, I wanted to see again, the lovely and talented

soltice.

She wouldn't be available until the evening, since she was down on a job, so I decided to make a day of it, slowly making my way down to Portland. I'd considered going down the route I'd plotted for the old US-99 but then through better of driving through downtown Tacoma and Olympia during the early rush hour traffic.

I stayed on I-5 for them ost part, but I did get a few shots of Wierd Stuff on the way down:

I continued down I-5, stopping for lunch in (Church's Fried Chicken! A little bit of home I've VERY much missed.), and made my way south to Littlerock, Washington, home of the Miman Mounds. I was expecting something more like the mounds in East Texas, which were worhsip centers, instead, I got this REALLY freaky set of mounds all over the ground.

Each one of those mounds is about 5 to 6 feet tall, and spreads over 20 feet. No one really knows what they are, but the native myths seem to involve some kind of earthqwuake or "Terrible event" that caused the mounds.

It's also VERY close to what I wanted for the final battle in AWFW. In my head, I have a very open field image in my head for the end of that story, and this works really well (much better than that almost cartoony Episode I battle).

About this time, I began seeing some REALLY disturbing signs everywhere abuot how "Jesus is Lord" and whatnot. One car on the freeway actually had billboards up proclaiming some REALLY wierd stuff such as "Faith in Jesus is Jesus' only enemy" and "The Lord is coming, fear the Lord." Started seeing them on signs everywhere. Kinda creepy. I'm definately not in Texas anymore.

I conitnued down the way to Chehalis, looking fo the Chehalis Muffler Man, but couldn't find it - and now I'm sure it simply doesn't exist anymore. I couldnt' find the address and what LOOKED like the address wasn't a muffler shiop anymore.

I continued on down to Winlock, which remided me a lot of Lytle, in Texas, where my dad grew up. Managed to get a shot of the "World's Largest Egg." before making my way into Portland Proper.

Rural Washington is NOT Rural Texas. As

gwenners told me, this isn't home. I knew where the good parts of Texas were, so I have no problems going where I want. Out here, not so much, and I'm kinda feeling it. I don't feel actively in danger, but very much on my guard. I know Texas, I don't know Washington. I won't let that stop me frmo exlporing - but I need to remember I'm not home. At least till I know where I can and can't go.

That said, I left Winlock and went straight into Portland, getting there about an hour late. I met up with Tess and we grabbed some Pizza, and watched The Black Hole, mercilessly riffed that movie to pieces. Rave parties, Record Mixing, Jacques Cousteau Documentaries...you haven't lived till you've heard Maximillian talking like a Precocious Anime Schoolgirl/Tachikoma).

I made a quick little sketch of her, then spent way too much of the rest of the night talking about writing and storylines, and how music helps to create scenes in both our work. Hope I didn't keep you up too too too late, Tess.

I headed home, and drove through some of the WORST driving weather I'd evern been in. It was late, 3AM late, drivign rain (which I'm fine with) and super high winds. At several points, I hydroplaned into the next land from a burst of wind, and the wind actually BROKE my windshield wiper from trying to twist it. It was terrible all the way back up to Olympia, when it finally cleared.

The next day was already planned for - another scenic ride around Seattle.