A ride on the Southwest Chief

Buddy and I needed to come back to Indiana for a while, so we decided to take Amtrak’s Southwest Chief from Los Angeles to Chicago. I have ridden Amtrak from Los Angeles to San Diego, and a few times in the Netherlands, but this was definitely the longest train ride I had ever taken. I was looking forward to the adventure since I have driven between CA and IN numerous times in the last few years. I figured that the train would take us through some scenery I had not seen yet and it would provide for some excellent photo …

A ride on the Southwest Chief Continue »

Photos from a day at Venice Beach

Today, my friend, Phil, and I headed out to Venice Beach to check out the 4th Annual National Go-Topless Day march. The march was to “protest unconstitutional topless gender discrimination.” The idea being that it is not fair that men can go topless but women can not. To be honest, I agree with the cause but I foresee men being forced to cover up before women will be allowed to go bare. We shall see. It was a beautiful summer day, we took the bikes. Unbelievable as it sounds [to anyone that has tried to park in Venice on a …

Photos from a day at Venice Beach Continue »

Photos from the Solvang Motorcycle Museum

These photos are from the Solvang Vintage Motorcycle Museum, located in Solvang, CA. Although I was aware that this museum existed, this was my first visit there. It was never convenient on prior visits. Their hours are set up around the fact that Solvang is a tourist town. As I recall the museum opened at 11 AM on Saturday and Sunday. I do not recall their weekday hours. Anyway, I am really glad I stopped by. I am pretty familiar with antique motorcycles and feel confident that I have at least heard of most makes and models, however, this collection …

Photos from the Solvang Motorcycle Museum Continue »

Another visit to Solvang

Last year, I introduced Tanya to Solvang, CA. Solvang is known as Denmark west due to its large Danish population. It is a quaint little town in the Santa Ynez Valley. It is a very nice ride or drive, either by car or motorcycle. Besides lots of touristy things, it is the home of my favorite winery, Sort This Out Cellars [STOC]. After a visit to STOC we found a nice hotel down the street to leave Buddy at, then we headed over to the Solvang Brewing Company. Solvang Brewing Company is fairly new and I guess we got there …

Another visit to Solvang Continue »

Asperatus and storm clouds

The other day, someone made a comment about a photo I had posted on Google+. It was of a cloud formation that I had seen in North Dakota or Montana. They informed me that the photo was of the newly named Asperatus variety. She sent me a link to a Youtube video and a website that is all about cloud appreciation. I was surprised that the clouds were something new because I saw them all across the country when I was following storms. I soon recognized that when I saw them, some very foul weather was to follow. I noticed …

Asperatus and storm clouds Continue »

Photos from Antelope Island State Park

Anyone that has followed my blog for a while has figured out that I have pretty much fallen for Utah. If they had an ocean I might consider living there. As Brett and I left Idaho I called Tanya to have her see what was coming up. I knew that if we veered too far off I-15 there was a great chance that I would not make it to LAX the following night. I had never followed I-15 past Salt Lake City, so I did not know what was in store for us. As it turns out, the Great Salt …

Photos from Antelope Island State Park Continue »

Photos from Idaho

We woke up Wednesday in Jackson Hole, WY. I had less than 40 hours before I had to be at LAX to pick up Tanya. Home was about 1,000 miles from here, if we took the long way. It should not be a problem. It was very overcast in Jackson Hole, but that made for some great photo ops when we got to the mountains overlooking the Snake River and what I think was Swan Valley. We headed into Idaho Falls, where I got to attend my first live cattle auction. After leaving the auction we found out where Idaho …

Photos from Idaho Continue »

A trip to Temecula wine country

I had a gift I wanted to give to my son and since he lives down by Temecula I decided I would kill two birds with one stone and pay a visit to the Temecula wine country. After securing a room, Tanya, Buddy and I headed out to the Inland Empire. After arriving at my son’s home we tried to find a winery, with a restaurant that stays open past 5:00 PM. I had only attempted to go wine tasting in Temecula once before and noticed that 5:00 seemed to be last call at most of the places I tried …

A trip to Temecula wine country Continue »

Daddy Scrubs

Last weekend, Tanya and I were headed out of town when we saw a small truck that was skinned with an advertisement for DaddyScrubs.com. Since my son, Daniel, and his wife are currently pregnant with my first grandson, at the first opportunity I went to the Daddy Scrubs website to order some scrubs for Daniel. When I got there I noticed that the pants of the scrubs had the domain name going down one of the legs. I liked the outfit, but I did not like the idea of the URL on the pants so I simply used their contact …

Daddy Scrubs Continue »

Photos from Grand Teton National Park

Shortly after exiting the south gate of Yellowstone we entered Grand Teton National Park. I must admit, I fully expected Yellowstone National Park to be the highlight of this trip. In fact, I changed our route a couple of times to make sure that we got as much of Yellowstone as possible. After visiting the Tetons, I decided that they were the most beautiful part of the journey. My only regret was that we were running out of sunlight, so did not really get to explore much. I will change that as soon as possible. We ended the day in …

Photos from Grand Teton National Park Continue »

Scroll to Top