central virginia

I only get a few minutes at this place to write and I wasted most of it trying to upload photos. Sorry for the die hard digression I was a bit sunstroked. A lot has happened and now I can't write it all. Sorry for bad picture quality, I will fix it later the computer is so old and the connection is slow so I can't make flickr work with blogger I'll figure it out later.

I went over the blue ridge mountains it was incredible and I'm now in lexington, VA. i listen to a lot of FM radio including a whle nascar race and leann rimes interview. I saw a black guy driving a truck with confederate flag on it and a drunk guy yelling at his dog to not bite me and then he explained to me "dang ol' dog sumbitch is all bark i'll tell you". It was cool cause he was holding a case of beer and staggering around outside his house.

Oh also I had a bottle of beer that I was going to drink at the cookie lady's house but she is set against drinking so I had to carry it with me. Up in the blue ridge parkway it saved my life though cause the next day I ran out of water so I opened my warm budweiser and it sprayed all over my all wool eddie merckx throwback jersey but no beer ever tasted so good.

Oh if you are a student at ITHS then I should add that when I mentioned wacky tobacco I was referring to the cigar shaped gum that you can buy. When I said Budweiser I meant Sarsaparilla and when I said I stole an ear of corn I meant I bought it. I would also like to take this time to tell you to stay in school, wear your seat belts, practice safe sex, don't drink and drive, respect one another, practice good dental hygiene (that means flossing also), don't eat hydrogenated oils, white rice, or anything with high fructose corn syrup, read catcher in the rye also cause if you get to be my age and still haven't read it that might be embarassing and it takes only a few hours to read.

Also to my ex-student James Gao, if you read this i want to congratulate you on getting a summer job working with kids. James, the Hindus believe in something called Karma, a sort of cosmic justice. I'm a lifelong atheist but the idea has some merit I think. For example I messed with my teachers too much growing up and so I had to repay my karmic debt by teaching. I hope you don't get offended if I say I hope the kids terrorize you a bit and I only wish that Eumine was working with you.

I was thinking about this kind of balance today cause I was going down a hill and instead of enjoying the downhill all I could think of the climb that was coming after it. And then when I was climbing I wasn't hating it cause I was looking ahead to the next downhill. So the whole time I was dampening my happiness or unhappiness by looking only at the future. Is that good or bad?

Also I want to add that this ride is dedicated to my sister's son who will be born soon, but segments of it are sponsored by various other people. The first few segments were sponsored by Nick Galli for calling me and encouraging me, Sarah Smith and Joe Martin for giving me directions, and john mctiernan for directing die hard.

before i get to the pictures I want to ask a question. Do you guys thinks superman (the 1970s ones) would have been better if karen allen (from animal house and indiana jones) had been lois lane instead of margot kidder? would karen allen have made star wars better as princess leia? I'm starting to think that any adventure movie in the 1970s would have be better with karen allen in it. She at least should have been in the 2nd indiana jones. It's amazing how short actresses careers are in hollywood, but i know i'm not the first person to notice that.

Oh actually one more question about movies: when you see a movie trailer, what does it have to have? I mean in addition to the mandatory guy getting kicked in the balls.

And also a music question. What is the hit of the summer?

Also thanks for the west virginia information ms. walsh but I am not in west virginia I am in the western half of the commonwealth of virginia. I am writng this from lexington, where the virginia military institute is located.

Also someone tell me is Isiah Thomas has fixed everything yet.









A freight train in Mineral, VA













This is Loki sitting on a cornstalk. he's real.











this is cat that was messing with my bike.












This guy claimed that he was a real country redneck. I told him that they chew tobacco where I'm from in California also and he said "hell naw, they's only tasting!" He only chews Red Man. Someone show this guy to Jeremiah.









This is a pet goat that someone had.
















This guy used to be in the navy. He told me "I don't like California much, you don;t mind me saying I don't like New York City too much either". Shalah, I made sure to tell him Assalam Aleikim just like you told me to tell strangers, but he wasn't feeling it.






This woman is the legendary cookie lady. She runs a house in afton virginia where cyclists are always welcome and has been doing it for 30 years. The house is filled with postcards, valentines, etc. search for cookie lady on google and you can see pics of her house, it's incredible.










This is a mule or a donkey. I'm not sure of the difference between them. One is stubborn and one is surefooted and one is sterile. Also one is a little smarter as a general rule.











They gave me a baloney sandwich. You wouldn't believe the diets of people out here.