The Magical Fruit

I'm a sucker for old-west typography and I like beans a real lot, so this can is doing it for me.

New Acquisitions, part 4: Bismarck

There's a chance we just missed the cool part of Bismarck, North Dakota, since we just cruised through it real quick-like, but I gotta say it seemed pretty lame at first glance. They do have Taco del Mar though and there was a great thrift store downtown:

Tough record but somehow it makes sense to find it in North Dakota. It's for trade if anyone needs it. Here's a sample:
Don Randi The Fox mp3 (produced by David Axelrod)

I predict that upon seeing this, Chad will say "that will either be the best record you own, or the worst record you own," and I agree. (I still haven't listened to most of my finds because everything's in boxes, including turntables.)

Weird and freaky, had to get it. I think it's a polka record but the dude was clearly a perv.

I calculated a small chance that the elderly woman at the counter might refuse to sell this to me.

This has the theme from Downhill Racer, which is not an easy soundtrack to find. It's weird how much Downhill Racer has come up on this blog, it's not even that great a movie. Aesthetically cool though.

This guy looks like Robin Williams but he has made some good records and this one might be good too, we'll see.

Never heard of it but I'm a sucker for soundtracks of any kind.

One cool thing about this record is that the basketball has the texture of a real basketball…it's pretty exciting.
David Shire Books & Basketball mp3

This is a CD actually. Still catching up from the entire decade I didn't really listen to any new rock music. This is kind of a mellow one for Mudhoney.
Mudhoney In My Finest Suit mp3

And finally:

First Rays

One of the first things we did when we got to Seattle was head for Ray's Boathouse.

The clams are right and the view is amazing.

When it's cold out, you can still sit on the deck, because they provide blankets.

This is Ray and his wife.
It's weird as heck to be back in Seattle and it's going to take awhile to get settled. We've been in limbo for a really long time, and that is going to continue for a bit – we're living with my mom until mid-January when our tenants are out and we can move into our own place. But man, the natural beauty here is undeniable, and I'm psyched to get to know the city again.

New Acquisitions, part 3: Fargo

Couldn't pass this up for $2.82.

The drummer's name is Marty McFunky and there are some cover tunes with possibility.

Wow. I had to have this.

Dope style, and I'm a fan of Kristofferson productions.

Produced by Danny Kortchmar. We'll see.

Some really good early Pink Floyd, when they were "The Pink Floyd." This is for trade if anyone needs it.

Not sure but the price was right. Could be good.

Ditto this. It's always worth picking up the local stuff when there are cover songs that might be good, and your net loss if not is forty-seven cents.

So yeah, a weird little haul in Fargo, North Dakota. I've got a bunch more to post from Bismarck, Bozeman, Missoula, Moscow and Palouse, and not just records…but I'm going to space it out a little (and hopefully be able to add audio where it's worthwhile).

Sorry for the erratic and lurching posting schedule of late – we've had much less web access than expected, so I'm going to be catching up on all the end-of-road posts and then hopefully get back on schedge.

Always liked to hear about the old timers.

I didn't take many pictures in or around Moscow, because I know I'll be back there a lot and I figure I might as well spread it out. Moscow is across the Idaho-Washington border from Pullman, and the general region in which they sit is called the Palouse – it's often called the most fertile farmland in the entire country. When we headed out for Seattle, Emily and I drove through a bunch of small towns around there.

My great-great-grandpa homesteaded near the actual town of Palouse, just across the Washington border, in the early 1870s. Their homestead is not far from Emily's parents' farm – something neither of us realized for quite awhile after we met.

National Geographic did a story on the Palouse in the early '80s. This is an aerial photo of Frieze church and cemetery, where some of my relatives are. It's way out on a dirt road. I always forget how to find it.

My grandpa's mom died when he was 8, and his dad died four years later. He and his brother John ended up raising themselves, living in a little cabin down the road from the church. It's still there – it's the little building you see on the right in the photo above.

The whole region is really cool – there's a big mix of old and new.

One of the major reasons I'm excited to be back in the Northwest is to be closer to my family and history, and I'm excited to go back to the Palouse and explore. I was glad to get that little review/preview before heading West into the sunset on the last day of our trip.

R.I.P., Slurp-n-Burp

One of the great (and actually one of the only) disappointments of the trip, even with all the re-routing due to weather, was finding that the Slurp-n-Burp, a semi-legendary little bar just outside of Moscow, has closed its doors. Oh well, it happens.

The Farm Yard Connection

One of the really cool things we get to do when we visit Emily's parents is go out to their farm in Deary, Idaho, where Emily spent her first several years.

Art and Toni grew up and met in Utah, and Art went to law school in Washington DC. He was working for the Department of Justice in the early '70s, before accepting a professorship at the University of Idaho law school. They bought this farm when they moved, and over the years they've bought surrounding properties when they had the chance. It's a pretty huge place, and really beautiful.

There's a big view down the valley to Potato Hill.

The house is a very modest, typical early 20th-century farmhouse. For a long time Art and Toni have thought about moving it back toward the forest, and now that they are both retired, they're doing it. These dudes jacked the house up on supports, moved it back, dug and poured a basement, and lowered the house onto it. It's cool because now it's nearer to the forest.

Across the road from the farmhouse, Art and Toni have this little cabin. It used to be a pig barn and then some smelly hippies made it into a house in the early '70s.

It was sort of falling into the woods but along with the house-moving project, they're also propping the cabin up. It's really fun to stay there, I'm glad they're fixing it.

There are two ponds, and they each have their own little eco-system.

There are frogs all over the place.

Art found a praying mantis in the grass.

This gigantic ladybug landed on me.

We found these jawbones from a deer. There was a moose in the area recently and there are skunks and the occasional bear in the orchard.

I spotted this underground yellow jacket nest.

These dragonflies were doing it. Emily says they do it all the time.

It's sort of hard to see from the photo, but an old tree fell down, and coyotes have dragged a bunch of stuff up next to it and made a big den here in the forest. There's a big pile of pinecones they've brought over for reserves, to eat the pine nuts once they're ready. The top of the log is super smooth from where the coyotes have lied down over and over and smoothed it out.

I like going out to the farm and seeing where Emily is from. (Here she is with her dad, who as far as I can tell knows just about everything you'd ever need to know about the woods or the land or surviving out there on your own.) Emily and I are both kind of half-city, half-country people, and I like having that balance. (Well, maybe it's more like 3/4 city.)

We stayed out at the farm until the full moon came up. And it was good.

Faded from the Winter

I forgot to mention that we sprung for this $7 bottle of grog in International Falls, Minnesota ("The Icebox of the North"). We liked the label, and next time we go ice fishing, well, now we'll be ready.

Down the Highway

The drive between our campground and Moscow was just as amazing as the first part of Highway 12.

There are some cool small towns.

You go through part of the Nez Perce reservation. I'm looking forward to going back and exploring around there more. Emily's aunt and cousins are Nez Perce and live near Lewiston.

One of the major towns is Kooskia. In Idaho they don't pronounce the "A" at the end of the word – so Kooskia is pronounced "Koosky." They have other weird pronunciations too – like Kamiah is pronounced "Cami-eye."

Highway 12 is the way Lewis and Clark went, and there's tons of stuff named after them (such as Lewiston, Clarkston, and Clarkia – which is pronounced "Clarky.")

We stopped in at JB's Horseshoe Bar & Grill in Troy, Idaho, before going on to Emily's parents' house in Moscow. JB's is for sale – if you have an extra $150,000 and want to run a bar in Idaho, your dream awaits.