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Latest Update: June 14 , 2001 by Ben Marcus

19:30 THURSDAY JUNE 14, 2001 WAITING FOR THE KINGSTON FERRY, WASH.

Just missed the ferry, so now I'm in line waiting for the 19:55 ferry from Edmonds to Kingston. I'm hacking on my new Gateway 9500 CX laptop with the mega screen and all the trimmings, and I'm in mourning for my old laptop, the Solo 2500. I made the drive from Sequim to the mainland today to pick up my old laptop from the Gateway Country Store in the Alderwood Mall. I had taken it in May 21 for repair after I screwed it up trying to install the software for a new modem card. They said they would do a "reformat" which I thought would just bring the system back to life. I didn't know it meant they would erase the entire hard drive. When I picked it up I turned it on in the shop and discovered that everything was gone. I was hoping to pull some files off that computer before I gave it to my brother. But everything is gone. Holy shit. Everything. Oh well, this means I have to retype my screenplays, but maybe that will allow me to make them shorter and better. I wonder how many other people have been shafted by that. Losing your hard drive is nothing to sneeze at, although in a way it does wipe the slate clean. I also needed some e-mail addresses out of my AOL filing cabinet, but those are gone, too. Shoot.

Oh well. I stopped by brother Dan's and dropped off the old laptop. He's going to pay to have a new DVD player installed, and then he'll have a fairly decent Gateway laptop to use for writing music. Right now he is recording Muzak somewhere in Seattle. Certified elevator music. It pays the bills, and with five cars, he definitely has bills.

So now I'm at the ferry terminal in Edmonds, Washington, heading back to Sequim. I'm going to finish packing the van tonight and head for Montana tomorrow. I've been kicking around my mom's for a month or so and it's time to hit the road. I'm hoping to meet my friend Mike Locatelli in Wise River, where he's fishing the Big Hole River with Richard Metiver. Not sure how long he'll be there or if I'm going to make it in time. I think I can get to Montana in three days from here. Washington will take a day, and Idaho is short.

I left Ike at my brothers to spare him the roundtrip to mom's and back. Ike is the black and white cat who I cat-napped from Greg Noll. He's an excellent cat. Very well mannered and good to travel with. Ike likes to hunt and he got in trouble at my mom's for killing birds, so we had to keep him inside during the day. He doesn't like to stay inside at all, so it's time to get out of there. I left him at Dan's because he can roam around at will. I'll pick him up tomorrow and then we'll head for Montana. I think he will like Montana.

The tentative plan is to head for Montana and then drive up through Canada and aim for Alaska. I am once again attempting to put together that surf trip to Kamchatka. A few days ago I placed a call to Yvon Chouinard and he called me back within an hour. He had good advice: "July is too buggy. September is too cold. August is the month. Bring lots of Marlboros and condoms."Yvon had fished and kayaked there a few times, but didn't have much to say about the surf potential. He remembers the East Coast as being "cliffy" but thought that the rivermouths might be the best bet. It's worth a try. Just got to find someone to go. Brock is tentatively interested, but he is on Hollywood schedule so his time is not his own. He called me two days ago from New York, after flying in from Prague. Brock's been working on a movie with Chris Rock and Antony Hopkins called Black Sheep. I did an interview with him for swell that was all about that and the stunt work he did on Pearl Harbor. I'm pretty sure I saw him in one shot, clinging to the bow of the Oklahoma. Evan hasn't run the interview in swell.com yet. Or at least he hadn't an hour ago.

Washington State is nice in the summer. The weather is still changeable and it still rains quite a bit, but when the sun comes out and the sky is blue it's really spectacular. Today is one of those days. I know two people who recently bought property in Sequim. I met John Grissim the other day. He was camping at an RV park just up the street from my mom's house. He recently sold his house in Point Reyes Station and bought five acres near the Dungeness River. I told him he did the right thing at the right time, and he seemed to agree. Grissim also caused a bit of a scandal with me in the middle, but that's another story.

A couple of weeks ago Tom Southern came up to Sequim from Capo Beach with his wife and mother in law. They had heard about the place from me and others. He ended up buying property the first day-five acres in Happy Valley. Sequim has a lot going for it, and it is cheap, cheap, cheap. It's easy to forget that the world outside of California isn't completely berserk.

The cars are driving off the ferry now, so I'll have to pack this up. I guess this is the first installment for Sacklunch. I'll be retracing some of the steps I took last fall during my trip through the Yukon and Alaska. I want to see those places again when the driving isn't quite so sketchy, and I want to fish all those rivers that were icing over when I was there.

I'm hoping to get up to Anchorage to catch that flight to Kamchatka. I sent a mass e-mail to the likes of Ross Clarke-Jones. Grant Washburn and Jeff Clark yesterday, and I also left a message with Jay Moriarity. I wanted Brad Gerlach to go but he said he's going to be in Europe then. Maybe people don't want to go to Russia. I can't blame them. The place is sketchy in more ways than one.

I'm on the ferry now, up near the bow. It's nice to not have to worry about Ike jumping out of the van every time I open the door. I think he'll be okay on this trip. He has a tendency to sit on the dashboard directly in front of me. It's something I'll have to train out of him. Kind of dangerous, you know.

I'm watching Lawrence of Arabia on my DVD player and the ferry is heading across. Hopefully I won't sleep in and will get a good jump on Montana tomorrow. The van is all tuned up and oiled up. I got a new battery and I've gotten rid of a lot of the superfluous stuff I dragged all the way up to Alaska last time. I'm a bit leaner and meaner, and I even alphabetized all my DVD's and CDs. Now all I have to do is convince my mom to give me Mr. Walther back. She confiscated him a few months ago and locked him up in her safe deposit box. I'm going to need Mr. Walther. A kid was killed two weeks ago by a bear in BC. It's something to take seriously.

And I miss Mr. Walther. He's my friend.

 



TRAVELS WITH IKE
June 14 , 2001

NORTH COAST
March 14, 2001
March 11, 2001

March 8, 2001
March 4, 2001
March 3, 2001
March 1, 2001
February 20, 2001
February 19, 2001
February 18, 2001

February 17, 2001

February 16, 2001


ALASKA 2000
November 19, 2000
November 18, 2000
November 15, 2000
November 14, 2000
November 14, 2000
November 12-13, 2000
November 11, 2000
November 9, 2000
November 8, 2000
November 4-6, 2000
November 3, 2000
November 1, 2000
October 31, 2000
October 29, 2000
October 27, 2000
October 26, 2000
October 25, 2000
October 22, 2000
October 22, 2000
October 21, 2000
October 19, 2000
October 17, 2000
October 16, 2000
October 16, 2000
October 14, 2000
October 12, 2000
October 11, 2000
October 10, 2000
October 10, 2000
October 9, 2000
October 8, 2000
October 7, 2000
October 6, 2000
October 6, 2000
October 5, 2000
October 4, 2000
October 3, 2000
October 2, 2000
October 1, 2000
September 30, 2000
September 29, 2000
September 28, 2000
September 27, 2000
September 25, 2000
September 24, 2000
September 23, 2000
September 22, 2000
September 21, 2000
September 21, 2000
September 20, 2000
September 19, 2000
September 19, 2000
September 18, 2000
September 17, 2000
September 16, 2000
September 15, 2000
September 15, 2000
September 14, 2000
September 13, 2000
September 12, 2000
September 10, 2000
September 10, 2000
September 8, 2000

September 8, 2000

PHOTOS
October 1, 2000
October 1, 2000
September 27, 2000

 

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