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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.
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TRAVELS
WITH IKE
June
14 , 2001
NORTH
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March
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ALASKA
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October
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September 30, 2000
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September
22, 2000
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September 15, 2000
September 15, 2000
September 14, 2000
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September 8, 2000
September
8, 2000
PHOTOS
October 1, 2000
October 1, 2000
September 27, 2000
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