Hey chief!

I am presently in sedentary mode. The road sounds like fun! I just saw a thing about RV's, many going shorter distances this year, due to gas they said. And, the rates at RV parks are sky high. A guy in WV paid $90 for a night at a KOA! They used to be $10 and $20, then $30 for big rigs. Was $5 for tent space, though only to be used in emergency.

I think all tires like car batteries are made in China now. My Chinese made shoes do that all the time now too.

I used to do road trips all the time, actually lived on road most of a few years. I have probably done a million miles. Loved it. Glad I did it when I was young and gas was .50 cents a gallon and decent motel room could be had for $30. Or less. In 80's, Deming New Mexico once, $13, looked like a time machine room from 1957, wife loved it. A chalet suite in Chattanooga for $20. And so on. And there were no people living in them in the 80's. Much of our travel we were camping and birding Friday noon to Monday morn. One of these days I will get back on the road again.

That Jesse Ed Davis is one of the best unknown guitarists that was on the most stuff that folks never knew. When the Beatles want you playing guitar what does that mean?

I saw him once, on the Faces '75 tour, the last semi-original Faces tour. Tetsu had already replaced Ronnie Lane, but the rest was the same, save Jesse playing a second guitar! I wish there was footage of those two guitar player Faces shows in '75. I gave a pair of tickets to and went with my guitar mentor (for his wedding present). It was mind-blowing. But Jesse stood too close to Ron Wood too often and
became addicted to heroin and got white line fever. What a surprise the Faces could turn one into a party animal. My guitar mentor became an accountant.

Have a great trip!

per wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesse_Ed_Davis

In 1971, Davis recorded his first solo album after Atco Records signed a contract with him to record two albums with the label. The first was the album ¡Jesse Davis! (1971), which featured backing vocals by Gram Parsons and performances by Leon Russell and Eric Clapton, among others.[16]

Davis was close friends with Gene Clark. In 1971, he played on and produced Clark's second solo album, White Light, and provided lead guitar on Clark's album No Other in 1974. On Jackson Browne's 1972 debut album, Davis played the electric guitar solo on Browne's hit song "Doctor, My Eyes".[13]

After guesting with Russell on Bob Dylan's 1971 single "Watching the River Flow", and collaborating in Albert King’s Lovejoy, Davis went on to work with George Harrison, performing at the ex-Beatle's 1971 Concert for Bangladesh at Madison Square Garden, along with Ringo Starr, Billy Preston, Russell, Keltner, Clapton and others.[17]

Two more solo albums followed: in 1972 Ululu, which included the original release of Harrison's "Sue Me, Sue You Blues",[18][19] and in 1973 Keep Me Comin, occasionally listed as Keep On Coming. Around this time, Davis began playing with John Lennon, for whom he played lead guitar on the albums Walls and Bridges (1974) and Rock 'n' Roll (1975).[9] In addition, Davis was a guest performer on other albums by former Beatles: Harrison's Extra Texture (1975)[20] and Starr's Goodnight Vienna (1974) and Ringo's Rotogravure (1976).[13]

In the late summer and fall of 1975, he performed with the Faces as second guitarist throughout their final US tour. It was on this tour that Davis became addicted to drugs.[11]

After the Faces tour, Davis continued to work as a session player. In addition to the artists listed above, Davis contributed to albums by Eric Clapton, Rod Stewart, Keith Moon, Steve Miller, Guthrie Thomas, Harry Nilsson, Ry Cooder, David Cassidy, Willie Nelson, Neil Diamond, Rick Danko, Van Dyke Parks and others. He played on Leonard Cohen's Death of a Ladies' Man (1977), produced by Phil Spector.[13]

safe travels!

have a great weekend all!

participating in the snail races. Such fun!

I hate road trips, at this point. Between the snail races, and the fact that the interstates are either a) under construction/restoration over 60% of their lengths, or b) so busted up that you can't drive on them for the other 40%, I would rather drink molten lead...

I had the distinct mispleasure of having to tow a heavily loaded trailer behind a diesel F250 from Denver to the West Coast and back on several occasions. I was one of the snails, of course, although the downhills were fun in their own way.

The absolute worst chunk of road ever, though, was the Cherokee Turnpike across Oklahoma. The paving slabs were not planar: every even-numbered slab tilted down, and every odd-numbered slab tilted up, with respect to the direction of travel. At the speed limit of the day, that led to an ungodly resonance in the suspension of truck and trailer, the result of which was pulling oscillating negative and positive Gs at about 2Hz. I even hit my head on the headliner a couple of times on that bronco ride. I found that going either 10 over or 10 under smoothed the ride out a bit, but hit the number on the nose and it was a bad day all around. Gag a maggot on a shitwagon, as my dear departed gray-haired mammy used to say...

Traveling up Echo canyon to Evanston is like playing chicken with big rigs cuz of the hills. 1st time one passed me going well over 80 it was all I could do to keep the trailer on the road. They pass on the downhill only to falter on the uphill. E-gads I need to find a time of day when traffic is lighter. Plus there’s so many dumb asses not letting trucks move over so merging traffic can get on the freeway. I drive 5-10 cars ahead so I’m aware if someone might need to move over, but I guess they don’t teach that in driving school anymore? I’m surprised more people don’t make it home every day here. Then you have people driving slow in the fast lane or HOV thinking that they should set everyone’s speed limit for them. Then there’s the people yapping on their cellphones…with nary a cop insight.

Yeah I’ve been holding this in for some time. Glad tho that Sam isn’t a backseat driver. And good thing she likes her head out the window so she doesn’t hear me bitching about other drivers. Or swearing when people look right at me and then pull out in front of me anyway. Can’t tell you how many times that’s happened just this month. Love the horn on the beast.

Saw this posted and planned a video response with a certain tune, but got major involved in other stuff and someboddy beat me to it. Not the version I had in mind, so I'll still do it, later.

Don't know of any hard news happening, been a bit cooler here lately, but no precip.

Spotty wifi is liveable if you get decent cell reception and use a phone as a hotspot for a tablet or second phone. Sadly, huge chunks of where we like to travel get shitty cell signals, so you're stuck with the wifi.

I'm thinking maybe the tires is partly folks not changing them soon enough because money, and not maintaining them, rotating, checking pressure and all that. Just a hunch. Also suspect maybe running one grade/rating down, again because money.

I used to be a driving fool, loved and still love to drive and take road trips, only now I get groggy for a couple of hours after lunch, which is no bueno. Drove cabs, bobtail furniture trucks and for a bit a 2 and a half flatbed back in high school and college and even had a part time job at Lindbergh field that involved, among other things, some time at the wheel of a fuel truck.

My immediately preceding pick up was a HD 3/4 ton Ram mit hemi and an awesome rear axle. Towing our light travel trailer, with a bed full of extra gear I could routinely take Tehachipi Pass and Donner Pass at 70+. Life is much better when you can hop out and blast around the semis and others in an eye blink without a lot of run-up. Current half ton still has the hemi, but a mucho longer axle, gets way better mileage and still gets up and out, but doesn't really hop like the 2500 did. Ah well.

as promised:

After all, Tehachipi is my favorite pass.

be well and have a good one