Overall I think Howard and I were good kids. So why is it when I think of him, I think of getting shot by BB guns, being caught on fire from coffee-mate explosions, the sound of exploding light bulbs, pee limit signs, and 1996 AOL phishing schemes? We both turned into fairly successful men. We’re educated and have been consistently employed. In my head though, I still see us as idiots doing our best to hurt ourselves in the name of fun. I haven’t seen Howard in too many years and I’m really happy to be spending this weekend at his house.

My drive today was fairly uneventful. I only had 1 stop planned and it wasn’t a major draw for me. The trap du jour was the Thunder Mountain Park, an official State of Nevada Historic Site Restoration Project. Created by Frank Van Zant (any relation to Little Steven?) at the prodding of a medicine woman, it is a large folk art structure. It was intended to be a base to survive the apocalypse and does have the look of something from Mad Max. I wonder if he’s ever met Dr. Evermor. The Forevertron certainly seems like it might be more effective in an apocalypse, but I’m a layman and can’t conclusively make that judgement. The drive there left me a little scared…

Once there the actual site didn’t really assuage my fears…

At one point I tried to take a picture of me looking cool. The universe reminded me I’m not cool by putting pricklers/thorns all over the ground so that they went through my jeans and hands…but here’s my attempt anyway.

I missed my opportunity to geocache in Idaho and Montana but knocked out Nevada at Thunder Mountain.

Now I’m in Oakland at Howard’s place! As I mentioned in my last post, I may not be updating the blog while here. Too much to do, not enough time. Hopefully I can at least throw photos up but don’t count on it. Several shots in and I remember why I like the guy!