one word Benjamin: plastics

San Francisco, CA - A mild evening/night at 669, coo-coo ka-choo, Mrs. Robinson

So not two days after getting my car worked on, the new right axle starts making that clicking sound. Most of you know what I'm talking about... It starts really quiet, a shushed and slow "click-click-click" as you make sharp turns. You ignore it at first. But slowly and gradually the clicking gets louder and louder, until it becomes a louder "knock-knock, knock-knock." The double-knock means its time to have an axle or two replaced. It usually takes months for the sound to worsen to that point, however this time it took two days. So I take the car back this morning and spend another day wandering downtown San Mateo. I read the entire Chronicle with breakfast, visited Radioshack to buy rechargable batteries & charger, read my book (Another Roadside Attraction) at the park, bought a couple movies to watch during my trip (Syriana and The Graduate) and then got some tea at Peet's. After sitting down to read more Tom Robbins (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Robbins), I realized that I had unwittingly picked up a hitchhiker in the park (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coccinellidae). It was a happy discovery, a good omen I thought. I was sure to take some macro pictures with the Canon.

Then I called the HH, the axle they had installed the week before turned out to be defective. So they replaced it at no charge. Still. Now I have little confidence in those axles, I'll be listening for that click-click during the trip. Alright, so lets see now, since 2001, that now brings the grand total to:

new Left Axles : 3
new Right Axles: 4
----------------------
fricken axles: 7

All the car needs now are some new tires, which I think I'll do Thursday...

I head back to SF, listening intently for any clickety clicks. I get a call from Diane and head over to the Haight for some shoppin. I limited my purchases to a single shirt at the Goodwill store for $4.99. (pic)

Now, over the past few days I've been working on bringing the big trip calendar better into focus. Here's, very roughly, how I see the first half of my trip going. Its unlikely that I'll stay in so many cities, campin is the focus, but this is the basic idea:

Mon, April 16 - Yosemite National Park
Thursday, April 19 - Sequoia NP
Sunday, April 22 - LA
Thursday, Arpil 26 - Coachella Music Festival
Monday, April 30 - Tuscon, AZ
Wednesday, May 2 - El Paso, TX
Thursday, May 3 - Big Bend NP
Sunday, May 6 - Austin, TX
Tuesday, May 8 - Houston, TX?
Wednesday, May 9, New Orleans, LA
Friday, May 11 - Tallahassee, FL
Saturday, May 12 - Tampa, FL
Sunday, May 13 - Miami, FL
Tuesday, May 15 - Campin somewhere mid-Florida
Wednesday, May 16 - Atlanta, GA
Friday, May 18 - South Carolina campin
Saturday, May 19 - North Carolina beachhouse
Saturday, May 26 - Washington DC
Sunday, May 27 - Jersey
Tuesday, May 29 - NYC
Thursday, May 31 - Boston
Friday, June 1 - Boston to Standish, ME

Ask me in a couple days and it could be really different, but thats my rough plan for right now. Too early to say about the trip back, but I have some ideas.

More soon.

Andy