Happy Tom's Clown Hour Update!

Welcome to Happy Tom’s Clown Hour, where we put purdy pictures with our words! 

Like this one!

As I mentioned last week, Mount Elden is basically our backyard. We’ve been hiking and exploring here and there, but we were all eager to do more. So this past Saturday, we packed up plenty of water and lip balm and set out for the summit! And, thanks to the Happy Tom’s Clown Hour staff photographer, the picture above proves we made it! It also provides hard evidence that Keith takes pictures, too ;) Here’s more: 

In Flagstaff, the elevation is 7000 feet. Mount Elden is 9,299 feet so, I’m sure you can all do the math. Not the highest mountain in the world, or even in Arizona, but it was an appropriate challenge for the three of us given our spare tires. Or, as I prefer to call them, “training wheels”. If we keep this up, they’ll eventually come off :)  

 

It was extremely windy, and a constant climb. We took a moderate amount of breaks to drink water, breathe, and just take in the awesome views. 

 Snow! Willie and Casper were very thankful for the impromptu snow tasting session.

 Here's Keith walking around on top.

And here's Rando guy up on top. Ok. Good for him for getting out and climbing a mountain today, seriously. Why am I picking on him? Because while he was dorking out going through his Cobra Kai sequences, he kept glaring at us. Leave this dojo now! He’d do a few moves and then whip around and look at us real quick, how dare that we were there when he was there. We’d try to look away real fast, but he busted us every time. Checking out his sweet moves. He scowls. Refocuses. Then, more moves! More glaring at us, throwing the double stink-eye, then…ROUNDHOUSE! Forget about it. Now you bow to your sensei! Anyway, I had to go high and tight to sneak this picture of him. Not that good of a shot, I realize, but his ninja lightning was near impossible to capture. I took another one of him throwing his little fists of fury but it was completely blurred. Dragonfire Rando.

Official readings from Willie’s Weather Ears confirmed what we already knew – this was not your Grandma’s wind! Ha, gross. Poor choice of words. I’m leaving it.  

We made it! 

And despite the high winds and Dragonfire Rando, we took our time on top - enjoying our conquest and resting up for the journey back down.

Later:

Greg and I did laundry. This might seem like a non-issue to you, but he really enjoyed himself. Here he is, showing off his accuracy and speed throwing wet clothes into the dryers. 

Fact: I’ve been blowing my nose a lot ever since we got here, so there are wads of tissue in most of my pockets. I accidentally forgot to check a few, so those ended up in the wash, then subsequently, the dryer. Two of my imprisoned tissue wads then fled my pockets and attached themselves to Greg’s black fleece, and that’s the story of how laundry stopped being fun for Greg. 

Also, I got ID’d twice last week. I swear they're just using my hair color and Southern accent as an excuse to shake me down and pin something on me! This darn racial state! Aaand, that was a joke. Okay? So I got ID'd twice - the first time was right after I’d suspiciously ordered an iiiiced tea (with no lemon), and the second was when I was buying special beer at the Safeway per special request of special Greggles. I showed them my Oklahoma ID. Oklahoma doesn’t have a magnetic strip on the back of their ID’s, so the clerk couldn’t run it through their tiny government machine. Long story short – no one knew what to do and hassles ensued. I finally got the special beer. Which remains untouched in the fridge as of press time.

Dog Update – the dogs have each had a bath since being here, and it might be their last for the summer. Complete waste of time. They are filthy and vile and completely undisturbed by it. It’s not even debatable. And I think Willie ate a pinecone a few days ago. Not sure how that worked out for her. We put a tarp down outside the camper so they’d have an option other than “bed of dirt” (for sleeping, not passing pinecones). Another complete waste of time. Unless they are tangled up in leashes and are therefore unable to reach their beloved dirt, they lie in the dirt as much as possible. Dirt girls.

Keith and I started work at the campground this week. We escort campers to their sites, and we get to drive a fun little golf-cart. Pretty easy, and the people are great. This VW guy and his wife stayed last night, and all I can say is, “I can see my future, and I'm going to paint my Volkswagen to match it”. Just like this guy. How cool is this?!

Which brings me to the Greggles VW Update! Greg has put another bus up for sale in Oklahoma. He decided that since he’s got so many lined up back there and, can't work on them from Arizona, he’d go ahead and part with the 71 Deluxe “Casper” bus. She’s in pretty good shape and runs, she just needs someone to love her!  

Greg also got to take a field trip to rescue a Vanagon couple. They were on their way to the Grand Canyon. Apparently they were campers here in Flag and had just left that morning. They got on the road, broke down, then called back to the KOA...and the Greggles was dispatched in a flash! Not to worry, the Bus Whisperer and swift action on the part of the KOA switchboard saved their vacation from certain doom. For the vanagain ran again! And as for The Bus Stop, it seems to be moving right along. Customer cars are in the shop and word continues to spread of the new air-cooled VW shop in town. Greg comes home tired and filthy every night. Might need another Scooby Doo sleeping bag. Much like Willie and Casper, his showers also seem like a questionable investment of time. ;)

And finally, we had a very cool night last night. When we first decided to come out here for the summer, I looked online to see what kinds of music shows and fun stuff were coming through town. There’s a music hall called the Orpheum, so I was on their website and noticed that they were having a “Big Trouble in Little China” movie night on Tuesday, May 25th. So last night we headed downtown to check it out. I forgot just how exquisitely kickass that movie is! Kurt Russell is great. Tank top tucked into tight blue jeans and big moccasin boots over the jeans. He’s a trucker and the name of his rig is The Pork Chop Express. Those jeans must’ve hit two inches above his belly button, and he actually looked visibly uncomfortable during most of the action scenes. But whether it was just great acting and part of the character shtick or the actual discomfort of the jeans, I’ll never know. Here are a few stills from the movie. If you haven’t seen this in awhile…or ever…just forgive yourself and go rent it. It’s a classic:

I wonder if our Dragonfire Rando was in the crowd? Something tells me a guy like him would have no appreciation for this John Carpenter masterpiece. Also inside the theatre is a full bar, if you need a little drinky. So there are some round tables in the back, regular theatre-style seating in front of that, and I believe just an open floor in the very front. We'll be back to the Orpheum in a little under a month to see Henry Rollins.

After the movie, we walked over to the Beaver St. Brewery and got some food. In our rush to make the movie, none of us had eaten dinner. Cool place, and they have a real-food late night menu that isn’t all frozen then deep-fried toasted cardboard.

We came back to camp and stayed up talking for a bit before bed. Keith was talking about what it would be like to be a guy like Kurt Russell’s character, Jack Burton.  He's a truck-driver, tied to no one and no thing other than his rig, just livin’ on the road one adventure after another. He decided that in real life, Jack Burton would be the guy who was always getting into some sort of trouble that he considered "fun", but was nonetheless “trouble” in the eyes of the law and therefore criminal. Then he’d move on as soon as the adventure was over, providing that he wasn’t incarcerated. So then Keith said he was going to put an ad in the paper that just read “Keith Earickson – Adventurer” and a phone number. When people call, he’ll explain that he’ll accompany them on adventures of their choosing. All they have to do is pay his way. I know he was joking, but I think he should do it just to see if anyone calls and what their adventures are. Could also be a good idea for a book or a documentary.

Quick Edwina Update - Greg repaired the migratory mystery leak! And he didn't have to bust up any of the nice floor or trim that my dad had installed. So now we've got a dry bathroom floor and Cat-Town remains remarkably stylish. Hurrah!

  We also took out the entire wall that had the corkboard on it. It's a lot easier to move around in here now, and I think it looks nicer. Please ignore the storage area on the upper bunk, and yes I'm making a curtain to hide all of that bisnass.

Thanks for tuning into Happy Tom's Clown Hour! That's all for now, pals!