From San Jose to Iraklio

On August 10, 2004 the sale of my house was completed and I was officially a homeless, jobless wanderer (or "bum").  I had only two concerns left to me:  a medical test in San Jose on August 23rd, and the fact that my U.S. health insurance ran out on August 30th. So like most people of my ilk, I thought "Road Trip!".  I ended up driving up through the Pacific Northwest, stopping briefly in Seattle and then coming back down to San Jose.  After finishing the test up, I hopped planes to Las Vegas, Frankfurt, Athens, and Iraklio respectively. Here are some pictures I took along the way.

I took this in Fort Bragg, California, "Home of the retired hippie".  This is a great town to walk around in, and living proof that not all elderly people become conservative old farts.  The grateful dead stickers plastered on their walkers was pushing it a bit, though.

This is driftwood on the beach in Fort Bragg.  It was once a giant redwood, I'm sure, but water and time have eaten away several of its rings.  The scale isn't clear from the picture;  It's about six feet wide.

A four story pile of logs, complete with its own sprinkler system.  It was about 100F that day, and I don't doubt the sprinklers were a good idea.

Things just haven't been the same since Schwarzenegger became Governor.

These three sculptures are in the D terminal at Las Vegas International Airport.  Note to the modern traveller:  security pays extra attention to people who take pictures in airports these days.  These are likely the last I'll take for a while.

I promised Jacob I would take pictures of any Pyramids and Sphinxes I found in the desert.  These were the first I saw, Jake!

From the countyard of the InterCity hotel in Frankfurt, this appears to be a statue to honor all of the brave pigeons who have given their lives at airports around the world. Alternatively, someone with a solid grasp of irony and/or a perverse sense of justice just wanted to build a large public statue of a pigeon. Either way, it's a thought provoking piece, and all the better for not having an official explanation.

Also from the hotel in Frankfurt, we have this curious arrangement.  I'm guessing it was some sort of overflow for the drains, but I've never seen anything like it before. The picture on the right puts it in context.  If anyone knows definitevely what this thing is, please send me mail....