where to visit in WA and OR this summer?

[ARCHINSTL]

WOW!
GREAT descriptions and pix! I gotta see if I can make this a separate narrative, apart from "Where to visit..."

While a minor part of the journey, that squirrel is amazing! I have them literally crawling all over my 'burb, because of the many, many, oak trees here. I mean, the %$#@$#@& buggers are like ants and a PITA for a number of reasons. I could live with this one. I guess he figgered it was smarter to join the humans and get goodies!

Burning Man - I knew it was quite a "happening" (as we used to say), but again - WOW! I had no idea the constructions involved! Some of those things must come in on flatbed tractor trailers.
Thanks!
Tom M.

[arbskynxnex]

Looks like you had a blast. Glad you enjoyed the Ape Caves!

I live about an hour out of Aberdeen and I go through it a lot for razor clamming, camping and doing anything on the coast. It is totally a struggling logging town. Several of the mills have closed in the last few years and they don't have much of a base for an economy other than logging. There are still tarps on some roofs from the big windstorm in 2007. Though Aberdeen was better off than Forks before Twilight, since it is actually on the way to tourist destinations. Did you see the sculptures on the street corners in Aberdeen? They are pretty funky and totally at odds with the architecture of the city, which really adds to their impact I think.


A little burning man comic for you.

[dlb]

peter: i know, i wished i had taken some of simon's terc! i believe it was actually arbskyxnex's old one that he sold to simon. it has a 4A, weber, and clinometer. would you believe that it was the only T4 we saw on the whole trip?? i was really bummed at that.

tom:thanks! it's funny but that squirrel wound up being a real highlight of the trip for us too. it was just too friendly and fearless not to be! it's little details like that squirrel that make trips so cool. i felt bad feeding him because you know how you're not supposed to feed wildlife and make them rely on humans for food but with the amount of peanut shells around us, i think the damage was already done! incidentally, he crawled up my calf and scratched me ever so lightly in the process--just the white marks on unbroken skin kind--and i didn't think much of it until 20 minutes later when it started to sting. i realized it's probably like cats and other animals where even scratches can fester severely so i took some hand sanitizer from the glove box and smeared it on the scratches. it hurt like hell! 10 minutes later, it stung even worse so i slathered on some more. more stinging, but this time it went away after a few minutes. phew!

here are a few vids of rad art pieces at this years burning man:

fire-shooting octopus art car: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMfzFIERJIg
50 ft. electromechanical snake: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRJT8guE ... re=related
a wheel operated by 12 people pulling ropes to spin it, which activated a strobe once at a certain speed, creating a stop-motion animation effect: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ff6KEOMo15g

arb: yeah, aberdeen just really stood out to us as dismal. i found out chatting with my friends that kurt cobain and krist noveselic of nirvana, as well as the melvins, are/were originally from aberdeen, and that they all hate the place. apparently the feeling is mutual too: the city voted against naming a bridge after him as a memorial. you think a kurt cobain memorial bridge would create tourism so i don't understand why they wouldn't want it.

your comic is trying to get riled up, arb, but i'm not biting!

[Petros]

some of those kinetic sculptures are pretty amazing. I guess some "artists" have too much time on their hands. On the other hand, I have been wanting to build an ultra lite aircraft shaped and painted like a giant Pterodactyl, just for fun, it would be the perfect place to fly it.

What powers the snake?

[ARCHINSTL]

here are a few vids of rad art pieces at this years burning man:

fire-shooting octopus art car: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMfzFIERJIg
50 ft. electromechanical snake: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRJT8guE ... re=related
a wheel operated by 12 people pulling ropes to spin it, which activated a strobe once at a certain speed, creating a stop-motion animation effect: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ff6KEOMo15g

These were simply - amazing! I had absolutely NO idea how elaborate these things could be! I particularly liked the octopus.
Do they allow - ummm - people of a certain age to attend? If my numbers come up in the MO Lottery, it will be on my bucket list. One thing - are there flush johns?
THANKS!
Tom M.

P.S. Long and very interesting Wiki on Burning Man: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burning_Man

[dlb]

looks like the snake ("titanoboa") is powered by lithium polymer batteries. there's a bunch of info on it here:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/520 ... al-serpent

the same group of engineers built an 8-legged walking machine called mondo spider several years ago:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLOVdo_Qu3E

tom, BM is completely open to anyone and everyone. i can't recommend it enough--it's a real trial to prepare and then to live in those conditions for a week but it's worth it for the countless experiences one gains from it. if you buy tickets early they're about $250. contrary to some perceptions, it's not a music festival or anything similar so you never know what is going to be going on each year. it's more of a participatory art festival: rather than spectating, people are encouraged to become involved in any way, shape, or form to add to the event. pretty grassroots, really. there are ample port-a-potties (no flush, sorry, but you could always rent an RV with a flush toilet, which would also shelter you nicely from the dust storms and heat), and ice and coffee are the only things for sale. there are no vendors and no advertising allowed at BM so you have to bring all your own food and water for the week. there are also no public garbage or recycling bins so you are responsible for taking out everything that you bring in, and disposing of it properly. there are lots of fun, dangerous things to do but by buying your ticket you agree to be completely liable for your own actions. BM often repeats the phrases "radical self expression" and "radical self reliance" as its ethos. this is all probably in the wiki article you linked to but that's my skewed take on it, anyway.

consider it, tom!!!

[takza]

I wanted to see the Black Rock Desert because of the name...but never did. I could stand the conditions maybe...but all the crazy activity I would probably get tired of pretty soon....though I guess if you wanted to get away from it all...there's the rest of the dry lake.

[Neu]

Watch out for those squirrels, my brother got bit by one a few years ago doing the same thing. lol