Hanzo's right. All you need is two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a saltshaker half-full of cocaine, and a whole galaxy of multi-colored uppers, downers, screamers, laughers... Also, a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of beer, a pint of raw ether, and two dozen amyls. Not that you'll need all that for the trip, but once you get into locked a serious drug collection, the tendency is to push it as far as you can. The only thing that you need to worry about is the ether. There is nothing in the world more helpless and irresponsible and depraved than a man in the depths of an ether binge.

ahhhh, seems like yesterday my saltshaker was half-full of coke... fucking greedy hookers

on the real, taking all that stuff is just going to give you piece of mind. Roadside assistance is johnny on the spot now days. Welcome back to the real world Diz.

Hunter S Thompson???

yeah... one of my top 5 movies.

I think that passage is on the first or second page of the book.

Condoms?

While driving down the coast and passing through Oregon consider spending some time exploring the beaches and small coastal fishing towns. Regulations on the beach tend to be pretty lax around there so bonfires, camp-outs with buried kegs and the like are pretty common occurrences. Do you surf?

Good trip. Last trip I did, I wanted to do pretty much the same thing but starting from Toronto and across via Canadian rockies which would have been even longer. Had to settle for a short trip. Toronot --> Jasper and back so grand canyon's still on my list.
Too much fun. Not enough time. You guys will have a blast.

i'm back online and the road trip seems like a year ago already.
thx for the advice, you're right, i didn't need a bunch of extra stuff.

akane and I ended up:
--getting ripped off by KOA in south dakota
--encountering a black bear 12 ft from us
--being treated to awesome sunsets in la jolla, san diego
--getting to see double rainbows multiple times, window rock, AZ
--not doing any climbing, equipment hadn't arrived from japan before we left chicago
--hearing multiple accents of american english, not understanding a lot of them (9 years in japan)

this thread is worthless w/o pictures:

after leaving parent's house in wisconsin, we got to the missouri river in one day:

badlands south dakota:

Then to jackson. And she thought I only wanted to see ski resorts in America
we'd taken the tram up for a short 2-hour hike down, loop up, and finish back at the tram. from just below cody peak:

down in those trees there, in a clearing, we suddenly heard a bear charging towards us.
it stopped about 12 feet to my left, behind brush and trees. I froze for a second and then removed my backpack, took off my jacket and made like I was 10 feet tall.
we started singing michael jackson as loud as possible and walked away. where are those japanese hikers with their bells when you need them?!

then on to casinos and lake tahoe.

me in sf:

then to the beach in san diego and la jolla. she taught me how to snorkel. it was awesome.

monument valley:

more hiking in canyon de chelly, eastern arizona, really cool
top:

hike down an hour to the anasazi ruins:

the navajo sells their wares in the parking lots at the scenic overviews.
while shopping for a painting on a rock (only navajo are allowed to paint and remove rocks from the park),
i randomly started talking to another customer
and we got to talking about climbing, and he, sean jones, ends up giving me a pair of mad rock climbing shoes. stoked! i guess it was my lucky day. super nice guy.

spent a lot of time in navajo nation lands--window rock, arizona.
it was a great 3 1/2-week honeymoon!

America has some truly sick spots! Ive seen the smoky mountains, kentucky blue grass in the morning. Been through the everglades yet there is so much more to America that ill never see. This world s too small yet too big all at the same time.

america. fuck yeah!

the badlands. and monument valley. I have never seen places liek that with my own eyes. they look so weird but excellent. thanks for the report.

Three + weeks and we only scratched the surface.

what i enjoyed most was talking to the people of the navajo nation, the MV guide, the hotel clerk, the old guy on the street at the navajo nation fair.
i'm 1/16th Iroquois. akane kept saying 'everyone's faces look so familiar' it's well known that the japanese and natives share common dna, culture, religious beliefs.

Now you got to make all that money back lol.
You lined up anything yet?

make all that money back? we did it on the cheap...camping more than 1/2 the time; cooking a lot, making sandwiches.

i'm helping my brother in his tool business, dominos pizza boy, and freelance editing.

if ninjas needs any kind of tools, he can prolly get them

you just need to think of a way to get them to nippon. (HH?....?)

Dude, when are you coming back?
We cant get a focking decent bowling day together any more.
Mr CugeHock is working like a dog and well if you want to invite Yamashiro san lately, you have to mail his wife for permission...

I hadnt been bowling in almost a decade until that day we all played, and the first game was average at about 100, but my 2nd game I almost broke 200. You guys suck.

Dizzy, great to see you are alive and enjoying life back in the States!

awesome pics buddy! makes me want to go see those places

Great pix diz thanks for that.

Yamashiro san has his ballz in a vice that is funny!

yay diz and ryook. great trip u had. was looking back our last hiking trip with rk/akane, ms. cugehock, and the other ewok. chicago de gambatte ne.

Lame. Not one picture of your wife or her, um, torso.

is somebody expecting...???

By torso I meant rib cage.

OMG! I just gave birth.
It wasn't so painful, but just so square.

The baby is definitely more Asian (3/4s Asian) than dizzy's white half:

Bwuahahahahahaha!!!! Is that Ewok incognito, or Ewok's cousin?

dude, that's domo-kun!!

haven't you heard of domo-kun? A couple of domo-kuns and a cat gained popularity on the interweb in late 2001 or 2

he's also NHK's BS2 mascot

no shit. reread my post or look up the word incognito

not the race nor the furriness, just square sounds like a big pain.
and im not related domo-kind satori, they are far-advanced.

i didn't equate an incognitoed ewok with domo-kun