This past few days, Caleb and I spent time in Utah at my high school friend, Ayae's place.
She is newly married to an awesome man, David.
Caleb and I worked together to make a multimedia work on Ayae.
It was very first time for me to work this way of more photojournalism. I didn't know what I was doing but thanks a lot for Ayae and her family for the corporation.
I've already learned a lot.

I'm looking forward to finish it when we get back to NY.

Shimpei

catching up with more people and places...

Arches National Park, Moab UT.

From the leather bars of San Fran, Shimpei and I hopped a greyhound bus. 16hrs later, at 6.30am, we hit Salt Lake City. From the Station we headed directly to Temple Square, where we met up with Ayae, David and Christian to watch the Pioneer Day parade. Around 2pm we headed to her house, had some food and hit the sack. At midnight we woke
up and hit the trail up Mt. Timpanogos. More on the grueling 6hr hike later.
Again, we were provided amazing/comfortable accomodation. Thanks to Ayae, David, Christian and Denise.

During our all-to-brief visit to San Fran, we stayed with Jeff's big(as you can see here though, somewhat smaller) sis, Kiera. We had some three philosophers brew, an unbelieveably comfortable/carpeted floor to crash on AND and a beautiful view from her deck. It was great to finally meet you Kiera. Thank you!
ps I think i left my lucky gray towel on your deck...? :/

Mark Hester sits veiled in the darkness of a San Francisco eve. We had drinks at Hotel Utah before hitting the psuedo-leather bar, Hole in the Wall. I wish we had more time, Markus. In Marks words, "Yes mon ami--twas not a dream but an all too hasty reality". Thanks for showing us a lil somethin. See you next time, friend.

Sorry for the terrible quality on this picture. We asked a passer-by for assistance....apparently she was a little shaky. Anyway, this is Lisa. She owns and operates Sweet Pea, a vegan cafe/bakery in Portland, Oregon. We were "those guys", who come in at closing time, order an iced tea and use wifi as long as possible. With a big smile, Lisa went above and beyond. Not only did she offer us a place to sit and access the web(long after closing time), she sent us packing with 5 delicious!! sandwiches. If you are in or around Portland don't miss out. Also check out her blog: http://sweetpeabaking.com/
Thanks again, Lisa!

Need I say more?

In Seattle we were schooled in the art of beekeeping. Here, Bruce(we are terrible with names, apologies if wrong)from Ballard Bees shows us the inner workings of hive-life. We were also able to sample honey directly from the source. Totally awesome. Thanks Bruce(?)! AND of course, thanks to our hosts, David and Mike for a great tour of Seattle.

-Caleb

In Seattle, David and Mike took us to see a great view of Seattle at night from park. It was very nice.

I wish we could spend more time in Seattle.











In Portland, Oregon.
At Mark Woolley Gallery, we met an awesome artist Eric and his cool friends. Thank you for telling me about this gallery, Sun!!

In the gallery, Jeff took his piece out in front of Eric's work and photographed. There were a lot of nice people in Portland.

After that we stopped by at Doug Fur.
It was happy hour and all the great food were $3.
I wanna live in Portland now.

Shimpei

Buffalo Jeff...

Wall, South Dakota

Post something

Hey everybody.
I've been really bad at doing the posting thing... Shimpei and Caleb have the computers on the trip and my cell phone just recently died . Right now, we're in Portland hanging out and we're gonna be gunning down the coast to San Fran tomorrow. We all have many more pics/videos that we want to post but it will take some time. Meanwhile, just know we are all being well fed from the epik buffet....

Jeff

Jeff, still working, photographs his first victim. The very cool, Stefanie Warmouth.

In Seattle, outside Dicks, Shimpei decides he wants to fight.

We went floating on the Snoqualmie river. Jeff, who got the little innertube(
not pictured), was told he looked like a teletubby.

David and Mike were excellent hosts in Seattle. We had a great time seeing the sights but even more fun playing with the chickens.

Jeff continues to work hard at Mt. Rushmore. We missed the Greenpeacers by a week, but next time Jeff is planning something on this scale.

I need to get to Salt Lake City a day before Jeff.
Does anyone know cheap way to get to Salt Lake City from San Francisco with bus or train?
Greyhound and flights are too expensive for me.

Shimpei

\

Jeff's B-day dinner without Jeff. Where is he??


Jeff finally shows up and a waitress gave him a cake before dinner.


Swimming in ice cold Yellow Stone Lake.


Jeff wet his underwear.


Caleb running around with his underwear in his hand.

updates...

I am the best bowler in the world.

Shimpei loves cleaning.

Somehwere between Yellowstone and Missoula.

The Pit in Butte, Montana. Butte was an unplanned detour(thanks Pete). We were there for an hour, tops, walking around, snapping pics....taking it all in. I think I'll visit Butte again.

A blurry sunset between Butte and Missoula.

Couldn't find a campsite in Missoula....didn't wanna camp in a field next to the truck stop....so we bought energy drinks and Shimpei(the newly licensed driver) drove us into the night(while blasing Rancid's entire discography). Jeff and I went to sleep. We made it to this rest stop somewhere in Idaho.

In the Badlands

Photo-Op in the Badlands.

Jeff loves his mummy bag.

Double Dagger in Chicago

Shimp the pimp and Jeff getting ready for the Double Dagger show in Chicago.

Double Dagger getting so loud.

At Lake Geneva, WI, with Sarah, Holly and Suzanna. We cruised on holly's boat and swam in the lake. Great Milwakee girls!

Breakfast in the supermaket parking lot. Deviled eggs and ham and cheese sandwiches and nasty coffee.

Jeff working hard on his project at the Corn Palace, South Dakota.


Also, Jeff working hard on the side of highway I90.


Caleb filming Jeff working hard.


More Jeff working hard near Badlands, SD.

Good night....

Milwaukee

chillin in 'tosa.

Prepping for an 18 hour drive from Wawatosa, WI(Milwaukee) to Badlands, SD.  Anyone know of a good spot to setup camp OR have a friend somewhere along that stretch of road? 

J&J

Our first was Hickory Lake Campground in Ashland, Ohio.

....45 minutes after breakfast...

"When I drive over the road..." - Jim

-ch

Chasing a tornado in Mason City Illinois

Mason City, Illinois - We met a local named Jon on our path who was driving out towards the next town of Easton chasing tornado's. Caleb and I decided to join him in his pickup truck and experience our first tornado chase. We hit some heavy storms and some crazy fog but found out after cruising for some time that the tornado touched down somewhere else. It was quite the experience no-less and we definitely got a taste of an "interesting" local personality.

Side note: I realized after the fact that I left my keys in this guy's truck. Luckily, he told us the local watering hole where he'd be drinking (the place was called Stupid's). We found his truck outside the bar - it wasn't locked, and I was able to grab them without further incident.

Jeff

Road Trip Soundtracks

For everyone who made us awesome road trip mix CDs,

Thank you very much. It was very amusing experience to find different ideas of road trip by listening to music. I could see there was a lot of creativity putted in the CDs. We have listened to all of them already. I enjoyed every single one of them.

Anyways, I'm really interested in American "idea of road trip," and seeing it in Mix CD was great!
Thanks,

Shimpei

Quick Updatge DAY 1 to DAY 5

We left Syracuse Monday, July 6 in the afternoon.
Now, I'm writing from Chicago, Jien Kun's place and this is the morning of DAY 5, Friday.
On the first day, we got far as Ashland, OH. We camped there. DAY 2, we stop by at Ohio State University art gallery in Columbus, OH and got to Mason City, IL. We stayed there 2 nights and got Chicago yesterday at DAY 4.

There has been a lot of things happened already. I want to start filling up the details when we get back in the car.

Shimpei

July, 5 2009
Day One:
Up at 7am. Sun-burnt, crispy. Steamy(screamy) HOT shower; Dad's advised cure for the worst burns. Aloe; temporary relief. July 4th at the beach(Long Beach) was a blast. Truly fun in the sun with Ariel, Tymisha, Hal and Lexie. Amidst an ample/varied supply of sunblock I managed NOT to re-apply. Will I ever learn? Tender, sun-burn style hugs and out the door. Present: Jeff snaps a pic. Astoria, 59th st. bridge(another picture), FDR, 8th Ave, park the car(thank god its Sunday. No meters.). Painfully hoist bags(one hiking pack, one camera gear backpack, one plastic bag bulging with AAA maps. Thanks mamma!). Raw sting; Port Authority. Ariel and I gingerly navigate the greyhound terminal. Love you, little brother. With every turn comes more burn(poetic). On the bus. Anxious relief. I made it, but my gear rides below in an over-stuffed cargo hold. Don't get crushed. Sleep. Ariel keeps me up to date on the wimbledon final(big sis, maybe you scalped tix?). Longest grand slam final in history. Federer wins. A/C blasting. Sun-burned goose-bumps. Pull my arms inside my white t. Sleep. Short stretch in Binghampton. Cheesecrackers. Cheese burps. Sleep. Syracuse. Gear is intact. Relief. Unfortunately, so is my sun-burn. Jeff rolls up in my new home. His maroon Scion. Snapshot. We cruise the 'cuse, stop for burritos, head to his house. Now, we pack. Tomorrow, we embark upon roadtrip'09: The Epic Buffet.

Lookout...

    I'm coming for you!!!

   

   

   Jeff

Films

Films I've ordered from B&H Arrived today.
I'm glad they made it on time.
I'm bringing about 100 rolls of 35mm B&W films and 70 rolls of 35mm color slides, and 20 rolls of 220 color and 120 B&W.
I'm not sure if this is enough but I guess I can buy some more films on the way if I need.

Films are so expensive...
But I don't think I switch to digital yet.
This on and previous photo are shot with my cellphone camera which is my only digital camera.

I don't even know how to rotate this photo. I rotetad in preview but the change I made does not seem to reflect...
Does anyone know how??

Shimpei

Shopping

We went a few stores to shop for what we needed for the trip.
Walmart is definately cheap. We got a lot of stuff like propane stoves, ramen noodles, beans and etc. It's kinda fun to prepare for the trip.

Shimpei