Scenes From The Road

Welcome to Wyoming

'Nuff said

Rawlins, WY

Somewhere in South Dakota

Awesome!

"Remind me why we're wearing short."
"I have no idea."
Actual quote. It was in the low-50s.

Sitting Bull Memorial

Rapid City, South Dakota

Rapid City, South Dakota

Need a job? Sioux Falls, South Dakota

On the road in South Dakota

Prepare to be A-maize-d! Yes, that is all made out of corn.

Way better than the real thing. Wall Drug. Wall, South Dakota

Wall Drug. What a bargain.

On the road in Wyoming

On the road in Wyoming.

On the road in Nevada. What a sky-scape.

Are You As Frustrated As Me?

If you read my earlier post complaining about the high ticket price and fees associated with the upcoming Outside Lands Festival in San Francisco, then you know that I am categorically against seeing any live shows with tickets sold by Ticketmaster, et al.

My latest frustration stems from a three-day run at the Filmore scheduled by a great band called Spoon that I have seen live once before and would love to see again. Ticket price: $25. Fees per ticket (two tickets purchased): 11.93. The fees are almost half of the ticket price! Outrageous. Sorry Spoon. Can't make it.

Here's a good on-line article written on the subject. Too bad it won't do any good.

You Get What You Pay For

Just got back earlier this week from my trip out to Sioux Falls, South Dakota where I picked up Progression Structure #8 from last year's SculptureWalk and dropped off Sayulita for this year's SculptureWalk. I have never driven that far in such a short amount of time before. It was quite an experience.

I learned something out there, and this is important for all of you living here in the Bay Area and other places where the cost of gasoline is sky-high right now: Not All Gas Is Created Equal. Eric and I discovered that in South Dakota.

We had been cruising along fairly well for two days getting not exceptional gas mileage in the truck but not too far below the normal crappy 19-20 mpg I get at home. We were pulling an empty trailer after all. But then something alarming happened about 35 miles outside of Sioux Falls. We were almost out of gas!

How could this be? We had filled up only about 120 miles earlier. The truck has a 16 gallon tank. You do the math. We were lucky to find a little gas station off the highway in some random Amish town (Yes, that's right, there are Amish people in South Dakota. Who knew?) and made it to Sioux Falls safely.

We felt like something serious must be wrong with the car for this to happen so suddenly. The truck was due for an oil change anyway so the next morning, after my sculpture installation at 6:30am, we took it to the Toyota dealership to get the oil changed and to have them check things out. According to the dealership the truck was running great.

So, what was the problem? Because we experienced this kind of mileage for pretty much the rest of the drive home. It did get a little better as we cruised into California. Hauling 700-plus pounds in the trailer didn't help but this was ridiculously bad mileage. Around 10-11 mpg.

Some people we talked to in Sioux Falls suggested it had to do with the ethanol added to the gas. We began to notice, as we drove home, that many stations in Wyoming and South Dakota had gas that contained 10% ethanol, or E10 Ethanol. I am fairly certain that this was our problem. We had gotten bad ethanol gas at some middle-of-nowhere gas station in South Dakota and it was taking the whole trip home to get that gas out of the truck's system.

I did a little "research" on-line and found other people having this same kind of experience with E10 gas so I do not think my theory is far-fetched. Let's just say that now that I am back home in the Bay Area the truck is running great and back to it's regular gas mileage. It's a relief to know that it's not something that needs to be serviced or repaired.

So, here's the thing. I will definitely pay more at the pump if it means I can go farther on one tank of gas. It was interesting to see that E10 gas had a higher octane rating than "regular" but it was cheaper. You get what you pay for.

I know, I know. Ethanol is awesome because it can lower our dependence on foreign oil. But there are other foreign companies that supply gas to the United States that are not in Arab nations if that is a concern. Arco is great for that.

Other than that, everything went smoothly during the trip. Lots of driving but books on CD helped a lot. And we drove through some very nice scenery. Wyoming was quite beautiful, actually. But you couldn't pay me enough to live there. The winter alone would kill me.

Stay tuned for images from the road. We saw a good amount of Americana and tried to capture that as much as possible.

Book On CD Recommendation of the Day: Holes by Louis Sachar.

We had seen the movie and knew the plot already but hearing the book anyway was great. A really good listen or read. Highly recommended.