Catching up before heading out...

Good morning, everyone ^-^

I'm leaving town (and my computer) for a few days to go camping. We're traveling up to the North Cascades and then heading over to Sun Lakes State Park to visit with my mom and step-dad who are camp hosts there this year. It should be a lot of fun! Look for me to be back Wednesday night or Thursday. I'm not keeping a strict time schedule... the object of this trip is to take our time and relax.

This will be my second foray into the mountains this year. The first time was on my birthday, August 15th - which just happens to be the same day that Fukuyama-san's DVD went on sale to the open public. More on that later...

For my birthday, we went to Mt. Rainier, or as the locals here call it "the mountain". With the Olympic Mountains up in the northwest corner of the state and the Cascades bisecting the state from British Columbia to Oregon, we actually have quite a number of mountains in the area - but only one mountain is THE mountain: Mt. Rainier. I see it daily. It calls to me. For my birthday, I shed myself of all obligations and I answered.

Well, actually, I did still have to go to work that morning. It's a good thing the mountain is relatively close. I got off work at 13:00, drove home quickly, threw the kids and supplies in the car, and headed out. Oh yeah... and I checked the mail, but more on that later...

Since it's only an hour and a half drive to the mountain, we've been there a fair number of times. There are several ways to enter Mt. Rainier National Park. The easiest and most common is the main entrance that takes you up to Longmire and the visitors center in Paradise. (Directions from here: east on South 38th Street to Pacific Avenue and hang a right. Then keep going on that main drag for about 50 miles till you bump into it.) You can also approach the mountain from the Packwood area to the South, coming up from Mt. Saint Helens, and travel through Ohanapacosh and Stevens Canyon up to the visitors center in Paradise. You can also approach the Mountain from the north by going through Enumclaw to the White River entrance -that'll take you up to a smaller visitors center at Sunrise - or you can bypass the White River entrance and loop around to the Stevens Canyon entrance heading up to Paradise.

This time we entered through the Carbon River entrance. I hadn't been to the Carbon River side since I was a teen and the kids were curious to see what up that way. This particular entrance has been closed a number of times over the years due to road washout and the route is not connected to the roads that loop around the mountain, so it is a good deal more primitive than the rest of the park. We hadn't planned on camping, although I did add a few blankets and extra food to our supplies in case I needed to pull over and sleep. It's a good thing I did! We got about 100 feet into the park and the road turned into a narrow gravel road that was often only one lane wide due to washouts. To someone like me who's from a family of mountain goats, the road wasn't too bad, but I definitely didn't want to try navigating it in the dark.

Anyhow, we stopped and took a short trail through the river headed for a waterfall. We ended up stopping before the end due to a bridge being washed out, but we had a lot of fun at the river anyhow. (Most of us could have navigated across that stretch of river anyhow, but remembering that a group is only as strong as its weakest member is key to wilderness surival.) After spending a fun couple hours there, it was getting late, so we decided to head all the way in to the campground.

We ate dinner (sandwiches bought at Subway on the way up) at the campground. It was a nice campground and on that Monday night it was not too crowded. There was no running water and pit toilets, but I came prepared for that. We had plenty of water. What we didn't have, because I hadn't really planned on camping, was a tent. We moved things around and got "cozy" in the van for the night. Despite the less than ideal sleeping conditions, the kids really enjoyed that campground. In the morning, we walked around and explored the campground for a while. We found the trailhead leading up to Carbon Glacier - about a 4 hour hike - and made plans to come back again, better prepared and with more time so that we can hike up that trail next visit. Then we ate some graham crackers and peanut butter and washed it down with a little Tang and headed back down the mountain.

On the way out, we visited an interesting old cemetary in Wilkeson. Actually, the cemetary is still in use and it was fascinating to compare the recent graves to those from over a hundred years ago.

When we got home, I opened the package that had come in the mail the day before.

I mentioned that Yoshiki Fukuyama's DVD went on sale to the general public on my birthday. Well, it was available for early sale during his concerts, starting the end of July. Pedro, knowing that the DVD was going to come out and not wanting to hassle with the people at Three-Nine, had left some money with a friend who was going to the concert in July. He left enough for the friend to buy copies for both of us... and my copy arrived precisely on my birthday! That was the best birthday present I got this year! Thank you, Pedro!

About the DVD: Yoshiki Fukuyama's FIRE BOMBER 2005 ~Tribute to Nekki Basara~, recorded live at Shinkiba Studio Coast in Tokyo. It's the Tokyo version of the same show Pedro saw in Osaka. Unlike Fukuyama-san's first DVD, the one is a first rate production. They went all out this time, showing the entire concert with the entire songs and very little of the MC segments cut out. It's a truly professional looking production that makes it easy to enjoy the wonderfully crazy personalities of Fukuyama-san and the members of his band. There's also a second CD that has interviews and behind the scenes footage of the concert. There's also a segment where Fukuyama-san talks about the making of the working replica of Nekki Basara's guitar that he had specially made for the tribute tour. True to Fukuyama-san's standards, the replica not only works, but it works well. The sound is awsome!

Of course, the entire thing is in Japanese. Eleanor and I have begun work on creating a full report of the DVDs, complete with translations... but it's going to be a while before we can finish it. This week, my computer's decided to have major problems and I can't access my largest hard drive - the one with all my editing and word processing software on it - so I can't update my site until we get things fixed.

There are several updates that need to be put up. For now, I'll post information here.

First, the upcoming JAM Project tour is now call "King Gong". ^-^

JAM Project finally has their own official site

They also have a new CD single coming out October 21st. It's the opening theme to a drama called "Garo".

In other news, Becca-isms was updated a few days ago. Also, now daughter #3 also has her own site: TZone

And... my friend Flavio's anisongs.net site is down temporarily while he does a total renewal of the site. Grand Re-opening should be in a couple weeks.

I think there's a couple other updates that I'm forgetting. They'll have to wait until after the trip.

See y'all when we get back!

peace