PJ or Bust (Part I)

August 30, 2011:

Michel flew home with the family and Matt Shaw offered to road trip with me back to NOLA. We thought it might be fun to see the Pearl Jam anniversary show on the way. What an epic way to wrap up this summer’s trip.
Being raised in Washington and being “a child of the 90’s”, I have grown up with Pearl Jam in the background, and sometimes, the foreground of my life. I can lay songs from the bands portfolio over scenes from my life like a soundtrack. Highschool – College – Pregame – Postgame. I’m not alone on that, I know. Twenty years later…

Matt and I did some route calculations and decided to go for it. Next stop Wisconsin…

Jim Salters offered to join me for the second leg. Milwaukee to NOLA. I anticipate a great trip but already miss Michel. It is amazing how much a part of each other we are.

Sitting on the dash as we loaded the Ironhorse:

As Matt and I were about to leave spokane, the poptop roof frame broke. It took us (help from my dad) the better part of two hours just to get it down and locked in place.

Pre-broken roof photo…

We finally hit on the road and started getting that road trip vibe, when my drivers side, rear tire de-treaded!

The velocity of the tread severed my water intake and my coolant line also…

Thinking we may never get to Milwaukee, we limped into Kellogg Idaho. We happened to find a tire shop and they luckily, were able to get us on back the road.

A little post action play by play from Shappy:

Knowing that we definitely were not going to make our intended destination (Bozeman, MT) today, we took a slight detour and rendezvoused with Mike Moses who was on business in Helena Montana.

It sounds cliché but most road trips like this really are more about the journey than the destination. Being able to catch up with Mike in such an organic fashion was really special for all of us.

“…I can’t see what’s next from this lonely overpass…”