Before leaving for Australia I wanted to have some of the local women come and play music in the doghouse. On the left is Jackie who unfortunately will be leaving Miles City and moving to Helena. I will sure miss her heart felt songs and fantastic voice. On the right is Kira who is one talented woman. She sings and plays well, I a licensed message therapist (I can say she can sure find those pulled little mussels and work them out. On the music night near Halloween she danced a belly dancing number which was absolutely fantastic. On guy said “I didn’t know you could move that part of the body without moving the rest”. Yeah, it was great!! I have been wanting to have some of the women come play to give the doghouse some female vibrations to go along with the guy ones that are firmly implanted from that first party. I was so pleased that they could come. I was hoping to have Marie come and play too but for some reason she and her husband Kevin couldn’t make it, or couldn’t find my place in the dark. We had a good time visiting and I had made a pot of beans and corn bread which was somewhat edible…..

I had Charlie ride with me over to Billings and drop me off at a motel where I spent the night and grabbed my flight to Salt Lake the next day which was Thanksgiving. It was a beautiful day and mostly clear and it was interesting crossing the mountains down to Salt Lake as there was almost no snow other then on the top of the mountains. I think it has been a fairly mild winter so far.

I didn’t have much time to catch my plane out of SL but made a packed flight to LA just in time. I had an Aussie that happened to be flying home that was sitting next to the window take a picture of LA for me. YUCK!

I had to take a picture and ask this guy about his tee shirt as we were getting off the plane. He said he organizes these events with bluegrass playing and chain saw carving down in Arkansas. I thought it might have been something like the chainsaw band I saw a clip of, but no it isn’t like that he said.

Ah, fine food out on the road (or in the air?). I looked around the airport for food and as I expected I was disappointed with the selection of what was available as well as the prices. Jeez it was six bucks for an ice-cream cone! I had anticipated this and baked up a few of these to tide me over until I can get someplace where the food is more real. I guess you could say that the airport food was real in one sense as there were a lot of sushi vendors which made a lot of sense as it seemed like most of the travelers were Asian.  These little cakes I made are stuffed full of nuts and raisins with a few dried cherries. Good road food and they travel well.

This little gal has some real baggage, eh?

This airport cop was tooling around on a Segway and he sure was getting around well even in some of the high traffic areas. I had a chance to ride one of Amigo Bob’s friends Segway this last summer. It sure was neat but I could see it would take a little getting used to. The friend had me ride it around his yard on the grass in case I fell off or crashed. I sure can see that it would be a wonderful way to get around town especially if the distances were long or you were incapacitated somehow. Hell, it would be just a lot of fun too…..

You can get almost anywhere from LAX. My flight was 012 Sydney.

In the duty free area I think this was the most outrageous thing I saw for sale other than the $700+ sunglasses.

I will have to say that the Aussie customs guys were really nice. Why do our customs guys have to be such jerks? Actually the only problem the guy had was after looking at my collection of cakes I had made, my custom mix of granola/cereal, high grade Tillamook cheese, he finally took the baggie I was snacking out of that contained the cashews and almonds that I had bought at Scotts health food store. He said since they were not toasted, he would have to take them. It was really interesting how he showed me how he used his thumbnails to squeeze an almond and get a little oil out. Oh well, there were not many left so no big loss.

On the way to the hostel I took a little shuttle bus. It was really interesting to be driving on the left side of the road and sitting on the left side up front with no steering wheel. I got my first experience in heavy traffic when we were cut off by a bus making a right turn and came into our lane. My driver honked his horn like mad but the buss just kept coming over and we crashed into the side of the bus. The bus didn’t have his signal on so there was no way of knowing his intensions. That put us on the side of the road for a while until the guys figured it out. Reports will be made I am sure. I am a witness but doubt if they will be able to get me before I get out of here. One couple that I was riding with I noticed were wearing Harley Davidson gear and had HD bags. I asked if they came over for a ride and they said they were doing some sort of ‘flying harley’ ride. Not too sure about that but they said it was super special and cheap. Oh? It turns out that they will be riding two Harley’s at $125/day plus meals and lodging. I think they will have to ride with a bunch of other people too. I guess at those prices two weeks is all they could afford. When you add in the amount just to get there flying it is going to be a pricey two weeks. But worth it to them I guess.

Home sweet hostel. That is my dry bag on top of the locker and that is my bunk on top. Jeez, I almost tipped the damn thing over when I climbed up to make my bed.

I took a quick walk about and thought I would take this picture of flowers for my ‘flower’ friends. Sorry I didn’t get closer for you.

They have ‘Happy Christmas’ down here and in the downtown there are a lot of old building amongst the skyscrapers. Some of the dates on the building are from the late 1800’s.

The old Sutton Forest Meat Market. You might be able to make out the tile inlays of beef, pigs, and sheep. It isn’t a meat market anymore but this was the main part of town and still is.

Nice old advertising.

A music store had this old Fender guitar for sale for $3000. I had to put this in for my ‘guitar’ buddies, sort of like flower friends.

Lots of little cars down here. I don’t think I have seen any big American cars. This little dude is the most unusual I have seen so far. Lots of room in this little car and a big door in the rear to get at the cargo area.

I saw this little sticker on the way to the hostel. Not sure what it is all about but maybe ‘Revolution’ or something? I wonder if it will come to something like this with the big bankers, broker and such are getting ‘Bailed Out’ while the regular populace PAYS for it.

I guess that is about all I have to report for now. I am not sure what I will be doing yet, hell, I just got here, but do stay tuned…….