the lost hard drive

my long lost Shenandoah drinking buddy

For anyone who was following our Big Trip of 2010 you may remember the hard drive crash in Rhode Island. We had to have a new drive installed in the laptop but the old drive took a mess of travel photos with it. mrs. a-go-go had uploaded some things to Flickr and a few things made it into blog posts but most of the photos from North Carolina to New York were in jeopardy. The folks who put in the new drive told us they could not recover what was on the drive and gave us the name of a company in California that might be able to retrieve something... for a price. Not having the dough or the time to deal with it, the old hard drive lived in a drawer with the hope that one day it could be resurrected.

Well folks, now I have a job at a little company, iFixit, that sells parts for apple laptops (among other things) and publishes free guides for the adventurous electronic device mechanic in the rest of us. Over the last two months or so working at iFixit I have learned a great deal about tinkering with computers. This gave me the confidence to see if I could get anything out of the old hard drive. Turns out it was no sweat! The directory on the old drive was a mess but I had no difficulty at all transferring the lost photos off the old drive. Hmmm... those nincompoops who put in the new drive didn't try very hard at all.

So here's to being bold and adventurous in travel and in electronics. And now, a short selection of the missing part of the Big Trip:

 Pisgah Covered Bridge, North Carolina

a wee water fall, Hanging Rock, North Carolina

fireflies! woo woo!

in Virginia a bit East of Shenandoah National Park

estuary on the Chesapeake

c'mon mr. Lincoln, jump!

so many D.C. museums yer head'll cave in

magic outsider art in Baltimore

people who died of smallpox in Philly

Coney Island mermaids

Washington Square, Manhattan, dance revolution

hail hail

flying over the Hudson on foot

more leaping in the cemetery

That's all folks. Thank you, Kingston, New York.

lonely roads

Just a thought... While we were driving to Amboy from Twenty-Nine Palms it occurred to me just how unusual (historically speaking) this trip is. Lots of people have made trips like this but only in the last, what... sixty years? has any of us wealthy (relative to the mass of the world population) weenies been able to just go out and drive around. There are so many places (and other times in history) that cruising lonely roads is just down right dangerous. Brigands, bandits, marauding Visigoths... oh my!

There are dangers in what we are doing, but are we likely to be stopped on the road by a group of assault rifle toting mugs of questionable allegiance or authority? I am reminded of the tales I have heard of white knuckled rides through countries where chaos rules and a road block is to be feared. We are fortunate to have this chance, and it is hard for me to absorb the degree of our fortune.

another step forward (in the chorus line)

so...yesterday we a-go-gos celebrated our fifth wedding anniversary. traditionally speaking, we usually jump off the fountain where we wed and then get a big boy combo at Bob's but this year, we were feeling a little different. that and the fact that i was having a cranky hair morning and them gray skies outside were not helping in jumping inspiration.

besides, we had other plans...an afternoon appointment to meet the CMO of the nifty creative agency that may or may not be able to put a Kia Soul within our reach. so instead of hitting up the fountain we hightailed over to the San Fernando Valley for a Dagla's lunch (dear Dagla's, we am so going to miss you).
after stuffing ourselves silly on the best darn french fries in the land, we hopped on the 405 and traveled to El Segundo. well, that was after we stopped in at my brother's work to find he wasn't there (of course). and, since we were there, we picked up an assortment of these for the road trip and i splurged on what may be the very best iced latte i have ever downed.
traffic wasn't bad at all which is odd for the 405 and we made it to El Segundo in no time at all. after a brief surreal moment when we hopped into an elevator and found it wouldn't work for us, we managed to hitch a ride up to the seventh floor. the doors opened up and we were greeted by a hipster hall and funky purple lights. we cautiously moved forward and were rewarded by a people-sized cardboard stand-up sock monkey! people-sized! sock monkey! if we believed in signs, this would be one, right? the man of the hour arrived and encouraged me to go ahead and snap a shot of the monkey. i wanted to take it home but i guess that would be pushing it.
after a tour of the nifty studio space we sat down and chatted a little about our plans and such. it was kinda like a date. you know, finding out more about each other. after an hour or so we were on our way with homework. all we need to do now is write up our proposal in a more concrete kind of way and send it in. and if you feel you could help out by writing a testimonial or something, please let us know as soon as possible. we have another person to impress and impart on and we could use all the help we can get.

the countdown is on and we leave may 1st Kia Soul or not, the trip is going to happen but it will be quite different depending on the car we drive. and like i wrote on my facebook page i have all sorts of songs stuck in my head. songs about the Soul and us and our trip. from Vermillion Lies to Frankie Lymon and now A Chorus Line...I hope we get it! and yes...we did make it to the fountain and of course, we jumped!