Hi there. My name is Ian Usher.
All of my blog posts can now be found in one place, on my own website here:- Blog posts
The blogs detail my adventures since early 2008, when I announced that I was going to sell my "whole life" on eBay. They include two years of travels, a list of 100 goals, publishing a book, a movie deal with Walt Disney Pictures, and life on my own Caribbean island.
But now it's time for a new adventure...
(coming soon)
When I wrote on my list of goals that I wanted to juggle with fire clubs, Mark Bakalor contacted me about coming to juggle with internationally reknowned juggler Vova Galchenko in Los Angeles. When Mark saw that I was going to be in LA over Thanksgiving, he emailed and invited me to join his family for the big day.
My days here in LA have been pretty hectic, and I had not got around to confirming with Mark, when I wrote my blog about going out for dinner with Ari Ross, the voice-over guy.
Well, Mark saw that blog and recognised Ari, as Mark had hired him to do some voiceover work on one of Vova's projects. What a small world! Mark contacted Ari to try to get in touch with me, and eventually I managed to get around to confirming that I would delighted to accept Mark's invitation.
Mark also invited Ari, and a couple of days after I first met him, I met Ari again. It was wonderful to see Ari's reaction to the completed work that he had voiceovered for, as he had not seen the finished product.
Ari also filmed some video of the evening of fire clubs juggling, and has edited a great short piece, which really captures for me the relaxed, easy-going, fun evening we all shared, as I fumbled my way through goal number 20!
The fire in the video seems to make it very pixelated on YouTube. If interested there is a much better quality version of the video file that can be downloaded from Ari here: http://www.isdnvoices.com/IANUSHER.htm
Thanks again to all who were there, and made it such a memorable evening!
LA just keeps offering one amazing day after the next. Thanksgiving Day was absolutely brilliant!
One of my goals is to juggle with fire clubs. My dad taught me how to juggle three balls when I was young, and later he bought me a set of juggling clubs. I am not very good with them, as I don't really practice enough, but have always fancied trying to juggle with fire clubs.
I added this goal to my list, and recently, as I approached Los Angeles, I was contacted by Mark Bakalor, who lives and works with a juggler called Vova Galchenko. Vova, Mark told me, is one of the world's greatest jugglers. He was recently featured in The New York Times and has been on The Oprah Winfrey Show, BBC, ESPN, Ellen DeGeneres Show, The Today Show and US news program Nightline.
Mark invited me to their family home for Thanksgiving Day, and gave me the address to put into my GPS. Driving out there was an experience in itself, as "Maggie" directed me out into the beautiful Santa Monica mountains above Malibu. As I approached, and the GPS said I was there, I looked up at the hillside at the most amazing house perched high above. That can't be it, I thought - it was! The place was stunning.
I met Mark and Vova, and the whole family covering four generations, all gathered for Thanksgiving dinner. I learned a bit of Vova's background story. He had left Russia at the age of fifteen alng with his sister Olga who was twelve at the time, and had come to America in search of a better life. They were already an incredible juggling partnership, and had performed many shows, but it was when Mark and Vova entered a competition to make a video for a Fat Boy Slim song that things really started happening.
The video was a huge hit on YouTube, and led to all sorts of TV appearances over the past couple of years. Have a look at the video:
And so here I was, in the house where the video was made, throwing clubs around with the guy that Time Magazine called "one of the greatest jugglers in history", and The Today Show called "the best in the entire world"!
After a wonderful Thanksgiving meal, we juggled some more, and the fire clubs came out, and the frustrating practice started. Vova, of course, made it look very easy, but in the dark, it is very hard not to concentrate on the flame, and seeing the handle of the club as it comes over the top is much harder.
However, with alot of practice, and a bit of lighting from inside the house, I started to make a couple of catches. The general opinion of all the jugglers there, which included Vova, Mark, and his dad Barry, was that to be considered a successful "juggle" you had to perform an amount of catches which is double the number of items you are juggling, and an added bonus would be to catch the final item to "look cool".
I tried many times, and found it alot trickier than I had thought it would be. However, thanks to the patience of all there, I finally managed to do six or seven catches in a row. I kept at it, and eventually managed a run of six with a final catch at the end. As I caught the final club, I heard Vova saying, "Oh no, don't catch it!" It was the only time he hadn't been filming me, so I had to do it again!
Although I am happy that the goal has been achieved, there is still room for improvement (alot of room for improvement when you see what Vova can do!) before I will be satisfied, so I do intend to keep practicing, and hope to do some more fire-club juggling in the future.
Huge thanks to Mark, Vova, Olga, Barry, Ari, and everyone else at the Bakalor home, what a truly outstanding, memorable day!
More information on Vova and Olga at the following links. The videos are well worth watching:-
Yesterday I had one of those amazing life-moments when you are just suddenly hit by where you are and what is happening.
Since very early on in the "ALife4Sale" project, I have had occasional contacts from movie and TV producers interested in doing something with the story. I really did not know how to handle all of these enquiries, but had some amazing and surreal discussions on the phone.
One of the most memorable was with a Hollywood producer who suggested that her team of people saw the story "as a Tom Hanks-type rom-com." What an unreal comment to hear about something that you are doing. My quick response was a tongue in cheek reply, as I tried not to laugh at what I was saying. "Oh no, I rather saw George Clooney playing me!" Without missing a beat, or picking up on any of the humour in my voice, the agent simply said, "Yes, we could possibly make that happen."!!! Wow, I thought, I'm a bit out of my area of experience here!
Fortunately Evan, who was helping with some of the "ALife4Sale" publicity, put me in touch with an LA movie agent, and I could palm off all such enquiries to Brandon and let him deal with them. Since then things seem to have moved pretty slowly, but there has been alot of discussion between Brandon and Walt Disney, who seemed most interested in the project.
There was some negotiation, and eventually Brandon presented an offer which he thought was the best we would get. Disney wanted to buy an 18 month option on the story, with a view to buying the story within that period if they decide to go ahead and make a movie. And of course they pay for this option.
I was amazed about this, and of course happy to accept. I mean, how often does a normal bloke like me have Disney knocking at their door wanting to make a movie about them?
Well, since then it all seems to have taken a huge amount of time to sort out paperwork and signatures, but I spoke to Brandon a couple of days ago, and he suggested we meet in Beverly Hills for lunch. "Of course," I said, as if it was the type of thing I did all the time. "Oh, and I'll be able to give you your cheque too," he added.
So I programmed the GPS and set off through the horrendous LA traffic to Beverley Hills and parked at Barneys on Wilshire Boulevard, which has a very popular restaurant on the top floor. Also having lunch there at the same time was movie director Ridley Scott, and as we walked out the store afterwards I held the door open for Monty Phthon's Eric Idle. What a surreal experience.
Lunch was fantastic, and I breathed a quiet sigh of relief when Brandon offered to pick up the bill. Although he then presented me with my cheque from Disney, and I felt my financial situation ease slightly!
After the lunch meeting I wandered up and down Wilshire Boulevard and Rodeo Drive, where all the incredibly expensive shops are, then went to collect the car. To get out of the area I found myself at the junction of these two famous roads, in front of the hotel where Pretty Woman and many other movies were filmed, waiting in the middle of the junction to turn left onto Rodeo Drive, behind a Mercedes with a Beverly Hills licence plate, a cheque in my pocket from Walt Disney, rock music blaring from my stereo, arm out the window in the sun, having just had lunch with my very own movie agent!! I was amazed and stunned, but immensely happy - what an incredible experience! I took a photograph through the car windscreen. Of course it doesn't fully capture the moment, but I know I will never forget the feeling!!
Once again, I think about what an incredible journey this is turning out to be. A year ago I was a truck driver in a mine, yesterday I was driving around Beverly Hills with a movie studio cheque in my pocket.
Later in the afternoon I had to go to Walmart to buy a new pair of jeans. The pair I have are now falling apart a bit, the right rear pocket now has a huge hole in it, and under the left rear pocket a hole is starting too. I had to laugh that I had been to probably the most expensive restaurant I have ever been to in the scruffiest pair of backpacker-jeans I have ever had!
Another goal achieved, but... this one cannot be ticked off my list of one hundred goals, as it is someone else's goal that I have been proud to be part of.
I have been in LA for a few days now, and am sort of finding my way around. My best friend Maggie (Magellan) is invaluable here, I would be lost without her. She knows her way around the whole US pretty well, and has got me to many destinations that I would have never found on my own.
I am enjoying being settled in one place for a while, and with the RV parked up, and the use of Evan's car, it really does feel like going out somewhere, and then coming back home.
And last night I had the chance to go out on a date/adventure! Let me explain...
I have known Yvette online for quite a while now, since she first found out about me when "ALife4Sale" started, and contacted me via email. She has her own blog, all about being single again, and the perils and pitfalls of having to start dating again a bit later in life. She is also pretty goal driven, and for this year has set herself two challenges.
Her first decision was to have at least one adventure a month for the whole year, and she also committed to dating at least one new guy per month too. Way back in July, when I first wrote about wanting to do 100 goals in 100 weeks, she wrote on her blog that perhaps one of her goals would be to meet me somewhere down the line on my travels, and do something adventurous.
Her ultimate goal is to write a book about her dating adventures, twelve chapters, twelve guys, and alot of her thoughts on the modern dating game. I reckon it will be a great book, she writes very well.
Well, it turned out that we would both be in LA at the same time, and after a bit of planning, she decided that she could kill two birds with one stone, by making her adventure of the month happen at the same time as going on a date with Mr. November - me!!
We met in the afternoon, and took a drive along Mulholland Drive, which ends at a great outlook overlooking the Hollywood Bowl, and the whole city. In the evening, after a quick dinner we went to Warner Bros Studios, where Yvette had got us free tickets at the filming of a sit-com. Unfortunately alot of free tickets had been given out, and we had arrived too late to get in, and with many others we, were turned away.
Oh well, we decided, we would drive down to the beach at Santa Monica, and perhaps find a place to have a drink. When we got there, the pier was lit up brightly, and the big wheel stood out from along way away. "That's the adventure part of the evening then," said Yvette. "We'll go on the big wheel!" When we got there the pier was cold and damp and deserted, and the big wheel flashed it's glamourous invite in complete silence! Oh dear, the adventure/date wasn't turning out too successfully!
We wandered down to the beach, and Yvette said that she still had to do something adventurous and out of the ordinary to achieve her adventure of the month. It had to be something that took her out of her comfort zone, she insisted. "I know, let's go skinny dipping!" she said. I was very skeptical, it was pretty cold on the beach, the waves were crashing in a bit, and we had no towels!
But adventure was required, and after a bit of dithering around we were both in. It was freezing! We were both out again pretty quickly too! But adventure had been achieved, and we were both pretty proud of ourselves as we sat in a warm bar later to celebrate.
It was a unusual and fun date, and Yvette was great fun to hang out with (pun intended!), but I am just slightly concerned about how I will fare in my write up as Mr. November in Yvette's book, as that water really was quite cold!
Thanks for a fun afternoon and evening Yvette, I am (sort of!) looking forward to the book coming out!
Wow, three goals achieved in three days! I'll be finished by Christmas if I can keep this up!! On Saturday I experienced indoor skydiving in a vertical wind tunnel, yesterday I completed my journey across Route 66 by finally arriving at Santa Monica, and today I headed into Hollywood to complete my goal of seeing Los Angeles.
Evan has very kindly lent me his car for the week while he is away, and my first job this morning was to fix the cigarette lighter socket, which wasn't working. Without that I am unable to charge my GPS, and heading off into downtown LA without it would have been foolish. So it didn't take me long to have the whole centre console of Evan's car stripped out. It took a bit longer to get it all back together - don't worry Evan, it's all working well now!
Once sorted, I was off, and got parked at the Kodak Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard. The first thing I wanted to do was to see the Hollywood sign up on the hill, which is for me the iconic image of LA, and just around the corner, there it was, high up on the Hollywood Hills.
I took a wander along Hollywood Boulevard, down Vine Street, and then back westward on Sunset Boulevard. I was surprised to find that among the glamour and the glitz there are quite a few closed down businesses, and that parts of the area are pretty run-down. However, at the westward end of Sunset Boulevard, where it becomes Sunset Strip, it becomes pretty exclusive and expensive.
In the evening I met up with Ari, who lives just off Sunset, and works as a voiceover artist, doing voices for movie trailers, adverts, and any other project requiring voice acting. Check out some of his demos in the links at the bottom of this section. He had contacted me through the website, and offered to buy me a pint - how could I refuse?
We met in the Trocadero on Sunset, and after a couple of beers we headed to Sushi On Sunset to eat, which was absolutely fantastic. The Firecracker Chicken was the highlight of the menu. Huge thanks to Ari for a very entertaining evening, and for picking up the bill too, I reckon it would have cost about a week's worth of my travelling budget!
Every now and then I keep realising what I am doing, and where I am, and this evening, sat eating dinner I had one of those moments. "I am sat in an incredible restaurant on Sunset Strip in LA, eating dinner with a Hollywood actor!!" What a amazing experience! Cheers, Ari.
I set off from Chicago on 27th October, almost a month ago, to travel across America on what is left of old Route 66. After dropping Evan off at LAX airport this morning (he is flying back home for Thanksgiving, which is this coming Thursday), I headed towards Santa Monica Beach, and the end of the cross-country journey.
I bought myself a coffee and sat at the beach thinking over the whole trip from the past month. I think before I started, in my mind the trip was about finding as much of the original road, and actually driving upon it. But on reflection, I think it became much more about the people I have met on my journey, and the experiences that has offered me along the way.
I have met some wonderful people who have been incredibly kind and hospitable to someone who was initially to them just a random internet stranger. To everyone that I have met on the route, thank you so much, it has been a fantastic journey.
I have also seen some incredible places on the way. A couple of places that particularly stand out are the Arch at St Louis, the Grand Canyon, Mount Rushmore, and the Devil's Tower.
So I ended up in somewhat murky weather at Santa Monica beach, and wandered along towards the pier, happily watching all the people cycling, skating, playing volleyball, or heading for the surf. I felt pretty happy to have arrived, and am pleased that it doesn't really feel like the end of anything, as my travels now continue up the west coast towards winter in Canada. I am thoroughly enjoying this whole adventure, and am not ready for it to end just yet!
Afterwards, I headed down to Venice Beach, which had a great hippy-type street market, selling all sorts of arty stuff, and beads and trinkets. After a drive down to El Segundo (I just liked the name!) I headed north up Route 1, the Pacific Coast Highway, through Malibu, and up through the mountains back to Evan's house. What a beautiful drive, as the sun had burnt through the gloomy mist by early afternoon.
I am now living in the RV on Evan's driveway, and one of his housemates, Wade, asked if I fancied going ten-pin bowling. We went to the local bowling lanes, and I topped off a great day in LA by bowling a 170, my personal record score!
Well if you ever plan to motor west Just take my way that's the highway that's the best Get your kicks on Route 66
Well it winds from Chicago to L.A. More than 2000 miles all the way Get your kicks on Route 66
Well it goes from St. Louis down to Missouri Oklahoma City looks oh so pretty You'll see Amarillo and Gallup, New Mexico Flagstaff, Arizona don't forget Winona Kingman, Barstow, San Bernadino
Would you get hip to this kindly tip And go take that California trip Get your kicks on Route 66
Well goes from St. Louis down to Missouri Oklahoma city looks oh so pretty You'll see Amarillo and Gallup, New Mexico Flagstaff, Arizona don't forget Winona Kingman, Barstow, San Bernadino
Would you get hip to this kindly tip And go take that California trip Get your kicks on Route 66
I am a fairly regular skydiver, and in the five years or so since my first jump, I have now done about 130 altogether. There are a couple of skydiving goals on my list, and one was to skydive in a vertical wind tunnel.
In Australia there isn't any such facility at all, the nearest one being in Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia. However, there are plenty of them here in the States, and a small detour on the way back up to LA from San Diego took us to Perris Skydive.
My friend Evan, who did alot of the internet publicity for my "ALife4Sale" website was keen to come along, but when he found out that he could do a real tandem skydive there instead, he lost all interest in the wind tunnel, and we went our separate ways for an hour or so as we both went off to do our respective training.
My problem though was that I had lost my cameraman!! I only have a few pictures of the tunnel itself, and of others in the tunnel before I got in, but none of myself in there at all!
It was a very interesting experience, and is very similar in feel to a skydive, but quite different visually. You have the same feeling of being supported by the air, the same pressure on arms, body and legs, but in a skydive there is so much space around you. Unless you are skydiving with other people it is very difficult to know whether you are falling down straight, or backsliding, or falling slow or fast. But in the tunnel there are walls and windows all around, and they provide a great reference point.
I was pretty pleased with my performance, and managed to stay in the middle without too much difficulty, and very quickly managed a few turns, and a few moves vertically up and down the tunnel.
Each person in the group has a minute then flies to the door and gets out, and the next person gets in. The time goes pretty quick, but you can fit quite alot in, and my second minute was really good fun, as I played with fall-rate and moved quickly up and down the tunnel.
I only had two minutes, at a bargain price of $35, and could have happily done more. I can see how time in the tunnel would be a great skydive training aid, but it is great fun too!
Anyway, as there is no video or pix of my time in the tunnel, here is Evan's first tandem jump. Be warned - he was pretty excited and pumped up after the jump, and there is a bit of a language warning!!!
This next video shows some of the people in the tunnel just before it was my turn. The instructors are excellent. Hmmm, I wonder how I get a job there....
Big thanks to Evan for a great weekend, and for being there, at least in spirit, for goal 17!
I arrived at Evan's house just north of LA yesterday afternoon. Evan is a PR guy who specialises in quirky internet stories, and he had contacted me very early on during "ALife4Sale" and given me alot of help with some of the internet publicity for the auction. Evan is actually number 8 of ten people to meet from "ALife4Sale"!
Less than an hour later we were in his car and travelling south through LA, heading towards San Diego.
I had managed to track down an old friend, Tim, from college days back in the UK, and was going to catch up with him for the first time in 20 years! Evan dropped me off and disappeared to meet his friends, and I knocked on Tim's door. As I walked in we both laughed and both exclaimed, "You look exactly the same, mate!" I reckon we were maybe both being a bit kind to each other!
It was great catching up on all we had done in the 20 years gap, and we drank beer late into the night, swapping stories and laughing about some of the stupid stuff we used to do together.
Our initial meeting all those years ago had been because of our mutual interest in motorbikes, and I was pleased to find that Tim still had a bike out in his shed, a fantastic looking Ducati Monster. "You can take it out tomorrow if you like." I like! I have never ridden a Ducati before.
The next day I got a tour of some of San Diego's downtown spots - it is a very scenic place, and once again the weather was beautiful.
The ship in the middle picture was used in the movie Master And Commander
After lunch, and a quick pep-talk from Tim about his pride-and-joy I was off down the freeway and then back up along the beautiful beachfront. The sun was out, the surf was rolling in, the bike was fast and smooth. Absolutely fantastic - things couldn't get much better than this - I had a big grin on my face, I am sure!
Later that evening Tim sparked up the BBQ, and we drank more beer and told more old war stories to his wife, Laurie.
Wonderful to see you again Tim, see you again in another 20 years! Thanks to Tim, Laurie and their two lovely daughters.
It was a long drive from Las Vegas to LA in the RV, but I got an early start after saying goodbye to Simon and Myles, and by mid-afternoon I had passed through the last couple of towns mentioned in the song (Kingman was actually before detouring up to Las Vegas), and was heading towards LA, and almost at the end of my Route 66 journey.
I still had alot of things that I wanted to see in Las Vegas, so on my last day there I was up early and headed out to Red Rock Canyon, which is just a few miles to the west of the city. From Simon and Myles's house it only took minutes to get there, and yet it is a world away form The Strip! Las Vegas is quite an unusual place, in that it is very built up as far as they can build, right to the foot of the mountains, and then just stops, where building is no longer possible.
Red Rock Canyon was quite busy, being so close and so accessible, but it was nice to be able to get out into natural surroundings so easily.
In the afternoon I met up with Misty again, as she had a day off work, and had offered to give me a guided tour around The Strip. At her house I finally got to see the painting she had done, inspired by my "ALife4Sale" project. She had emailed me way back in March or April, telling me about her idea for this painting, and later had sent me a photo of the finished work. You can read more about it in an earlier blog here.
It was fantastic to see the painting in real life, and I felt pretty flattered that someone half a world away from where I lived had taken such inspiration from something I had done. It was very satisfying to actually meet Misty and see the picture.
So I had added Misty to the list of people I wanted to meet when I set off on my travels, and she is actually about the seventh person that I have met who I have come into contact with through putting my "life" up for sale. Being a bit of a gambler (she plays alot of tournament poker!), she insisted on being counted as lucky number 7. So she has actually become an integral part of three of my goals: 1). Seeing Las Vegas 2). Meeting ten new people from ALife4Sale 3). Entering a $1,000 poker competition
We headed down to The Strip as soon as it started going dark, and the first place to visit was the Stratosphere, a tall tower offering great views of The Strip, and with a couple of pretty wild fairground-type rides on top of the tower. We bought tickets and went on X-Scream, a sort of see-saw which tips you right over the edge of the tower. It was pretty intense.
After dinner at the restaurant where Misty works we headed out to see more casinos, including a circus show at Circus Circus, the pirate show at Treasure Island, the pyramid-shaped Luxor, and the best of all, the water fountains at Bellagio.
Misty gave me a few pointers on poker etiquette, and a few suggestions on how best to prepare for a bigger tournament, and I reckon she would make a great coach for that goal, which I may aim to achieve sometime next year. Hopefully we might be able to play a bit online over the coming months!
Las Vegas is certainly a different, and much more enjoyable place to look around with someone else, rather than on your own, and I had a much better impression of it on my last night out there than I did on my first!
Viva Las Vegas! Huge thanks to Simon and Myles, and to Misty too, for being such great hosts, and helping me achieve my goal of gambling in Las Vegas.
Well, another interesting day here in the land of make-believe!
I have sort of become intrigued and slightly horrified by the US gun laws, but also have developed a sort of fatal attraction to the subtle lure of these amazing weapons! So when I came across an advert suggesting that a visit to a Vegas downtown store would enable the firing of a variety of fully automatic machineguns, I couldn't resist. Oh dear!
So this afternoon I met up with Myles and Simon, and we went along to the appropriately named Gun Store, where I picked a package of three weapons to fire. "Good choice," said the guy behind the counter, but I had the feeling he might have said that whatever weapons I had chosen - the prices were not cheap!
My three guns were an AK47 with 25 rounds, a 12-guage shotgun with 5 rounds, and an HK MP5 machinegun with 50 rounds - "The Gun Store Choice Package"!!
All were amazing to fire, but my favourite was the MP5. The instructor showed me the correct stance, which felt a bit weird at first, but meant that the gun did not rake upwards or to the right when firing longer bursts. He explained why, and it all made good sense.
Afterwards we went to Fremont Street, which is the older part of Las Vegas, but has had a bit of a revamp. We had a bite to eat, and played some cheap slots while being plied with copious quantities of free drinks. The overhead TV system, touted as the largest in the world, across the whole ceiling of the precinct was incredible, and has to be seen to be believed.
Wow, what a culture shock! At lunchtime yesterday I was in the Badlands in South Dakota, utterly alone, hardly a sound except for the slight noise of the wind, and within a couple of hours I was wandering up and down The Strip in downtown Las Vegas!
I arrived in Vegas on Thursday last week, and drove along The Strip in the RV as I came through the city - that was quite an experience - it's pretty busy! I was staying with Simon, an English guy now living in Las Vegas who had contacted me through the website and kindly offered me a spare room here.
I had had an early night on Thursday, and was up and off early on Friday, heading for the airport and my South Dakota weekend away, so had not really got to see downtown properly. So as I flew back in last night, I called Misty (more about her to follow in a later blog...), and she picked me up as she was heading for work in a restaurant in The Palazzo. I left my bags in her car, and went to wander around.
The place is quite extraordinary, pretty much as I expected it to be, but ...
...once again I was achieveing a goal on my own, and somewhere like Vegas really does need to be experienced with someone else, whether it's with a group of mates to go and play poker or roulette, or with someone to go to a restaurant and see a show with. I wandered around, and enjoyed the sights, went in several casinos, and had a bit of a play on the slot machines, but was sort of glad when Misty finished work at 2am, and I hitched a lift back to Simon's house.
I think perhaps I was pretty tired after a very long day, but after having seen some incredible natural (and carved) scenery over the last few days, the whole experience in Las Vegas had a bit of an air of unreality and falseness about it. I was interested to see both "Paris" and "New York New York" casinos, but having been to both cities recently and seen the real thing, I felt a bit of disappointment, or perhaps just slightly cheated. I don't know really, but ultimately I think I felt slightly underwhelmed by the whole experience. I am glad to have seen and experienced the place though, and definitely think it would be a completely different experience with a group of friends. Maybe one day...
I couldn't resist The Sopranos slot machine when I spotted it, and they bring you free beer while you are playing. Brilliant!
On Friday I made my way to Las Vegas airport as the day warmed again to reach well into the 70s (degrees Farenheit) by mid-morning. After a bit of a delay the plane took off, and I had a great view of Lake Mead and the Hoover Dam as we flew over. A couple of hours later as we approached South Dakota, I looked down and was amazed to see the landscape covered in snow.
It was dark by the time we landed, and on the ground the temperature was below freezing, and the wind was blowing hard, and I was still in just a t-shirt! Fortunately I had packed a couple of sweatshirts and a jacket in my small bag.
My plan was to pick up a rental car at the airport, but the prices were somewhat alarming, so a couple of minutes with the phone directory produced a company called Rent-a-Wreck. That's the car hire company I'm after! Ten minutes later Scott arrived at the airport in a nice little Kia, at the bargain price of $32 per day, and after a brief bit of paperwork, and a few directions I was off.
It had been snowing, and the roads were a bit treacherous, but I soon found a motel, and a nice diner next door for dinner, and settled in for the evening to plan the next few days, which were starting to look very full. There seems to be plenty to see and do near here.
On Saturday morning the first port of call was Mount Rushmore, to achieve the goal I came here for. Once again, it dawned fine and sunny, and I drove up into the scenic Black Hills of South Dakota. When I arrived at Mount Rushmore, I was told the weather had been horrendous the day before. I really am being blessed by perfect weather!
Mount Rushmore really is quite spectacular, the scale of the accomplishment is quite breathtaking, and very inspiring too. It really is incredible what people can achieve when they have a dream.
I first became aware of Mount Rushmore as a child when my dad introduced me to the Alfred Hitchcock 1959 classic, North By Northwest, starring Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint. Well worth watching - highly recommended.
Mount Rushmore was carved by sculptor Gutzon Borglum, and one of the things he wrote about his work was, "Hence let us palce there, carved high, as close to heaven as we can, the words of our leaders, their faces to show posterity what manner of men they were. Then breathe a prayer that these records will endure until the wind and rain alone shall wear them away."
The four presidents depicted are, in the order they appear on the sculpture, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln, but in order of presidency, the last two are actually the other way around. Their time as president, and the signisicance of the inclusion of each as part of the national monument are given below:
George Washington - 1789 to 1797 - the struggle for independence and the birth of the Republic Thomas Jefferson - 1801 to 1809 - the terretorial expansion of the country Abraham Lincoln - 1861 to 1865 - the permanent union of the states, and equality for all citizens Theodore Roosevelt - 1901 to 1909 - the 20th Century role of the United States in world affairs and the rights of the common man
After Mount Rushmore I drove on to see the incomplete sculpture of Crazy Horse, about 17 miles further along the same road. I had been recommended this quite some time ago, when I first launched the 100goals website, and wrote about it in a blog article here.
Crazy Horse is another breathtaking sculpture, the scale of which is absolutely staggering. Apparently all four president's heads of Mount Rushmore would fit in the area of Crazy Horse's head alone!
It was begun in 1949 by sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski, who died in 1982, and work continues today, all funded primarily by paying visitors. Ziolkowski believed that Crazy Horse should be a nonprofit educational and cultural humanitarian project built by the interested public and not the taxpayer. I certainly feel proud to have made my contribution, and would love to come and see the completed work one day.
I loved the HBO TV series "Deadwood", and it was only on the plane on the way up to Rapid City that I found out that Deadwood itself is pretty close by. So after seeing Crazy Horse I headed over there, and discovered that the town had had a big snowfall recently, and the streets were piled high with slowly melting snow.
I arrived just in time to see the most spectacular sunset over the city, viewed from Mount Moriah Cemetery, the infamous "Boot Hill" where "Wild Bill" Hickock and Calamity Jane are buried. It was very atmospheric up there as the darkness deepened, not another soul around, snow piled deep on the graves in a silent cemetery that was closed for the winter. I sat quietly for a couple of minutes with Bill and Jane before heading back into town to look for a motel. On the way down the hill I stopped when I saw a deer stood stock-still under a streetlight in the middle of a snowy sidestreet, and we just stared at each other for a minute. What a place!
I couldn't resisit going out to one of the casinos that evening, and playing a few hands of 5-card stud, but fortunately the evening did not end with the pushing back of chairs and the quick-drawing of pistols, just me wandering back to my room through the snowy streets a few dollars lighter. I think I will need to brush up my game before taking on my $1,000 poker game goal!
I first became aware of the Devil's Tower when I saw the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind, in which the main character Roy Neary, played by Richard Dreyfuss, becomes obsessed with the mountain after a mysterious encounter. It is a very striking peak, and I decided to take a drive into Wyoming to see it.
The first view of the tower in the distance does cause a gasp, and on driving closer, the amazement does not diminish. It is an incredible sight, towering above the forests below. I took a walk around the base, which takes about an hour, and in that time have decided that one day I want to climb the tower and stand on the summit.
In the visitor centre, I found some words which reflected my feelings about the place, and echoed words I quoted about the Grand Canyon too. N Scott Momaday wrote in 1969, "There are things in nature that engenger an awful quiet in the heart of man; Devil's Tower is one of them."
On the way back to Rapid City I made a detour back to Mount Rushmore to see the monument at night, lit up by powerful floodlights - quite spectacular. But it was very cold, and I didn't hang around too long, the appeal of a warm motel room was strong!
Monday morning - what's this - clouds? I wondered whether to head out on my planned journey for the day, but eventually decided to do so, hoping the weather might improve.
My first stop was at the historic Minuteman II Missile site about 70 miles east of Rapid City. The tour around the missile control site, and the missile silo which still houses one of the decommissioned missiles was fascinating, and very enthusiastically presented by knowledgable guide Chris. At one time during the height of the Cold War, ther were 1,000 of these missiles ready for immediate launch at a moments notice, and each missile warhead contained a nuclear explosive equivalent to 60% of all bombs detonated during WW2, including the two nuclear ones!! There are now Minuteman III missiles out there somewhere ready for use, with even bigger nuclear payloads aboard!
My final place to visit before returning the car and heading for the airport was the South Dakota Badlands. I had only heard the name before, and did not really know what to expect, but what a place! The name comes from the Lakota Indian name for the place, "mako sika", which literally means "land bad", refering to a difficult area to travel through because of the rough terrain. Have a look at the pictures to see what they meant.
All in all, I have had a fantastic weekend in South Dakota and Wyoming, and feel I have packed more than I had ever expected to into the couple of days I have had here. I just wish that I had come a little earlier in the year when it wasn't quite so cold! But maybe if I had done that, there would have been so many more visitors at these amazing places. At almost every place, a couple of minutes walk away from the visitor centre would mean you could be totally alone in an absolutely incredible place! I think I have been incredibly lucky to have such fantastic weather at this time of the year. A real stand-out weekend!
Well, what does someone do when he has sold his life on eBay?
(For more details, see www.ALife4Sale.com).
When I first started out on that journey back in March 2008, I did not know. But I knew that I wanted to do something adventurous, something exciting, something challenging.
Eventually a plan emerged, which became "100 goals in 100 weeks". My adventure started on 3rd August 2008, and ended on 4th July 2010.
(For more details, see www.100goals100weeks.com)
And now that the 100 weeks is over, what next?
Well, I am currently living in Canada, and have just finished the book about my journey. It is called "A LIFE SOLD"
(For more details, see www.IanUsher.com/ALifeSold.php)
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