Planking Across America: Like Son, Like Father, Like Father, Like Son

It's good to be back. Since I left you, a lot has happened, as things often happen when you are gone.

In something of an 11th hour decision, my father, Sam, decided to join me for arguable the final stretch of this little vision quest. Following a weekend at the GABF in Denver with Nick and Brian (more to come on that), I picked Pa up at the airport and we made our way north and west through the splendor of Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, and Washington.

And, as we're cut from the same cloth, we got some quality father-and-son planking done along the way. Griswolds united, we plank in Wyoming and lovely Coeur d'Alene, WA:

Planking Across America

Testing the waters for Pa

Looks like the plank doesn't fall far from the plank! Natural.

Local Native American creation myth holds that Raven planked a glacier, and Lake Coeur d'Alene was formed. Beautiful.

"Daddy, why is Grandpa planking those stairs so majestically?"

Caution: No lifeguard on duty, plank at your own risk.

An evening of whimsical planking turned tragic when a sculpted buck appeared out of nowhere.

And we're spent. Mein Gott, planks the likes of these have ne'er been wrought upon the land. The Father, the Son, and the "Holy Ghost, That's A Tremendous Plank"!!!

I'd like to dedicate this special experience to both of my parents, Sam and Patty Griswold. What can be said about parents? Not nearly enough. But I'll endeavor an attempt: I owe them everything. Limitless love and thanks, folks: this planks for you.

One or More Things I Did Today (Trip to Grandma's Edition)

And Let It Be Known, that on July 24th, in the year of 2 thousands and 11, I was up to this:

• There we go. See? This whole keeping up with the bloggin' thing ain't so hard.
• And on this Sunday, I awoke at 6am, bright eyed and bushy tailed*.
• And it had come: the visit to Grandma's.

Stock photo: Christmas 2008

• This drive to Cleburne, TX, home of Grandma (not to be confused with Cleveland, a common misunderstanding of my childhood), is unusual, for I opt to stay awake the entire 3 hour or so drive from Austin**.
• This, in my estimation, is one of the prime times of the year to be in that part of Texas. While the heat is on, everything is still quite lush.
• After a meal of Buffalo Creek, Mom, Kelly, and I make to investigate a curious object we notice on the mudflats from our perch on the hill.
• Is it animal, mineral, old rotted tire?
• Not a one.
• Turns out it's a tree stump.
• I plank the tree stump.
• Turns out it's got some pretty sharp vertical points for a tree stump***.
• "Well, Grandma, it's about time to go."
• A Texas-day trip, complete: 3 hours each way.
• Some things in life are not meant to be: Robertson's is close, so my turkey sandwich comes from Schlotzsky's****.
• Alright.
• We arrive back in town in time for a free show at Antone's with my pal Dani: Lost Mountain Bayou Rambling Old Time Boys Revival.
• And it is a good one.
• Picture of the day: Please see above...*****
  

As they say, "It was a Day".

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*And far more bushy-tailed than my activities the day prior should have allowed, though I maintain that the unusually early nights that daytime drinking often lend themselves to also provide the length of sleep to ameliorate the day's work and put you on fresh feet in time for Sunday brunch. History would not lie!
**I love sleeping in cars. Actually, it's not so much a love as it is an inability to stay awake while being anywhere in a moving car other than the wheel. So comfortable.
***An artist sacrifices all for his art.
****And with that, WIDWINW has stooped into the "what I ate for lunch yesterday" realm of blogdom. Huzzah! And they said it wouldn't be done.
*****... for a picture taken 3 years prior.

One or More Things I Did Today (Catching Up on Backlogged Days Edition, from Zion National Park)

And Let It Be Known, that on July 13th, in the year of 2 thousands and 11, I was up to this:

• So long, LA. We had a good run.
  
• My god, there's a Chik-Fil-A in this town.
  
• I cannot emphasize the significance of this enough.
• 8 piece meal.
  
• To balance this day out as a draw, Las Vegas would have to leave me naked in the streets, wallet full of moths, left kidney missing*.
  
• I arrive in Las Vegas. See previous post for my sentiments. Like a commemorative souvenir book of our country's ills of the past 50 years.
  
• Dinner at Port of Subs!
  
• Turns out that my second cousin and her family live in LV, though, so the town** has that going for it.
  
• Visit to the Gallucci household.
  
• After catching up, commence to watching portions of Lawrence of Arabia.
• Things we learned while watching LoA:
  
• Camels can run
• The location*** of Aqaba
• That the movie has more false endings than a long uphill hike. Worse than A.I.
• Retrieved by Maria around 11pm to head over to the Lockstadt household.
  
• Stay up until 5am sitting on kitchen countertops, playing with a wonderfully hyperactive dog with a penchant for crotch-shots, and sharing YouTube finds and internet leads.

Picture of the Day: Previously published, click here for details.

As they say, "It was a Day".

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*Hm... that actually doesn't sound all that outlandish.
**Re: world's largest strip mall.
***And existence of...

One or More Things I Did Today (Saturday edition*)

And Let It Be Known, that on July 2nd, in the year of 2 thousands and 11, I was up to this:

• I woke up at the Kamboj household in San Jose, enjoyed a fantastic bagel at the grace of Jitender (thanks, Jit), and made Brian drive us back to San Francisco in my car (I wanted to be able to fall asleep in the front seat if and when the mood struck me).
• Shelly was kind enough to drop me off at my cousin's place in Kensington.
• The Diegos and I visited a park that featured lots of rebar and tent cities**. Apparently the place used to be a dump, but they've since turned it into a park. Reminded me of this place a little bit.***
• Hung out with the Diegos for a great afternoon of sitting in the back yard, sipping on beer in the sun, rocking in a rocking chair. Thanks, guys.
  
• Invited to their dinner plans, I joined the family for a BBQ down the streets at a friends house.
  
• On the way back home, managed to lose the copy of "Big Sur" (see the 6/28 posting of "OOMTIDT" for more on this) Sarah had lent me, the one that had the wooden bookmark I really liked in it. Whoops. I'll be making a trip to Oakland the next Wednesday I'm in the area to collect those gems from the L&F.
• Important! Met up with a couple of friends (Okay, perhaps sister's friends is more accurate. But I like these guys, too! And yes, this is effectively a footnote in the body of the post. We're (re: the editors) pretty open-minded here at WIDWINW) at a place called "Smuggler's Cove". Not something I typically notice, much less share, but I wasn't the biggest fan of the joint. This isn't Yelp, so I'll leave it at that****
• But anyway, the friends I mentioned were Jessika and Colin. Cool, cool folks. Glad to have seen them. Thank you for the drinks, guys.
• And Jessica Worthington came to meet up with us, too! J-Wo! Now we were grooving. Now we had a crew. Beers at Toronado*****, and a good evening. Jessica, please to be sending me those pictures, 'cuz I need them to make more content for this blog******.

As they say, "It Was a Day".

And I hope yours was, as well.

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*Look, I think it makes the most sense to take the title, "One or More Things I Did Today" with a grain of salt. Most of the time, I imagine these posts will actually come after the day they're featuring has ended. Why? Well, if I don't wait until the day has ended, I might jump the gun, write about something just for the sake of writing, and then, bam, 11:45pm rolls around and Barack buzzes my cell piece to offer my the VP position. Unlikely? Impossible, really, but you get the point. Rust never sleeps.*******
** Tent subdivisions, really. These places were impressive.
***Kelly and I visited Christiana when we were in Copenhagen back in '05.
****Yep, back down here now. I'm telling you, free-form we are! But the reason I brought you down here was, assuming you're interested enough to read this, for this.
*****Which I would recommend. This might not be Yelp, but we do look to provide for our readers here at WIDWINW
******You might have heard: I'm still angling for a partnership with some Ad Network to sell inventory on my site. If you know of any huge corporation that want's to align itself with me, let me know! Too few ads on this blog as it is. Practically falling asleep over here...
*******A non-sequitor. I just like the phrase.

Sylvie Sings

Part of my Saturday with the Diegos.

Sylvie was gracious enough to teach me how to sing the song her class sung when they graduated. Before that, though, she treated me to an impromptu a cappella performance:

Sylvie Sings from john griswold on Vimeo.

Lyrics went something like this, only with less Jesus and more references to kindergarten*.

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*I would never, ever sink to putting a poll on WIDWINW, but consider this a thought starter to get your brain juices flowing: would you spell the class that typically proceeds first grade as "kindergarden" or "kindergarten". This question is void if you are a native German speaker. And if that's the case, welcome to this blog! Lord only know who you are, because, while I've met a few Germans in my day, I can't imagine a way in which they would discover this exercise in vapidity.