“If you walk around expecting shit to happen, then it will.” – Dusty Hill

“Life takes you on weird trips and you just have to hold on, ride the wave and be as strong as you fucking can.” – Joey Jordison

I saw these two quotes and really thought they were worth posting. It’s how these guys lived their lives and I think there’s a lot to be said about being true to yourself.

Two big losses in the music world in the last two days; one a rock solid bass player – Dusty Hill from ZZ Top, the other Joey Jordison, the incredible monster of a drummer formerly of Slipknot. I honestly am not a big fan of either band but I do have great respect for badass musicians no matter their style. I did see ZZ Top back in the day on the Deguello tour and it was a good show. I have seen several videos of Jordison and wow. Truly amazing.

This weather sucks. Heat index right now is 102° and the forecast the next few days is up to 108. It sounds like it will be worse for my friend in St. Paul, MN – hang in there, S!

Glad I picked up some beers today as it was pretty tasty when we were out with the dogs. I got some Boulevard Unfiltered Wheat out of Kansas City and a 3 Blind Mice Brown Ale from Mother’s Brewing Co. out of Springfield, MO. I am admittedly and unashamedly a Guinness snob, but I do like a good unfiltered wheat beer on a hot day. A brown ale can be refreshing as well. They were both good beers and I may have to take some for the road.

Meghan took off today for her fire gig so I have a few weeks here helping out. We will be cleaning, vacuuming and getting things straightened out in my truck in between the sweating and beers. And the pointless showers.

I was thinking last night that I need to get a road atlas for the drive home and start looking at it. A GPS is fine but I am not sure which way I’ll be driving home and an atlas will help me get details I can’t get on a GPS routing on my phone.

My new truck has a Bose sound system and to make things even better it has Apple CarPlay. I can basically mirror my phone on the display so I get not only my music and phone but also Apple Maps. This will really be handy for finding places and easier to deal with than my phone. Pretty exciting!

I really only use a GPS/mapping app just to get someplace and not for planning of my route – it’s just too tedious. I find that, for me, a paper map is a much more useful tool looking at a route and to look at along the way for stops. Apple Maps is pretty usable with its guides at a destination.

I am considering several different options for the drive home. Smoke, fires and heat pretty much cover everything west of here so that means some options are limited going through certain areas. I do plan on seeing a few sights when I can while I am here and the trip home won’t be any different – I will stop anywhere I see something interesting just like always. I’m halfway across the country so I might as well make the most of it and see and do all I can.

Missouri has a lot of interesting places to see and things to do. There’s a lot of history and the Missouri State Parks are some of the best anywhere that I have ever been to. The campgrounds were always fantastic and well-maintained. I hope we can all get out on some trips soon and explore and just hang out by a fire doing s’mores and I’ll even splurge and eat a hot dog or two roasted on the fire.

That’s it for now.