RoadTrip2006

"Back at the Barnyard" wins an Emmy!!!

2009-09-07T14:06:00.004-07:00

I know I haven't updated this site in quite some time, but I finally have some exciting news. Last weekend I went to the Daytime Emmys and our show won the Emmy for Outstanding Special Class Animated Program! Congratulations to everyone who works on the show!!!

In the pic below: the Directors (Todd Grimes, me, and TJ Sullivan) pose with the series creator Steve Oedekerk (holding the Emmy). I'll put up some more pics shortly...hopefully with Todd not looking so shocked! :)

The SoCal Wildfires!

2007-10-24T19:32:00.000-07:00

So you may have heard that there's been a few wildfires down here over the last few days. Fortunately San Clemente hasn't been in the danger zone. However each day has looked more unusual then the last. I took these pictures this morning at 10am. It felt completely surreal standing on the pier looking south. All that smoke was caused by the relatively small fires at Camp Pendleton.

San Clemente...it's not Manhattan Beach, but close enough!

2007-09-22T09:43:00.000-07:00

Ok...ok...ok...I know I haven't posted in quite some time now. You might think I got lost on my trip up in Canada or something. Actually the Great RoadTrip2006 officially ended last Thanksgiving when I arrived back in Sunnyvale, CA for the holidays. I only regret that I never made it to Alaska, but winter was setting in and my car had 150,0000 miles on it...sounded like a recipe for disaster!

After the holidays, I moved to San Clemente, CA(about halfway between LA and San Diego) where I took a job supervising animation at O Entertainment for the "Back To The Barnyard" TV series. Everything's going well down here and I can't tell you how great it feels to be back in California. I guess I could sum up how much I like the area by showing you a few pics of my new backyard!

Vancouver and a rare Ted Loo siting!

2006-11-29T18:55:00.000-08:00

Day 139: Vancouver, BC. This city turned out to be a pretty impressive place! I guess it reminds me a little bit of San Francisco...lots of natural beauty and plenty to do. I stayed the weekend at Mark Thielen's place, who unfortunately had to leave town before I arrived. This is the spectacular view out his window:

Through an amazing coincidence, Ted Loo just happened to email me about a month before I headed up to Canada. Ted animated with me on the Jimmy Neutron movie, but we lost contact over the years since. Now he's running his own personal training fitness company in Vancouver. You can check out his site at tedloofitness.com. Needless to say, the Jack and Crowns were flowing pretty heavy that weekend! :) Here's a pic with Ted and his girlfriend Rana. These two are super cool and was fun to hang out with them. Now we just gotta get Moses to take a trip up there!

On my final afternoon in town Thielen got back into town. Even though he just had an exhausting flight from Chicago, he still had the energy to show me a little bit of the city. He showed me around Rainmaker, the studio he now works at. I totally dug the studio...especially their break room which has been built as a full-functioning irish pub:

Here's a pretty shoddy panoramic shot a pasted together from pics taken on the roof of Rainmaker. If you click on the image it will give you a bigger image that you can actually see:

That really rainy city!

2006-11-27T20:31:00.000-08:00

Day 137: Seattle, WA. Just three hours north of Portland is the city of Seattle. I was surprised to see how large the city was...I really didn't know much about it except for the Space Needle before going. I didn't get to see too much of the city since I was only there two days and it was cold and rainy most of the time. However I did get to see Matthew Russell's daughter sing at her school's celebration for Veteran's Day. You guys sounded awesome Grace!

After having lunch with Matthew and Burke down the street from where they work, I heard later on the news that a huge construction crane fell down a few streets over, killing someone in their apartment. You can check out that destruction at Andrew Burke's website.

So here's an obligatory photo of the Space Needle:

And one of the Science Fiction Museum/Experience Music Project next to the Space Needle...or as Menz described, "the ugliest building in the world":

The Pacific Northwest!

2006-11-27T20:06:00.000-08:00

Day 132: Portland, OR. After hanging out in the Bay Area for abouta month, I decided to go on the final leg of my road trip...up to the Pacific Northwest.

On the way to Portland I was able to get a couple of decent shots of Mt. Shasta before the clouds completely obscured the mountain.

Then in the town of Cottage Grove I went on a 25 mile loop that went thru or next to 5 or 6 really cool looking old covered bridges.

Portland is a very beautiful city...lots of hills, trees...and oh yeah...it rained almost the entire time I was there! Besides all of the natural scenery I was most impressed by Powell's Book Store. Billed as the largest book store in America, this place truely is amazing. I couldn't really take a good picture to show the size of the store since it's made up of several connecting rooms. So here's a picture with Brian F Menz to show scale:

The Glorious Bay Area!!!

2006-11-27T19:34:00.000-08:00

Day 111: San Francisco, CA. Wow...I've really be slacking lately on updating this site! I guess it's time to catch up where I've been lately.

In late October Wendy flew out from Dallas for her first visit to California. We went to Santa Cruz, Monterey, San Francisco, and Napa in the short time she was here.

On one of the nights a few of us crashed a dinner that Alex Fleisig was having with his mom and grandma. I don't think he noticed though...it looks like he's staring at the glow of a TV or something. And no that's not an android in the back with glowing red eyes...that's just Patrik Puhala's normal look on the weekends!

The California Coast

2006-10-15T16:18:00.000-07:00

Day 100: Highway 1, CA. I guess these beautiful shots don't really need an explanation!

The Santa Ynez Valley

2006-10-15T16:06:00.000-07:00

Day 100: Solvang, CA. Located in central California's scenic Santa Barbara County, is this Danish town which is surrounded by grape fields and horse ranches. My pictures below really don't do the town justice, it was very picturesque...felt like I was strowling around a European town.

Just 3 miles to the north is the town of Buelton. You might recognize the wine-tasting restaurant below from a certain movie about a guy who loved his Pinot Noir. And I believe the Ostrich Farm had a role in that movie too...although I just can't remember when?

Pink Flyod lives!!!!

2006-10-12T16:48:00.000-07:00

Day 99: Hollywood, CA. By shear luck, my friend Dave was able to get me a ticket to the Roger Waters concert at the Hollywood Bowl. The first half of the show was classic Floyd songs and a few solo songs. After a 15 minute intermission, the entire "Dark Side of the Moon" album was played from start to finish with amazing detail to the original. An encore with a few songs from "The Wall" came next and "Comfortably Numb"(my favorite Floyd song) closed the concert.

It's difficult to put into words just how amazing this concert was! In fact I haven't seen a show this intense since Pink Floyd's 1993 Division Bell Tour(and that was with David Gilmour on vocals). I tried to take some pictures, but you can see they are pretty blurry...it was too dark to take decent shots. If you're a fan of Pink Floyd the flying pig needs no explanation(although it this time it was covered with a bunch of political messages).

During "Eclipse", the last song on the album, a giant triangle floated above the Bowl and then emitted lights that recreated the legendary album cover of "Dark Side of the Moon". It was totally unexpected and brilliantly played out. Unfortuanately you can only see the triangle in the photo.

America's greatest town!!!

2006-10-10T19:44:00.000-07:00

Day 94: Manhattan Beach, CA. I lived in this town for only 6 years before moving out to Dallas, but I will forever refer to it as "home"! As expected, the weather was perfect and the colors in the town dazzled my eyes! Also as usual...Tom Daniels enjoyed the week!!!

Southern California Desert

2006-10-06T15:23:00.000-07:00

Day 90: Anza Borrego Desert. Shortly after crossing the border into California, highway 10 passed through the Imperial Sand Dunes Recreational Park. There was nothing but pure white sand dunes in all directions. It's hard to tell in the photos, but the dunes must have been at least 200 feet high. I could see people walking up to the top and others skiing or "snowmobiling" down them. I totally regret not walking up to the top...the view was most certainly desertacular!

I decided to make the trip through the desert more interesting by getting off the main highway to drive a road named S2. Appartantly no one else decided that road was worth driving. The next three photos were taken at the Carrizo Badlands Overlook. The drive on S2 was long(and winding sometimes). I didn't see any desert animals...only 50 gallon drums of water every few miles!

Hueco Tanks Historic State Site

2006-10-04T17:35:00.000-07:00

Day 89: El Paso, TX. Just west of El Paso is a pretty amazing state park. Because it has been given a historic status, they only let 70 people into the park at one time. The day I visited there was only one other person beside myself. The park is named so because of bowl-shaped caverns that have been carved by erosion in the rocks. Some of these "huecos" are still filled with water, even during the hot desert summers.

Besides huecos, this park is also famous for indian pictographs. I was given a descriptive map that showed and explained reference points for climbing the mountain(there were no marked signs or trails to follow). The ranger made it sound pretty simple and straight-forward, but it was difficult orientating myself on the rocks. Two key points of reference were the rock formations resembling a duck and a crocodile. They look very obvious in these photos, but finding them was not easy...especially the crocodile which was a pretty good hike away.

Eventually I did find the cavern, but it was a very tight squeeze to get in. I had to get on my belly and crawl through a crack that was less than two feet tall. I remembered hearing the ranger say that I would have to "spider" my way through it! :( About 15 feet in, the cavern opened up to about 4 to 5 feet high. Inside was 8 face-mask drawings. One of them kind of reminds me of Carl Weezer.

After checking out those indian drawings, I decided to go check out some more that were closer and would be easy to find. As you can see all of the "easy-to-find" drawings have been vandaled over the years. It was actually difficult to see the drawings with all the grafitti directly on top of them. I was surprised to see that some people had signed their names...in the late 1880's!

A lonely desert road!

2006-10-04T17:23:00.000-07:00

Day 89: near El Paso, TX. I drove Ranch Road 1111 for at least an hour and a half(probably around 80 miles long) and didn't pass a single other person. The cacti that grew in this area at times resembled animals grazing in fields. I was thrilled when I got to see a fox(or similar animal) cross the road. You can just see his head popping out of the grass in the last photo.

Big Bend National Park

2006-10-04T16:35:00.000-07:00

Day 88: Big Bend, TX. This enormous national park can be found in southwest Texas bordering Mexico on the Rio Grande. Not only did I find the natural formations spectacular, but I only saw a couple of other cars there in the 2 to 3 hours I spent exploring.

At one point I came across a family of javelinas(furry pig-like animals) crossing the road. I had to come to a complete stop so that all of them(around 8) could finish their crossing. When the last one was almost off the road, he stopped and looked back at me and shot me a dirty look.

The next two photos were taken at the border between Mexico. The Rio Grande River has carved these rocks over thousands of years. The foreground (with all the shrubs) is actually the river. You can’t see any water because the summers are very dry. I found the site of this wall of rocks to be very eerie. Not only is it coincidental that a huge wall just happens to be the border of our country, but the size was staggering (probably 300 to 500 feet high).

An Old Mill

2006-09-14T09:13:00.000-07:00

Day 72: Little Rock, AR. The Old Mill (or Pugh’s Mill) was built in 1933 as a recreation of an 1880’s water-powered grist mill. This mill was seen in the opening scenes of “Gone With The Wind”. I thought this was a really relaxing area to visit(even though homes were built right across the street)…I felt like I was in Disneyland! :)

The Parthenon...in Tennesse?

2006-09-14T09:10:00.000-07:00

Day 71: Nashville, TN. I was surprised to find that a full-scale replica of Greece’s Parthenon was built in Nashville for Tennesse’s 1897 Centennial Exposition. Apparently there’s even a recreation of the 42 foot statute of Athena inside, but it was closed for the season.

An alien world underground!

2006-08-31T17:19:00.000-07:00

Day 58: Camdenton, MO. I had to go check out Bridal Cave in Missouri because I heard it was spectacular...and it was! I couldn't help feeling I was standing on an alien planet...or at least a set the H.R. Gieger designed. It was an eerie feeling that the entire cave was alive and growing even though not a single bug or animal was to be found(except for an occasional sleeping bat). I was also relieved to get back into the sunlight!

Chillin' out in Ilinois!

2006-08-17T14:01:00.000-07:00

Day 40: Rochelle, IL. I'm going to hang out at my friends house in the this small town (pop. 10000) west of Chicago for a couple weeks before heading west. I haven't really taken any pictures yet...and you already know what cornfields look like!

The Henry Ford

2006-08-17T13:51:00.000-07:00

Day 39: Dearborn, MI. I was really interested in visiting a car museum in the city appropriately dubbed Motor City USA. What I didn’t know was that The Henry Ford Museum would quickly become the most amazing museum I had ever visited! Instead of just an auto museum, it is a museum of all American industrialization(including current events and pop culture) from the 1700s to today.

There were plenty of cars to be seen, but there were pleny of other machines that you would find nowhere in the country. Some were small. Like this hand-feed machine that creates the grove on the end of a screw:

Some were larger(and look like they could have been in Mad Max) like this Avery Traction Engine from 1916:

And then some were enormous installations like these steam engines and this generator that powered a small city:

Here’s a prefabricated house, called the Dymaxion House, from the 1940s. Only 2 were ever built and fairly recently The Henry Ford was able to acquire both:

A really dug some of the neon signs they had here and there:

But I was most fascinated by the exhibit of popculture that started in the year 1900. I must say though that it made me feel a little old to see some of the stuff I played with in the late 1970s…like this Pong video game. And I’m pretty sure I even owned this Star Wars lunch box! J

After the museum I toured Ford’s Rouge Factory that produces the F-150 trucks. This is Ford’s newest assembly line factory. Unfortunately they wouldn’t allow me to take pictures inside. But I can assure you it was pretty cool…and a lot quieter and cleaner than you’d expect from an auto plant!

I'm back in the America baby!!!

2006-08-14T20:39:00.000-07:00

Day 38: Detroit, MI. After crossing the Ambassador Bridge, waiting in line, and then answering a few questions to the impatient customs official, I entered back into the good ol' US of A in Detroit. This city feels extremely old...some of the roads were still brick and abandoned buildings were the norm downtown. It was a surreal contrast to the futuristic-looking GM building(I grabbed that picture off the internet because I couldn't find a good place to stop and take the picture).

A Detroit Tigers game was that evening at Comerica Field and what seemed like the entire town was heading to the ballpark on foot. Because of the game, it was difficult to drive around the city and there wasn't any parking anywhere. Instead I headed to Dearborn to spend the night.

Across from Comerica Field was this pretty cool looking Fox Theater.

Interesting Canadian road signs

2006-08-14T20:35:00.000-07:00

Day 38: All over Canada. I thought it was very considerate of the Canadian police (mounties?) to put out menus of the consequences of speeding. I made sure I was traveling less than 119 kph (or over 141 kph) at all times to avoid any fines!

The other London!

2006-08-14T20:23:00.000-07:00

Day 38: London, Ontario. This town is famous for two things...the LaBlatt Brewery and Pixar's very own Scott Lemmer. Hope your having a great time in California Scott!

I finally get to visit a maple syrup farm!

2006-08-14T20:11:00.000-07:00

Day 38: Beachville, Ontario. I never did get a chance to visit a maple syrup farm while I was in Maine and Vermont, so when I saw Jakeman's Maple Syrup I had to stop. Apparently Jakeman's has been voted the best tasting maple syrup in Canada. I didn't get to see them harvest the syrup from the trees because it wasn't the right time of the year...but they were packaging the bottles in the back room.

After checking out there store I drove around the dirt roads of the local farms. Coincidentally I was listening to the "Signs" soundtrack at the time and decided I should hightail it out of there before I ran into any visitors in the cornfields!

Toronto...guess I'll visit you another day!

2006-08-13T14:36:00.000-07:00

Day 37: Toronto, Ontario. After a long drive from Montreal(and a few stops in between) I arrived in Toronto around 9:00pm. I had no idea how large this city would be...it felt like I was in New York City. I drove around downtown for about a half hour but felt a bit overwhelmed by the size of the city and the fact that everyone was out walking around. It seemed like a really happening place, but I was tired and drove half an hour outside the city to get a hotel room. After a night's rest I decided I'd drive back into the city and do a little exploring. But the traffic heading downtown was pratically at a standstill(even though it was about 10:15am). I figured I would visit another time(perhaps with someone who knew there way around the town) and headed south toward the US.

Murney Tower Museum

2006-08-13T14:29:00.000-07:00

Day 37: Kingston, Ontario. Of course I had to go and check out this museum because it was so unusual looking. I think it was built at some point to defend Canada from the Americans(but I could be wrong). After climbing a spiral staircase in this fortress I could see the huge cannon that was on a track so it could fire in all directions. The tower was actually 3 stories tall...and it felt more like a dungeon on the bottom floor(where the tower occupants would have ate and slept).

Montreal, Quebec

2006-08-13T14:18:00.000-07:00

Day 37: Montreal, Quebec. Montreal was a pretty interesting city. It's completely a french-speaking town...in fact I'm pretty sure they frown at the few English speakers there. Vieux-Montreal(Old Montreal)was a pretty cool area to walk around. The buildings's were old and the streets were narrow. The downtown area was a bit more modern. Here's a view out my downtown hotel room.
And here's a couple of shots of the Basilique Notre-Damn in Vieux-Montreal...I loved the way the interior glowed with both gold and blue!

Extremely low tide in Nova Scotia!

2006-08-13T14:11:00.000-07:00

Day 35: Advocate Harbor, Nova Scotia. I think I read in my tour book that difference between high and low tide in this area was 15 feet. And as you can see from these pictures that's just about what it looks like. This site was very eerie to me...especially since no one else was around the area. It also reminded me of that scene in "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" when that ocean liner appears in the middle of the dessert.

Cape d'or

2006-08-09T00:30:00.000-07:00

Day 35: Cape d'or, Nova Scotia. I can't remember what got me to want to drive down this dirt road...there must have been a sign saying an incredible view awaited. About half way down this 4.5 km drive I was tempted to turn around. The road was incredibly bumpy, curvy, and steep at times. But the view at the end was spectacular! After parking the car I had to walk down a smaller dirt path to the rocky outcrops below.

Wild black bear spotted in Nova Scotia!

2006-08-09T00:07:00.000-07:00

Day 35: near Southampton, Nova Scotia. Ever since I got into Maine I kept seeing signs to look out for Moose walking onto the roads. I never did see one, but I was stunned to see a black bear standing in the middle of the road in an area of Nova Scotia where I hadn't seen another car pass by for a while. I couldn't believe what I was seeing and hesitated before grabbing for my camera. I guess I could have stopped the car too, but by the time my camera was out, the bear had walked back into the trees. The artist rendition below shows precisely what it looked like out my car window.
I was disappointed I didn't get an actual picture of the bear, but that faded as I explored more of Nova Scotia's natural beauty!

First glimse of Canada

2006-08-08T23:19:00.000-07:00

Day 34: New Brunswick, Canada. After crossing the border into Canada from Calais, ME(after customs did a random full vehicle search of my car) I snapped these photos looking out the deck of a visitors center.

Easternmost Point in the USA!

2006-08-08T19:58:00.000-07:00

Day 34: Lubec, ME. One last lighthouse...this time at the furthest point east in the US.

Still on the coast of Maine!

2006-08-06T19:50:00.000-07:00

Day 34: Bar Harbor, ME. Situated on Mount Desert Island is one of the most beautiful and friendly ocean towns I've ever been to. I don't know how they managed to keep out every single chain store and restaurant. Even though it was raining while I was there and the sky was cloudy, that didn't keep the locals(and tourists) indoors. In a lot of ways it reminded me of good ol' Manhattan Beach, CA! :)

The Coast of Maine

2006-08-06T19:21:00.000-07:00

Day 33: Maine. As you might expect, Maine is every bit as beautiful as you might expect it to be. I drove nearly the entire scenic coast highway Route 1, after getting my feet a little wet in the refreshing water of York Beach.

Maine is well known for it's lighthouses, so after admiring the view of the sailboats in Rockland (and wondering how the owners get out to them), I ran at top speed up to Owls Head Lighthouse because it was suppose to close at sunset. I expected the lighthouse to be taller, but the view of the Atlantic at sunset was worth the run.

Afterwards I ate my first lobster in several years at Captain Wiggins Seafood in Rockland...it was very tasty! Hi to the nice folks at Captain Wiggins...hope your weekend was relaxing!

First covered bridge of the trip!

2006-08-06T19:02:00.000-07:00

Day 32: Quechee, VT: I was reading in the tour book that there was a giant gorge(described as the East Coasts version of the Grand Canyon) and a covered bridge that lead into the town. Well the gorge was beautiful(but didn't photograph well) and the bridge was cool. But I was delightfully surprised to find a picturesque waterfall below the bridge. The view from the restaurant on the opposite side must be amazing!

Later the night I stayed in an Inn in Concord, NH that looked like a castle!

The Place Where Everybody Knows Your Name!

2006-08-05T05:50:00.000-07:00

Day 31: Boston, MA. I don't need to explain the first two pictures! However I did spot a couple of superheros at Siggraph without their crime-fighting customs!

Almost of Pirate cove!

2006-08-03T07:13:00.000-07:00

Day 29 Mystic Seaport, CT. You had to pay money to get into this old town of Mystic Seaport, but it was totally worth it! I could have easily spent an entire day walking around this town, and it's not that large. What really made it interesting was how it showed how everyday life really was back in the 1850s. The 3rd picture is from a rope-making building. And the final picture is from the print shop.

Earth and Manhattan!

2006-07-31T15:42:00.000-07:00

Day 28: somewhere in Manhattan, NY. After the PS1 party we freshened up at Jerod's brothers sweet apartment overlooking the Hudson River on one side and Time's Square on the other.

Then we grabbed some dinner at a restaurant called Earth in Chelsea...

...before hanging out at McSorley's, which is the oldest bar in Manhattan (opened in 1854)! McSorley's only serves two kinds of beers(light or dark) and you can't get just one mug...they give you two! Saville showed us why they should serve 3 beers each round instead of 2! :)

White Plains night life!

2006-07-31T15:09:00.000-07:00

Day 27: White Plains, NY. After some ferocious guitar playing by all, the band members strike a pose at Tom Saville's studio before embarking on the night scene in White Plains (because we missed our train to Manhattan)!

A few hours later at the James Joyce bar and we're feeling pretty good...although Jerod appears to be doing his impression of the Mona Lisa.

PS1 party!!!

2006-07-31T14:55:00.000-07:00

Day 28: Queens, NY. So somehow someone heard about this party called PS1 at the Museum of Modern Art in Queens. It turned out to be a pretty wild party...it reminded us of that crazy party scene in Matrix 2! And apparantly it happens every Saturday during the summer. We checked out some of the modern "art" in the galleries...uhhhh...yeah...that was interesting. Well at least the galleries were air conditioned because it was a very hot and humid day!

The Big Apple!

2006-07-31T14:07:00.000-07:00

Day 22: White Plains, NY. I guess I've gotten a little behind on my trip updates. I've been in New York for a week now and it's been a blast! Manhattan is an amazing place...there's so much to see and do...and I tried to do it all in a week(I don't think my feet will ever recover)! But before I ever even got to Manhattan, I got to check out how cool White Plains is (where I stayed with friends from Blue Sky Studios). White Plains is a city itself that is about 25 minutes from train to Grand Central Station. Most people in the city live in semi-high-rise buildings built in the 20s and 30s like the one below:

Downtown White Plains is growing as we speak. The tower on the left is a recently built Trump Tower. And in the background you can see one of the 40 story Residences of Ritz-Carlton towers under construction.

Jerod, me, and Kathy toast up a couple of margarita's at dinner to start the evening off right! These two let me crash at their apartments while I was in town...thanks guys!!!

Cool new rock group!

2006-07-29T08:52:00.000-07:00

We saw these guys perform last night...they rocked! :)

AntBully is finally in theaters!!!

2006-07-29T08:06:00.000-07:00

You can also check out my AntBully DemoReel in the Animation section of this site. It's about 50MB right now so you might want to right-click on it and save it to your local drive.

I get to climb up a lighthouse!

2006-07-29T07:52:00.000-07:00

Day 21: Havre de Grace, MD. Between Baltimore and New York is this beautiful little town where it seems most of the businesses (including a bank) have been turned into antique stores. I also got to climb up into what they said was the oldest working lighthouse in America. It was a narrow fit to get through the door at the top after climbing the spiral staircase.

Our countries capital!

2006-07-25T07:12:00.000-07:00

Day 20: Washington, DC. I must say that I was pretty overwhelmed at the size of this city and how great the museums were. Even though I was only there for one day, I got to see quite a bit of city(and my feet are paying for it now)! You've all seen the famous buildings and monuments many times before, so I won't bore you with that. Instead here's a picture of a metal garden at the US Botonical Gardens. Here you can smell the aroma of plants from around the world!

My favorite building I visited was the Library of Congress. Here's a pictures of one of the rooms. Unfortunately I couldn't take a picture of the Main Reading Room which was by far the most amazing room I've ever seen in my life(I couldn't even find a post card of it in the gift shop).

These next two pictures are of the World War II Memorial (adjacent to the Reflecting Pool). This is a recent addition to the Mall and some of you may never have seen it (or know it exists).

The town that time forgot!

2006-07-24T22:48:00.000-07:00

Day 19: Colonial Williamsburg, VA. When I first heard that a colonial town existed in Virigina I figured it was probably a quaint old town like many I've seen throughout my drive. What I found was a town that was at least a mile wide with hundreds of restored or rebuilt buildings. It's sort of like an amusement park of history without any rides(except for the horse and carriage). Everyone working in the town was dressed in clothing of the 18th century....even some of the tourists were dressed that way too!

Way cool Neptune statue

2006-07-24T22:12:00.000-07:00

Day 18: Virginia Beach, VA. I forgot to read the plaque attached to this statue, but it looked amazing on the beach...lots of cool details. Virginia Beach looks like a really fun place to hang out and party. Unfortunately I ended up staying the night in Norfolk at the worst motel of this trip so far! :(

Kickin' it at the beach!

2006-07-14T06:52:00.000-07:00

Days 10-15: I'm at the beach...nothing new to report this week! :)

Old school TacoBell siting!

2006-07-14T06:43:00.000-07:00

I saw this old-style TacoBell somewhere near Savannah...I forgot how cool that old logo was(or maybe it just reminds me of when I was a kid)!

The most beautiful town in America!!!

2006-07-14T05:32:00.000-07:00

Day 9: Savannah, GA. One of these days I need to stay in this town longer than half a day...the homes and trees here are amazing! But I think it's about time that the Savannah College of Art and Design stops expanding(although I appreciate them renovating all the historical buildings).

This first picture is of me in Chippewa Square. Can you guess which well known movie was filmed here? I'll give you a hint...the park bench is no longer there.

These next two pictures were taken at the Bonaventure Cemetery. This is the most amazing looking cemetery I've ever seen(it's also where they filmed "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil").

Coolest antique store in Georgia(maybe America too)!

2006-07-13T16:18:00.000-07:00

Day 8: I saw this amazing looking antique store in what I think was the town of Dupont, GA...unfortunately it was closed (apparently all stores in Georgia are closed on Sundays)! Is that an Edsel just laying out in the front yard rusting?

Cool bike rack in Alabama...seriously!

2006-07-13T16:14:00.000-07:00

Day 6: I saw this in downtown Mobile, AL...pretty cool...both functional and a cool sculpture.

Hurricane Katrina Descruction

2006-07-08T10:16:00.000-07:00

Day 5: The first thing I noticed when I drove into New Orleans was the damage to a couple of high-rise hotels...mostly windows blown out. There was much construction and rebuilding around the downtown area. Poydras Street is starting to shape up and the French Quarter area looks the same as it always had. However a block or two outside downtown was another story. Most homes had piles of garbage stacked in front of them. And nearly all businesses were closed down and boarded up on Broad St(hwy 90).

Although the destruction was widespread in New Orleans, I was shocked to see the complete devastation in the towns of Bay St. Louis, Pass Christian, and Gulfport, MS. It would be without exaggeration to say that all structures near the coast were completely destroyed. Nearly all the buildings have since been completly torn down and trucked away. It was earily quite on hwy 90.

And the big casinos took a pretty good hit on the gulf in Biloxi, MS. I wouldn't mind if they didn't get rebuilt however...I always felt they were an eyesore on the beautiful beaches of Mississippi.

Fourth of July...San Antonio, TX style!!!

2006-07-04T14:32:00.000-07:00

Day 3: Not only did the neighbor of Hollywood Park put together a pretty impressive Fourth of July parade, but the parade route was right down my brothers street. It felt like one of those parades you see in movies taking place in the midwest during the 1950s. Superman may not be waving the American flag this year...but everyone in this town was!

ILM is selling physical production unit

2006-06-14T16:25:00.000-07:00

Wow...this is truely some sad news...and a sign of the times! I remember as a kid reading the book "The Star Wars Album", which showed how ILM's miniature models were used to create the amazing effects in that movie. I can credit this book with inspiring me to pursue a career in movie making! Click here for the article.

New AntBully trailer is online!

2006-06-09T11:45:00.000-07:00

Finally you can see what this movie is all about. Click here and play Trailer#2.

AntBully release date moved up!

2006-06-07T20:26:00.000-07:00

The theatrical release date for The AntBully has been moved from Aug. 4th to July 28th. That's good news for us...now it feels more like a Summer release. Also, the new trailer is suppose to be playing in front of Cars(in theaters this Friday)! I can't wait to see both of these.

Moving Day in Flower Mound

2006-06-05T15:35:00.000-07:00

Well I spent a good week packing my house and then got some movers to shove everything into a single POD. As you can see below, there wasn't a single inch of space left.

After the POD was filled, I watched as one woman with a crazy lifting device lifted the POD onto a flatbed truck.

Now everything I own(except for some clothes and my laptop) are "safely" stored in a warehouse somewhere in Denton. I will miss my home for the last three years...especially the relaxing view!