I am home, finally.

The big trip is officially over. Back to reality. That's okay with me though...

Ever heard the expression, "I need a vacation from my vacation?" Yeah, that's kinda where I am at now. With so much jet lag (or driving-lag), I am ready to take it easy this weekend. In the past two weeks I've traveled nearly 8,000 miles. Definitely a personal record. Also, a record is the amount of time zones I've been through. During the trip, it was a new time zone each day, which was a lot more gradual than say flying to the east coast. Once I was in Steubenville, I nearly adjusted to the Eastern time zone, until I flew back to Portland, that is.

Things just got wacky from there. Waking up in the middle of the night, falling asleep in the middle of the day. Let me tell you, I'm wiped.

I will take a small hiatus from this blog and give you all a break while I'm resting. I look forward to telling you more about my 'routine' happenings next week.

It feels good to be home.

-LB

A Day At The Coast

Just what my soul needed: some good old fashioned fun at the Oregon Coast. After all, it's my favorite place, and since I've recently spent time across the country which I didn't like nearly as well, this was perfect!

I got up this morning to bright sunshine in Portland, but that soon changed to cloudy skies - which was still better than rain. I went and picked up Thane and Dylan and we drove to Seaside, then Rockaway, on to Garabaldi, and finally hitting it up in Oceanside and Cape Meares. Took a ton of pics.

It was a nice full day of fun! As you can see I am growing a beard, I normally don't have facial hair! I will most likely shave for the first time in two weeks when I return to Joseph. I will be back officially on Friday evening.

-LB

I'M BACK!!!

As you can see, I've come a long way from Michigan, to Indiana, to Ohio, and finally to Pennsylvania, but I have survived this trip.

It feels like it's been a long journey, but that's right, I am BACK! I feel so wonderful to be back in Oregon! I got off the plane just last night and was literally dancing on the ground at the airport!

Coming back wasn't the easiest, though. I enjoyed one last day with Christian in Pittsburgh, where we ate some good food and cruised the mall there before he dropped me off at the airport.

Going through airport security was no fun with all my electronic gadgets! I used like four of the bins they give you to put your stuff in. After I emptied my laptop case with all my cords and adapters into the bin, they told me I "really didn't have to do that." But for some reason, these are the people who want to see your shoes. I thought better safe than sorry. Then, I went through the metal detector and set it off, and that made the guy freak out. So I walked through a second 'slower' time, and it did not go off. Then the dude wrote some code on the back of my boarding pass for the other security to see. I have a feeling I was "flagged" for something! Nevertheless, I finally made it through, and prepared for takeoff.

I boarded the plane for Chicago (where I had my layover), and the plane literally took off, got up in the air, and landed again. It was the shortest flight I've ever been on. But I wasn't done, no sirreeee, not done at all. I arrive in Chicago and see the gate for the Portland plane is stuffed to the gils, and I know it's going to be a full flight. Since I flew Southwest Airlines this time around, it's open seating, so as you can imagine everyone is in line so they get a first choice on what seat they get. I managed to find a seat, but the plane was full to the brim. Every single seat was filled on that flight (which I now refer to as the flight from hell). I will tell you why -

1) There were six babies aboard, and all of them cried at the same time, or one at a time during the entire flight!
2) Oh, ya, the babies, had to go poo several times. Everyone smelled it as it traveled through the airplanes' ventallation system.
3) I sat to the most annoying person ever - it was this flaky chick who wanted a boob job. She also was absessed with her eyebrows and various other features she was considering having enhanced. I wanted to poke my ear drums out so I didn't have to listen to her naisally voice any longer!
4) The pilots both left the cockpit at a time and started looking concerned at the flight attendants. My thought at this time was: "WHO IS FLYING THE F____ING PLANE?"
5) Granted my ticket was VERY reasonable, they did not have any sort of entertainment on the flight. No movie, no tv, no nothing... just me listening to the flake!
6) The flight was long, and for some reason the air started getting hotter and hotter, I almost broke a sweat sitting to my seat!
7) Someone's kid wouldn't stop coughing next to me, so I wouldn't be surprised if I caught something!

I entered my motel room last night, and collapsed on the bed. The numerous time changes and nearly 7,000 roundtrip miles I traveled, finally took their toll on me.

However, I woke up and realized... I WAS HOME (well almost), but still HOME!

I woke up in Portland to a beautiful clear sky. I know this picture doesn't do justice, but as you can imagine it was bliss for my head!

It might be party cloudy here, but it looks clear to me! HAHA

Well, as my brain comes back together I will post more later. Thanks to all of you for putting up with me through this adventure.

-LB

WHERE IN THE WORLD IS LEVI? Day 7 - Final Post From Ohio

Okay, so I am very sorry that I did not get any pictures today. It was an awful dreary, wet, cold day here in Steubenville, Ohio - where I still reside, but will be leaving very soon. In fact, this is my final post from back east. As you can probably tell, I am ready to head back to Oregon. I miss the lush evergreen forests and milder climate. I will be kissing the ground when my plane lands in Portland on Tuesday evening.

I have a new appreciation for our corner of the world. We live in a very special place that cannot even compare to the rest of the country.

Though, I will say I've had a good time, and got to spend some good quality time with my best friend, Christian Ambroson. I will miss him a great deal, especially since he will be here in Steubenville most of the summer. Today he even began to realize that Steubenville is more home to him than Oregon is now. It probably won't be permanent, but it's an indication where he is most of the time. For me, it's back where I belong, in the great Pacific Northwest. I finally get to close the final chapter of this road trip. I learned a lot, and enjoyed it a great deal.

I sign off in Ohio, and will see you soon in Portland; for now, so long...

-LB

WHERE IN THE WORLD IS LEVI? Day 6 - WE MADE IT!!!

Can you believe it? We made it, all the way to Steubenville, Ohio - just a few miles from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In fact, Pennsylvania is right across the river from here. I've almost gone coast to coast, at least from Portland to Pittsburgh!

We started from South Bend, Indiana this morning and (at least I) under estimated the size of Ohio, since we had to travel clear across the state from west to east. But, we finally arrived at your destination at about 7pm eastern time.

I am now sitting in the house that Christian lives in here in Steubenville and it's very interesting. His roommates are great guys and the house has lots of character. It's bitterly cold here in the east, down in the teens at night. It's been cold here lately I guess, and hasn't seem to let up. There is snow on the ground. This, as I hear reports that it's nearly 70 at home in Oregon! Go figure.

Anyhow, I managed to "piggyback" off a neighbor's internet connection, so I was able to make a post this evening!

In just 48 hours I will step foot off the plane again in Oregon. I think it will feel rather rewarding!

I will try to get out and about tomorrow and take some pictures of the area for you. Then, on Tuesday, it's off into the skies for me, but I'll give you a report about that later.

Thanks to everyone who has put up with me through this adventure. It's the first time I've been, but maybe not the last. I guess you could say it's the last for a while though.

-LB

WHERE IN THE WORLD IS LEVI? Day 5

It's St. Patrick's day here in South Bend, Indiana (which is still where we're at), we spent the day with some much needed rest, and this evening was spent celebrating the day with some Irish beers and atmosphere.

We also visited Notre Dame today, which was a lot of fun. The campus is very cool I must say. Even saw the Regis Philbin performing arts center which he help funded to build.

I took a lot more pics today, and I hope you like 'em.

Christian enjoying a peice of pizza not expecting to have his picture taken!

Notre Dame, what can I say?

Vern a.k.a. Christian, just chillin'

Construction on who knows what at Notre Dame

More of Notre Dame...
Christian trying to avoid the picture, and his friend Dave in the background

Tomorrow is the final leg of our trip. Day 6 will be about a 6 hour trip to Steubenville, Ohio. I will spend all of Monday there, and leave from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on Tuesday afternoon to return to Portland.

Again, if you don't see a post from me in the next couple of days look for it after Tuesday (or late Tuesday night).

I've had a great time, take care!

-LB

WHERE IN THE WORLD IS LEVI? Day 4

The home of the Fighting Irish. Any guesses? Com'on, if you don't know by now you should...

That's right Notre Dame! I am in South Bend, Indiana home to the famous Notre Dame campus. We made it in just a scosh under 9 hours from Omaha Nebraska this morning. What a long drive. We were at the border of Nebraska, so that state was about finished, but we spent most of the day in Iowa. What a boring state, though not as boring as I thought it would be. Surprisingly, Iowa was a lot more "hilly" than I thought it would be. It even kind of reminded me of the Palouse country near Pullman, Washington. There were trees and plenty of farming. Later in the day we entered Illinois, which is as far east as I've ever been (excluding Florida in 2005). I saw the mighty Mississippi (though the Columbia gives it a good run for it's money).

Finally, we hit "toll road land" where it cost us everytime we got onto a new road. We stayed on I-80, but managed to get charged $2.00 for traveling it. Thank you Illinois and Indiana!

It will be nice to have a break after all this traveling. Tomorrow we are going to visit an Irish Pub (on St. Patrick's day - how fitting) and visit the Notre Dame campus.

Here are some pics from the day:

Crossing the Illinois River

Driving in Illinois... lots of traffic - this is near Chicago.

Christian having a blast driving

Well folks, I am nearly at the end of my journey. I couple more fun days ahead and then I will be on a flight back to Oregon. I will fall out of internet-range Sunday and Monday, but certainly will have an update for you by Tuesday night. I will most likely give you one last update tomorrow night as well before entering Steubenville.

-LB

WHERE IN THE WORLD IS LEVI? Day 3

Over half way baby! That's right, our journey is almost 2/3 over! Today we made great headway across the state of Nebraska, and landed right on the Nebraska-Iowa border in Omaha. The day started out in the Rockies near Vail where we stayed the night. Drove out through some very beautiful country. We reached nearly 11,000 feet on I-70 just before entering the Eisenhower tunnel which is over a mile long as it goes under a mountain! Later, we hit dense fog in our desent down into Denver. There, we hit I-76 and drove through some very lonely country. Though one of the towns was named after my friend Sterling. In Sterling Colorado I bought a Mountain Dew in honor of my good friend. Okay, the town wasn't named after him, but hey, it was worth mentioning. After all, this part of Colorado had nothing else to offer. Finally we crossed into Nebraska! Yeah! Well, more like "oh, neat..." Though, I must say the scenery wasn't terrible, it was the smell that caught our attention. The first 100 miles I kid you not smelled like a feed lot. Then for about 5 miles for no reason at all it smelled like sour cream and onion potato chips. How weird is that? Shortly after, it smelled like a rancid fart, then eventually back to the original (and much welcomed) feed lot. Once in Omaha, it was a lot more neutral and smelled okay. Here are some pics...

Our ascent up into the Rockies, near the Eisenhower Tunnel.
The Eisenhower Tunnel entrance. It was a pretty long and cool tunnel.
A look at I-80 in front of our Omaha, Nebraska hotel...

Well that's all for now folks. Tomorrow we travel our last long day through Iowa, Illinois, and Indiana. It will be the last big push before Steubenville, Ohio.

-LB

WHERE IN THE WORLD IS LEVI? Day 2

Where the hell am I now? Well, Vail Colorado to be exact. Christian's cousin happens to work at one of the resorts here, and we had a great time. The day spent getting here was rather uneventful as we traveled through unpopulated parts of Utah, and finally crossed the Colorado border only to see underwhelming Grand Junction. But finally, as we progressed into the Rockies, the scenery got all the more interesting. Christian was bitching about how the freeway speed would be 75mph one minute, and 50mph the next through the more trecherous parts of the interestate. Here are some not-so-entertaining pics from the day.

Utah: If our state were anymore boring, you'd want to poke your eyes out.

For the love of God, it had better be more "colorful" than Utah

No Name? Are you seriously kidding me? Actually my mom had a friend who use to live in No Name. Her name was anonymous. No, seriously she actually had a friend who lived there and had a name - Heidi.
My good buddy Christian a.k.a. "Vern," or "Farva" driving. Somehow we haven't killed each other yet. That's a good thing I think!
Just a shot of Vail, Colorado. If you look closely you will see their "yuppied up" McDonald's where a burger costs a mint. Well not really, but more than you'd think...

Took this picture for my friend A.D. who works at a Sports Authority in Beaverton, Oregon. He'd one day like to graduate to the "Vail version." Or... maybe not?

This concludes Day 2 folks. Where will I land next? You'll just have to wait to find out, or ummm yeah since I wasn't actually able to get online this day, you probably already have noticed my "day 3" post. Nevertheless, I am back in the game and online again!

-LB

WHERE IN THE WORLD IS LEVI? Day 1

After several delays we finally got out of Joseph. Finally! We departed about 10:30 this morning and drove for nearly 10 hours. So where would that put us? Salt Lake City, Utah.
I didn't take any along-the-way pictures, simply because the journey had taken us through some of the most desolate territory in the United States. Whoever thinks southern Idaho is scenic is crazy. Even northern Utah was not exciting, until we finally reached the Salt Lake area this evening. The mountains surrounding the city are snowcapped, making it look like the Olympics could have been hosted here. Oh, and they make you plenty aware of the fact they were in 2002.

It was a long day, but we finished it out at TGI Fridays in Salt Lake with a couple of beers and some good food. Tomorrow will be a much shorter, and more scenic day.

Where will I land next, you'll have to check back and see! I'll have more pictures I hope as there will be more to see.

Day 1 is now complete!

-LB

WHERE IN THE WORLD IS LEVI? The ULTIMATE ROAD TRIP BEGINS... tomorrow.

Back in Joseph. For one night, yeah that's right ONE NIGHT ONLY. I am car-less and feeling pretty naked without it. It's 400 miles away in Portland... my poor baby. I've got some trusty friends looking over it... or looking to jack it. One of the two.

So we came back through (if that is the right term), before we embark on the biggest road trip of my lifetime. Though I must say, that's probably not saying much.

Had a SUPER time in Portland these past few days. Here are some chosen pics:

That's me!, and my double chin of course, but I've been working at reducing that!
That's Thane!
My reflection and Dylan trying to avoid the picture... interesting shot for sure...
The towering Ezekial Hale

Well folks, that's all for now. My first report from the road tomorrow! Where will I end up next? Check back to find out!

-LB

WHERE IN THE WORLD IS LEVI?

For the next two weeks it will be a mystery where I might land next. I'll give you an up to date report every time I land somewhere new. Amy KP came up with the idea to say "WHERE IN THE WORLD IS LEVI." I guess she was right on the money, because even I don't know where I might be next for a good part of this month. THE ULTIMATE ROAD TRIP officially begins Tuesday, but I'm already making preparations... so where am I right now? Portland. I drove my car down here to park for when I fly back from Pittsburgh. I can say I will be here for a couple more days seeing friends and hanging out before the big trip begins.

I'll be taking plenty of photos along the way too...

-LB

The COUNTDOWN CONTINUES!

3 more days until the ULTIMATE ROAD TRIP!

Yep, that's right only three more days! I officially signed-out of LB Productions today for two weeks, for what promises to be a fun time across our nation's heartland over the next two weeks. As a matter of fact, I leave tomorrow when I will drive my car to Portland for when I fly back from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on March 20th. The road trip starts Tuesday and we will arrive on Sunday in Steubenville, Ohio. I will stay there a couple of days before I fly back to PDX. While back in Oregon, I will most likely travel to the coast, see some friends, and do some 'unwinding' from all my traveling before I return to Wallowa County the weekend of the 25th.

I didn't get to this point without a hitch. For you regular readers, you know it seems I can never get out of town without some kind of barrier. This week wasn't immune to that, in fact it was total hell. We had a lot of difficult customers this past week, which made it hard on both Haddie and I. Though, as I've said before, it is very easy to get caught up in the 5% that are a pain in the ass, when your other 95% are great. I have to say the week from hell was finally over when one of my favorite customers Larry Nall came in and made my day with his compliments of me and my business. It's customers like that who help you realize what it's all for. If only they could all be like him! So, it made the transition from work to vacation much easier for me.

So with that being said, I will be posting my next blog from the ROAD! :-)

-LB

When Things Pick Up

You duck and run. Well, at least around LB Productions. Today was one of those days. It was a Monday. A really good Monday on caffeine. Business is once again on the super fast track. Last week it was mellow, which was kind of scary. Before we got too comfortable, things changed, they changed real quick. With one person down this week, we are scrambling to stay caught up (whatever that means?)

Keithanne went to California Sunday evening to be with her family. Her brother passed away and they will have the service soon. She has had a rough few weeks, and her brother has been in many of our thoughts and prayers. Although there's nothing wonderful about this situation, at least he isn't suffering any longer after a hard fought battle with cancer.

Once positive thing out of all this (if there is one thing), it would be I get to dogsit. I love Keithanne's dog Drexler -- yes you guessed it -- named after Clide "the glide" Drexler. Here's a pic of him on my couch last night:


We will try to take a deep breath and get through this week without any major holdups! After all, the ULTIMATE ROAD TRIP begins in 7 days.

7 DAYS TO GO!

-LB

The COUNTDOWN BEGINS:

10 days until the ultimate road trip

I will keep you posted along the way...

It all begins March 13th

-LB

A strange (and not so good) week

It was a strange week. There were many negative occurrences throughout the week, and frankly I'm glad it's over.

#1 My friend and employee Keithanne Boevé lost her brother Rick this evening. He was battling cancer for several months and discovered it late. My condolences are with her and her family. She will be heading to Sacramento this coming week to be with her family.

#2 Another friend lost his job due to some irresponsible comments made by another employee at the company in which he works. He and his wife are both upset and stunned at the circumstances, and will be scrambling to find a new job.

#3 Unlike last week, it was an abnormally stressful week because of delayed orders and a sick staff at LB Productions. Keithanne and myself are on the mend, but Haddie is still dealing with a bout of tonsillitis.

So, I guess that is it! So here's to next week going better for all of us! :-)

-LB