Bumper Stickers

 

On the left!

 

And on the right!

We don't go gung ho on bumper stickers, but every now and then I have a whim for one or two.  Had never given any thought at all about taking pictures of them until a couple weeks ago when I got rear-ended and the bumper acquired a big dent.  The realization hit that when the bumper was replaced, my bumper stickers would go away.  Frank took some photos to make me feel better.

Oddly enough, while we were in Santa Fe a few years back buying the Santa Fe bumper sticker shown above amongst other tempting things, our front bumper acquired a dent while parked.  Whoever backed into it, drove a yellow car and lacked enough common sense and courtesy to leave a note.  C'est la vie.  We may have a new back bumper, but the front one still has a souvenir dent from Santa Fe. 

When you travel Route 66 there are LOTS of bumper stickers for sale at all of the shops.  Perhaps I'll see one that tickles my fancy and start anew.   Or perhaps we'll just enjoy having a very shiny new bumper for awhile.  Does the fact that my Yellowstone National Park Bumper Sticker is gone now mean I can plan a trip there in the near future?  I could rationalize that!

Countdown to LA Pen Show Departure

Tucumcari, New Mexico

Photo taken February 2003

Less than two weeks until we leave on our 2010 LA Pen Show Adventure.  I'm mentally ready!  Still have lots of things to do before we head west.  Need to make some hotel reservations.  Need to get all my ducks nicely lined up here at Pendemonium since even though we're hitting the road, business continues remotely for us.  There are SO many things we want to explore further on Route 66, but we can't decide what they will be and some of this is relevant to weather.  Not only is Fort Madison having a very white winter, but good chunks of Route 66 have had heavy snowfall the past few weeks as well.  Please, Mother Nature, we all need a good dose of warmth and sunshine.  Very serious about the sunshine!

While I'm lining up my ducks, a few reminders to our Pendemonium customers.    If you'll be at the Los Angeles Pen Show and would like us to bring anything to you at the show, now is the time to let us know!  Always happy to bring along packages and make personal deliveries at the show.  Email me with your wish list.

I gave in and agreed to present a seminar at the LA Pen Show  Use your fountain pen to jot this down in your planner - Think Ink seminar Saturday, February 13 at 3 PM.   Hope you can sneak away from the show floor for a little less than an hour to learn a little about all things inky.

Route 66 Postcard, anyone?

Route 66 is Central Avenue in Albuquerque

Photo taken February 2008

Those of you who have been following along on our past Route 66 - LA Pen Show Adventures know that we like to send postcards from the road. This nicely ties together two of our loves - fountain pens and Route 66. We'd love to send a postcard to you!



All you need to do is email us at pendemonium@gmail.com and include your name and mailing address. At some point when we're on Route 66, we'll mail you a picture postcard. Easy as pie.



Just so you know, don't be surprised if the postcard you receive is not a Route 66 postcard. I'm currently continuing in my minimalism mode. That means I have waaay too many postcards from past road trips and other places we've visited that I was hoarding for some unknown reason. Now I'm sharing them.



Regarding the photo above which shows some of Albuquerque's great neon on Central Avenue/Route 66. To the best of my knowledge, there are at least three different Route 66 alignments in and around Albuquerque. Central Avenue is the most traveled. We've driven all of them, Central is the only one we haven't gotten lost on. Not sure yet which way we'll journey through Albuquerque on this year.

Standin' On the Corner in Winslow Arizona - Route 66 - February 2008

While we're prepping and thinking about our upcoming 2010 LA Pen Show Adventure, we thought you might enjoy reading (or just looking at the photos!) of some of our past journeys. You can also access all of the below, plus additional pen show pictures on our website in the Pen Show section.

• 2003 LA Adventure
  
• 2004 LA Adventure
• 2006 LA Adventure
• 2007 LA Adventure
• 2008 LA Adventure
• 2009 LA Adventure
  

Enjoy the ride! Please fasten your seatbelt!

Pre-pre-planning & Musing on the LA Adventure

I've spent a little time tonight perusing our previous LA Adventure routes and itineraries trying to decide if there's a certain part of Route 66 we might want to focus in on a little more than we have before.

We need to average about 380 miles a day to get to the LA Pen Show on time. I know for many of you that's next to nothing to drive in a day, but we tend to lolligag over breakfast & newspaper in the morning meaning it's never a super early start. Besides which if you start too early, all the cool places to visit aren't open yet! Antique malls and shops rarely open before 9 but you can count on 10 and that's where the old fountain pens are hiding (we hope!). Not to mention all the Route 66 sights and souvenir shops which require a stop.

Ideally, it would be great to plan the overnights so they are in places we haven't stayed before. At the very least, we'll try to visit some places we haven't been to in a few years and hopefully some places we haven't stopped at to explore at all. We've driven Route 66 from various points in Missouri to LA and back eight times now taking anywhere from 2-3 weeks each time. 2010 will be a 2-weeker.

I'm always excited about a little time to re-energize this time of year. Our departure date is less than a month away!

Oh! This font that I'm using is Courier. It's the closest look I could get to old fashioned looking typewriter writing and since this is an old fashioned type of road adventure, it needed an appropriate font to use to document it.

Back to the maps now.

Welcome - 2010 LA Pen Show Adventure

Welcome to Pendemonium's 2010 LA Adventure
We hope you'll come along for the ride with us!

Each year we travel to the Los Angeles International Pen Show via the Mother Road - that's Route 66 for you non-road warrior types. No airplanes, no luggage hassles, no security checks, but there is an Agricultural Check Point when we cross from Arizona into California. Sometimes there are travel delays due to getting a little too far off the beaten path, but that is of our own doing.

We've been doing this travelogue for a bunch of years now. It's now in it's second decade - yikes! We thought we might take a break this year & actually sleep at night, but before we had a chance to announce this, there were inquiries asking if we'd be doing The LA Adventure again this year. Shock of shocks, there are people out there who actually wait for this each year! So, once again, here we are. And in all honesty, we have fun doing this. It gets harder and harder though to take pics of things we haven't taken pics of before! If you're a devoted follower of Pendemonium's LA Adventure, you'll probably see some things you've seen before, I'll try to keep the text fresh for you! If you're new to our travelogue, then I don't have to worry about keeping it fresh - phew!

Yes, we've moved the travelogue again. TravelPod that we used in 2009 wasn't very user-friendly for me. I hate overloading our website guru when we're away since she already has enough to do. And as most of you know, I am not a very savvy computer person, so it has to be simple for me to do. So this is the place to be - the wannabe blog that rarely gets updated is now the home of Pendemonium's 2010 LA Adventure.

Sam (that's me!) does the writing and loading of photos part. I'm also the one who screeches to a halt while driving to request pictures! Frank takes most of the photos. He puts up with road craziness. We try to do this when we've stopped driving for the day. Sometimes it's the next morning. Sometimes we miss a day. (Please note reference to sleep or lack thereof in paragraph two above) While the LA Pen Show is in progress we're not on a real road, just the LA freeway maze, so we try to put up some show pics. Pen shows get busy for us, sometimes we get behind. Sometimes internet connections in the middle of nowhere are less than desirable. We're telling you all of this because while we try to post a few pics each day, sometimes we miss. Don't worry if we vanish for a day or so, we'll tell you when it's all over and you can get back to life without the LA Pen Show Adventure!

Tentatively, we're planning to start our LA Adventure on February 7, 2010. That's still a few weeks away, so it might change. I'll let you know. If you're a Pendemonium junkie and we hope you are, updates about our LA Adventure will be forthcoming on the website in the usual places.

All for now, back to pens!

Sam