...I am going to re-post from the LA Times an article about mopeds.

November 08, 2009
It's sunset on a Tuesday and members of L.A.'s biggest moped gang, the Latebirds, have gathered at Choke, a Silver Lake shop, for their weekly ride. They lean against their motorized steeds -- Tomos, Puchs, Motobecanes and Peugeots -- on the sidewalk, brooding, smoking and shooting the breeze, looking cooler than Bob Dylan and his Triumph Bonneville. They are artists, would-be novelists, bike messengers, stylists, a mortician and the intermittently employed; twenty- and thirtysomethings for whom riding and restoring vintage 1970s mopeds has become a lifestyle. Some call them "dirt wizards," but their casual-yet-carefully wrought aesthetic -- raw skinny denim, Vans and mucho plaid -- betrays undeniable hipster leanings.

They're joined by members of other, more recently formed gangs, the LA Tigers, the Woolly Bullies and the HalfWits. Cruising through the hills and canyons of Los Angeles County, 15 to 50 of them at a time, they fall just short of magnificent, thanks to the tinny, high-pitched "waaaa" of their 50cc engines -- a migraine-inducing whine that's less "Easy Rider" than it is "angry chain saw."

"You can't take someone on a moped that seriously," says Steve Acevedo, a member of the LA Tigers. "And we don't take ourselves that seriously. That's the whole point -- it's all about having fun."

http://www.latimes.com/features/image/la-ig-moped8-2009nov08,0,298975.story (written by Caroline Ryder)

Biff and Alicia's ranch in Lucerne Valley, California. Lucerne Valley is just north of Big Bear and Lake Arrowhead. It's really flat and hot in the summertime, but cool, crisp and clear in winter. Their ranch is amazing. They have 5 or 6 horses, about 60 chickens, 3 dogs, 2 cats and peacocks.

Welcome to Death Valley! The hottest place in the US.

Future rail tunnel in New Delhi.

Good engineering can be like art.

Vancouver Olympics 2010...this just says it all.

It must have been amazing for settlers heading west to arrive in Death Valley and see such unbelievable land scape. Summer months are brutal. Winter months are crystal clear, but cold. There are several ghost towns around from miners who moved on. I am going there between Christmas and New Years. Should be great!

I was talking to someone recently about their bike trip along the West Coast. They started in Los Angeles and rode north up Highway 1 all the way up to Vancouver Island, Canada. What a great way to see the West Coast. I think I will start planning the same trip. See the sand dunes in Oregon and take a ferry over to Vancouver Island.