Just a quick moment to post a quick shot taken from the steps of the rig. As you can see, the skies here are incredible - the trees fabulous - and life is good.

Hope you enjoy the shot.

In the midst of all our travels and getting together with some of So Cal’s hottest airbrush talent, we took pause to answer a few questions from Gary Glass at The Blog @ Iwata-Medea.com. Check out his article titled “The Journey of Literally Thousands of Miles”. Gary’s questions give us an opportunity to answer a few questions, asked by not only Gary, but a few of you as well; questions about our journey, and where we and AirbrushTour.com are going. Click banner to visit Gary’s Blog.

It’s been a full and colorful weekend. We’ve connected and broken bread with some really great airbrush talent and industry personalities. Friday at Coast Airbrush, then evening tasty delights with Craig Fraser and Dave Monnig with his family; Saturday dinner with Noah and his family and a tour of his new studio… then more fun at Coast Airbrush on Sunday. We’re grateful for digital cameras, because we took about the equivalent of seven rolls of film. In the old days, this weekend alone would have cost a small fortune in film processing.

We’re anxious to bring all this great stuff to you and we will - in the next few days. Stay tuned.

Every drive we took from Lake Elsinore gave our GPS unit a real workout this weekend. How have people survived the L.A. freeways without GPS technology? I’d be lost.

On our way to Anaheim today, we were taken in by the beauty of the lake we just left. We stopped to snap this shot…

…and take in the incredible view of the lake from the Ortega Highway (aka Hwy. 74) just a few hundred feet above the lake’s 1,255 ft. elevation.

Temecula seems to be a pretty happening town when it comes to bikes and rods. You see plenty of both on any given day here. And naturally, the favored rides amongst the hot rod guys is American made - the same goes for motorcycles. It seems the bike of choice here is clearly Harley-Davidson, which is just fine by us. It’s no secret that Kathy and I are fans of American Iron Motorcycles. (I’ve done a few paintings over the years featuring Harley-Davidson and Indian motorcycles - click here to view).

A visit to Quaid Harley-Davidson on Old Town Front Street revealed a beautiful Harley Fat Boy. Paul Dinoto, one of Quaid’s resident bike experts, is the owner of this cool one-off beauty featuring custom paint by Rock & Roll Custom Paintworks out of Orange, California. Click here to visit their site.

Paul has plenty of reasons to be proud of this one…

This bike features some radically wicked skulls…

…tons of radically whicked skulls.

Lots of time and work went into making this bikes paint a success.

Somehow, I think if Giger were a biker, his ride would look like this.

This close-up shows the amount of detail on the bike’s rear fender.

Lots of time and work went into this bikes paint, but Paul didn’t stop there. He’s decked his ride with chrome everywhere, and a cool set of billet wheels. Overall, I’d have to say this bikes rocks. Nice job Paul. Keep those skulls rollin.

Click here to visit Quaid Harley-Davidson

I mentioned a couple posts back that I work with ASET ( Automotive Spraying Equipment Technologies ) to design their ongoing newsletter… THE ASET AIR REPORT. We’ve just wrapped up Volume 2 and thought we’d share it here. Actually, I’m posting both Volume 1 and Volume 2 here. Clicking either of these will download a PDF file for your viewing.

Click to download Volume 1 = 1.5 MB

— VOLUME 1 —
• The Art of Dean Loucks
• Warehouse to Wowhouse - ASET’s new state-of-the-art-facilty
• Artool Delivers - New Freehand Airbrush Templates
• Spray Gun Technology
• Our Best Base Coat Gun - LPH-400-LVB Base Coat Gun
• Anest Iwata Mix & Spray System
• The Ultimate Air Affair 2005

Click to download Volume 2 = 1.4 MB

— VOLUME 2 —
• No Bones About It - an article featuring custom painter Chris “Bones” Tolson
• ASET’s Topp Gunn - ASET’s new chopper
• The Zen of the Kustom Kulture - The State of the Industry by Craig Fraser
• Can You Dig It? Dave Kindig - the veritable “jack of all trades”
• The Technical Advantage - Anest Iwata’s patented LV technology
• New Artool Products for 2006
• ASET’s Ultimate Air Affair 2005 - the big bash art and mayhem
• Painter’s Corner - Where you go for all your kustom painting questions

Click here to visit ASET’s web site.

Another beautiful day in sunny southern California, so Kathy and I decided to take Dargo for a walk. Our walk turned into a hike when we saw access to the desert hills, complete with paths, which looked like they were probably dirt bike trails. All I know is the hills were steep - a good challenge for a long-overdue hike. For the most part, the hike was uneventful. I did disrupt a resting rattle snake though, and he was quick to rattle his tail at me and let me know that I was inside his comfort zone. He assumed an attack posture, and I retreated. Somehow, a snake bite didn’t sound like a good idea at the time; bare legs, fangs, poison - no thanks. Kathy was prudent and took the longer route around the snake. Of course, Dargo was inclined to investigate, but we were glad that she retreated when called away.

We were hungry after our initial shock of our wild snake encounter, so after returning Dargo to the rig, and walked a couple more miles for lunch for a total of 6.6 miles for the day.

Looking towards the City of Lake Elsinore from our mountain top…

…and some of the trails along the way.

What a cool town. Kathy and I have visited Temecula a couple times during our time here. Today we brought a camera along so we can share a little with you…

A view looking south as we enter Temecula’s old town. The sign on the left column reads…

THE LEGEND: A thousand years ago, as the mist rolled over the hills, Nahachish, an Indian Leader spoke the word “Temecula” as the rays of the sun broke through the mist. from That day, the valley has been known as Temecula.

A NEW ERA - The first Butterfield Stage arrived in Temecula in 1858, the Post Office was established on April 22, 1859, and later, the Railway signified a new era in Temecula. Just after the turn of the century, Waler Vail began his cattle ranch that eventually covered 87,500 acres in and around Temecula. The Temecula of today began in 1964 when Kaiser Industries purchased the ranch and started the Rancho California master plan. The City of Temecula was incorporated on December 1, 1989

We loved Temecula’s old town charm. They’ve done a nice job here of keeping true to its heritage.

Temecula is a beautiful town to take a stroll.

Wood walkways help to maintain the charactor of an old town with a lot of history.

Glad it’s an old sign.

An old town with history of its own, Temecula moves forward with all that is kewl… Tiki kewl anyway.

Well, it’s been a few days since we posted to AirbrushTour. Superbowl weekend has come and gone, and as most of you already know, Seattle lost. I was kind of rooting for them, since they’re the closest thing our home town of Portland, Oregon has to a football team. It was a good game all the same, and as usual, the commercials were as good as the game.

Kathy and I have been busy catching up on work and generally enjoying the California sunshine over the last few days. The weather here is outstanding! What can you say about beautiful skies and eighty degree days - every day! Perfect - all you can say is “perfect”. Works for me anyway. Kathy and I have been catching up on long walks and taking in the scenery. We’ve walked an average of about five miles every day since we got here, and today we rode bicycles for 11.3 miles around Lake Elsinore.

[ The city of Lake Elsinore features picturesque mountains and Southern California’s largest natural lake. ]

Yesterday, I wrapped up the design and production of the ASET Air Report Volume 2, and sent the files off to ASET for printing. ASET is Automotive Spraying Equipment Technologies. They are the professional distributor of choice for automotive spraying equipment, including Anest Iwata paint spray guns and airbrushes, and RTi dri-air equipment. You can check out their web site at http://www.asetusa.com

Now that the Air Report is ready for print, we’ll be looking at heading towards Orange County to catch up with the local airbrush talent there. Let me tell you, there are a lot of great artists spraying paint in So Cal, and they’re painting on everything and anything you can imagine. I see custom bikes here everywhere, and Temecula is like a rolling hot rod show. We’re going to catch up with every airbrush artist we can and share their studios with you soon. I know I’m excited - hope you are too.

A.D.

What a beautiful day. I have to remind myself that we only left Portland Oregon a week ago yesterday. It feels like a month already. I’m not sure if I’m that relaxed or if we’re just so far way that it seems like a different world. Over this last week we’ve visited friends in Sacramento, Rocklin, Bakersfield and Lake Elsonore, California. Today, Kathy and I thought a walk was in line. How could we resist?… temps in the mid-70’s, beautiful skies, and sun, sun, sun. Compared to the wet and gray we went through back home, this is paradise. Okay, regardless of all that, this is a pretty nice place to be, especially in February. Anyway, we walked a good five miles today and I got a sunburn that made today feel every bit as good as a warm summer day.

We arrived in the Temecula/Lake Elsonore, California area late Wednesday night. We have old friends here that we haven’t seen in over five years. I’ve know Eddie for a long, long time - since around 1976 anyway, and although we don’t see each other as often a we’d like, we somehow catch up every few years or so. This trip is allowing us a chance to catch up with Eddie and Robin, and their family too. Eddie’s hospitality is legendary, so we can’t resist the offer to stick around for Superbowl Sunday.

We did get a chance to replace that battery that’s been making the place smell like a box of matches - it was sulfur overload. That’s house battery number two for us (2 of 2).

We’ve a lot so far in out two months now of full-time living the RV life; all kinds of weather, all kinds of people, and all kinds of landscape. But we’re just getting started. Soon, we move onward and inward into the heart of L.A. We’ll check in with you soon.

Have a great Superbowl Sunday.

We left Air Syndicate and Bakersfield yesterday, but not before a couple pit stops to regroup. I needed a haircut in a bad way, and we were low on dog food. Pit stops and preparations took a considerable amount of time before the three hour drive just a ways south and a bit east of L.A. I maneuvered the RIG through the Los Angeles freeways for her maiden voyage south to Lake Elsinore, California. We ended up arriving in the area around 11PM last evening. We were hoping to find a RV Park along the way, but they’re harder to find here that we had thought - oh ya, they’re here to be sure - just hidden. It didn’t matter though - we ended parking at a friend’s house, and that’s much better anyway. We enjoyed a couple hours of catch up with Eddie and then leveled off and plugged in for a good night’s sleep. More on that later. For now, we’re going to take a couple days to regroup, and we’ll be catching up with you all soon.

A.D.