Day 2 road trip to California: Moving to California part 3

Part 3 of Road trip with a cat.
 On day two of our cross country trip we woke up in Niagara and went to sleep in Illinois. We were onward to California with the intent of visiting the serpent mound on the way. The serpent mound is a pre-historic effigy of a snake eating an egg located in southern Ohio. Similar to Stonehenge it is an earthwork monument used to align celestial events which mark seasonal changes. It is most likely used for the ritual of timekeeping, marking planting and harvesting times and celestial alignment. The serpent mound is the largest serpent effigy in the world.The mound it self is estimated to have been built in 1070 CE by the Fort Ancient culture. This culture was in the same region of the greater Aedena culture which spans back to 1200 BCE.

Article related to American continents Human History during the period of time the Serpent Mound was worked on.

http://en.m CSS.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serpent_Mound

The Serpent Mound was an adventure which we had been looking forward to before we left Boston. Considering the time that it took us on the first day to get to Niagara we were feeling discouraged with the progress we were making. On day two after leaving Niagara, Chowder was sick to the point that we needed to pull over for two hours. We had been pooed on, peed on, and decontaminated ourselves then repeated the process for our morning. After we cleaned up ourselves and the car, we sat in a parking lot with Chowder to gather our energies. Rise was in tears fearing that Chowder was not going to make the trip to California. I was feeling selfish for wanting to take Chowder with us in the car. The extra inconvenience was stressful for all of us. We were at the point where the medicine was not working. The sedative was doing more harm than good. We decided to stop using the xanax, then we would  try alternative medicine after he began acting normal. We were still in upstate NY and were wanting to be further along. It was getting closer to noon and we had been nursing our sick cat most of the morning.


Getting to the Serpent Mound is an undertaking in it self. We felt this may be our one chance to see it since we have no other reason except moving cross country to be in Ohio. Rise and I were determined to visit the Serpent Mound regardless of the trip being off the beaten path in southern Ohio. Our method of navigation was a road atlas and Google maps. We were listening to weather radio because, before we left Boston we were warned that the weather changes while traveling can be dangerous. Our rate of travel was going better by the afternoon until the downpours began. As we got closer to our destination we were slowed down again this time by torrential rain. The downpours reduced visibility and drove rain into the car where the roof rack was attached.

When we arrived at the mound the park was empty. The down pours had cleared the place out. We roamed and explored entire monument by ourselves for a while. There is a trail around the mound with signage indicating seasonal equinox markers. We studied the signs posted along the trail that designate how parts of the serpent body align to solstices and equinoxes. Interesting enough the equinox markers were placed in  a nonlinear way at the bends of the serpent's body. We were there a few days before the Summer Solstice, so the sunset alignment was nearly visible to us. The summer solstice is the busiest day of the year at the serpent mound. There is an annual solstice celebration at the mound which we were told draws hundreds of people.There is an elevated platform to allow visitors to view the entire mound from above.

Here is the route we took from Boston to the Serpent Mound.



We wanted to make more headway so we captured the remaining light of the day and continued onward.  We passed through Cincinatti as the sun was setting and spent the night in a hotel just across the border into Illinois. The next morning we relaxed a little and enjoyed the hotel's complimentary breakfast with grits and gravy.

Hellbound 3

This has been an interesting Summer and it continues to be an interesting Fall. We are heading into Thanksgiving already and I am overdue for a blog update. Happily I am busy at work, and in my spare time I am continuing working on a Graphic novel for a character named Jack Maggot. Along with settling into California, I have been keeping active physically and artistically. I am again fortunate to have been published in the Horror anthology Hellbound by Riverbird comics in Hellbound 3.

Hellbound 3 Cover art by Roho and Jerrel Dye

My story is titled Vengeance, which is about the wife of the Lord of the Undersea, who avenges the death of her Orca family. I was inspired to write this story during a trip to Vancouver which I posted on this blog's pages here, Vancouver.

Here is an interview excerpt from the Hellbound Blog and below is a link to the full interview..

When I was asked what inspired me to write Vengeance:

"The inspirational elements of this story came together when I was on vacation in Vancouver. I was with my 4 year old daughter, Mayari, on a whale watch. The whale watch was the kind where the advertisements guarantee that you will see whales, yet there were no orcas to be seen during our trip. Since we were still excited to see whales, we returned for a complimentary second attempt. As I sat on the shuttle bus on the way to the boat, these images and story line came into my mind. “Vengeance” brings together memories of my childhood and fables from North American Mythology. The whaling part of the story comes from my childhood growing up in New Bedford, MA where whaling fishery/industry was the main source of income from 1800s. My hometown provided the background for a setting where whales were being harvested. I was also inspired by Native American stories such as The Lord of the Undersea and his wife Talia. The tale is about how the Lord of the Undersea disguised himself as a whale and seduced a woman named Talia away from her family and made Talia his wife."

Another Question asked what was the biggest challenge to me creating this story. To which I replied:

 "The biggest challenge for “Vengeance” was completing this story. I was moving across country to California when “Vengeance” was due. The deadline for Hellbound III was literally at the same time I was starting my new job at Rockstar San Diego. I really wanted to complete the story, so, I was drawing the pages in hotel rooms at night during the cross-country trip. When we arrived in California, I had a little time before our belongings were delivered to our condo. That was the time I finished inking the last pages. I thought I was finished after that first draft of “Vengeance” was submitted. However, at that stage, being a wordless comic, and a first draft, “Vengeance” was still unclear. The Hellbound editing team and my wife, Rise Riyo, pointed out the areas that were unclear. After a discussion with the Hellbound story editor Jerel Dye, we decided to continue working and refining the story. With additional editing from Rise Riyo, I finalized details and redrew many of the panels, for the second draft. Together we edited 75% of the last three pages of “Vengeance” for the second draft to be complete."

Entire Interview for Hellbound Blog 

Along with the Hellbound 3 Art Edition release. Hellbound 2 continues to receive press. This article linked below in particular I am attracted to since it is in a glossy magazine called Galaxis. Also the article sits next to an article about one of my favorite comics by Moebius/Jordowsky "The Incal" Go straight to page 80 and 81 to see what I am referring to.

Galaxis Dec 2012 Hellbound 2 Article

If you are interested in a copy of Hellbound 3 below is a link.

Where to buy Hellbound 3 Art Edition

Road trip with a cat Day 1. Moving to California part 2

Chowder is our cat's name, he is one of our traveling companions, on our cross country move to California. He is a 19 year old, tabby pattern, American short hair cat.I have had him since 1993. Chowder has never been on any type of road trip over 2 hours before. On my previous attempts at car travel with him, he meowed loudly for most of the ride. Now he was in our mini clubman for however many days it would take us to travel to Carlsbad California.  As our darling family pet, he is totally spoiled despite being a loud annoying cat. Since he is very vocal as older cats tend to be, so I decided to talk to the vet about him.

In preparation for travel, we spoke regarding the options for him. The vet did not recommend flying for him. He is too old for the storage section of the plane. We did not like the idea of flying due to the terror he would be in for 6 hours plus the standbys and delays of flying.  The vet said that if we decided to fly him across country, he could not be sedated while in flight due to the airline guidelines.  In that case he would have to go inside the plane with the passengers, UN-sedated and in the cat carrier. When flying, I have seen people air travel with small dogs. That worked because the dogs were used to travel. The dogs would be pretty quiet and not bother anyone in flight. I did not expect that Chowder would be a calm passenger in an airplane. We went back to the road option and medication.

We had to deal with the challenge of a cat in the car for the trip across country. Based on the vet's suggestion she gave us some Xanax for Chowder. The prescription bottle said for us to give him a 1/2 a pill. Rise and I, we figured it works on humans...give him a smaller dose he may just chill out the whole time. We were WRONG. The dosage was too much. He almost instantly became disoriented and too soft in his muscle tone by the first dosage. He wandered around the car like a meowing wet noodle.

Chowder is here being restrained by Rise. He needed to be prevented from checking out the space under the accelerator pedal. He did like to sit calmly on Rise's lap for a while, then he would go check out the rest of the car.

 
On our voyage our 4 year old daughter Mayari loved having Chowder sleep on her. This is something he would never do at home.  The motivation for him was that he wanted her blanket and the sunshine spot she was sitting in. The two of them were acting like siblings at times, fighting for pillows and blankets.

Chowder did yowl most of the way to Niagara Falls. I can't say ALL of the way there, but I do feel it was a lot of the way there. Because of the Xanax we gave him he was not acting normally, and just when we thought he was getting comfortable he peed on my laptop. We had already gotten off to a late start, then we did have a stop to clean cat urine off my laptop bag. This laptop bag also included important paperwork, now soaked in cat urine. It was a strange experience emptying out the bag in the rest stop bathroom. I needed to minimize the damage quickly and get back on the road. Since this was our first experience we did stop often on the first day. We were traveling to California with our 4 1/2 year old girl and a 19 year old cat that had neither been on a long road trip before. In fact I had never driven as far as we were planning on going.

While we were at the road stops it was ironic to me that the strangers who were surprised to see a cat thought he was traveling so well. The way the drugs worked,Chowder really did not care where he was. His mental state could have been fear and loathing in upstate New York, I could not tell. However awkward cats at rest stops are they will try to charm you.  It was actually very comforting how friendly people are when they meet animals.

On the positive side, we are on a great adventure and, Chowder had figured out how to use the cat box in the back of the car. His adaptability had helped ease my mind a little. I was dreading stopping to clean off again if he was going pee or poo in the car again. At least he was on track to use the cat box. The cat box was tucked away under the trunk cover with the second passenger seat tipped down to allow him access to the trunk area.

Here he is abnormally sedate, riding on my shoulders. A man at a rest stop said to his child "look at the cat man, son." This was making me feel like a whack job. Whatever, yes I love cats so much I take them traveling through upper state New York. Yes I was the Fracking Cat man that day. Someday you will be the cat man.

We were hoping to get to Ohio on the first day. That was way too ambitious, so we ended up in Niagara Falls.

Niagara is a spectacular sight go see it. We were recommended by a friend to try a great Indian Restaurant close by, which was delicious. We found a Motel and crashed for the night. We were hungry and tired, also a little alarmed by how many abandoned homes we saw in Niagara falls. The weeds were a bit high everywhere outside of the designated tourist areas.

Refreshing the blog button now.

September 2012
Getting up to date with Joshua D Hoaglund Studio Sketch book Current Events.
Time to revive the pages here. I am feeling a bit extroverted tonight.
Since the last post in March I have moved out of Boston to Carlsbad California.
I have transferred to the San Diego branch of Rockstar Games.

Leaving Boston is good for myself and my family. I had lived in Boston since 1993. I did my apprenticeship as stained glass artist/craftsman there, I started a new career in 3D art and Video Games from Boston. I spent plenty of time in town and learned a bit about Boston stuff. I am keeping my Boston accent close to my heart. I studied martial arts there. I met my wife Rise there and we had our child Mayari at Brigham and Women's Hospital close to where we lived.

I am missing teaching at Harvard Extension School and meeting all the cool people there. Harvard is a highlight for me.

Here is a shot of the Extension school shield which I taught Intro to Maya 2012 for a semester. This is from Harvard's 2012 graduation.
Also a shout out to Catherine Musinsky whose Thesis won the Prize at her Master's graduation.
                                                           Check it out Here
I was a thesis adviser for her. I offered technical assistance to her for using Maya 2012.


There are a lot of things in Boston that are great and are missed by me. However, my family and I are enjoying the great weather and family in California. Despite what my California colleagues think about surfing in New England. I did learn to surf in Rhode Island and I am happy to take that skill with me to California.

For example another missed place is Million Year Picnic in Cambridge. I have not found as good a comic shop in Carlsbad since comicon.


I am createing a photo journal of the trip across country to post here. It may take a few posts to get all of it done. I want to do it since it has been two months since we drove across the country in our Mini Clubman. I want some documentation before the details fade. I have posted some of the shots on my Google plus page.  Joshua Hoaglund on Google Plus
If you want to skip the next few blog posts and just look at the pics you can go to the G+ page and see a bunch of the shots we took there. I am posting some of those shots here along with un-posted stuff and better comments.

Just some visual stimulation:
This is a ridge in Utah where Ravens flew on the updrafts of air. Pretty spectacular sight. It would take us about 5 days to get to this point.

Beginning the task of moving made my skin crawl, I am a hoarder and I hate getting rid of stuff. Choices had to be made. Decisions were on the side of "get rid of it" We made several trips to Goodwill.
The whole process of packing and moving was intense. My wonderful wife made it happen. We slammed into plenty of snags along the way. I lost the keys to my bike lock, my bike had to be cut free with power tools minutes before the crates were being delivered. We found the keys later in my 4 year old's bike bag. Getting the crates packed within the time limit was hard work. Rise has neuropathy so she needs to manage her pain. We packed crates all day Wednesday then the truck picked up the crates and ships them to California. We slept on the floor in the empty apartment until we departed on Saturday.

We ended up using three crates for all our stuff. Originally I wanted to use two crates,but when it came down to the cost of purchasing new stuff or shipping crate costs. The third crate was the way to go.

 

Packed crates in Boston ready to be shipped.

Our emptied out apartment with Chowder preparing himself for the cross country ride.

 Finally on the road around 11am Saturday. Last minute details, tidying up the apartment and packing the car all took way longer than we expected. This is the last shot from Boston on the Mass Pike. Watertown MA is directly ahead of us. This was taken right after the Allston toll heading WEST. The New Balance building is on the left.

3000+ miles of mother fucking road trip ahead!