Road Trip, Part 2

So! Here I am. Arrived in Loma Linda two weeks ago, to a semi-full apartment, ate some apple pie and played Catch Phrase with some of my new roommate Marci's friends (after exploring two of the bars in nearby Redlands, a town with an actual kind-of-nightlife, and drinking, among other things, some rather un-manly pear-flavored hard cider). My program started last week... I suppose there's some catching up to do.

For starters: "all" ("most") of the pictures are on Rob's camera and I haven't gotten them yet, so in the meantime, my cell phone pics will have to suffice.

Scenes from Chimney Rock (Nebraska).

Overall, a great road trip. Fun times. Highlights:

I'd like to say we made it across the country without incident, but such was not quite the case. Wyoming proved to be a bit of a problem state for us, as we a) almost ran out of gas ("how long would it even take triple-A to get out here?") and b) got pulled over for speeding. Rob's dad is a state trooper back in NY, which he hesitantly conveyed to the cop, who just kinda... laughed at us. Hehe. No worries though: got off with just a warning. So fine, no "major" incidents.

Really enjoyed the Utah salt flats, near Salt Lake City. There's just this barren stretch of highway, literally no turns for 30+ miles, in the middle of this... nothing. Mountains off in the distance. Apparently they race cars/have speed tests on this thing because it's so damn barren and there's just, nothing around. ...except for this sculpture, very randomly situated alongside I-80, known as the Tree of Utah:




Oh... had a fourth meal involving gravy, at some diner in Wyoming for lunch that day. Count it!

We were planning on camping in Wells, Nevada, but ended up driving a hour further to a lil' town called Elko instead, mostly because, according to the GPS, it sounded like there was actually stuff to do there. And what a night we had. Elko is a tiny "casino town," kind of a D-list Las Vegas, and we tore it up. As much as was possible on a Monday night, I mean. We hit a bunch of bars, a casino (Rob was up $50), inhaled a bunch of cigarette smoke at said bars and casino, sampled some local brews, played a bunch of pool, hit a... gentlemen's club (oy gevalt), and camped on a patch of grass at the Double Dice RV Park, all of which was pretty much on the same two-mile stretch of road. And the camping conditions were much better, nice and dry. Good times.

I probably shouldn't mention we were the only people at this bar.

("How about one to go? No? Nothing?" -Rob tries to convince the owner of the bar at the RV park to stay open, and when told no, stoops to, yes, asking if we can get some beers "to go")

The front of my car got -covered- in dead bugs.

Ate lunch that last day at a place called the Cowpoke Cafe in Nevada, where we were barraged with questions from the local waitstaff about what it was like to be from big ol' New York.

I've never been one to be attached to my material possessions (i.e., to the point of say, naming them... looking in my sister's direction... and Becky and Leah's... hehe), but I have to say, I do feel some sort of attachment to the car that got us across the country. I wasn't 100% convinced we'd make it 3,000+ miles without incident, frankly, but we did, all in my "new" little white Corolla. It's kind of like the LEM in Apollo 13... "she was a good ship." Amen, Tom Hanks. Or whoever said it.

So, with the unavoidable dissolution of RCM400, Rob has "formed" a new project, which will either be named "I Feel Bad For Me" or "Winter Pool Puppies" (the latter originating from a mis-reading of a sign for "winter pool supplies"). One of the charter songs: "Funk Pig." For some reason, the pig in question was, at one point, in possession of some sort of magic watch, but has since misplaced it; Rob's vision was to write a concept, choose-your-own-adventure CD (stay with me here) based solely on that ("if you want Funk Pig to go down the dark alley, skip to track 4. If you want Funk Pig to indulge in a frosty chocolate milkshake instead, skip to track 9" and so forth). Long story short... while on that long stretch of highway in the salt flats, I busted out the guitar (me in the passenger seat, obviously, with barely any room for me and a guitar) and we riffed on some Funk Pig ideas, including a slow blues where I think Funk Pig goes to a bordello or something...?! Anyway. More RCM400-ish craziness. Which I will miss.

Rolled into Palo Alto Tuesday night (and ate some sushi, a welcome respite from all things truck stop) and met up with Tom (and Rick, and Tom's girlfriend Emma). Crashed at his place... explored SF the next day... the wharf, sea lions, Coit Tower, other touristy things, non-touristy things including some Jack Kerouac "hot spots", for Rob, like City Lights bookstore, outside of which we enjoyed some latin jazz... more sampling of local brews, including a very tasty Pyramid ale (think Magic Hat but more apricot-y)... met up with Rob's friend Joe and his wife Kerry who were in town... beautiful weather. The first day, at least. Met up with Emily Sukiennik, from high school, the next day at Golden Gate Park (really the first day Rob and I had a break from each other in about a week)... got some great Indian food in Palo Alto with Tom, Rick, and Emma that night (the lamb rogan josh, a.k.a. "lamb Josh Groban" was even better than ol' Nyack's Spice of India) and then went to a chic Silicon Valley bar for mojitos... all good things. Really enjoyed being in downtown San Fran that first day, in the sun and wind, just, exploring.

Stumbling around San Francisco.

Quick hike in Muir Woods, just north of the Golden Gate.

Two morons at an ATM.

And finally, some "real" camping in Big Sur, on the rugged California coast. Drove down the treacherous Highway 1, with the Pacific Ocean directly on our right and mountains/cliffs on the left. Really something. Secured the last available campsite at Limekiln State Park, which was basically right at the shoreline, and finally got the camping experience we'd been looking for. I loved the contrast between Thursday night and Friday night... upscale Palo Alto and then, in the forest, by a stream, actually succeeding in making a campfire (and subsequently some Jiffy Pop), eating Craisin and beef jerky sandwiches (that's Craisin sandwiches for Rob and beef jerky sandwiches for me, not Craisin-and-beef-jerky sandwiches... although admittedly weird no matter how you cut it... look, we were low on supplies), passing around our last bottle of wine and the obligatory sing-along. Awesome. Also kind of made friends with the guy in the campsite next to us, a real Dylan-looking character named Gary, complete with guitar, who ran a blues-based record label further upstate. I jammed with him a little (I was hoping/assuming he'd be down for playing some covers but he was actually working on originals) and Rob talked politics/Bob Dylan/Rob things with him. Nice dude, gave us a couple of his CDs (and some extra firewood).

Pretty sure this is Bixby Bridge.

(not my pic... but here's Limekiln Park. Our campsite was in the trees, just off to the right in the foreground)

Then the next morning we hiked to the nearby waterfall and, in what was undoubtedly one of the stupidest things we did on the trip, attempted to climb up the side of it, via a precariously placed log resting on the slippery rock face. Definitely one of the most physically demanding things I've done in a while. Barely anything to grab onto and beneath you, just a shallow pool full of big rocks. It was really a full-body workout, as you needed both your arms to pull you up this thing and your legs for constant support/balance, since the log was only maybe a foot wide. Suffice to say, we were both sore the next day. Props to Rob who actually made it all the way up, to dunk his head in the little pool near the top of the falls; I stopped just shy of said pool as, frankly, I just don't have the upper body strength my buddy Rob has. Ahem.

Two morons, about to climb up the side of a waterfall.

Anyway, after that excitement, we dashed back to our campsite, packed up, and made it to Loma Linda that night safe and sound. 3,500 or so miles in the course of a week.

And now I'm in a world where I wear a lab coat to "work," have a pager for some reason, have a very friendly/all-too-willing-to-come-by-and-actually-fix-things landlord, in a town where the mail moves on Sundays instead of Saturdays and there are no bars, and there is hardly a cloud in the sky, and it's always 90+ degrees, and there are palm trees, and beautiful sunsets nearly every night.

Not in Kansas anymore, that's for sure...!

More about school and such later, I suppose, as that could be an entry on its own...

Road Trip, Part 1

So here I am, holed up in a lil’ motel in Cheyenne, Wyoming (which I now know to pronounce as “shy-ann”). We are three days into our road trip. Two to go.

It’s cold out here…! Last night as early as 8:00 it was in the 40s. Our plan was to find a campsite, set up the tent, find some dinner, then hit some local bar, but… nope. The two campsites nearest to the city were really just for RVs, no great place to set up a tent (mostly rocks and pebbles instead of grass), and it was 43 degrees and lightly raining, and for us it was two hours later and we were pretty wiped from all the driving (we’ve been doing about 10 hours a day, which I’d say translates roughly to a “strenuous” pace in Oregon Trail). So… after a bite at a late-night diner, we dropped $40 on a motel room, which budget-wise is fine because we managed to camp for free last night (sweet!).

It’s been fun so far. Crazy to think we are already halfway across the country. Starting just past Ohio it’s really been nothing but open fields, trees, power lines (sometimes not even that) and the occasional cluster of farm animals, but frankly it’s all been pretty scenic. Having a travel partner makes a –huge- difference, perhaps needless to say… I can see how making this drive on your own would be... ridiculous.

I love maps. Love looking and seeing that we’re in… what?! Nebraska? Wyoming? These Midwest states I’ve never been to? So cool.

Let’s see... other random notes…

Three of my meals since Friday have involved gravy (and one of them was breakfast). This would bother some people; this does not bother me.

Stopped and crashed at Jeff’s place in (er, near) Cleveland Friday night.

My car is packed completely. I wasn’t sure I’d be able to fit, you know, my entire life into a Toyota Corolla, but I made it work. We can’t see out the back window but, it really hasn’t been so bad.

Had a dream about Ellen Page last night and now I kind of want her to be my girlfriend.

In another Oregon Trail reference, yes, we totally stopped at Chimney Rock yesterday in Nebraska. It was pretty cool, I have to say. Took some cool pics.

Mom got me a GPS navigator and it’s been so cool having it. We are quite techno-ed out in the front seat, with our iPods, the Tomtom, FM transmitter, and cell phones. Don’t want to jinx myself but I have felt very prepared for this trip so far.

Have been mostly eating in local diner/truck stop-type places (see comment about gravy above), including one in a town called Snow Shoe (Pennsylvania) and another called the Pine Cone restaurant. …it just feels good to get out here, I guess, away from the Tappan Zee Bridge and work traffic and… yeah. In the middle of nowhere.

The speed limit is 75 for a good chunk of the Midwest (on I-80, a least).

We started the trip with a five-pound bag of gummy bears. It is now approximately a two-pound bag.

Camping is very different when it’s “functional.” I think both Rob and I pictured camping this trip would be something like our New Paltz experience last year, with guitars, a bonfire, and the leisurely imbibing of alcohol, but that first night in Iowa we were just too tired to really indulge in all that, and couldn’t even hang out outside due to the weather, so we barely managed a few RCM 400 tunes and half a bottle of wine inside the tent before going to bed.

After the abovementioned two campsites Tomtom lead us to last night, we tried a third, called “Camp Care Free” which sounded suspiciously like a day camp. …it ended up being a day camp. It’s hard to paint the picture perhaps but, it was 9:30 at night, dark, obviously, cold and a little rainy, and we’re driving on this unpaved road kind of near the highway in this huge field filled just with the ominous shadows of huge turbines which flashed lightning-like bursts of light every twenty seconds or so. Suffice to say: it was really creepy.

Anyway. So, today we head to Wells, Nevada, just over the Utah/Nevada border (how cool is that?! …sorry). Hopefully we’ll have better campsite luck out there. And hopefully it will be dry.