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| Trip to California |
| 06.15.04 (8:42 am) [edit] |
I have not been able to really think of things to say, only old things I have written. So for now, that's what you get!
lynne reminded me of this one:
[b]What I did on my Almost Summer Vacation[/b]
PART I
God may be your copilot, but Jared is Mine
May 13, 1995, 10am. No one slept the night before. Either in anticipation of the big road trip they had planned, or because the had a date. In any case, the three unlikely travel companions of Lynne, Jared and Jeanne were on their way to California!
Many people asked them why they were driving and not flying to California. "We want to see the country." they exclaimed over and over again. We want to wave at the truckers in Illinois, see the endless corn in Iowa and meet the people who live on 22 1/2 mile road. We want to eat, breath and see the farm lands of the USA. (patriotic music fades)
Anyway, they were on their way in their sporty white Dodge Intrepid loaded with a plethora of music.
3pm - LaSalle IL. or just outside. They laughed, they sang, they did "Mad Libs." Jeanne had driven the first leg, and Lynne the second, and now it was time for Jared "Andretti" Mauch. We felt like such rebels! Lynne smoked in the non-smoking car, Jared drove, unknown to the rental car company, and Jeanne? Well she hadn't broken any rules yet, but she was just dreaming!
Shortly after entering Iowa, we were drawn to one of Iowa's premiere attractions - Iowa-80, the world's largest truck stop. We stopped, took photos and peed. I got lost trying to find Jared who was using the phone, a common occurrence for Jared. The men stared at me like a dog stares at a T-bone. "This little missy needs to smile" one trucker said to me. I flashed him my pearly whites and rushed over to Jared's side for safety.
5pm, Des Moines, Iowa. Nick Crawford - Sounds like a porno star's name, yet it was a young hacker from Des Moines and we were on our way to his house to meet him. When we arrived at his house, he waited at the door for us. His sandy blonde hair and baby face were the epitome of an Iowan. He giggled nervously as we toured his newly remolded house. "Your system is down" he told Jared. Jared's face turned pale for a brief fleeting moment, but then returned to it's normal color after he remembered he made provisions for this very instance.
Nick's mom was a very friendly June-Cleaver type mom and chatted with us interested in the fact that two old bags and a young man came to visit their son. She didn't seem too concerned, which made me glad -- We weren't going to hurt him too much.
Nick took us to the home of Ryan Tucker, yet another young Iowan Jared had meet through escapades on his BBS. They both had worked on his staff to maintain his system, and by chance we happened to be in the neighborhood to drop by. Ryan Tucker was the ultimate computer nerd. His house was slightly over decorated and had five living rooms, but was pretty nice. Jared shivered with excitement as Ryan showed us his computer. (OK, not really) Lynne and I stood in amazement as the three young studs talked shop. After a few good laughs, we dropped Nick at home and were on our way to the Long Ass State of Nebraska.
May 14, 1995. 8am, Denver, Colorado. We found ourselves in a 70's pulp-fiction diner with orange and brown vinyl seats, called the "White Spot." We had spent the night trekking through Nebraska and part of Colorado, and crashed at a rest area about 4:30am to catch a couple hours of sleep. We had awaken at about 6 am to catch the sunrise across the plains, which is almost as good as a sunrise on Lake Huron, except it's not. Now we were in Denver at a diner with a spicy little waiter named Mike.
As fate would have it, it was his first day on the job. His hair was slightly moussed back with a small lose wisp of hair which danced around his forehead. I can't say he was the epitome of a native coloradian, but he was every thing I could have wanted in a waiter.. and more.
Next we stopped at the home of York and Marcia Miller, aunt and uncle to Jared. They lived in a lovely southwestern style home just outside of downtown Denver. We spent time visiting and mostly discussing our route to California. They gave us some great suggestions of places to stop. Our plans were basically to spend time in Colorado all day seeing the sights, and probably camping for the night. But we were on a free spirited trip and would go where the wind took us. And with a John Denver CD in the player, we were on our way.
In the immortal words of our waiter Mike as we were leaving the restaurant, "Have a good trip, get lost in the Rockies." That's exactly what we did. We spent the day in Colorado with no intention of leaving that day. We drove up to Loveland pass on the Continental Divide with an elevation of close to 12,000 feet. We made snow balls, threw them at each other, and took pictures. We wanted to have a snowball fight, but it was so cold we decided to just peg the car instead. Further into the Rockies where it was a bit warmer, we stopped and made snow angels on the side of the mountain. I spent most of the day in amazement of the beauty of the Rockies and didn't spend much time writing about them. Writing about mountains has been overdone, and there was not much more I felt I could add. But stepping out into the crisp high-altitude mountain air only one phrase came to mind, "Rocky Mountain High."
Further into our trip I managed to get a speeding ticket for what else, but driving too damned fast. But with beautiful scenery and great company, I lost track. I didn't think the officer would understand, so I didn't bother with an explanation, and went along my merry way -- a bit slower, and $56 poorer.
A few miles after the ticket, Lynne took over driving duties at a slightly slower pace. We were all a bit gun shy after the ticket, with the exception of Jared who continued at warp speed.
We spent most of the afternoon and evening trying to get over mountains. But because of recent snow storms, many of the passes were closed, which we didn't find out until we met with the wooden horse barriers. This wasn't such bad thing, though. We ended up driving through many little towns that were quaint and picturesque and we were glad we didn't miss them.
We probably spent as much time driving on Sunday as we did on Saturday, without really going anywhere and even though we were all getting kind of tired and cranky, not one of us regretted the route we chose. We all had our own memories and visual portraits of the day, and that helped us get through the night. And even though that sugar packet in Montrose, Colorado warned that "An optimist is someone who tells you to cheer up when things are going their way" We all knew that optimism was really if you could keep Jeanne in a good mood until she got her shower.
May 15th. 10:30 am. After stopping at a Motel 6 in Green River, Utah at midnight the night before, we were all showered and well rested and partially through the rocky state of Utah. We had all gone for a morning walk, ate breakfast and stopped for some scenic canyon pictures in Utah and now were ready for another day of driving.
About 1/4 the way through Nevada while selecting the next CD for our listening pleasure, something wacky started happening with the stereo. Jared and Lynne were in the front seat trying to figure out if we had blown a fuse or what the heck had happened. There was no manual in the car, so we really could figure out what was wrong. We could hear part of the song playing on the stereo, but it was soft and very distorted and there was no display on the radio. We all were a bit concerned. We had at least 9 hours more to drive and at least 5 to Reno which was probably the closest place that had a Dodge Dealer or a Thrifty Rental Car Agency.
Let me tell you, I love Jared and Lynne a lot, and I was having a great time so far, but 5 hours in a car with no stereo would have been an interesting challenge.
A couple of minutes later, we were going through the small town of Ely, Nevada when I made a suggestion to stop and turn off the car. Lynne pulled over, turned the car off, waited a few seconds (as an experienced PC user does) then started the car back up. The clock display eluminated and we were back in business with tunes for the road!
The three of us laughed uncontrollably. To most of you we had just turned the car on and off, but to use computer geeks we had just rebooted our Dodge Intrepid.
A short fleeting moment after our miraculous stereo recovery, I noted a glow about Jared. "Can we stop at the Radio Shack?" He asked. Unbeknownst to Lynne and I, Jared had spotted a Radio Shack at least a mile away. As usual Lynne and I were in awe of our friend Jared as apparently he knows or can sense where all Radio Shacks are across the country.
We spent the rest of Monday driving through the barren state of Nevada on the loneliest road in America, US 50. We even went through the loneliest town on the loneliest road, called Eureka. Just past the loneliest town in a little pull over on the side of the road, was the loneliest phone. We were going to make a call, but we were all far too lonely. Even Jared didn't take the opportunity to use this phone, which was a rare occurrence on this trip.
We all shared the task of driving throughout the day with an average speed of 80. We even put the Intrepid to the test by maxing it out at about 115.
At 6:00pm, we arrived in Reno, Nevada, had dinner, and gambled. Jared illegally gambled away $1 of his money, and I lost $5 to slots and video poker. Lynne was so depressed about loosing 75 cents on the slots, she spent $2.70 in spare change on the phone to be consoled by her friend Shannon.
At 8:45pm, we reached the long awaited state of California. And even though the border agricultural police stole my apples, I was still glad to be there.
11:10pm. Arrived at the house of Shannon and Derek, friends of Lynne, and our first destination in California. Met all of the other people that lived in the house in other apartments, and also met Bailey the dog, and mushroom, kitty, and Sheva, the cats. After visiting for a while, reading the epic story of our journey and unpacking, Jared and I crashed and Lynne stayed up and visited with her bestest friend in the whole world, Shannon.
PART II
I Drove all the way to CA to see Turgon, and he wasn't home.
May 16th. The real start to the vacation! Slept in till about 10:30. I know for some of you, this doesn't seem so exciting, but for me it is. I never sleep in. I'm usually up around 6 or 7 am, so sleeping in lets me know that I'm really relaxing. Went into San Jose and bummed around campus and downtown while Lynne and Shannon swam. Next we headed to Gilroy, California, the garlic capitol of the world. We stopped at "Garlic World," just to say we did and of course, purchase some garlic flavored taffy. After Gilroy, we headed up to Mountain View where my friend from College, Randy, lives. He had 2 extra tickets to the REM/Sonic Youth concert and we picked up a third from a so-called scalper who sold it to us for $5, which made our average ticket cost $20. Just under my commercial band limit. (A whole other story....)
It was really nice to see Randy. Him and I have pretty much stayed in touch since I graduated from college 8 years ago. He was a bit bummed that I don't drink anymore, but was glad to see me none the less. We had a great time at the concert communing with the stars and listening to great music. After the concert, I slept all the way home. Then back at Shannon's crashed on a futon in the kitchen with the sounds of Jared on the phone.
Oh yeah. Made my first attempt to get a hold of Nick (turgon), with no luck. I think I may have spoken to his mother, but didn't ask. Left a message, and will try again tomorrow.
May 17th. Slept in till 11:30 am. Actually, both mornings I had woke up around 8, read a little, then fell back asleep. It's really nice to not have any worries about waking up at a certain time.
Drove into San Francisco with Jared, Derek, Lynne and myself. Hung around the Haight-Ashbury district. Had lunch at a cool little diner called "The Pork Shop Cafe" I love cities, but San Francisco has to be one of my favorite meeting place of all the freaks. I love to see the different walks of life wandering around trying to decide what to do. The funny thing about California is that all the hippies moved there in the sixties, and stayed. The only thing that changed was their hair, which just got longer.
That evening, after trying Nick again, Jared and I went to visit my cousin Nancy who lives in Menlo Park, which is about 45 minutes south of Berkeley. Jared played with my little cousins as I sat and caught up with Nancy. After Menlo Park, we drove back up to Berkeley and went to the home of Steve (ash) Peltier and Jaylene Lewis. I had heard so much about Jaylene from Steve it was really great to meet her. Oh yeah, it was great to see Steve too! After visiting for a couple of hours, we all crashed out for the evening, with the exception of Jared, who talked on the phone.
May 18. Woke up this morning in time to meet up with my friend Gregor (gent) and bum around Berkeley. Berkeley reminds me a lot of Ann Arbor. The campus is really beautiful. There was plenty going on as graduation was only days away.
After spending the day in Berkeley, Jared, Steve, Jaylene and I went to a burger joint called "Barneys." I love California. I can eat healthy at almost any restaurant here, even a burger joint. I know eating out isn't exactly that exciting, but it was a great way to get to know Jaylene more. She is so sweet. Her and I were getting along great. We continued our great conversation in the Kitchen of their apartment. There was food to prepare for our planned picnic on the beach on Saturday. One of my favorite things to do is feed people. So I felt totally at home cutting up fruits and veggies and gabbing with Jaylene.
After all the food stuff was done, Steve, Jaylene and I sat in the kitchen by candlelight and Moxy Fruvous and bonded. Kitchens are just a comfortable, warm place to chat, and their kitchen was no different. Tried Nick again to no avail.
Where was Jared you might ask? Need I even say?
May 19. Got up early to go into the city today. Caught BART near Gregor's house and traipsed up and down hilly San Francisco with Jared, Gregor, Lynne and myself. Went through china town, down by the piers, and Ghiradelli Square and rode the cable car singing the "Rice a Roni" song.
Spent the evening at a Unitarian Church in Walnut Creek listening to an Electric Harpist named Carlos who was phenomenal. The first half of his show he portrayed music from South America, from several different countries. And the second half showcased more of his typical jazzy style. He also played the electric violin, which was also quite incredible. His showmanship and ability to entertain and joke with the audience was quite enjoyable.
Was hoping that we would be having a west coast happy hour, but I still have not gotten a hold of Nick...
I went to sleep that night with a song in my heart, the beach on my brain, and Jared on the phone.
May 20. BEACH DAY! I could hardly wait. Today was the day we were going to picnic and play in the ocean. It was fairly cloudy, but with wet suits, we'd stay quite warm.
I never dreamed in a million years I'd be in a wet suit today, but there I was on the same beach as all the gnarly surfer dudes, playing in the Pacific, giggling like a child, and totally having the time of my life. After a few hours in the Ocean, I was totally wiped out.
On the way home, though, we all ambitiously talked about going dancing. Well, I had virtually no clean clothes to wear. So while everyone else napped, Bill (spline) and I went to the laundry mat. One thing I have totally learned (and really knew all along) on this vacation was that it doesn't take much to make me happy. Some of the best moments of my vacation were things I could do at home -- bonding in the kitchen, playing with my cousins, or having coffee with a friend.
After starting the laundry, Bill and I walked forever looking for a place to get coffee. On the way, however, we talked about everything -- his girlfriend, my work, Star Trek, exercise, sex, etc. I've known Bill for a long time, but never have been really close. But some of the conversations I've had with him have totally rocked.
After laundry, we arrived back at Steve and Jaylene's to find everyone sleeping. So instead of dancing we all crashed, and crashed hard from a very active and fun day.
May 21. Today I drove down to Mountain View to see my friend Randy again. Randy is a college bud that I've kept in touch with for several years. It's not like I talk to him ever month, but two-three times a year we talk, he visits or I visit. To my surprise, however, his girlfriend Carrie had to study, so it was just Randy and I for the whole afternoon.
This was great! We spent the day gabbing about our friends, our jobs, our families and our futures. We drove down to Santa Cruz (where I tried contacting Nick again...) and spent the day walking all over the place. We started in down town Santa Cruz, stopped for coffee and a bagel, walked down to the boardwalk and rode the roller coaster and bumper cars. I even won a stuffed turtle on the "Frog Flop." We walked the beaches, watched the surfers and barked at the sea lions. I even got over my fence phobia by
climbing fences with Randy.
After Santa Cruz, we cruised up highway 1, then inland through some gorgeous Redwood forests, talking all the way.
After our fun afternoon, Randy invited a few friends over for a barbecue. I love computer people, because they are easy to relate to and Randy's friends were no different. We talked, ate and laughed for hours. It was great to spend time with Randy. It reminded me of the good old days.
May 22nd. Today Jared and I vegged all day. We spent the majority of the day driving looking for a bookstore so I could buy book two of a trilogy I had just finished book one of. It was kind of a nice leisurely day for really doing not much of anything.
In the evening, though, we had dinner with my cousin in Menlo Park again. We played with the kids, fed ducks at the pond ( I even had some ganders eating out of my hand) and read the kids stories until they had to go to bed. I love kids and these kids were great to play with. I hadn't seen them for five years, so it was really nice to see them again.
May 23. Today Jared, Gregor and I drove up to wine country. We spent the day driving around the scenic towns of Sonoma and Napa. We stopped at three wineries, tasted some wine, bought some wine and generally took in the scenic vineyards and pastures of the Napa Region.
After wine country we vegged at Steve's and waited for Jaylene so we could all have dinner together. I caught up in my Journal, and read some of my book I had bought yesterday.
About 7pm, I decided to go for a run. On my return trip, this rather large chocolate lab came running at me. He looked rather friendly, so I petted him so he wouldn't be afraid of me. After I started running again, he started to follow me. He ended up following me all the way back to Steve's where I found Steve sitting in his truck reading. We decided to drive up to where I ran so I could figure out how far I ran. As we started to take off, the dog started to follow us. He followed us for several blocks. We were kind of concerned that he would get hit by a car, so we stopped and put him into the back of the truck. He was so cute. We kept telling him to sit down, and he'd just stick his head through the truck window and lick Steve's face.
Once we got home, we looked on his tags and found that his name was "Boue." So we called the number and left a message. Then we looked again and found an address and took him home.
May 24. Awoke this morning to say good bye to Steve and Jaylene as we were going to be leaving them that morning. It was kind of sad, as I felt so at home with them and it made me realize that I really had missed Steve a lot. For the past three days he had tried talking me into moving to Berkeley, so I guess he missed me too. :)
After leaving Steve's, we picked up Lynne and headed down to Monterey. Spent the day stopping in coastal towns and taking in more of the great Pacific. The Ocean is like the mountains in that it's been over done in poems and stories, but there's nothing like a lung full of fresh ocean air.
I went to the Aquarium in Monterey, and Jared and Lynne walked Cannery Row, and bonded over cinnamon rolls and coffee.
I read my book throughout the trip as well as took in all the scenery and chatted with my comrades.
This was the last chance we were going to have to get a hold of Nick. We were near his house, so I called and kept trying to get a hold of him, till finally I did. I had spent most of the last week or so either talking to his mother, a machine or listening to it ring and ring. Finally I got to hear Nick speak. He told us he was too busy to see us even for a minute. We were very depressed that we were not going to get a chance to meet him. We think that he sent his spies out to Berkeley to check us out, and saw that we were too weird, and was afraid to meet us. He just said he has been too busy. You be the judge!
PART III
On the Road Again
(or, If I was a dung beetle, I'd want to live in Nebraska)
May 25. Today is our last day in California before we make the big trip home. I woke up early, in anticipation, I guess. After reading for a bit, I decided to go for a run. I actually really enjoy my little moments in which I wake up early. It gives me time to unwind and think about recent events. I ran for about 4 miles around the campus of Berkeley. I got a little lost, but it just made me work out harder which is good. When I returned back to the apartment, everyone was still sleeping, so I showered, packed and continued to read until everyone was ready to go.
We moved at a rather leisurely pace to get on the road. We ate brunch with Derek and Shannon, went to the grocery store, and to a grocery outlet fondly known to Lynne as the "Dented Can." (Ask her to sing the song for you), then we were on our way home at about 1:30PM.
All three of us were ready to get home. As Jared said, we wanted to "Haul Ass Home." Lynne and I, however, wanted to drive through Tahoe, which was well worth the detour. After stopping for some photos around Tahoe and a brief hail storm in the mountains, we were back on I-80, the fast track to get home.
May 26. We had driven straight through to Cheyenne, Wyoming by 9:30am, taking turns driving, of course. The trip home so far has been fairly uneventful. Wyoming is pretty desolate and Nebraska is just full of cows and everything that goes with them.
Nebraska is also full of state troopers, which happened to give us our second strike for a speeding ticket. Unfortunately, the victim this time was Jared, who was busy thinking about dung beetles and Sarah. (Now you know why all the phone calls) I'll let him give you the gory details of the both the phone calls and ticket.
Lynne is now afraid she's next on the hit list and plans on setting cruise control to the exact speed limit. I however, believe Lynne is above the law, as she has won our two week long licensee plate game in which we saw all the states with the exception of North Dakota, Kentucky, West Virginia, DC, and Rhode Island. We saw three Canadian province plates, and one from Switzerland, for a total of 49 different plates. This sets her apart from all the rest of us mortals who could not guess the correct number.
Our only real stop of the trip home was a 1 1/2 hour dinner just inside Iowa at a Perkins at about 7pm. We vegged out a little, and decided to haul through the night to get home early on Saturday. I slept most of the way through Iowa, didn't miss much though.
May 27. 7:30 am. Arrived in Ann Arbor after a 39 hour trip home with only potty and gas stops and one dinner stop. We had originally planned to leave on Thursday and take our time getting home, maybe even driving up to Seattle then across on US12, but we were all ready to get home, so we just drove it straight through.
This trip was really cool. I have always wanted to drive across the country, and now I've done that. I'd probably even do it again. There is so many beautiful and interesting things in our country, and I'm glad that I've had the opportunity to see some of them.
Now that we're home, Lynne will be vegging out over the weekend to get ready for work on Tuesday. Me? I'm off to Texas again for two weeks, unfortunately. And Jared, well, he'll be spending less time on the phone, if you know what I mean. With the possible exception of a call to Chrysler to complain about the automatic breaking feature on the Dodge Intrepid when you reach a speed of 115.
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