Well we made it. At about 6 PM PST on Thursday the 11th of October a blue Acura TL with out of state plates made its way into and out of Topanga Canyon in Santa Monica, popping out onto Highway 1 and subsequently the Pacific Ocean. Here we are:
We’d actually crossed the California border the day before after leaving the Grand Canyon but this felt much more significant. Borders between states are built by politicians. Oceans are built by something far greater. I’ll take the latter when looking for symbolism in a “finish line” for this trip. Anyway, when we did hit California the day before, we headed for 29 Palms, Ca which sat just on the northern border of Joshua Tree National Park. We arrived in the evening and found a cheap Motel 6 to stay the night. The plan had been to camp in the park but all the guidebooks talked about how there were no facilities to be used except for a couple sites. It was late, we were tired, didn’t feel like planning ahead for a night without water or grocery store so we bailed and went with the $45 Motel 6. (We would regret this decision the next day)
Dinner that night was at the guidebook called “the nicest meal in 29 Palms.” Well as a very wise man, much wiser than this damn guidebook, once said, “It’s all relative.” My steak could have doubled for a flip flop and while the veggies were “from the garden,” I couldn’t tell if it was their garden or Madison Square Garden. Not fresh. Whatever. The drinks were cheap and there was a high school kid making a buck playing Pink Floyd tunes on his Casio keyboard by the pool helping us to tick away the moments that made up a dull day…of driving.
The next morning we went on a pretty cool hike. It was up 49 Palms canyon to what was called a “desert oasis.” From the cartoons of my childhood and whatnot, I had visions of this place being a beautiful pool, surrounded by palm trees and wildlife. Well, that’s actually exactly what it was. Minus the water since it was late fall and the driest part of the year. But you could see what it would have been like. Must have been a nice find for the cowboys who scouted this land…
We also saw a snake which was somewhat of a groundbreaking moment in Ellie and my relationship since to this point I had given her the impression that I am some sort of tough wilderness guy. Well not when it comes to goddamn snakes. They are, hands down, the creepiest creature to roam this planet. They are like some sort of severed alien body part that won’t die, despite being detached from its owner. I don’t know if this thing was poisonous or not (probably not, I know enough to know that 90% of deadly snakes have triangular heads. This one did not) but I was ready to turn the hike right around and head for the parking lot. This is also where I found the stick I was carrying, so I could ward off and serpents that got within my personal bubble. Little did I know that my snake relationship was going to change drastically in a couple days…
Here is a pic of the snake and the weapon I used to defend Ellie and me from it.
After the hike we cleaned ourselves up, changed the oil on the car and hit up the Carousel Diner for breakfast. The guy at the oil change place said they had the biggest omlet he’s ever seen but its delicious so we should just split it. I obviously took this as a challenge to my eating abilities and ordered one for myself. Here it is. I ate every last bite.
From here we headed south into Joshua Tree National Park to actually check out the other parts we didn’t see during our hike. This is when we really regretted not making the effort to camp there the night before. It was like being on a planet where all the people were these strange looking Joshua Trees. Apparently they had been named by Mormon settlers about 150 years earlier because the trees resembled Joshua, raising his arms in prayer to the sky. Well, I guess so. Eitherway, these were some wild looking trees (technically, they are part of the Lilly family. Weird) that filled up large desert plains, surrounded on all sides by these large rock formations. The picture can do the talking…
From there we crossed the rest of the desert and entered LA from the west. Actually we entered about nine different surrounding towns before we hit LA proper. If you’ve never been there, LA is basically like someone took New York and flattened it in the San Fernando Valley, spreading the people and office spaces out into cookie cutter communities, strip malls and office parks, as far as the eye can see. As an added bonus to this obvious beauty, the valley walls hold in the smog generated by such easy-to-navigate highways as the 405, the 5 and the 10 so as you come into the city you can’t help but think that Jimi Hendrix was road tripping to LA when he wrote Purple Haze (not just tripping in general). If you play your cards right in life, you’ll never have to be in LA.
The canyons and beaches to the north are another story though. This is where we found ourselves as we popped out of Topanga Canyon and onto the Pacific. Not wanting to be completely non-tourist, we did go down to the Santa Monica pier and walked around for a bit. From there we headed north to Malibu to find a campsite on the coast.
The next morning we headed north to Santa Barbara to visit my cousin Carrie who is in school there. Before getting there though we stopped for gas and I had a first time experience: a gas station that didn’t take credit cards. This was not a mom and pops station but a large chain and the lady looked at me like I was an idiot when I made her say again that they didn’t take credit cards. How is this possible?
Anyway, we ended up in Santa Barbara later that afternoon and hung out, going down to State Street (the main part of town), getting a tour of campus and then hanging out for the evening back at Carrie’s place. This is where we revisited my fear of snakes. Nicole, Carrie’s roommate and longtime friend, had a ball python pet and they were in the habit of letting Melvin (the snake) roam freely throughout the apartment. Well, with some encouragement from Ellie and giggles from Carrie et al, I made peace with Melvin and the entire (nonvenomous) snake community. Here is Melvin and me. And with El. You can tell how much she likes snakes as well.
PIC
The next morning we had breakfast with Carrie and headed up Route 1 again. (Great to see you Carrie!)
We’ll get the last half of our California coast up soon…
We’d actually crossed the California border the day before after leaving the Grand Canyon but this felt much more significant. Borders between states are built by politicians. Oceans are built by something far greater. I’ll take the latter when looking for symbolism in a “finish line” for this trip. Anyway, when we did hit California the day before, we headed for 29 Palms, Ca which sat just on the northern border of Joshua Tree National Park. We arrived in the evening and found a cheap Motel 6 to stay the night. The plan had been to camp in the park but all the guidebooks talked about how there were no facilities to be used except for a couple sites. It was late, we were tired, didn’t feel like planning ahead for a night without water or grocery store so we bailed and went with the $45 Motel 6. (We would regret this decision the next day)
Dinner that night was at the guidebook called “the nicest meal in 29 Palms.” Well as a very wise man, much wiser than this damn guidebook, once said, “It’s all relative.” My steak could have doubled for a flip flop and while the veggies were “from the garden,” I couldn’t tell if it was their garden or Madison Square Garden. Not fresh. Whatever. The drinks were cheap and there was a high school kid making a buck playing Pink Floyd tunes on his Casio keyboard by the pool helping us to tick away the moments that made up a dull day…of driving.
The next morning we went on a pretty cool hike. It was up 49 Palms canyon to what was called a “desert oasis.” From the cartoons of my childhood and whatnot, I had visions of this place being a beautiful pool, surrounded by palm trees and wildlife. Well, that’s actually exactly what it was. Minus the water since it was late fall and the driest part of the year. But you could see what it would have been like. Must have been a nice find for the cowboys who scouted this land…
We also saw a snake which was somewhat of a groundbreaking moment in Ellie and my relationship since to this point I had given her the impression that I am some sort of tough wilderness guy. Well not when it comes to goddamn snakes. They are, hands down, the creepiest creature to roam this planet. They are like some sort of severed alien body part that won’t die, despite being detached from its owner. I don’t know if this thing was poisonous or not (probably not, I know enough to know that 90% of deadly snakes have triangular heads. This one did not) but I was ready to turn the hike right around and head for the parking lot. This is also where I found the stick I was carrying, so I could ward off and serpents that got within my personal bubble. Little did I know that my snake relationship was going to change drastically in a couple days…
Here is a pic of the snake and the weapon I used to defend Ellie and me from it.
After the hike we cleaned ourselves up, changed the oil on the car and hit up the Carousel Diner for breakfast. The guy at the oil change place said they had the biggest omlet he’s ever seen but its delicious so we should just split it. I obviously took this as a challenge to my eating abilities and ordered one for myself. Here it is. I ate every last bite.
From here we headed south into Joshua Tree National Park to actually check out the other parts we didn’t see during our hike. This is when we really regretted not making the effort to camp there the night before. It was like being on a planet where all the people were these strange looking Joshua Trees. Apparently they had been named by Mormon settlers about 150 years earlier because the trees resembled Joshua, raising his arms in prayer to the sky. Well, I guess so. Eitherway, these were some wild looking trees (technically, they are part of the Lilly family. Weird) that filled up large desert plains, surrounded on all sides by these large rock formations. The picture can do the talking…
From there we crossed the rest of the desert and entered LA from the west. Actually we entered about nine different surrounding towns before we hit LA proper. If you’ve never been there, LA is basically like someone took New York and flattened it in the San Fernando Valley, spreading the people and office spaces out into cookie cutter communities, strip malls and office parks, as far as the eye can see. As an added bonus to this obvious beauty, the valley walls hold in the smog generated by such easy-to-navigate highways as the 405, the 5 and the 10 so as you come into the city you can’t help but think that Jimi Hendrix was road tripping to LA when he wrote Purple Haze (not just tripping in general). If you play your cards right in life, you’ll never have to be in LA.
The canyons and beaches to the north are another story though. This is where we found ourselves as we popped out of Topanga Canyon and onto the Pacific. Not wanting to be completely non-tourist, we did go down to the Santa Monica pier and walked around for a bit. From there we headed north to Malibu to find a campsite on the coast.
The next morning we headed north to Santa Barbara to visit my cousin Carrie who is in school there. Before getting there though we stopped for gas and I had a first time experience: a gas station that didn’t take credit cards. This was not a mom and pops station but a large chain and the lady looked at me like I was an idiot when I made her say again that they didn’t take credit cards. How is this possible?
Anyway, we ended up in Santa Barbara later that afternoon and hung out, going down to State Street (the main part of town), getting a tour of campus and then hanging out for the evening back at Carrie’s place. This is where we revisited my fear of snakes. Nicole, Carrie’s roommate and longtime friend, had a ball python pet and they were in the habit of letting Melvin (the snake) roam freely throughout the apartment. Well, with some encouragement from Ellie and giggles from Carrie et al, I made peace with Melvin and the entire (nonvenomous) snake community. Here is Melvin and me. And with El. You can tell how much she likes snakes as well.
PIC
The next morning we had breakfast with Carrie and headed up Route 1 again. (Great to see you Carrie!)
We’ll get the last half of our California coast up soon…
1 comment:
Nice work with the blog guys. Truly Epic. Here is a recent story from the Cambodia Daily you might find interesting:
Trouser Snake Kills Cambodian Man
Phnom Penh - A Cambodian man who took off his trousers, tied the legs at the bottom and wrangled a 2-metre cobra into them died when it bit him through the fabric, local media reported Monday.
Khmer-language daily Koh Santepheap quoted police as saying Chab Kear, 36, saw the reptile swimming in a river just outside the capital last Thursday during a drinking session and captured it in the hopes of selling it later in the day.
He tied the animal inside his trousers and a scarf around his waist, but as he continued carousing the enraged snake managed to get its fangs free and bite Kear three times on the stomach.
The newspaper reported Kear's last words as being "don't worry - it's nothing a drink can't fix" before he succumbed to the cobra's venom.
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