28 Days to LA: Day 24-26
I'm here, sitting in my room on Sherman and DeSoto. As the other Arquette sister says in Pulp Fiction, this is trippy.
The drive was unreal. It took, as the maps said it would, 3 days of hard driving. Day 1 I didn't leave until 9:30, so didn't quite make it to Dallas, I was about 100 miles short. It's amazing how much slower you drive a 45 year old boat, especially around corners.
Day 2 was Texas day. I really had no idea a state could be so big. I mean, I entered it mid-afternoon on Day 1 and didn't leave it until 24 hours later. Ok, I slept, but still. I haven't looked it up, but how long *IS* I-20 through TX?? Whatever it is, it's Too Long. It's not like it's even an interesting state to look at.
Day 3 (jeez, I guess that's today, but road-trip time is weird and ends up getting all confusing) was desert day.
Desert.
Conjures up images of dry, desolate landscapes, right? Hardly ever rains, by definition really. So, why did I have to slow down to almost a crawl on four separate occasions and in more than one desert state due to horrendous thunderstorms? It's surreal when you can look to your left and see sunshine, look right and see blackness. And dead ahead you can actually see the column of rain that you are about to drive through.
The roads are long and straight for the most part, just like in the movies too. But they don't explain well enough that they just go on and on and on for days. and days.
I didn't do any site seeing along the way, there just didn't seem any point on my own, and that damn clock kept ticking. Ellie, my GPS, was infuriating at counting down the miles left to the desk at which I sit. Let me tell you, when you get up after a 13 hour day of driving and she tells you that you have over 1600 miles left, it wipes away any romance from the road trip. I cracked 973 miles on day 2 when i worked out that I could stretch a tank full to almost 300 miles so I stopped much less often. It usually takes 4 to 5 hours to drive to the beach from GA, so I just kept doing "one more trip to the beach" until, well, until I got here.
That's kinda the last part of this story, in some ways. Tomorrow I go to a local car show and meet up with some friendly locals that I've met on the HAMB. The show's in Ventura where I shall make sure I take the time before or after the show to sit on the beach and walk barefoot in the ocean. I took this picture in Ventura last week with Tara.
I start work on Monday, but there are lots of things I want to do in the evenings. Find some permanent digs would be good, preferably before my week stay is up under Ramada's roof. Drive Mulholland and look down on LA at night. Cruise Van Nuys Blvd on cruise night. Visit LA Ink. Lots more - you know the drill, you've been in those movies theaters too.
I made sure that Wolfman Jack was playing on the American Graffiti soundtrack when I drove off the freeway today. I first saw that movie when I was 17 and in my first year of college.
That damn movie has got a lot of answering to do.