I traveled this past week through the desert, up the Pacific coast, and into the colorful house-filled hills of San Francisco.
The trip started after I unpacked my car at my new place on Tuesday night and then dropped Shawn off at the office on Wednesday morning and headed on my way through Phoenix and western Arizona towards the Colorado River. After briefly stopping at a checkpoint to cross into California and passing through Blythe and Coachella, I made it to Palm Springs and the Morongo Indian Reservation (and casino) and saw more of the future in between in a place called Whitewater.
I passed through L.A. in a blitz and made it to where the hills hit the coast.
I drove the 101 to the 1, going back from the future,...
passing the elephant seals,...
driving through and above the clouds, and...
taking a few photos of the car.
I cruised in and around the hills, hugging the hills when coasting right and scaring myself when leaning left. I drove through the trees as the sun set and spent the last hour in the dark, the entire time thinking of some late night drives through the Ozarks back and forth from the Buffalo. I spent the night in Big Sur, sleeping next to a river which less than a mile away joined the ocean.
It was amazing waking up to some chilly weather and underneath leaves changing color. I packed up camp and drove 12 miles north and stopped at Bixby Bridge, one of many historic concrete bridges along the way, but the most amazing. Here is where Jack Kerouac spent most of his adventure in his book
Big Sur and is one of the spots I planned to spend some time.
I climbed down the several hundred feet to the coast and hiked along a creek trail. At the beginning of the trail were some old, rusty cars that seemed liked they had been pushed off into the canyon after a long cross country adventure. One was decorated with a pieced together driver with a sign on the back bumper stating that he was "going to the beach". I added a touch to this pile of junk.
Seeing the fresh water creek flow into some smashing salty sea waves underneath a great concrete expanse was a good start to the day.
After this stop I made my way up the coast, stopping in Santa Cruz for a hot dog, coffee, and some bike riding (up a hill to UC Santa Cruz, which I couldn't find entirely) on my new old rusty women's Schwinn Sprint. Back on the road I made it into San Francisco right to the workplace of Ryan Lewis at 826 Valencia...
where I met Lauren from Arkansas. That afternoon we dressed up for the Halloween party with the kids. Ryan was a Ceiling Fan and I was Elmo.
That night Ryan and I walked by some amazing graffiti, seeing one of my favorite artist's work (her name is Swoon).
And then met his friend Kate at the Pirate Cat Radio station to watch All My Pretty Ones perform on the air. After that good show we crossed Arkansas street...
and headed to Bottom of the Hill to watch another show (with one of Ryan's coworkers in it).
On Halloween we went to the office, did some work, and I met my cousin Christy for lunch. Later we readied our costumes and I sliced open my finger while carving some amazing Ipod and headphone pumpkins.
While my finger bled we passed out candy to the tricker-treaters and finally headed out to a party where Ryan the Lumberjack and I ran into the local cat lady, a group of toys, Michael Phelps, and some Palins (both Sarah and Bristol).
We next headed on the bus to a downtown party during which the entire front half of the bus sang a Little Mermaid song. That party consisted of a team chess game and no dancing. My costume kept being confused for a tennis player and each player's name that got yelled out I just answered "How'd you know?" But what I really was was a Jump Rope Champion - faster than even the camera could catch.
An uncostumed Argentinean tried to out jump me but he forgot that I told him I wasn't just a jump roper, but a jump rope CHAMPION.
Halloween ended back at the apartment and to bed around 4:30 a.m.
A slow and rainy morning describes the next day, with an attempt at bike riding to meet Christy and her boyfriend Thom for lunch. I got Ryan hooked on getting a bike in just 15 minutes of riding.
That night was capped with sausages and beer at Gestalt and then video games, beer, and napkin trivia at Elbo Room.
Sunday cleared up and became a beautiful day. We jumped at the opportunity to see the blue and white skies, making stops at the Painted Ladies (from Full House) with a city scape view,...
at Golden Gate Park and the seaside, at the Golden Gate Bridge,...
at Lombard street (the most zig-zagging street in the U.S.),...
and finally at City Hall, which has the largest dome in the U.S., and fifth in the world (I read about this once and you can find more information here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco_City_Hall).
After a day filled with driving a stick shift up and down the San Fran hills and smelling a bit of the clutch, this extended weekend ended with an amazing concert at Bimbo's by She and Him (M. Ward, Zooey Deschanel, and company) before getting a view of the entire city at night from atop Twin Peaks.
Yesterday told of 12 hours in the car, passing through some more beautiful scenes, seeing an AmeriCorps NCCC group at a gas station, and catching up on the phone with friends. After a great time in Cali, I am now back at work at c/o Hunter Riley, The Pat Tillman Foundation, Suite 214, 2121 South Mill, Tempe, AZ, 85282.
