Lèse Majesté

Day 34

Tuesday, December 16th. Woke up to find the storm had caught up with me, but in the form of rain thanks to the altitude. Flagstaff, on the other hand, was getting hammered with snow.  Drove out to the Petrified Forest National Park and pretty much had the place to myself. The rain stopped for a while so I could do a little walking around and sightseeing. I had a one-on-one interpretive presentation from the ranger when no one else showed up. We both froze, though. While it wasn't raining, the wind was blowing rather fiercely and the temps were down in the 30s. Brrrr.... Heavy overcast, of course, so once again the snapshots aren't as impressive as they might be:

Those rocks are all petrified wood. The first shot is the root ball of a large tree.

The park also includes some beautiful portions of the Painted Desert. The rain had started back up, though, so I couldn't shoot any decent photos. I continued on east on I-40 to Albuquerque for the night.

Day 33

Monday, December 15th. Got up early and headed into the Grand Canyon National Park to try to beat the snow storm. There were already flurries and some fog in the canyon, so visibility was sadly limited. But the sight was still awe-inspiring even if I couldn't really capture it well in these snapshots:

I can't believe I've never managed to get here before this. There's no doubt I have to return some day in good weather. I've always wanted to do a raft trip through the canyon. Now I'm more determined than ever.

As the snow thickened, I headed out of the park to the east and descended to lower altitude ahead of the storm. Headed into Flagstaff, where there was still snow on the ground and 18-30 inches more forecast when the storm system got there. After a quick lunch, drove down to Sedona just to see what the new age freakazoid center of the universe looks like. Gotta give them credit - the scenery is impressive:

I continues on east along the old Route 66 path, stopping for a rare iPhone self-portrait while standing on a corner in Winslow, AZ:

Such a fine sight to see, eh? My next stop was to be the Petrified Forest National Park, but it was getting dark. So I called it a night in Holbrook, gateway to the park. Grabbed some dinner at Joe & Aggie's Cafe, where they reopened the kitchen for me. I walked in right after they shut it down. I gotta learn to look for dinner earlier in these little places. The sidewalks roll up at 8:00 or 9:00, at least this time of year.

Day 32

Sunday, December 14. One night in Vegas was enough for me. So after a tasty brunch buffet at the hotel, I headed towards the Grand Canyon. The route passes over Hoover Dam, unfortunately.

Unfortunate because of insane security. Think the TSA are a pain in airports? I don't know what agency it was, but they were running a checkpoint on the two-lane highway leading to the dam. Looooong delays. Crawling along at 0-4 mph for more than an hour. At least they're working on a solution. A new high bridge is being built downstream from the dam which should move traffic along real nicely once it's done:

As usual, click on any of them to see a larger image. You can see from that first one just how low the water level is in Lake Mead. Here are more views of the bathtub ring:

That last one is the spillway - the water is way below it, obviously. Once through the roadblocks, it was a nice cruise through a sunny day in the desert. Passed a town that sounds like a good place to be from. Far from:

I kept pushing on towards the Grand Canyon because I was being chased by a storm system forecast to bring heavy snow the next day. Ended up getting a room in Tusayan, a very little town just outside the gate to the park. This was my first taste of winter. It was 17 F when I called it a night and still dropping. Better than home, though. The Twin Cities had warnings up for windchills in the -30s.

Day 31

Saturday, December 13. On the road again... It has been years since I've been to Las Vegas and I've heard so much about the massive new development, so what the heck - let's go to Vegas!

The day started out with a classic cheap motel moment: the phone rang and I hear, "This is the front desk - I was wondering if you were planning to use the hot water." Since I was just about to jump in the shower, I said yes and was told, "OK, no problem." Barely lathered up and the hot water shut off completely. Aiiiiiieeeee!!!! Got them to turn it back on, and later found out the issue: the ceiling had collapsed in an unoccupied room and they were trying to work around the plumbing.

It was one hell of a windy day, which may have contributed to my incredible mileage between Barstow and Baker - 54 mpg. Maybe a tailwind? Those winds were kicking up some serious sand or dust storms, though. I stopped in Jean, Nevada, to grab some shots of the dust storm blowing in:

So on into Vegas for another cheap room...downtown this time, a few blocks from the Fremont "excitement". Nice place, though: the Main Street Station. Classic old Victorian hotel in the lobby. A brewpub on premises, too. The brewmaster's special was a Belgian sour cherry, a style I love. It was very mild for the style, however. Apparently compromising for the mass market. But tasty nonetheless. And their buffet rated one of the best in town and the best value by far, I've learned. Even New York magazine raved.

Went out for a stroll in the high winds (and cold) to check out the Fremont Street Experience. It was truly cheesy, perfect for the downtown tourists. The place was overrun by guys in cowboy hats and boots. Figured out eventually that I had arrived in town the same weekend as the National Rodeo Finals.

One final observation. The Main Street and its sister across the street, the California, apparently have some kind of Hawaiian connection going. Both places had a huge percentage of guests from Hawaii as well as Hawaiian foods on their menu. So now I know TWO places on the mainland where you can get spam sushi (or musubi to be more precise): a cafe at the California Casino and a Hawaiian fast food joint in Manhattan.

Day 30

Friday, December 12th. Slept in as late as I could, since I got in so freaking late the night before. Grabbed some lunch at Woody's Bar-B-Que in Inglewood before heading down to the beach off the end of LAX to watch the dune-busters for a while.

But my real goal for the day was to visit the Getty Center. Made it there in time to take the architectural tour. It was a chilly day for L.A., but it was still well worth the trip. The place is amazing. Richard Meier designed it shortly after winning the Pritzker Prize, the highest award in architecture. It is sited atop two small mountain peaks that overlook the Los Angeles basin. The docent said the site cost $110 million to buy, with construction exceeding $1 billion. Given that the original budget was $350 million, that's quite a cost overrun.

A few snapshots of the grounds:

It was a very smoggy day though, so the view of the basin and the ocean were quite limited:

 

The architecture was the real interest for me. I did look at some of the collection, particularly the paintings. But compared to other museums I've been to recently, it was underwhelming. On the other hand, how bad can a week be that starts out at MoMA in New York and ends at the Getty in L.A.

After the Getty i went out to play in Friday rush hour traffic, starting with (gack) the 405 right outside the gates. Hellacious. I decided it was time to to start heading east on my road trip, so I fought my way towards the east and called it a night in beautiful metropolitan Barstow.

Days 28 - 29

Wednesday and Thursday, December 10-11.  A vacation from the vacation, sort of. Wednesday at midday I flew to Minneapolis, spending about 30 hours in town before flying back to L.A. Thursday night. Both flights were completely full and delayed. Air travel really sucks these days. After retrieving my car at LAX, I checked into my cheap motel in the rather questionable neighborhood at Century and La Brea at 1:45 a.m. Ugh.

Days 26-27

Monday and Tuesday, December 8-9: New York City. Started off with a visit to MoMA. After lunch in the 5th floor cafe, I toured the Joan Miró and Van Gogh special exhibitions. Still not much of a fan of Miró, but now I've seen a much broader variety of his work over his career. Enjoyed the Van Gogh, although I'd seen some of it previously on a couple of visits to the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam.

The real purpose of the trip was a pair of theater events that are kind of insider deals. Monday night friends offered me a ticket to Bound for Broadway, a sneak preview at a bunch of shows in development. Check out that link for a list of the shows involved. One of the more interesting ones is a musical based on Dan Savage's book about how he and his boyfriend adopted a child.

The second big event on Tuesday was the 20th anniversary edition of the Gypsy of the Year competition. This is a fundraiser for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. As a major donor to BC/EFA, I've been lucky to get free tickets to two of their annual benefit performances each year for several years, and this is one of them. A friend of mine from Long Island, also unemployed at the moment, joined  me for the show (as well as coffee at the Algonquin afterwards). The benefit was a big success. Big news: Daniel Radcliffe is a seriously nerdy little dweeb. But he put on a good performance with other members of the Equus cast. And he kept his pants on, unlike in the show itself. The Equus company also set a new record for fundraising.

Just to top it all off, Tuesday evening I finally got to see Forbidden Broadway. This satirical review has been running for more than 26 years, skewering the hits and stars of New York theater with new versions on a regular basis. The current version is to be the last - the show closes in January. I've always wanted to see it but never managed to. This was my last chance, and it was literally the next door over from my cheap hotel, so I had no excuse. It was an absolute blast, loaded with inside references to shows past and present and concluding with a heartfelt tribute to Stephen Sondheim. Wish I'd seen earlier versions.

Days 23 - 25

Friday to Sunday, December 5-7. Cruised slowly through L.A. and Orange County, visiting places where I used to live. I was hoping Vinny's Brooklyn Pizza Works still existed in Costa Mesa. It was the only place I ever experienced garlic overload, including the time I ate garlic foods for nine hours a the Gilroy Garlic Festival. Sadly, Vinny's was gone. But at least its space has been taken over by Shirley's Bagels. Shirley used to be across the parking lot and when I lived there had the best bagels I've ever found on the west coast.

Eventually, though, I ended up in Silverado and spent the weekend with old friends Anthony and Susan, along with their menagerie (and their daughter, Jill). Silverado is about as rural as it gets in Orange County. It's an old mining community back in a canyon, and they actually live in a side canyon off of Silverado in a log cabin. Years ago I spent untold hours helping them build a stable way up the side of the canyon. It's still standing.

Can't say much about what I did there over the weekend, as I had to sign a nondisclosure agreement. But I enjoyed watching their dogs playing all weekend. Benny is a black Lab the size of a small horse. He's getting old and creaky now, but he is kind of a Silverado mascot. He used to wander down to the little branch library and market and mooch food all day. Now he has to get a lift down there. Abby is a younger and smaller Lab with endless energy and not a great deal of sense. She tortures Benny as much as he'll stand.

Sunday morning I headed to LAX to catch a flight to New York City. Parked the car for a few days (how can parking be cheaper in L.A. than Minneapolis), hoping every I hid in the trunk would still be there upon my return.

Day 22

Thursday, December 4th: a short day since I slept in. Been feeling a little run down, perhaps because of all the time in the mountains. In any case, I drove on into the L.A. area, a relatively short distance. Stopped before climbing the Grapevine to have lunch at a California tradition I've missed for years: In-n-Out Burger. Then on to Thousand Oaks where I checked into my room early, did a bunch of catch-up work online (like paying bills and applying for unemployment) and took a nap before going out for the evening.

I was able to meet up with my former neighbor, the gal who clued me in about Yosemite roads being clear, and she treated me to a nice Italian dinner. She's also a real good source of information about what's going on in the healthcare world, one place I'll be looking for work, so it was a good chance to do some networking even though I've been trying to avoid thinking about that for the duration of the trip. But above all, it was just a fun evening with a new friend. And she kept urging me to adopt her cat. She left Leo with another neighbor back home, who has been trying to foist him off on me for months. Who knows, maybe once I get my life back in order...

Days 20 and 21

December 2nd and 3rd: I woke up feeling very down and troubled. Too many consecutive days of bad economic news, thoughts of loose ends home in Minneapolis, and realization that a commitment and an opportunity in New York City were less than a week off, while I was still on the west coast. I was torn between staying and seeing more of San Francisco, a city I used to love to visit, and hitting the road home to the Twin Cities.

What to do? How about a compromise? Start heading east while thinking it through a bit more... I had been interested in seeing Yosemite on this trip, since I had never been there when I lived in southern California. But I had been scared off by the intimidating warnings on the park's web site about the requirement to carry chains and how it could be a federal offense with a $3000 fine if you were found without them when they were needed. But I had a timely email from a friend and former Minneapolis neighbor, now living in the L.A. area, who had just spent the Thanksgiving holiday in Yosemite. She assured me that that all the western entrances were open and the weather nice and warm, so the risk was real low. So Yosemite it would be...

The final miles into the park and the park roads themselves took much longer to drive than I expected, so I arrived around sunset. Sunset in the valley, that is, which was quite a bit earlier than in the flatlands. So I did not get a real good picture of things at first. And speaking of pictures, there was an image I wanted to hard to capture as it got dark: the moon and two planets in very close conjunction, just above what I believe was El Capitan. But I had no tripod and could not get the long exposure ite required. It will just have to remain burned into my memory.

I spent the night in an inn just outside one of the entrances, then came back in the next morning for a tour. Started with a two-hour bus tour of the valley and all the sites to be seen from the road or in close proximity, and then did some driving around on my own as well. I was just not in shape to do any real hiking at the altitude, though, so no real trail work. And it was pretty chilly anyway. But I saw enough to persuade me that I need to come back in the spring or summer some time when I'm in shape to get out and really explore the trails.

A few snapshots (click on any for a larger image):

 

Ended up the day driving to beautiful metropolitan Coalinga (I kid, of course) for dinner at the Harris Ranch. A friend had told me I really should check the place out, and I'd heard about it for years as a pilot anyway since they have a landing strip right there. Well, the meal was decent, but as I told my friend, I suspect it was the sort of place you'd visit more out of nostalgia. Definitely not drive 60 miles out of the way for, as I did. Especially since they have signs up around the vicinity about their water supply having failed to pass water quality tests, but they hoped to get it cleaned up within a year or so.

As for my nagging thoughts of heading home in a hurry, I came up with a solution. I will fly to NYC from L.A. this weekend, stop off in Minneapolis for a day on the way back to straighten out those various issues I was worrying about, and then return to the road trip feeling much less stressed about continuing on to see the desert southwest, hopefully. Managed to get a killer fare to pull that off. So I'm not worrying as much. Except for all the horrible economic news - an effective unemployment rate of 12.5 percent? Yikes.

One final note. On day 21 I achieved my highest mileage average of the trip, and indeed of the entire time I've owned my car. 49.1 mpg over approximately 225 miles. Not too shabby. Of course, coming downhill out of the Sierras probably helped...