ROAD TRIP 2006, WESTWARD: SOCAL

Day 17 (6/23) Josh, Brad, Nathan

Not once on the whole trip did a barrista bat an eyelid when I handed over my own coffee mug, making it seem like such a thing was commonplace. Why, then, were so few of them capable of actually filling it with the right amount of coffee? Like, not so much that it spills over with the lid on? Starbucks in Blythe made this mistake, as expected, but to add their own little Blythe twist, they did me the courtesy of not screwing the lid on right, resulting in a nice little puddle of coffee in my crotch. Thanks, Starbucks Blythe. That made my morning.

Joshua Tree National Park soon cheered me up, though. We stopped at the ranger station, got some advice for a couple hours of touring, then headed for Cottonwood Spring, which turned out to be a damp patch of mud. The damp patch was nevertheless coated in bees and tarantuala hawks (a kind of wasp), which was neat. We also caught zebra-tailed lizards (Callisaurus draconoides) there. Well, I should say Dave did. My hands were shaking too much in excitement. Cool little guys, big long legs for getting up of the hot ground, hold their tail up as they run as a diversion, very fast. Also caught a night lizard there.

We drove up through the park, stopping for ocotillo, cholla, and the eponymous Joshua trees, all of which were magnificently alien (from my northern hardwood forest point of view). Had lunch in Twentynine Palms, and sped off toward LA.

We met Brad and Leslie at their place in Pasadena, where Brad was getting the grill going. Since moving Brad has become a grill aficionado, or so he had claimed, and I was eager to taste. I was not dissapointed. Excellent lamb, steak, chicken, sausage, and Leslie made a really good green tea cake for dessert. Nathan Hodas showed up, along wiht his fiancée, as did several of Brad’s other friends. Much beer, whiskey, cider, wine, champaign, Dave rattles off his many stories, Andy mutters subtext, Ken-ichi sulks under the weight of a whole 2 beers.

Day 18 (6/24) Passing

Next day we bid adieu to Mr Howard, placing him safely on a plane at LAX. Dave made one of his trademark speeches, this time on the subject of reconciled differences. I don’t know why Dave has to speak his mind in the form of PSAs all the time, but I guess it works. I think we went and tooled around Santa Monica for a while. Some decent pizza at a place near Brad’s that night.

Went for a hike up in Angeles National Forest the day after, pretty close to Brad’s place. I was glad to discover you can actually get out of the city for a bit, even if it was a pretty urbanized trail. There were cool ruins of an old hotel on top, as well as abandoned train tracks and fine view of Pasadena. Plenty of neat flowers, too. That night Dave decided to smoke some chicken of his own. Brad had some Jack Daniels wood chips, and Dave mixed his own rub. Took a while to come together, but the result was damn fine, very smokey.

Day 19 (6/25) Refried

Final day in SoCal, Dave toured Caltech as I sat around and read. Lunch at Roscoe’s House of Gastronomic Sin. Dropped Brad’s key off with him at his school, said our fairwells, and hit the road again. This time up Highway 1, through Malibu, Santa Barbara, Lompoc, etc. Pretty drive. Ate so-so fish an chips in San Luis Obispo, and camped in Morro Bay State Park, easily the most crowded campsite we’d been to. Lit a fire, Jack and cokes.

(Apologies for the terseness. I’m supposed to be learning Java!)