March 15, 2008

Lance and I slept late as a result of the shenanigans of Friday Mack and Lance respectively. I got up a little while before Chris so I went down and put money in the meter, and removed the ticket from under the wiper. A cup of coffee and a bagel later, I went and Lance was just getting up and grumbling about how I snore (I think he is just hyper sensitive). So we went over to the border between mexico town and korea town for the best pastrami sandwich I have ever had – at Langer’s.

We planned on having brunch and then I was going to head out – but we were duped into hanging out in little mexico and the nearby area for over three hours waiting for photos to be developed. I didn’t get on the road until almost 5pm when a thunderstorm came through and snarled the traffic. What almost made it worthwhile – when I got east of the city and into the mountains, the higher elevations were blanketed in a thin layer of snow. There were dozens of cars pulling over on the interstate to look at, touch, and make balls with, the snow.

Pics: a) Glamer Shots; b) Handling business; c) Secret photo at Mak’s coffee shop; d) Lance self-photo

Today Miles: 194; Trip Miles: 11,200
Starting Point: Los Angeles, CA
Ending Point: Baker, CA
Route: 110E, 10E, 605N, 210E, 15N
Cost of a Parking Ticket in Los Angeles: $40.00
Citation: 2015321210
Number of States Visited: 22
Number of Parking Tickets in California: 2
Number of Parking Tickets all other states combined: 0
Other things that Cost $40.00: Poorly made Fake ID’s

March 14, 2008

After a morning of work, and waiting for UPS to deliver a couple of pairs of shoes to replace my beat footwear – I drove up the California coast for the second time on this trip. I got to Lance’s building and having learned from my parking challenges last time, parked immediately in a spot where it was legal to park overnight, but required feeding a meter the next morning. I decided to let Saturday Mack figure that out and locked up the vehicle.

Lance had a full evening planned, but required me to put on ‘LA Dress Up’ clothing. I don’t have ‘nice jeans’ and my ‘blazer’ is attached to a suit that I wouldn’t consider fashionable, so I put on a pair of pants with a cuff and a shirt with more than three buttons. We started with dinner at Pete’s Café & Bar, a short walk from his apartment downtown. We both had beef dishes and neither of us were disappointed at all.

After dinner Lance drove us to another part of town to a club called Blue Velvet where an event to support an Asian Pacific Women’s / Family Charity. There didn’t seem to be too much focus on the charity, but it was a really crowded place with a beautiful pool, outdoor seating by a few fireplaces, and an amazing bathroom that was outmatched by the large number of people consuming large numbers of drinks. We did catch up with Tia, Hoai (ref 1/31) and another friend Genevieve. After leaving Blue Velvet I twisted my ankle slightly so I managed to get Lance into a dive bar named Monty where I nursed it back to health with a drink, but a full bladder was safer than a trip to the restroom.

Pics: all in my mind

Today Miles: 123; Trip Miles: 11,004
Starting Point: San Diego, CA
Ending Point: Los Angeles, CA
Rest area nap: 25 minutes
Route: 805N, 5N

March 10 - 13

It is cliché, but true – life is better at the beach.

Home Office: As with all of the friends I have visited on this trip, Caleb graciously allowed me to set up my temporary office in his living room, which coincidentally is Caleb’s office as well. The chatting around the coffee pot tended to involve plans to purchase large tracts of land in the desert ‘just in case.’ We also enjoyed the lunch hour to make elaborate meals – the best of which was the crockpot pork tenderloin with spaghetti squash.

Settings: San Diego is in full bloom right now – birds of paradise, geraniums, chrysanthemums, margaritas, pansies, violets, wild rosemary, the weird plant with the black leaves, and thousands of species that I don’t know the name of – all are in some state of bloom. Even driving on the highway there are areas that are pools of fragrant flowers. It is fantastic.

Dana is definitely a foodie – so each evening there was usually some good wine and excellent food. While we went to a fancy steakhouse, asian fusion bistro, sushi, Mexican – my favorite (and to me the quintessential SD cuisine) was fish tacos at South Beach Bar & Grill in Ocean Beach. Being a few hundred yards from the beach, a few inches from a pitcher of beer, you'll be in heaven.

"A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving."
— Lao Tzu

I run the risk of becoming a local – wearing shorts and flipflops and smile all day... and wearing out my welcome with my great hosts, so I tear myself away from San Diego Friday morning. As Gibran described; "It is not a garment I cast off this day, but a skin that I tear with my own hands. Nor is it a thought I leave behind me, but a heart made sweet with hunger and with thirst. Yet I cannot tarry longer."

Photos: a) Creepy black leaves; b) Bird of paradise; c) Love birds in paradise


Counting Sand
Time Spent in SD: 7 days / 6 nights (longest duration of trip)
Long Song - Bob Dylan’s ‘Desolation Row’: 11:25
Led Zeppelin’s ‘Stairway to Heaven’: 8:02
Allman Brothers ‘Mountain Jam’ (Live at Fillmore - March 13 second show): 33:47
Lincoln’s ‘Gettysburg Address’: 2 or 3 minutes
Address Word Count: 10 sentences / 272 words
Battle of Gettysburg: 3 days
Number of Americans Killed in Action: 7,863
Total Casualties (+ wounded or captured / missing): 46,286

Guess the number of puppies printed on the 'dog' blanket:
Dana: 777
Caleb: 294
Mack: 270
Actual: 466
Counter: Dana
Caleb’s Prize: 0 Dishes, 0 Cooking
Solution: going out to dinner

Note:

Caleb, the smartest person that I know*, has shown me how to manipulate the settings on this blog so anyone can leave a comment. Heretofore google accounts were required - an oversight and error. I apologize for any inconvience or frustration this may have caused.


*named caleb and living in san diego.

March 9, 2008

Gift Receipts: At first I thought that it was me – I gave a gift (durian – reference 2/4 post), and it wasn’t received with the appreciation I had expected. With the presentation of my most recent house-gift, I am starting to think that Caleb isn’t prone to accepting gifts with grace and humility. When I was off-roading in AZ, I took a chance to wrangle some Teddy Bear cactus buds so Caleb could start his own garden – to no avail as he attempted to ditch the little guys at his first opportunity.

We spent the day running errands (grocery, farmer’s market, sushi, ineffective carwash for caleb's whip) and heading to Mission Beach to meet up with Dave and Julia – to keep the effort of meeting up with and enjoying friends wherever we can find ourselves. It is not a lot of effort when it involves sitting on the beach in the San Diego during late afternoon enjoying the sun, the sand, the people-watching, and good friends who have interesting things to say. While it was only about half an hour of sitting on the beach, it was an injection of happiness to the being.

The only caveat to sitting on the beach – it isn’t what it used to be. I’m not just being a curmudgeon, San Diego had a voted referendum to enact a one year booze ban on the beach. When I spent a few months here a million years ago, Luis and Bryan and the gang would bring a cooler to the beach and spend hours lounging and goofing off, the only harassment from the authorities was when a glass bottle was produced. Now all alcohol is banned on the beach – and the campaign included a radio announcement to the potential spring breakers when I was in Phoenix.

Portal: It would be a shame to drive cross country to sit in front of a television playing a video game, but Caleb shamelessly introduced me to this small (and potentially overlooked) component of The Orange Box game… it is a first person game that is a great logic and problem solving game. Warning: There is the opportunity for some frustration as the logic is progressive and impressively challenging at certain points (I had caleb who had beat the game to hassle for hints periodically). The total gameplay depends on the logic abilities of the player, but for 4 to fifteen hours of mentally stimulating entertainment, the $60 bucks is on par with the 2 hours of intellectually numbing ‘semi-pro’. (I will refrain from saying how long it took me to complete the game – and disavow any assistance from Caleb)



Pics: a) Give your new houseguest a hug (note potholder used to handle plant); b) tilt your head to the right a little



Fillets in 2 lbs of Tilapia: 11
Person Meals provided: 5
Number of unique shoppers discovering strawberries are on sale: 2
Containers of strawberries purchased: 5
Number 1 producer of strawberries worldwide: USA
Number 2 producer of strawberries: Spain
Como se dice ‘fresa’ en ingles: Strawberry
Word of the day: Gewgaw
WOTD usage: 3

March 8, 2008

Imperial Dunes / Glamis: I took a Saturday morning detour North once inside California – so I could check out the planet of Tattoine – or at least the setting used for Star Wars and Lawrence of Arabia. The Imperial Dunes Recreational Area is a portion of the Algodones Dunes – a fluffy white sand dune that is 45 miles long by 6 miles wide. There were hundreds of RV’s and thousands of people on motorcross bikes, atvs, souped-up golf carts, and dune buggys, driving like maniacs over the contours of the dunes.

I got to Caleb’s house early afternoon, just in time to go for brunch with him and his lady Dana. She was getting ready for a big pharmacology exam so she couldn’t hang out. In an effort to take advantage of the beautiful weather and be active, Caleb and I visited the Torrey Pines State Reserve along the coast, ‘home of our nation’s rarest pine tree – pinus torreyana.’ It is a well maintained and popular site that unfortunately closes at 6pm – we arrived shortly before 5. We still had plenty of time to hike a series of trails that work down from the cliffs to the beach, and back. Which was just a preview of later that night when Caleb, his buddy Daragh, and I couldn’t get a cab back from the Pink Elephant and ended up walking about three miles home.

Pics: a) boys and their toys; b) sand everywhere; c) desert in bloom amid the machines; d) they aren’t windmills, they are propellers that keep the earth rotating; e) brunch; f) guys having a photo at the beach – and this time we aren’t the clowns in the back waving too.

Info-Mashun:
Today Miles: 208; Trip Miles: 10,881
Starting Point: Yuma, AZ; Ending Point: San Diego, CA
Route: 8W, Ted Kipf RdNW, 78W, 86S, 8W
Price of 87Octane Gas – Yuma, AZ: $3.16/gal
Price of 110Octane Racing Fuel: $5.89/gal
Imperial, CA: -59ft
Tecate Divide: 4,140ft
San Diego, CA: 72ft
Distance from Imperial to San Diego: 118mi
Word of the day: Kizmet
WOTD usage: 1

March 7, 2008

Piestewa: When I lived in Phoenix the best (free) activity in town was climbing Squaw Peak – the Phoenix Mountains Park inside the city’s limits. I headed there directly from skyharbor. In the ensuing ten years the name has been changed to Piestawa Peak (Squaw is actually an offensive term) and either they have added a few hundred feet, or I have added about thirty pounds.

Thunderbird: I drove around the area I lived, the restaurant at which I worked, and my alma mater. In the ensuing ten years the name has changed twice and either they have made the campus bigger, or I have added about thirty pounds. What actually did expand was the city: Phoenix streets are numbered, starting from the center and the roads running north south expand out, Streets East and Avenues West. When I lived at 63rd Ave and Bell, I could ride my bike to the end of civilization – today I drove west to the Desert loop and never lost sight of subdivisions and traffic.

Regret: I had a chance to take Agua Caliente Road from just west of Buckeye – it is a dirt road that loops around and through the Gila Mountains. It was a lot of fun driving through the desert on the dirt road, and I even took a side trip offroading (with Arizona Dept. of Resources Blessing). It was awesome! I was kicking myself for not going to a grocery store so I could have camped out there, with two granola bars and three bottles of water it wasn’t an option, so I pushed on to Yuma.

Books: in 2003, JM Coetzee won the nobel prize for Literature. I read ‘Slow Man’ and recently completed ‘Disgrace.’ Both books are entertaining and I recommend them, but with the warning that Coetzee’s forte is character rather than plot. The subtle nuances of the personae and their perceptions of the world are rich and fulfilling where the thread of the story is tenuous at best.

God’s Little Instruction Book, The Book of Questions, lists of 1,000 Things (insert social group) Should Know. Haiku. It is a series of exponentially more compact ideas. While I still look forward to the return of prose, Kerry mentioned, then NPR made multiple references to ‘not quite what I was planning’ a collection of six word memoirs by famous & obscure writers (edited by Smith Magazine).

From the introduction: Legend has it that Ernest Hemingway was once challenged to write a story in six words. Papa came back swinging with, “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.” Some say he called it his best work. Others dismiss the anecdote as a literary folktale. Either way, the six-word story was born, and it’s been popping around the writing world for years.

Story of six word stories short – Ideas in six words are eloquent.

Unwords
Starting Point: Memphis, TN
Waypoint: Phoenix, AZ
Ending Point: Yuma, AZ
Today miles: 266; Trip Miles: 10,673
Offroad Miles: 53.4
Route: 303S, 10W, Old 80S, Agua Caliente Rd., random dirt, 8W
Dirt Road Soundtrack: Sonata in C by Domenico Scarlatti
Piestewa Peak Trail: 1.2M
Piestewa Peak Height: 2,608ft
Phoenix elevation: 1,117ft
Do I subtract to get vertical distance traveled? 1,491ft
Height of antenna of Empire State Building: 1,472ft

Pics: a) using photo-op as an excuse to take a break on squaw peak; b) tower of power; c) i'll devour - after a couple of honks to get this character off the road; d) how i roll in the dirt; e) about 95 miles west of Glendale - the avenue count continues

March 6, 2008

Bulletized, for your reading pleasure:

Lyrics (partial) to Dead Milkmen, 'going to graceland' from album Bucky Fellini:
“Goin' to Graceland
We're goin' today!
I'm so happy I just can't wait!
Gonna see the place where Elvis Presley died

When my time comes; That's how I wanna go -Stoned and fat and wealthy; And sitting on the bowl; Lots of people say That it's sad The King is gone; Well Elvis might be dead But his cash flow lives on.”

Price of Graceland tour when Bucky Fellini was released (1987): $8.50
2008 Graceland Mansion Tour: $27.00
2008 Graceland Elvis Entourage VIP Tour: $68.00
Children 6 & under: $0
Visits to Memphis in 15 months: 5
Graceland visits: 0
Lisa Marie Presley Current Age: 40
Number of husbands: 4

Delightful Dinner at Flemings Memphis (chain rule suspended for business trip):
Fantastic wine: Fritz
Fritz location: Dry Creek Valley, Cloverdale CA
Fantastic Port: Dela Force – Colheita
Colheita Vintage: 1986
Port Source: recommendation from waiter from bartender from leftover from winetasting from prior week from portugal
Preposition From: 6

Delightful beer: Dogfish Head 90minute IPA
Description: it is a sweet beer that is reminiscent of the unibroue's 'la fin du monde' but without some of the more complex (and potentially distracting) flavors. a tremendously clean finish! the only downside is this is a one & done beer - the flavor is too rich to have a second beer, but after the flavor roller coaster any subsequent beer is a disappointment process.
Delightful bourbon: Blanton's
Booze Background: The world of potent potables is vine vs. grain - everything is either fruit that is fermented (wine) and then distilled (broad array) or grain that is brewed (beer) and then distilled (broad array).
Bourbon unBared: 'bourbon' is distilled corn alcohol. it is unique from 'scotch which is usually distilled barley (and by definition from scotland) and the eponymous 'rye.'
Description: Bourbon doesn't have the sophisticated reputation that has developed for scotch. this is odd as both hillbillies and reluctant brits are equally annoying when blotto. my benchmark for bourbon is Woodford Estate - this bourbon is much more complex in flavor, and unfortunately has a strong after flavor. With a little water it is much smoother.

A friend asked me if I drink naught but alcohol (paraphrased)? As I am careful to not imbibe impairing quantities when driving is involved, and most of my life is driving oriented - the answer is no. I have come to be a connoisseur of bottled water as well - but while my taste buds are discerning, I am not very picky.

Memphis Accent observation: Client security guard
Preposition used: ‘here’
Preposition pronunciation: ‘her’
Preposition pronunciation part of speech: pronoun
Noun used: ‘beer’
Noun pronunciation: ‘bee-ah’
Noun pronunciation syllables: 2

While I have been away, my fellow travelers have been busy, uploading their content to the web as well. Here is a video of Lance vs. Teddybear Cactus:



if that doesn't work for your browser, here is the link through to it, and many entertaining videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45dzNB0KjcM

courtesy of:
http://seelance.blogspot.com/

March 3 - 5, 2008

Duty calls: I parked the beast at sky harbor (sorry buddy, but it is covered parking at least) and caught a flight to Memphis, TN for the week to handle some important business.


FF Miles PHX - MEM: 1,261
Parking Space: BB19
Lance Pics: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ninedragons/sets/72157604051039861/

March 2, 2008

To the lake: What everyone should do when they are in the Sonora Desert – wake up a little bit early and go to the man-made lake! So David, his father, Lance and I went to Saguaro Lake to see what a lake might have to offer. The parking lot was jammed with cars and motorcycles but we found a spot among the other people that had bloomed with the desert. On a whim, David went to see what the cost to rent a boat and…. An hour on the water was just what the we needed to check out the desert cliffs, hills, and the distant mountains. It was a shame Mrs. Afzal was in Italy and didn’t get to join us on our excursion.

There will be blood: Oddly enough, none of us had seen the academy award winning movie so we drove into Scottsdale to catch an evening showing. Daniel Day Lewis definitely played a role that was amazing and worthy of an Oscar.

The most self-explanatory pictures ever taken:

Topics that required research during our daily discussions:
Adiabatic Cooling
Bernoulli’s law
Opium Poppies (Wizard of Oz)
Saguaro Lake
Altitude of McDowell Mountain Regional Park
22nd Constitutional Amendment
Yeast Mothers
Space Shuttle Heat Shield

March 1, 2008

We woke up early (single digits) according to the plan (except for David) so we could head over to McDowell Mountain Regional Park and try to catch some of the desert in bloom. While Dave stretched, Lance and I spent time with his father, Amir, as he worked setting his garden – and warning us of the dangers of snakes, scorpions, and the dreaded ‘jumping cactus.’ (foreshadowing)

We took the civic over to the park (very close) and decided to hike the Lousley Trail (1.2 mi). The hike was only of moderate difficulty, but we were like cliché Japanese tourists shooting photos of every cactus, flower, and piles of rocks so it took us over an hour. About 2/3 of the way through the trip, Lance managed to be attacked by the ‘jumping cactus’ – it first attached itself to the sole of his shoe, and his attempt to shake it free resulted in the cactus actually working (via the barbs of its spines) itself up his shoe, to his sock, and into his flesh. We tried to pry the bud off, first using a stick, then attempting to clamp the bud between two rocks. Finally, I took off my undershirt and wrapped my hand like an oven mitt and pulled the sucker free – only to be stabbed through four or five layers of shirt myself.

Unfortunately, there weren’t the vast fields of Mexican Poppies that were described by most ‘desert in bloom’ articles. It was actually on the road outside the park that we pulled over to the side of the road and found a small patch of flowers that had sprung up thanks to the recent precipitation.

We headed back to HQ and had a fat barbeque with BBQ chicken, steak, sausage, grilled peppers & tomatos & onions, and 2 salads. Then we took another walk down to the fountain for some delicious gelato. We headed back up the hill with an ad hoc race between david and I to my truck from the beginning of the block (Winner! Winner! Chicken dinner already in my belly) and spent a few hours in the hot tub recovering.

Quote of the day:
Dave: commenting on a photo Lance is taking ‘wow, that is a really good shot!’
Lance: ‘yeah, it will be. If you ever decide to get out of it.’

Pics: a) At the trail head 'bring a comb?' b) look up there! c) when cacti attack; d) 3 friends; e) desert in bloom; f) Amir gardening.






Entry Fee to McDowell Mountain Regional Park: $6.00

Jumping cactus real name: Teddy Bear Cholla (Opuntia Bigelovii)
At last developed pics from J-Tree: http://web.mac.com/bshawley/sharktank/Road_Trippin.html

February 29, 2008

Happy Leap day! It was a work day really. So by late afternoon David and I had spent most of the day handling the responsibilities that subsidize our lives, we went for a walk down to the fountain of Fountain Hills. We had a snack and a beverage and then walked the mile plus back uphill for a rest before picking up Lance from Sky Harbor (Phoenix’s wonderfully named airport).

We picked up lance at 6:50 pm and he mentioned that we could see a cool event at 7:11 so we drove to a park that stunk like its dumpsters and waited to see an Iridium Flare – the reflection of a satellite moving several miles overhead in the form of a shooting star type celestial body. Unfortunately I was getting my camera out of the car to take a picture of three jerks waiting for a shooting star, so I ended up missing the image during its twenty second transit across the southeast corner of the sky.

So we went to an English pub: The Rose & Crown in historic Phoenix (by the museum) for dinner. The food was good pub food, and the two page menu of bottled beers made it an excellent adventure. Lance went with the chocolate stout from Young’s and I tried a ‘peculiar ale’ but was more impressed with their tap selection of Moylan’s ‘Kilt Lifter’ Scotch Type Ale. If you get a chance, this as an ass-kicking ale that will satisfy both your flavor receptors and your objective of being less stressed out about standing in a stank parking lot looking for a satellite that you never saw. Sometimes the best compliment of a beer is that it is not trying to be more than it is – and this beer is a great ale with a good kick that doesn’t try to hop or season the beer to its own detriment. If you see it on a menu – please check it out.

Pics: a) The fountain from casa afzal (Long Walk!); b) professional photo of the fountain; c) sunset in the valley of the sun, on the way to pickup lance; d) the 80's called, and lance answers the phone.




Things i think about:
Sheriff of Maricopa County, Arizona: Joseph M. (Joe) Arpaio
Joe’s Description by Harper's magazine 2001: “a loving husband, proud father, idealist, megalomaniac, liar, and bully. His nose is purple, his neck is red, and he has the charm of Archie Bunker."
Stated goal: To have the most populated jail in the country.
Fountain hills fountain – number of pumps: 3
Maximum height of water: 560ft
Number of Iridium satellites originally planned: 77
Atomic number of Iridium: 77
Number of satellites working in array: 66
Number of keys on a piano: 88
Number of days on my trip: 44
Number of days on the ocean blue for Columbus: 40