My Remaining Days in California….
Originally published at ~+>Blue's Journal. Please leave any comments there.
So I took a huge leap…. something I do not normally do…..
Shorty after my last post I asked Brandon if he did not mind taking a few minutes to talk with me. The conversation we had was about an hour and a half; the topics covered carried into a lot of things I have held deep in my heart and in mind for some time. I will say in the the mix I have been attracted to and cared a lot about Brandon; I had a 2nd broken heart feeling, but not one that is unrepairable.
In the end, I discovered I was caught up in the mix of personal emotions and feelings that I was not dealing with, I was not taking into account a lot of things that needed to be resolved in my life, and at a precipice of trying to push away being the reserved individual i have tried to be for others without taking into account my own needs. Sadly, another chapter between Brandon and I was closed in the mix of me trying to deal with all these things, but another chapter begins as it has in the past. I can relish and be humble that if the moments in time were Brandon and I have been in proximity to one another; I have been shown that there is a time and place for everything and sometimes what we want is not what we need. What we dream is not always unattainable, but it requires us to persevere against the challenges, internally or in reality, that keep us from realizing what is in our heart, soul, and mind.
Back to My Road Trip
I left Seaside, CA around 11:30p that night and started the rest of my trip; I drove into San Jose & San Francisco to the Golden Gate Bridge. [Trackr: Seaside to Sausalito ] I stayed the night at Dana Point which is right at the end of the Golden Gate Bridge. I took a few pictures the next morning but the start of the day was quite foggy; I was only able to catch the road deck and a small portion of the super structure.
I spent about an hour that morning around the park trying to get some pictures and then I decided to head to Southern California. [Trackr: Tracy to Los Angeles ]. I got into Los Angeles County around 1:30p and first went to Hollywood just to be able to say I had been there. I also wanted to go somewhere in the hills to get some good panoramic shots of the area; thanks to the Internet and Yahoo Answers [ Question: Where is the best viewpoint/outlook around Los Angeles for a panoramic picture? ] I went to Griffin Park and was able to take several beautiful pictures.
Side bar: since I started working for AT&T in the UVerse Dispatch Center I have been a Dispatcher for the San Diego market. I have flown into San Diego on Southwest before, but I had never been out in the city before. I knew a lot of the area map wise because of seeing techs and their where they were on their jobs each day; however, not having been in the area first hand, I did not always understand the geographical challenges they face some of the technicians that I work with on a daily biases. As my day in Los Angeles started to grow later, around 4:30p I started towards my last major city on the trip: San Diego, CA. [Trackr: Los Angeles to San Diego ]
I got caught in world famous Los Angeles & Orange County rush hour traffic; although I did manage to make it into San Diego County to take my final sunset pictures of my trip. I stopped in Oceanside to take a picture, and I also stopped on the side of the highway in Escondido to take some cool nighttime freeway shots. I ate are Chioptle in Mira Mesa and it was here I decided to treat myself a little bit on this trip. I had not really planned on staying anywhere on San Diego so I hoped on Hotwire.com and got an awesome deal: $78 for a 4-Star hotel on the bay in downtown S.D. The hotel was the Manchester Grand Hyatt [ Link: Manchester Grand Hyatt San Diego ]. As I walked in and saw this place I was amazed; I have never stayed in a nice hotel before; I ended up with a room on the 25th floor looking over the bay.
I got a great night of sleep in the very comfortable bed; I have to admit of all the places I have slept in my life that bed came very close to being like my own. Upon waking up Thursday morning and checking out of my Hotel, I went to meet of the guys I work with in S.D.; his name is Brandon Belmudes [Facebook: Brandon Belmudes] and he is one of the technicians that I usually end up talking to throughout my day. There has always been this restaurant him and another tech I know go to called Wings n Things; for my Louisiana and Texas friends its almost like a Wing Stop, but a litter different and the wings are like 10x better. Putting a face to a name makes working with someone more fun IMHO. Brandon introduced me to the garage he works; in terms of my work area its one of 5 that I dispatch techs from/to each day. I got to meet a few of the other techs and one of the managers and also got to sit in on a little of their start to the day; I got there as the time the PM technicians where starting their shifts. Sadly, this was the last of my stops on vacation and had to start heading back to Texas.
Pictures & Tracks
You can visit this link to see the pictures of my trip:
Flickr: California Road Trip (August 22nd - 27th 2009)
The below links are the GPS tracks of my Trip:
Trackr! -
Day 1 - Road Trip to CA
Day 2 - Road Trip to CA
Day 3 - Looking for Brandon
Day 4 - Visiting S.F.
Day 5 - Headed to SoCal
Day 5 - Down to S.D.
Day 6 - Last Day in Cali
Day 7 - Drive back to TX