Death Road Trip '05
Adventures of the past week:
On Friday I went to Ian's 4th of July work party at his boss's house on the beach. Literally. You walk out their back door and there's the ocean. It was nice to be there, even though I got really lost driving there (cough cough, Ian) hehe. I got to meet some of the people Ian works with and we had some really funny conversations about what we should do on the roadtrip we planned for the weekend. The winning suggestion: take pictures at the sign for Weed, California. Unfortunately in the next three days, 1600 miles, and countless hours in a brand new rental car, we didn't quite make it there. However, the weekend was awesome. To condense, I'll do bullet form:
Day One: Odds of death 79%
~ took the 101 north for 15 hours and no one killed each other. amazing
~ sightings: 1 midget (for good luck), 1 pirate, 1 hick who put weights on his dogs legs to make them bigger, 3 country fairs that we kept getting told to go to ("it's warm there" one crazy cashier advised me. of course it's warm, it's freaking California in July.)
~ saw the Golden Gate bridge and almost got blown off a cliff because of crazy winds
~ San Fransisco made me think of Valencia, the book about crazy vegan lesbians. All of the street names were familiar, but I'd never been, which was a weird feeling. It also made me think about Yelena, a Russian lesbian from Wisconsin who was fabulous because she lived without apologies. We should all be so brave. San Fran was also wonderfully fruity, complete with a rainbow tunnel as you left.
~ drove through redwood forests to arrive at our hostel
~ Liv Tyler's hippie twin ran the front desk and sold us chickpeas and rice, which Big Nick cooked up for dinner. Ian got the $.25 ramen. :)
~ Went to a supermarket, which was really crowded for the middle of the night, and bought booze to complete our meal
Day Two: Odds of death 86%
~ went to the beach across from the hostel after breakfast. took pictures of the black sand beach.
~ left and passed the Trees of Mystery, which featured a giant talking Paul Bunyon and his blue-balled ox
~ took the scenic drive through a part of the Redwoods National Park, hugged a few trees and took some pictures.
~ the scenic drive kicked up enough dust to cover the back windshield of our car, allowing us to write Death Road Trip '05 and draw some rabid animals and a skull and cross bones.
~ we start to notice the many bugs who have died on our front windshield.
~ we head to Lassen Volcanic Park, which is really freaking cool
~ stops in the park: Chaos Jumble, full of rocks from an avalanche, mountain peak (elevation 8,000 ft)- snow in July!, a rock left over from glaciers, beautiful blue lakes which probably contain something bad for you because they bubbled, sulphur springs that reeeeked.
~ coming down the mountain I tried not to have a heart attack
~ more hours of driving, made it to the Super 8 in Red Bluff. went to some weird diner for dinner and ate my second meal of waffles for the day.
~ more drinking and passing out to the South Park movie
Day Three (Fourth of July): Odds of death- skull and crossbones
~ drove home on the 5 (so much faster than the 101)
~ avoided angry drunk drivers, mini tornadoes, extreme heat which overheated cars around us, and made it home for dinner
Whew.
Today I also got my driver's license after a looong process. Wooo! It's official. Okay, too much writing. the end.
On Friday I went to Ian's 4th of July work party at his boss's house on the beach. Literally. You walk out their back door and there's the ocean. It was nice to be there, even though I got really lost driving there (cough cough, Ian) hehe. I got to meet some of the people Ian works with and we had some really funny conversations about what we should do on the roadtrip we planned for the weekend. The winning suggestion: take pictures at the sign for Weed, California. Unfortunately in the next three days, 1600 miles, and countless hours in a brand new rental car, we didn't quite make it there. However, the weekend was awesome. To condense, I'll do bullet form:
Day One: Odds of death 79%
~ took the 101 north for 15 hours and no one killed each other. amazing
~ sightings: 1 midget (for good luck), 1 pirate, 1 hick who put weights on his dogs legs to make them bigger, 3 country fairs that we kept getting told to go to ("it's warm there" one crazy cashier advised me. of course it's warm, it's freaking California in July.)
~ saw the Golden Gate bridge and almost got blown off a cliff because of crazy winds
~ San Fransisco made me think of Valencia, the book about crazy vegan lesbians. All of the street names were familiar, but I'd never been, which was a weird feeling. It also made me think about Yelena, a Russian lesbian from Wisconsin who was fabulous because she lived without apologies. We should all be so brave. San Fran was also wonderfully fruity, complete with a rainbow tunnel as you left.
~ drove through redwood forests to arrive at our hostel
~ Liv Tyler's hippie twin ran the front desk and sold us chickpeas and rice, which Big Nick cooked up for dinner. Ian got the $.25 ramen. :)
~ Went to a supermarket, which was really crowded for the middle of the night, and bought booze to complete our meal
Day Two: Odds of death 86%
~ went to the beach across from the hostel after breakfast. took pictures of the black sand beach.
~ left and passed the Trees of Mystery, which featured a giant talking Paul Bunyon and his blue-balled ox
~ took the scenic drive through a part of the Redwoods National Park, hugged a few trees and took some pictures.
~ the scenic drive kicked up enough dust to cover the back windshield of our car, allowing us to write Death Road Trip '05 and draw some rabid animals and a skull and cross bones.
~ we start to notice the many bugs who have died on our front windshield.
~ we head to Lassen Volcanic Park, which is really freaking cool
~ stops in the park: Chaos Jumble, full of rocks from an avalanche, mountain peak (elevation 8,000 ft)- snow in July!, a rock left over from glaciers, beautiful blue lakes which probably contain something bad for you because they bubbled, sulphur springs that reeeeked.
~ coming down the mountain I tried not to have a heart attack
~ more hours of driving, made it to the Super 8 in Red Bluff. went to some weird diner for dinner and ate my second meal of waffles for the day.
~ more drinking and passing out to the South Park movie
Day Three (Fourth of July): Odds of death- skull and crossbones
~ drove home on the 5 (so much faster than the 101)
~ avoided angry drunk drivers, mini tornadoes, extreme heat which overheated cars around us, and made it home for dinner
Whew.
Today I also got my driver's license after a looong process. Wooo! It's official. Okay, too much writing. the end.