Now that the road trip has been completed and there are no more posts to make, I reset the post order to be chronological. I hope you enjoy!
If you have any questions, please feel free to use the contact me form linked above.
::LocationFirst impression: Guy behind a dumpster. Is he an employee on break?
Second impression: If he is, I'm not shopping there.
I had no real way of avoiding him, as the "is a bum" conclusion was made far too late for easy avoidance manouvers. Eye contact had been made. I mentally checked to see if I had any readily available change that I could give him if necessary.
None. Crap.
He looked at me and opened his mouth. He had no teeth. I prepared myself for him to give me some lame story about how he needed a bus fare or something (all while standing behind a dumpster at a liquour wholesaler).
"How're ya doin today?" he asked brightly.
I was off guard. The only words I could think of were about how I was broke and how sorry I was. I even had a lame smile all ready for him.
"Uh, fine." I responded. I pretended to be in a hurry. I wasn't, really. I had about 4 hours to blow while I waited for my car be checked out. He really was pleasant though. Funky.
"What's your shirt say?" He seemed genuinely curious. The shirt doesn't say anything. Instead there is simply a picture. A picture of a pirate skull surfing a hot dog on a sea of cheerios with a rat on his shoulder. A remarkably tasteful affair, believe it or not.
"Nothing, it's just a picture." I helpfully moved the strap of my bag a few inches so he could see it, all without breaking stride.
I did consider slowing down and discussing with him the properties of the pipe the pirate skull thing was smoking while calmly performing his morning surf, but I had somewhere to be. Well, I had convinced myself of that. In truth, I was still swallowing my lame smile I never got a chance to use.
He mentioned he had never seen anything like the picture before. I believed him.
It was about this time that I was passing him. I noticed he wasn't wearing a shirt. One that covers all the things a shirt should, anyway. He was wearing this dirty pink button up shirt that barely covered his shoulders, and could probably only be buttoned on a man a few sizes smaller than him. This, in itself, wasn't really a problem.
The guy wasn't terribly hideous or anything and it was a 90 some odd degree day in California. The interesting part was the two tattoos he had on his chest. One of which was a succubus with wings and large bare breasts.
Really, what is going through your head when you get a woman's bare chest tattoed on yours? Do you think women are attracted to that?
I suppose women prefer men with teeth too, now that I think about it.
The guys then? Does it make you look hard-core to your buddies? Give you street cred? Why don't you just get some hardcore Pamela Anderson action goin on your ass while you're at it? Then at least you can walk into your local bar and say "I had Pamela all over my ass all night, and the some more in the mornin'." Good for a laugh, assuming you're in the right kind of joint.
Of course, his local bar is the dumpster, I'm sure he'd be the life of the party.
I wish I'd had my camera. He would have been a great interview. Oh well, there'll be more interesting people all across the country.
In a few minutes, I'm getting in my car and going on a road trip!
Perhaps it is because I drove through Yosemite Valley, but that was probably the quickest 10 hours of driving I've yet driven.
Yosemite is simply stunning. I got a lot of great footage and a lot of great photos. I didn't stop to talk to anyone though. It was labor day in the valley. Everyone seemed busy with kids and family and friends. I felt a little too alone to challenge anyone to wait and be interviewed. I hope to get over that soon.
I did make a few observations:
1. Don't go to Yosemite on labor day weekend unless you plan on leaving after labor day, leaving on the east side, or getting in line to leave on labor day and still leaving the next day.
I think I may have passed a couple hundred cars essentially parked trying to leave the valley. Luckily I left on the east side and had no delays whatsoever. Plus, I think the east side is looks better. You can avoid Yosemite’s ugly twin.
2. There is some park before you get to Yosemite Valley. I don't remember the name of it, just that the slogan was \"Land of a thousand uses\" or something like that. It really isn't important. The park was ugly.
The trees looked withered and crooked, but not in the interesting way that most east-central-California-valley trees do. They looked withered and crooked in a more, well, ugly way.
There was a nice valley on the other side of the trees, and valleys look good. Well, exception of this one. The far side of the valley looked like a giant slice of moldy jack cheese.
A national park can get away with being ugly. \"It has its charm,\" you can say. But when you take that same park and put it next to Yosemite Valley, you just get an ugly park that acts as a buffer zone to unabashed beauty much like the unattractive friend brought along so you can look better at a club.
3. There is a certain stench to the pass from the 120 down to the valley. It is rather sickening. It wafts away as you enter the valley, but it is still there contrasting the beautiful landscape with its stomach turning ranckness. Burning brake pads. Near 100 degree weather combined with steep twisting roads and other cars equals the horrid stench of burning brake pads. Drivers have no choice but to ride their brakes. The heat combined with this overuse of the instruments of negative acceleration produces a low hanging cloud that continues to emanate from our cars.
4. I still have no idea how to structure my videos. I’ve come up with a couple of ideas, but I usually end up changing my mind shortly after. I’ve interviewed a few great people at beaches near Bodega Bay, shot myself while driving, shot myself in some scenery and shot some scenery by itself for later narration.
I’ll probably go with the scenery+narration plan, but I’m not ready to put anything online until I get better ideas and more footage.
Also, I need a better tripod.
5. I’m staying tonight at fraternity brother’s house. I am quite impressed by the implicit trust that spans 40 years by simply being a brother of the same Fraternity. I only had to give him a call, tell him I was on a road trip, when I would be there, and he set up an air mattress, a room for me to stay, and told me to make myself at home. I’m sitting here now writing this post. (Note that I falsified the location by a few blocks so as to not point directly to his house).
Here is to a great first day road tripping, and to many more to come.
Carpe Diem.
1. Never piss into the wind.
2. Nevada is gusty.