Canonball Run 2010, Day 1 and 2

Hey All!

As promised, I'm blogging from the road. The first night was a bit hectic, so, don't shoot me for not writing!

Day 1, Livermore, CA, to Yosemite NP, to Las Vegas, NV.

The plan: 580 E to 120 E through Yosemite NP, south to Vegas on 395.

So here's what ACTUALLY happened on day one:


Here's my sweet ride, all packed! Ben and I kicked off around 10:30 am.




So, we get to Yosemite after a beautiful drive, and they're like...oh yea, 120 E is closed because there is 5' feet of snow over the pass. And....so is every other road going through the park that way....annndddd it was snowing at the visitors center. And, there I am in my flip flops!



I'm not the best granola in all, I was just passing through after all!

So, we had to exit on route 140 and go back out to Merced, CA and down 99 S. Awesome. And 4 hours out of the way.

On a happy note, "Running Down Dream" by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, was playing on the stereo as I crossed the state line into Nevada. How appropriate!

Anyway, We didn't get in to Vegas until about 11:30, so it was not ideal, but we ended up walking around and staying out until four am anyhow. It's freakin' Vegas!


My comments on Vegas are this: I really dug the atmosphere and the attitude. Dude, they have buildings that they designed to lean because THEY COULD. They made Venice...BECAUSE THEY COULD. Vegas was populated by bootleggin' gangsters and it's held up today. It is one big NEW adult playground. I did NOT dig the slutty looking girls all around and the SMOKING. Everywhere. Cigarette smoke literally gives me a headache (sad, I know I'm a wimp), and this was just not good. Yuck. My camera took a poo (battery) when we got to Vegas, so I have 0 pictures. Boo.

Day 2. Las Vegas, NV to Winslow, AZ via the Hoover Dam

This day started off slowly because Ben and I were out until 4:30, hence, I said, let's aim to leave Vegas by noon.



Short Day, this day. The original plan was to loop up and see the Grand Canyon, but it was just not in the plan today!

We did drive by Lake Mead in NV/AZ, which actually ended up taking us an hour because of the traffic build up at the Hoover Dam security entrance.

Here's Lake Mead



Which was followed by the Hoover Dam. We just drove through and I narrowly escaped with reasonable blood pressure. I can't imagine having to drive that road all the way to work everyday with all of the "dam" tourists (Yes, HA!).

Security was tight at the entrance too. The guy made us pull off to the side so he could search my car because Ben and I look like we're actually the Griswald's. And he removed my tarp which I had worked very hard to get down and NOT be flapping in the wind, and he almost made me take my bike rack off the back (would have take like 20 min to get back on) to look inside the back hatch. Ben nicely asked him to look through the window, and he obliged. He was looking for firearms, so he said!

Ben and I tried to remedy my dead camera battery with a somewhat unsuitable charger and ended up blowing a fuse in my car. The fuse controls the cigarette lighter...so can you guess what other essential piece of equipment chews on this power supply? Yep! The GPS. Uh-oh. Thank GOD I have Ben with me...he was able to change out my fuse with relative ease. What a guy! And, he even got me prepared for driving through the desert.



I am SO thankful I am not driving alone.

So, beside the snow and the fuses, it was really ridiculously windy the whole way across AZ. Since I am driving an extra heavy car with a trillion things tied on top, this is challenging!

Ben and I decided to push through a ways tonight and go to Winslow, AZ. ("Standin' on the corner in Winslow, Arizona, such a fine sight to see...) Well, we cleared Flagstaff, AZ, and on our way out of the city we saw a sign that say "Road closed 34 miles ahead due to severe dust storm." We're New Yorkers and have lived through snow storms, so, soldier on we did.

Well, turns out they weren't kidding. Traffic was stopped for miles in both directions and we sat there among hundreds of semi-trucks for hours. NOT that fun, let me tell you! We were 36 miles from Winslow and saddle sore. Ben has developed a bit of a cold this week, and he needs his rest, so I was trying to get him there as fast as possible. No dice at 3 mph. the storm had "blown" over and we were moving, albeit slowly!

I will try to give you an idea of the magnitude of this stop. I saw the AZ State Police starting the line of traffic moving in the western direction (opposite of me) after the storm had passed through. I saw this start to happen about 34 miles from our exit in Winslow. When I exited at Winslow, I was still watching the line of dense traffic move along. Holy cow!

More tomorrow! On the road! Trying to put the gaping hole in my heart at ease at leaving everyone behind in California. It's a strange feeling to feel the earth going on spinning and the people you care about still all being together in one place, but you have to hope that they throw you a thought every once in a while and miss you a bit!

Miles to be covered tomorrow. Keep on rockin'! See you soon, Oklahoma!

The Fabulous Adventures of...

The Honda CRV. No song title this time. "Baby you can drive my car"?

It's red. It's a manual. It has a rusted undercarriage and is usually going over the speed limit. It has strict safety belt regulations. It's hauled many of you around. It drives in the snow fabulously. It is a beast. The driver's side window is broken. It has a very noisy exhaust system. It's usually messy. It's MINE! :-)

I feel now is the appropriate time to write an ode to my little red Honda CRV. It has carried me many, many miles. Countless trips back and forth to Gettysburg. My CRV and I met in 2003 before I knew how to drive a manual transmission. An all-holiday present from my parents, we continue to be in a long term relationship...and a happy one at that. We even made it through learning to drive manual...I'm sure that was tough on the CRV!

I recall going up the driveway to Fox Run (where I was about to start working) and stalling out. I spun tires and rocks that day! It's no wonder the CRV still loves me.

It overcame the incident pictured below...Anna driving it around the parking lot in Gburg, loaded to the gills with my favorite people.


It carried my mom and I cross country. It saw many things...including:

Kadoka, SD:


Mt rushmore, yellow stone, a tornado, a lot of cheese in wisconsin, the wild wild west...well, you get the picture. My Mom thought it was a sweet ride too.



It carried me from WA south, to my current home. Since being in California, the CRV gets moderately offended from time to time because I chose to walk over driving it, but to make up for my neglect, I take it on some pretty awesome adventures.

Like to Big Sur....



Part of my Honda's enduring identity (and mine) was that it had NY license plates.

Well, this weekend, I paid my dues to the state of California. Laying out $200+ dollars to declare my permanence. I had my car plated here. It was very sad.


The (grouchy) DMV person snatched those beauties right out of my hands (along with 2 months worth of grocery money) and I nearly cried. (Partly because of the remaining $0.93 in my bank account!)




I affixed my new plates and adjusted to them and told the CRV not to despair, we could still drive like New Yorkers. :-)

Here's to the journey of the next 130k miles, CRV! Thank you!

Cheers!

Going to California

Arhhhhhnold ;-)


You know what?? There are a lot of songs about California. Heaps of songs about the state. There are a few about New York, even fewer about Washington or Pennsylvania. And by some of my favorite artists. Tupac, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Led Zeppelin.

It only makes sense that I would have to live there to see if all of the songs are true, right? Feel the "California Love"?

Okay, so it wasn't exactly for that reason, but I am taking my current living situation as a good excuse to listen to an obscene amount of Tupac and Led Zeppelin. (For those who are unaware of my musical tastes, I do have a preference for some pretty ridiculous rap music.)

Here's the annotated story. Vintage in WA finished in early November. I had been looking for a job anywhere, but had made up my mind that I would stay on the west coast if that meant that I got to working in the wine industry. That being said, most of my opportunities were bound to exist in California. I got a cal about a week after vintage finished for an interview in Napa. Being that I had a place to stay in Napa, with My Aunt Deb and Uncle Ed, I told the woman I could be there Monday. In true rockstar fashion, I threw all of my shit in my car, had my cable cut, called Chris (my room mate in Wenatchee), and drove to California.

I arrived in Napa and had not only a place to stay, but a kick ass place to stay! I got an opportunity to know a few people that I wouldn't have normally know and had a fantastic time. Plenty of gin and tonics (and wine!) were consumed and I, quite frankly, wish I could stay in the Napa area. Napa is the perfect sized place for me. ~75k people, nice weather, green, lots of dogs, plenty of stuff to do, and san fran within reach. And lots of wine! And wine people! Hell, the street names are wine related. Hello! Amazing! And, of course, if I was able to stay in Napa, I would have been much closer to the people who took care of me, that I have come to love dearly, and that I enjoy very much!

As fate and my luck would have it, I got a job in the wine industry, but not in the Napa Valley. I took a lab tech job in a small city called Livermore, which is down bay from Napa by about 1.25 hours (in no traffic, of course). After about 1.5 months of feeling broke, helpless, and hopeless, I interviewed at Wente Family Estates and bam, job offer, which I took. In a whurlwind, Deb and I went to Livermore and got me an apartment. A few days later, thanks mostly to the help of Deb and Ed, the majority of my stuff was moved in Livermore.

So, I haven't started work yet, but I start tomorrow. 4 days a week, 10 hour shifts. The salary is not quite what I had hoped, so I'll have to get a job or two to supplement my income, but that's nothing new for me.

Definitely going to be a new experience. A New Yorker in Cali, living alone, working at an 800k case/ year winery (!?). I'm looking forward to it.

If you're wondering about Australia, that dream will have to be deferred for a while. Mostly due to financial problems! No surprise there. I will, at the very least, go back to Australia for a vintage. After I get my ducks in a row and my shit straightened out.

So, that's the short version. Now I am caught up and can blog at will. I will try to do so regularly.

Cheers