BIG TRIP Chapter 7

20 years ago I took a cross-country solo journey through 17 states, driving 5,600 miles over a 6-week period. Tent camping alone most nights, I stopped at a cheap hotel about once a week and stayed with some friends along the way. Chapter 7 covers my arrival in Southern California.

~rh

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Day 11

Sunday May 12th, 2002

Another long day on the road, but a beautiful drive through the mountains from El Paso all the way to San Diego.

Apparently West Texas is just the beginning of a wide band of numerous mountain ranges that extend all the way to the coast! In New Mexico the mountains were low and distant from the highway for the most part. And in Arizona I drove through a lot of desert. But the mountains were all around, everywhere I looked. In parts of Arizona I was driving right through them, right up close to them - California, too. Arizona was fucking amazing. Those mountains just got bigger and closer to the road. The drive became more laborious as my little gray Ford escort was called upon to climb ever higher elevations. Car is running very smoothly. It is brand new and I don't expect any problems, but I've already put over 2,000 miles on it and will probably rack up 4 or 5 thousand total before I get home. (Total trip mileage ended up being over 5,600 miles.)

After crossing the Arizona-California border, I passed through an area known as The Imperial Dunes. That's where the mountains give way to these giant sand dunes, some as tall as the surrounding mountains. It's like driving through that scene in Star Wars where they're out in the desert? I mean, I drove through real desert yesterday of course - with cactus and tumbleweeds and brown sand and shit. But The Imperial Dunes were an almost white sand. So bright, like sand on a beach. Like sugar. With no trees or cacti or foliage and no rocks. Just giant mountains of white sand. Just beautiful, and surreal. And only about a mile wide. I passed through them quickly, and when they were behind me it was just "regular" desert again.

When I reached the San Diego City limits I called Aidan. He gave me real easy directions, I found him and picked him up on a street corner at Garnett and Dawes. His friend Alan lives in the Pacific Beach area, just a few blocks from the ocean! I parked the car by Alan's house then went inside to meet him and Aidan's other friends Andreas, Joe, some other dude, and Patrick, who I've met on several occasions. I joined them there in front of the TV - watching the Lakers game, drinking beer, and smoking pot. It was a relief to get out of the car and have a beer after driving for 10 hours. 733 miles!

Aidan and I walked five or six blocks down the strip - Pacific Beach drive, and there's the beach! Fucking amazing to see and hear the crashing of the waves just over the horizon. We walked a little ways down the beach on a concrete path for foot traffic, cyclists, and skaters. The boardwalk. We sat and talked by the ocean and I kicked off my shoes to get a little sand between my toes. All of this very normal and mundane for Aidan, but I was feeling strangely elated and buzzing from the beer and the pot and the road fatigue and it all seems so surreal.

I can't believe I was in New Orleans just a few days ago. My mind is still processing all the amazing things I saw there and all the amazing scenery I witnessed on my two long days of driving cross country. Still assimilating all that new information and imagery. And here I am standing by the ocean - my bare feet in the Pacific ocean. Little waves crashing on my legs and splashing my shorts. I called Mom to let her know I'd made it to the coast. Left a message for Dad too.

Aidan and I watched the sunset then walked back to Al's house. This was the first of many times I was to witness how the many locals gather on the boardwalk each night to watch the sunset. A beautiful and always different site that we would take in almost every night that I was in San Diego. We sat for a few minutes then went to get chicken burritos carryout from a place called Fred's on the strip. We came back here to Andreas's house where Patrick, Aidan, and Andreas reside. We ate our burritos, smoked a little more weed, played guitars for a while and then crashed. Aidan spent the night at his girlfriend's house so I could sleep in his room.

Right now as I write this it's 10:00 a.m. Pacific time the next day May 12th and I'm kicking back on the sofa watching CNN. This morning, Patrick and I walked to the Living Room coffee shop right around the corner. This afternoon, I'll call Paul Abbott, and Leigh, to let them know I'm in town. Also, I will call Aunt Annette and find out when is a good time to visit her in Valencia.

It is quite an interesting sensation while watching CNN Headline News to hear news stories from cities I have passed through on my trip. Example: oil refinery fire in Houston, a town I just drove through 3 days ago. Example 2: the drought conditions in Louisiana. Example 3: the heavy rains and violent storms in the midwest, including Cincinnati where, according to numerous firsthand accounts back home it has been raining every day for over a week. Damn near flood conditions back home! Also of interest: following the Cincinnati Reds as I travel. They're doing pretty good for a change. First in their division for two or three weeks now!

Some afterthoughts on the previous couple of days:

The drive from El Paso to the coast of California was one of the most enjoyable experiences I've ever had in my LIFE. Texas, I feel like I kind of knew what to expect while driving through it. But from El Paso through New Mexico and Arizona and on into Cali - nothing could have prepared me for that. The scenery, I mean to say, was just breathtaking. I know that's a silly sounding overused and cheesy phrase, but I truly could not believe my eyes as the Great Southwest American horizon unfolded before me. Just. Amazing. Snapped a lot of road pictures that day - just holding the camera up to the passenger side window and blindly snapping away as I drove. Not looking through the camera's viewfinder at all - just snapping shots of every amazing thing I hope to capture: mountains, desert, cacti, etc.

It was around this time that I began to realize just how spread out everything is out west. As soon as I left El Paso and crossed into New Mexico I pulled off the highway to get gas. Well, the exit ramp swerved and circled, swooped and swooned all around this little group of desert dunes and finally like 2 miles later dumped me out at a traffic light where I turned right and went another mile or so across the desert before I finally spotted the gas station Way off the side of the road, about a half mile away across yet another vast expands of desert sand. It was crazy! I remember thinking that by the time I got back to the highway I would need to fill the tank again.

It was also here that I began to recognize a pattern of morning visits to the gas station where I would inevitably get a big cup of coffee or cappuccino for the morning drive. Many of my road photos feature a styrofoam cup reflected in the car window.

In Arizona I spotted my first cactus and when I got to California it seemed like I was just climbing higher and higher into the mountains until finally just outside of San Diego the massive mountains finally gave way and sent me hurtling downhill - I probably could have coasted the last 50 miles into San Diego! Nearing the city the highways got wider and busier of course. But finding my way into the Pacific Beach area I recall was quite a breeze and before I knew it my little car was creeping through pretty little neighborhood streets looking for Aidan on the street corner where he told me to meet him.

My arrival at his friend's house, watching the basketball game, drinking beers, and walking down to the ocean it's kind of a blur! Everything was happening so fast it seemed, and it was hard to believe that I'd actually made it to the coast! I recall walking out to where the waves were crashing on the shore and calling Mom on my cell phone and asking her, 'Can you hear that? It's the ocean!"

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Day 12

Monday May 13, 2002

Spent most of the day with Aidan's roommate Patrick, what you might call a "character". Every minute with the guy is thoroughly entertaining. He's funny and charming and very often will just blurt out some hilariously bizarre comment, out of left field, totally unrelated to anything that anyone else might have been talking about at the time.

Patrick's room here at the house is the garage, a separate structure in the backyard. He has converted it into a sort of studio, complete with drum kit, numerous amplifiers, guitars, bass, 8-track DAT deck, and carpet on the walls for soundproofing. We jammed out there and drank beer and gin and tonics for a couple of hours. Around 3:00 or 4:00pm we drove down to Pacific Beach. We had a nice lunch at Fred's. I got the mahi-mahi burrito and a Mountain Dew. We went out on the beach and threw Frisbee for an hour or so and then we jumped into the ocean. Nothing compares to the feeling of the waves pounding you and tossing you around like a twig in a hurricane. Very exhilarating and quite a workout. My muscles are aching today. Last night we jammed some more with Aidan on guitar, Patrick on bass, and me all excited like a drunk monkey behind the drum kit. We ordered pizza and drank beer and smoked grass before everybody decided to turn in for the night.

Day 13

Tuesday May 14, 2002

Patrick and I went out to La Jolla this afternoon. Very rich, hoity-toity part of town, down by the ocean. Very nice stretch of beach out there, kind of jagged and rocky in places. Very cool little cove called Seal Beach where we saw no less than 100 seals chilling, crashed out sunning themselves in the sand. Unbelievably cool how close you can get to them. There is a half circle walkway that creates both the little cove for the seals and a raised platform for people to look at the seals up close. I probably used up half a roll of film taking pictures of the seals. The waves were bigger here than at Pacific Beach and we saw dozens of surfers out there. We drove down the coastline a little bit and also ascended a small mountain. I think it's called Mount Soledad? I could be wrong. Anyway there is a scenic overlook at the top with a great view of the beach at La Jolla. Very cool. We caught just a little bit of rush hour traffic, but made it home without too much difficulty.

Patrick drives a hilarious big black Dodge van, probably from the late '70s or early '80s. A work van full of tools and paint cans, and apparently he has replaced its original engine with something much more powerful. I mean for a van, this son of a bitch can move. It is loud as hell and can lurch forward with great force, easily keeping up with and even flying past a lot of the little sports cars on the California highways.

Patrick is a serious chameleon. He put on shades, a ball cap, different pants and shirt than he had been wearing all day and suddenly he became another person. It was weird. Not in a schizophrenic or scary way though. Just a slightly altered persona for the evening. Patrick is a true original a really bizarre and unbelievably entertaining character. I sense he might have had trouble with school. Perhaps this is ADD or what I call Advanced Scatterbrains. Never a dull moment around the dude. At times hilarious. Most of the time actually. But other times it must be exhausting.

We went to Qualcomm Park / Jack Murphy Stadium last night to see the Padres play the Montreal Expos. Good, close game. Bats were swinging and connecting a lot. We heard the crack of the bat a great deal last night from our great seats right behind home plate. Padres won 5-4. Couple beers in the afternoon before the game caused me to be a little groggy and downright sleepy for part of the game. When we returned to the house afterwards, I lasted only about 30 minutes before turning in for the night.

Day 14

Wednesday May 15, 2002

Coffee and bagel for breakfast around the corner at the Living Room Cafe where I've been going for 3 days. Hung out here at the house in the morning and then went to Pacific Beach to meet Paul Abbott for lunch. Patrick and I met him at the base of the pier at the end of Garnett street. Haven't seen Paul for 7 years. In the spring of '95 I met him for lunch when we both were in New York City. He looks the same, skinny still. Real short hair nowadays but the same guy. We walked down the beach and over into town for lunch at The Mission. Grilled chicken sandwich, nachos. Paul bought lunch. After we walked around the PB neighborhood for a bit, Paul had to go back home to get some work done. Patrick and I walked around some more. I bought some postcards and swim trunks.

Sat around the house till after 8:00pm. Had a sandwich, checked my email. Patrick was out for a bit to get some dinner. When he came back he suggested that we go see his friends Gideon and Lu, which we did and they are a great little couple. Had some drinks, talked about music, smoked some pot and then we said goodnight. Went back home to PB and crashed.

Afterthoughts: Gideon and Lu are a great couple. Strange bizarro artsy types living way out on the edge of town, up in the hills in a real hilly woodsy area. Being in a big ass van that Patrick is trying to park on the side of a mountain road was quite an experience. Gideon is an incredibly gifted musician and computer geek who played me some of his music. It was incredible: electronic and organic at the same time? How exactly does he do THAT? I insisted that he give me a CD of some of his stuff which he produced immediately. He was familiar with my music - apparently Patrick or Aidan had given them a CD which he had listened to a LOT and damn near memorized because he asked me very specific questions about certain songs and how had I achieved certain guitar tones? etc. A very interesting couple of hours spent with this couple at their very cool house and I'm sorry to say that it was the only time I saw them on this visit to San Diego. Stranger still to think that there's some brilliantly talented musician working in San Diego (Gideon) who is familiar with my stuff and is singing my praises. His wife Lu whipped up a Hell of a good meal too.

Day 15

Thursday May 16, 2002

Went down to Ocean Beach for the first time. Smaller beach and smaller community, more locals and less tourists than you see in the Pacific Beach. More funky than PB. But PB's beach is superior in size and scale. Ocean Beach Pier seems to stretch about a mile out to see! Ate lunch at Hodad's, a burger joint in OB.

Thursday night, Patrick and I went to Lestat's to see/hear Paul Abbott play a set. Cool room, laid back coffee shop kind of vibe. But a great sound system and good acoustics. It'll be easy to climb that stage and just do my thing. If Aidan's friends produce a good turnout it could be a big loud success like a party. If it's not crowded I can still pull off 45 minutes of great shit for myself and a few others. Paul, Aidan, Patrick, assorted other friends. I got an email response from Mike Kenneally, former guitarist with Frank Zappa's band. He said to call him while I'm in San Diego and maybe we could get together. So I will call him tomorrow. Paul played a great set, but the guy that opened for him was pretty forgettable. Paul still performs some of the most fucked up, freaked out acoustic guitar madness you ever heard. A lot of the Michael Hedges influence: alternate tunings, rhythmic slapping of the guitar, harmonics, etc. Light turn out. Not a big crowd but Paul does his thing, maybe a little too much talking between songs. I learned a lot about this room tonight and I feel comfortable going in there to play in a few days. I can start a little fire of my own in there.