part 1 of the anti-utah tour

It’s amazing how much more you have to write about when you A. have not written anything for a week or so, B. were on an adventure of the western continental United States. I think I’ll have to do this in segments in order to do the trip justice. Overall the trip was a gas, and yes we burned through some gas as well. I believe all told the trip was nearly 4100 miles of highways, byways, two-lanes, hydro-plains, and deer ridden suicide missions. For starters I have to say Booger is a pretty great car for the road trip, a bit more comfortable and spacious then the previous tour-mobile, the Civic. I think we will be definitely adding the car top carrier in the near future for longer, winter, or accompanied trips, just for a bit more space. So if you looked over here you would have seen an approximation of our flight path for the whole trip and it was fairly accurate, except a reroute near Missoula, MT, in order to shorten the drive into Great Falls, MT.

I began the trip by taking copious notes about things that we had planned and people that we encountered but I’m never really all that great at keeping up with that stuff. Well except the pictures, we took pictures in the car, rain, traffic, at night, outside, and while asleep (at least one of us). So I’ll try to weave a few of the notes in but mostly this is a miserable attempt at total recall.

We left Saturday morning at almost 6 am and hit up Starfucks for some caffeine and got on the road for the Monterey, CA area. Our sign said Big Sur but that was just because it sounded more exciting then Salinas were our hotel was. The first couple days of driving are always the easiest and most fun. Pictures, stories, jokes, and plenty of energy but obviously as time goes on that energy wanes. For us I don’t think it ever fully went away but the when the 11th hour is upon you after 3800 miles, you’re just ready to stop and not move, anyway I digress and I have 4100 miles to cover and I haven’t even left yet. The drive out of Phoenix was pretty eventles and really did not provide anything too exciting until we headed into the Indio, CA area. Driving through there reminded me of our trip to Coachella several months back and the new radio station that had just come on air that had no commercials or commentary the entire time. No such luck this time. No worries we have the iPod and were rocking the Ki, Violent Femmes, Fountains of Wayne, and finally the Sublime as we rolled into smog consumed Los Angles. Well I have never been to LA and I would have to say that in passing all the stereotypes about the city were true, I guess that is why they are stereotypes right? Prior to getting LA we came across a huge wind power generation area. The big fans are always cool but I can't decide if I like them. They are really pretty ugly especially in large doses like in California. I guess it’s the lesser of two evils so I won’t get too bent out of shape.

The drive through California was pretty interesting especially along some the two lane as it alternated between vineyards and oil fields. The oil pumps scare E for some reason but they always strike me as Orwellian and just generally creepy, so I guess they scare both of us but for different reasons. They were not however as creepy as the tree farms in Oregon, but I’ll get to that later. We got into Monterey as the sun was setting, checked into the hotel and headed down to the fishing wharf for some food and sight seeing. I can assume that what was once was a very blue collar working fishing dock has now been converted into shops and restaurants for our capitalist commerce pleasure. I'll admit it, I like it. The sea lions and sea otters were out in full force around the docks, swimming and making all sorts of noise. E was ecstatic to see them as was I, but all I could remember is when the boat I was on in the old USCG would run over the slow ones in Alaska. I think that is why they painted the boat red, not white like the rest of the fleet. Monterey provided us with great seafood, beer, and wine, not much more you could ask for in the first day of our multi-day adventure.

Well I guess I’ll cut it off for today. Tomorrow we will be adventuring through Northern, CA and Oregon. Oh if you are wondering why it was called the Anti-Utah tour, it was just coincidence that were went around Utah, never through it. Technically it could of been the Anti-Utah/Nevada Tour but it just doesn't have the same ring to it.