part 2 of the anti-utah tour

Well I realized due to the busy schedule as of the past few days I'm not completing my segments. The lack of time is really a figment of my imagination because I have plenty of time if I would just get my ass out of bed or not go to bed so early. Unfortunately sleep is such a beautiful thing and I’m attracted to it, like a moth to the light. Anyway in order to finish the Anti-Utah tour, I’m going to be doing it in an abbreviated fashion. So hold on, here we go…


Left off with arriving the Monterey, CA area and we will pick up leaving the same geographical location. Amazingly we were able to leave to the hotel at a very reasonable hour, by 6:15 or so. I say amazing considering that were basically exhausted and drank beer and wine right up until the time we went to bed. Damn Marriot is serving alcohol in the lobby now. They are after our livers, I know it. Any I digress, we were up and to Starfucks again, if they are one thing, they are reliable, I’ll give them that, they are everywhere. Anyway, were waiting for our coffee and some little tikes were in the Starfucks using the bathroom. We had noticed a line outside Best Buy across the way and asked what he was waiting in line for. Of course the Wii, those little guys are dedicated, I know its California but it was cold and they were little troopers just biding their time until they could caress the Nintendo controller goodness. I can remember the day, good old Super C, I can’t blame them one bit. I can’t imagine the bad-ass little guys in Montana, Alaska, and the Yukon (Canada plug eh?) waiting outside in the cold, snow, and wind for their Wii. They all could probably kick my ass, ages 3 and up.


Wow abbreviated is not working.


So we got on the road traveled up toward Sacramento and passed through one of the valleys and the traffic was awesome. Everyone traveling at 95+, with no regard for any authority, that section of highway shaved some time off the old itinerary. It rained all the way into Porkland and we arrived at my sister's house in the early evening where we were warmly greeted by her and her boyfriend, Zeke. No wait a minute they weren’t there, we headed to Bucatti’s for some food and awaited a call from Kinna. Turns out I told her we would be there the next day but either way they were hosts of a very fine fashion and after catching up a little bit we headed to a local place called BOG (Burger of the Gods, I believe). At this point a self proclaimed crackhead tried to take my wife home with him, fortunately for me he went home empty handed. Also meet one of K&Z’s friends and I’ve now forgotten his name but he was amazingly hilarious, even his bad jokes were funny. Good jokes are all about confidence and delivery and he had them both down to a “T”. After BOG we went over to a great pool hall with vinyl records used as art canvases all over the walls. Great hangouts, I wish Phoenix had some places like these, old cities just seem to have more character.


Wow abbreviated is really not working


Next day we slept in (woo-hoo) and I had to do a bit of homework, which always sucks on vacation. Then my sister got off work early (nice isn’t she) and took us downtown. Downtown was pretty typical of a northwestern city but was nice none-the-less. We had lunch and Zeke gave us the extended tour of the waterfront before he headed back for a short stint at the office. After that we hit up the hookah bar, which was really a seven-eleven that rented/leased/shared (not sure what the term is) hookahs. This hookah thing is new to me, but it was fun. I’m pretty sure it has no effect on you except maybe to make you feel lighted headed from breathing so much and it tastes pretty good, especially the double apple. We returned back to their pad for spaghetti, hair extensions, the hookah, the ever reoccurring discussion of immigration, and the cutest little crossbreed dog I’ve every met, Roxy. The next morning we said our good byes to K&Z in their pajamas because we actually got our butts out of bed on time again. Thanks Kinna and Zeke I had a blast and will definitely be coming back to visit again.


Well that takes through us Oregon and I guess we will have to wait for part 3 to hear about the Big Sky state, the Clark Fork, Udaho, and my ability to make up things just for the sake of arguing with my uncle. Thanks for reading, and yes I know I need to work on my abbreviating.

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.