It takes me about half an hour from first sound of the watch alarm to be ready to hit the road. The art of breaking camp. It’s as easy as you are willing to make it. The idea of keeping things in a sort of order from the time you reach the camp site makes the final clean up fairly simple. For the Memorial Day Vacationators that surrounded me, it was going to be a full time job that I just didn’t have time to stick around for. The overall atmosphere of the campground had gone from last nights ‘Partaaaaaay’ to a mix between absolute chaos and passive hostility. Funny stuff.I found the Pacific Coast Highway before too many others so the traffic was relatively tame for a holiday. It is a very popular area from the surf board and as I drove passed the many beaches, tents and RVs were camped right on the water front acting as base camps for the surfer crowd.
After driving through Malibu, which was all the California Swank I had hoped for, I turned up one of the Canyons. Topanga Canyon was quite busy, but this just meant I didn’t have to navigate the winding roads on my own. This lead me to Mulholland Drive. I had wanted it to make an appearance on Drive during the LA portion of my trip, because it reminded me of some movie… I just can’t quite remember the title, it was good, very strange, but really well done… hum, oh well, Mulholland Drive let me see many different sides of LA from high up in the hills. I found it to be an amazing drive. The road ended at the Hollywood sign, where I fiddled with my camera-tripod team until I managed to capture myself and a sort of white line in the background. Never the less, the Hollywood sign is just such a cool sight.
From Mulholland, my next street was Hollywood Boulevard. It felt like the epicenter of the universe, and I couldn’t wait to get out of the truck and let it all wash over me. I traveled from East to West along the boulevard making a few different stops. 
I wasn’t exactly sure how well the whole operation was going work, since I didn’t want to pay a trillion dollars for parking and I didn’t want to just ditch the truck mid-lane change. Turns out, there are a tone of meters along the street and I found it fun to park, toss a dime in a 
meter and use the six minutes to race around that block. I saw the Capitol Records building, the Clarion Hotel Hollywood Roosevelt, El Capitan Theatre, Mann’s Chinese Theatre, the Kodak, and of course I had to watch my step the whole way, because the walk of fame was star studded (bahaha, nice one John). It was a busy and hectic place, and the energy was intoxicating. It felt like the Mann’s was the center of it all, and along with the boat-loads of tourist, there were a number of costumed characters looking to be a part of your vacation scrap book. Classic.
Sunset Boulevard wasn’t as done up and glossy as Hollywood. It sort of felt like a grown up version of it’s northern neighbour. I pulled the same stunt on Sunset as I had on Hollywood, and leap frogged the truck from one end to the other, snapping shots of the House of Blues, the Sunset Tower Hotel, the Director’s Guild of America, and the Comedy Store. Although the crowds weren’t spilling into the streets the place wasn’t deserted by any means. Most of the Sunset crew was on the patio scene, soaking up that sun that I was so happy to have found. It’d be a nice way to spend a holiday Monday afternoon.
My final street for the day was Santa Monica Boulevard. This one took me back across town toward the Pacific again where I found Santa Monica waiting for me. The Third Street Promenade is an ampted up version of Steven Avenue in Calgary. I moved up and down the pedestrian street wandering in and out of shops while joining groups that had gathered around different street performers. This ended up being one of my favourite parts of the day. As the sun was setting I only quickly made an appearance at the Santa Monica Pier, but it has a great view of the beach and the huge skyline.
The opportunity presented itself, so I ceased it, I ceased that opportunity right up. It was dinner at Jack in the Box. One of ‘My Adventure Goals’ while in the States was to eat at a Jack in the Box. Odd you might say. Sure, but with all the American channels that we get, I wanted to know what this Jack character was really all about. Plus in Pulp fiction when Jules and Vincent are taking care of business at ‘look at the big brain on Brett’s’ place and Jules asks about Brett’s burger (which he is eating at 7 in the morning), he asks if it’s from ‘McDonalds, Wendy’s, Jack in the Box…’ Now of course it turned out to be a Big Kahuna Burger, but I couldn’t help but feel that I was missing out ever so slightly by having no true experience with Jack in the Box. So mission accomplished. I ordered their number one meal, which in my opinion is always a good introduction to a Burger join. The Jack in the Box combo 1 happened to be a Sirloin Bacon and Cheese Burger, with Fries and a Soda. I went all American and filled up my cup with Orange Fanta (for some reason in Canada we can’t have such a thing). The whole event was very exciting. I loved it. I would go back. And I have made a mental note that before I cross the boarder again, I will have to revisit the Jack in the Box dinner option.
So that was my LA experience. It was what I wanted out of a one day drive through of the city. There is way too much to do in Los Angeles for one day to cover, so I picked the activities that might not make it to the top of the list next time I visit. This of course means I have to come back, because there are movie premiers to be seen, stadiums and stadiums of sports to be watched, restaurants to try, comedy to laugh at, and beaches upon beaches upon beaches. The drive through is a fun experience though, if you do find you have a day to kill in Southern California.
I drove east and wanted to get close to the Joshua Tree National Park for my next pit stop. I had scanned the map, look at my AAA Camper’s book and found that for a tenter like myself Cherry Valley’s Bogart Park Campground was just the ticket. I pulled in at 9pm and found that not only was it not open at 9pm, but it hadn’t been open all day, it probably hadn’t been open in weeks. What the… So it’s dark, it’s late, I have no idea where to go and only a vague idea of where I am, so I resort to Plan B. Plan B on this trip is simple, Motel it. So I drove into the nearest town, Beaumont, and after touring the town’s city center (two and a half blocks of small town goodness), found I had a limited selection. I went with the shady looking Windsor Motel, where there wasn’t a soul. Probably not a good sign, but I was tired, and ready to pull the truck off the road. It turned out to be a bit of a diamond in the rough. One of those ‘interesting’ exteriors with a very charming inside. Ahhhh, all is well, time to rest, right? Wrong!
As I was unloading some new close, my maps, the computer and way too much else, I dropped my cell phone. It exploded and it’s being a big baby about the whole thing; it’s broken. Everything seems to work, but the screen is blank. I am actually really devastated about it. I’d been using it on a regular basis, not only to stay in touch with friends and family back at home, but also to get help with booking certain motels and finding different campsites. Not to mention it was my safety net. Now I’m totally alone. What a piece of junk phone. Looking back on life before the broken cell phone; man did I have it good. I guess this is all part of the experience, the adventure, the pursuit of the unknown. I don’t know though, it’s a little scarier than I would have liked. Let the excitement begin… and GO!
Day Eight: I am now totally cut off from my world… comfort zone, what’s that?
No comments:
Post a Comment