Going To California - Day Five - Bakersfield To San Francisco

Departure Bakersfield - 54 degrees and clear
Arrival San Francisco - 59 degrees and cloudy

Sundown - 4:55 pm
Miles Traveled - 253 miles
States Visited - 1
Major Cities - San Jose, CA; San Francisco, CA
Average Speed - 62 mph



Can you know a city by staying there one night? No, it would be impossible to know the geography let alone the heart and the spirit of a city in an evening.

Can you try to see an entire city in one night? Yes, if you have the proper guides and a willingness to stay up until 4:00 am on your internal clock.

When I knew that my trip was going to be ending in San Francisco it pleased me greatly. It was one of the five Great American Cities I hadn't visited yet and, as someone who had always though himself a little Beat and Boho, it was like the mothership calling me home. Add on the number of Beat/Boho friends I have who are already on the mothership and it was going to be on like Genghis Khan.

The tricky thing is I only had one night. I knew I wasn't going to see everything or even everything I wanted to see. With the right priorities I could get a good taste of San Francisco.

So I got into town, took the BART into the city, met Schwa, saw the circus, had some drinks, met Meg, we all got picked up by Viv, the four of us went to the sushi place, I ate a prawn head in the most digusting way possible, was met by Will, rode over to City Lights, said "Bye" to Meg and Viv, went into the Poetry Room, got my picture taken on the stairs, got drinks at Vesuvio, walked up Russian Hill (to the TOP!), got in the car, talked to Boston, rode to the Golden Gate Bridge, took some blurry photos, rode across the Golden Gate Bridge, took some blurry video, rode to Haight-Ashbury, got my picture in front of the street signs, met up with Jamie, had a beer, walked into Golden Gate Park, saw the outside of a museum I'll need to go into next time, stood and BS-ed in an amphitheater, walked back to the car, dropped off Jamie and Schwa and was dropped at my hotel by Will.

The only thing I know is I need to come back.

Going To California - Day 4 - Flagstaff to Bakersfield

Departure Flagstaff - 35 degrees and clear
Arrival Bakersfield - 82 degrees and clear

Sundown - 4:48 pm
Miles Traveled - 482 miles
States Visited - 2
Major Cities - Ummmm...
Average speed - 70 mph

A Sampling of Gas Prices
$2.11 Kingman, AZ
$3.29 Bullhead City, CA
$2.25 Junction of Hwys. 395 & 58
$1.99 Bakersfield, CA



One of the things that's both neat and frightening about growing up is you start to deal with your parents as adults. Rather you're dealing with them for the first time as an adult yourself. In fact it may be the first time you get to talk with them about grown up stuff at all.

Since thirty is just up around the bend for me I'm actively working on redefining my individual relationships with my parents. I want to reset the structure of our realtionships to accomodate two adults instead of one adult and one "child." More importantly I want to actually know my parents. Neither of them are particularly old and we'll have at least another thirty to forty years together. Up until now they've had to be models from which I might base my behavior. But now that I'm pretty much a fully-formed adult I can look and see them as they are.

More importantly, if your family was nuclear like mine, these are the two people who have ostensibly known you for the longest. They were the ones who can tell you the most about who you were before you remembered and even tell you a lot about the stuff you do remember except from an adult's perspective. They really are the mirror of your experiences and if they are honest and respectful of you they can tell you more about yourself than any other person not walking around in your skin.

So when I was having dinner with my mom last night, we just talked like I normally would with any other adult in my life. We talked about the election, we talked about my sister's wedding, we talked about my upcoming job prospects. But mostly we talked about each other and ourselves. That is to say we talked as adults.

Going To California - Day 3 - Amarillo To Flagstaff

Departure Amarillo - 47 degrees and clear
Arrival Flagstaff - 55 degrees and clear

Sundown - 5:15 pm
Miles Traveled - 608 miles
States Visited - 3
Major cities - Albuquerque, NM
Average speed - 66 mph

A Sampling of Gas Prices
$1.97 San Jon, NM
$2.15 Santa Rosa, NM
$1.95 Albuquerque, NM
$2.99 Allentown, AZ
$2.69 Flagstaff, AZ

Five Words Young Jeezy Shouts In The Background of "Put On"
Aye
Ha Ha
Hey
Whoooo
Yeah (pron. J-eah)



If it isn't completely obvious and exactly what eveyone else is thinking, I'm sure I could do this "driving across the country" thing all the time. There is something deep in my soul that loves the Kerouac idea of just having the open road in front of you. Going, as Sir Edmund Hillary would say, because it's there.

However I don't think I'd want to do it professionally. Putting on this many miles in a day because you have to is hard. I need to keep driving for that next stop on the map, the next spot where I have a hotel reservation. I probably would've made the same stops as scheduled except I would've done them with a little more generous allowances for stopping and seeing the countryside.

As it is, I'm enjoying watching these United States roll by my windshield. I've seen both purple mountains majesty and amber waves of grain. The amazing thing about our country is people spread out all the way across this diverse continent feel they are all involved in the same great thing going forward. As the man himself said, "There are no red states. There are no blue states. There is only the United States." And what's more American than getting out at seeing this country we love.

Going To California - Day 2 - Emporia To Amarillo

Departure Emporia - 37 degrees and clear
Arrival Amarillo - 73 degrees and clear

Sundown - 5:40 pm
Miles Traveled - 495 miles
States Visited - 3
Major Cities - Wichita, Kansas; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Average speed - 63 mph

A Sampling of Gas Prices

$1.95 Wichita
$1.57 Oklahoma City (W00T!)
$1.85 Amarillo, Texas



On April 19, 1995 at 9:02 am domestic terrorists detonated a fertilizer bomb in front of The Alfred P. Murrah Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma destroying one third of the building and killing 168 people including 19 children. Two and a half years later in October of 1997 The Oklahoma City National Memorial was established and put under the jurisdiction of the National Park Service. The memorial was dedicated by then-President Clinton on the fifth anniversary of the bombing, April 19th, 2000. I visited the memorial on my way through Oklahoma City today.

See the photos of my visit at this link.

Going to California - Day 1 - Minneapolis to Emporia

Departure Minneapolis - 32 degrees and overcast.
Arrival Emporia - 42 degrees and dark.

Miles traveled - 546
States traveled through - 4
Major cities - Minneapolis, MN; Des Moines, IA; Kansas City, KS/MO
Avg. speed - 61 MPH

A sample of gas prices

Minneapolis, MN - $1.97
Des Moines, IA - $1.92
Converse, MO - $1.73
Kansas City, KS - $ $1.76
Emporia, KS - $1.85



When I was young, my dad and I were much closer than we are now. I was the oldest of my siblings and as such I could go do things that the other kids couldn't. It's just one of the many perks of being first. Mostly it was just a bunch of sporting events that we got to see together including a lot of Twins games from very close. But the crown jewel of father-son time for my dad and I were our roadtrips.

The very first one was just a jaunt down to Lake City when I was about six to see my great-grandmother O'Hara. She was very old and I was very young. It stands out though because it's the only real memory I have of her. She seemed so frail and small. My dad has told me since then his memory of that trip is how she was so happy to spend time with her grandson and her great-grandson.

Most often though we'd base our roadtrips around sports. One year we drove to all of the NFL training camps in Minnesota and Wisconsin. Another we drove to the Field of Dreams in Dyersville, Iowa. We even flew one time to Kansas City so we could take a car across Missouri to a Cardinals game in St. Louis.

However the very first roadtrip we took out-of-state was to Kansas City for one of my dad's co-worker's wedding. It was 1990 and I was ten while Erica was 8 and Dan only 6. If my dad was going to take Mom to the wedding, they'd have to find someone to take care of us for the whole weekend. So, sensing an opportunity in a problem, Dad just took me instead of Mom.

There are three really great memories of that roadtrip. First, we stayed at a hotel with two trees involved which had a pool where you could swim between the indoors and outdoors. Second, it was the first time I saw two of the greatest television shows ever; "Saturday Night Live" and "American Gladiators." I can very vividly remember watching The Eliminator on "AG" and watching a "Twin Peaks" parody sketch on "SNL." (Which means Kyle McLachlen was hosting with musical guest... Sinead O'Connor.) The third memory requires a little set-up. At the time Dad had a BMW 3 series with 5-speed manual transmission and an overdrive. Basically, the car was meant to go really fast and it could.

We were peaking over a hill in Iowa already doing north of 80 when Dad noticed there were no other cars visible, there were no police officers sitting in the ditch and, hell, there was this long straight downhill stretch of open road in front of us. So he turns to me and says, "Your mom doesn't need to know about this." He dropped the car into the overdrive and it took off. By the time we got to the bottom of the hill we were doing 120.

I thought about that road trip as I was driving through Kansas City today. I got a chance to think back to when Dad and I would take roadtrips together. I got a chance to think back to when Dad and I were closer. I thought about how things have changed and how things have not. Mostly I got to think about when we would just get in the car and drive.

A List of Items

One winter jacket, red
One sweatshirt, grey (printed)

One gymbag/suitcase, black

-contains-

One swimsuit, black
Two pair shorts, one red/white and other tan khaki
Four t-shirts, two blue (printed) and two white (one printed, one not)
Four pair underwear, patterned
Four pair socks, two pair navy calf cut and two pair white ankle cut
One pair sunglasses, black
One toothpaste tube, half full
One toothbrush, could be replaced
One can bodyspray, full
One stick anti-perspirant, half consumed
One can shaving cream, half consumed
Two safety razors, unused
One phone charger
One package to mail to a friend
Two books to return to a different friend

One green backpack w/ "What Would Elvis Do?" patch

-contains-

One winter hat, navy w/ forest green
One pair winter gloves, navy
One scarf, tan/grey
"Downtown Owl" by Chuck Klosterman
Batman collection "War Drums"
Free Darko's "The Macrophenomenal Pro Basketball Almanac"
Four DVDs

-"Lost In Translation"
-"Serenity"
-"Live Free or Die Hard: Unrated"
-"Gigantic: A Story of Two Johns" to return to a third friend

Six music CDs

-Catch 22 "Keasby Nights"
-LCD Soundsystem "45:33"
-Aesop Rock "None Shall Pass"
-Bad Religion "New Maps of Hell"
-Of Montreal "Skeletal Lamping", packaging difficult to open
-Atmosphere "When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Shit Gold"

One Audiobook

-"The Day the Universe Changed" by James Burke

One digital camera, borrowed
One mp3 player w/ headphones
One cellphone, company-provided
One notebook with directions
One composition book, "Story Arcs" written on cover
One laptop (pending deposit in bag)

Today Was A Good Day

Four years ago, the day after the election, I wrote the following blog post on my old blog Captain Handsome.

Election Results
Today I feel both disappointed and relieved.

I feel disappointed because John Kerry and John Edwards didn't win. It's a little like cheering for your favorite sports team if your favorite sports team directed the economy, the military and the governance of law.

A lot of people like cheering for the Yankees because the Yankees win. If you had to choose your favorite team based on how they played, how they treated their fans, etc., the distribution would be more even. Or people just wouldn't care which is what happens more often in politics.

When John Kerry and John Edwards didn't win, it doesn't mean I won't vote for Democrats two years from now. I'll still be back cheering for the same team because the same things will be important to me then and it will be the same team which will be able to deliver them to me.

As I've expressed elsewhere, this one in particular would've been nice to win.

I'm relieved because it came down to votes. There was no last minute surprise "Hey, we have Osama bin Laden," or "Holy shit, President Bush raped a bear. And that bear was my father!" shit. I think that's the stuff which really turns people off to politics and makes them think their vote doesn't count. This election really was about courting the voters, talking about issues and who is the better man for the job.

There are still votes to be counted and the television networks don't choose the president. It would be great if Bush were ushered out the same way he was ushered in. However, I'm waking up to an America in which George W Bush is the President and I can finally react to that.

The nation selected George W Bush. They elected a foreign policy where the United States actively uses its military might, a domestic policy which supports businesses who are then responsible for supporting their employees and a moral policy which is very conservative. They also selected leaving things as they are over how things could be.

And I'm not sure I fit with that. I don't fit with the Bush Administration's interpretations for sure. Yet a lot of voters looked past the pragmatic and went on the basis of values. While I can relate to those values, they aren't mine.

Atleast I know where I stand. And I can start setting my course from there.

Whether that is me following through on my festering urge to move out of the US or just into a deeper blue state or the exact opposite by going into a red state and helping to bridge the gap, I don't know.

Today is a brand new day. Today my relief is to be starting.

Now it's four years later and I can tell you what happened.

After getting over the initial shock, I decided to commit myself to work and spent the next term floating astray and trying to fit into the corporate world I found odd. For three of those years, I had the support of a wonderful and caring woman and she did more than her part to help me see the cheer in my life and why I should continue on. But the stress of our relationship pushed us apart and this summer things fell apart. I moved home from Chicago and looked around at my options.

There are two realizations I've come to in the last two months. I've found I'm back where I was four years ago and my old burning is coming back. I never really forgot that feeling and anyone who was there will tell you volunteering was the part of my Chicago job I enjoyed the most. It's no coincidence that I'd supported a community organizer for President. Then last night that community organizer won.

Yesterday the nation selected Barack Obama. They elected a foreign policy where the United States uses its military might judiciously, a domestic policy which asks people to make sacrifices for the greater good and a moral policy which is open and liberal. They left behind things as they are and want to see how things could be. And I fit with that. I can relate to those values because they are mine too.

So, with the economy in the tank and the corporate world a suit that fit poorly to begin, I'm going to look into making service my full-time occupation. I don't know if that's going to be foreign service, the Peace Corps, Americorps, some form of government job, some form of non-profit or non-governmental organization, etc. All of that is to be determined. The point is I woke up this morning in an America that needs help and I plan to do my part in helping.



In 2008, Yes We Can!