Trip Down South

So, I have been longing for another adventure. After going on a two month trip to places you have never been, sitting still can be difficult. But this week, there is another adventure that I have embarked upon. Yesterday, my sister and I began our trip down to visit our cousin Lisa in San Diego. So, for the next few days I will be writing about another adventure that I have had the good fortune to enjoy: a road trip to Southern California.

I arrived to pick up Kira, my sister, yesterday morning at 6:30. I had been trying to figure out how to get down to San Diego to visit Lisa for a week. Since I have been very concerned with gas prices recently, I was unwilling to drive alone (and probably unable to stay awake for the 9 hours it would take to complete the journey anyway). I contemplated taking the bus, the train and flying. I was going to take the bus until Kira expressed interest in coming too. Thus, we decided to drive, since with two people in the car, driving is not only the cheapest way, but also a way to see s good portion of the state. Still, gas in Davis costs this much. Not much by international standards, but we are not used to this in the US.

This is Kira, after first getting in the car. She was not exactly in a cheerful mood. Getting up that early in order to go on what looks to be a 9 hour drive through mostly boring scenery is not the kind of thing that excites most people.

This is me driving. By the way, I have always wondered what the deal with my nose is. I mean, I really like my nose, but I can’t figure out why has that shape. I have theorized that it is the only part of me that actually shows that I am, in fact, partly Native American. We have no idea which tribe.

So, after almost 4 hours of me driving (with Kira mostly sleeping), we arrived at the “town” of Buttonwillow. It was actually just a huge truck stop on Interstate 5, but I guess it was so big it was considered a town. I needed to refill the tank, and did so. Unfortunately, I accidentally filled the tank with premium gasoline rather than regular. I pressed the wrong button and didn’t even realize it. After pumping the $3.31 gas, Kira and I went in to the store shown in the picture.

As soon as she entered the store, Kira immediately began to be followed by a large trucker who really wanted to make conversation with both of us. He gave us some driving advice, and the conversation went downhill from there. By the end of it he had made the following claims: he was a truck driver for Wal-Mart, owned a P-51 Mustang that belonged to the Tuskegee airmen, was in the military in Hawaii at some point in his life but didn’t like Hawaii because he didn’t like being on the victim of racism (even though various things he said hinted to me that he was, himself, rather racist), had worked for Boeing as an aircraft test pilot, and flew a MIG 29 on the weekends. When he made the final claim my sister and I both looked at his 280 pound frame and said we had to be going. I have a feeling this fellow was very lonely and just wanted to talk to anyone, even if he had to lie. Of course, his aggressiveness in pursuit of such conversation made Kira very nervous. We took one thing that this man said as truth: we should not try to drive through downtown L.A. Instead, we decided to drive around the Los Angeles basin. This route took us through the Mojave desert, past Edwards Air Force Base, and down through Riverside. Here is the Mojave, in which there was very little to see.

Well, we finally reached San Diego after 9 hours driving and 10 hours of total trip time. We met her at her boyfriend, Bobby’s, apartment.

And here is Bobby cooking us a fantastic dinner of salmon, spinach salad, artichokes, and garlic bread. While he may believe that the salmon was terrible, I did not mind it. It is very good to see Lisa, by the way.

Well, today is probably going consist of a trip to the zoo. But who knows. Keep checking.