A much needed road trip

It's amazing what hitting the road for a couple of weeks will do for your soul, or at least for my soul. Hence, an overdue travelog blog.

After a slow 1st quarter, the CW and I have been graciously slammed with work. Two of these projects have required me to travel to the west coast to do a bunch of voice-over talent direction & recording. Because I had to be in 3 different places (San Jose, L.A., Las Vegas) I used that as an excuse to drive instead of fly. As much as I've driven around the country, going west from Austin was an excursion I had not had the opportunity to make.

There is something about driving cross-country in America that makes one reconnect with being American. The independence, the vast differences in landscape, the way the sky changes, the things you glean by talking to various people in bars, restaurants and hotels. Plus, there is the learning experience when you watch and listen to people who aren't native to the place you're visiting, whether they're tourists or transplants. It's even more fascinating to talk to transplants who are originally from the various areas of the country you call home, and understand what they want out of life and their new locale. It's a fabulous eye-opening education.

One of the things I had the opportunity to do was to drive up the Pacific Coast Highway from L.A. to San Jose. All I can say is...wow. I've had some fantastic drives in my years of road trips, but I think that one ranks at least #2 if not taking over the top spot in "breathtaking drives I'd take again." (The others on that list would be driving the Florida Keys, going through Yoho & Banff National Parks in the Canadian Rockies, and driving down the Outer Banks of North Carolina.) I could spend paragraphs describing it, but there is no camera or even an IMAX that could do it justice. It was an unbelievable experience.

I stopped at Monterrey to get some seafood. Unfortunately, I hit Fisherman's Wharf, which is not to be confused with the same place in San Francisco. The SF version is fabulous; Monterrey's....not so much. More of a tourist trap for overweight, underflavored midwesterners to go for the "California experience." My wine was crap (especially for NoCal), my eggplant appetizer was old and bitter. However, the oysters I had were to die for. And they were blue points! No one's doing blue points any more; how come? They were meaty, sweet, and had that taste of the sea that you can only get from oysters. Plus, I was sitting outside on the bay. How bad could life be?

San Jose has always held a lot of charm for me. It's the centerpiece of Silicon Valley, but it's also in a verdant valley between two mountain ranges with the ocean just over the western coastal range. It's big enough to have culture, yet small enough to be accessible and not overwhelming. Go Sharks.

Even with its flaws, California is probably the greatest state in the union, at least in terms of beauty. However, every state has its asshole, and California's is the biggest: L.A. How and why people continue to move and exist there is beyond me. The metro area is huge, overcrowded, and ugly. The people are pretentious to an absurd point. The traffic is probably the worst in the world. The real estate is so out-of-bounds that it makes the Bay Area and NYC look like bargains. Even the "beautiful people" have the help of silicone and surgeons.

However, the drive I took north out of L.A. through the mountains (California Hwy 2, mostly) was another breathtaking display of what Cali has to offer. I love being in Texas, I love the landscape of Austin, and at times I miss the verdancy of the midwest. But man...the varied vistas, the greenery, the floral displays, the ocean scenes, the canyons...it's an unbelievably gorgeous state.

Vegas is another world unto itself.

This was the CW's first visit to Sin City, and it figured to to be interesting to see it through her eyes; I expected that she was going to hate it. I can't say that she did, but I can say that it isn't going to be a destination for either of us. Neither of us are gamblers (unless you want to count my love of very-low-stakes home poker games). The food in Vegas, quite frankly, sucks. At least it used to be cheap, but now you don't even have that to recommend it (and it's expensive not only in the casinos but also far away from The Strip). And there's something sadly amusing about the blatant sex. Maybe it's because of my years on the road and having it shoved in my face, but something about the advertising of it basically says "if you don't get it anywhere else, at least you can get it here." And frankly, that is sad. Based on the tourists I see whenever I'm there, though, the message is hitting the target audience.

The drive back on the back roads of Arizona and New Mexico was extremely interesting. The deserts were in full bloom, so it was probably the most beautiful time of the year to traverse them. The most fascinating part is how often they change; every 20-30 miles the vegetation is different, the mountains are different, and the temperature is different. I found myself wondering, though, about the people who live in this area of the country. How did they get here, why do they stay, and what the hell do they do for a living? It's hard not to answer that with "they were born here, they know of nothing else, and look at their abodes; they're on welfare." I'm sure that's not the majority of the backroads desert denizens, but it's got to be a high percentage.

The trip also confirmed something else: Austin is indeed home. As much as I enjoyed (and probably needed) the excursion, it was exciting as we got closer to the ranch. This is where I belong.