A california road trip.
06 Nov 2006Heya Everyone!
Cherie and I had Halloween in the Castro district this year, but
leading up to it I had the most interesting journey from Manteca, where
we were staying with Cherie’s family, to San Rafael, where we were
staying with our friends Sam and Allison. I think I set a personal best
for the number of modes of transportation taken in one day. Cherie’s dad
Stan drove me to the Modesto airport. I then flew my plane to Hollister.
In Hollister I picked up my car and drove to the San Jose airport, where
I put my car into long term parking then took a bus to the train
station. Took a train up to San Francisco, where I then got on the Muni
(the SF ‘subway’) to within a few blocks of the ferry terminal, walked
to my ferry, which took me to San Rafael, where Sam picked me up and
drove me the rest of the way to their home. So to summarize… truck ->
airplane -> car -> bus -> train -> subway -> feet -> ferry -> car. All
in a single day.
For Halloween we stayed the night with Margaret in SF and carved
pumpkins then met Mark out on at the crazy Castro Street party that’s
become a big yearly event. It has become the place to be if you are
into costumes. Some of our favorite costumes were ‘Madonna with baby’,
‘hot dog on a stick’, ‘my myspace page’, and ‘Michael Jackson with the
neverland ranch children’. There was a heavy police presence, because
whenever you get together a third of a million people partying within
just a few city blocks you inevitably get some hoodlums. This year was
no exception, and unfortunately an altercation turned into a shoot-out
where 9 people were hurt.
Following Halloween Cherie and I did a nice trip down the cost (by car).
We spent two days in Tahoe hiking and hanging around. Hotels there are
really cheap between summer and the ski season, and if you don’t mind it
being a little chilly it’s very beautiful in the fall. Then we drove
down 395 and stopped at Mono Lake. These amazing underwater spires
created by minerals in the spring water appeared after LA started
draining the sources for the lake to provide water down south. The
reduced water level revealed the spires in the lake. Now they are going
to restore the lake and that means many of the spires will be underwater
again when they raise the water level. We finished the trip spending a
day in Joshua Tree where the hardy cacti flourish surrounded by rocks
stacked as if a giant child’s block set.
Cherie and I are planning to winter in Maryland at my Mom’s vacant
condo. We’ll be making the trip across the US visiting friends,
relatives, and locations of historical significance along the way. We’re
leaving after Thanksgiving. Here’s a map of where we’ll be:
http://tinyurl.com/yd9vqx