Road Trip 2003

Boston to Los Angeles by Automobile! Some dear friends are moving to LA and we agreed to drive their car across for them, stopping for some frolicking in the National Parks of the Southwest: Carlsbad Caverns, White Sands, the Painted Desert, Grand Canyon, Zion, and Joshua Tree among other things... We leave on the 6th of February from our home in Jamaica Plain and will be posting regular reports (with photos hopefully) from the road, while we leave dear Roscoe and cranky Tyler in the safe and loving care of Carl and Thalia. So check in regularly to follow along with our adventure!
			7 February 2003 - Roanoke, Virginia, USA 9:30am Day One. We made it from Boston. Wildlife sighting was excellent in upstate New York. A plethora of deer, a bevy of hawks, several wild turkeys and an apparently very lost penguin, thumbing on the side of the highway. We didn't give him a ride because he looked shifty. (Okay, he might have been a hawk with an identity crisis.) The most exciting part of the day was the few hours we spent sharing the road with the Ka'aba (the holy stone that so many Muslims will be making the pilgrimage to Mecca to see in the upcoming weeks). Apparently it was highjacked by the Bush adminstration because we encountered it on the highway just east of Scranton, strapped to a flatbed. Talk about "oversized load"!! It was as wide as two lanes of traffic. After a few hours we discovered that there was in fact a "decoy" Ka'aba as well. A second flatbed with an identical giant black cube (approx. 20 foot square) roared up from behind us. We felt both honored and confused - well, mostly just confused. We waved goodbye to them just north of Harrisburg, accepting the fact that we would never know the full story. (Unfortunately we forgot the cable hook up for our digital camera and cannot upload the picture now. We will try to rectify this soon.) Last night we were buried in a "giant" Virginia snowstorm (2 inches) - they are freaking out down here and have closed all the schools today. Looking forward to a visit to the Unclaimed Baggage Center today. Over and Out.
8 February 2003 - Monroe, Louisiana 11:30am Well, the bad news is that we've discovered that we can't get you any photos til we get home. Sorry 'bout that. The good news is that we've made it as far as Louisiana! The big event of yesterday was our trip to the Unclaimed Baggae Center in Scottsboro, Alabama. All that luggage that the airlines lose? Well, these guys collect it and then sell your stuff to people like us! You would not believe how many strollers (300+) and CD players, and glasses we saw. And big stuff too - like a giant sub-woofer for about , a huge miter saw, and even a two person kayak!! We didn't take the kayak, but Slade did get a fantastic Hawaiin shirt and a great cashmere scally (sp?) cap. (You'll have to wait til next week for the photo of him in it.) A puzzling thing about Alabama - none of the men seem to wear coats of any kind even though it was in the 30s. What is up with that? Is it a manly thing? Do they really not think it is cold? It was quite odd. The most notable thing about Mississippi was the packs of apparently wild dogs roaming the highway. We decided not to eat at either Scrooge's or Awuful Arthur's along the way (although The Mellow Mushroom did sound intriguing). We were also sad that Sir Gooney's Mini-Golf was closed for the season. Hope to make it across Texas today to Carlsbad Caverns. So long for now....
			9 February 2003 - Albequerque, NM 11:00 pm Yesterday? Texas. The most interesting thing was Stanton, TX - the self-proclaimed "Home of 3,000 friendly people and a few old soreheads!" We had a chuckle about that. We had an even bigger chuckle a few miles down the road when we came across Midland, Hometown of President George W. and the Mrs. We suspected that perhaps George was one of the "old soreheads" that had just moved up the road a piece. Finally got out of Texas and into New Mexico on our way to the Carlsbad Caverns. We saw a shortcut, but weren't sure of the quality of the road. We figured "We'll just ask someone when we get into Orla" (Orla was where the shortcut started) Well.... we go to Orla, but there ain't nobody there to ask. Completely devoid of life of any sort. There were maybe two dozen buildings, most of which were falling down and clearly had not been inhabited in many decades. We abandoned the shortcut, but found another further up. The Caverns were WAY COOL! Hard to describe. ENORMOUS - many football fields - and 75 stories underground! Stalac-tites, -mites and all kinds of other formations. Drippy. Dark. Worth the trip. On to White Sands National Park through more remote New Mexican towns... Also WAY COOL. Miles and miles and miles of white, fluffy dunes. Look more like snow banks. Very quiet and peaceful (Winter is the time to go to these places we've decided.) The giant dunes were like a huge blank canvas and I couldn't resist a little sand dune graffiti - including a giant lizard. (You'll have to wait for the photos next week.) We're now tired in Albejerky, Albeturkey, no, sorry, Albequerque. Off to bed. Painted desert, petrified forest, Oak Creek Canyon and Sedona on the list for tomorrow. Nighty-night.


	11 February 2003 - Sedona, AZ 3:40pm First things first, we forgot to mention that we were menaced by tumbleweeds and mean looking plants between Artesia and Alamogoober, Alamoguido, no - sorry, Alamogordo, New Mexico. Yesterday we did some international travelling. We spent most of the day in the Navajo Nation in Northeast Arizona. The Navajo Nation can be characterized by its pleasant people, red earth, stunning vistas, colossal rock formations and, apparently, hundreds of dead dogs strewn about the countryside. You don't get it? Neither did we. But we laid our own eyes on about 40 of 'em. In a fit of spontaneity we abandoned the Painted Desert plan and shot straight north to Monument Valley. Yowza! Absolutely amazing! In spite of the intermittent canine carcasses along the roadway, the scenery was flabergasting! We were delighted by the gift presented to us by the Navajo Nation in the form of a molded plastic Indian warrior we found in the Taco Bell parking lot. Someone had tried to saw off his head and torso - unsuccessfully, those Native Americans are a resilient bunch don't ya know. We decided to keep him as our mascot. We arrived at the Grand Canyon around 9pm and stopped off for a look-see. Phenomenal gaping hole of blackness! The big excitement was the noisy trashcan next to our car in the empty parking lot. At first we thought it was a bear because we'd heard there were lots of dangerous bears in the national parks. But as Slade bravely approached the can for an inspection, and ENORMOUS, FANG-BARING raccoon BURST FORTH from the can and scurried off into the brush. The South Rim was pleasantly un-crowded this morning when we went back. Holy Cow! Phenomenal gaping hole of amazement! Definitely something everyone should see with their own eyes at least once in their lifetime. Very humbling. We went on to catch the IMAX film of the Grand Canyon to see all the stuff we couldn't from the top in winter. Great show! We scooted out quick, though, because we were informed of a coming snowstorm bringing a foot of new snow. We hightailed it out down route 180 through the Cococino Forest - beeeautiful. We just came down through Oak Creek Canyon - tremendous - into the (we're running out of spectacular adjectives here) red rock vistas of Sedona. That's it for now. Next report should be from sunny California....later dudes.
Want a little Grand Canyon extra? Click here
	12 February 2003 - Yucca Valley, CA 1:00pm Due to subconscious denial and guilt I neglected to mention that I became a murderess outside Albequerque. I suppose vehicular homicide is the proper term...or vehicular birdicide. But, in my defense, the bird was clearly suicidal and went up in a spectacular explosion of feathers in our wake. It was all very sad and I am deeply distressed by it, but we moved on. So, since our last report from Sedona, the rest of the day was pretty curly, swirly, swervy, curvy. Up and down amazing mountains at 15 mph. Jerome was the best. An entire town just hanging off the edge of Mingus Mountain. Up to the top we went, and down again, hugging the cliffs for dear life. Today? So far, well, true to form, the Andersons have brought rain to an otherwise rainless world. We're just through the Joshua Tree National Park - a desert, the definition of which is that it never rains, until we showed. It's been raining all day. So much for the sunny California plan. (Happened to us in Death Valley too a few years back.) Nevertheless, the park was fabulous - crazy cholla cactus gardens, ocotilla plants that look like mini tornadoes, giant boulder playgrounds, and of course the "undisciplined" and spikey Joshua Trees. We wished we could have hiked around it more, but it was still very cool. Want to come back and camp here someday - when it isn't raining. We think we are going to Palm Springs now, but who knows - things have a funny way of changing course on us. Tune in next time...

	17 February 2003 - Jamaica Plain, MA 10:00am So sorry for the delay - these last few days have been a whirlwind. We made it to Palm Springs, but it was pouring down rain so we couldn't do much but go for Thai food and see a movie (My Big Fat Greek Wedding - very amusing) although Slade did get the opportunity to play pinball for a bit at the theater. Oh yes, and we did do a driving tour past all the fancy homes - very fancy. Arrived in Pasadena at around noon at Bill & Donna's new pad. Bill then took us on a fabulous tour of IKEA. Sounds silly, but we'd never been - holy cow what a massive place. Thank goodness Bill kept us from dawdling "Come on, let's go, we gotta keep moving." or we'd be there still. The swedish meatballs and lingonberries at the cafeteria were great! Yum. Spent a humorous evening in Silver Lake with Leslie and Matt in their fabulous new home. Dinner at El Chavo was a treat as always! Friday brought sun at last and found us zooming into Santa Monica to have lunch with EJ (I met him working down at Ground Zero after September 11th), a stroll down Venice Beach, meeting up with Cynthia and baby Miles at Small World Books, and I found an AMAZING vintage leather jacket with fringe galore (a la Roger Daltry Slade says), then scooting over to Wilshire to the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf for lattes and hot chocolates with Craig. A stroll down the 3rd St. Promenade is always required in beautiful Santa Monica. We stopped into our favorite little music store, HEAR Music, and feasted our ears for a while. Then we ended up with some yummy pizza and lasagna from the little yellow White Flower pizza place on Main. Up early in the morning to meet Geoffrey for tea and some other old Venice pals, then breakfast at Mani's with Cynthia, Geoffrey and Miles. Hooked up with Bill & Donna to trade off the car and say goodbye then right into a cab by 10am and off to LAX. Whew! You can understand perhaps that we did not have a chance to write. Hopefully we'll get the photos back today (if the storm doesn't prevent it) and we'll put them all up at last. We'll send you an email advisement about it. So I guess that's it. Back just in time for the blizzard... Hooray!
FOR OUR LAST TRICK... Want to see something REALLY weird?? Because of the cancer/hysterectomy, Slade and I can have no children. HOWEVER, there was a very interesting machine we found on our travels that can produce "morphed" photos of the potential child of two people. Sooooo.... Our dear parents can see what their grandchild would have looked like after all... Check it out!

Top of Page