Travel Notes
Saturday August 27, 2002
Slipping Milestones
I got up an hour late this morning and I hit the road two hours late. I did not put much effort into backing during the week. I wonder if there are a lot of things I forgot. I will not know until I get there
Driving
I do want to measure this drive in miles or hours. I want to measure it in how many CDs I listened to on my way. It took me 9 CDs and one hour of This American Life to get from San Jose to San Diego.
Ben Folds - Rockin' The Suburbs
Neutral Milk Hotel - In The Aeroplane Over The Sea
They Might Be Giants - Then (Disc 2)
Sundays - Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic
Pavement - Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain
Soul Coughing - Ruby Vroom
Wilco Being There (Disc 1)
Wilco Being There (Disc 2)
Belle & Sebastian - Tigermilk
The Joys of I-5
There is something I love about I-5. It is like I-95 in some aspects, but very different in other aspects. Both Highways run north and south though the coastal states. I-5 is different because there are no 400 mile stretches of I-95 without any major cities. It is different in the ways the West Coast is different from the East Coast.
North of Los Angeles I-5 runs though California's Central Valley. That is a great stretch of highway. For the most part it is flat, straight, and long. It is the kind of highway where doing 85 miles per hour might not keep up with traffic. I averaged 85 thought most of this stretch of highway.
Once you get really comfortable at driving 85 miles an hour, anything else feels really slow. When I would have to slow down to 75 it would feel like I was crawling. Yes, 75 is still five miles over the speed limit. I could not readjust myself until I got to
Grapevine just north of LA.
Every Time I Drive Through Los Angeles
There seems to be two Audio experiences I have every time I drive thought LA. I always listen to Pavement's Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain and I always Here an episode of This American Life. This is the fifth time and it is yet to fail.
I usually save Pavement's
Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain for LA. It seems to be an album that fits that city. The idea that Pavement is facing rock and roll fame and they are not sure what to do. Just listening to the album you can tell they spent a lot of time in the City of Angels. Something in my mind has attached it to LA.
Sometime after the Pavement album is over, I turned on the radio. As soon as I found an LA public radio station,
This American Life was on. No matter what time I drive through this city, This American Life is on. I am not sure how this happens. I am not complaining, I really like this show. It is just a strange experience. I have hear This American Life in lots of cities, Philadelphia, Boston, Washington, New York, Chicago, Portland, Seattle, and lesser know places. Los Angeles is just different. It is always on there. Maybe I am just overreacting.
San Diego
I have been to San Diego enough times that everything looks vaguely familiar. Everything looks like something I have seen before. The problem is that San Diego is so large and most of the landscape looks the same. I am not sure where I am really going. Good directions are the only thinks that keep me from being totally lost. I like to think I have a good sense of direction. This week will put me to the test.
