I can relate to this excerpt from Nicole Johnson’s book.   I blend into places I go.  I feel invisible sometimes, too.

http://youtube.com/v/CT7×3VnrqbA

Tried to embed the video, but it didn’t work for me today.

Late Saturday night we rolled in. Our own beds! After getting back, though, I realize how little stuff I can live with… how I have too much stuff here. I spend too much time going thru the junk looking for the things I need/want. I’m going to re-read It’s All Too Much and try to revive that purging kick I was on before our trip. But even with all the excess, it’s good to be home.

manhattan beach, california - august 2007

weather.com says that back home it’s 102, but feels like 108.  here it is 78, feels like 79.  i could get used to this!

Fish taco.  For some reason I envisioned some ground up fish mush and it didn’t sound good.  Then when I saw what they really were, I thought I’d try it.  I liked it - but I got mine without the white sauce.  And on Tuesdays, Rubio’s has them for a buck each.  Yum!

The weary travellers made it to California last night.  I somehow managed to stumble into the wireless internet today.  But I forgot to install my camera software on the laptop, so I can’t upload pics, unless I stumble into figuring that one out.  I have an idea brewing, though.

Notes from the road…

…The Texas rest stops we visited between Wichita Falls to Amarillo were brand  spankin’ new.  Very nice.

…The New Mexico rest stop we visited was worse than any Texas rest stop I’ve ever seen.

…The Tucumcari, NM, Sonic should be demolished.  Enough said.

…the a/c on the Suburban is making a funny noise and I imagine it will go completely out when we’re returning home in the California desert where the temps were up to 109 yesterday.  The upside is we shouldn’t need it here in LA.  The ocean breeze is spectacular, and we’re about a mile from the beach.

…The Pacific Ocean is powerful and beautiful and mysterious.  If I had unlimited funds, I’d live right on it, and sleep with my windows open every night. 

It will be over 1400 miles. In the car. We’re going to do it in 2 days. January 2004 was the road trip from… well… let’s just say there was actually a moment when I considered driving the ‘burb off the road and putting us all out of our misery. I’m trying to balance hopeful anticipation with realistic expectations for this trip. We hit the road on Saturday and will be gone for roughly 2 weeks. I’m looking forward to the beach and I hope Manhattan Beach is nice because that will be about a mile from the hotel.

I have no idea what to expect in regards to parking and traffic so we might just end up walking that mile to the beach but I’ll probably scope it out on wheels first. There are tons of things to do there so we should be able to stay busy. The LA Public Library let me sign up for a card online and I can pick it up when we get there. Not sure if we’ll use it but it will be nice if we want to check out some books. The Getty Center is on my list of places to visit. Drive a bit on the Pacific Coast highway. We’ll be going to Legoland - they have lots more than the last time we were there and we learned that even the 4yo can do almost everything there - hope it’s not too crowded, though!

But first I have to get all packed, wrap up last minute details around the house and actually drive that 1400+ miles.