In Los Angeles now. I arrived last Thursday night around 9:00 PM. All told, 3,349 miles driven in six days. I didn’t spend much money on gas thanks to the economical car. The car, a new Chevy Impala was very comfortable which made the trip that much better. Having a small car for long exhausting road trips can be just that, exhausting. The same could be said for having a car with more than one person in it as well. It’s funny that they say you take a long trip by yourself on the road to “do some thinking”. After two or three days of driving seven hours or more a day the only thinking you’re doing is the math in your head when you see your next destination is 80 miles away and you’re driving 70-75 mph an hour which is basically an hour away. That and whatever song is being played on the stereo which if you’re by yourself and it’s a song you quite dig you’re probably immersed in music and not really thinking about anything. So, no I didn’t do any “soul searching” whatever that means anyway.

I have learned a few things since being here in LA for a few days now:

Evidently they do not have directional signals on their automobiles. You can just switch lanes whenever you want, completely disregarding the people behind you or at an intersection waiting to turn.

People are very impatient here, especially on the road. I was under the impression from past trips here that people were much better drivers here but I’ve come to realize that it’s very similar to the East Coast (the winners for Best Drivers on this whole trip are probably the people in the middle of the country on the highway. Granted you’re on a highway with five other cars for hours at a time passing each other over time, but people drive the speed limit and are in no real hurry to get anywhere). I wonder if everyone here is habitually late for everything and that’s why they are always in a hurry? Anyway, when I finally got into an area of California where traffic was heavy I was coming down from the high desert area and everyone was going 75-85 mph and I had to try and keep up. After driving at such an easy, laid back pace for six days it was a bit overwhelming to be among hundreds of douche-bags in Lexus’ (Lexi?) cutting in front of me at 80 mph with barely a car length in front of me. It brought a little bit of the Massachusetts driver back in me, or perhaps just my personality in general where I thought to myself “If I had my car I might be more of an asshole here and actually purposely hit one of these people with my car that is already banged up”. Anyway, after spending six days in a car being patient for the most part it’s a little bit of a bummer to be around so much impatience.

So aside from the people in cars here being slightly annoying I’m having a good time doing nothing for the most part. I saw a couple friends from back home who are out here, Noel and Laura and one of their friends Ryan the other day. We spent the day in Hollywood, went up to Mulholland Drive (sp?) and at one point drove down Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills playing that Rage Against the Machine song “Down Rodeo (“So now I’m rollin’ down Rodeo with a shotgun/last time these people saw a brown skinned-man was when their grandparents bought one”). That was pretty funny. We went into a shop where they had old rock concert shirts…for $48! Also, some atrocious costume jewelry; for example we saw a fake gold necklace with some stupid charm on it for $199. I mean if the terrorists really want to win they might consider hitting Beverly Hills next time. I probably shouldn’t say much though as I probably spent about $80 on food this day alone.

Another thing I learned here, you can’t get a cup of coffee any time of the day without having to drive around for three hours. Being a spoiled New Englander with a Dunkin Donuts always within walking distance of me it’s kind of sucks that there is only Starbucks here (one within walking distance that’s open until 11:00) and very little else. I haven’t had a plain old iced coffee in ten days now. I don’t think I’ve washed my hair in as many days as well. Heh.

I took a couple hundred pictures that I’ll put up somewhere else when I get home. Using a laptop without a mouse is a pain in the neck so cutting and pasting, dragging things, etc is hard so I’ll deal with it then.

The balloon says "I love Hooters" on the other side but I wasn't quick enough.