I’ve been in Malibu for most of the week. Tim headed back east yesterday.

A few observations:

- Malibu Beach RV park is pretty amazing. I have a million-dollar view, there is no riffraff or shenanigans, it’s quiet, it’s pleasant, it’s.. well, it’s malibu. In a trailer.

- Malibu itself is too far from my people in LA, and the commute is irritating, but there isn’t anywhere closer to park. It’s not too bad on the bike.

- I sanitized the tank with bleach as recommended, and flushed it several times. I’ve been using the Brita regardless; the water isn’t amazing but I can’t tell if it’s a Malibu thing or a me-not-knowing-what-I’m-doing-with-the-airstream thing.

- The “fantastic fan” in the living room has a loose connection (white wire) and keeps going flaky, which is annoying. Same thing with the bathroom fan. Need to get these fixed at the next service.

- Keeping the dog in the airstream while I’m at work is interesting. You basically need to figure out how to set the temperature for warm afternoons and chilly evenings. My method has been to set the furnace as as well as the air conditioner, which seems wasteful, but I haven’t figured out a better way.

- The lots here in Malibu are packed sand. With packed sand, even with the stabilizers down, the high winds up here on the cliff still shake things up quite a bit. Occasionally I worry that I’m goign to wake up mid-fall onto the PCH.

- The Matthew McConaughey Airstream that was recently in architecture digest is indeed parked here, down behind the office. They say that there’s a 4 week maximum stay here, but it appears that he somehow got them to waive this.

- The pet gate I got for the truck is, basically, a miserable failure. POS. Need to find something better for my next long haul.

That’s all for now. Lots of pictures coming up.

SoCal

This is the third time I’ve done a cross-country drive, and the first time I’ve done it with other people.  (Tim had never been west of pittsburgh before, so there was a lot of intended wow factor)

What I’ve found though, is that the first 2000 miles of the trip from PA to CA are fairly uninteresting, no matter which way you go.  Even in western oklahoma, things look fairly similar to other east coast sights.  The northern route (70) gets you the gateway arch and the great plains, which are both great sights, but the great plains turn pretty monotonous after the first few hours.

The really interesting times begin within the last 1000 miles of the pacific — deserts, mountains, etc.  Luckily we timed things to have the most available daylight today on what was basically the most scenic day of the entire trip.

Last night reminded me of how annoying east coast light pollution has become.  The skies in nowheresville, NM are incredible — reminds you what 99.999% of human existence experienced at night until we f’ed everything up.  While some amount of nightlight is inevitable, the blindingly animated billboards are  the epitome of this disgrace and just make me sick.

We lost track of jrand last night on the way to Amarillo.  While looking desperately for gas (which should never happen on a major interstate, wtf?), we stopped in Groom, NM, and basically froze to death when we got out of the truck.  22 degrees and 38mph winds, windchill was 9.  Not good motorcycling weather.  We pressed on, and coincidentally that’s where John ended up crashing for the night a few hours later, probably not too far from frostbite..  endurance riding rules, though I’m definitely enjoying the warmth of this mobile commandpost.  Laptop RAM mount, best purchase ever.

We’re pressing on to Palm Springs and making it a relatively early (midnight-ish) night.  John took the southern route through Phoenix to add some warmth; we’ll meet up with him in a few hours for our last night on the road.

Travel Heaven

Travel Heaven

Travel Heaven

Travel Heaven

Travel Heaven

Travel Heaven

Travel Heaven

Just came off my 12th hour of driving; my brother (Tim) took over a
little while ago. Had a minor scare with the ABS light coming on, but
after Tim did a semi-unnecessary panicish stop, it went off. (?)
Also, the door to the Airstream wouldn't shut due to ridiculous freeze
in PA (10 degrees last night), so it had to be jury rigged with a
board that my dad rigged up at 600 this morning.

Dog is doing surprisingly well; he gets a little walk and food/water
at each gas stop (which works out to be about every 4.5 hours). He's
snoozing now — has no idea what's going on. I left the cat at home;
my mom fell in love with her anyway.

Anyway, EVDO is working surprisingly well (was terrible in 2.5G mode
but is doing better now in 3G). The power inverter that we had hooked
up to charge the battery overheated after the fan was probably pointed
into the carpet for too long, but it seems fine now.

The true badass of this trip, though is jrand, though, who left his
sister's place in Allentown this morning in 12 degree PA freeze, after
only deciding to come along on this trip a few days ago. He caught up
to me as planned near Harrisburg, and we've been leapfrogging each
other ever since — we just gassed up together in Morristown TN. When
I asked him what the plan was for the evening (ie, when we're going to
stop), his reply was "ride until it's warm."

That's right, ride. He's on his motorcycle. Riding to California. In winter.

Badass.

-d

Travel Heaven

Travel Heaven