oh gorilla...

i like to think i have manners. my dogs...not so much. Gorilla is horny, what can i say. He found the clay pot and realized it made a perfect humping companion. A lot of my mornings here begin with 'gorilla, get off the pot..."

la casa...

Judy redid the house a couple years ago and has transformed it into a vibrant, airy spanish style home. most every day in L.A is sunny and warm so i know i'll be spending a lot of time outdoors...
my bedroom is in the converted garage...

Judy's House

I'm staying in Burbank, California and the road to Judy's house used to be an orange grove. Her house was once the caretaker's home and maintains a lot of its charm and character. I look at the house and realize i may have left my cute casita in Santa Fe, but this runs a close second.
The land is fertile and as in many yards in California, full of fruit trees...she has avocado, lemon, apple, tangerine, lime, and oranges...so cool

I made it!

Finally, i arrive at Judy's house. As bad as the highways are in L.A., there are a lot of great, quiet, beautiful neighborhoods ...either in the canyons, just off the busy road or around the bends. I entered the valley and the skies returned to vibrant blue. I turned onto my friend Judy's road, and my tension slowly faded. I remember the great parts of California, because there are so many... I park the car, 10 and a half hours after my day began. It's finally over...
The dogs remember it and run around like mad. i conk out on the swing for an hour...

Nearing the City of Angels

The one thing i was quickly reminded of was how aggressive the driving is in Los Angeles. About an hour and a half outside my final destination, the highways widened, the bright blue skies turned to smog, the amount of cars tripled and my hands tightened against the wheel. I didn't take one picture. Drivers in LA are the most aggressive i've encountered...people speed up and cut you off, swerve into your lane, ride your bumper, beep their horn at every chance, tractor trailers race by you...i was so tense and tired. Of all my good driving days, the final one proved the silent killer...it left me tense, angry, annoyed, frustrated...my santa fe peace was like what the map said, hundreds of miles away...

Mojav

We reach California without incident. (i didn't even seen a welcome sign...) So my homecoming was a big blur without cause for celebration, much like the terrain i was entering. The mojave desert. The only memory i have of the mojave was when I was doing an MTV shoot years ago and a not so bright model called this desert the "Mojav" as if the j was pronounced. She was not kidding.
Overall, i like the route i chose to drive to L.A. But this desert marks the only exception. It's a good 2-3 hours of pure desert. It's hot, it's long, it's boring, there are 80 miles between exits...and when you do pull over, there's only a gas station and a dairy queen. A dairy queen with 80 people in it, fighting for bad food and super size cokes...
It's hard to be healthy on the road, at least this one...

long, boring drive

I made a misjudgement. Because Phoenix is just 6 hours from LA, I thought Flagstaff would be too, or maybe 6 and a half. it was almost 8. and with all the stops we make, it was going to be a long day when i was hoping it would be short. The dogs are a little tired of it all, and try to find new ways to get comfortable. reminds me of myself on a long airplane ride..

Final day

So final day, we leave Days Inn bright and early...no desire to stay a minute longer...

i made it..

i'm here in los angeles...tired but all in one piece. off to work this morning, i'll finish the blog tonight or tomorrow night or the next night, depending how much they decide to wear me out at work. hanging with flav and his ho's, should be fun...

motel blues...

i don't really have any but i like that song by Alex Chilton...
So i kick back and watch the emmy's. I drink wine and eat bad chinese. one more day to los angeles...

days inn

so we arrive at the Flagstaff Days Inn around 6:00pm, which is now actually 5pm. The good thing about traveling west is that you gain time, but the bad part is the sun is in your eyes a lot...The dogs release some energy on the disgusting bedspread. It smells in here. I miss my casita. i decide i must marry rich.

dinosaur

There are a lot of billboards announcing navajo reservations and jewelry and petrified wood and many of the signs add pictures of dinosaur icons. What's the connection? I saw many of these life size dinosaurs along my arizona travels...not sure what this is about but i suppose it makes for an interesting photograph. it was hard to grab it at 75mph but i got this one

arizona...

finally, california feels within reach. The skies turn dark and there's some rain from time to time. i have about two hours to go till i reach flagstaff...

subway

We get back in the car and i search out some lunch. Around here, there aren't many rest stops and you take what you can get. I find Subway and pull over. I wasn't expecting a blog worthy moment but one revealed itself....
The lone client in the store, I ordered a 6" tuna on whole wheat and my sandwich maker took great pains in preparing my sandwich. I'm not sure if he had ocd or just enjoyed his craft but it took the longest time i've ever experienced to actually make the sandwich. He scooped out the tuna then spread it with a knife 6 times to the right, 6 times to the left. (i counted) Then he put two pieces of cheese on the sandwich but as they are cut diagonally, he matched them up perfectly so they appeared as one slice. When he got to the vegetables, he'd hold 6 or 7 strips of peppers in his left hand and carefully place each one atop the cheese with his right, ever so slowly. And so on with the onions, cucumbers, etc... All the pickles had to touch each other and covered the length of the sandwich, leaving about an inch on either side. As i was thinking 'what the hell dude...' it was like a perfect movie cue, my eyes were averted to his apron where i read the inscribed explanation, "Sandwich Artist."
So this was an artist i was dealing with. A new approach to subway, i'll take it. I couldn't help thinking he could get away with this in the desert town but take the boy to the city and he'd never make it.
I appreciated his efforts though and i have to say it was one of the best subway sandwiches i ever had...

red rocks

sid lost another tennis ball here, i don't know what i was thinking.

rest stop

I saw a sign for the Red Rock Park and it looked too good not to stop. It's amazing how few people i ever find on a hiking trail, not that i mind. We didn't see one person along our hike but were entertained all the while...here are some pics.

still in the car...

The drive through the rest of New Mexico was uneventful. It reminded me of Oklahoma- flat and boring but this time a little more green, and the occasional plateau to make things interesting. Gorilla slept a lot today

adios casita...

I have to say goodbye to the casita and it makes me sad. Today I'm heading to my last stop over, Flagstaff, Arizona. Even though i wasn't ready to leave for another half hour, the dogs jumped in the car as i was packing it, just in case i'd leave without them. I couldn't get them to come out. Logan, the resident dog saw us off...

desert

another hike

We start our last day in Santa Fe with another hike. You can't visit Santa Fe and not spend a lot of time outdoors, it's too beautiful. We didn't see any animals again but enjoyed the hike just the same...

DAY FIVE...

For those following this journey, you'll remember that Gorilla threw up in the car after I gave him a bone to chew on...so this is what i woke up to on Day five...more throw up, but this was all Sid. I think it's a dish towel. Sid eats a lot of non-edible items, such as underwear, plastic, socks, tank tops, aluminum foil and the like...I'm not sure of his family background but there may be some inbreeding in there. He's not that smart.
So, i'm not sure if he just did this for the blog time or just for the novelty of it, but there it is...usually it comes out the other end so i actually look at this event as a step forward.

chef's bar

As the dogs relax back at the casita, i go out for drinks and food. My friend and executive chef of Woodfire Grill in Atlanta, Michael Tuohy told me to visit his cousin's restaurant in downtown Santa Fe called Coyote Cafe. His cousin and restaurant owner, Mark Miller was more than welcoming to me...He sat me at the Chef's Bar and told the waiter, the maitre 'd and the executive chef to take good care of me tonight. The chef asked me how hungry i was and what i didn't like and then said 'mind if i play with this?...I'm gonna start you off with a cold plate and we'll go from there." So no joke, this is all the food the chef served me last night...(and i ate it all)

shrimp tostada
beef carpaccio
goat cheese crouton
steak tartare
shrimp on corn cake
scallop wrapped in serrano ham
crab pancake
pork tenderloin
quail
ny strip steak
asparagus

and per Michael's suggestion, mango margaritas to wash it all down...
What can i say, he was a cute chef and i felt like i'd insult him if i didn't eat all that he was preparing for me. i did feel overwhelmed and quite sick by the end of the night but that's beside the point...well worth it!