California Love

Well I finally made it. I'm here in California, and have been here for the last 2 days. A weird place, but not in a bad way.

I spent Friday evening in Hollywood and walked up and down the famous Boulevard. I haven't seen any of the blockbuster movies this summer yet so I decided what better place to see my first summer movie than Hollywood? At the Mann Chinese Theater no less. The theater was really cool, but smaller than I had imagined for some reason. And there was a whole bunch of people in costume outside the theater who you could take pictures with (for a small price, of course). I noticed that, since the 3rd movie, Spider Man had gotten a beer gut. There was also a crazy guy in a Jesus shirt telling everyone that they were going to hell, and a couple of monks in full-robe from who knows what religion/cult performing some strange chantings complemented with a stringed instrument I had never seen before. All under flashing neon lights.

Like I said, strange place.

But that was fun. After the movie I drove about an hour north up towards San Fran and slept in my car at a rest stop. The hotel prices in CA are INsane. $95 for a Motel 6. A MOTEL 6! Good god man. How about I sleep in your parking lot for free and pirate your Wi-Fi instead?? The non-chain hotels are even more expensive.

But anyway, I drove up the famous route 1 road along the coast yesterday. There were some great views and it was fun to drive around the tight corners overhanging the cliffs. That is, until, I came upon a roadblock an hour south of San Fran. The road was closed (and all the campsites along the road too) because of the wildfires raging here. The cop said that the fires reached all the way to the coast and had burned up some of the road along route 1. Damn. Not to mention all the homes destroyed, people displaced... some 50,000 acres of land destroyed the cop told me. It's hard to get my mind around a figure that large. Crazy crazy stuff.

But what that meant was that I had to go the way back the way I had just come. Route 1 is a rather isolated road with very few out-letting roads back to the main 101 highway a little ways inland. Great now I won't make it to San Fran this evening. I backtracked 4 miles and made a turn onto a road heading to highway 101. But because this part of the coast is basically a road sandwiched between the ocean and mountains, turning back inland meant that I had to climb through the mountains to get to the other side. The road was straight uphill, windy, and very very long. It was kinda cool, but the fact that I was being delayed detracted from my enjoyment somewhat.

Anyway, 4 hours later than I had expected, I had made it back to highway 101. By this time it was already dark. I slept in my car in the parking lot of a Sheraton hotel. Not a bad night's sleep actually. Today I drove through San Fran and am currently in Sacramento in a Greek cafe. The farm is not too far from here so I am going to spend the night here and drive to the farm in the morning. Yay!

I'll be at the farm for the next two weeks, with limited access to the internet, so I wanted to post before I go. I'll probably post again in the coming week, but who knows. It is a farm, after all.

Oh, and I may or may not have pierced a certain part of my head while in Hollywood.

Like I said, crazy place.

Peace!