Month: August 2007

All the posts from my trip: Day 1: From Berkeley, CA to Lompoc, CA, including Pescadero, Duarte’s, kitesurfing in Santa Cruz, Big Sur… in words and pictures. Also: anticipation, iPhone angst, miscellaneous thoughts, on detours, and yum. Day 2: From Lompoc, CA to Joshua Tree National Park, CA, including Carpinteria State Beach, LA traffic, Indio…

Days: 16 Miles: 6,472.1 Time spent driving: 147:55 Average miles/day: 404.5 Average time spent driving each day: 9:15 Average speed: 40 MPH MPG: 23.6

One thing I noticed with a smile after a few days on the road: when you’re out there driving in a convertible, with the top down, bikers — including the huge, burly guys on Harleys — tend to give you a little wave, thumbs-up, or peace sign as you pass them by. It got me…

On the final day of my trip… Sparks, NV is, um, not the world’s most amazing town. Someone called the Reno area (Sparks is basically a sister city of Reno) “like Las Vegas’s seedy younger brother”. I’d say that’s about right, and that’s saying something. It’s good for hotels, places to eat…and gas. Coming up…

Only two more days, and I managed to find… Waking up in Great Basin National Park was just wonderful. Seriously, I’ve loved camping every place I ran into on the entire trip, but this absolutely takes the cake for best campground in general. Friendly folks, sites not too close together, chilly (but not too cold)…

Two weeks on the road, and the next day brought me: A shower and a shave never felt this good. Well, maybe not except for the last time this trip I’d spent four days without them…wow. I do sort of think our society has, in general, an “excessive cleanliness” thing going on at times, but…