Eastward Ho! (Eastward Hobble?)

The saga of a planned two-day move, in two cars, with two cats, from L.A. to Denver.

Day one (Sunday). The cars are loaded and ready to go by 1 PM. But one of the cats is missing. Tiger is tranqued and in her cage, but Kid took one look at his cage and went off for parts unknown. So we make the rounds - the yard, up and down the street - calling kitty-kitty, and after six hours Kid emerges from under the house, looking around for food.

He gets a tranquilizer instead, and we finally pull out at 7 PM, I driving the Honda, Robin following behind in the Saturn. We make it 200 miles to Baker, where the World's Largest Thermometer reads 98 degrees (at 10 PM), and have a meal at the Mad Greek Cafe. Meanwhile, Tiger's dope has worn off, and we decide to stay there in the town hotel - Bun Boy, a dive next door to Bob's Big Boy.

At the Bun Boy, there are three large barn owls sitting on a billboard above our room, screeching. Inside, a roach scuttles behind the bed, and a sign on the door warns of snakes. It's stifling. The window air conditioner does little more than blow hot air. Thank God for Ambien.

Day Two (Monday). Hoping to make up for lost time, we still have a chance to make Denver by late evening. But on a desolate stretch of I-15 seven miles north of Jean, Nevada, the Saturn's left front tire quite literally explodes, blowing away the wheel well and front side panel, littering the road with debris as Robin struggles to maintain control. Fortunately, no one was on the right, and she managed to steer the car over to the shoulder. Whew! Neither she nor the cats are hurt, but it's sobering to consider how it could easily have turned out worse. As it is, she's stuck on the shoulder in 109 degree heat with two cats in the car, and the blow-out has also killed the air-conditioning.

She reaches me by cell phone, and it takes me a good twenty mintues to loop back to join her (there aren't many exits out there). We transfer the cat carriers into the air-conditioned Honda, and spend the next hour waiting for a AAA tow-truck to arrive. He tows us (for $185) to Dave's Body Shop in Las Vegas. Dave thinks the body work will come to $1200-1500, not counting the tire and whatever happened to the air conditioning. We'll get an estimate Tuesday or Wednesday, and with any luck, the work will be done by Friday or next Monday. Interestingly the tires are relatively new - the three others look just as good as the one that blew.

The problem, of course, is that I'm due at work in Denver on Tuesday (tomorrow!), and we've got all our stuff - enough to last us through a three-to-four month move - packed into the two cars. So I rent a Jeep from Enterprise, and (still in 109 degree heat) we transfer all the cargo from the heavily-stuffed Saturn into the Jeep. Enterprise insists that we have to drive the Jeep back to Las Vegas when we return to pick up the repaired Saturn. By this time it's six pm, and all that time in the withering heat has us (and the poor cats) completely frazzled. I regard heart palpitatons as a time to ease off a bit - so decide to get a good night's rest here in Vegas, ending up at the Wild West Hotel (Days Inn) on Tropicana Blvd.

Tomorrow is another day, and we'll take it as it comes.

Dead Reckoning (1947)

Disappointing. Humphrey Bogart in a piece of heavy-handed film noir: over-complicated, over-serious, and over-the-top, with cringe-worthy howlers. Not even Bogie can save this one. But Marvin Miller (Michael C. Anthony in TV's "The Millionaire" series, and voice of Robby the Robot in "Forbidden Planet") makes a good sadistic villain.

In a Lonely Place (1950)

Fine 1950 film noir with Gloria Grahame falling for Bogart the screenwriter with a dark side, set in a wonderful Hollywood courtyard apartment complex. Directed by Grahame's true-life husband Nicholas Ray, who caught her in bet with Ray's teenage son (Graham's stepson) during the filming of the movie. Graham later married the boy.

January 29, 2010

Oracle completed the takeover of Sun. I have mixed feelings, because some of my friends(Carol Thom, Michael Lucero, Shrini in QA) survived this round of layoffs. But their future looks tenuous, at best, and six months down the roead... who knows??

Wonderful to be alive in a new year. Robin and I are marveling that for all the negatives - being unemployed- we've both experienced a resurgence in creative activity, and that's worth more than "job satisfaction" any day of the week!

Darryl's band on stage at The Airliner

Darryl had two of his bands playing tonight: Sonic Wave Society (9-10 PM), and Melic Sub Rosa (10-11 PM), at the The Airliner, on North Broadway in Lincoln Heights.

Darryl is a superb musician, arranger, and producer, but his music is "challenging" to his parents and their cohorts. We love to see him perform - the live performance, with all the body language, brings the music to life - but the be-bop stuff of late Coltrane and Ornette Coleman, fused with rock, is difficult for this baby-boomer to wrap his head around. But intellectually, if not emotionally, I "get it", and am as proud of Darryl as can be, sensing that his Redline Park Lable has a chance to take off big time!

Finished reading The Hemingses of Monticello by Annette Gordon-Reed. It was repetitive and overly speculative, but very good over all, well worth reading. The Jefferson-Hemings saga is a fascinating story, this is well researched and documented.

Deming, NM to Fort Stockton, TX

Morning in Deming, New Mexico. Enjoyed an hour around the pool, reading, then checked out and continued east on Interstate 10.

Eherenberg, AZ to Deming, NM

Morning in Ehrenberg, Arizona, breakfast across the parking lot at The Cookery, a coffee-shop. It was mediocre food in a chain-restaurant setting, and we vowed not to do it again during the trip.

continuing east on Interstate 10, we stopped for gas at a TA Travel Center in Eloy, and again at a rest stop (exit 318) in Cochise County, at the southeast corner of the state. We crossed into New Mexico just before 6 PM, crossed the Continental Divide by 7:30, and stopped for the night in the Luna County town of Deming, at the Grand Motor Inn. Ate dinner at a local steak and ribs joint.

Leaving on a 4-Week Grand Road Trip

Had the Hybrid serviced in the morning. R & I finished packing and taking care of last minute business, and were able to pull out on our trip by 4 PM. I t was a bad time of day to leave, but we didn't hit traffic on the 118 or 210 until we hit Pasadena. From there it was slow going through to the 57 in San Dimas, and out the 10 through Pomona and Claremont. Traffic was behind us by the time we reached the wind mills in the Coachella Valley, at Sunset. We stopped in Indio for gas, and dinner at a fairly good mom and pop greasy spoon frequented by locals.

Back on the road, we listened to the Angel game (Jered Weaver pitching his first complete game!) and XM radio music of the 50s on our way east to Arizona. We crossed the Colorado River near midnight, and stopped to spend the first night of our journey at the Best Western Desert Oasis in Ehrenberg, Arizona. It occurred to us that we'd stayed at this same motel once before, on a trip to Sedona (12/26/2000). Not much to say about it - it's one of those two-story jobs with interior halls and elevators, but it's a perfect place for a quick overnight stop.

We're on our way!