![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
There's no place like home
Sep. 7th, 2019 08:45 pm Just got in about ten minutes ago and want to update while things are still fresh.
Our stay in Laguna Beach was pleasant. I dipped my toes in the Pacific on an early morning walk (low tide, hoping for shells--nada), didn't actually go into the Mission at San Juan Capistrano, but did visit the gift shop. GK and I visited two thrift stores--nothing spectacular. Clearance sale at Walmart yielded a few items. Oh, and GK and I lunched at a great retro diner called Ruby's--I dote on classic diners!--while the Brat Pack was off doing their thing.
If I start ranting about them, I'll foam at the mouth; suffice to say they're ungrateful little bastards who were apparently raised by wolves. GK is stolid about their lack of appreciation, but by this afternoon, I was resorting to plugging in my ear-buds and playing very loud music so I didn't have to listen to them chewing in the back seats. Yes, it was that bad.
Anyway, we departed Laguna Beach on Thursday and drove to Las Vegas (yes, the one in NV). Wow. I just--wow. It was interesting, and I had fun, but you couldn't pay me to live there. It was still 90 with sky-high humidity at 10:30 when I took the Neon Museum tour. It was really neat, but I'd forgotten how debilitating humidity is. I could never move back to Florida; it would flat-out kill me. The tour was great--the guide told us all about the history of the signs and through them, of Vegas. I enjoyed it and I'm glad I went, although I was tired from the drive.
The Kids talked GK into staying another half-day. Instead of pulling out first thing in the morning, we didn't leave town til mid-afternoon, then spent the night in Flagstaff. I didn't mind; I got to see the Hollywood Car Museum (which probably would've be a lot more impressive if I'd seen it BEFORE the Petersen (but it was still fun--I mean, Liberace's blinged-out Rolls Royces were a hoot all by themselves.
From there, I went to Shelby American. There's a small museum there dedicated to automotive genius Carroll Shelby, who's been one of my heroes for decades. The best part is, it was free! And I heard a funny story about that car from the Petersen--remember, it was the FIRST production Cobra. Carroll Shelby, in his infinite wisdom, would loan it out to various magazines to test-drive on it so they could report on it, Every time he got the car back from Road and Track or Car and Driver or whatever, he'd have the car painted a different color: red, white, black, blue, yellow, racing green--so everyone thought he had at least a half-dozen Cobras--when in fact, at that point, he only had the one. It wasn't a huge museum--one large room with about two dozen cars--but I wish I could get an air freshener that smelled like that room--a heady blend of rubber, leather and car wax,..very sexy.
We detoured to see the Hoover Dam and Lake Mead, which is just off the highway. Really impressive! Didn't go in or take the tour, just drove across the dam and back, them over the bridge above the gorge--also pretty spectacular!
It was around 9 p.m. when we got to Flagstaff. Separate rooms, thank you sweet baby Jesus. That is, the kids were in one, GK were in another, but thankfully, NOT in the same bed. (I love her, but it's like sleeping with an octopus who hogs all the covers and snores.)
There was a Goodwill virtually across the street from the Days Inn, so she and I popped in for a very brief visit. No Pyrex at all anywhere on this trip, I'm sorry to say, but I got a couple inexpensive items.
It then took an hour and a half to get the fucking kids moving. GK was ready to go upstairs and drag them out there, because all the suitcases had to go in first before the loading the assortment of bags and totes of things we all accumulated. By today, I reached the stage of playing very loud music to drown them out...it started before we even left the motel.
If we'd left an hour earlier, we would've missed the horrendous traffic snarl on 40--apparently their was a multi-vehicle accident with fatalities that closed both lanes eastbound. We spent an hour at a truck stop with GK stewing and trying to figure out an alternate route, because the delay was 3+ hours, and she can't sit still that long. Guy at the Denny's there suggested going by way of Crown Point and Cooba, which we ended up doing. The scenery was spectacular! Red sandstone buttes on one or both sides, sloping away to valleys, yielding to plains and gradually getting wild and rocky again. It was a series of twisty two-lane roads with almost no traffic. There were some cows, and I saw wild horses grazing. (Disclaimer: I didn't see any houses nearby, so I'm concluding they're wild.)
Got in about 7;30, haven't even started to unpack....I'm SO looking forward to my own quiet bed. Tomorrow is soon enough as far as mundane life goes. What with being up since before the crack of dawn, my brain can't handle anything more complicated than frying an egg...maybe.
I had a great time, though. I'm sorry I didn't send any postcards--I took addresses with me thinking I would, but we did so much running around, I didn't even GET postcards. Even at the Neon Museum, which had some fantastic ones of vintage signs and casinos.
Love to all!
...
Our stay in Laguna Beach was pleasant. I dipped my toes in the Pacific on an early morning walk (low tide, hoping for shells--nada), didn't actually go into the Mission at San Juan Capistrano, but did visit the gift shop. GK and I visited two thrift stores--nothing spectacular. Clearance sale at Walmart yielded a few items. Oh, and GK and I lunched at a great retro diner called Ruby's--I dote on classic diners!--while the Brat Pack was off doing their thing.
If I start ranting about them, I'll foam at the mouth; suffice to say they're ungrateful little bastards who were apparently raised by wolves. GK is stolid about their lack of appreciation, but by this afternoon, I was resorting to plugging in my ear-buds and playing very loud music so I didn't have to listen to them chewing in the back seats. Yes, it was that bad.
Anyway, we departed Laguna Beach on Thursday and drove to Las Vegas (yes, the one in NV). Wow. I just--wow. It was interesting, and I had fun, but you couldn't pay me to live there. It was still 90 with sky-high humidity at 10:30 when I took the Neon Museum tour. It was really neat, but I'd forgotten how debilitating humidity is. I could never move back to Florida; it would flat-out kill me. The tour was great--the guide told us all about the history of the signs and through them, of Vegas. I enjoyed it and I'm glad I went, although I was tired from the drive.
The Kids talked GK into staying another half-day. Instead of pulling out first thing in the morning, we didn't leave town til mid-afternoon, then spent the night in Flagstaff. I didn't mind; I got to see the Hollywood Car Museum (which probably would've be a lot more impressive if I'd seen it BEFORE the Petersen (but it was still fun--I mean, Liberace's blinged-out Rolls Royces were a hoot all by themselves.
From there, I went to Shelby American. There's a small museum there dedicated to automotive genius Carroll Shelby, who's been one of my heroes for decades. The best part is, it was free! And I heard a funny story about that car from the Petersen--remember, it was the FIRST production Cobra. Carroll Shelby, in his infinite wisdom, would loan it out to various magazines to test-drive on it so they could report on it, Every time he got the car back from Road and Track or Car and Driver or whatever, he'd have the car painted a different color: red, white, black, blue, yellow, racing green--so everyone thought he had at least a half-dozen Cobras--when in fact, at that point, he only had the one. It wasn't a huge museum--one large room with about two dozen cars--but I wish I could get an air freshener that smelled like that room--a heady blend of rubber, leather and car wax,..very sexy.
We detoured to see the Hoover Dam and Lake Mead, which is just off the highway. Really impressive! Didn't go in or take the tour, just drove across the dam and back, them over the bridge above the gorge--also pretty spectacular!
It was around 9 p.m. when we got to Flagstaff. Separate rooms, thank you sweet baby Jesus. That is, the kids were in one, GK were in another, but thankfully, NOT in the same bed. (I love her, but it's like sleeping with an octopus who hogs all the covers and snores.)
There was a Goodwill virtually across the street from the Days Inn, so she and I popped in for a very brief visit. No Pyrex at all anywhere on this trip, I'm sorry to say, but I got a couple inexpensive items.
It then took an hour and a half to get the fucking kids moving. GK was ready to go upstairs and drag them out there, because all the suitcases had to go in first before the loading the assortment of bags and totes of things we all accumulated. By today, I reached the stage of playing very loud music to drown them out...it started before we even left the motel.
If we'd left an hour earlier, we would've missed the horrendous traffic snarl on 40--apparently their was a multi-vehicle accident with fatalities that closed both lanes eastbound. We spent an hour at a truck stop with GK stewing and trying to figure out an alternate route, because the delay was 3+ hours, and she can't sit still that long. Guy at the Denny's there suggested going by way of Crown Point and Cooba, which we ended up doing. The scenery was spectacular! Red sandstone buttes on one or both sides, sloping away to valleys, yielding to plains and gradually getting wild and rocky again. It was a series of twisty two-lane roads with almost no traffic. There were some cows, and I saw wild horses grazing. (Disclaimer: I didn't see any houses nearby, so I'm concluding they're wild.)
Got in about 7;30, haven't even started to unpack....I'm SO looking forward to my own quiet bed. Tomorrow is soon enough as far as mundane life goes. What with being up since before the crack of dawn, my brain can't handle anything more complicated than frying an egg...maybe.
I had a great time, though. I'm sorry I didn't send any postcards--I took addresses with me thinking I would, but we did so much running around, I didn't even GET postcards. Even at the Neon Museum, which had some fantastic ones of vintage signs and casinos.
Love to all!
...