The Lonesome Drive

BigBucks Coffee$1.50 .. COFFEE, Arco AM/PM Mart @ Long Beach
$3.50 .. COFFEE, Starbucks @ Burbank
$2.00 .. COFFEE, McDonald's @ Santa Clarita
$1.50 .. COFFEE, Jack-in-the-Box @ Buttonwillow
$2.50 .. COFFEE, Shell Gasoline Mart @ Kettleman City
PRICELESS: Clean bathrooms at rest stops

Overall, today's seven-hour, 400-mile lonesome drive from Southern California (Orange County) to Northern California (San Francisco Bay Area) was uneventful. I should have remembered the music I listened to on the way down, and planned better for the returning drive. Taking the I-5 (known as the Golden State Highway, linking Calif capitol Sacramento with Los Angeles) meant that radio stations that could be received either played Tejana or Christian Rock music.

Though I love the late Tejana songstress Selena and Christian Rock chanteurse Amy Grant, I just could not listen to them the whole way. My only other choice was a holiday cassette tape (step up from 8-track! no car CD player yet!), and, even so, Bing Crosby's "White Christmas" was stale on the first round.

$300.00 .. Fine if cited for speeding
$162.00 .. IRS mileage allowance
$28.00 .. Full tank of gas
$15.00 .. Junkfood for roadtrip
$3.00 .. SF-Oakland Bay Bridge toll
PRICELESS: making it to a friend's engagement party

tags: ..
another point of view ...

Blogger Unknown


What no NPR?

I usually get 6 shots of espresso over ice for any road trip. . If I manage the dosage correctly and slow enough I can make it 5 hours with out pulling over. I hate getting off the freeway if I do not have to. Of course my stomach gets torn up and I end up in pain.
 

Anonymous Anonymous


My baby was the diet demon on these kinds of long trips. I had managed to have a bladder like a camel. I know TMI. Music is the key, do you have an iPod. My god I've got my whole library on mine. No christian rock but I'm sure I've got some RuPaul in here somewhere.
k
 

Blogger Nam LaMore


mquest: can you believe it? i had nothing good to listen to once i was in the clear open. if i had put a bit of effort into it, i'm sure i would be fluent in spanish just from that trip, either that or become a born-again christian.

as i get older, i find that my body becomes less tolerate of how i treat it. i once was able to eat very spicey food, that has completely changed. i think on the scoville scale, my tolerate is now at the jalapeno pepper level (2,500-5,000 scoville units); this is way down from the times i used to eat habenero peppers (about 100,000-300,000 scoville units) in college on dares! it was a good way to wage bets and make a fast buck :-)

knottyboy: i don't have an ipod. i'll go down very unpopular with the mac crowd for saying it: i hate apple computers. there, i said it.

i remember watching a few episodes of the rupaul show and thought to myself, "my gosh, a drag hosting her/his own show on a major cable channel! the conservatives in this country is probably working overtime in their letter-writing campaigns."
 

Blogger Barbara aka Yooni


there were actually clean bathrooms at the rest stops? I always get creeped out when I have to sto at those...maybe I've seen too many scary movies.heh
 

Anonymous Anonymous


Hey, don't make fun of BigBucks! I love them. But I can't ever remembe if a large is a "Venti" or "Grandi" or "Tall" - I don't think the coffe baristers like me there, because I always say I want a "Large" instead of whatever they call it.
 

Anonymous Anonymous


I have a PC with my poddiness. So I'm not a huge Apple polisher :P
k
 

Blogger Nam LaMore


amerazn: actually, the cal-tran team keeps the rest stop bathrooms much cleaner than most restaurants! they are spartan, but they are clean. don't be afraid to use them!

michael: i have the same problem, i always use the small, medium and large instead of 'bucks tall, venti and grandi. i just can't be retrained!

knottyboy: ah, good to hear it! it's nice to know i don't have to convince you to abandone apple, then :-)
 

Blogger Jo Travels


for some reason starbucks is not big here. the europeans like their traditional cafes and small cups!
 

Blogger Nam LaMore


i can see that .. the europeans prefer their traditional, independently-owned cafes (i would too!). the capitalistic imperialism of the new world doesn't sit well with tradition-ladden old world!
 

speak up!


previous 10 posts:

home/current
[index of posts within each monthly archive]




disclaimer: some rights reserved. trademarks belong to their respective holders. inaccuracies are entirely unintentional. except where noted, this site is under a creative commons license. reuse, redistribution and/or excerpt permitted only with proper credit. linkback permitted without credit. if you find something offensive, then just stop reading. emails directly to me or comments posted here become my property. you have been notified.

the contents of this blog/web site are mine personally and do not reflect any position of the u.s. government or the peace corps.