We were going rather slowly through these towns and it was all a lovely drive, so picturesque with such great views. Very colourful. Fashionable people. Lots of t shirts and shorts and sandals. Beautiful California people. Reminded me of being in California when I was 20, the Summers of Love.
Laura and I enjoyed this stretch of the journey as much for people watching as enjoying all the "tourist town", ‘summer town’ flavour. Just a little off season but still pretty incredible. It reminded us of places like Cultus Lake.
Given the weather alot of buildings had a summer "shack" flavour reminiscent of southern island houses. There were also spectacular architectural wonder homes. I didn’t figure any had basements though. I doubted any had major furnaces for heating, that’s for sure. Definitely an electric heat place, maybe a log fire or two in the more fashionable places.
The weather really was incredible for us Canadians enjoying this Christmas New Year's season. Made me realize how threatened people living in paradise would feel with sharing even a degree or two of warmth in climate change with their poorer northern brethren. I imagined Beach Boys music playing year round here too.
We thought of our friend Kirk when we passed through Malibu. He’d stayed there for a while. Alot of the fun of just driving through these places was that we'd seen so many of these exact spots on TV So many of our favourite tv shows and movies had been filmed in California.
We stayed in a La Quinta somewhere off the free way one night. It’s not memorable. I was becoming sick with a cold (see man flu). We had microwave lasagna's as the place wasn't close to any pizza or chinese delivery but sold microwave dinners in the lobby.
The next day it was incredibly hot. It was terrific to take breaks and soak up the sun at rest stops. California rest stops are the best, clean, well laid out, and interesting dog walks.
I felt like I had miles to go before I rested though. With both Laura and I having to return to work I was on a driving schedule with 8-10 hour drives for three days to make the distance. I had developed a fatiguing cough wracking cold that made carrying on difficult. Often at times like this I knew that I wouldn’t feel better resting either. They just have to run their course. I took time and alot of kleenex and aspirin. Because I was driving I couldn’t use cough suppressants or even cough candies as they could affect my focus. I did drink coffee for my sore throat which felt like razor blades swallowing. I added energy drinks which helped counteract the general malaise. I missed the long drives I took younger when I had colds and counteracted the misery with menthol cigarettes and night time scotch. I wasn't planning on going there.
I remembered back too the years of working through sickness in internships. I'd just soldiered on while sailing at sea too since there was no way off the boat.
The American freeways really are a thing of beauty. Just point and go. In the wide open country it was easy. The only problem arose going through cities where the speed and signs are a challenge at the best of times. I remember the excitement these gave me when I was riding on a motorcycle. The experience in the Mini was a cakewalk by comparison.
Inland we some beautiful farming country before coming back to the coast through Oakland freeways. We loved seeing the sheep and cattle. We wondered with the new marijuana laws if we'd see the patterns of cultivation change. Major cannibis grow ups might soon replace alfalfa.
The windmill farms were beautiful at sunset coming into Oakland. I couldn’t help think of the millions of migratory birds these farms killed though Hopefully they’ll one day they’ll care enough.
I got lost coming through San Francisco. At least I thought I was, until I stopped at a gas station for a desperately needed pee. I found out we were still on the correct route but I plugged in the TomTom still and followed her directions from there to the Golden Gate Bridge. In the daylight I could have remembered the route but at night it was a whole different story. Not only that it was New Year’s Eve and some drivers were showing the effects of celebration early. Once we were over the bridge and north we began stopping and asking if the hotel was dog friendly.
Moments like this I cursed Telus for their mistake with my data roaming package which had destroyed my main navigational plans. I’d not opted for the Navigation package on the Mini because while I have it on my new truck I prefer to use my phone’s navigation as the speaker feeds into the blue tooth of my hearing aids. At Best Buy I'd picked up a TomTom for the disturbing scenario when going through a city we lost the freeway then would get
got caught in rush hour traffic dealing with one ways and aggressive drivers. The other issue being. without the roaming package was that we couldn’t look up a town’s dog friendly accommodation as planned. We do become dependent on this new technology. Without it we had to go back to the old ways. This meant we had to stop and get out and sleuth on foot. To do this we had to leave the free way. It turned out motels closed early on New Year’s Eve while others were full because people planned to party and didn't want to drive after that..
Thankfully in Cloverdale after three motels and hotels said they weren’t dog friendly we found this marvellous little Cloverdale Vineyard Motel. There was a thoroughly delightful Latino manager with a very happy and busy little pomeranian companion.
Laura was exhausted and went straight to sleep. I drove about town looking for any place serving food after 8 pm. None were so I got micro waveable chicken nuggets and turkey pot pie. It was one of those meals that simply served as sustenance. Water a flu and feed a cold. I was doing both. It helped and I collapsed in bed with Gilbert snuggling between already asleep Laura and me. It was maybe as late at 9 pm.
No New Year’s Eve celebration. Just thankful that 2017 with death of closest friends, liars and false allegations , corrupt or incompetent authorities, death threats, all the left offended by everyone and everything, working tragically in the DTES overdose epidemics, and Gilbert losing his eyes. The negatives, which shouldn’t have taken up so much space in my brain, seemed to do just that, despite all the tools learned to handle grief. I expect I was still grieving the loss of my brother. I know the loss of my mother and father in the years before took their same kind of toll. Leaving me feeling like I was working through molasses, taking hits from all the losers who'd never dare attack a well man. On the bright side my nephews were doing as well as the god kids. Laura’s children and grand children were well. Her niece was overseas enjoying New Zealand as my nephew Allan was overseas enjoying England. We’d had a wonderful time in the fall in Nakusp. Some good camping trips and we were enjoying my time in the Burnaby Caribou areas. I'd really come to enjoy Dave, and Mack and Rick and Laura and all the dog friendly folk. It really had been great. Friends were terrific. We’d survived a tough year. We could hope 2018 would definitely improve. Already even the CBC was reporting truthful news about the Justin Trudeau betrayal, lies and theft from the country. All the fake news in the US about Donald Trump just kept being exposed day after day. Even Harvard reported that 75% of the news about Trump had been false or grossly biased. All the doomsaying and fear mongering and outright lies by media was indeed being exposed for what it was. Bad journalism. Despite daily reports of the 'skies falling', the world continued and probably more sports fans took an interest in politics for the first time in decades. The news reporting did seem often more insane than the ravings of my psychotic patients but increasingly it could be put down to money and more media people doing drugs or worried about getting caught for pedophilia. There was hope.
My friend Barb was taking a 32 year cake soon. There were miracles. I attended some really good ones at White cliff. IDAA in Utah had been a highlight seeing so many friends continuing on despite sickness, deaths and politics. I am so thankful for the inspirations. Willie Gutowski and Phillip Ney and James Houston all continued to set examples for godly living. I felt I still dragged my knuckles but at least held my head up.
I just had to get my head straight to look for the beautiful despite the ugly being pressed in my face. My flu was better this day. The coughing was still bad. I felt like the desert air had killed off the Vancouver mould and fungus and it was just sloughing off so I could start with fresh lungs and sinuses in 2018. At least that was my best medical explanation with a positive spin.
It was with such thoughts I fell sleep on 2017.
Laura was angry and exhausted with getting through cities at night. She can’t see at night and the speed and honking cars and general chaos unsettle her.
She told me New Year’s day though that Gilbert had woken her at New Year’s Eve snuggling up against her and licking her ear. She’d look at her watch, saw it was one minute to midnight, watched the hand pass, hugged Gilbert, and fell back to sleep despite my belaboured snoring.
We were up at 6 am. We got way by 730. It was a beautiful day with a beautiful sunrise. We drove north along the coast in the loveable Mini Cooper . We began seeing sites we'd enjoyed coming down, redwood highway, lovely views of the Pacific Ocean.
Thanks to MacDonald’s, God’s gift to road trips, we had coffee and egg mac muffins and hash browns most mornings We also stopped a couple of times at Star Bucks because we liked their morning breakfast sandwiches too. MacDonalds however has the best coffee. Even better than Tim Hortons.
At lunch Gilbert loved the Macdoald's burger paddy's best too.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment