Time / distance traveled since last post: About 6 hours, about 375 miles
Total time / distance traveled: About 56 hours, 3775 miles
Ladies and gentlemen, I write to you tonight from an over-priced Super 8 room ($60!?) in San Diego, California, with very few humorous anecdotes or noteworthy experiences. Nevertheless, I wanted very much to write to you tonight, and I do so with particular glee, as earlier this evening, twelve days after departing Baltimore, MD, I officially accomplished Phase 1 of the trip: crossing the entire United States by land from east to west.
By no means does this mean that the trip is over. Nay, I still need to get all the way back to Baltimore, and rest assured that I won't be retracing my path. As I like to see it, the glass is still half full. Plus, I'm thinking party when I get back.
After Crystal cooked me a delicious and nutritious breakfast this morning I hit the road to Cali. Much like Albuquerque, there is a point at which the greater Phoenix area abruptly ends and the desert picks back up again. Again surrounded by saguaro cacti (which I still think are super cool, and kept on the lookout for the perfectly-shaped, 2 "armed" cactus just like you see in the cartoons, but alas found none. After traveling south via state highways I hopped onto I-8, which would take me west all the way to the Pacific coast in San Diego. The Arizona half of the interstate was arduous, with nothing but poop-brown, rocky mountains (yes, some mountains actually do lose their splendor after a while) on either side:
I should, however, point out that when I filled-up my gas tank midway through the trip I calculated that I had achieved an average of 40mpg since my previous fill-up (undoubtedly due to the elevation dropping 5500 feet from my last fill-up). Not bad for a car that's rated 34mpg highway! Well done, Focus. You truly have earned the title "Focus Shall Not Fail" (and I am now knocking on wood that I did not just jinx it).
Upon crossing the border from Arizona to California (making Cali the 11th state of this trip), I was in the border town of Yuma, which being a border town meant that I had to endure a check-point road block every 5 miles to assure that I wasn't smuggling immigrants, drugs or produce into the good ole' USA. I suppose the fact that no one found suspicious my entire back seat full of stuff being covered in a black sleeping bag (so no one can see my stuff) means that maybe a little bit of racial profiling was being done?
After passing the city limits of Yuma, the desert changed substantially from the flat landscape of hard ground with occasional foliage found in New Mexico and Arizona to actual sandy dunes on either side:
Also, if you look on the map you will find that I-8 runs parallel to the Mexican border, and sometimes comes within a single mile of the dividing line, which in California is adorned with an entirely scalable black fence, as you can see way off in the distance:
Cool, I got to see Mexico! Undoubtedly some of the Spanish speakers and more adventurous types who are reading this will criticize me for not crossing-in to Mexico. Please just understand that border-towns of Mexico at this point in history just may be the most dangerous places in the world for white people to go right now, so please forgive me for fighting-off the temptation.
For those of you who only think about Mexico as the cheap resort country for Spring Break, just be on the lookout for the next time you see an advertisement to party in cities like Tijuana, Yuma or Juarez.
A bit farther into California I encountered more mountains, the crossing of which quickly compensated for all of the good gas mileage I had obtained on my earlier tank:
Finally the mountains begin to show more foliage and civilization with every new summit, and eventually I found myself within the city limits of San Diego. Interestingly enough San Diego was cool and overcast, which had popped-up all of a sudden after the last summit of the mountain range.
Nevertheless, exhilarated and damn-near giddy to get to the shoreline and declare the country "traversed," I merge off of the highway onto Sunset Cliffs Blvd and drive full speed ahead when what do I see on my right? You guessed it - a skatepark. With a waning sun and overcast conditions, I realized that this may be my one and only chance to skate this park during my visit, so I delayed my victorious moment to skate around the park for about an hour. The park was another nice all-concrete course with excellent runs for a good tranny rider (now I explained earlier not to get too excited by this expression).
Finally I packed-in my board and drove the last half-mile to the beach. As I parked (beach side without problem finding a spot, no less... I guess these people are too used to having a beach to attempt to enjoy it on a day like today), I surveyed the area and confirmed that I was not beholding a bay or canal, but rather the mac-daddy himself: the Pacific Ocean.
I documented the moment of truth on video here:
http://www.youtube.com/user/Dinglekrantz#p/a/u/0/QiyUWEu5yg4
Pretty cool, right? I know that tons of people have driven across the country for various reasons, many in less time and less luxury than I, but the point is that I did it. No one else did this for me, but rather I set a goal for myself and then accomplished it. That feels pretty good, I've got to say.
I didn't actually stick around on the beach any longer than that video, as I was very hungry and had yet to figure out where I was crashing for the night. I delayed nourishment for about an hour as I drove to downtown San Diego and took-in a few sights of the posh restaurants and hotels in the area, most of which are not corporate chains which I recognized which is a very refreshing thing to see having spent a week in the southwest which is strip mall country. I think I had to go 5 blocks along 5th Ave. before I saw the first of the chain restaurants, a Cheesecake Factory.
Not finding parking to be invitingly convenient and finding that most of the restaurants appeared too rich for my blood at the moment, I turned back inland to a portion of I-8 at which I saw dozens of hotels (on a street called Hotel Circle). Driving back to the area I found a swanky Thai and Pho restaurant with ample parking, so I stopped. I'm glad I did because they had excellent Pad Thai and the coolest soda fountain I have ever seen (all touch-screen based!).
Someone may or may not have given me a sideways glance when I took that video...
After dinner I got gas (which by the way, is RAPE in San Diego... possibly to deter smog for the Grand Canyon) and found the cheapest hotel on the block (Super 8) and checked-in.
Tonight I stayed in to blog and plan my attack on San Diego tomorrow. Stay posted!
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