Down by the Bay
Well, it's nice to be back down at sea level. I kind of feel like I should start running while lungs are still optimized for 8800 ft. And last night I broke a sweat just from drinking a hot cup of tea! Stuff like that never happened in Colorado. Heck, I barely sweated trudging around Boulder with both backpacks on. (I'm carrying what stuff I have around in two packs, one school-sized and the other a little larger, sort of like a small backpacking pack. It's nice having the two though, because it makes them a lot easier to fit into cars and a lot easier to get specifc things out of than one big pack.)
At La Garita I'm surprised I didn't use up the entire thing of hand lotion that I bought. And when I was doing pots and pans it was awful, using the green scouring pad and my fingers got all scraped up. Right at the beginning I got a big split in my heel just from the dryness and walking around. Eventually I think something changed about the way my skin was acting, because that healed (eventually, the split spent about a week and a half getting worse before it started getting better) and I wasn't needing as much moisturizer to keep my hands alive. But even so, moderate humidity and air with some thermal stability are a nice change.
We didn't end up leaving Boulder until Saturday so Leah could spend some time with her friends there, so I ended up spending Friday night in a youth hostel. It was a nice enough place, got to watch the debate there and chatted with the girl working at the desk. Walked over to where Leah'd been staying the next morning (she'd been looking into taking a graduate degree at Naropa University, the place I almost slept at), got in her car and drove off.
It was a cool trip, and I took lots of pictures. They're all posted now, I've just got to add some captions and then e-mail the invites to the blog. It took a long time to upload everything (not just the pictures from the summer, but all the pictures I've taken, but for now I'll only be sending invites to the stuff that's referred to in the blog). Utah was especially amazing. The first day we decided that, since the route we took went pretty close to Arches National Park, we'd go down there and do the lightning tour. It was really cool. Although the pictures may seem a little repetitive. And the rest of the drive through Utah was fantastic too. It is a fractured and broken land, canyons and mountains, inspiration for Spaceman Spiff's alien worlds. I don't know that I've ever elsewhere seen land that looks like it's layered on top of itself. I don't know that that's a good description of it. But I very inclined to agree with Chris from Bowdon Dining Services, the skinny guy with the beard who does supersnack and has visited every state in the country, when he said that Utah is one of the two most beautiful states in the US. (We were working a buffet dinner for the class of '74 together during reunion weekend this year and got to talking about travel.) But I don't know that I'd want to live there, because that whole part of the country's one giant volcano waiting to happen. Well, maybe that's more Yellowstone. But, cool as it looks, it doesn't look geologically stable. Of course, now I'm in California...
We spent the night at a motel in Ely, Nevada, after bargaining down to $35 for both of us for a room with two beds. Thank goodness the season must be ending. We didn't really spend any time there, but it was an interesting place, smallish casino/hotels, the main highway through there (US 50) was the main street of the town. Looked like a place to drink and gamble, maybe sleep. I think it was nearish to a national or state park, but not that close. So in the morning we continued the westward push. It was unusual (for me) geography. We'd go up into mountains and then down, straight and fast a few miles across a perfectly flat-seeming valley, then back up into mountains, then back down into another flat valley, then back up, repeat several times, I'm not sure how many, but it feels like it was at least five.
And there's nothing civilization-wise out there, except the occasional ranch/farm and very occasional small town. We had to plan gas buying as to whether or not we had enough to go the 60 or 90 miles to the next place that would have gas stations. One of which, Austin, we stopped in for breakfast, omelettes, hash browns, toast in a little restaurant all decorated for Halloween, complete with fake spider webs and a bat that went up and down with the opening and closing of the door.
Then the gas prices. It started out where $2.159 seemed really expensive, and then as we got through Nevada we'd have to settle for about $2.239 or so in the really rural parts. And then once we get near California it starts to shoot up to $2.40 at least. Fortunately we managed to get the last fill up a little before Carson City and so missed the worst prices.
And yeah, in that area, around Fallon are a couple Naval Ranges, which were of unique appearance, to whit, they were all white sand. And the question we had was whether the Navy chose those sites because they're sandy or if they're sandy because they're Navy testing ranges. Of course, these are just little things, we were way north of the giant Army and Air Force testing areas outside Las Vegas.
Fallon itself is the beginning of the end of rurality. It's got lots some car dealerships and is biggish and before long you hit Carson City, which is pretty much lots of big chains and car dealerships and depressing, despite the sunlight. Then Lake Tahoe, pretty in a kind of exclusive way. It actually almost reminded me of Maine or New Hampshire, pine trees and blue water, but bigger and a weird vibe. Maybe just me.
Then it was afternoon and I passed out for maybe the prettiest part of the day's drive, following the river out of Tahoe through an almost lushly green little canyon. Or ravine? Gorge? In between two hills, or mountains.
And then we got into California and hit traffic. Not even at Sacramento. Outside Placerville. We stopped and borrowed the restrooms in a Round Table Pizza, then managed to cut through town to a place past the congestion, and continued on, making it to Oakland around 6.
I'd talked to Bret Harte, a friend from Bowdoin, class '02, and he's out here and has been housesitting for his stage manager for the past few days and offered me a place to stay for a couple days. So I called him when I got in and he was at Burning Man Decompression, a big street fair in the city to celebrate and remember and stuff Burning Man, which is a big, I don't know what to call it, art festival? out in the desert in Utah, I think, lots of people making art and performing and then it all gets burned at the end of the week. Something like that, look it up. Bret had been there, so was at the party, and we arranged to met there. Unfortunately I couldn't hear too well over the phone, and so wasn't quite clear on where to go, something about Mariposa. So I took the BART (commuter transit rail) into the city from where Leah dropped me off. Then I was going to take the MUNI (local mass transit), but wasn't sure what I which train or bus I was supposed to get on. Then I looked at a map and Mariposa was only like ten blocks or so, walkable, south. So I got on Market and it wasn't until I'd gone far out of my way before I realized that I was headed southeast, not south. So I cut across towards where I needed to go, got way over there, detoured around the freeway, thought I'd found where Bret had said, but there was no one there. So I walked around more, then found a phone and called Bret again to get more specific directions. Walked more and finally found it, borrowed a phone and Bret and his sister came out, we went to their car so I could drop my packs off, and then went in for a while.
It was cool, although winding down. Looked like lots had been going on. There were still many people milling, mostly all in costume (Bret dressed as an astronaut/spaceman) because that made tickets half-price. My costume was being barefoot, otherwise normal, but the guy accepted that. It was nice to know that subtlety was appreciated. And I think I was the only one, except for this one girl who was standing behind me in a line for a performance in the club this was sort of centered around, saw me barefoot, and decided that she needed to take off her high heels. Some fire dancers, a series of sculptures that involved fire, including this big stovepipe thing that spit fire up at the highway overpass, a bushel or two of lavender on the sidewalk, a pathway leading through thousands of dangling orange and yellow phosphorescent strings. Lots of strangeness, randomness. And from what Bret and Sterling (his sister) were saying, much more litter and poor behavior than at Burning Man. There everyone was out for the week and had an investment in the temporary community whereas this was a one-night thing, just a big party, albeit a special one and people didn't really care.
We spent a while waiting in line for this show at the club by friends of Bret and Sterling, with the girl in high heels behind us in line. And the club was too small for the number of people. They were full to capacity and people weren't coming out. We kept getting closer to the door, but that was because people kept on smushing closer and closer together. So we left. On the way back we stopped at the California Shakespeare Company's party (it was their closing night), said hi to people there, and then went back to the place in Oakland. And I don't think I've left it since then, as Bret has no spare key and I have no where in particular to go yet. And plenty of work to do here, looking into people to see and say hi to, people I might stay with, uploading pictures, looking into jobs, etc. And some hanging out with Bret and his friends. Last night I was on book for a rehearsal of a play he's directing and will be putting up in mid-November, six short pieces by David Ives. I'll do that again tonight and then, since his stage manager who lives here comes back around midnight, I'll be heading over to Joey's place in Berkley. I met Joey, a friend of my friend Coleman this spring when he visited Coleman at Bowdoin. It should be fun, and soon I'll have more to report.
At La Garita I'm surprised I didn't use up the entire thing of hand lotion that I bought. And when I was doing pots and pans it was awful, using the green scouring pad and my fingers got all scraped up. Right at the beginning I got a big split in my heel just from the dryness and walking around. Eventually I think something changed about the way my skin was acting, because that healed (eventually, the split spent about a week and a half getting worse before it started getting better) and I wasn't needing as much moisturizer to keep my hands alive. But even so, moderate humidity and air with some thermal stability are a nice change.
We didn't end up leaving Boulder until Saturday so Leah could spend some time with her friends there, so I ended up spending Friday night in a youth hostel. It was a nice enough place, got to watch the debate there and chatted with the girl working at the desk. Walked over to where Leah'd been staying the next morning (she'd been looking into taking a graduate degree at Naropa University, the place I almost slept at), got in her car and drove off.
It was a cool trip, and I took lots of pictures. They're all posted now, I've just got to add some captions and then e-mail the invites to the blog. It took a long time to upload everything (not just the pictures from the summer, but all the pictures I've taken, but for now I'll only be sending invites to the stuff that's referred to in the blog). Utah was especially amazing. The first day we decided that, since the route we took went pretty close to Arches National Park, we'd go down there and do the lightning tour. It was really cool. Although the pictures may seem a little repetitive. And the rest of the drive through Utah was fantastic too. It is a fractured and broken land, canyons and mountains, inspiration for Spaceman Spiff's alien worlds. I don't know that I've ever elsewhere seen land that looks like it's layered on top of itself. I don't know that that's a good description of it. But I very inclined to agree with Chris from Bowdon Dining Services, the skinny guy with the beard who does supersnack and has visited every state in the country, when he said that Utah is one of the two most beautiful states in the US. (We were working a buffet dinner for the class of '74 together during reunion weekend this year and got to talking about travel.) But I don't know that I'd want to live there, because that whole part of the country's one giant volcano waiting to happen. Well, maybe that's more Yellowstone. But, cool as it looks, it doesn't look geologically stable. Of course, now I'm in California...
We spent the night at a motel in Ely, Nevada, after bargaining down to $35 for both of us for a room with two beds. Thank goodness the season must be ending. We didn't really spend any time there, but it was an interesting place, smallish casino/hotels, the main highway through there (US 50) was the main street of the town. Looked like a place to drink and gamble, maybe sleep. I think it was nearish to a national or state park, but not that close. So in the morning we continued the westward push. It was unusual (for me) geography. We'd go up into mountains and then down, straight and fast a few miles across a perfectly flat-seeming valley, then back up into mountains, then back down into another flat valley, then back up, repeat several times, I'm not sure how many, but it feels like it was at least five.
And there's nothing civilization-wise out there, except the occasional ranch/farm and very occasional small town. We had to plan gas buying as to whether or not we had enough to go the 60 or 90 miles to the next place that would have gas stations. One of which, Austin, we stopped in for breakfast, omelettes, hash browns, toast in a little restaurant all decorated for Halloween, complete with fake spider webs and a bat that went up and down with the opening and closing of the door.
Then the gas prices. It started out where $2.159 seemed really expensive, and then as we got through Nevada we'd have to settle for about $2.239 or so in the really rural parts. And then once we get near California it starts to shoot up to $2.40 at least. Fortunately we managed to get the last fill up a little before Carson City and so missed the worst prices.
And yeah, in that area, around Fallon are a couple Naval Ranges, which were of unique appearance, to whit, they were all white sand. And the question we had was whether the Navy chose those sites because they're sandy or if they're sandy because they're Navy testing ranges. Of course, these are just little things, we were way north of the giant Army and Air Force testing areas outside Las Vegas.
Fallon itself is the beginning of the end of rurality. It's got lots some car dealerships and is biggish and before long you hit Carson City, which is pretty much lots of big chains and car dealerships and depressing, despite the sunlight. Then Lake Tahoe, pretty in a kind of exclusive way. It actually almost reminded me of Maine or New Hampshire, pine trees and blue water, but bigger and a weird vibe. Maybe just me.
Then it was afternoon and I passed out for maybe the prettiest part of the day's drive, following the river out of Tahoe through an almost lushly green little canyon. Or ravine? Gorge? In between two hills, or mountains.
And then we got into California and hit traffic. Not even at Sacramento. Outside Placerville. We stopped and borrowed the restrooms in a Round Table Pizza, then managed to cut through town to a place past the congestion, and continued on, making it to Oakland around 6.
I'd talked to Bret Harte, a friend from Bowdoin, class '02, and he's out here and has been housesitting for his stage manager for the past few days and offered me a place to stay for a couple days. So I called him when I got in and he was at Burning Man Decompression, a big street fair in the city to celebrate and remember and stuff Burning Man, which is a big, I don't know what to call it, art festival? out in the desert in Utah, I think, lots of people making art and performing and then it all gets burned at the end of the week. Something like that, look it up. Bret had been there, so was at the party, and we arranged to met there. Unfortunately I couldn't hear too well over the phone, and so wasn't quite clear on where to go, something about Mariposa. So I took the BART (commuter transit rail) into the city from where Leah dropped me off. Then I was going to take the MUNI (local mass transit), but wasn't sure what I which train or bus I was supposed to get on. Then I looked at a map and Mariposa was only like ten blocks or so, walkable, south. So I got on Market and it wasn't until I'd gone far out of my way before I realized that I was headed southeast, not south. So I cut across towards where I needed to go, got way over there, detoured around the freeway, thought I'd found where Bret had said, but there was no one there. So I walked around more, then found a phone and called Bret again to get more specific directions. Walked more and finally found it, borrowed a phone and Bret and his sister came out, we went to their car so I could drop my packs off, and then went in for a while.
It was cool, although winding down. Looked like lots had been going on. There were still many people milling, mostly all in costume (Bret dressed as an astronaut/spaceman) because that made tickets half-price. My costume was being barefoot, otherwise normal, but the guy accepted that. It was nice to know that subtlety was appreciated. And I think I was the only one, except for this one girl who was standing behind me in a line for a performance in the club this was sort of centered around, saw me barefoot, and decided that she needed to take off her high heels. Some fire dancers, a series of sculptures that involved fire, including this big stovepipe thing that spit fire up at the highway overpass, a bushel or two of lavender on the sidewalk, a pathway leading through thousands of dangling orange and yellow phosphorescent strings. Lots of strangeness, randomness. And from what Bret and Sterling (his sister) were saying, much more litter and poor behavior than at Burning Man. There everyone was out for the week and had an investment in the temporary community whereas this was a one-night thing, just a big party, albeit a special one and people didn't really care.
We spent a while waiting in line for this show at the club by friends of Bret and Sterling, with the girl in high heels behind us in line. And the club was too small for the number of people. They were full to capacity and people weren't coming out. We kept getting closer to the door, but that was because people kept on smushing closer and closer together. So we left. On the way back we stopped at the California Shakespeare Company's party (it was their closing night), said hi to people there, and then went back to the place in Oakland. And I don't think I've left it since then, as Bret has no spare key and I have no where in particular to go yet. And plenty of work to do here, looking into people to see and say hi to, people I might stay with, uploading pictures, looking into jobs, etc. And some hanging out with Bret and his friends. Last night I was on book for a rehearsal of a play he's directing and will be putting up in mid-November, six short pieces by David Ives. I'll do that again tonight and then, since his stage manager who lives here comes back around midnight, I'll be heading over to Joey's place in Berkley. I met Joey, a friend of my friend Coleman this spring when he visited Coleman at Bowdoin. It should be fun, and soon I'll have more to report.
posted by Colin at 10:00 PM
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