Day 3: LA to Sedona
Image by Timmy2wheels
Up at 6:30am - thanks, jet lag! With 500 miles ahead of us we went for a pre-breakfast swim at our hotel pool, then packed up and shipped out. Hungry and looking for food we drove up into Bel Air, cooing at the enormous gated mansions, but found no cafes. We drove back down and onto Wilshire Blvd where Lou saw her dream high-rise, high-design apartments. Out onto the freeway and into the morning traffic. At 10:30, twisting with hunger, we pulled off at a random junction and finally found sustenance: Winchell's Donut House. We opted for the full breakfast bagel: ham (cheap reformed), egg (poured from a carton, then microwaved), cheese (white or yellow, squeezed from a tube). We offset this horror with some healthy fresh juices (one of many things America does very well); and then promptly undid that good work by buying a couple of huge donuts for the journey. We bought some supplies from Trader Joe's, a nice little upscale supermarket and deli which the Winchell's server summed up, after much thought, as "a bit, um, organic-y." Then we fuelled up, set Spotify to 'anthem', and hit the road.
As soon as we saw LA in our mirrors we started to properly unwind. The city had been fun but we were itching to get into the desert and a slower pace of life. As we entered the West Mojave Desert we saw a vast wind farm - many hundreds if not thousands of turbines - which we followed for several miles. Some of them are more than 30 years old, and many have lost propellers or become stuck with heat and sand, giving the area a post-apocalyptic, dystopian feel. As we pushed on past Palm Springs, excitement in the car rose as the thermometer tipped 100° for the first time. After around 250 miles we stopped at the Date Palm shopping mall, sucked down some iced coffee, and Lou got into the driving seat for the first time, which gave me the opportunity to noisily eat beef jerky for the next few hundred miles.
We skimmed Joshua Tree National Park, missing the turnoff completely; but it didn't matter because we were soon to see an abundance of Yucca brevifolia lining the roads either side of us. The land here is largely flat and arid, punctuated by the occasional rocky hump which hints at what is to come, and interrupted only briefly by the lush banks of the Colorado River. And then we were into Arizona, and mile after dusty mile of nothing but cactus, abandoned smallholdings and the odd trailer park. Road-weary, we stopped at one of these in a place called Hope. As no one was on duty we made use of the community centre kitchen to make up some bagels, and sat on a rocking chair in the shade of the porch, listlessly batting flies away.
With the sun low in the sky - and more than 100 miles left to cover - we set off again. The vast flat plains became ever steeper hills. We saw huge birds of prey circling overhead. With the temperature now at 'manageable', we did what we came to do: drive with the top down and the music blasting. As sunset gave way to night, we reluctantly put the top up and our speed down, as the narrow roads and switchbacks became harder to negotiate. We nearly stopped in picturesque Jerome, in the hills overlooking Sedona, but I doggedly insisted we reached our intended destination. The last 30 miles were hellish, and I soon conceded that Lou had been right: we should have stayed in Jerome. At last we pulled into Sedona and checked into the first place we saw - the wonderfully chintzy Cedar Resort. We switched on the noisy air-con and drank half a plastic mug of cheap red wine before we fell fast asleep.
20081216 - cats vs. toy frog - 173-7383 - Lemonjello - hitting the frog in the butt
Image by Rev. Xanatos Satanicos Bombasticos (ClintJCL)
We finally got to use the toy frog again! Unfortunately, it's VERY poorly engineered. It needs several standard batteries AND some smaller/watch-type batteries. The main batteries power the legs, the watch batteries power the motion sensor. Very dumb design. So we resurrected it, it worked for about 20 minutes, it died, and we threw it away. But at least we got some pictures and video of it, while it lasted.
We also put the frog's head on the ground, so that it's legs just kicked up in the air (the cats like this, becuase it made it "attack" then more). Basically, Lemonjello loved it, but Oranjello was quite wary of it.
batting.
Lemonjello the cat, frog.
upstairs, Clint and Carolyn's house, Alexandria, Virginia.
December 16, 2008.
... Read my blog at ClintJCL.wordpress.com
... Read Carolyn's blog at CarolynCASL.wordpress.com
20081216 - cats vs. toy frog - 173-7366-diptych-173-7373 - Lemonjello playing with toy frog
Image by Rev. Xanatos Satanicos Bombasticos (ClintJCL)
We finally got to use the toy frog again! Unfortunately, it's VERY poorly engineered. It needs several standard batteries AND some smaller/watch-type batteries. The main batteries power the legs, the watch batteries power the motion sensor. Very dumb design. So we resurrected it, it worked for about 20 minutes, it died, and we threw it away. But at least we got some pictures and video of it, while it lasted.
We also put the frog's head on the ground, so that it's legs just kicked up in the air (the cats like this, becuase it made it "attack" then more). Basically, Lemonjello loved it, but Oranjello was quite wary of it.
batting, playing.
Lemonjello the cat, frog.
diptych.
upstairs, Clint and Carolyn's house, Alexandria, Virginia.
December 16, 2008.
... Read my blog at ClintJCL.wordpress.com
... Read Carolyn's blog at CarolynCASL.wordpress.com
20030920 - Post-hurricane - 100-0012 - Mailbox fallen
Image by Rev. Xanatos Satanicos Bombasticos (ClintJCL)
This is what the hurricane did to our mailbox.
The metal pole has since been run over by the snowplows, and replaced with a cheap pole from Home Depot.
The mailbox has since been replaced(?) by the old lady next door who died's mailbox that was in her trash when they cleared her house. We took that. It's currently held onto the cheap pole via twisty-tie -- we had been using twigs through the screwholes for a few years, but couldn't find any in the snow and got a nastygram from the mailman about our mailbox not being "securely fastened".
Eventually, it got baseball batted. So I had to wrap clear plastic packing tape around it to hold it together. Then we were tired of getting Wetflix in the mail (wet Netflix movies), so I put some waterproof tape on the inside.
Finally, the whole thing started to slant sideways in early 2008ish. So I got 2 cinder blocks out of my yard and put them on the side of it, so that that wouldn't happen.
In 12/2008, it snapped from the base (buried, with rocks in it) that it came from. I got 2 stones that Virginia Design Builders didn't clean up after building our retaining wall (and I didn't mind, since stones have value and this was an example of it) and placed them in front and behind the mailbox, some of them upright and leaning against it. This provided support in 4 directions.
So now I have a dead lady's mailbox held onto a broken Home Depot mailbox stand propped up with a pile of blocks and stones, held together by packing tape, watertight by waterproof tape, and to the stand with twisty tie. Wow.
after hurricane.
September 19, 2003.
... Read my blog at http://ClintJCL.wordpress.com.
20081216 - cats vs. toy frog - 173-7385 - Lemonjello, toy frog
Image by Rev. Xanatos Satanicos Bombasticos (ClintJCL)
We finally got to use the toy frog again! Unfortunately, it's VERY poorly engineered. It needs several standard batteries AND some smaller/watch-type batteries. The main batteries power the legs, the watch batteries power the motion sensor. Very dumb design. So we resurrected it, it worked for about 20 minutes, it died, and we threw it away. But at least we got some pictures and video of it, while it lasted.
We also put the frog's head on the ground, so that it's legs just kicked up in the air (the cats like this, becuase it made it "attack" then more). Basically, Lemonjello loved it, but Oranjello was quite wary of it.
batting, laying.
Lemonjello the cat, frog.
upstairs, Clint and Carolyn's house, Alexandria, Virginia.
December 16, 2008.
... Read my blog at ClintJCL.wordpress.com
... Read Carolyn's blog at CarolynCASL.wordpress.com
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