Day Seven (Or: Our Governor Can Beat Up Your Governor)

Sacramento!  A gold rush town, home of the Governator.  Yah, it's a goot toown.

Actually, my view of Sacramento is probably dimmed somewhat by two things: 

1. I had to dispute my room rate when I got here, and 

2. it took forever to get here and once I actually got into Sacramento, finding my way around was difficult.  

But there's a lot of charm here, even at night.  Everywhere there are adorable Art Deco architectural details, mid-fifties California bungalows and lots of Arts & Crafts-period homes surrounding the city.  It's totally charming.

So this morning, I woke up with my ears all staticky from the altitude fluctuations from the day before.   The novice, I thought, "Oh well, it's good I'm going through the desert today and staying out of the mountains."  I thought this because my map doesn't show terrain or elevation, just roads.

There was a Starbucks in the MGM Grand and I ate a quick breakfast of granola and yogurt (woo!  Starbucks, I have missed you, truly) before heading south on I-15 out of Las Vegas.  I fully believe now that everybody needs to take this drive--this is the southwest as we northeasterners imagine it.  I took I-15 into Barstow, CA, where I caught highway 58 up to Bakersfield.  

About ten miles outside of Barstow is Peggy Sue's Diner, which bills itself as a classic 50s diner, and wow, seriously.  How could I pass that up?  The waitresses wear aqua and hot pink uniforms, do their make-up to match and wear little matching frilly headbands.  It's on Ghost Town Road, off of 15.  I'm sitting enjoying the best patty melt I may have ever had when "House of the Rising Sun" comes on--I repeat, is it not one of the best songs ever?

The signs on the wall were all oddly speaking to me: "Have You Ever Been Happier Than You Are Right Now?"  No. "The Joy Is In The Journey, Not The Destination."  Word, yo.  And my favorite: "On this spot in 1897 nothing happened."  It was the best possible place I could've stopped.  Everybody looked like a trucker, which is exactly how I want my roadside diners to be.

I passed through Hinkley, which is the town that Erin Brockovich helped--it's a little slice of nothing on 58, which I took north toward Bakersfield.  I'll always remember Bakersfield from the Grapes of Wrath--and also, I later learned that Bakersfield is "The Jewel of California." It's also the most ozone polluted city in the country.  I also passed through Keene on 58, which was where Cesar Chavez started the United Farm Workers, which was very exciting for me--union signs everywhere!  Tears have formed in my eyes over the weirdest things on this trip: through the darkness of the Arizona night, a single house in the distance draped with blinking Christmas lights, the zillions of stars in the desert between Kingman, AZ and the Hoover Dam, and it happened again when I passed Keene.  So many important and indicative things about this country have happened in the most unlikely and far-flung places.

The mountains I passed through were, I believe, in the Sierra Nevada range.  I went through the Tehachapi Pass on 58 before riding into Bakersfield and taking 99 north into Sacramento.  That makes it sound like Bakersfield and Sacramento are right next to each other--I wish.  The stretch of land between Bakersfield and Sacramento is like the New Jersey of California.  Why? It's smelly.  There are a lot of petrochemical refineries and farms and that makes for, um, an aromatic combination.

I've been trying in vain to get to an In & Out Burger before I leave the area.  The best burgers anywhere, ever.  Internet in this hotel has been intermittent at best, so I haven't been able to search for it.

Unrelated, but important (to me):

Led Zeppelin reunited tonight and both E! and CNN showed a few clips from the concert.  I love Robert Plant.  I'm always going to love Robert Plant.  And despite whatever my father says, his voice has totally held up over the years.  I am sad I didn't win any free tickets from the 15 or so contests I entered, but I'm sure they'll release it on DVD and I can see it then.  John at work and I had a conversation recently about Jimmy Page and his freaked out hair--I remember that he was on the cover of Guitar World with Jack White in January of 2006 and his hair was still black--what happened to him in the last 18 months that, like, 30 years of serious drug use couldn't do?  He kind of looks like he should be in the Lord of the Rings now, but I'm sure that's not a bad thing for him.  

It reminds me of an episode of the Venture Brothers, (but what doesn't?) where Brock is having an argument with Helper about Led Zeppelin because Helper has called it "Jock Rock." Brock says, "Jock Rock, my ass!  Listen to those lyrics, man.  It's all about love and longing."  Helper makes some noise in response (Helper's a robot and makes noises that everybody can understand but are incomprehensible to the viewers of the show), and Brock responds, "Yes, and Hobbits, too."

Dad: When Zep goes on tour (everybody is saying they will) can we please, PLEASE try to get tickets??  I'll do whatever you say.  I won't drive my car too much, no birthday/Christmas gifts for 5 years, no anything.  Pleeeeease?

Misc.: 

• They call Sacramento "Sactown." I'm not making this up.
  
• Another comfortable bed!
  
• Lots of Dustbowl-era remnants, ghost towns, broken-down cars way off in the fields along the roadside, remains of old stone houses seemingly in the middle of nowhere.  If you were coming in from the Oklahoma dustbowl, the last place you'd want to end up is in the California desert.
• A humongous ice storm hit Oklahoma today, right where I was, across I-40.  Score one for me!

Portland, here I come.  Check out where I'm staying!  How neat!

Day Seven:

Las Vegas, NV - Sacramento, CA

Mileage: 605

Total Mileage: 3,727

Blinded by sleep and in need of a bed,

I came in from the East with the sun in my eyes.

Isis - Bob Dylan

In no particular order:

Cypress Trees in CA.

Heading out of Las Vegas.

Am I still in California?

So many signs today.

I guess this is where the band got their name...?

I have one of these at home!  A little different, but I mean, how many palm trees could there possibly be out there?

The internet here is terrible--I'll post more photos from Portland.  It's Tuesday!  Have fun!