My Brain Has Not Finished Processing Last Week, So Here You Go

Alex asked me to road trip with him to Malibu, where he was playing a wedding for a couple of friends. I've never been to California, so what the hell. A more leisurely pace might have been good, there's a lot of things we could have stopped to see, but it also would have been a much more expensive trip. And we each have shit to do back here.

The drive out wasn't bad. I drove to start, because we left at 7:30, and I'm the morning person. I was surprised Alex was actually awake until he explained he'd been too excited to sleep. Then I was definitely driving. Plus, he hates driving through Kansas, while I apparently don't mind it. I like open, empty places. The last couple hours of Kansas, plus the bits of Oklahoma and Texas we drove through didn't disappoint. I enjoy being able to see for miles, even if it doesn't look like there's anything to see. In New Mexico, I spotted a mesa off in the distance and tried to see how long it took us to reach it. Answer was 33 miles, and it was visible from before I started keeping track.

Alex really wanted a picture of the sign for Hooker, Oklahoma. Infer what you will. I got really excited about approaching Tucumcari, since I know of the town from For a Few Dollars More, so I can't talk. Sure, the movie was set 150 years ago, and shot in Spain, but whatever. Part of me still got a little geeked about it, even if we were just going to drive through (and it was dark by the time we got there).

New Mexico needs to spend less money of road signs, and more money on the actual roads. Every single bridge has a sign reminding you it could be icy, and on 54, every passing opportunity has a 'Pass with Care' sign, while every part with double lines has 'Do Not Pass'. Is that really necessary?

We didn't make it as far as we planned because Alex thought his transmission was acting up shortly after he took over driving, after we switched in Santa Rosa. First he had something in his eye, so I'm steering while he's applying saline solution. Then he needs to clean his glasses. Then we ran over the remains of a tire in the middle of the line and it knocked his car out of cruise. All that happened within 15 minutes of his getting behind the wheel. Then the vehicle wouldn't stay in cruise on the hills, so he stopped because he was worried. Turns out his transmission reduces power if it thinks i'ts getting too hot, and I guess some of the hills were a bit much for it.

Trying to sleep in the passenger seat of his car on a 40 degree night in the parking lot of a casino was a great way to save money, but not a great way to sleep. My neck was most displeased. But the scenery at sunrise with the various mesas was a decent tradoff.. I was in New Mexico for part of a family vacation when I was a kid, but I don't remember much beyond the specific places we visited. I was probably focused on my Game Gear whenever we were driving from one place to another. It was nice to spend a little more time observing the surroundings, even if I wound up driving most of day 2 because Alex also didn't sleep well. Well, I'd rather drive than crash because he feel asleep and we had places to be. Flagstaff is pretty country.

Alex needed to visit another friend in Vegas to check on something, so we took the opportunity to stop at Hoover Dam briefly. Or at an overlook of a nearby lake, because I wasn't driving through a damn security checkpoint to look at dam. The view was nice, and we watched two guys in minivans almost have a fistfight. One of them pulled into a spot and kept going until he was halfway into the next spot, then seemed annoyed the other guy was unhappy about not being able to park behind him. Shitty Parking Guy even took his overshirt off like he was going to fight him, while saying things like, 'Don't yell at me'.

I've always figured Vegas would not be my kind of town, and I was right. Too many people, too many lights, too much noise. I felt bad for Alex' friend, because he wanted me to be more excited. But I hardly ever get visibly excited, certainly not for anything we were likely to do that night. I did win $6 playing video poker. Alex lost $50, mostly on roulette. Which was strange, because he said he wanted to play blackjack, then played roulette instead. The dealer was very attractive, but not that attractive.

We did visit a comic store while in town, because I always try to hit that or a bookstore when I'm in a new city, just to see what's there. I found three of last week's comics I wanted and the first volume of Kino's Journey. Alex grabbed a collection of Bob's Burgers for his girlfriend, who loves that show. And it was next door to a legal weed dispensary, so Alex had to check that out. I felt extremely awkward standing there with zero interest in this place. Mostly just because I felt I was in the way, which is a feeling I hate. I don't like it when people are in my way, so I try to avoid being in their way. Fair is fair.

Would it have been better to see some sights? Maybe, but we were killing a little bit of time until his friend could meet us, and neither of us wanted to drive, so we were reliant on Uber. At least the Vegas Uber drivers are better than the ones in Chicago. I didn't get badly carsick this time.

Alex brought along whiskey to celebrate being on this road trip, or in Vegas, but was going to leave the remainder in the hotel the next morning. Because he claimed to be done drinking (eye roll). I grabbed it and carried it, so he'd have it for when he decided later he wasn't done drinking. He acted like I sprouted a second head. I just hate wasting food.

The drive to Malibu was fine. We discussed the brief stop at Nipton on Friday. At 5 p.m., everyone is trying to leave L.A., not enter, so traffic wasn't bad. Little bit of rain, but not enough to make conditions treacherous. The amount of rain that's pleasant to walk in. I didn't realize just how steep and hilly it is out there. All these narrow points and valleys. Makes for an interesting view, though. I kept hoping to see a full-on castle up on the top of some of those hills, but no such luck. Lots of really nice houses, and a variety of designs, which was cool.

Alex wanted to try In-n-Out Burger because someone told him he should. Not that great. It's not bad, but I don't see all the fuss. Who the fuck puts spread, or dressing or whatever on a burger? At least I asked if they used mayo (because I thought I saw something in the picture on the menu, and wanted to tell them to leave it off), and found out about the spread ahead of time, so I could tell them to leave that off.

Random bizarre moment: Alex went to the hotel breakfast Friday morning and found an lold lady just clearing house. She had two reusuable shopping bags and was filling them with plates of eggs, all the muffins, and was in the process of taking all the plastic utensils when Alex came in. He's not sure she was even a guest. I missed it because I woke up earlier and had gone to eat then.

We had enough time Friday before the wedding to hit up another comic store, and it turns out Mike Sterling's Sterling Silver Comics was only 10 miles away from the hotel. I always thought his store was in the northern part of California. I grabbed an issue of Tim Truman's Scout I was looking for, and Scud the Disposable Assassin: The Whole Shebang. Alex found and commented on an issue of DC's recent Wacky Raceland comic, which led to me mentioning the post-apocalyptic Scooby-Doo book (because at least I could figure out how to describe that one, I don't know what to say about that Flintstones book they had). Mike said it was actually pretty good, and that's why Alex owns the first trade paperback of Scooby Apocalypse now.

The wedding was being held right on the ocean, and Alex said he was having an anxiety attack the first time he saw the Pacific. He was just really excited. Which is one of the things that's fun about being his friend, how amped he gets for things he's interested in. I'm not typically wired that way. But I made sure to point out he could pull over and take pictures, rather than trying to do it while driving. I wanted to take pictures, too. I'd never been to the Pacific, either.

The wedding was nice, the reception was a lot of fun. The father of the bride made a hilarious speech, mostly revealing how completely his daughter has him wrapped around her finger. They had a "cocktail hour" after the wedding before getting to the actual reception. The sliders the caterers made were much better than In-n-Out Burger. It took until almost 10, but people started coming up making requests. They just have to get drunk enough to either not care or to want to show off. A couple of old guys wanted to have a dance-off using Bruno Mars and "Shut Up and Dance". It wasn't cool so much as ridiculous, but they were having fun, so that's the main thing. They had planned to have enormous pizzas delivered at 10, which was another pleasant surprise on top of the dessert bar and everything else.

We left the hotel at 7 the next morning, and drove straight through back to Missouri. Just over 27 hours, subtracting the two we lost crossing time zones. I like when routes let me switch roads a lot, because it's an easy way to mark progress. We were on Interstate 40 from Barstow to Tucumcari, so that wasn't happening. We got gas once in Kingman, Arizona, bought some tacos from a restaurant next door (Alex insisted we needed to try Mexican food closer to actual Mexico at least once during the trip). The potato tacos were excellent, so good call on his part.

Alex got us from Gallup, New Mexico to Wichita, so the driving was split more equitably this time. I planned to spend that time sleeping, so I'd be ready to take over again, but that didn't happen. Alex spent 80% of the time I drove over the course of the trip sleeping. I slept less than 5% of the time he drove. Which I'm sure says something nothing good about me and my level of trust in him, but I did want to make sure he didn't fall asleep while driving in the middle of the night. Especially since he'd already had to abruptly stop driving twice on this trip from being tired.

We hit fog a little ways into Kansas and had to deal with that for five hours. But that was the worst weather we encountered the entire trip, so can't complain. Just bad timing that close to the end, when we were both worn down. The first hour after I took over behind the wheel again was bad, really exhausted, but I found an inexplicable second wind around Emporia that carried me the rest of the way home. I really have no idea why. Apparently talking with the lady at the toll booth or trying to get my wallet to retrieve a quarter energized me. Then I fell asleep without even realizing it at 7 p.m. and didn't wake up again until 5:30 this morning.