Wednesday, May 30, 2012

CALIFORNIA

Push play and enjoy while you read. It's relevant, I promise.


Today I want to tell you about the first time I ever went to California. Daddy was a cop. We didn’t have lot of money. Family vacations were normally spent fishing up in Minnesota (I already told you the ‘walrus’ story about my mother) and we did take one Route 66 vacation to the Southwest. I’ll tell you about it one day. There was no Disneyland vacation in my childhood, but I’ll bet you’re not surprised.

The first time I went to California I was an adult, kinda, living in Colorado. This trip started out as a long lazy, camping through the desert, trek. We were in Telluride, Colorado. Our tent was set up on a mountainside somewhere and we headed into town to meet some friends who used to live in Breckenridge. I had to make a call and went from the bar were we met our friends to another bar across the street that had a pay phone in back (yeah you heard me right, a pay phone). When I made my call, I got some really bad news. So bad, in fact, that my friends found me sitting on the floor underneath this pay phone, quite literally rolled up in a ball. So, being really good friends they took me back to the first bar where I proceeded to get drunker than I have ever been in my life. I came to the next morning in that tent on the mountainside, wishing I had died.

I’m not sure how but I managed to help ‘break camp’ and load up the car then we headed for Chicago (due to my bad news) by way of Los Angeles. Ok, now I know you’re confused, but this is my story about the first time I was in California, not the bad news, or the trip to Chicago, maybe I’ll tell that another time, not today. Let it suffice to say there was something I had to pick up in California and take to Chicago with me. So the trip to Chicago had to be made the long way around. Oh, there was one more thing, I had to be in Chicago within three days time.

Anyway…we drove straight through from Telluride to Los Angeles. Our little car had no air conditioning (are you kidding me? I lived at 9600 feet above sea level, you don’t need no stinkin’ air conditioning there) we drove through the desert at night where the temperature dropped to about 130 degrees. I think I was still hung over and trying to sleep. I was leaning against the center console with my feet propped out the passenger side window, wearing some little sundress. It was early morning, you know how it can be on the west coast, warm, muggy and kind of grey foggy all over. I wake up to the vroom, vroom sound of some jet engine and look out the window at the undercarriage of a monster truck with ‘The Boss’ screaming 'Born to Run' out of the stereo. This guy looks down and under my carriage, I’m sure. He smiles and says ‘Welcome to L.A.’

That’s it. The first time I went to California. I picked up what I need to and within five hours we were on our way to Chicago.

15 comments:

  1. Being a native Californian myself, I am sorry that your first trip to California was not a fun one :( I hope you've been back :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Definitely not the desired way to experience the west coast for the first time! But there was THE BOSS...so that should count for something! :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Ooh, doing anything with a hangover is not fun. I think that's my old age speaking, though. Good thing you weren't alone when you got the bad news.

    My first trip to CA - I was also a young 'adult', I remember driving north into San Francisco with sunstroke and a blinding setting sun in my eyes. Otherwise, it was a wonderful time.

    ReplyDelete
  4. My dream is to one day live in California, land of sunshine, oranges, and plenty of diversity.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I was a kid when my family drove to California from Louisiana to visit a relative. I remember a cop stopping my dad near Riverside and giving him a speeding ticket for going two miles over the limit.

    ReplyDelete
  6. The first time I breathed California air, Bruce Springsteen wasn't playing. If anything was playing at all, it was "elevator muzak". Then someone spanked my bottom and I cried.

    As I understand it, that's pretty common with newborns.

    ~ D-FensDogg
    'Loyal American Underground'

    ReplyDelete
  7. never been there---sorry you had a bad experience there

    ReplyDelete
  8. What a way to see California. I was there for a visit as a kid, but don't remember much. Wouldn't want to live there though!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Dang little sundresses. Sounds like you made his day!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Sorry your experience wasn't better, but this is a fun little story--especially the end. How many people can say that? :D

    ReplyDelete
  11. My first trip to California will have to include a tour of the wine country. Anything less will be disappointing. Your visit was indeed terrible.

    ReplyDelete
  12. That must have been so surreal to have to move around the country so fast under such circumstances. There is more to this story though and I'd be interested to hear if you'd be willing to tell it.

    ReplyDelete
  13. I lived in Cali and miss San Fran and the Nappa Valley all the time.
    The Husband, on the other hand, absolutely HATES CA. He had very different experiences there, and they were all bad. I keep trying to get him to go back and visit with me, but he refuses. He says if he never steps foot in that state again, he'll die happy. LOL

    ReplyDelete
  14. Not a place I've been to but sounds amazing.

    Who knows one day perhaps..

    ReplyDelete
  15. This story has enough ambiguity attached that it can only lead me to speculation. It reminds me of some adventures I've taken for certain reasons, but never involving an epic journey like Chicago to L.A. Now, there's my bit of ambiguity.
    I did enjoy the story though.

    Lee
    Wrote By Rote
    An A to Z Co-host blog

    ReplyDelete