January 2010 – GeoJeep

January 4, 2010March 6, 2011

Capulin Volcano, New Mexico to Home:Perhaps I Should Have Stayed On Vaca

It is easy to overlook the big picture when wrapped up in the day to day of our lives. We get lost in life’s mishaps and feel like we are trapped in quicksand. None of our lives are ideal, and the daily grind can be exhausting.

I can honestly say my daily grind is full of adventure. It doesn’t seem to matter what the agenda is for the day, something always happens to keep my life interesting. I love my life not because everything goes right, but because everything goes entirely wrong. It’s a comical life, the type you see on those sitcoms where big mishaps take place but everything always ends up alright in the end. This sort of thing isn’t limited to Hollywood: I live it.

Today is a perfect example of my disastrous, wonderfully compelling thing called life.

I slept in a little bit and took my time getting ready, enjoying the free breakfast the hotel offered. I have to admit I’m a sucker for those Belgian waffles that hotels offer. In fact, when I reserve a hotel I check the description to see if the hotel offers the Belgian waffles before I decide if I am going to book that hotel or not. Ridiculous? Maybe for anyone else, but not for me.

I started my drive to Capulin Volcano National park, which was only a short 30 minute drive, and a tiny 1 mile detour from the path home. I took the turn towards the volcano and drive over a cattle grid, past a yellow caution sign that neither warns of deer, or that cartoon Elk I had observed all over Arizona two days ago. It warns me of free range cattle.

Sure enough as I travel down the highway, covered lightly in snow from the night before, there is a small herd of cattle standing in the middle of the road. Behind them stands a second cattle grid that would signify my freedom of the very cattle that stood in my way. I was traveling very slow because of the snow and ice, so I crept up on the herd of cattle expecting them to move as they saw me approaching them. Most animals get scared when a large, red object that rivals the size of an elephant approaches them. Not these guys.

As I get close they continue to stand there, staring at me. I slowed down even more, inching forward now, and they still don’t move. I was now only feet away so I touched the brakes to stop. The snow, however, had something else in mind. Despite the ceased rotation of my tires my car continued forward, sliding straight into 2-3 of the cattle that stood there looking at me in stupor.

CLUNK

CLUNK.

I bump into them, the cattle stumble and bounce away as they realize my car wasn’t friendly.

I sat in my car for a little bit, stunned. Had I really just hit some cows? Really?

I look over and see that a farm truck was sitting in the field to my right. I get out and check my car- all is ok, just some hair from the cows was plastered to the bumper with the moisture from melted snow. I look around for the cattle to make sure I didn’t hurt them and they all seem ok as they stare at me in disbelief of my violent greeting from a safe distance.

The farmer, who had been parked in his truck in the field, gets out and his two cattle dogs come with him as he asks if I’m ok. I reply that everything seems to be ok and I ask if he thinks the cows are ok. After both of us concluding I wasn’t going fast enough to hurt anything, and him explaining the cattle have the right of way and I need to be careful, we have small chat about the weather and the volcano. He tells me that the view from atop Capulin is definitely worth the drive. After petting his dogs and apologizing for running into his cows I get back in my car, parked in the middle of the road, and drive towards the volcano.

Upon reentering my vehicle and putting it back in drive I immediately begin laughing. Hysterically.

Only I could have this many mishaps on a 10 day vacation.

I get to the visitor center and pay the $5 entrance fee. Why is it that some of the most exciting places to visit charge so little, such as the beaches and Carlsbad, yet the Grand Canyon and Meteorite Crater are so ridiculously overpriced?

After watching the short informative video on Capulin, which informs me that all of the mountains in northeastern New Mexico were originally volcanoes, I go to pickup my postcards to send back home as I had at most of my major stops. I’m the only one in the visitor center and I’m looking at some books. I pick up one on geology and it somehow flips out of my hand and through the air and I catch it before it has the chance to get back to the ground. I laugh, the lady behind the counter laughs, and I put it back on the shelf.

“Yeah, that’s how my day started”. I laugh as I once again run the fresh image of the cattle bouncing away from my car after being hit.

We have a good conversation about volcanoes. I tell her about the jar of ashes I have from the 1980 eruption of Mt. St. Helens and she mentions that she has a Christmas ornament that is made from the same ashes. We talk about different things, including the volcano that erupted at the beginning of my journey, a world away. It’s nice talking to a guide that is educated in geology, it isn’t something you find everywhere. I leave the visitor’s center to drive up the swirling road to the top of Capulin Volcano.

Capulin Volcano is a cinder cone that erupted only about 60,000 years ago, which is relatively young in geological terms. It rises over 8,000 feet above sea level, and the crater is 400 feet deep. The road that spirals up to the rim of the volcano is 2 miles long, swirling up thousands of feet often without a guardrail. A little scary considering the road is still covered in light snow on the shaded side of the volcano where the sun has yet to melt it away. I drive carefully, the incident of the cattle massacre fresh in my mind.

I reached the top to find I wasn’t the only crazy tourist willing to risk their life to see a monument to geological history. There were two other cars up top, and the view from there was spectacular. You could see for miles and miles. The vegetation that covers the cinder cone (which is unusual for a volcano of it’s age, many don’t get so densely populated so quickly) is all covered in delicate frost crystals that move in the breeze like small feathers. Looking down into the crater you can see lots of volcanic rock that has accumulated there from it’s previous explosion.

I slowly descend the 400’ along the paved path, covered in snow and ice, to reach the bottom of the crater. I get there and look up, the view is pretty cool having the walls of the crater all around you. A couple is down in the crater as well taking some pictures. I take my picture by using a sign post as a camera stand. The couple offers to take my picture for me, but after reviewing the picture I had taken right before and seeing that it was alright I thank them for the offer, but decline.

I leave Capulin, paying special attention to the road for cattle. Along the side of the road on the way out is an old abandoned house sitting on top of cinderblocks as if someone had moved it there planning on building it a foundation but never got around to it. I wouldn’t mind living there, I think to myself.
The drive back home wasn’t planned to be all too eventful. I crossed the border into Texas, a short drive through the panhandle part of the state. The sky was really pretty here, as the sun decided to come out and fluffy, white clouds dotted the sky. Then I crossed the state line into Oklahoma. I was driving along the highway when suddenly I see the all-too familiar flashing blue and red lights in my rearview mirror. Great.

I pull over on the side of the road and the Sheriff’s SUV patrol car pulls in behind me. He walks up to my passenger side window which is smart for two reasons: One, he isn’t standing in traffic. Two, my driver’s side window doesn’t roll down. He explains to me that I had just passed through a lower speed limit and that I was going 60 in a 45. He tells me that since I’m not from the area he will just give me a warning, but asks if I can go sit in his car while he runs my plates and license to get the all clear. I oblige and his partner gets into the backseat to allow me to sit up front.

While sitting in the patrol car waiting for them to run the plates back at the station he starts up small chat, asking where I was heading and about my trip. After a few minutes I hear a rustling in the back and turn to see a cage that I assumed to contain a drug dog since I couldn’t see behind the back seats. He says that she was a pretty good dog, very quite, which brings up conversation about the puppy I had transported to California. I tell him about the drug dog at border patrol that got excited about the smell of the puppy.

Don’t ever mention that you had to go through border patrol to an officer with a drug dog.

Never.

My plates and license, by a small miracle, come back all clear. He give me back my papers and tells me I’m good to go except for one thing. He says that the fact I had to go through border patrol perked his interest, and with his job and having a drug dog he had to ask a few questions.

“Do you have any illegal narcotics in your vehicle?”

I reply no.

“Do you have an methamphetamines, cocaine, marijuana or any drug paraphernalia in the vehicle?”

I again reply no, and tell him I don’t even have any alcohol in the vehicle.

“Will you consent to a search around your vehicle with my drug dog?”

I, of course, say yes and he asks me to remain in the car while he gets out his dog and lets her run around my car. He takes her out on a leash and walks around the drivers side, around the front, and when he reaches the passenger side his dog sticks her head in my car through the open window. She takes one sniff of the puppy carrier that is sitting in my backseat and jumps right into my car.

…I turn to his partner, who is still sitting in the SUV behind me, and explain that I forgot to mention my passenger car door doesn’t open from the outside.

I watch the officer struggle with the car door, trying to get his drug dog back out of my car. He eventually figures out he needs to open it from the inside and reaches inside to pull the handle. He pulls his dog out of the car and puts her back in her kennel in the back of his patrol unit.

“Sorry about my dog jumping in…she saw that puppy carrier. Have a safe trip home”

Today is just full of laughter.

I continue my drive north towards Kansas, fresh muddy paw prints covering my laptop case and door sill. On the way out to California I had decided to take Oklahoma thinking that a toll road would be better taken care of than the interstates through southern Kansas. Since that theory turned out to be wrong, and had resulted in my disdain for Oklahoman roads, I decided to return via Kansas.

Kansas Sunset — The sun setting in Kansas

Kansas is the spitting image of our preconceived notionst: A lot of flat farmland with just a few trees here and there. A funny scene was playing out in Kansas as I made my drive northeast through the state. The trees that sporadically stuck out in the terrain were all covered in a thick snow, but the ground was completely clear. I don’t know what causes this phenomenon, but it was rather interesting to see.

When I finally reached Emporia, KS I decided I was in the mood for another of the spicy chicken sandwiches. Since there are no Carl’s Jrs in this part of the country I decided to stop at it’s sister restaurant, Hardee’s, to get my spicy chicken sandwich. I even drove an extra hour and a half to stop specifically at a Hardee’s in hope to get jalapenos, knowing that Wendy’s do not carry them. When I get there they don’t have jalapenos, and they even give me the wrong chicken sandwich altogether.

Not spicy, but a grilled chicken sandwich. I was too hungry to care.

I stopped to get gas and fuel up with one last sugar free Redbull for the last stretch of my trip before I got back on the highway. The cashier gave me a discount on the Red Bull (Apparently it was on sale?) and I returned to my car to calculate my gas mileage as I did every fuel stop and zero my trip odometer. When I go to zero my trip odometer the numbers stick. GREAT. I just broke my odometer.
Like I really needed anything else to go wrong with my car.

On a brighter note, the flat plains of Kansas allowed me to get a full 26 mpg.

The drive home was like the blink of an eye after leaving Emporia. When you have driven over 4000 miles the last couple hundred seem like nothing. I reached home right around 1am, brought in my bags all in one trip and passed out.
As much as I love my journeys, it was good to be home.

January 3, 2010November 27, 2013

Spontaneity-Meteor Crater & Winslow, AZ, The Places Between

Spontaneity.

The quality road trips possess, and air travel lacks. Traveling alone is doubly spontaneous. One can literally stop anywhere they want, when they want. There is no complaining about schedules when I stop to see something interesting, no stopping because someone needs to eat or use the bathroom when I am content, and no feeling guilty about needing to stop to use the facilities when the other passengers do not. When traveling on the road by myself, I’m on my time.

Today’s drive was planned no further than arriving at Raton, NM by nightfall where I would stay in a nice Quality Inn (I get reward points when I stay at this particular chain) and get to swim a little bit before bed in their heated indoor pool. There were a lot of interesting stops that lie along the path through northeastern Arizona that I had not even thought about, so while the drive was longer than planned I was able to stop at many points of interest.

I drove through the snowy alpine, mountainous wilderness that was what I knew of Scottsdale, AZ thus far, and turned East on the interstate. Along the highway I see a big billboard inviting me to see Meteor Crater. Things of space have always interested me, I have even taken astronomy classes in college as a few of my electives. The necklace I wear everyday is a small piece of the Campo de Cielo meteorites that fell in South America. Campo de Cielo quite literally translates into “Field of the Sky”, an area in Argentina where 26 craters were formed over 4000 years ago. The necklace I wear is one of my treasures I am never without.

Big meteor, little meteor — Me, wearing my Campo de Cielo meteor necklace in front of a much larger iron meteorite @ Meteor Crater, AZ

Meteor Crater National Park is one of the best preserved meteor craters in the world. It is the site where an iron meteorite crashed into the earth, one much like my charm of Campo de Cielo. I would be lying if I labeled the site as anything less than a tourist trap, costing $15 to get into the small museum and view the crater itself. The crater is exactly that: A big crater in the Arizona desert.

While it’s no comparison in size to the Grand Canyon I had just seen before, the site is still inspiring. The viewing platform overhangs the crater itself, which is 570 feet deep and about 4100 feet across. Since it is the first part of January it was a little cold out there, but once again it was a view worth shivering for. After admiring the canyon for a while I returned to the visitor center and purchased a small meteor fragment and a lab-grown bizmuth.

When you purchase your tickets for the Meteor Crater’s museum you also get coupons to one of two restaurants: the Subway inside the visitor center, or “The Whole Enchilada”, a small burrito shack in the gas station at the highway exit. I decide to fuel up both my car and myself before I hit the road again. I order a burrito, and (of course) a churro. The man behind the counter asks for my drivers license when I present him my card to pay for the food and he asks where I’m from in Missouri. Apparently he once lived in Kansas City. He says he never did like Kansas City much at all. The burrito was pretty good.

I get back on the road and I don’t drive long before I decide I need to stop again. Winslow, Arizona. I don’t really know anything about the town other than the song, so for the song alone I stopped and took pictures of that fabled corner in Winslow, Arizona along historic route 66. Funny how we all remember things as historical markers yet the significance is long forgotten.

Along the remaining drive through Arizona there is plenty to see. I drove past the Petrified Forest, which is a big field of what looks like trees that have been chopped down and into logs. All of them were once trees that have “turned to stone”. Of course what really has happened is a type of permineralization called silicification. Visit the National Park Service’s Webpage about the Petrified Forest’s Petrified Wood by clicking here. It’s funny how the timber segments into separate “logs” when it petrifies. I consider stopping to try and pull one out of the field, but think twice about it after a sign warns of the legality of such an action, and the scene I would make trying to move such a heavy object all by myself.

When I return to the Land of Enchantment I have a reminder of why the state of New Mexico is called that. The entire state is quite scenic, covered in beautiful, colorful plateaus and mountains. I stop at the “Welcome to New Mexico” rest stop and trudge through the snow to the visitor center for some free coffee. A couple fenced areas are set up to allow dogs a place to run and get some exercise and a Siberian husky runs around, looking as if it belonged there with all the snow. Yes, even New Mexico is covered in snow.

While I mill around the visitor center drinking my coffee one of the employees there strikes up a conversation. We talk about the differing state’s highway departments and how well New Mexico’s roads are taken care of. I see some brochures on Roswell and realize my current path won’t pass by the area. Oh well. I get a few brochures in hopes that I can visit someday and get back on the road.

The rest of the drive was as scenic as I had remembered New Mexico. On the way out I had driven through the southern part of the state, and now I drove through the northern part, and both were equally scenic. The sun had set right before I approached Albuquerque and I was able to enjoy the city lights as I dipped down into the city that sits in a valley between mountains. When I reached Santa Fe it was dinner time and I really wanted to eat at a Carl’s Jr. Turns out I should have stopped in Albuquerque because none of Santa Fe’s services are right along the highway. You have to drive a ways to get to restaurants and fuel once you exit the highway. When I reached Carl’s Jr I had the most wonderful spicy chicken sandwich ever for only $1.29, and they supply jalapenos for you to put on the sandwich. Mmm.

I was only about 30 miles away from my hotel when it began to snow. The flakes were big and forced me to slow down quite a bit to be able to drive safely. I start cursing the snow. It doesn’t matter how far away I was from home, the snow seemed determine to get in my way.

I arrived safely at my hotel and was able to swim in the pool for a while, and relax in the hot tub, in solitude. It was nice to be able to relax at a hotel for a change. The previous hotels I had stayed at in the journey had simply been a place to sleep before I headed out on a journey, this time I was able to relax. Tomorrow I would be able to relax more on my drive home, stopping at a volcano on the way.
Today I had planned simply to get from point A to point B, but ended up touring the famous Meteor Crater and spending some time on the corner of Winslow Arizona.
Today was a day of spontaneity, but tomorrow had a planned stop that I was very excited to see. I had never been on top of a volcano, but that was exactly what I was going to do. Capulin Volcano National Monument.

January 2, 2010March 4, 2011

Destroying the Stereotypes: The Grand Canyon. SoCal-Phoenix

Preconceived notions of geographic locations tend to paint mental pictures for us. If you say “California”, close your eyes, and what do you see? The ocean? Do the same with Arizona. I bet you imagine a beautiful desert decorated with the famous saguaro cactus. It’s hard to remember that each place is marked by geographic borders that don’t necessarily follow a geologic trend. In California you also have mountains covered in snow year round, forests full of the largest trees in the world, expansive, sandy deserts and even large fields of agriculture. Arizona is pretty diverse as well, so don’t be surprised when you see landscapes dotted in more than sand and cacti.

The Grand Canyon 1 — The Grand Canyon Jan 2 2010

I woke up early today and left my brother’s apartment by 3am PST. It was still dark out and I wanted to near the California state line just as the sun rose. As I drove along the highway, slowly leaving the populated city of LA and entering the mountainous great outdoors I realized how early 3am was. I tried all my usual tricks in the book to get my blood pumping, such as singing along to the radio and alternating hot and cold air but I knew what I really needed to do. I pulled over at a rest stop after I left the mountain range and took a short 15 minute nap. This is probably one of the most important safety tips of traveling: KNOW your limits, and succumb to them when necessary. The sun starting rising and the silhouette of the pine trees stood out against the brightening sky. It turns out the cold air and the nap were exactly what I needed, so I got back on the road and made my way into Arizona.

I was driving near Las Vegas and had considered a detour, but I kept my heading. I wanted to see the Grand Canyon and nothing was going to stop me. It was one of the great geologic marvels of the world. There are few places you can gaze upon so many exposed rock formations. I stopped at a gas station about an hour into the Grand Canyon State and decided to go inside to get some snacks and my ritualistic supply of Sugar-Free Red Bull. This is the fuel that energizes most of my long drives. In the gas stations I saw something that caught my eye and made me laugh, so I asked the clerk about it.

Flavored aerosol cans of oxygen.

She laughed a bit too and said it did make you feel a little more awake, refreshed, but she said it certainly wasn’t energizing as the can claimed. I pondered for a moment, considered buying one just to say I had tried it, but decided against it. My fuel of choice had served me well thus far.

One of the things I enjoy paying attention to along my travels are road signs. There are always some amusing names of roads, and sometimes the graphics of the signs are interesting as well. Something I am used to seeing are the yellow signs cautioning you of deer that may cross the road. I have often wondered what determines a certain area to be more prone to deer crossing than others. In Missouri these areas don’t seem to correlate with where I have hit the silly animals.

In northern Arizona, however, there is a more daunting sign cautioning of large mammals crossing the road: Elk. When seen up close, when stopped on the road, it is a close resemblance of the silhouette of an Elk. When seen from driving on the interstate, however, it looks a little bit like a comical animal. Bubbly and cartoon-ish in form, every single one of them made me smile a little.

I reached the Grand Canyon around noon. It’s time to throw that stereotypical image of the Grand Canyon out the window. Today the sandy desert that clouds my memories of Arizona is replaced by snow, and lots of it. Huge piles of it lined the roads where snowplows had dumped what had once accumulated on the roadways, enough to rival that which has fallen in the Midwest in the last few weeks.

In comparison to the wonderfully beautiful and enclosed world of Carlsbad Caverns that only costs $6 to tour, the vast, wide-open Grand Canyon costs a whopping $25 to drive to. It isn’t such a bad deal if you are going to be in the area for a while, as the pass is good for a full week. It also is fairly decent if you are traveling with a vehicle full of people, as the price is per vehicle. When you are traveling alone, however, and only plan to stay for a few hours, $25 is pretty steep. I honestly wish they had a pass for just a day rather than an entire week.

I found a parking spot on the sheet of ice that was formerly a parking lot, between an SUV and a small compact car. I walk along the icy, snowy sidewalks to get to the first viewing point of the Grand Canyon, passing by bus loads of Asian tourists that I could have sworn have been following me. It seems other countries appreciate that natural wonders of the world more than Americans. I could go into a large discussion about the failure of the U.S. government to stress education and development of the sciences, and the fact that we are falling behind across the board in education, but I will save this for another day.

The view was breath-taking, a not simply because of the icy breeze that chilled you as it blew across the vast canyon.

The Grand Canyon 2 — The Grand Canyon Jan 2 2010

Everyone knows the Grand Canyon is the largest of it’s kind in the United States. It is world-renowned for it’s beautiful colors of rock layers and how large and utterly overwhelming it can be.

Seeing it in real life, however, is a whole different story. It’s kind of like looking at a picture of a warm beach in the Caribbean and actually lying on said beach. You know what it is like, and you can even mentally feel the warmth of the suns rays and the gentle breeze, the soft lapping waves of the turquoise-blue waters. Seeing it in person, however, is an entirely different experience.

The cold seemed lessened because of the beautiful view, and apparently I was not the only one to think so. Hundreds of tourists were making the same delicate trip to viewing platforms along the edges of the cliffs that overhand a gorge that is over one mile deep, stepping lightly on the packed ice to avoid slipping. There were rails and fences, but it wasn’t hard to imagine slipping and sliding right under the gaps in that fence. I have to say I prefer caves. I feel safe in them, the limestone walls like a comforting blanket that promises I won’t fall forever. I knew there was a bottom to the Grand Canyon, but I certainly couldn’t see it. …The view was worth the worry.

Snowy Grand Canyon — Walking to the Grand Canyon viewpoints in snow and ice

Looking across the grand canyon feels as if you are on top of the world. You can see for miles, and the wind that blows across feels like it is coming from a world away. You can see so far that you can imagine lightly jumping and landing on that cliff way across, but you know it’s actually several hours, or even several days’, hike.

I took many pictures of the Canyon, and did my good Samaritan work just as I had done at all the other sites I had visited alone: took pictures of couples together for them with their cameras in front of whatever scenic view pleased them most. I even took a picture for a large family, and I imagine they had spent a lovely holiday vacation here at the Grand Canyon and had yet to get a picture without one of them behind the camera.

The breathtaking beauty of the canyon was eventually overtaken by the breathtaking, chilling winds of a snowy winter and I decided to head into Grand Canyon village and get some lunch. I chatted with the cashier about the weather as I ordered my sandwich and she talked to me as if I were from the area. She seemed to assume I worked here and was just enjoying a lunch break. I get that a lot on my trips. Perhaps because most people don’t sight-see alone?

After spending another hour braving the cold to take more pictures from another viewing point, I decided my time at the Grand Canyon had been spent. After dropping off my postcards into a mailbox I headed back onto the highway to head towards Phoenix. I was really excited to see some friends I hadn’t seen in some time. They had moved out to Arizona from Missouri not quite a year ago.

When I hit Scottsdale I made the turn south towards Phoenix, yet again forgetting what state I was in. Another norm you don’t usually think of for Arizona: The typical alpine, mountainous forests covered in snow. The highways were periodically lined with families sledding down hills, like they had never seen snow like this before. I imagined that most of these people were from further south in the state and had made the trek up to enjoy some winter sports. The drive between Scottsdale and Phoenix was beautiful, transitioning from snowy mountains, to plateaus, to desert mountains as the sun set, filling the sky with various colors.

Phoenix was exactly the Arizona I knew and loved. A warmer area, surrounded by mountains, with the whimsical Saguaro cacti standing as if they were people. I always found the Saguaro cactus to be amusing, imaging each of them to be a different type of person. Some grouped together looked like families, with the Mother and Father and little kids. Some were your traditional 3-armed cacti, looking like a head and two arms raised up in the air. Everyone is individual, and tells it’s own story.

In one day, and through only two states, I had driven from Ocean views, city-lit streets, snow-covered mountains, barren deserts, rising plateaus, larger-than-life canyons, and deserts vegetated with cacti and brush. The world isn’t as simple as we make it out to be. Arizona is much more than the Saguaro cactus and mountain-shadowed deserts.

It is still the part of Arizona I remember the most, as does most of the nation. I love those whimsical saguaros.

Me at Grand Canyon — Me, in front of the Grand Canyon sign. Jan 2, 2010

January 1, 2010March 4, 2011

The Beauty in Chaos: Manhattan Beach & Pasadena, CA

Chaos is an event that is typically taken in a negative light, but chaos can be a good thing. It is the one thing that can take life out of your control and allow you to experience things you would have never been able to do so otherwise. Chaos is proof that you can succeed no matter what. A confidence booster. The one thing that can prove you are, and will remain, undefeated by life.

Manhatten Beach — Manhattan Beach, CA Jan 1st, 2010

I think we all know things don’t always go as planned. We get frustrated that things didn’t happen as you had thought. But does it really have to ruin your day? In the heat of the moment it may seem like the day is lost, but rolling with the punches can make any day even better than your itinerary allowed.
Today I was planning on heading up to Pasadena to see the Rose Bowl After-Parade float viewing. I had originally considered seeing the game and parade in person, but since my plans weren’t set in stone I had to pass on the possibility of getting tickets. I figured I would just see the parade-then I found out that people camped out for 36 hours to get a good spot along the parade route. I finally settled on seeing the floats in the after parade display. A friend of mine from Ohio State was in town to see his team play in the rose bowl. Considering the likeliness of two friends, one from Ohio and one from Missouri, to be in the same place at the same time we had decided to try to meet up. Unfortunately, the air lines had lost my friend’s luggage, along with his cell phone charger.

As a result of the long night in Hollywood (exceptionally long since I was a full two hours later than my normal time zone) I slept in later than I planned. I showered and headed out in the general direction I knew Pasadena to be located while I waited for the antiquated GPS to catch up with me. A full 10 minutes later the GPS had still not loaded the necessary information and I noticed a sign over the highway indicating that Manhattan Beach was nearby. I decided to make a detour.

Manhattan Beach is a very familiar name of a place from my young childhood. It was a beach that my parents took me to, being such a short drive away. I had originally assigned myself to the task of visiting the beach everyday I was here, and yesterday the magic of Hollywood and the new year had prevented me from doing so. Today, I decided the beach was not an option. Tomorrow I would not have the chance to see it again since I would have to leave very early.

When I took the exit for Manhattan Beach I noticed a sign on the side: Hawthorne. Hawthorne, California is my childhood hometown. I was certainly traveling down memory lane. Apparently the jogging of my memory also jogged the GPS’s memory: it finally figured out where I was.

I found a parking spot along a steep hill close to the beach. I set my E-brake and curbed my tires, and as I dropped a few quarters in the parking meter I noted to myself that if I was driving my Jeep this would not have worked so well. I really do need to get the e-brake tightened on “29”.

The beach was everything I remembered as a child. The sand along the beach was clean and a light-sandy color, covered in variously colored seagulls and sparsely littered with broken seashells and rocks. My jogging sneakers, that have a mesh outer shell, began to fill with sand as I walked across the beach towards the ocean. I took them off and enjoyed the feeling of the soft sand as I made my way to the water.

The sky was a beautiful blue color and pretty clouds were stretched across the sky. There were a handful of surfers bobbing in the tide, and some parents walked around with their young children as they played tag with the sea. Expensive houses and condos line the backside of the beach and I daydreamed of a day when I could afford to life in a place like that. A time when I could step out my back door onto the sandy shores of the ocean.

After I spent a good half hour sitting there, soaking in the ocean air, I realized how hungry I was. I looked over to the pier and imagined there must be a restaurant at the end of it. I could only hope it was open on New Years Day, and luckily for me it was. The small snack shack was fairly busy for the day and it took a decent wait to get my food. As I waited in line to order a small boy, around the age of 4, sang a familiar theme song as his dad ordered food. I laughed and asked his dad if the boy was in fact singing the Star Wars theme. He chuckled and explained his son had been playing a lot of Lego Star Wars recently. Cute kid.

I decided it was getting a little late and walked back along the beach and up the hilly, blue-colored sidewalk to my car so that I could head towards Pasadena. The thought of smelling roses and looking at the intricately built floats that were made entirely of roses sounded like a welcome escape from the city. This time the GPS started right up, it was almost as if it had failed to work the first time on purpose. Chaos had put a wrench in my trek to the parade, but I had to thank it for the peaceful time I spent on the beach. Sometimes detours are well worth the extra time they take.

When I finally arrived in Pasadena it was easy to identify the parade route. The street was covered in paper, bags and various pieces of trash that had probably accumulated during the campout for the parade as well as the event itself. I realized that I had no idea where the float viewing took place so I stopped at a CVS pharmacy and got some directions. I was probably a good half mile away when I hit the wall of vehicles in line to get a parking spot to see the floats. After slowly inching forward for what may or may not have been hours I noticed the time was getting later. I had planned with my Aunt & Cousins to have dinner with them near their home, so I text my Aunt. I find out there is no way to get a hold of my cousins while they are at work to try to change the time so I leave the line for the parade viewing and start driving back towards Panorama to pick up my brother for the family dinner.

All I knew about the Chili’s restaurant we were to meet at was that it was it’s address on Sepulveda Blvd, a large street that runs N-S through the entire LA area. What I didn’t know was what town it was in, so I couldn’t input the data into my GPS nor determine how far I could travel down the freeway before exiting. So as I traveled down Sepulveda I had my brother get a hold of my Aunt to determine that they lived in Manhattan Beach. Funny, I was just there earlier that day. Since I now knew I had a good distance to go I got back on the freeway and coasted south.

My brother had told me a theory earlier in the week: He has never seen a cop pull over a vehicle for speeding alone. It was his belief that the cops here simply didn’t care if you were speeding as long as you weren’t recklessly driving. Seeing as how the traffic was lighter due to the holiday I decided to put his theory to the test so we could get to the Chili’s restaurant on time.

As of this scientific experiment, my brother’s theory holds true.

Dinner at Chili’s was nice. It was great to see my Aunt and cousins since I don’t get to see them very often. I talk to them a fair amount online via social networking sites, but it simply isn’t the same. It was nice talking about how our lives were going, catching up and telling stories. It’s the best to hear childhood stories of your parents so that you can, for once, have the upper hand in a game of embarrassing stories.

I know that the chaos of my life exists because of my lack of planning. I wanted to go to see the floats, but had no time frame and didn’t even know where exactly it was. I had planned dinner but didn’t even know what city it was in.I even started driving before I knew where exactly I was going.

I can get impulsive and do things on a whim, and it usually ends up detouring from the plans I had originally made. I had said earlier that some things don’t always go as planned, but in my case I guess my lack of planning creates an empty canvass for my life to play out on. While I may not have been able to see the floats in Pasadena or visit with my friend from Ohio, I still had a pretty interesting day. Even seeing the trash-filled streets of Pasadena was an interesting experience that I will remember.

Chaos is proof that you can succeed no matter what. A confidence booster. The one thing that can prove you are, and will remain, undefeated by life.