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A Ruined Black Tie Affair: El Paso to Austin

The road from El Paso to Austin is filled with many things such as heat, rocks, prairies, cactuses, more rocks, and rest stops that belong in the first season of True Detective. Any single place where I can purchase fried chicken, guns, lottery cards, and snake jerky is a friend of mine.

I mentioned there were rocks and prairies.

At some weird picnic area, we asked a nice man who may have owned only a duffel bag and his cigarettes to take our photos. He displayed real photography skills, and we wish him well.

When we got to Austin and heard the music playing, we were ready to go. First we needed food, and the abundance of food trucks in bars presented quite the options for dinner. We were thoughtful in the decision making process, and when we saw the taco truck in the first bar we went into, we knew we had our man.

After devouring our feast with no regard for the normal humans around us, we moved on to the next bar.

Is it deep quotes displayed in bars, that move you?

We played ping pong on a stone table…

Uhll can pretty much reach across the table.

…then allowed for things to get a bit weird.

Runnin’ Down A Dream: San Diego to El Paso

We were juiced.

We packed the car early, chugged down some coffee, cleaned out the rest of the Doctor’s beach bungalow, and were ready to hit the road. Before leaving San Diego, we thought a spiritual dip in the Pacific would be required:

Things were looking good. Nobody drowned, and we were in the car and on the road by 8:30am. With 10.5 hours to go to El Paso, Texas, a stop scheduled to see some friends in Tucson, we needed to hustle. And then it happened:

Amrit forgot the first rule of the road: Respect the road, and don’t speed in front of California Highway Patrol officers.

We soldiered on. Our co-pilot Effie took more control over what was happening up front, and we started to make more progress. Mountains and sky turned into rocks, desert, and cactus. The music was our guide, and the temperature was hot. Maybe things turned into a sing-a-long, and maybe they didn’t.

The Doctor may speed a bit, but he also had some good friends in Tucson that fed us sandwiches and slushies before we hit the road. Want to live in a place where there may be rattlesnakes in your backyard?

Not a bad view from the car, although our photography efforts leave plenty to be desired. With a shorter day’s travel crossing through Texas, we’ll be sure to take more photos than these.

Effie always has the last word, better behaved than her car mates, and certainly better smelling.

More to come!

Another Road Song: San Diego to Philadelphia, Part I

Tomorrow, Tuesday August 1, I will fly from JFK in New York to San Diego.

I have many ties to San Diego, having lived there for 1.5 years, and attended numerous client meetings and events in the beautiful city. This trip, however, is different.

Amrit, one of my oldest friends from growing up in Erdenheim, PA and now an esteemed orthopedic surgeon, is returning to Philadelphia to take a position with a hospital following his fellowship in SD. The Good Doctor is enlisting me, along with a 6’9 monster named Nick (another close friend from growing up, and former roommate of mine in East Rutherford, NJ) to help make his way across the country. Rounding out the group is its best traveler, Effie, a dog stuck with three humans in close quarters. A vegan orthopedic surgeon, a lactose intolerant giant, and an obnoxious marketer who has worked in New York City for too long and desperately needs a short break, are hitting the road.

There will be awkward encounters with strangers, beautiful American landscape, music, an occasional beer or whiskey, heat, copious amounts of beef jerky, breaks to feed the dog, breaks to feed Nick, and much more.

Having just launched this blog, er, journal, um…musings(?), I plan on updating it with photos, writings from the road, playlists, and whatever else comes our way. El Paso, Austin, Memphis, and Columbus — look out.

I hope my efforts here don’t suck, but I can’t promise they won’t. For anyone who wants to follow along, this is our route.

See you on the horizon.