Wednesday August 20, 2008
Not much to say here. I took a 13 hour and 30 minute flight from Sydney to Los Angeles. My didgeridoo was considered a “weapon” and I had to check it in as a fragile, odd-sized item. Bastards. I know for sure that the airline would find someway to destroy it while it was in their clumsy hands. I still have yet to remove it from its bubble wrap, so I’m not sure if it has suffered any damage or not. The vendor who sold me the didgeridoo said I should be able to carry it onto the plane. I guess the terrorists have changed that, too. Sigh.
It was an overnight flight, but I had trouble sleeping. I left Sydney in the afternoon of August 20, flew through the night, and landed in Los Angeles on my second iteration of August 20. Getting two August 20ths makes up for never experiencing February 3rd at all. My second August 20 was mostly spend sitting around extremely boring LAX while tired. Why can’t all airports be as awesome as Singapore’s?
That afternoon I took another short hop to San Francisco and was picked up at the airport terminal by Brent Haas. Brent, whom I had met at the famous Spicythai Backpacker’s in Chiang Mai, Thailand was going to be my host for my two weeks in the USA. He lived in Sunnyvale. That night we had Ethiopian food (oh so good...) for dinner with his friend Kate and her boyfriend.
Thursday August 21, 2008
In the morning, Brent and I went for coffee at his favourite coffee shop. He knows his coffee; the place was fantastic. After that, he dropped me off at the NeoEdge office in Mountain View. Yes, I was going back to work for the first time in almost seven months.
Does it sound crazy? Of course it does, since it was! It had been so long... And I was jet lagged, and sleep deprived (I slept okay the night at Brent’s, but very little on the long flight the night before). Thankfully, there weren’t many requirements on me during the first day back. I spent a lot of time chatting and catching up with people (since I hadn’t seen most of the people in the California office since April 2007).
That night I went for drinks with my coworkers. In particular, my coworker Craig Medland stayed out later with me, after everyone else left. Craig used to work in the Toronto office with me, and it wasn’t the first time we went out for drinks after work, believe me. This night, though, things got messy. Poor jet-lagged and sleep-deprived me drank too much beer, vodka, and tequila (a lethal combination). I didn’t go back to Brent’s in Sunnyvale last night, but crashed at Craig’s condo in Mountain View (within walking distance... though I don’t remember most of the walk home).
Friday August 22, 2008
It was a very rough night. The day would be rough, too. I wasn’t feeling well. I squeaked out one more day of work at NeoEdge before taking the bus back to Brent’s place.
I was only working two days during this pass through California. The real destination for me was the Burning Man Festival at Black Rock City in Nevada. That’s where we were going tonight. Brent had rented a 16-foot Budget truck and we spent a few hours loading it with stuff. We then drove to Oakland to pick up Brent’s friend Wendy where we took on more supplies. It wasn’t until 11 PM until we left Oakland and started driving up Interstate 80 towards Nevada.
Saturday August 23, 2008
Since we left Oakland at 11 PM the night before, Saturday naturally started only an hour later while we were still on the road. We stopped at an In ‘N’ Out Burger (YAY! I’m happy that Brent and Wendy were as stuck on In ‘N’ Out as I was) at 12:30 AM for our dinner, finally. We stayed awake by listening (and singing to!) to Flight of the Conchords on the truck’s stereo. After driving a bit more, we crashed at a motel on the other side of Sacramento.
Sleep sleep sleep.
We slept in a bit in the morning (we all needed it) before claiming our free continental breakfast at the motel and continuing the drive up Interstate 80 towards Nevada. It’s about an eight hour drive, at least, to get from the Bay Area of California to Black Rock City, Nevada (about two hours north of Reno).
Brent’s original plan was to drive all night to get there as soon as possible. We didn’t have the stamina to do that, though, so most of the drive was during the day. I wasn’t complaining, though. I had never seen much of the American West, and the drive through the Sierra Nevada mountains of California and the Basin and Range province (i.e.: deserts and mountains) of Nevada was pretty.
The Sierra Nevada mountains and Interstate-80:
We stopped in Reno for lunch and to pick up more water and beer. We would be camping in the desert for ten days and had to bring ALL of our supplies with us, including food, water, shelter, and beer. This was serious stuff.
One fun thing about driving to Burning Man was that it was usually pretty obvious what OTHER people on the road were on their way to the same place. Gaudily painted buses, trucks with beat-up old bicycles on racks, or trailers with bizarre art pieces proceeded in a Nevada-bound parade along side of us.
As we left the interstate highway after Reno and puttered up towards the small towns of Nixon, Empire and Gerlach, we felt like we were getting farther and farther into the frontier. Each town seemed more isolated and remote than the last. Soon, cell phone reception died out and we were surrounded by deserts and long parallel lines of mountains. The countryside was beautiful. I had been through desert-like landscape in Australia, but it didn’t look anything like this. The world continues to be filled with surprises.
Eventually, in the late afternoon, we finally reached our destination: BURNING MAN
To be continued...
3 comments:
Ha, too bad we hadn't met yet at the time you were here, but I also live in Sunnyvale.
Yay, updates!
Yes! The goal is to get caught up before I leave so I can have a fresh start on trip number two!
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