sic transit gloria.: part I of 2: 1400 miles and a few time zones away

i left my heart in a little town in the middle of texas. as much as i love los angeles, i cannot get austin out of my head. while the way to vancouver was one of ocean, sun, and stolen passports, the road to austin was one of biting winds, cacti, tumbleweed, and being pulled over twice by the texas highway patrol. the non-stop (save for eats and gas) one-way 24 hour drive in the van kicked our asses, yet said ass-kicking was a small price to pay for the sweet taste of the southwest's bourgeoning hipster mecca, austin, texas.

it was late wednesday night when we broke out of this urban-outfittered 14-year-old-skankified westwood town. the day was spent picking up the van from placentia (which looks and sounds freakishly like placenta), running last minute errands and packing. see above for the promised flickr-inspired "what's in your bag?" photo.

driving for hours and hours on end gives you time to think. a whole fucking lot of time. looking at these long drives i think about all the little tricks and mechanisms used by road trippers to make it and maintain their sanity. i think it's interesting that these little things aren't explicitly planned or thought about much and yet they can be so intricate and crucial to the experience. for instance, the driver is never left alone, and by alone i mean awake while everybody else snoozes. staying up with the driver is key, even if riveting conversation is absent. while driving, just knowing that the person in shotgun is awake keeps you going. for us the shotgun rider is important in that s/he would refill the driver's mug with pop (so shoot me, i just got back from texas), navigate, man the camcorder in case something exciting would happen and would protect the driver from deadly wasps.

the trip would not be complete without loves

and stops at creepy gas stations.

on the first leg of the trip (los angeles to arizona) those of us who were awake got to see the sunrise through bug-splattered glass. i happened to be riding shotgun so i had a nice view.








matt and i were still awake while mike and brian were sleeping. i was up so we stopped somewhere in arizona to grab coffee before we switched. at this point we had been on the road for a little more than 7 hours.

after some scenic boulders,


and more stops,

we finally made it to new mexico.


at around 1:30 in the afternoon we arrived in texas.  we had lunch in el paso.



as we are so accustomed to doing on road trips, we invented a few more games that have a good chance of ending up in the boxset, to be on sale sometime in the future. still untitled, my favorite one involves someone singing a song and everybody guessing what it is--the catch is that the person doesn't sing the actual words of the song, but in place of them uses the names of other people of the car. for example, i would go "MICHAEL!! mike mike mike mike matt briiiaaan...TOOONY! TOOONY TONNNY MAAAATTT!!" and you would be all, " 'LADY' BY STYX" and i would be like "DAMN RIGHT" then the next person would go "TONY TONY TONY!! MICHAEL MICHAEL MATT!! MATT MATT BRIAN MIKE!! TONY MATT MICHAEL BRIAN BRIAN MICHAAEEEEL!!" then someone would be all "I'LL MAKE LOVE TO YOU!" but then he'd be like 'WRONG, bitch!' then the person guessing would be all 'DON'T FUCK WITH ME, THAT'S I'LL MAKE LOVE TO YOU BY BOYZ 2 MEN AND I KNOW IT' then the singer would be like "YEAH, BUT IT'S THE SPANISH VERSION OF 'I'LL MAKE LOVE TO YOU!!' " so we played that for a bit.

speaking of spanish, on the radio somewhere in new mexico was the spanish version of "total eclipse of the heart." it provided us with energy at a key point when morale was low, which was when we realized that we had been driving for 12 hours and were barely half way to austin.






another thing that keeps drivers going is music. i had brought my ipod and car-charger yet the soundtrack to this drive was comprised mostly of country. it seems that texans fucking love their country music; there was a significant stretch of highway between el paso and austin on which we could only pick up country stations. i swear there were at least 6 country stations. and maybe two christian talk shows, all of which were somewhat amusing. at one point i was driving and a white pick up truck with flashing sirens was driving behind us. fuck. i turned down the obnoxious country music, woke up everyone who was sleeping and pulled over. sheriff k--i forgot his real name, so i named him sheriff k--was actually quite nice. he informed us that in the state of texas it is illegal to drive in the left lane, which is for passing only on two lane highways. maybe he let us go because of our out of state license plate. we're from california, we didn't know any better. the whole ordeal passed quickly and we were back on the road.

the hours came and went and it had seemed like we have been driving for days. it was 5pm and i haven't slept yet, so i lied down in the backseat. worst sleep ever. i woke up at around 8 to see that the sun was gone and that it was dark out.

we filled up at a gas station called waldo's at around 10:30pm.  we wanted to use their bathroom, but the shop was closed. we saw a man who we assumed was waldo playing cards with a younger man, who we assumed to be his son.  oh, and they were playing cards in the dark with the lights off.  we kept knocking, but he simply turned to us and shook his head.  if you are ever in the fredericksburg/johnson city area of texas looking for a restroom, do not expect waldo to be helpful in that department.

and right next to waldo's seems to be some sort of laundromat or dry cleaners. where people are killed, apparently.


fast forward a couple hundred miles, a few hours of driving and scary stories and stupid games and a killer wasp and a speeding ticket for going 90 on a 65 mph road (given to us by sheriff k #2), and eric at the days inn right next to the university...

...helllo, austin.

after throwing my shit into the motel room i light a cigarette and look beyond the small parking lot at the cars driving down the 35 past 32nd street.
i take long drags and exhale slowly, processing the events of the day and not fully realizing how far i am from home.

we grab a 2am dinner at stars cafe. i had a turkey club on texas toast, which seems to be regular toast but a bit thicker. maybe everything is actually bigger in texas. as we eat "head on"--perhaps the greatest jesus and mary chain song--plays in the background. it described exactly how i felt and could not have come on at a more appropriate time.