Let’s see how long it takes to drive to LA.
Category Archives: California
Driving Into The Sun
On the morning of Sep 23rd, I left Redlands, CA for Dallas, TX. Stopped overnight in Albuquerque, NM.
Leaving was hard on many levels. I was leaving with a heavy heart. Leaving with the sense of unaccomplishment. I had meant to do so many things in California and I had gotten almost none of those done. I had gotten stuck in a weird rut and not been able to break free of it. Efforts of renting out a new place were not successful since the price per apartment is so high in Cali. In Santa Monica or Los Angeles area it is much more expensive than Redlands. So moving was not gonna happen. Didn’t get to find a band and play. Kept focusing on the wrong things. Had met a new personal low. Feeling rejected by family really does wonders. This was definitely not the plan but it had become the experience.
On my way out I was playing Unbreakable by Fireflight. Every song meant so much at that point. They all brought hope and feeling of everthing being under God’s control.
As the journey kept moving on, as I kept on driving on, I started feeling better. After all, this is going to be an experience that will hopefully teach me lessons. How to deal with similar situations in the future. How to deal with friends and family. How to have correct expectations. How to not get stuck in a rut while running from one!
Towards the end of the journey, I was so glad to be in Texas. As I entered Texas, the warm sun, the friendly faces, the familiar highway design all invited me home with open arms. It was an amazing feeling to feel like myself again.
Left California!
So after a month of some boring and mostly depressing time, it happened Sunday night that things got to a point where I contemplated leaving at that very second. Well, I won’t go into details of what happened. Suffice it to say that I sort of wore out my welcome without wearing it out with the actual host. Weird situation to be in, really!
So decided to leave on Tuesday. This would give my uncle and aunt time to adjust to the thought of me leaving. But I didn’t tell them until Monday. In case, there wasn’t a hotel available or so.
I had two options, 1) Go to Vegas for 4 nights and leave Sat. morning for Dallas, or 2) Take two days off and just drive straight to Dallas.
Option 1 would have given the oppurtunity to work from the Hotel and save days. But would have cost money. Option 2 would use two vacation days and wouldn’t involve Vegas. In the end, I decided to just drive home. I’d be miserable in Vegas. I wouldn’t go out, or watch any shows, or gamble, etc. I wouldn’t wanna do any of those by myself. Yeah yeah, one is such a lonely number and all that blah blah blah.
So left Tuesday morning for Albuquerque, NM. 10 hours and 48 minutse of drive. Took 12 hours including all stops and such. Left at 6:30am and arrived about 6:30pm. used free points to stay at the Marriott, and left in the morning at 7am. Got to Dallas at 6:30pm. Drove a little faster this time. This leg was supposed to be 10 hours and 40 minutes…. Left Tuesday 23rd, Sep. and arrived on 24th, Sep. by God’s grace.
Last few weeks have been some of the weirdest times. It was really depressing. However, as soon as I entered Texas, I started feeling better. Even tho, it was in Amarillo that I made my first stop in Texas, and it’s about 5 hours away from Dallas, it felt almost like home. The Texas highway design and the warm sun and welcoming people just all felt so much like home.
It’s great to be back here. Thank God.
Pictures From The Santa Monica Trip – Part 3
Long post alert!
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Notes:
1 – Street next to the beach. Imagine how much people in these apartments pay in rent.
2 – Santa Monica City Hall.
3 – Really nice looking apartments. 10 minutes from the beach.
4 – That’s a really beautiful building.
5 – It’s not “The Tallest Building”. It’s the tallest I’ve seen in Cali.
6 – Sign says For Rent. No idea how much and don’t wannt know. It’s not going to be affordable.
7 – This hotel is across the street from the beach. Walk right out of the hotel and just run free on the beach.
8 – Obligatory shot of Santa Monica Blvd.
9 – New work.
Note: More pictures will be added later.
Pictures From The Santa Monica Trip – Part 2
Part 2 of the Santa Monica Pictures.
 |
 |
![3 - Beach Road](/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/santamonica-067.png" "3 - Beach Road") |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
1 – The Police Dept.
2 – The Civic Center.
6 – Finally! The Beach! This was after 13+ years that I went to a beach. I brought back so many memories. Memories from days gone by when we would go to the beach and just be kids.
8 – Couldn’t go on the teach ‘coz some people I was with weren’t ready to go on the sand. Didn’t have their slipper/sandles/beach-footwear. The dress shoes would have been ruined.
9 – Seemed so relaxing just watching others obey Frankie.
Pictures From The Santa Monica Trip – Part 1
So here’s the promised pictures from the Santa Monica Trip. These are actually leading up to Santa Monica. The rest follow in later posts.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Notes:
1 – This is just heading out of here.
2 – I-10. The least advance highway in the road.
3 – The highways seems to be just messy and unclean. Coming from Texas, this seems like a trash yard.
4 – Lot of people go to LA on the weekends. Many people from the Redlands are go to the beach every weekend.
5 – 3 million people! Laura, you think that’s a big enough town to move to (since you were saying to move to a bigger town)?
6 – The picture doesn’t do this view justice.
7 – This view looked really beautiful in the tree shades and in the nice sun.
8 – Heading to SM.
9 – Seems like any old cali town.
10 – Graffiti is everywhere. It’s almost as if they forgot to educate this whole last generation.
Santa Monica
The Trip to Santa Monica was pretty fun. It was a little different than anticipated. Because we didn’t prepare to go on the beach. Well, I did! But others in the party weren’t ready to go into the sand. So we stayed on the paved area.
The area was really beautiful. The place looked really expensive. In a rush now. Will post further.
Trip to LA and Santa Monica
So it is settled! This weekend I will be driving to LA and Santa Monica to sightsee and to really see the places. Might have to make more than one trip and might have to go to different parts each time just to really see the LA area.
I will take the camera with me and take enough pictures for you all to see and enjoy as well. Have to first empty out the card and save all the pictures off.
The apartment search has been going slow. Went to the Olive Apartments yesterday. The apartments are next to a church. The church custodian is also the apt. mgr. Nice fellow. He was nice enough to talk and explain that he just rented out the last unit avaialble. And recommended other places to try and other methods to find apartments. This is driving me crazy. Thinking about trading the stang for a Chevy van or something and just living out of the van. Will allow me to move more and worry less about lodgings. Well, only wishful thinking. Bathroom and shower will be a big problem. And that’s a hassle I’d rather avoid. Otherwise, the plan could really work. With the VerizonWireless internet conenction using PC Card, it should be fine to work remotely and not have to really need a landline and DSL.
Back to reality. Another option is to drive further north to San Fransisco and just find a place there. In terms of apartments, Cali is expensive. Hotels are expensive. In San Fransisco hotels are like $250 a night for regular hotels.
This whole trip needed to be better thought out.
The issue with lodgings is not due to any problem with my current setup. My uncle and his family are more than welcoming and very nice. They are very generously letting me stay here rent free and mooch all the free internet service that my work requires. But at some level, it feels like even tho I’m with family I’m still not home.
Accordings to the latest polls (of friends and acquaintances), I’d be an idiot to try to move out.
So What is The Verdict on California
Well, what is the final verdict? Was is all worth it? Was is Is it still fun? What is the city of Redlands like? How does it compare to a place like Dallas? Dallas, TX is where I started. Well Dallas is the offical address but it’s really Addison. But in broader terms Dallas, to the natives, includes Dallas, Addison, Richardson, Carrollton, Plano, Garland, Frisco, Lewisville, etc…. Especially when out of town. Or when referring to the general location. So how does this place compare? It’s only fair to compare with a known alternative to have a relative judgement so one can understand the unknown in terms of the known. Ok, enough big words.
Dallas, is a so much an unfair comparison. Dallas is a big place. A very big place. Redlands, is a small town. It’s a small enough town to where 5 minutes in one direction will take you to Loma Linda, and 10 in the other to Yucaipa. Then 5 minutes past Loma Linda you see San Bernardino. Saint indeed. It’s the biggest of towns. When lost, one is instructed to look for signs pointing to I-215 towards San Bernardino. Then further out you see Ontario. Going east from Redlands then you have Loma Linda, San Bernardino, Rialto, Ontario. These plus other small towns are all together the Inland Empire.
So the comparison is better between Dallas and Inland Empire.
Again, Dallas is a such a big place. Such a melting pot of people and lifestyles. I didn’t appreciate it enough. Inland Empire pales. It’s sort of a town split along further mini-town lines each with their own rules. Very old. Not polished. Sure it has it’s Smiley Heights area which has the million dollar homes. But that area is one main street and some culdesacs hanging off of it.
In terms of Walmart, there’s only one seen around. There’s a Von’s. There’s a Stater Bro’s everywhere. It’s a little annoying. No decent hair stylists. Meaning known stylists. And such other things.
In so many ways there’s no comparison. It would be comparing apples to oranges. So with appreciating Dallas, we leave this topic for a later post.
Final Set of Pictures From Road Trip
The last leg of the journey on the road trip was on Aug 11th, 2008.
This is the final set of pictures from the Phoenix to Redlands trip. First the pictures are posted in a table and then the comments at the bottom.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
1 – That’s just first time there was something green in California. Until that point it was all desert and lifeless palm trees.
2 – Don’t pick up hitchhikers. Well, duh! State Prison is a little far out in the desert. Wonder how long it takes to get people there.
3 – Is that General Patton’s tank? Or does it belong to somebody from the same era. Didn’t get the opportunity to read the signs. The temperature was over 100 degrees.
4 – General Patton Museum. Just so hot that Museum on one end of the rest stop and the food on the other left no doubt as to which side had water and which side would be the saner choice. So long General Patton. Thanks for what you did. Mostly, thanks for the random quotes you enrich people’s email signatures with throughout corporate America.
5 – Redlands. Well the destination seemed old and unpolished all of a sudden. Having been here on vacay before the memory made it much more polished and in general a place in California!!!!!. Now it just seemed like any other small town. Maybe a little older and less modernized. A feeling that would be re-inforced throughout the next few weeks.
6 – The University. The town is big enough to have a University. So lay off, Bobby! Quit saying it’s a small place….