Starting off on the cross country trip with Felix began pretty inauspiciously.  Since Felix pretty much requires the whole back of the car for his traveling comfort, I depend heavily on the storage capacity of my Thule roof top storage system.  I had a Yakima box many years ago but found it to be difficult to use so when it was no longer effective I bought the Thule, which was far easier to mount and operated from either side.

Nonetheless, the box is large and not easy to handle alone so I have gotten into the habit of asking my friend Josh to help me put it on the roof rack prior to traveling.  Since the plan was to leave early on Friday, I asked if he could come over on Thursday morning on his way to work.  This didn’t work out due to his having to get an early start so he and Lanny who had just had their engagement pictures taken at Rumbling Bald, stopped by on their way home to help me with the box.

We got it on the roof pretty quickly and they headed home.  Felix was already pretty nervous with all the packing and other non-normal activities so I didn’t do anything with it that night and the car just sat out in the driveway with nothing loaded yet.  I figured I could spend much of Thursday putting all our gear in other than what had to stay out until the last minute.

Thursday morning I got up, took Felix for a walk and headed off to get a Shingles inoculation as per the recommendation of my primary care doc.  This turned out to be an expensive and annoying proposition that I didn’t finish until almost lunch time.  I raced back home, pulled into the driveway, opened the garage door and drove in until I heard a very ominous scraping and crunching noise.

I had forgotten that I was driving around with my Thule box on the roof and that the garage opening isn’t high enough for the assembly to clear.  By the time I got back out of the garage the box had an enormous chunk missing and my garage door appeared to be slightly bent at the bottom.  Fortunately, I guess, the distorted shape of the garage door didn’t prevent it from opening and closing cleanly.  Unfortunately I realized immediately that the Thule box was toast.  A trip of close to 3,000 miles with a gaping hole in the box was simply not going to work.

So, after waiting until my heart stopped racing and I got over the need to hyperventilate I drove to REI to see about buying a replacement.  Again this turned out to be a good news/bad news situation.  The good news was that the following day REI’s big spring sale started and the racking systems from both Yakima and Thule were discounted 20%.  The bad news was that the largest Thule box they had in stock (or any REI had within 150 miles) was 4 cubic feet smaller than the one I had destroyed.

In the end I bought the largest Thule they had and drove home with it on the roof and the old box leaning against REI’s dumpster.  I did remember not to pull into the garage.

To their credit, they gave me the 20% discount even though the sale wasn’t starting for another day but still these things cost a fortune.

I spent almost the entire remainder of Thursday packing and determining that the 4 cubic foot difference was enough that certain things were going to have to stay at home.  I have come to regret this since I am now in California at the house my friend John has turned over to me for the summer and there are a lot of things I wish I had brought from home and will probably end up having to buy here.

That aside, almost at the exact appointed time, Felix and I got in the loaded car and headed West. . .our first day’s destination being Nashville and the home of a very old friend from my early days in Sacramento in the 70s.

The drive to Nashville was easy and largely uneventful.  I arrived at the home of my old friend almost an hour earlier than promised (due to my not knowing that Nashville is in the Central Time Zone) but her husband and dog, neither of whom had I ever met, were there to greet us and keep us entertained until Barbara got home from work.

This was one of those encounters in which you really never know what to expect since it had been 35 or more years since we had seen each other or talked.  Happily, Barbara looked like a slightly older version of the woman she had been in her twenties and seemed to have pretty much the same personality.  This was most comforting and made for a very pleasant evening.  We had dinner at their house in the gorgeous park-like back yard, which was also a treat since the rest of the nights I would spend on the road would feature restaurant meals and most of those pretty basic.

We spent the night at Barbara’s house, had a leisurely coffee in the morning and hit the road West by mid-morning.  The second day’s drive was to Fort Smith, AR.  This actually was a reasonably pleasant driving day.  We did hit a little rain now and then although nothing like the storms that had been predicted, and generally enjoyed the scenery.  Much of Arkansas, particularly West of Little Rock, is actually quite scenic.  Fort Smith is on the Arkansas River separating Arkansas from Oklahoma and I chose to stop there because of the distance from Nashville and the availability of dog friendly accommodations.

The same was true for the next day although I have to admit that the drive was a pretty bleak one.  The Eastern part of Oklahoma wasn’t bad.  There are a number of lakes you pass by (or over) and the land is pleasantly rolling and was green.  I-40 takes you around downtown Oklahoma City which looks considerably more built-up and impressive than it did when I drove through in January of 2005 on my way to North Carolina.  We didn’t stop though and drove on to Amarillo TX where we spent the next night.  Western OK and the chunk of North Texas you cross on this route are pretty bleak.  Miles of comparatively featureless landscape do not make for a very interesting drive so I was pleased to finish day three and crash at a clean hotel there.

On Monday we started at about 9:30 in the morning and made it to the hotel in Santa Fe by about 1:30 or 2:00 since the drive from Amarillo is fairly short even including fuel and rest stops.  We found our way to the Buffalo Thunder Resort and Casino where we were to spend the night.  This is a very large and actually quite nice Hilton property about 10 minutes North of Santa Fe on the highway that Beth takes to go to Abiquiu from her job in Santa Fe so it worked well for us on several levels.

We walked on a golf cart path on one of the courses and by around 4:00 Beth made it over to the hotel for our reunion.  We had not seen each other since I drove through in the summer of 2008 so getting together was a real treat.  We went into town for dinner at an attractive restaurant with outdoor seating in a courtyard.  It was pleasant enough until the temperature dropped precipitously and the rain got heavy enough that it penetrated the umbrella under which we were seated.  The food was good buy seriously overpriced.  The wine list was huge and shockingly expensive, and the service was quite disappointing.  I will not mention the name of the place here but I did give them a rather weak review on Trip Advisor.

Tuesday Beth had a morning doctor’s appointment during which Felix and I hiked another route of about 4 miles on the hotel trails after which Beth came by and we headed into town to gallery hop, eat, shop and enjoy each other’s company.  Weather was perfect and it made for a very nice day.  We decided not to risk another dinner like the one the previous night so we stopped at a Japanese restaurant and got sushi, soup and sashimi take-out, stopped at a dubious looking but superbly stocked liquor store for a nice bottle of Dolcetto d”Alba and ate back in my room at the hotel.  I had planned to take a selfie (although I loathe that expression) of Beth and me to prove to all our old friends that we really did get together but I forgot until after Beth had headed home.  Still, it was a really great two day visit.

Wednesday morning we started around 9:15 due to the length of the drive to Las Vegas.  I am not a Vegas fan but there really aren’t a whole lot of places that are approximately half way between Santa Fe and Sacramento unless you are willing to drive to Bakersfield and head up highway 99.  I have driven this freeway many times and really hate it so I decided to stay overnight in Vegas and then drive up through the Nevada desert until we were a tad South of Lake Tahoe.  We then crossed over several ridges of the Eastern Sierras and found our way to US Highway 50 for the drive down into the Sacramento Valley and up to our lush spot on the river.  We made it here by about 6:30 and were met by Robyn who helped us get set up in the guest house.

I was very proud of myself on this drive for a couple of things but the best was that I made it all the way across Arizona without spending a penny.  It took some planning but we didn’t buy fuel or food the entire time we were in that State.  Of all the States that have these ridiculously right-wing nutmeg legislatures, governors, and in Arizona’s case, crazy bigoted sheriffs, I am more offended by what the pull in Arizona than the others so it really felt good to have traversed the entire State without ever leaving any of my money there.  I admit that isn’t a huge achievement but it felt good just the same.

John’s house in Carmichael is what is now referred to as “mid-century-modern”.  It was designed by Carter Sparks, coincidentally the very architect who, over lunch one day in 1977, convinced me to go out on my own in practicing architecture.  Carter must have been pretty early in his career when he did this house. . .the website chronicling his work indicates that it was built in 1962.  It was remodeled in 2005 by architects who exercised dubious taste in their update but it is still a very intriguing house with some truly great spaces and a spectacular view over and across the American River which flows past it about 100 feet below the bluff on which it sits.  John has hired an old friend and colleague of mine to get rid of some of the questionable improvements from the 2005 remodel and bring it into a state of restrained elegance that honors the original, remarkable design.

In 2007 the couple who owned the house built a detached guest house to serve as a residence for the mother of the wife.  It has one bedroom, a bath, a great room with fireplace and dining area, a great kitchen and its own laundry room as well as two private patios.  It sits some distance from the main house and is separated from it by the large pool and garage.  The whole site is lushly landscaped and almost flat until you reach the edge of the bluff.  The three sides that don’t face the river are enclosed by high fencing and the bluff is so high and steep that I can let Felix out to roam around without worrying too much about his getting out or in trouble.  There are deer and turkeys roaming around here from time to time and I suspect once they all realize that there is a big dog living here they might start grazing elsewhere.  This pleases John since both of these animals are prodigious producers of poop.

In the first couple of days I did a lot of very expensive shopping at Costco and a couple local grocery stores in order to stock up so I could cook most of my own meals here, but I think I am over the hump on this issue.  Kitchen equipment is a problem since the house doesn’t have a whole lot of it, but since John recently sold his rather large house in San Francisco, all the equipment from that kitchen is now in boxes in the garage here, so sometime soon Robyn and I will start exploring those boxes to find all the tools I need to live here much the way I do at home.

So now Felix and I have been here for 4 days and have seen a couple of friends but have spent most of our time settling in.  I purchased a County Park pass that is good for a year providing access to all Sacramento County Parks so Felix and I can go exploring lots of different trail networks most of which are along the American River.  At some point we will also probably start driving up into the foothills to hike at higher elevations in search of cooler weather.  Sacramento can get very hot in the summers.

I am really excited to have gotten here and am looking forward to a long season of getting together with old friends and having a quiet time with my dog.  More reports will appear on this blog.