No waxing poetic here. The wife, boy, and I just went on a week-long road trip through California and Oregon. The results were mixed.
1–I got gas in Earlimart. I wish that’s where it all ended, but I also used the gas station’s bathroom. It was as disgusting as you would expect a gas station called GAS WARS in Earlimart would be. While waiting, I checked out the candy section, where half of the product was foreign to me, but looked interesting and delicious. Do you know anyone from Earlimart, because it’s only a little over two hours from Los Angeles? And, people are living there.
2–UC Merced is in the middle of nowhere of the middle of nowhere. Surely the UC system could do better than put some buildings out in the middle of pastures. Literally nothing around it for miles. I’m all for the “college experience,” but your starter city is Merced and the school is nowhere near it. Go, Bobcats.
3–Del Taco wants to compete. They were open on Christmas night in Folsom. Thanks.
4–Every single town outside of Southern California has a bakery and a brewery. Some are good, some are hit and miss, but if a town of 2,000 can have a bakery, why must I go to Paris Baguette? or some gluten-free place? or some “bakery” that already has their items in plastic wrap?
5–California and Oregon are beautiful states, unless you think mountains, rivers, lakes, and wildlife in abundance are ugly.
6–Regular FM radio is listenable outside of Southern California. Going into Bend, Oregon, one of their stations played Johnny Cash, followed by PJ Harvey, followed by Beastie Boys, followed by Pinback, and so on. You can listen HERE.
7–Good food and drink can be found in Susanville, CA (and in Bend, OR, and in Florence, OR, etc.). Believe it, or don’t, but restaurants in small towns actually make everything from scratch AND have staff that are attentive and nice. I know–let it sink in.
8–Humboldt State is a nice-looking school. I always wrote the place off as one where stoners go, but it’s a newer-looking school in a town that has some stuff (and a bigger town down the road). There are actually trees and a city nearby (I’m still looking at you, Merced).
9–Acme Bread in Berkeley is amazing. Have a bad review? You. Are. High. The sourdough baguette lasted less than ten minutes in the car. The round, the batard, the chocolate croissant, and the cinnamon/currant bread have been equally as delicious. We waited about 20 minutes in line on New Year’s Eve, as did the people in front of us and behind us. Shout out to Rick Jackson, chef extraordinaire from parts unknown these days, for telling me of this place long before they became insanely popular.
10–No one is going to make America great again. Lately, road trips with the family have included tons of driving on the two-lane roads and not the interstates. Yeah, Bend is doing great (28 breweries!), and people are lined up at Acme, but I took a wrong turn in Oakland yesterday, one that allowed me to see how people are living not five minutes away from Acme.
The stock market’s meteoric rise has meant nothing to people living on the street, or in most of the towns we drove through. Get off that interstate and our country is dotted with towns that still have outhouses, of boarded-up businesses, of streets where no one is walking. No young people are seen–they have gone to the cities that will either welcome them or not.
Drugs are everywhere. When we stay in hotels now we have to sign a paper that says we won’t smoke weed in the room. That’s new. Hallways smell of weed. My wife pulled some bud out of the pool the other day.
To not be too depressing, there are great parts of the United States, and these two-lane road trips have been mostly positive. It’s because of the people who still have pride in their towns and do a good job. It’s of seeing deer, and hawks, and bald eagles, and rivers and lakes and mountains and trees.
If you want to see America, get down in it and see it. Just be ready.