The LDS and the Cowboys

After shivering through the night I left for Idaho Falls to visit and stay at my cousin Dan and his lovely wife Liz's house. I got to meet little Jack Henry for the first time. The little toe headed boy is a riot.

The Pumpkin

I had gotten to Portland¹ not to far into the evening, around 4 PM. My generous host, Bill, led me to my room where I was able to catch up on some reading and listen to the transcendent set by Tig Notaro at Largo in LA.² Bill had some papers to grade and I needed a shower.

The Bay and the Redwoods

Let me tell you that Los Angeles has the worst rep for traffic. However, getting on the Bay Bridge felt much worse than sitting on the 10. It was such a long line I decided to pull over and park and go in the Yerba Buena Gardens for a free concert. That was pretty fun for a while. After a half hour I jumped back in the car to listen to the music through rolled down windows. After sitting for 30 minutes I was able to get on the bridge.

 

The Show

Got into Los Angeles and got the full experience right away; sitting in traffic. This was after a beautiful winding road from Arizona to LA. Driving around the mountains up and down through beautiful areas. It was pretty great.

I was greeted in So Cal by the charming Marleta Laatz and met up at Santa Monica Bar Finn McCool's. Usually known as a chain this bar actually did feel like it had a rustic feel of a genuine Irish Pub, unfortunately the Corned Beef sliders were not authentic.

My host had already secured tickets to the famous Upright Citizens Brigade theater where we were to see a show titled “Facebook”. As simple as the name sounds, the team headed that night by Rob Huebel pick two volunteers from the audience and go into a facebook “interview” discussing the persons individual facebook profile. The information gained from the interview and facebook profile turns in to long form improv sketches.

Before going into the show we dipped into the bar next door called La Pouvelle, which was having some sort of Debate party celebration. It was really odd, but they had a decent, if not overpriced beer selection.

The show started and the first audience member selected had an estranged father who was purported as the Elvis in China. Not surprisingly, she was also an aspiring actress who works at a fancy hotel. The sketches set off on directions of “Lady Chill Time” #LCT and Elvis of China spilling all sorts of secrets of being behind almost all Chinese mishaps like Foxcon, lead in toys, crushing the dreams of people etc. The second selected person was.......an aspiring actress who was getting singing lessons paid by her mother who it ends up as being the only facebook she uses. She recently retired her own facebook so we were allowed to peruse her mother's spars facebook of 3 friends and 3 pictures. Connected was her father who had a wonderful Real Estate agent photo that was a whole premise of a sketch. All in all a hilarious night of great improv comedy from UCB.

Tonight I meet up with my cousin Anna Henry in the Bay Area.

The Climb

These time changes have me getting up earlier and earlier. In reality, I am waking up at the same time just slowly moving farther west and the curvature of the earth is causing the Sun to be lower. It helps getting to my destination faster though. The drive from New Mexico to Arizona was much livelier than what I was expecting. Driving through the Tonto¹ National Forrest was going up and down through elongated curves. I don't drive a motorcycle, but all the groups of bikers made me want one.

The Horses

The drive to Bluewater Lake State park was very uneventful. There was beautiful scenery, but a very straight drive.

The Abandoned

This is going to be shorter than previous entries. I have a longer drive today and want to get to Bluewater Lake State Park before it is dark to set up the tent and get in a shower before nightfall.

Had this all to myself!