On The Road

What's more American than a roadtrip? The Missus and I decided - far ahead of our sabbatical - that we would one day venture upon the quintessential roadtrip and visit the beautiful Southwest by car. So last Monday we packed the Boxster with the essentials for a 4-6 week roadtrip and steared towards our first destination: Menlo Park (40 miles south of San Francisco).

Agreed - it wasn't the most aggressive first day but one has to ease into anything new with style and grace. We stayed over with some friends of ours and kicked of the culinary part of the trip with a visit to the classic Stanford hangout: The Dutch Goose. A burger and a Guinness does wonders.

Our second day started at 6am and our destination was Ventura with a lunch stop in Santa Barbara. We took 280, then 85 onto 101 all the way down and got caught in rain and thunderstorms. Not the best start but at least we were on our way.

Our third day started around 6.30am and our destination was Palm Springs through the northern suburbs of Los Angeles. We actually passed within 5 miles of my old High School. The rain kept pounding the freeway like as butcher a flank steak. Luckily we got onto the car pool lane on the I-10 and could fly past Glendale, Pasadena et cetera.

Palm Springs had the same rain as LA and felt deserted. I had hoped for Rat Pack esthetics, cool 60's style and happening parties but I guess we got there 40 years to late. Oh well, we hung out with some senior citizens at the local diner, had a burger and headed east to Rancho Mirage - our hostel for the night.

I woke up at 6am on Thursday morning and discovered that Palm Springs was back to it's blue sky and blazing sun. We checked out, grabbed a Latte and got back onto the I-10 for our 260 miles ride to Phoenix and a furher 100 miles to Tucson.

The I-10 was a magnificent stretch of freeway, lingering across the desert like a tired snake. It was pretty much open road except for the occassional semi and stubborn truck in the left lane. We flew across the desert and I could finally use the 6th gear. Once the speedometer reached triple digits I knew that our roadtrip was going to be great fun. Nothing beats the sound of a Boxster, doing 85 miles per hour and shifting down to 4th gear to pass a semi. The roar, the roar!

Finally in Tucson we now have a few weeks before the next leg to Santa Fe, Taos and Denver. Tucson is enjoying heavenly springtime with 80 degrees during the day and a sun hotter than the Missus (if ever possible).

Tonights delight is a simple Malbec, a Ribeye steak and roasted potatoes on the outdoors BBQ. The sun is setting and the mountain behind the house is lit up in burning orange. The temperature is dropping quickly. Life is at it's best when the only need is an extra sweater.