Okay. An update, finally. I've been struggling to get on the laptop and upload all the pics I've taken over the past few days, so I'm relieved that there's finally something going on now.
August 14, 2008
On Thursday, the first thing we did was, as I posted previously about, visit Griffith Park. Unfortunately, the observatory portion of the whole park opened at noon and we were there at 8, so we didn't actually get to go in. We did, however, get to walk around and take a few pictures. My camera's lens couldn't go far enough to capture the HOLLYWOOD sign up close, but dad's did. We tried to make as many good photos as we could out of the Los Angeles view from above, but there was so much.. well, so much smog that you couldn't really see very far.
Afterwards, we decided to go out and see what was so great about Hollywood Boulevard. And to be honest, there wasn't anything great about that street, aside from the Hollywood Walk of Fame of course. After that boring cruise, I found it a brilliant idea to stop by the Ashley Paige store (as seen on TLC's new show, Bikini or Bust) in an attempt to get on TV. Unfortunately, when we pulled up, there was not one stupid TLC truck or cameraman haha. I don't think the store was open either, since nobody was in it when we looked in the windows, but I right when we started to pull away from the curb, someone came out of the back room. Hmm :P
After that, we went to the Philippine restaurant called Goldilocks where we met some California family. Then, we went to the Mercedes-Benz Classic Center in Irvine, but sadly, they had just closed their museum section just 10 minutes before, and all that was left on display were a few showroom models from the 1930s and 70s. After a quick look at the Queen Mary docked at port, we went off to visit more family at their place.
August 15, 2008
First thing in the morning came mass at a local LA church, but I don't remember the exact "sub-region" of LA that was in. Mom and Joanne went for a quick tour of the fabric district while dad, Joy and I stayed in the Odyssey. I then fell asleep for two hours and awoke to the sight of the Pacific Ocean. I couldn't believe it - not only was I now officially across the country, but our little old Odyssey had made it too, and for all the miles it has and the pending doom of its transmission, it was a proud and noble feeling. We continued to drive up the Pacific Coast Highway (California State Route 1) until we stopped at the Hearst Castle where mom and the girls took a look around the visitor center since the castle tours were already closed.
After another hour or two, we found ourselves in the upper mountainous region of State Route 1. It was around 7 PM PST here when we entered the mountains and began the endless strip of Route 1 road that snaked, quite literally, directly along the coast of California. At first, with the sun setting and the temperature outside rather nice, everything seemed pretty cool. But as it got darker, the turns got tighter, narrower, and faster. Dad, behind the wheel, was having fun piloting the Odyssey around corners it wasn't really built to handle at speed, but eventually he got serious. The night grew pitch black soon, the two cars ahead of us had pulled over to let us unassuming New Jerseyans have our way. And have our way we did.
It was so seriously dark that the low beams on the Odyssey were only good enough for just a short distance ahead of us, and the high beams, although they were able to illuminate some road reflectors a bit farther out, didn't do much better in terms of visibility. The road was narrow and ridiculously close to the edge of the cliffs that plunged straight down into the Pacific. Most people that don't really know cars all that well won't have a clue about what I'm going to say, but bear with me.
The Odyssey, as sentimental and lovable as it is to all of us, is a minivan. It was designed to carry people around and weighs in excess of 5000 lbs. with us in it, and it was by no means designed to be a sports car that can handle corners at speed. Somehow, though, the Odyssey pretty much did. I had heard both mom and dad praise the Odyssey's handling as one of the things they definitely liked better over the Sienna, and as it turns out, they were right.
The Honda's unbelievably capable suspension and steering, paired with dad's ridiculous driving skill, proved to be a match made in heaven. Route 1 in this particular region consisted of seriously tight and narrow cliff-diving turns to wide, banked sweeping turns that you could sprint down at 60 MPH while, at the same time, taking note of the fact that at any moment, you could skid out and down into the Pacific.
Combined with the darkness outside and virtually no visibility, this was a terrifying and nightmarish scene. But miraculously, after about 100 miles of this horrifyingly twisty highway stretch (for mom and my sisters, at least), the Odyssey came out unscathed but having undergone a good workout. You could see the concentration in dad's eyes as he flung the 5000+ lb. box around the tight corners at 50 MPH, while the Odyssey, like some little kid that does ANYTHING you want him to do, simply went on and on. You could seriously feel the G-forces in each and every turn as you were thrown from side to side.
The Odyssey is simply one unbelievably reliable and lovable thing..
Ah, that was nice. An endless rant about car stuff you probably don't even understand.
It's.. 2:02 AM PST as of the typing of this sentence, and I've been working on this post since 1:30. We got to this hotel here in Gilroy at about 10:30 PM PST, but only until now has my struggling to establish a wifi connection paid off.
The one thing I remember about today was when we were walking into the hotel. Dad pulled open the glass door then, right before going through, turned around and took a good, long look at the Odyssey, sitting in its cramped parking spot like the little kid it is, having no idea what just happened, but not fussing and complaining. I think I may have even seen a tear or two forming in those sentimental eyes of his haha.
It's just a great car. And as weird as it my sound to some of you, I love it. I absolutely love it.
---Click here for a few pictures from August 14
---Click here for a few pictures from August 15
---Click here for the entire 2008 "Around America" Road Trip album
-Mark
Next destination: Seattle, Washington
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