the road becomes your chalkboard

it was 1:13 pm in portland.

i sat in a crowded and cramped corner with a neon light shining down on my face.

some guy with long hair came over and asked me if i wanted a beer.

i said absolutely not.

i turned on my ipod-- wilco was playing.

"sunken treasure" to be exact.

i was thinking about the rainbow of colors that was contained within a particular woman's head of hair nearby.

my thoughts then drifted to food. an enormous hamburger to be exact.

my face darted up as red meat littered my thoughts. i stared over at the nearby price board.

"cut - $19
wash - $3"

oh god.

i panicked. here i was, about to have my fucking hair cut for $22 and all i could think about was how awesome it would be to have cooked cow flesh pressed against my taste buds. for about the past 6 days i had eaten two enormous peanut butter and jelly sandwiches daily-- and throw in a few cups of coffee. for these 6 days i had refused to buy a hot meal that i could have likely procured for under $10.

and so it all hit me like a ton of bricks.

spending $22 (plus more for a tip likely-- this assuming the girl that cut my hair was beautiful, conducted impeccable conversation and finished the whole hair cut up with a shoulder massage) for a hair cuit seemed absurd when i could spend $10 to have a heavenly piece of meat slapped between two sesame seed buns.

hell, maybe throw a beer in there for good measure.

i ran up to counter immediately. i wanted to make sure they didnt call my name off before i was able to ax my existence on their waiting list. i approached the attendant sweating a little bit from having really thought this one over.

"ummm, i would like to take my name off of tht list. i wont be getting a hair cut today."

"ok? can we perhaps make you an appointment for some other day?"

"no, that wont be necessary."

i ran out. really fast. i opened up my laptop once i got the car.

portland has city-wide free wireless internet which i find to be extremely convenient. i tend to screw up driving directions from time to time. now if this happens in portland i just open up my laptop and pull up the google map. and i realize there are phones that take care of this sort of thing these days, but i am still rocking a late 90's nokia 3120 cell phone-- its like one phone above the gray and green screen phones.

awesome.

i pulled up google.com and ran a search for "best hamburger in portland." i got all kinds of dog shit responses that did me no good, but one particular search result proved useful and pointed me in the direction of a place called sandich's in northeast portland. it was a bit of a drive so i was hesitant, but then i remembered that i really dont have anything to do once it gets dark.

off i went.

i spotted the place. the sign was HUGE. thank god. if not, i typically risk steering the car in to the opposite lane of traffic looking for it. dont forget that it rains ALL THE TIME in portland which adds another layer of difficulty. i dont think i have talked about the rain in portland enough yet.

i parked the car nearly crushing my bike in to the front wall of the bar. as it turns out, i am still getting used to having the thing strapped to the front of the car.

the interior of the bar was covered in wood paneling and sports teams pennants. behind the bar was a giant framed picture of this mr. sandich character. he looked like he would be the kind of guy to tell racist jokes to random people and in the process offend many.

i sat at the bar where a friendly voice greeted me. i asked the bartender that i heard this place had good hamburgers. she handed me the menu and in big bold letters at the top read "THE BEST HAMBURGER IN THE WORLD."

this was working out alright. red meat paradise awaited me.

the thing came out and it was roughly the size of a soccer ball.

one meat patty, lettuce, tomato, onion, mayo, relish, a fried egg, ham and bacon all combined to make this thing one of the better meals i have had in the last 60 days. i think i ate the thing in about 6 minutes which really, really surprised the bartender-- but this was to be expected. i washed it all down with a cold PBR to follow. now THIS was a proper end to my time in portland.

i picked blake up the next day at the airport and we bee-lined it down the coast fairly quickly. i stopped at the corner to pick up my friend from the laundromat but here was nowhere to be found.

in our 5 days or so together, it has become obvious blake has two very precise skills that seriously add to the overall experience of the trip.

1) the kid can create the most delectable trail mix out of nearly anything. we will be at a gas station and he comes out donning a mit full of the most odd ball collection of foodstuffs. he then produces a mixing bag from god knows where and within 5 minutes has produced an incredible food selection. i inquired further about his skill and he made vague mention this has been a hobby for something like 12 years.

2) he reads weather maps (or any map for that matter) with the kind of voracity that would be expected from flies on a pile of shit. as we round the bend formulating our approach back to michigan, this becomes particularly handy. all these "storms" in oklahoma-- no problem. blake has an alternate route carved out with approximate mileage calculations-- all done within roughly 42 seconds.

driving down the coast together has been fun. its nice to have a compadre along for the trip to share the time with.

the drive down highway 1 re-defined the term winding road. travelling southbound towards northern california is a vicious stretch of deviating road that leaves you with sore elbows at the end of the day. we clambered down the coast form oregon with our specs on san francisco. this journey ended up taking 3 days.

midway through the trip somewhere in northern california we took a urination break which involved pissing off a rock cliff. absolutely immature but fun its own right. well, this little jaunt of child-like antics would bite me right in the ass.

as we drove off, i had remembered setting my camera on top of car... and.... well.... my camera.... wasnt sitting in my lap.

AWESOME.

recall my history with electronics. we discussed this.

camera number four had been destroyed. well, partially destroyed.

we turned the car around immediately and found my nikon on the side of the road about 300 yards back. i had left it on top of the truck bed and as we drove off it catapulted in to the shoulder of the road. i ran over to see if it was ok and it looked alright. the body had a couple of hair-line fractures in it, the flash was not firing and something was loose inside the lens. i tried to take a photo and remarkably it still worked. the thing looked pretty bad though, it had some obvious burns from skidding along the pavement.

i began sweating. these are considered crisis situations in my book. i go through situations like this annually. i was clutching the denim on my jeans in a fit of panic as i sat passenger side. another one bites the dust... or so i thought.

i recalled a conversation i had had with the clerk at best buy nearly one year ago when i had purchased the camera.

"so you are telling me that if i drop this thing in a bathtub filled with water and the camera no longer works, you will replace it?"

i was in the middle of the ever-present "would you like to purchase our protection plan" discussion with the best buy clerk.

she replied "thats correct, sir."

accidental coverage. hmmmm, to be or not to be? at a price tag of $103.99, this wasnt exactly a small addition to my purchase.

about 7 years ago i had extremely good luck with the best buy coverage program when a laptop went out and was replaced with a (much nicer) brand new one. ever since this day, i have always thought twice about buying the insurance protection when i buy a piece of electronics equipment.

i stood there and looked at the attendant straight in the eyes....

"I'LL TAKE IT."

this little 5 minutes of genius saved me with my now damaged nikon camera. i double checked at the best buy in san francisco on the validity of my coverage. after about 6 minutes of seriously sweating waiting for a reply, the clerk told me i would be covered if i took it in for a claim.

phew.

in the meantime, i can take pictures.... barely.

the coastal views are stunning amidst the level of skill required to circumnavigate which makes the drive worthwhile. it was reminiscient of australian coastal driving and even the stuff in south africa along the wild coast. being a sucker for anything overseas, this trip has made a strong case for the beauty contained within our borders here in old america.

san francisco really took me by surprise. i didnt expect to enjoy that city as much as i did. to me, its a nearly perfect combination of sophistication with an off-center mentality. alternative lifestyles run rampant, but so does the business professional crowd as well. architecture is something to be noted as well with a skyline that wreaks of cool. there is a sense of history, too. the beatniks and the hippie's that once littered the streets left their mark and the city does a great job of preserving their presence. its like san francisco is the sophisticated, slightly more mature and european brother of another town i just whipped across-- portland.

we made it to santa barbara last night.

currently, i am sitting in a place called java jones on state street. its a college town, so state street is the epicenter of all the activity.

i just ordered a medium sized black coffee and it is delightful. i am typing here while this couple-- i am guessing they are a pair of juniors-- are waiting for their mocha's and the intensity of their lip smacking makes me want to vomit. the girl practically has her right leg raised to straddle this guy at the waiting counter. everyone is sort of awkwardly trying to concentrate on whatever they are doing while these two eat each other. this girl has been licking this guy for about 5 minutes straight. it sounds like cows eating grass or something. for some reason, producing the mocha that they are waiting for is taking about 4 months and sitting here listening to them swallow each other is mildly nauseating.

maybe its time to go home.

its weird thinking about returning home again. it feels good though. traveling the open road gives you the answers to everyday life's questions. returning home is when you put this new knowledge to work. you cant change anything on the road-- the magic happens when you come home.

looking holistically at the trip i have to say i made a lot of mental headway once again from the time on the road. it gave me some time to decompress from the uncomfortable pressures that i was feeling with my chicago stint. i was able to distance myself (uncomfortably at times) from that security blanket and tune in to what is really important going forward. it was certainly worthwhile for me to leap without the comfort of knowing a net would catch me. but you always get caught. as such, i have made some decisions.

there's a world of options out there, thats for sure. this isnt exactly new news, but at times when you are living life in the confines of whatever "situation" you are in, its easy to ignore the things around you that are nipping at your heels. sometimes a vision for forward progress can cloud your ability to sense the things right in front of you. its very easy to get accustomed to the situation you are in (whether you are working a 9 to 5 or travelling the globe)-- or its easy to FORCE your comfort-- and then miss a lot of the opportunities passing you by. you have to have a forward vision, so therein lies the challenge.

the balance.

in some weird way, the comfort of the open road gives me some time to mull these things over in my head. i think the process is actually fairly intuitive-- the prevalance of the unknown makes you think about everything in a different way. you challenge the conventional with the ideals of the unfamiliar. i guess it just comes down to your personal tolerance of that unknown. for me, the unfamiliarity makes me maintain mental fitness. it puts me in a setting to challenge my thoughts with the unconventional. this, in my opinion, gives me the ability to process all the opportunities. i can formulate appropriate visions for a way forward that meets my goals of being progressive and forward thinking but more importantly maintaining a sense of happiness in my stride.

it gets me breathing again. big, deep breaths.

so its a delicate balance i think-- a dual act of keeping your eyes open WITH one foot forward. be the ball. maintain the tipping of the scale between progression and a smile on your face. i think this is a similar conclusion to my last extended trip, just with different hints on the best way to actually move forward.

i took notes.

onwards and upwards. another lesson to keep in the back pocket. it's the traveler's education, if you will. and in this case its worth every trying moment at costco, craving for hot food, moment of embarrassement, sweating fit, cold night in the truck, wet day or broken camera.