Venice Grind

Following up a recommendation on O-Dub's blog Soul Sides, I discovered the Venice Grind, a small coffe shop that's only a short drive (or a medium-length bike ride) from my new bungalow. And, due to some ventilation issues at the bungalow, as well as the sheer boredom of sitting in front of my laptop at home all day long, I'm there right now. I've come here a few times lately to try and get work done. The physical environment of the place isn't particularly charming, nor is it all that well populated, but I really like it nonetheless. In fact, I like it more than any other coffee shop I've been to in L.A. (Not that I've been to that many, but I've been to a few.) Everyone who works here has been very friendly, and they have free (if a little spotty) wireless.

Things are getting a little more interesting as I write this, because some sort of poetry night is about to start. As far as I can tell, only three people have come for it, and they're definitely all poetry night regulars. They're currently comparing notes on the different poetry nights around town. The leader is a middle-aged woman who's very fond of mentioning how she's personal friends with all of the poetry and "spirituality" celebrities that anyone else mentions. She's now trying to convince this other middle-aged dude that some minor poetry celebrity he just mentioned would remember her if he saw her again. The dude she's talking to is quite a character, not unlike the Dude himself, only much more energic ("hyper" leaps to mind as an apt description). His favorite topic of conversation is jazz, and he's mentioned a lot of jazz musicians I've never heard of, usually in the context of saying things like "they taught the young hot-shots of today everything they know". They're setting up the podium for the poetry reading now, and he just complained that he's going to need more light in order to read his poetry. He's wearing sunglasses.

I hate to describe the last participant, but in the interests of accurate documentation I must. She's a very old woman, who came in pushing one of those personal shopping carts that people in pedestrian (read: non-L.A.) cities tend to have. I'll just say it: she's got a sizable white beard. It's about 2 inches long.

The Best Pizza in L.A.

The best pizza that I've ever had in Los Angeles is currently being served at the apartment of my friend Ben. He's gotten the crust down, and now we just need to work on the sauce. As it is, it's a little bland.

The World's Smallest Tractatus

I made this a few years ago. It's a palm-sized version of Wittgenstein's Tractatus. It's about a 1/4 the size of a normal edition of the book. I guess I thought it would be a handy thing to have around.

Restaurants I've Eaten At

La Conversation: I picked Meredith up at 5:30pm on a Friday at a Hollywood hills mansion where she was filming her yoga video and after we sat in stand-still traffic for half an hour, we noticed this place on the side of the road in Beverly Hills. So we parked and went to dinner. It was wonderful. The ambiance reminded me of the Parisian Cafe in Arlington and Al's Deli in Evanston (both of which feature super-Francophile decorations) and our tortilla salads were perfect. (2/07, with Meredith)

Wakasan: This is a great omakase place that Ben introduced me to a couple of years ago. I guess LA Erica actually discovered it, but it's really Ben's place. It's great. (2/07, for Ben's birthday)

Tender Greens: Meredith and I continued our exploration of the much-publicized new Culver City scene by going on a date here. I had a salad and Meredith had an assortment of things including a soup. It was really low-key, which I liked. My BBQ chicken salad was pretty good, too.

El Pinto: On the Sunday afternoon of my visit to Albuquerque for an aesthetics philosophy conference, we went here with our host, the conference organizer, and a rather energetic young man from the Univ. of Hawaii. It's an enormous place, supposedly the biggest restaurant in New Mexico. They had a couple fountains inside, but they weren't really turned on. The food was good, if a little bit standard Tex-Mex. They had steamed tortillas, which looked good but which I didn't try because I was so full. (2/07, with Nat and others)

Jinky's: The pancakes here are really good. And if you go early enough (before 10am), there's really no wait. (2/07, with Meredith)

La Cabana: Gotta love this place. It's less than a five minute walk from our new place, the margheritas are great, and the decor is over the top. I had a burrito. I was a pretty standard cheese-covered one the size of your head, the kind you can get at any Chili's. I'm looking forward to taking my Chicago friends here, though, just because of the vibe. (2/07, with Meredith)

Wilson's: This place was mentioned in the recent NY Times piece on the up-and-coming Culver City scene, so when my Dad passed through town for dinner he took Meredith and me here. It was good, not great. My Dad and I shared some sort of wild boar sausage appetizer that the waiter described as very flavorful. It wasn't. My main course was the slow roasted pork, which I highly recommend and which partly redeemed the place. It was the most tender pork I've ever had, and the various sides were all perfect complements. The restaurant's a scene, but not over the top. The coolest thing was a large poster of Dennis Wilson that was hanging near the bathroom. I was hoping there might be a photo of him from "Two Lane Blacktop", but I didn't see one. (2/07, with my Dad and Meredith)

Koreatown Plaza: In the food court at the Koreatown Plaza mall, on Western just south of Wishire, they've got what appear to be a bunch of great places to eat. I say "appear" because I've always just gone to the same place and always gotten the same thing: Bi Bim Bop. It's always good, though, so why change a thing? (1/07, with Ben, Erica, and the Encino Man)

La Super Rica Taqueria: I went here with Ben, en route to Pismo Beach. The eating conditions were far from ideal: it was a cold, rainy day and this is basically a taco shack with an outdoor seating area covered with a plastic tent that leaks. I had a bunch of different tacos. The simple beef ones were the best. Just tasty beef on very, very fresh tortillas. The more complicated tacos were a little disappointing. (1/07, with Ben)

Bravo Pizza: It's on Main St. in Santa Monica. This is the best NYC-style pizza I've had in LA. A little bland, but they've got the crust right. (1/07)

La Playita: I've driven by this taco shack on the side of Lincoln Blvd. a million times, and long been impressed by the line of people outside at almost any time of day or night. As if that wasn't enough of a reason to check it out, a quick search on Chowhound brought up many recommendations. And as if that wasn't enough, a quick look at Google Maps revealed that it is only a couple minutes walk from my new house, so I walked over and had a shrimp burrito for lunch. It was pretty damn good, spicy in just the right way. And cheap: it was only $4.50. I think I'll be back. (1/07)

Mao's Kitchen: The food was good, but the service was horrible. It's BYOB, which we didn't take advantage of. I guess I would go back, but only if I brought something to drink and planned to hang out for a while. In that case, it might be a good time. (1/07, with Meredith and her dad)

Le Pain Quoidien: Meredith and I have been here several times, and everything we've had has been good, albeit overpriced. I assume this is the future of semi-fast-fresh-chain food. The themed environment is slightly, but not overwhelmingly, pretentious, and the service is well organized. The last time we went the couple sitting at the table next to us recommended the Nutella-like spread, which we tried and loved. It's normally a breakfast item, but we had it for dinner. (1/07, with Meredith and her dad)

Father's Office: Descending into the depths of the frattiness at the Father's Office is terrifying, but if treated as an anthropoligical study can be enjoyable. The beer selection is great, but the only reason to come here is for the burgers, which are among the best I've ever had. I used to say they were the best, but several recent visits just haven't been as good as my first few times. One thing I've learned is that since the sweet potato fries come long before the burgers, it's best to restrain your intake of the fries, because they'll seriously ruin your appetite if you eat as many as you might want to. (1/07, with Meredith and her dad)

AXE: Healthy, healthy, heathly, but not quite food as medicine (though some dishes are). And not half bad. (1/07, with Meredith and her dad)

Los Angeles

Well, we drove 400 miles in 7 hours yesterday, and finally arrived in Los Angeles. This brings our total distance travelled to 3,300 miles in 8 days. OS II held up pretty well, and its seats were pretty damn comfortable. I just hope driving out here wasn't too much stress for its aged body.

Our drive yesterday was pretty uneventful. My mom and I drove this same route some time ago in OS I, and we tried to relocate some of the places that we stopped at on that trip. Our most memorable stop was the result of OS I's lack of A/C. We were driving out in the summer and it was damn hot out. My mom started to feel a little ill from the extreme heat, so we pulled over at an old diner that was originally built to serve the soldiers that were stationed at a desert training facility that General Patton had set up to prepare for fighting Rommel in the deserts of North Africa. This diner hadn't seen much action in years, and the only other patrons were a mom with two small kids. Anyway, as I said, it was damn hot out, and so the other mom's son decided that the best way to cool down was to stick his head in the toilet bowl. No joke. He came out with his head soaked in water, and when his mom asked what he had done, he answered.

We weren't able to locate the diner that this happened in, but we didn't try very hard. We did see a sign for a Patton museum, so I assume it was near there.

We stopped for lunch in Palm Springs, at a Roadfood destination that Nat and Melody went to on their (first) honeymoon, Sherman's Deli. The food was great, but the scene was even better. It appeared to be mostly retirees from NYC. Sitting next to us were three aged dudes, very tan and very flamboyantly dressed. The dude who ended up paying for everyone's meals was wearing lots of gold jewellery and an (intentionally) see-through white long sleeve shirt.

The Javelinas are Gone for the Day

We drove 280 miles in 11 hours today. We started in Tucson and ended in Phoenix.

Today was our single biggest day of touring, and we saw some great stuff. There's a lot to do in and around Tucson, but we only did a fraction of it. The first thing we did was drive down to Green Valley and go on the Titan II Missile Museum tour. My mom wasn't into the whole Cold War thing, so she explored the nearby desert while I went on the tour. It's too bad she didn't come, because when I told her no one asked the tour guide any good questions, she said she would've asked why surrendering to the commies wasn't a better alternative than annihilating all mankind.

I've wanted to go on this tour for a really long time and it didn't disappoint. I think I liked it so much because I like the idea of living in an entirely self-sufficient underground house, and it gave me some idea of what it would be like. We didn't actually get to see the crew quarters, though, so I had to use my imagination more than I would've liked.

After the museum, we went to lunch in Tucson, at a Mexican seafood restaurant, and then drove out to the Saguaro National Park (East). My mom has fallen in love with javelinas and when I searched online for parks that have them the Saguaro NP came up, so our main goal in going to the park was to see some javelinas. Sadly, we didn't see any. The park itself was beautiful, though, and it's really cool that there's such a park so close to the city.

We then drove up to Phoenix, had some dinner and checked into yet another Comfort Suites.

Gorditas!

We drove 600 miles in 11 hours today. We started in Pecos and ended in Tucson. We would've made even better time, except we hit another bunch of ice on the road about an hour outside of Pecos. Luckily, they had sanded the roads, so I had some warning that things were about to turn icy. Otherwise, I think I might well have hit the ice at full speed. Others weren't as lucky: we saw another bunch of semis and cars that slid off the road.

Sadly, we came across another sort of accident today as well. Driving around Tucson tonight, we passed a woman lying in the middle of the road, motionless. A bunch of other people were already helping her, so we didn't stop, but the situation looked pretty bad. I wish I could get the image of her lying there out of my head.

Since this post has taken on a rather depressing tone, I should mention that we listened to an incredibly horrifying This American Life episode today, about the current situation in Guantanamo. I highly recommend it; in fact, I think it should be required listening for all Americans.

We also finished listening to McCulloch's biography of Truman today. If McCulloch's depiction of Truman is at all accurate, then I have a new hero.

Our drive this morning began with a photo shoot at Ma Wilson's. Long-time followers of my travels, if they have a photographic memory, will remember that I took a picture of Ma Wilson's sometime in the late 90's. It was only when we drove past Ma Wilson's last night that I realized I had been to Pecos before. So I took a few photos of it again this morning. It looks completely unchanged, so I'm not documenting anything new.

Aside from the icy roads, our drive to El Paso was rather uneventful. Yesterday, the ice storm had transformed the otherwise barren wasteland into a relatively (for western Texas) beautiful landscape. I wish I could think of a metaphor that describes what scrub brush covered with a thin layer of ice looks like, to make the scene vivid for you. But I can't, and once again I forgot to take a picture of the one aspect of things that was memorable. There wasn't any ice on the brush today, so until we got close to El Paso, the scenery was pretty miserable.

We did take one interesting detour on the way to El Paso. From looking at the map, my mom noticed that we were just a few miles from the Mexican border. So we got off I-10 and drove south. The border was only a couple miles down the road. On the first road we drove down there was a border station with a big barbed wire fence, so we drove down another road, this time a dirt one, and stopped at what I assume was the border. There wasn't any fence. There was just a concrete covered irrigation ditch.

We didn't stop in El Paso, but we saw enough of it to note that it looks very different from every other American city I've ever seen. There didn't appear to be any city planning at all. The houses were just piled on top of each other. And the moment you got any elevation at all, you could see for miles and miles. I assume much of what were were seeing was Juarez, just across the border.

For lunch, we went to another great Roadfood find: the Little Diner in Canutillo, just north of El Paso. I had an "authentic" Gordita, which was basically the contents of a beef taco inside of a pita-shaped corn tortilla. It was pretty good.

After lunch, we drove up Rt. 28 and saw a rather disappointing folk art environment in La Mesa (pictured), took a photo of a nearby Roadfood destination (also pictured), and drove around a cute, but equally disappointing small town (La Mesilla). I should say, however, that I liked the look of small towns around El Paso and in New Mexico a lot more than those we saw in Arkansas and Texas.

The drive across southern New Mexico was quite scenic: it was an enormous flat expanse with mountains on all sides.

When we eventually got to Tucson, we tried to find a restaurant that was both mentioned in Roadfood and recommended by friend Tiff. After repeatedly driving up and down most of the streets of downtown Tucson, we eventually found it, but it was closed--hopefully, just for the night. Maybe we'll try and go tomorrow for lunch.

Best of the Pecos

We drove 260 miles in 8 hours yesterday. Started in Abilene and ended in Pecos, TX. The roads were horrible in the morning, as they still had a lot of ice on them. So it took us 3 hours to drive the first 30 miles. It's good we took it slow, though, because we drove past quite a number of trucks and cars that had slid off the road and rolled over. We saw at least 12 rolled-over semis. We also saw an RV that had rolled over, which broke off its back wall and poured a couch and a bunch of random junk onto the side of the road. It reminded me of the time I came across an SUV rolled over, sitting upside down on Hyde Park Blvd. in Chicago. No one was around. When I looked inside I saw all the random junk that normally fills the center console and door pockets of our cars, but it was lying on the upside down roof of this SUV.

We're now listening to David McCulloch's biography of Harry Truman. Truman sounds like a truly great man.

Nothing else happened yesterday. We drove by a bunch of oil refineries, and a lot of uninhabited wasteland. I'm looking forward to New Mexico.

Dallas is a woman who'll walk on you when you're down

We drove 346 miles in 9 hours today. Started in Mt. Pleasant and ended in Abilene. Today was the first day that we hit bad weather, and it forced us to stop early. It rained hard all morning, which made the drive from Mt. Pleasant to Dallas/Fort Worth rather unpleasant. The lack of visibility caused by the rain was compounded by the sad state of Old School II's windshield wipers. The driver's side wiper was worn out, and the wiper blade on the passenger side wiper was too short for the wiper frame. This meant that the passenger side wiper made a horrible sound as it scratched a curved line across the windshield. We were able to get replacement blades at a Walmart outside Dallas, and the difference was amazing. The wipers went from being annoyingly loud to almost silent. I'll have to look into who was responsible for installing the ill-fitting passenger-side wiper blade.

Our first planned destination for today was the Fan Man's Olde Fan Museum in Dallas. Sadly, the Fan Man was out of town for the weekend, so the museum was closed. We drove on and went to lunch at Cousin's BBQ south of Fort Worth. It was good, but unremarkable. The veggie sides were yummy, though. The best part about Cousin's was finding it, which involved considerable guesswork.

After lunch we visited the Kimball Art Museum and the conservatory at the Fort Worth Botanical Garden (bottom photo). I wasn't overwhelmed by Louis Kahn's design for the Kimball, although it was impressive. I hate saying this, but I think the high expectations I had about it negatively affected my appreciation. I hate saying that sort of thing because I hate when people act as if the best attitude to have before experiencing an artwork is to think it's going to suck. One thing I really liked about the Kimball, however, was its collection. There were not very many works on display and almost everything on display was quite impressive.

The botanical garden and conservatory were right down the street from the Kimball. The conservatory's most distinctive feature was its tinted windows. I'd never before seen a conservatory that had all black windows. Inside, it had a rather nice water feature, which I got some extremely low resolution footage of on my digital camera. I'll post it on YouTube later. I also got some footage of the fountain at the Kimball, which was distinctive in that it had jets whose only purpose seemed to be to create turbulent currents in the water. I liked that, because it created a distinctive sound, unlike any other fountain I'd ever heard. And, as you all should know, the sound a fountain creates is at least half its appeal.

After the conservatory, we drove west, but although it had stopped raining, the rainwater had started to freeze on the highway, making it very unsafe to drive. After driving by multiple cars and trucks that had slid off the road, we made it to Abilene and explored its downtown. The downtown, like that of almost all small towns that aren't tourist destinations or college towns, was nearly completely abandonned. With the help of my dad on the phone, we were able to find the area outside of town where they've built all the chain hotels, restaurants, and stores. We checked into a Comfort Suites, had dinner, and called it a day.

I don't think we're going to be able to make it to Marfa tomorrow. The weather's too bad.

I Miss Bill

We drove 428 miles in 11 hours today. Started in Memphis and ended in Mt. Pleasant, TX. That's not as far as I would've liked. I wanted to drive all the way to Dallas tonight, in order to put Marfa within driving distance for tomorrow. But it was getting late and my mom was tired of being in the car (which is understandable). I have a new plan now. Rather than spending tomorrow night in Marfa, we'll just drive to Midland, TX, which is about 200 miles closer. And that'll still put us within driving distance of Marfa for Sunday afternoon, which is fine because the second tour of Donald Judd's museum is at 2pm. The only potential cost to the new plan is that we might not get to see the Marfa Lights, as they require being in Marfa at night. Since the sun has been setting at around 5:30pm, though, we might be able to stick around long enough to check it out.

Today began with a visit to the Crystal Shrine Grotto in Memphis. It was really moving, and I've been to a lot of grottos. One enters the Crystal Shrine Grotto by walking into an opening at the base of a concrete tree trunk. Inside, there's a surprisingly large manmade cave, the ceiling and walls of which are covered with crystals.

Next we drove west and had lunch at Craig's BBQ in the impossibly small DeValls, AR. Their BBQ sauce was alright. My mom thought the cinnamon flavor in it was too strong.

We then drove to Little Rock and went to Clinton's Presidental Library. It was a depressing visit, partly because the exhibits at the library themselves were disappointingly impersonal and partly because it was a reminder of how good things used to be. We did see a Dale Chihuly Christmas tree, though, as well as some seriously sophisticated vacuuming (see the carpet in the recreated Oval Office, in the top photo).

After a visit to the Clinton museum store, where we got "I Miss Bill" tshirts, we drove to Hot Springs, AR. This was the highlight of today's sites, even though we only did a drive-by. Hot Springs looks pretty much unchanged from 50+ years ago and the downtown is full of a series of hot baths and resort hotels. It looks strangely European. I can't wait to go back, especially because we didn't visit any of the famous BBQ places in town.

Hot Springs is Clinton's boyhood home, and the next stop on our Clinton tour was Hope, AR. We checked out Clinton's birthplace there, although I'm unsure whether the white house we drove by was his "birthplace" or whether it was just where he lived once he left the hospital where he was born.

We had dinner in Hope and then drove the rest of the way to Mt. Pleasant, TX. We listened to the rest of Ambrose's Undaunted Courage on the way. It's too bad we're done with it, because it was a pretty good listen.

Not Everything is a Theory

We drove 459 miles in 12 hours today. Started in Knoxville and ended in Memphis. Our first destination was the courthouse in Dayton, TN where the Scopes trial took place. The courthouse wasn't hard to find. Dayton's a very typical small town, with a town square and courthouse in the middle. To get inside the courthouse, we had to walk through a metal detector. There was a big "No Guns" sign outside, so when my camera set off the metal detector, the cop on duty asked me, only semi-sarcastically, "Do you have any guns with you?" His drawl was impossibly thick and overwhelmingly cute, and he looked the part, very much like Jackie Gleason in Smokey and the Bandit. I asked about the museum, and he responded with friendly directions to the basement. We went downstairs and at first it didn't look like there was that much, just a glass case with some books in it and a display on the wall. But then we discovered another whole room with the bulk of the exhibit, and as we walked into it the volunteer guide arrived for his shift. He was an enthusiastic older man, and he told us he would tell us about the trial if wanted to hear about it.

He began by saying that since he's been voluteering at the museum, everything he thought about the trial has changed. He said he now thinks very differently of Clarence Darrow, for instance. When I asked what he thought of Darrow before, he said he used to think only bad things, but he's now learned that Darrow did a lot of good as a lawyer before being involved in the Scopes trial. This was the first of many interactions between myself and our guide. Our second exchange concerned whether there have ever been unjust laws that called for outside intervention by someone like the ACLU. And our third exchange concerned what it means to call evolution a "theory not a fact". Although these exchanges made my Mom so uncomfortable that she left the museum, I thought they went wonderfully well. All three were genuine conversations, in which we listened patiently and responded to each other.

That said, his views were very predictable. To focus on the last exchange: according to our guide, a theory is something that is "possible but not practical" and something that "there's no proof for". The only evidence that he was aware of for evolutionary theory was some sort of tooth that someone claimed was from the "missing link" between monkees and people (like Oliver the Humanzee, I guess). And since they have since shown that this tooth was not from the "missing link", we can only conclude that there's no evidence of evolution.

I thought that we were able to have a civil conversation about such a contention issue was rather heart-warming, even though our conversation didn't really make any progress. I flatter myself to think that I gave him something to think about, at least.

Another big theme of our guide's account of the trial was that it wasn't really the result of the ACLU meddling in local affairs. Rather, it was the result of ingenious entrepreneurship on the part of some of Dayton's businessmen. This seems to be a theme of recent accounts of the trial and although I don't doubt that local businessmen saw in the possibility of a trial the possibility of bringing a lot of business and attention to a small town that had fallen on hard times, one has to wonder why people find this sort of revisionary history so compelling. I mean, it's not like the trial solved Dayton's economic woes.

One other thing I found out by talking to our guide and looking at the exhibit: anti-evolution people are obsessed with monkeys.

After Dayton, we went to lunch in Chattanooga, at a Jane and Michael Stern place called Zarzour's. My mom had the meatloaf and actually liked it, which partly redeemed the Sterns in her eyes. She's long been a skeptic.

From Chattanooga, we drove across northern Alabama to Muscle Shoals. On the way, we stopped by the Unclaimed Baggage Center, where they sell stuff from lost airplane luggage. I had heard about this place before, and imagined it would be an enormous hangar-like space full of random bags, and you would just buy a bag without knowing what was inside it. Sadly, it's not like that at all. All the stuff is processed and priced, and the inside looks like a combination department store/thrift store. Unlike a thrift store, however, a lot of the stuff for sale is in really good condition. And that's understandable, because it's not like anyone chose to get rid of the stuff for sale at the Unclaimed Baggage Center. I got a very nice navy blue blazer that fits perfectly. It was $25.

We got to Muscle Shoals at 4pm, which was when I wanted to get there, but it was all in vain. I wanted to take a tour of the Muscle Shoals Sound Studio, which has only recently been restored to the appearance of its glory days and opened for tours, but when we got there, no one was there. The Muscle Shoals Sound Studio is close to my heart, because a lot of my favorite records were made there, including the first half of Aretha Franklin's first Atlantic record and some classic Rolling Stones sides.

It turns out Helen Keller was born right outside Muscle Shoals, so we drove by her birthplace.

After Muscle Shoals, we drove across northern Mississippi to Holly Springs, but this too was in vain. Our destinations in Holly Springs were supposed to be Phillip's Grocery (for dinner) and Graceland Too, but Phillip's Grocery is only open for lunch and my mom wasn't in the mood for Graceland Too. So we went to dinner at the only restaurant we could find in all of Holly Springs: Annie's Restaurant. Annie's Restaurant was slightly other-worldy, in that it couldn't possibly exist in any more populated area. Not everything on the menu was actually available, and the waiter had to return to the table at least three times after taking our order, just to ask us questions about what we ordered that he had neglected to ask the first time around.

Post-dinner, we drove the remaining 35 miles to Memphis.

On the listening side of things, we started listening to Stephen Ambrose's account of the Lewis and Clark expedition, Undaunted Courage. So far, it's pretty engaging. He really thinks a lot of Lewis's journals, and it's making me want to check them out. What'll probably happen, however, is that I'll buy them and then never actually look at them. We'll see.

Old School II

We drove 528 miles in 10 hours and 15 minutes today. Before leaving, I outfitted the Ford Escort (FE) with my patented security system of "The Club" and a double-locked trunk. To double-lock the trunk, I installed a couple of chains--one attached to the inner roof of the trunk, one attached to the floor of the trunk--and padlocked them together. When padlocked together, the trunk can only open a couple of inches. I don't know how much safer this makes the contents of the trunk, but it allows me to worry a lot less than I would otherwise.

Installing this security system reminded me of the previous car I installed it in: my 1996 dark blue 4 door Toyota Corolla. I was inspired to Christen that car "Old School" after seeing a 70's Cadillac in Hyde Park with "Old School" written across the trunk. And this memory has inspired me to Christen the FE "Old School II".

The drive today was pretty uneventful. We left at noon and drove straight, with breaks for lunch and dinner, to Knoxville, TN. We drove out 66 to 81, and 81 to 40 to Knoxville. We listened to an episode of Car Talk and an episode of This American Life.

If I have internet access tomorrow night as well, I hope to be able to report having visiting some interesting sites en route to Memphis.

Where They Sleep Out Every Night

In a few hours, I'm going to embark on a cross country drive from Northern Virginia to Southern California. I'll be driving a Ford Escort that's got 165,000 miles on the odometer. Although I've done everything I can to streamline my packing, the car's pretty weighed down.

On the way, I hope to re-visit Phillip's Grocery and Graceland Too in Holly Springs, Mississippi. And to check out a grotto in Memphis. I'm looking forward to visiting Clinton's library in Little Rock, as well as the art museum designed by Louis Kahn in Fort Worth. I'm hoping to swing by Marfa, Texas, on the was to El Paso, and check out whatever it is that Donald Judd did out there, and see whether the Marfa Lights really are mysterious. And I'm hoping to finally visit the Titan Missle Museum outside Tucson.

I'll try and post some updates en route.

The Best Sandwiches in Arlington, Virginia

I thought I would just give a little shout out to my favorite sandwich place in Arlington, Virginia. It's Earl's Sandwiches, on Wilson Blvd., in Clarendon. I like the Louie, a turkey sandwich with nice plump chunks of turkey on fresh bun. I get it with cranberry relish. Steve Dugan (the owner) cooks the turkey from scratch himself, so it's both juicy and completely free from the preservatives or whatever else the turkey meat usually used for sandwiches usually contains.

Check it out. As they say, you won't be disappointed.

Earl's Sandwiches, 2605 Wilson Blvd., Arlington, 703-248-0150. Open Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., Saturday, 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.