It's become an all-too-familiar theme. I arrived in town behind schedule, during rush hour, disorganized and acutely malodorous from three days without a shower. Only this time I felt even worse about it because I was staying with relatives. My Grandparents live in a gated retirement community in Bernalillo, just outside of Albuquerque. They come …
Continue reading Albuquerque: A city of 300-year-old Churches, Native Art, and Hip Restrooms
Oh yeah, baby, here we go! Big beautiful nature pics... Yes, as you can see I visited the Grand Canyon (two days ago, that is. I'm slowly catching you up, ghostlings). But before we dive into that, let me relate my last few hours in Phoenix. I had a couple hours to kill after the …
I'M BACK, GHOSTLINGS! You'll notice that this post doesn't include the "Day" in the title. To be perfectly honest I've lost track of what day I'm on. Living on the road combined with being unemployed has disoriented my sense of time; I have to check my watch several times a day just to remind myself …
Wow, ghostlings, we have a lot to catch up on. I don't exactly have a good excuse for not posting anything yesterday, but L.A. is such a rich tapestry of sensual stimulation that it's hard to find time to step back and reflect. So now, as I sit here in the obscure corner of a …
Continue reading Day 16/17: L.A. is Awesome When You Don’t Have to Drive in it.
"Write this down," he said. "Firebaugh, California." I left it up to the last minute to decide exactly how I wanted to get down to L.A. I had been told to avoid the efficient-but-supposedly-boring 6-hour tour down the I-5. Various friends as well as internet travel guides insisted upon the more scenic 7-hour drive on …
Good afternoon, ghostlings! Today my Impala and I reached a milestone: 100K!!! And I managed to snap a pic of it without causing a major accident on the 580! This is definitely the last hurrah for my Chevy; I can't imagine it surviving much long-distance travel after this Tour. Which is a shame, because the …
I landed in Oakland around 5 P.M. last night, just in time for rush hour traffic. I didn’t really mind, though, I had time to kill and the weather was gorgeous. I crossed the San Rafael Bridge and gazed out at the turquoise waters of the Bay, the distant skyscrapers of Oakland and San Francisco …
As I drove through Mendocino County's wine country this morning I couldn't help but feel bad about the quality of this morning's post. I admit it was a bit rushed - I needed to get out of the house so that my host could go attend this thing she calls a "job" - and you …
Continue reading Day 12 (addendum): More Ghostly Reflections on the Lost Coast
Good morning, ghostlings! Let me apologize wholeheartedly for not being able to post anything yesterday. It was an extremely long day of driving down the narrow, hilly, winding, construction-wrought, and ultimately spellbinding Highway 101. I rolled out of Newport, OR at mid-morning and finally sputtered into Fort Bragg, CA around 9:30. I'll try to keep …
Prior to this day, I had basically resigned myself to the idea that I would never see decent weather again; the heat would simply broil me like a sirloin steak until my charred, crispy corpse was fought over by hungry roadside mammals. What a difference a two and a half hour drive from the Willamette …
Continue reading Day 10: A Lighthouse Guided Me Toward Cooler Weather
Ghost on the Highway 