Jetlag

I’m back!

I write this in Aberdeen, where I am crashing at Justin’s for the night, and am fresh out of the shower and into new clothes.  That doesn’t wash away the fact I’ve barely slept in the last thirty or so hours and four flights.

Seattle to Los Angeles to Chicago to London to Aberdeen, with what seemed like the pace of the roadtrip itself, and there’s still the last leg to go – a train some tomorrow morning back to Inverness.  The taxi driver at Aberdeen was surprised at this mammoth journey and said I was like Scotland’s Michael Palin.

A nice thought, although the idea of travelling with a crew of a dozen or so who plan everything for me in advance sounds like it would be wonderful to start with, and then exceptionally uninspiring and constricting after a couple of days.

Anyway, I have a few days before I go back to work, so can take some time to go through photos, and will let you know as I upload them to Flickr – which will mean I can blog a bit more about the trip.

Suffice to say, though, I am knackered, and not a little disheartened on the mullet front…

End of the road

It’s almost the end of the trip – just a few days before flying back home to Scotland.

Internet access has been infrequent in the last few days, so apologies for the lack of updates.  By way of brief catch-up, we’ve been in San Francisco, Eureka, Portland and now here, which is Olympia, near Seattle.

There’s loads to tell, but it’ll all have to wait until I get back, as will the photos.

But it’s been fun.

Oh, and it was raining today!  The weather and the scenery up here in Washington state could very easily be Scotland.

More soon.

A quick update

We’re in Santa Cruz.  SInce I last wrote, we’ve been to Warner Bros Studios in LA, Fresno, Yosemite National Park and now here.

San Francisco later today – where Franciscan monks originated.

One day in LA

Grasshopper sounds.  Donuts for breakfast.  Hollywood Boulevard.  The red carpet at the Oscars.  The LA metro.  Mulholland Drive.  The Hollywood sign.  Beautiful people jogging with tiny dogs.  Downtown.  Skyscrapers.  Heat.  Buses.  City Hall.  Airy cathedral.  Tacos.  Burritos.  Biggest Coke you’ve ever seen.  Rodeo.  Rich people.  Big houses.  Sunset Boulevard.  Santa Monica.  Beach.  Pier.  Cupcakes.  Sunset.  Freeway.  Ribs.

Phew.

The end?

Yesterday was the visit to the Salton Sea, to track down Mullet Island.

I’ll spare you the whole story, but in a nutshell, it was impossible to get to it. This is the first mullet I’ve failed to get to, and I should be more despondent and angry than I am that the mission might be in jeopardy.

But to be honest, we’ve done so much else in our first couple of days here that I’ve not had much time to wallow in self-pity. And there is a remote chance I might be able to get out there at some point in the future, but more on that another day.

Besides the failed mullet-hunting, we’ve seen some amazing stuff. Southern California has some beautifully bleak and dramatic landscapes, and while the temperatures are around 40 degrees, it’s thankfully a dry heat that is just about bearable for a few minutes at a time.

I’ve uploaded a handful of photos, and there’ll be more later on.

We’re back in L.A. for a day or so now, and the day after tomorrow begin heading north up the coast. First stop Fresno…

Welcome to the Hotel California

Well, I’m not actually staying in a Hotel California.  A hotel in California, yes, however (Palm Springs, to be precise).  Although you can’t check out whenever you like.

Today, Justin and I were at the Magic Mountain theme park, near Los Angeles.  And the theme was rollercoasters.

Big, scary, fast rollercoasters.

If you know me, you’ll know I have three major hate in life.  One is heights.  Rollercoasters are high.  Very high in places, and at high speed to boot.

Justin loved it.  I didn’t.  They were my first ever rollercoasters, and they were terrifying.  Even as I type this, hours later, my hands are slightly shaking and my internal gyroscope is only just beginning to calm down.

The one ride that wasn’t full of extreme heights was a rapid water ride.  If you know me, you’ll know one of my other major hates is water.

So, something I can put down to experience, I suppose.

My third hate is mushrooms.

Thankfully, I’ve never heard of a mushroom theme park.

Tomorrow: Salton Sea, home of Mullet Island.  It’s even further into the desert than Palm Springs.  We get there late morning.

It’s going to be hot…

What the hell am I doing drinking in LA?

Okay, I’m not drinking right now, as the Bran Van 3000 song suggests.  But I did have a glass of water last night.

Justin and I arrived in Americaland more or less in one piece, albeit without some of Justin’s luggage and with my phone unable to make texts or calls over here.  That made meeting up with Justin (we flew separately, like the royal family) difficult but we managed in the end.

Then, after a sleepless eleven-hour flight, the first driving.  Nerve-wracking, to say the least.

But we made it to Jenny’s in the end, after crusing through the ‘hoods and ‘burbs of Los Angeles, where we stayed last night, and slept like logs.  Today we head off to Six Flags and then Palm Springs for the night.  Monday sees us make our first assault on Mullet Island.

It’s warm.

All packed up

Work finished, rucksack full, and camera battery getting a last minute charge.

I am just about ready to go, I think.  I may have forgotten something, but I’ve got my PMT (passport, money, tickets) and that’s all that really matters.

Even with just a few hours until tomorrow morning’s flight from Aberdeen, I am still unexcited my trip to the west coast of the USA.  Crucial facts about Mullet Island remain elusive, and I am worried we’ll never make it out there; I hear southern California is roasting hot right now; I am utterly unprepared for the experience of driving on the wrong side of the road (and with the wheel on the other side); and I’ve been told of the poor experience that is American Airlines, with whom I’ll be flying.

Meanwhile the very worst American cliches – the ignorance of Joe Public, warped fundamentalist religion, and rampant commercialism – will all be out in force as a result of the Presidential election campaign.

But I should be excited.  I know it will be fun.  I really need a holiday.  There are lots of friends I am really looking forward to seeing.  The USA really is, love it or loathe it, an incredible country.  And Justin, ever the thorough organiser, has researched all sorts of fun for us to partake of – Yosemite National Park, Alcatraz, and the humungous Six Flags (believe it or not, I’ve never been on a rollercoaster!).  And we are even going to meet a film director.  More on that soon.

Perhaps when I get on the train to Aberdeen in an hour, I’ll sigh a huge sigh of post-work relief, and Relax.

But for now… frankly I’d love a couple of weeks at home with my feet up and a good book.

Still alive

I’m still alive. And so, if you’re reading this, are you.

The reason for both of those ongoing situations is that the world did not come to an end at 8.30am.  Which was nice, as I slept in this morning and would have missed it.

However, some folk feared it was going to end today, because of the Large Hadron Collider.

Physics is not my strong point, but as far as I can make out, the LHC is a big… well, thing that some boffins in a secret underground laboratory on the Swiss-French border switched on this morning for the first time.  it’s something to do with particle acceleration, dark matter and the Big Bang, and appears to involve slammings lots of high-speed atoms into each other.  Or something sciencey like that.

This, apparently, has the potential to create a huge black hole and suck us all into it.  Which wouldn’t be nice.

The switch-on appears not to have destroyed everything, although apparently that was only one very early stage and there’s still more pressing of buttons still to be done by the guys in white coats.  So the world could yet end at any point in this process.

And in case you’re seeking confirmation of the outcome, then this website rather handily helps you to keep updated.

In some senses, the end of the world would be quite good – I have a whole pile of washing up in the sink that I really can’t muster the energy to deal with.  But on the other hand, I don’t want to miss my USA trip.

Only three days to go.

Until my USA trip, that is.  Not the end of the world.

I hope.

One week to go

A week today, Justin and I fly out to the USA to hunt mullets.  And do whatever the west coast has to offer us.

There’s still quite a lot to do in terms of planning and preparation, and on the mullet front, I am having severe difficulty getting any information about reaching Mullet Island, in the Salton Sea.  I’ve tried a few newspapers and radio stations, but no response – perhaps the election is an all-encompassing story.

I do have a couple of leads to follow up still, but if anyone knows anything about Mullet Island in the Salton Sea, specifically how to get out to it, then I’d be grateful if you dropped me a line…