Left Coast, Views You Can't Get From a Car, Funky Keys and Unfamiliar Gadgets

Occasionally, "The Road" offers up vistas that are unexpected.

The Colorado Rockies from 35,000 feet. I thought about not including the altitude and  just claiming that I was doing some serious Mountain training on the bike, but the wing really gives it away.  And I was too lazy to crop it out...

Ok, let me back up a little.  I'll be taking a few liberties in this post, like using some pictures taken from planes or while I was not the one actually driving.  In this case I'm using "road" to loosely mean "travel".

Why the change of venue and a slight bending of the rules?  Because I recently had occasion to travel to the west coast with a group of colleagues to visit some of the properties we represent and as always, "The Road" and its vistas got me thinking and taking pictures.

Like things you see from a plane, for example (that's why I always take the window seat, limited bathroom access be damned!):

Yeah, it would be better if I knew were this was.  But I don't.  Deal. Could be the Grand Canyon...

See caption above

And again!  Grand Canyon?

Don't know where this is either, but it doesn't matter. This one's about the clouds and shadows.

NO!  I don't know where this is!  Sierra Nevadas?

OK, this I know.  San Francisco Bay!

Dam on the Sacramento River

Mount Shasta, where they used to make the soda....

Dramatic Zeus Clouds!

South Shore of Long Island, near JFK.

But enough of the over dramatic and slightly cheating high altitude views; Let's get back down to earth.

More specifically, into the Mini-Van.

Loyal Road Work readers will know that the vast majority of my miles are driven solo behind the wheel of the mighty little Scion.  On the left coast I shared "The Road" with 5 others in a, it hurts even to type this, a 2010 Dodge Caravan!
       
        Important factual disclaimer.  Our other family car, to supplement the Mighty Scion, is a Toyota Sienna Mini-Van. So I have no call to, and am in fact a hypocrite for casting aspersions on the Caravan.  Call it "Auto-Poetic" License. It's tough to be an artist, so I've heard.


Now, a Caravan is a fine way to move a small group of people over long distances (assuming you can settle the ipod/music skirmishes that inevitably pop up), but I have to admit I found some of its new-fangled features a little off-putting.

Who puts a shifter there?  It looks like they added it at the last second. "Oh, Right!  
We need a way to shift gears. Lets put it where an air vent should be..."

Fancy Electronic Key.  How am I supposed to clean my ears with that?

Our GPS unit, which received the sobriquet ":The Dominatrix" immediately for the forceful way in which it "guided" us. 

  I've never actually used a GPS unit before.  I don't have one and don't plan on getting one.  Which is actually odd in a way, as I am a classic early adopter of new technology (can you use classic and early adopter in the same sentence?  We'll see).  I've had an email address since 1993 and the same cell phone number since 1992.

But knowing where you are going and how to get there is a weird point of pride for me.  Of course, I have 20 years of driving history on the roads of my home range, so I should be able to work out how to get from most points A to points B.  And I've always had maps, which in a sense are not much different than a GPS unit, from a "you are here" point of view.

But it does feel different.  Looking at a map and deciding on a route is more pro-active than taking disembodied directions from a...a...what exactly is a garmin?

And I do worry about the loss of human capacity that technologies like this can bring (Yes, my hypocrite alarm is going off again too.  I'm going to ignore it). Before cell phones and speed dial, I knew by heart at least 150 phone numbers; all my top customers and dozens of friends & family besides.  Now, if you give me your number and I don't put it directly into my phone, I will never call you.  Not because I don't want to, but because I won't be able to.  I've lost the ability to remember phone numbers.

God, do you think I could still remember the complete order, from appetizers to dessert & wine for a table of four without writing it down, like I did in the old days?  Here's hoping I never have to find out!

In the end, driving in unfamiliar territory, the GPS was a awesome.  It never led us astray and predicted with uncanny accuracy our arrival time at each appointment.  And it virtually eliminated passenger conflicts on route selection.  Which left plenty of time for high brow discussions such as the effects of terroir versus vintage and seemingly endless (and usually funny) stream of Anthony Wiener jokes.

As I am writing this, Congressmember Wiener has already resigned, but I just have to weigh in on one point.  In his early denials, AW stated that he couldn't be sure if the pictures in question were of him or not.  Which in this case is the same thing as declaring "Yes, I've taken MANY pictures of myself in a state of arousal while wearing underwear, too many in fact to identify any one particular image as being of me."

Which, if you think about it, is a little sad.  Shouldn't such an event be special and at least in some way memorable?  On the the other hand, Wiener is an idiot who couldn't even learn from the many examples of his colleagues (Hello!?!?, Chris Lee was only a few months ago).  He deserves what he gets.  Actually, I take that back.  Last I checked, Elliot Spitzer had a cable talks show that was paying him Hella-Bank. Wiener does NOT deserve that. Maybe Brooklyn could bring back the squigee guys of the early 90's and plug Anthony into one of those jobs.  Seems appropriate.  

In a bid to do our part for public service, Road Work offers the following video advice for America's politicians from the 80's Cinema Classic, DC Cab.  Fast forward and watch from 8:05 to 8:25 for the crucial message that could save many political careers in years to come.

But I see this has turned into one of those "two part installment" kinds of posts.  Stay tuned for more on the Caravan and its many adventures.  Coming soon to a blogspot near you!