We are leaving for our long awaited and cherished San Clemente vacation early tomorrow morning and the anticipation is killing us all. Yes, it will involve several hours each way trapped in the car with a bored Laney and crabby kids. I will probably eat myself silly to alleviate the boredom of the drive and fend off the drowsiness. We will be leaving around 5am. It's not unusual for us to get interested in some radio show or news story. In 2000 we went to Marin for Thanksgiving and spent a lot of time catching news of the Bush-Gore election fiasco. We have found "interesting" Art Bell programs to listen to on AM Coast to Coast. Once going to the Colorado River we spent much of the ride reading a website on my palm phone about some supposed time traveller we heard of on Art Bell. We made this trip down to Southern California a month ago on the morning of the London tube bombings and kept tuning in for updates on that story. Unfortunately, there is a stretch in between Saint George and Baker/Barstow where radio reception is very limited. Of course, that is also the most boring part of the trip where you really need something to keep from losing your mind. XM radio anyone? We once stopped in Baker when the world's tallest thermometer read 128 degrees. Yeah, but it's a dry heat.
We will likely arrive in San Clemente around 2pm. Lenore's parents and their brood left this morning and will make a stop probably in Primm, Nevada. However, we very well may make it to SC before they do. It is impossible for them to travel quickly. They make too many stops (long ones) and drive too slowly. Darrell always asks me about our drive and questions how we arrived so fast, with a reproving look in his eye. I remind him to do the math: a 680 mile trip doesn't have to take longer than 10 hours if you drive at 68 mph. Sometimes on these trips though you feel like the Clampetts coming west or Clark Griswold and family. It doesn't take long with our group for the car to develop a nice complement of trash and other lost and discarded objects. You can leave with the car sparkling clean. Soon the windshield is peppered with insect carcasses. Road grime covers the car like a bumper to bumper 100,000 mile warranty, and you feel like you are travelling in a Bolivian jalopy. Picture us hurtling down the deserted highway with our cruise control set on 80 and the lifeless body of aunt Edna strapped to the roof. I have the steering wheel firmly clutched between my agile knees while trying to choke down a sausage egg biscuit. "No, officer I am quite alert. Was I swerving?"
We are taking my bike and the tandem and will be putting some miles on them everyday. We will be borrowing some surfboards and picking up one we bought on ebay and hopefully doing some surfing everyday. We may even be going to San Onofre to do some surfing, depending on how much gumption we have. The hard part is going to be getting the kids to carry the boards down to the beach. During the two weeks we take turns making dinner for everyone. I expect we will cook twice. We usually make my yummy Carbonara one night. We plan on attending the open house for the Newport Beach LDS Temple on Monday 15 August. I may try to see a friend or two while we are there. But, for the most part, we stay in San Clemente, don't go sightseeing or do much shopping other than groceries. We just spend a lot of time at the beach relaxing. There is some sort of universal draw or appeal to the ocean and the sound of surf that is hard to quantify or describe. One of my favorite things to do in my teens and twenties was to stay in the water long enough to get really cold and then lie under the Sun and fall asleep. Then after awakening and shaking off the strong stupor of exhausted sleep, I would sit and lie right in the warm sand and just peer at the ocean. Watching a calm breezy sunset with your skin still tingling from the day's sunshine can be mildly spiritual.
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