Wednesday, January 10, 2007
Cross-country trip journal
Day 1 (Friday, December 29)
I left about 2 hours late, I tried vainly to get Craigslist ridesharers but failed miserably. So, I left San Lorenzo at about 9:30 am. I stopped for lunch at In-n-Out somewhere on 5 and was surrounded by a bunch of Cal supporters, presumably returning from the bowl game they were in. After a tasty burger, I went to the Getty Museum in Santa Monica, arriving at about 4 pm (listening to A History of Heaven on tape, not bad).
Although it is free, I had to get timed tickets to enter to Icons of Sinai exhibit. It was definitely worth the trip. I highly recommend it if you are in the area and like Church history or iconography.
I then drove across LA, leaving the library at about 6:30. I got to the gates of Joshua Tree National Park at about 10. All the camps were full, so I kept driving to try to link up with highway 40. I had unknowingly been taking large parts of the “Mother Highway”, that is Historic Route 66. So, I spent the night in my car, just outside of Essex, California on 66. It was the middle of nowhere and I passed many abandoned restaurants and shops. I pretty much decided to sleep at the most inviting place at midnight. So at about 12:10, I went to sleep.
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Day 2 Saturday
After a couple of hours I entered Arizona. Traveling on 40, the old 66, I passed the giant wigwams (actually teepees) that are motels and the night before, I had apparently passed the big dinosaurs. I never saw a big ball of yarn. I zoomed by most of the state but took the business route through downtown Flagstaff, a city dear to my heart after staying there during the novice tour. I like the high desert. I planned to stop and picnic in the Painted Desert, but it was $10 to enter, so I ate in my car outside the visitors’ center. By 5 pm, I entered the state of New Mexico (I hit the 1000 mile mark right at the border).
I really, really like New Mexico, I think mainly because it is a bit of the road less traveled. I have met very few people from there and most of it is Indian reservation or desert, but it is my kind of beautiful. There was snow on the desert much of the way. Unfortunately, it was snowing so hard to my east, that 40 was closed between Albequque and Texas. So, I took a bit of a detour and drove in snow and freezing fog, with at times visibility of about 20 feet, through the mountains until I arrived in Roswell, my destination, at about 10:30 pm. I drove through the downtown area and was surprised to find that Roswell is huge and sprawling. Actually, its not that big but the two mainstreets intersect in the center and I took both out for miles. I went to a bookstore for a bit (trying to find a Roswell book and failing) then to the campground at Bottomless lake, about 12 miles outside of time, but within view of the bright lights of Roswell. When I got there, though, I found that I would have to pay $10, even though I would only be there for a few hours. So, I drove a couple miles back toward Roswell and slept in my car a second night, by the side of the road.
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Day 3 Sunday
At about 7 am, I drove around looking for a mass, by 8, I found St. Peter’s in Roswell. It was lame. The priest (a Franciscan) ad libbed a lot and the music was uninspiring, as was the homily. But it was mass. After that I had breakfast at the Cover-up Café and then bought some souvenirs down the street. I left at about noon. Fairly soon, I crossed in to Texas. All the cars slowed down. I had been setting my cruise control about 9 miles above the posted speed limit the whole way, with no problems, sometimes getting passed, sometimes passing. And I took farm roads all the way to Lubbock, with no problems. But then, just passed Lubbock, I got my first speeding ticket in my life. It was for going 80 in a 70. Since I have probably done that a million times but never gotten a ticket, I decided to take it in stride. But then, about an hour later, I was traveling about 73 miles per hour in a 70 and a police car passed me in the other direct, turned on its lights, turned around and pulled me over. He gave me a warning for exceeding 70. My first warning.
I decided that it was the last day of the month, and year, so they needed to get their quota. Plus, it was easy money because I had California plates, and thus couldn’t do traffic school (only Texas residents) nor was it likely that I would contest, since I had to do that in person at the county courthouse. So, my only real option is to pay.
At about 5 pm, I called Fr. Andy from about an hour outside of South Lake. I was on time, perhaps even a bit early. I had planned on arriving for the Bridegroom’s dinner at Claire’s parents house, the evening before the wedding/consecration. But then, unbeknownst to me, my power steering pulley snapped. It wasn’t a problem on the freeway, but I head a clicking and had trouble turning in town. I parked down the street from the house, about an hour late because of getting lost a bit. I had a hard time u-turning and parked in a Church parking lot (at exactly 1,900 miles).
I arrived just in time to see videos of Claire’s life. I ate some leftovers and we soon drove to the Cictercian monastery for adoration to bring in the new year. My car made it but was making some funny sounds and smelled like it was burning a bit. It barely made it to the Tower Village apartments, right by the University of Dallas where I would be staying.
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Day 4 Monday, Mary, Mother of God
Actually, this is really a continuation of Day 3, since I stayed up far past midnight. Fr. Andy dropped me off at about 1 am and opened the door. I decided to take a look at my car and opened the hood and looked at it with my flashlight. I saw that the drive wheel was rubbing up against the engine mount and causing the serpentine belt to smoke. So, I closed the hood and walked into the apartment. It was dark and I couldn’t find a light switch, so I turned on my flashlight until I found one. I unpacked, changed into sweats and took out the music that I was to sing the next day. As I was singing it, I heard someone talking outside the window on the phone. He was saying something like “I saw him with a flashlight…”. He was talking about me!
Anyway, about 5 minutes later, I heard a knock on the door. Two City of Irving police were there and wanted to ask me some questions. They said that a neighbor called 911 because he saw me coming into the apartment, knowing that it was a women’s apartment, waving around a flashlight at 1 in the morning. They made me sit down and I gave them my driver’s license. They asked me who lived there. I didn’t know. They asked what I was doing here. I explained that my friend was marrying Jesus the next day at a Cathedral and that I drove here from California to sing and attend. They seemed skeptical. I remembered that I had some phone numbers in my pocket. They wouldn’t let me pick it up from my pants. So, they called Claire and she explained that her sister Maria lived in the apartment and that I was supposed to be there and that they should “Chill out.” During this, about 3 or four more police officers came in and opened doors and looked around. I think I heard someone interviewing the neighbor as well. Eventually, they seemed satisfied and left. They were just doing their jobs.
Then I took a shower and as I was getting out, another knock. It was the neighbor, a girl who lived there and her dad. They explained what happened and apologized profusely. Apparently, they didn’t know what was going on (just like me!). Fr. Andy was supposed to come back within a half an hour (which I told the police), but the girls who were supposed to stay with Claire got locked out so he had to drive to her parents’ house and get a key. So he didn’t get back until about 2:30. We soon went to bed.
I woke up late the next day. I called a friend of the Heyne family who was a mechanic and he helped me get the car to a shop nearby, headed by mechanics he knew for 25 years. I got picked up by Fr. Andy and we went to the dinner at a Mexican restaurant. Then we went to the cathedral to set up. We were missing two lectors, so Claire wanted me to be first reader, psalmist, second reader, sing the alleluia and the litany of saints as well as my planned cantoring of the recessional. I spent the next half-hour making up psalm tones, practicing the litany from memory, and preparing for the other parts. But, the brothers doing the lecturing arrived with minutes to spare, so I only did the recessional and the litany (which wasn’t quite kosher, but was close).
The ceremony was beautiful, from the prelude to the homily to the promise of obedience. Claire received the veil, the liturgy of the hours and the ring. After accepting she chanted “Sun and moon…” according to the Sunday I Magnificat tones from St. Albert’s. I couldn’t help crying because it was so perfect because her fiat instantly evoked to a select few, the fiat of Mary at the Annunciation. I’m getting teary now.
Afterwards was an ordeal. Pictures, hugs galore. It took an hour for Claire to cross the parking lot to get to the hall, where everyone was waiting. But we had delicious Tex-Mex food. No dancing though. We went back to Claire’s to visit the newly arrived Bridegroom at her house. The new tabernacle was in place and once again, I observed the arrival of a new day by adoring Christ in the Eucharist.
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Day 5 Tuesday
We came back to the apartment and soon went to sleep because Fr. Andy was to drive to the airport early. As he left, he threw spoons at me to wake me up (not to be confused with spooning me to wake me up). But I slept extra sweetly that morning. We went to mass at 11 at the Dominican priory presided over by Monseignor Connelly. Then we spent an hour talking and deciding where to eat lunch, as usual. I think all we did today was talk and eat, and talk about eating. We went to Olive Garden and then Sonic, though that was unexpected because we thought we were going to Buca. And Frandy ate about 5 tamales before Sonic, which was quite tasty (but no Whataburger).
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Day 6 Wednesday
Also a low-key day. We had Chaldean mass, which was very beautiful. We went to the UD shop and I got a t-shirt and a mug. I also got a used copy of Plato’s Collected Works. We went to the delicious Whataburger at some point. I Whatasized my Whataburger meal and had a Whatafries on the side. Delicious. We went to a western shop and I got a big Texas belt buckle, a pair of Wranglers and a Texas flag as a gift. We then went to visit Claire at school, but not before a giant-size snickers melted and recooled and I thought I lost my phone at the store. She was very busy and I was dropped off after we went to Target (after eating the Snickers and finding my phone). I spent the evening learning about family history from my Uncle Jack and ate dinner there. We watched the end of Return of the Jedi and I waited for Frandy to pick me up around midnight. We went to Taco Bell and watched the first part of 13th Warrior.
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Day 7 Thursday
Claire got the day off. Yea! We had Chaldean liturgy at 11 again, and since Chris was gone, I acted as deacon and afterwards I was officially acknowledged as the Least Qualified Person acting as Deacon Ever in the revised Chaldean ritual (well, it had only been promulgated a few weeks previous). I was going to stay with James but found out that he was going to Kansas City that day so I went to Heyne house instead. We then went to drop off the Chaldeans. I forgot to mention that we had been trying to fix a long scratch on the door. We bought what we thought was the same color paint. We applied the first part the day before and had to wait for it to dry overnight. It kept on looking worse and worse. We realized that it was lighter and shinier than the actual paint. Oops.
We found out that Frandy was leaving from a different airport than the others. So we dropped off the girls and there was much hugging. I then called and found out that my car was fixed. On the way to dropping off Father, I tried and failed to get Parliament menthol lights for the second and third time for him. Failure. We dropped him off, then came back for a couple of minutes. Then went to eat in Southlake. I stayed up late singing Christmas carols with Annie and Emily and spent the night on the couch.
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Day 8 Friday
We went to Dominican mass and just before that I got my car back. They had said it was a mystery but it turned out only to be a $35 part, but I had to get a new belt and pay for labor. But I was happy. We then ate at Mimi’s one of the Heyne’s favorite resturants. I then visited the Dallas Museum of Art where I saw the Van Gogh Wheat exhibit. Nice.
Then I packed some stuff and had pizza with the Heynes. Then Claire came and we played Cranium. Again, I have never done sculptadores . We also drank the dulce champagne I brought. We played speed scrabble for a while and then Nick came by. And then I went to sleep, planning to leave by 7 am.
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Day 9 Saturday
I woke up at 8, cleaned some stuff, made some tea and was about to leave by 8:45 but decided to go to mass with the family since it was at 9:30. The mass was at the chapel at UD. A Dominican in only a stole over his habit and in tennis shoes presided. Pretty low key. Then I was going to leave, but I remembered that I had left my laptop at the Heyne house (and I thought I left the cord at Maria’s apartment. So we went to the apartment but found nothing. Then we went to Denny’s. By this time, I had said goodbye about 4 times and then went back to the house to get my laptop and said my final, final goodbye. Unfortunately, Claire had an all day in-service training thing so she couldn’t go to mass with us. So, I got out on the road by 1 and when I entered Arkansas (at about 2200 miles) I thanked God that I escaped Texas without being arrested, only warned, fined and interrogated. I had planned to leave Texas on Wednesday morning, so I spent a total of about 80 extra hours there, but it was a time I will never forget.
So, the next stop, a bit unexpected was Hope, Arkansas. I saw the sign that said “Hometown of Bill Clinton” followed by a sign for McDonalds and I couldn’t resist. I bought a McRib in honor of our 42nd president. And then onward. Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to go diamond mining. I crossed the Mississippi and entered Memphis, Tennessee, which looked pretty neat (I liked the giant pyramid). I arrived in Nashville about midnight and spent the night in my car next to the Nashville Dominicans. It rained a bit.
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Day 10 Sunday
It rained all the next day, following me from Nashville. It took me a while to get out of Tennessee. I listened to Arrested Development’s Tennessee while I was there. I try to queue up appropriate theme music. When I hit the border of the Commonwealth of Virginia, I felt like I was home. I really do have a warm place in my heart for Virginia, even though I only lived there a year. But I will be back soon. I stopped off at my old apartment and gave my ex-roommate Matt the Texas flag and Roswell shot glass and showed him my car. I dropped off a couple of dvds at the library and then went to DC. I played the theme to West Wing as I crossed the Potomac. I arrived at home at approximately 11:20. I had traveled approximately 3,360 miles on my trip.
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Posted 1/10/2007 1:31 AM - email it
Give eProps or Post a Comment
5 Comments
I'll beat you for sleeping in that day.
Posted 1/10/2007 2:58 AM by jonah3000
I forgot to add that you threw a set of salad tongs at me the next morning. Salad tongs are perfect, because they are large and made a loud noise when they hit, but they are very light and not sharp. I would probably have flinched if I had been more awake.
Posted 1/10/2007 1:43 PM by Argent_Paladin
I refuse to believe Zach would sleep in.
Posted 1/10/2007 7:21 PM by PunMasterFlex
wowzwers! You were in my home town. Memphis. Neat.
Posted 1/10/2007 9:55 PM by CONQUERERthruChrist
How did I miss this post until now?!
Posted 1/22/2007 9:35 PM by Kseirrac
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