"Eddie waited til' he finished high school//He went to Hollywood, got a tattoo//He met a girl out there with a tattoo too//The future was wide open" -Tom Petty

Today I took nine hours to travel a mere 450 miles, arriving in Los Angeles in time for the late rush hour. I stopped for a coffee in Monterey and a piss in Pismo, otherwise I drove straight. But I went the pretty way.

I passed Sunnyvale and San Jose, Plaskett, San Simeon, Cambria, and an unincorporated town in San Luis Obispo County called Harmony, California - Population: 18 - historically famous for its clarified buttermilk. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmony,_California

The road felt good. I've been nervy in anticipation of leaving, but my anxiety dissolved the moment I hit Highway 1. Now that, friends, is a goddamned stretch of road. The weather held all day and I was treated to an astonishing chemical-creamsicle-sunset as I passed Oxnard.

I'm staying in L.A. for a week or so. My oldest buddy from Chicago, Knuckles, is freshly moved out here for a personal training gig. it seemed like a good place to gather my forces for the trip to come - feeding parasitically on the frenetic energy of a cross-country move. Knuckles will do well here.

We're going to stay in Venice a couple days and maybe go camp a night or two in Joshua Tree.

I'll get back to you.