Day 2, 25 December 1996 Thousand Oaks, CA to Deming, NM Lots of Miles (750 miles/1207km) Previous Next To Top

A big driving day spent passing drab cinderblock towns, plush golf courses, and innumerable Indian casinos. Eastbound Ventura Freeway at the Hollywood Freeway interchange, 7AM on Christmas morning. This picture could be captioned "Avoiding the Ten Million people in Los Angeles". Random notes from today Phoenix looks like Los Angeles more and more each day. Is it the Valley of the Sun or the Valley of the Smog? Even on Christmas Day, I'd vote for the latter. Bumper sticker outside of San Simon, Arizona: "When vitamins are made illegal, only criminals will have vitamins." What does it mean? Conversation overheard at El Camino Real restaurant, Deming, New Mexico: "The ancient Greek warriors, when defending Greece against the invading Persians, spent a lot of time doing their hair. They'd get their weapons ready, then they'd do their hair. Some people might call them sissies, but they won." Wow. What is The Thing? Inquiring minds want to know. Here's the San Gorgonio Pass just before Palm Springs. I've always thought this was the ugliest place in California, but it has a weird charm to it. The mountain in the background is San Jacinto, about 10,000 feet elevation. The pass is all of 500 some-odd feet elevation. So you're looking at two miles (or 3 kilometers) worth of mountain. This picture was taken out the passenger window of a speeding Saturn on I-10! I really like it--it's one of the best pictures I've taken with the QuickTake 100.

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