Welcome to California

So here I am…entering California.  The drive was pretty comfortable all in all.  My rental car was nicely equipped with Sirius Satellite Radio, so most of the first day of driving was spent singing along to the 80’s channel.  The one thing you can say about a solo road trip…no one can complain about your singing.  I wasn’t in California long however before I ran across this:

A giant wooden horse? You’ve got to be kidding me!  Here I am driving to Los Angeles to work at the University of Southern California and I see a giant wooden horse less than an hour after entering California.  What craziness!Other than that, the drive was pretty standard.  The drive past Mt. Shasta and Shasta Lake was beautiful as always.  I ended up resisting the temptation to stop in Redding for In-N-Out, pushing through to Corning, CA where I would need to fill up with gas.  For those of you who haven’t driven down I-5 through Northern California, Corning is home to the famous Olive Pit Restaurant (they also advertise a big “Olive Festival,” however, I’ve never been through when it is going on).  This was a standard stop for a few of my friends and always featured some tasting of some tasty olives.

Day one’s destination was Madera, CA.  I was going to crash at my friend Nicole’s aunt & uncle’s house.  Nicole happened to be in the states (she currently lives in Sicily) during August and offered to give me a place to crash.  We went out for a nice dinner at The Vineyard Restaurant and afterwards watched a little tv with her aunt & uncle before I crashed for the night.

Day two was a quick drive down to Los Angeles.  I stopped in the town before the Grapevine to fill up again and was on my way.  Traffic wasn’t to bad once I hit the LA area except for a little stretch near Downtown LA.  I pulled up to my new place (a townhouse) just after 11am.  After a quick bite for lunch I unloaded the car and here I was…a resident of Los Angeles.

Crazy!