Hotel California, Part II

So we are woefully behind, but grabbed a bar of internet while Jon is in the shower (we're in Bryce NP) and wanted to post his addenda to my last post (and as a new entry since how many people would expect an update to the old entry four days later?). We'll try to get to more good stuff when we can. But we're kinda busy having fun right now...

(The additions were typed immediately after Julia's, but we lost the internet connection before it was uploaded.)

We cracked 90,000 on the odometer today. 4,500 miles down, many more to go.

Jon's additions:  Apologies to all who I meant to get in touch with via e-mail or phone.  While I can't really use blogging as an excuse on the electronic correspondence front, the time difference does make calling the east a little more problematic.  Despite the lack of exciting stories and captivating photos, we were actually fairly busy.

A few interesting tidbits though... Dev (college friend) happened to move to Emeryville for a post-doc position a few days after we arrived in CA, which was very fortunate considering I hadn't seen him in quite a few years.  The restaurant where we had lunch happened to be where Sam had lunch not two hours earlier.   Being a trooper he came back to meet us, after which we ended up at a very cool beer garden/outdoor space in Berkeley.  Many thanks for the suggestion, and sorry Sam that we still weren't around tonight to hang again.  Although you should have come down here to Wilshire Blvd.  We could have torn up this town.

Other interesting (okay, like the first one, probably not) tidbit, I lost another hat.  My NY Yankee cap was left behind on the back of a chair in a greasy spoon in Choteau, MT.  Sad.  And my newly purchased Glacier National Park hat was left at Palo Alto Sol, the Mexican place where we had dinner with Alison and Colin.  Hat #2 was eventually recovered.  Kudos to any observant readers who noticed the switch from the photos.

Lastly, the Toyota Prius is the official car of Palo Alto.  Roughly one car in four is a Prius.  Seriously.  And we saw a couple of movies in P.A. as well.  In reverse chronological order:  Eagle vs. Shark, The Transformers, and Sicko.  We recommend all three.

Oh yeah (fine, I lied about the lastly bit), seeing as how Julia is now a veteran camper, we are graduating to preparing hot meals on the road.  Some new camping gear to try out in Joshua Tree tomorrow and then write about (admit it, you are all psyched to hear about it).  Although we might not need the stove to cook seeing as how the temperature in the park is supposed to be eight-hundred thirty-seven tomorrow.  And we cracked 90,000 on the odometer today.  4,500 miles down, many more to go...