DanLog the ramblings of Daniel Pettit

Well okay my first trip by myself, okay my first trip without family, yes that is it. Matt Halbert the Kitchen Assistant at Spag and I embarked on a journey to Zion National Park in Utah. This would be my third time to Zion.

I’ve just finished loading my car and as I slam shut the rear passager door it catches on my watchband and snaps it. Okay not the way I wanted to start my trip, but whatever. I put my watch into my pocket and get in and drive over to Matt’s house. He lives with his Dad in Garden Grove near Trask and Magnolia in a single family house. I still can’t get over the fact he rides his bicycle to Spag everyday from GG. Get to Matt’s and load him up no trouble and away we go.

Somewhere between Victorville and Barstow the car started to vibrate. Matt looks over to me and asks, ” Is that the road or the car?”. Before I can pipe in with my opinion, the car suddenly lurches left. The rear driver tire has blown out. I’m doing 70 something and I’ve been driving now for a whole couple months now. Okay Drivers Ed don’t fail me now. I calmly apply the brakes and continue along until I’ve slowed down to 20 or 30 and ease off into the center divider which is a little below the the road level and dirt and little sage brush. Okay were alive now I get to change a tire my first tire. The tread on the tire just peeled off part way, if we had a whole bunch of shoe goo I could fix it. It made a horrible racket when the tread seperated and was pounding on the wheelwell. I’ve helped change tires before so we make short change of it and we are on our way. However, everytime I drive over a washboard road, I immediately wonder if a tire is going. [ in fact for years and years over 30, i get that feeling anytime the road has a washboard feel ]

We passby Vegas without a second glance, hey we’re both 18 and have no fake IDs what’s the point?

We didn’t get the earliest start so it is dark by the time we exit the interstate. It is a windy two lane country road up to Zion. I was tired and a bit nervous driving at night on a dark twisting road so I wasn’t exactly taking the corners on two wheels. Well it wasn’t fast enough for the semi following me. His lights in my eyes weren’t helping things either finally he starts to flash his lights at me. I had no idea what the hell that was about, Matt says, ” I think he wants to pass”. OH, okay – pull over a bit let him pass. The remaining distance was much less stressful without that Duel guy on my ass.

We got a room at the Terrance Brook Lodge. It was a old but clean motel. I’m beat 9 hours of driving straight, but I made it. Matt offered to drive but I wanted to DO IT.

(Not actual date)
My dad mom and I went for a short trip up the California coast to see Hearst Castle. We stayed in a Hotel in Avila Beach. It was a windey road from the interstate through many oak trees. It was raining heavy when we arrived. The hotel was leaking like a sieve, buckets everywhere. Our room might have had an ocean view (but I could be imagining that) it didn’t really matter as it was so gloomy you couldn’t see the ocean just across the road anyway. There was also a golf course surrounding the hotel. I think it cleared up a bit, at least stopped raining, the day we left. Then you could clearly see the commercial pier that the oil workers loaded onto boats from to work on the platforms in the area.

The hotel room had a huge sunken/Jacuzzi tub. I’m sure my mom would have loved to give it a try, but the hotel strongly discouraged using water as they were in the midst of a severe drought. I remember that they had 1 or 2 TV stations of which nothing good was on.

I can’t recall any specific memories from the castle, however it did have a lasting subconscious effect, forever corrupting my vision of what a dream house would be.

Merced – We stayed at a motel in Merced our first night I remember using the pool.

Placerville – the second night we stayed at a motel in Placerville (Hangtown) We did some touring of the gold mining in the area. Stopped at least one gold mining museum.

Lake Tahoe – We rented a condo on the lake at a large complex. We went to our “room” up an elevator down a long wood paneled wall. When we went into the room my Dad was not happy. It’s not that it wasn’t nice it just seemed like a hotel room. He went back to the desk and returned soon to the room. We grabbed our suitcases and took them back to the car and drove to our new “room”. Now this was more like it. This was a two story townhouse with a large loft. It probably had a view of the lake, but I don’t remember for sure. Downstairs was my bedroom and a bathroom. There were bunk beds in the room I think two sets. There might have been another bedroom but I can’t recall. The main floor had a large living area, semi-open kitchen and a loft above, which you reached by ladder. The master bedroom was on this level I think but I really can’t remember anything at all about my parents’ room.

My sister Renee stopped by, she just happened to be in the area visiting her friends brother. She won a good amount of money at the slots in South Lake Tahoe.

There were tons of really big Pine cones all over the place. Mom and I gathered up about 3 paper grocery bags worth. (Not sure exactly why we took so many, mayabe mom had some craft project in mind. I don’t think we ever actually used them.)

One day we drove to Virginia City, Nevada.

The last night in Tahoe my mom was not feeling well, she had sweating chills, she spent most of the night in the bathroom. I’m sure she was looking forward to riding in a car all day long the next day NOT! Our last day in Lake Tahoe we had breakfast at McDonalds I had an Egg McMuffin. I don’t think I normally ordered those, but I do know I haven’t had one since. I got car sick pretty fast as we were going over the pass into Nevada (so associated the Egg McMuffin with getting sick) on way home . We of course had to stop and let me walk on the side of the road for a while. I think we had to stop again for me to take another stroll after a couple hours in the middle of nowhere in Nevada. I don’t remember what our plans were for the rest of the trip, I think we may have been done. We drove all the way to Lone Pine today. It was a very long drive for me and not exactly a dash to the corner store for my dad either.

From the motel you could see Mt Whitney way off in the distance. My mom was still not feeling well. Dad and I went to a coffee shop and got dinner. We later watched the firework footage from New York Harbor on the television. We drove home the next day.

(not the actual date)

My first airplane trip was to San Francisco with my mom and dad. I don’t remember a whole lot from the trip. Surprisingly I don’t remember the flight I have the very foggiest recollections of the short flight but nothing concrete. John Wayne at the time was a very small operation. You walked out on the tarmac and climb up those portable stair things. While in San Francisco we went to the Zoo, which I don’t remember. I remember my mom hugging a tree in Muir woods. I also remember having a loose tooth and playing with it in the back seat of the rental car. One night we went to dinner at fisherman’s wharf it was probably around 9pm and the sun was just going down. I was falling asleep at the table I might have actually fallen asleep. My parents were puzzled that I was falling asleep while the sun was just going down until my Dad realized that the sun sets later in SF because it is farther west.