The End of the Road

Los Angeles, CA

Pulled in yesterday at around 1:30PM PT. 72 and sunny, just like I remembered.

Final Stats:

3,210 total miles traveled.

Last Songs on the Playlist:

Elliott Smith -- Angeles

Ryan Star -- Brand New Day

Stone Temple Pilots -- Glide

Listening Post

The last leg of the road trip begins this morning. I'm giving up my posh hotel room in Vegas in favor of getting back into my now sparkling clean car and back onto the highway for the three-hour desert drive to L.A.

Here's Phantom Planet's California.

This has been an adventure, which is exactly what I wanted.

Winter Wonderland

Coconino National Forest, AZ






The Grand Canyon


In-N-Out Burger, Western Arizona (Didn't even make it to California before getting one of these)




The Aria Hotel and Casino, Las Vegas

Stats:

Arrived in Las Vegas right around 3:00PM PT. 2,933 total miles traveled.

Most Recently on the Playlist:

The Rolling Stones -- Gimme Shelter

Our Lady Peace -- Starseed

The Crystal Method -- Busy Child

Listening Post

Cannot lie: My little wigwam provided the best night's sleep I've had so far on this trip. So glad I took the leap of faith and stayed here. This morning it's off to the Grand Canyon, followed by a sprint into Vegas where I'll be checking in at the Aria for Christmas Eve. Why leave it to Santa to bring you something special?

Here's Audioslave's Show Me How To Live

Fortress of Solitude

Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona

After a genuinely treacherous drive across an only recently re-opened I-40 -- we're talking snow and ice everywhere and wind gusts pushing the car all over the place -- I crossed the Arizona border around 3:30PM MT or so. After that, made a bee-line for the Petrified Forest, which, next to the Grand Canyon, is about the closest you can get to actually seeing the face of a benevolent god on this planet. These pictures don't even begin to do it justice. Not by a long shot. Tonight I'm staying in my own private wigwam, compliments of the legendary Wigwam Motel on old Route 66 in Holbrook, AZ. You know something? It's damn cozy. Time for dinner and a cold beer.




Stats:

Left Albuquerque, NM at 11:00AM MT, arrived in Holbrook, AZ at 5:28PM MT. 2,398 total miles traveled.

Most Recently on the Playlist:

Train -- Something More

U2 -- All I Want Is You

Dum Dum Girls -- Coming Down

Life Goes On

Last night's dinner was with a guy I worked with for all of maybe five months back in late 2000 in L.A. Anyone who's read Dead Star Twilight knows what I was up to during that time period and therefore what I must've been like at work. Astonishingly, this person is one of quite a few who put in time with me during that brief era before I truly became strung out who still remembers me fondly, as someone with a good mind who had talent to burn. (Both the mind and the talent would be burned in short order.) The really ironic thing about this guy, though, is that it would be a couple of years later that he'd travel down his own road to full-blown, thoroughly horrific addiction. It was much different than my personal highway to hell -- there was a lot of West Hollywood partying and, from what I can gather, a total submergence into the meth scene that's destroyed so many good lives -- but the end result was pretty much the same: He lost everything and had to claw his way back to becoming, hopefully, a better version of the man he used to be.

What was interesting about the two of us sitting across a table from each other, was, well, everything. We weren't really great friends back in the day, just a couple of co-workers who admired each other's abilities. And now, as he said last night, here we are in Albuquerque, New Mexico on a Thursday night having dinner a decade later. His point was that you really don't know where life will take you, where the road ahead will lead or what it will reveal. He's got a good life and a good future here in Albuquerque -- which includes a damn terrific job and a guy he seems to be cultivating a healthy relationship with -- and despite the ongoing, everyday struggle all former users have to wade through, he's rigorous about staying positive and he's grateful for each new day he gets.

He's writing his own book, too -- which I have to believe will be a hell of a read once it's complete. A thematic refrain within it: pay attention to everything. Again, the future's completely uncertain -- whether you'll even have a future from one minute to the next is often out of your hands -- and the past is history. The only thing you have right now is now. It's the only thing you can be sure of and by its very nature the rarest gift imaginable because there will never be another time just like it. You'd be a fool to waste something that precious.

Word has it the roads are finally clearing and reopening. I'll probably be back behind the wheel soon.

Listening Post

Oh how I love a challenge. A good night's sleep in Albuquerque, followed by an ugly "wake-up call": All the highways out of this city are currently shut down. Like, all of them -- in every direction. Could mean I'm stuck in this admittedly very nice, warm hotel room for another day, followed by a Cannonball Run to Vegas in the morning, or it could mean I just have to wait a few hours until things get moving again. We'll see, I guess.

Here's REM's Can't Get There from Here.

Into the West

17 degrees and snowy as hell. Driving was -- challenging. Very happily in for the night after a terrific New Mexican dinner with an old friend in Albuquerque. Today's travels took me to Ft. Sumner, New Mexico, where Billy the Kid was killed, and through the ruins of various ancient towns along Route 66. The bitter wind, leaden skies and snow flurries made them seem even more forlorn and haunted. Gorgeous stuff.

Stats:

Stopped in Albuquerque, NM at 4:38PM MT. 1,966 total miles traveled.

Most Recently on the Playlist:

Patrick O'Hearn -- A Lovely Place To Be

The Rolling Stones -- You Can't Always Get What You Want

Jose Gonzalez -- Far Away

Listening Post

Day 4 begins where Day 3 left off. The scenery's getting truly spectacular, though.

Here's Mazzy Star's Fade Into You.

The Great Wide Open

Erick, OK

I dreamed about this place, as strange as that may seem. I visited it once before, years ago, and not long after had a dream in which I woke up in a strange bed in this long-since-decayed town and asked the girl next to me, "How did I get here?" She gave me a reassuring smile and answered, "You've always been here." Odd, I know. Erick is one of a thousand little stops along the old Route 66, ghost towns that years of rust and neglect by the outside world have transformed into inexplicably lovely still lifes. These places died on the vine, a vine which was strangled by a much larger and more powerful growth designed to make travel easier for the masses: the interstate. But they remain -- living museums of a bygone era and generation. And they are absolutely worth taking the time to stop and see.



Shamrock, TX





Amarillo, TX

My evening in a nutshell: Dinner and a room at the Big Texan Steak Ranch, where kitsch is Texas-sized. A monster steak and a couple of beers. Surprisingly good conversation with some other folks who were passing through. At around 6AM I heard the words, "It was nice to have met you," and a little laugh, followed by my motel room door opening and closing. It's been a long time. I don't think anyone will begrudge me a night of good, semi-clean fun. Ready to hit the road again. I'll be in Albuquerque later today having dinner with an old friend. Oh, and it's 24 degrees outside right now.

Stats:

Stopped in Amarillo, TX for the night at 6:48PM CT. Total number of miles traveled: 1,721. Number of bite marks on my neck: One (but it's a doozy).

Most Recently on the Playlist:

Mazzy Star -- Rhymes of an Hour

National Skyline -- Permanent Haze

Sneaker Pimps -- Post-Modern Sleaze

Where the Wind Comes Sweeping

Reconsidering stopping in OKC. May blow straight through -- so to speak -- and onto Route 66.

Stats:

Crossed into Oklahoma at 11:30AM CT. 1,313 total miles traveled.

Most Recently on the Playlist:

BT -- Good Morning Kaia

The Dead Weather -- Treat Me Like Your Mother

Elton John -- Tiny Dancer

Listening Post

A good night's sleep followed by a cup of early-morning coffee with my hotel room benefactor, Josh, who's a terrific guy I can't thank enough. Almost time to hit the road again, heading west toward Oklahoma City where I'll likely stop for lunch and to see an afternoon showing of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Beyond that, who knows? Why make plans?

Here's Morcheeba's Enjoy the Ride.

High Plains Drifter

Driving pretty much all day. A couple of good stops, including Lookout Mountain in Chattanooga and just outside Nashville for lunch with Offspring drummer and extraordinarily great guy Pete Parada. Crossed into Arkansas at 7:38PM CT. Now finally stopped for the night after being delayed on an I-40 reduced to one prehistorically bumpy lane for several miles. Where am I? Little Rock. At the Courtyard Marriott, compliments of a very nice reader/listener named Josh. I'm saying this out loud only in the hope that Monica Lewinsky is still somewhere in the neighborhood, because given how exhausted I am right now I could totally handle a Clinton-style Happy Ending.

First, though, a drink. Yes, I need that.

Stats:

Arrived in Little Rock, Arkansas at 9:00PM CT. 1,112 total miles traveled.

Most Recently on the Playlist:

Aerosmith -- Draw the Line

Faces -- I'm Losing You

Underworld -- Beautiful Burnout

It Was All a Dream About Tennessee

My God -- it's full of Cracker Barrels.

Stats:

Left Atlanta at 8:32AM EST, crossed into Tennessee at 9:51AM. 603 total miles traveled.

Most Recently on the Playlist:

Moby -- Shot in the Back of the Head

Ryan Adams -- Shadowlands

Matthew Good -- How It Goes

Listening Post

Day 2 begins. Onward, upward and westward.

Here's Led Zeppelin doing Going To California.

Short Change

Pulled into Atlanta at around 5PM. Dinner at Miller Union. Farm egg baked in celery cream with rustic toast, pork and peanut terrine with fig and bacon, and chocolate bread pudding with rum sauce and crème fraîche. Also a cocktail. The place is located a literal stone's throw from where I once lived. I could honestly stick my head out a window and see the loft apartments Jayne and I called home directly across the street. I drove around Atlanta for a while. Never really noticed what a beautiful city it is. People everywhere. 52 degrees, so bundled up just enough. Omnipresent holiday lights providing a cheerful glow. Restaurants and bars and stores and theaters. There's a new black box theater directly behind my old apartment. Just part of the monumental change that's taken hold in that neighborhood. It's no longer "up-and-coming," as it was once pitched to us. It's now very much arrived. I thought. Thought a lot. I still wonder sometimes what would have happened had I not taken the job in New York. If my wife and I had stayed in Atlanta. In our lovely loft. With our dog. And my good job. Would we still be together? Would things have been different? Is there a parallel universe in which we never left? Never drifted apart? Never broke up? Could I walk up the stairs in my old building, find a key, put it in a lock and walk into my old life? Would she be there? The person I once thought I knew. I miss that person sometimes. But she never actually existed. So if she was a phantom anyway, why can't she still be there? Up there. In that apartment. Waiting. The future I imagined for myself ready to be unlocked and lived, exactly as I'd hoped. But I know that's not possible. The past is meaningless. There's no going back. There are no do-overs. There's only here. Now. This. And forward. I leave in the morning.

Stats:

Stopped in Atlanta for the night. 532 miles total. End of Day 1.

Most Recently on the Playlist:

Death Cab for Cutie -- Passengers Seat

Elliott Smith -- Twilight

Liz Longley -- Little White House