It's An Adventure

Santa Barbara – March 24, 2014

I spent two great days with Kat but, as I well knew, she had to leave for a business trip to New York.  Now, that she has gone the thought crosses my mind, “Am I loved because I am a great father or a trusted dog sitter?”   The thought passes immediately because regardless of motive, Loo Loo, is such great company.  I am glad to be here.

 

Kat, Loo Loo & The Green Cottage

The question is, what to do?  Kat has a great little cottage just two blocks for Abbott Kinney, the main street of Venice Beach and a half-mile from the beach.  I could easily hang out with Loo Loo at her place for a week, but is that the purpose of this trip?  What is the purpose of my trip?  Since I haven’t come to grips with the actual purpose of this my journey this is a decidedly open question.   And a question I am not ready to answer.  I’m not even ready to think about it.  The triple whammy is still having its triple impact.  I think its best to consider this whole thing as an adventure.  Yes, an adventure.  That’s it.  For now, I am on an adventure.

Just to make certain I consult Wikipedia to make certain I am on the right track.   Adventure – An exciting or unusual experience. It may also be a bold, usually risky undertaking, with an uncertain outcome. Adventures may be activities with some potential for physical danger such as skydiving, mountain climbing, river rafting or participating in extreme sports. The term also broadly refers to any enterprise that is potentially fraught with physical, financial or psychological risk, such as a business venture, a love affair, or other major life undertakings.

Major life undertaking?  That sounded good. Uncertain outcome rings true, but the rest of the definition is scarcely relevant.  Unusually risky outcome – physical danger – Please.  I’m just driving around the country in an Airstream - hardly anything potentially fraught with physical, financial (maybe psychological) risk.  When I consider my corporate job holding, daily train riding, suburban kid raising life - I guess this driving around pulling a tin torpedo is an adventure.  So that’s what I am calling it.

So, my choices.  Choice one - Hang out in Kat’s cottage in Venice Beach.  When Kat found it, I

Cute and safe

thought it was just perfect.  Back in the 30’s Venice Beach was a place that people living in Los Angeles would come for the vacation or a weekend in the summer. People would stay in small cottages that they could rent.  Many of those cottages still exist today around Venice.  Kat’s home is in a cluster of a dozen cottages.  I found it so appealing for her because a fence with a buzzer entry system surrounds the clusters of cottages.  Roses grow up the fence, which are beautiful, hiding the otherwise ugly fence, giving the little compound a charming yet private look.  The cottages are small and cute, each painted bright colors.  The best

Hang here or head out for adventure?

part is the tenants are all nice interesting young people, just like Kat, who look out for each other.  In other words, it is safe and fun.  I couldn’t wish for a better place for Kat to live.  I just love the place.    Plus, Venice Beach is full of great restaurants, shops and, of course, the beach.  

Then, there is choice two - Take off to parts unknown. Hit the road with the Airstream, with no idea where I am going and what will happen.  Will I get in a wreck?  Will the Airstream break?  Where do I go? A variety of things both in and out of my control can possibly wrong.   Obviously, I have no choice.  Continue the adventure!  So, while Kat is in New York I decide to take off and drive up the coast on 101 with Loo Loo Airstream in tow.

Loo Loo is great company.   She is almost as much fun as Kat (It is obvious that Kat has raised this dog in her image) and certainly has her flair for fun and – this is key – open for adventure.

So Monday morning we wake up in Kat’s cottage and I take Loo Loo for a walk to blow off a little steam before we hit the road.  Loo Loo’s two biggest avocations are chasing squirrels and digging for

Loo Loo blowing off steam
looking for squirrels.

gophers.  Yes, gophers.  At least I think they are gophers.  Who knew that Los Angeles is inundated with gophers.  They are everywhere including the median strips in LA.  Loo Loo is obsessed with them and has caught some – the most famous was in the median strip of Wilshire Blvd, as reported by Gatto. During lunch hour, which create havoc among drivers and pedestrians alike when, Loo Loo thrust her head into a gopher hole, digging madly and came up with a gopher!  This morning in our walk around the block, Loo Loo focused on squirrels.  Her luck with them is not so good. 

By 11:00 we proceed to Dockweiler’s RV Park on the Ocean, near LAX, and start to pack up everything before headong off to our adventure. I had stalled to late morning on purpose.  Traffic in LA is can be a mess anytime but rush hour is impossible.  I did not want to be hauling an Airstream down 101 during the rush hour. 

By noon we were ready to roll.   Loo Loo and I set off down legendary Pacific Coast Highway along the ocean.  I was right.  There was little traffic.  I slipped into the right lane and cruised along at a sensible 45 miles per hour, bothering no one.  In record time we made it to Malibu.  Our initial goal was the Malibu RV Park – the home of Mathew McConaughey’s Airstream.  As much as I know Mathew and I would hit it off – we both own the same 25 ft. model, we are fellow Texans, I doubt if he is still living in his Airstream or even if he did still own it he would be living in it on a Monday in March.  Just a hunch.  So when we got to Malibu I was not anxious to stop.  I cruised right by the entrance of the RV Park and told Loo Loo we were moving on. 

Loo Loo takes a selfie of the
two of us roling down PCH

Now, when I regard the triple whammy – each one has few advantages, but I am a guy who likes to look on the bright side.  So, I will tell you something about prostrate cancer.  Incontinence is not much fun except when you are road tripping – fewer pits stops! I realized that this was the first time that I had a traveling companion and Loo Loo did not go along with my decision.  She needed a pit stop.  So, a little farther down the road right there on the Pacific Coast Highway, I spot what I can only call a Malibulian Strip Mall, called the Tuncas Market Center.  It look like a set from Bonansa with barn-style buildings done in antique barn wood, metal roofing and sliding barn doors for inside-outside retail activity.  I took a right off the road passed the center hoping I could find some place to park.  I then saw a sign that struck terror in my heart.   No Outlet.  No outlet! I imagine the horror in front of me

No Outlet - No Way

for the Airstream.  I just stop.  There is no way I will drive into a street with a no oulet sign.  For me, that could be a permanent situation.  I look to my right and see the Tuncas Market Center, although very fashionable barn style buildings is not totally occupied with retailers.  The back parking lot therefore is all but abandoned. Maybe a dozen cars.  More than enough room for me to slide the Airstream into the back row and to be able to maneuver a U-Turn at the end of the lot, avoiding the dreaded no outlet alternative.  Loo Loo and I take a pit break in the vacant lot next to the parking lot, which, in true Malibu style has some truly beautiful tree.

Both feeling better we motor on down the PCH which eventually turns into 101 and before to long leads us to Santa Barbara.  We have picked out this perfectly charming RV Park which, according to their web site is “the only RV Park in Santa Barbara’s city limits.”  Here’s where “adventure” comes in.  The problem with adventure is only successful adventurers talk about their adventures.  Those whose bones were left bleaching on the desert don’t get to talk about adventure.  Adventure is not much fun.  Sometime it is adversity.  Sometimes you could kick yourself that you didn’t stay in Venice Beach and just enjoy yourself, hit the beach, watch some TV and go to a restaurant for dinner.  Kicking myself was exactly my feeling when Loo Loo and I pulled into the “Sunset RV Park.”  What a dump.  Right of 101 the RV Park I picked from the Internet was a cramped, vacant lot right off 101.  No view of the beach, no picnic area.  Just a bunch of RV’s crammed into a tight area that if it weren’t an RV Park would only be a vacant lot.  What the hell am I doing here?  Adventure is so over rated.  I feel like a fool.  Believe the Internet.  Stupid.  Shit, I’m driving back to Venice Beach now!  What the hell and I doing?

But there is another thing about adventure.  No one ever said it would be easy.  In fact, it’s the opposite.   If it were easy, wouldn’t everyone do it?  Do you think Columbus had an easy time?  No, he could have stayed in Madrid and become a shoemaker.   (Why do I think Columbus was a shoemaker?) Or Lindberg?  Do you think flying to Paris (in an airplane which look surprisingly like an Airstream – see other blog for details) was a walk in the park?  No, these guys made tons or mistakes.  Mistakes which far outrank picking a shitty RV park for the night.

Loo Loo relaxes

So Loo Loo and I dust ourselves off and set out to salvage the day which includes a new strategy for tomorrow.  We set up the Airstream then take off for a park.  We find a nice place where Loo Loo can spend time looking for gophers.  She doesn’t find one but it relieves her stress.  While she is doing that I take out the old IPhone and search for “dog friendly restaurants.”  Steve Jobs pulls through again – The Fess Parker!  A hotel, on the beach with a dog friendly attitude. 

Davy Crockett to the rescue

After Loo Loo finishes he gopher search we head off to the Fess Parker.  Who is Fess Parker?  Fess Parker, as I certainly know, if you don’t, was Davy Crockett in the Disney series.  Being a huge Davy Crockett fan I see this as assign.  Loo Loo and I were meant to have dinner at the Fess Parker.  And indeed it was destiny.  Loo Loo and I pulled into the Fess Parker and were escorted to the patio overlooking the ocean where I was greeted with a glass of pinot noir and Loo Loo a Fess Parker engraved water bowl with chilled ice water (cubes and all)

So as the sun sets our two adventurers have a better appreciation of the meaning of adventure.  Adventures could be good.  Adventures could be bad.  What is important is how far you get from normal.  By that definition Loo Loo and I are definitely on an adventure.

Loo Loo enjoying a Fess Parker The H2O K9 Special

View from the deck at Fess Parker's