City of Angels

Last night at the LVH pool the DJ turned on his mic to do some raffle giveaways and he also said "I love this cool weather."  It was 6:30 pm and it was 96 degrees.  I woke up before my alarm went off this morning because I was excited to get back on the road.  I checked out of the LVH and gave my ticket to the valet.  As I waited for my car I bought a carmel macchiato, a bottle of water, and a bag of Skittles for breakfast.  I had a couple of stops to make before hopping onto the I-15 to Los Angeles.  I had to print my ticket for the Dodgers game so I looked up a Staples to print it out.  I waved goodbye to the King and hit the road.

I spent the early part of the ride listening to metal covers of pop songs.  There were a few standouts worth mentioning.  At Vance does a good cover of ABBA's classic break-up song The Winner Takes It All, check out the video here of the song playing over clips from When In Rome with Kristen Bell.  I dedicated Mudvayne's cover of King of Pain to Christian Grey.  I also like Life of Agony's cover of Don't You Forget About Me.    

All of a sudden, I was barely out of Vegas, I had a disgusting sour taste in my mouth.  I looked at the bag of Skittles and there was the answer.  I want to know who the idiot is that decided green apple should be added to the original Skittles mix.  GTFO.

After a relatively short drive I entered the state of California for the first time.  It was 11 am and a sunny 94 degrees so I shuffled the California playlist and the first song that came on was Social Distortion - I Was Wrong, but everything was so right.  After I passed through Primm Valley the elevation climbed to 4800 feet.  No worries though because at about 2000 feet I had wrangled an oxygen tank from the back seat and pumped that shit.  I was in California and I was all right.

One of the songs I listened to was La Bamba, but I sing a slightly different remixed version, here take the wheel for a second:

I had to go to the bathroom, I wanted to stretch my legs, and I needed water to make sure I stayed hydrated with the constant changes in elevation.  It gives me a little headache rising and falling thousands of feet constantly.  I pulled of the I-15 in Baker, CA.  When multiple gas stations are presented to me I find myself drawn to the blue of the Chevrons, but before I pulled in there I saw Alien Beef Jerky and had to stop.

I loaded up on jerky then I went to get gas and water.  Back on the road I was hungry so I opened the buffalo jerky because I was the most curious about that one.  It was sweet and delicious and it tasted legendary.  Buffalo, or by the proper name American Bison, are an American icon.  The buffalo have inhabited this continent for millions of years.  They almost faced extinction when Americans came west.  As tore bite-sized pieces off a large hunk of buffalo meat, my head jerking with each tear, I felt like savage.  I knew I'd be picking buffalo meat fibers from my teeth for the next hundred miles all the way to LA, but I didn't care because you can't worry about such minor annoyances in the wild, you just have to worry about your next meal, and not becoming somebody else's next meal.  Needless to say, the Alien Fresh Jerky was out of this world.

Outside Yermo, CA I saw a sexy billboard for Hollywood Men - #1 Ladies Night Out.  I have no interest in male strippers, I did like Magic Mike because, ultimately, it was a movie about the economy and it was relevant, but the Hollywood Men show could be a good idea because where else are you going to come across an establishment full of horny women with few other available men around?  Maybe I'll swoop in after the Dodger game for last call and see if any ladies want to make their dreams come true.

Somewhere around Victorville, CA a metal trash can came flying out of a truck in front of me and luckily it blew over the roof by a couple of feet because I did not need to be decapitated by a flying garbage can smashing through the windshield.  Shortly after that I saw some type of fire burning on the hills.  There's danger in every city.

When I checked in I was slightly unnerved that the check-in desk was surrounded by 2 inch, bulletproof glass.  I asked for a room on the top floor so I could dominate the stairs since I had been training at altitude.  I got my keycard and raced to the 2nd floor.

My motel was close to Dodger Stadium so I was pretty glad about that.  I made my way up Chavez Ravine and was in the stadium easily and quickly.  I was starving so I grabbed a Famous Star burger from Carl's Jr inside the park.  My seats were pretty good I was only 10 rows from the field but I decided that I only want to sit either behind or in front of the action.  I didn't care for sitting close between 3rd base and the foul pole, the side angle doesn't do it for me.

Price vs Puig.

The game was really exciting because the Dodgers came back to win in the bottom of the 9th.  This is the second MLB game I've been to in the past eight days and both of them have been dramatic walk-off wins, and the home teams were both down 6 runs in each game!  I don't need to say it, but I will, things happen when I'm around.  I left my seats and watched the 9th from the seats above home plate because I wanted to check that view out. 

    

Fenway Park has the most bleacher seats of any stadium I've been to.  Other stadiums seem to build up and around the infield, the Red Sox have done more of that in recent years.  The Dodgers did a cool thing, and this will probably sweep the stadiums in MLB, they removed most of the wall from behind the plate so the very front row is just behind a screen and dug into the ground.  Dodger fans are gaga over this new kid Yasiel Puig.  He was called up in June and in his first month he set the Dodger record and was only behind Joe DiMaggio for the MLB record for number of hits in the first month.  The Dodgers made a series of errors early in the game, Puig missed a pop fly in center field, I don't even think he was paying attention.  That terrible display of fielding made me more confident in my Red Sox World Series pick.

I'm headed out of LA tomorrow and I need to sleep, so I'll leave you with the most stirring song I heard today.  Enjoy.