Solvang and Ostriches

Since moving to L.A., I've been hearing about all the really cool things one could do outside of L.A., and a couple weekends ago I got to experience one that I've heard about for quite some time......visit Solvang.


Solvang is a Danish settlement up near Santa Barbara. It has all sorts of old world charm including a windmill, trinket shops, and most importantly Danish Bakeries......nummy, nummy bakeries. There's some excellent grub to be had starting with the giant pretzels (provided you don't ruin it with the accompanying pasteurized processed cheese product). I also got to sample my very first aebleskivers (i.e., Danish pancake balls), which my Scandinavian-descended friends had been telling me about for years. Then there is the Kringle a GIANT pastry that is filled with mazipan goodness (word of warning: it can be somewhat addictive). Of course there are chocolate shops and candy shops and fudge shops.......perhaps it's a good thing I only spent an afternoon there.

Anywho, after having gained 5 kabillion pounds in sweets, I waddled away from town to visit Ostrich Land, an ostrich farm where you can risk life and limb (or finger) to feed the giant birds.


While I slightly exaggerate the risk involved, those fowls are not what you would call warm and fuzzy. They go after their food like a jack-hammer, and they could do some serious damage to anything that gets between them and their food. Just ask my friend whose sunglasses were attacked by one.

After being overwhelmed by the size and lack of manners of the ostriches, I opted to feed the slightly smaller emus. However, they held an intimidation of their own. When you get up close and personal, you can't help but notice the resemblance between these creatures and their ancient ancestors.........the velociraptor.


But I still managed to let them have a little food.........provided they didn't get too close.

Plan A 2.0

After leaving my car with Eddie, my totally awesome mechanic (seriously, the best one in Massachusetts), for the better part of the day, my car appears now to be safe to cross the plains. I'm not sure what the ball joint is, but it was separating, which means sooner or later when I hit a big bump my car would go one way and my front tire would go the other. After much consideration I decided this would be very bad, so I forked out the $325.00 for the repair.

So I'm all good to go, right? Wrong. You see I wanted to go south to DC to visit my brother and his fam, then Tennessee to see another relative, over to Texas to see my former roommate, and then up to Utah to spend some time with the majority of my family. Sure it was a little non-linear, but let's be honest, I'm not terribly linear myself. Anyway, I got a phone call from my bro this morning with some bad news. He, his wife, and their two little girls are all sick with a cold, so it's probably best if I don't go down that way. Between my car being somewhat questionable and now the curtailing one of my major reasons for taking a southern detour, I'm thinking I may want to make this a straight shot after all with stays in NY, IN, KS, and WY. That doesn't leave much time for dilly-dally unless I spend a couple days in each spot or find places inbetween to stay.

Huh, well I guess I better start making some phone calls.

California or Bust

Perhaps you've heard I'm heading out to California. Perhaps this is news to you. To put all the doubts to rest, yes, California is my planned destination, but there's something funny about plans, rarely do they go according to plan.

Case in point I've sold all my furniture, got rid of my apartment, and packed up my car with the intent of being on the road Saturday (yesterday) morning, but here I sit in my Boston apartment on Sunday evening. Why the change in plans? Well, it would appear that my car has some misgivings about the trip. I'm not fluent in my car's native language, Squeak-ese, but I think a rough translation of it's current communication might be, "What the @#$*%?" Then again, I'm no expert.

So tomorrow morning I'm going to visit my mechanic Eddie to found if my dino-mobile is ready for the 3000 mile trip or if it's time to put the poor thing out my.... er...... it's misery. Stay tuned for tomorrow exciting conclusion: will I be starting the first leg of my journey or will I be spending the next week figuring out an alternative?