touring

I’d love to write a little more about the US but am simply too busy becoming what Germans call a Dipl.-Ing. Before I left I took a rental car and traveled a little around the state where I had spent three months just working (something I was dumb enough not to do in Australia). You may be interested in some of the places I visited so I compiled a few images.

Let’s begin with San Francisco. One of the few cities in California which is not sprawling out into the surrounding land. It is confined to its peninsula in the San Francisco Bay. The positive effect is visible: Most places are in walking distance from each other and consequently the streets are populated with people. Overall, San Francisco is a lot more European than any other city I saw in California.

Market Street, one of the city’s busy arteries. A street in Chinatown with the Transamerica Building in the background. Golden Gate Park, a huge and very beautiful park in San Francisco. And last but not least a view from Alcatraz with the city in the background.

I continued my trip to the east (well, there’s only water to the west) through the Central Valley. Parts of it are pretty neat but most of it is boring, overfertilized, salinized, endless cropland. Ugly to any sane person and even more ugly to anyone with a tiny bit of ecologic knowledge. On the other hand, I did enjoy all the tasty fruit and vegetables from the Central Valley.

I spent a night in Freson which seems to be one of the most boring places in whole California. A wide, flat city with no personal character. My judgement may be biased so please correct me if I’m wrong. Much better was the (far too quick) drive through Sequoia National Park. People told me that Yosemite offers the more beautiful landscape. However, Sequoia features the trees from which its name is derived. Standing in front of a giant sequoia tree makes even me feel very, very small. Here’s a picture of the world’s largest giant sequoia. Note the people at the bottom. After all, the landscape wasn’t that bad.

The last stop on my trip was Las Vegas. I went there primarily to watch a show of George Carlin at the Orleans Casino. The show was great, though he did take some time to get to the hard-hitting political punch lines that I love so much. At the peak of the show he called the ever-recurring phrase “God bless America” a PATRIOTIC TOURETTE SYNDROME. Bam! In your face, nationalists. Interestingly the audience laughed a lot more about the simple, superficial jokes than about the ones criticizing their own beloved country. It seems that this nation needs a lesson in self-loathing (for good reasons, that is). This particular show was my last chance – he died shortly after, at age 71. I didn’t gamble a single cent in Las Vegas. Instead, I invested my money in armory. Nevada has far more permitting firearms laws than California and a number of ranges specialize in gun rental to tourists. Overall I shot two pistols, four submachine guns, two rifles and a light machine gun. For those of you who know what these letters mean: HK USP .45 ACP /w silencer, MR Desert Eagle .50 AE, IWI Uzi 9 mm Para, Thompson .45 ACP, Colt M635 9 mm Para, HK MP5 9 mm Para, HK G3 7.62 mm Nato, SIG 556 5.56 mm Nato, FN Minimi 5.56 mm Nato. It was a hell of a lot of fun (for a gun nut like me). The Hoover Dam nearby is not as spectacular as people may tell you but for a professional environmentalist with some knowledge about hydro power it was worth a visit. What puzzled me is that at no point during the tour did anyone mention the fact that hydro power produces no carbon dioxide. In Europe this would be practically all they’d tell you. The importance of (anthropogenic) climate change has not reached Nevada yet.

A big thank you to the other motorists whom I shared the highways with. I have never encountered more civilized drivers than in California (and that tiny piece of Nevada).

gorgeous gorge

Now that I’m finished and just wasting my time I can catch up with the stories I didn’t tell. I won’t cover everything but there is one issue that must not be left out – the Grand Canyon.

My dad visited me over here and besides checking out many of the restaurants in town we also took a longer trip to Tusayan, Arizona. This is a tiny village just south of the entrance to the Grand Canyon National Park that only exists to provide services to tourists.

Getting there takes a while. In fact, it’s a 10-hour drive (given no major jams on the way). Once you leave the Los Angeles metropolitan area on the Interstate 15 you cut across the mountains into the desert towards Barstow. We came across this freight train near the Cajun junction. These trains (we saw more during the trip) are extremely long and usually pulled by three or four locomotives. Once over the mountains the road turned into what people in Europe have in mind when they think about American highways: an endless boring road that makes drivers fall asleep and crash into trucks. But even there in the desert, you will find lots of small and medium size villages and towns, scattered across the landscape, along with which come the shopping malls that enrich the dull desert backdrop with a blast of colors. Capitalism 1 – desert 0. Hurray!

Same as Germans, Americans whine about the ever-rising gas prices. The cheapest we got on this trip was 3.55 Dollars. Per gallon. That’s 3.8 liters. I’d laugh if the problem of dwindling fossil resources and carbon dioxide emissions wasn’t so serious. Now it’s around 4.80 a gallon in the coastal urban regions of California, which is still ridiculously cheap. If people in Germany don’t consider to carpool (let alone switch to – heaven forbid – cycling) at 1.50 Euros per liter, it just has to get yet more expensive. Fuck you gas-guzzlers, that’s a solid nail in your Hummer’s coffin!

After hours and hours and hours of driving we eventually arrived. On the next day we headed towards the canyon and – Bam! – it is absolutely mind-blowing. You stand on top of the rim, gazing at billions of years of rock formation and millions of years of erosion. You take photos over photos but it’s plain impossible to capture. Here’s one of the best photos that I took but it gives you just a glance of the grace of this breathtaking landscape.

If I tell you that the gorge is an average 1 mile deep this sounds impressive but you probably still have a hard time imagining a vertical distance of that dimension. In this image you can see people walking on the crest. The following image provides a wider view. That’s not even the full height – it goes on. And on. You can’t even see the Colorado River at the bottom from this point.

We even took the liberty of a helicopter flight across the canyon. The view was fascinating but I was scared out of my mind in this light and unstable helicopter on such a windy day.

But there’s more than just the gorge to gaze at. Along the rim you can find some interesting rock formations, spooky tree carcasses and cuddly squirrels. Then there’s the Imax in Tusayan. Seriously, what’s the most famous gorge in the world without a killer theater?!

On the morning of the day we were planning to leave I opened the curtains of the hotel room and – Bam again! – stared at three inches of snow. Over night. This was reason enough to take a quick look at the canyon instead of leaving immediately. Since the climate inside the canyon is very different from the one on the plateau there was no snow inside. An interesting view.

The take-home message of this entry is: If you ever get the chance to see the Grand Canyon, take it. Whether you just walk on the rim or actually hike down and back doesn’t matter, but you have to see it.

boredom cast into asphalt

Driving through incredible landscapes such as Joshua Tree National Park gets curious Europeans hungry. Thus, our party of three decided to have a late lunch in the village of Joshua Tree, inbetween visiting Keys View and Indian Cove. This is the most dreary and dull place I’ve seen so far. 8000 people living in a scattered, ugly village that is completely misplaced in the desert. A highway runs through it (in fact, it looks like the village evolved at the sides of the road), resulting in a ridiculously huge crossing in the middle of the village. Try to count the number of lanes in this picture!

Most of you probably know the stories about American roads that go straight forever and ever. I may now confirm, they do exist. From a (German) planning engineer’s perspective this is not a good way to build a safe road. You may have never noticed it: In Germany, roads outside of settlements are generally curved. This helps in keeping drivers alert and assists them with the estimation of distances. If interested, go and ask this guy for more information on routing. However, driving on these roads is relaxing and in no way comparable to the aggressive atmosphere (atmosfear I am tempted to say) on German Autobahns. Everyone cruises at more or less the same speed and the number of asshole drivers is fairly low. On our 500 mile trip we encountered not even a handful of said drivers, whereas in Germany you keep meeting these people every ten fucking kilometers.

luck #3

Deserts are by their very nature, if not by definition, pretty dry places. But they are far from being barren wastelands. In fact, they’re full of life. Water is the limiting factor in these ecosystems and most of this life – especially plant seeds – waits for years and years to eventually receive enough precipitation to prosper. This sudden rush of blooming wildflowers is an absolutely magnificent sight, but lasts only for a very short time. One has to be lucky to get a glimpse of it – and that’s what this post is about.

Somewhat more then a week ago the deserts in eastern California had plenty of rain and burst into a colorful display of blossoms. Last weekend I was there and although some of the evanescent beauty had already perished, it was impressive nonetheless. “There” refers to Joshua Tree National Park, a protected chunk of the Californian desert close to the border to Arizona, spanning more than 3000 km², and “I” refers to SW, LB and myself. Actually, this trip was the reason for us to stay in that motel in Banning. Having gotten up at 5.30 AM we made it into the park just after sunrise and good for you, my dear readers, the others had cameras, both proper ones and cellphone models, at hand.

palm trees at Cottonwood Spring

wildflowers at Lost Palms Oasis Trail

more wildflowers, covering a hill

Highly impressive was the vast open landscape of the Pinto Basin which can only be insufficiently captured by a camera lens. The cactuses in the picture were described on signs at the site as having extremely pointy spikes with hooks that cut into human flesh upon the slightest touch and are hard to remove. The road followed a gradient of conditions, resulting in a distinct sequence of plant societies alongside the road. This beautiful plant was found in the western part of the basin. If anyone can identify it, please leave a comment.

The road led through a field of Joshua Trees (after which the park is named, as well as the famous U2 album) up to a point called Keys View from which the whole Palm Springs metro area is observable. Once again, the camera failed at capturing the incredible spirit of the place.

Our last stop was at Indian Cove where we felt as if we were walking on Mars. It was also the most active spot for us with large rocks on a steep hillside to climb. For those of you who are interested in microbiology and micro-scale ecology I took this picture showing a society of different types of lichens. Obviously the conditions for these lifeforms vary on a scale of centimeters. Feel free to enlighten other readers in the comments section about the meaning of lichens as environmental indicators.

one night in Banning

What do Americans do if they drive to a place that’s too far for a day trip? They stay at a motel. Since SW, LB and me (no, you don’t know these people) are all new to the US and wanted to visit Joshua Tree National Park on this weekend we ended up staying in the bleak town of Banning. It looks exactly like the hunreds of towns and villages which we all know from American road movies. Flat buildings housing stores, diners and motels in a long row on a wide street.

High technology is not known here. SW had booked a room via internet more than 24 hours in advance. When we arrived the clerk told us that they didn’t have any non-smoking rooms available and asked when we had made the reservation. SW told her that it was in the late evening. “Oh, we might have been closed then.” Isn’t that exactly why internet booking was invented? Anyway, we had to use a smoking room. None of us is a smoker but the smell in the room was unpleasant. Plus, it was only 20 m away from the highway.

For dinner we went to a diner next door where we had some nicely grilled meat and seafood which was quite cheap, thanks to the mighty Euro. Even more exciting than the food were the people. We spent some time watching them handling their annoying brats, chatting with the waiters and moving their clumsy bodies around the place. Ah, sweet arrogance.

Our waitress Tracy (according to her nametag), having been asked about a bar to have a couple of drinks by LB, recommended the Mystique Lounge inside the Morongo Casino. “Just get on the Freeway and drive east, only five exits.” The idea of having pubs and bars within walking distance seems to be unknown in this country. Finding it was easy, as it is visible from miles away. A high-rise building with a huge flashing display on the top in the middle of this arid wasteland. Free entrance, cheap drinks and a cool blues band made the visit worthwile. Also, the people in this place were even more fun to watch. Middle-aged white men trying to be cool, some black dudes actually being cool, young chicks screaming in annoyingly high voices and dressed-up philanderers drooling with horniness – what a crowd! There was a bouncer whom we didn’t notice when we got in. Obviously he was in charge of regulating the influx of people. When he noticed us he asked me how we got in. I honestly replied: “We went through that door over there.” He walked away swearing, only to return with flashy plastic wristlets which he attached to mine and SW’s arms (surprisingly not to LB’s). I thought this would be my next throw-out experience but with the wristlet everything was fine. The meaning of this procedure remains a riddle to me.

So with all the free live music and cheap drinks, how do they make money? It’s a casino (hence the name). The main room was filled with thousands of gambling machines and almost every one of them was occupied. We couldn’t begin to estimate how much money was being made every minute in this room. Also, I have no idea why people play these games. You invest money that you basically lose but you get nothing in return. Other than arcade games these machines don’t even feature any cheezy graphics!

Eventually we left the place with the conclusion that it was worth seeing but definitely not staying.