Los Angeles. Love/Hate Relationship. Part 4 of series.

Be sure you have read Los Angeles. Love/Hate. Part 3 , Los Angeles. Love/Hate. Part 2 , and Los Angeles. Love/Hate. Part 1 prior to reading this post...

My ex, Bart, and I, along with our 2 cats, Chloe and Zuma, loaded up my roughly 8 year old Volvo 740 station wagon, which I had recently bought from my stepmother, and drove from Capitol Hill in Washington, DC and headed to West Hollywood. We left right after Christmas planning to arrive in West Hollywood for New Years Day 1997.

Bart had bought me this stuffed Energizer Bunny for Christmas so we took it along the way and took pictures of it at given destinations on our journey. Mind you, we didn't have smart phones, but film cameras, so we only took so many and not all were worthy of keeping. Not to mention, I was a little overzealous spring cleaning a year or so ago.  

We went through parts of Shenandoah National Park crossing through Virginia. We drove to, but didn't go into Dollywood (I wasn't sure the cats were into a day of rides and shows and all...). We went to Nashville, which was so much smaller then than I know it to be now. We stopped in Memphis, which I only remember as somewhat scary, and I was moving from DC having also lived in Baltimore. I've been back since, just last year in fact, and while far from a gem, was far more impressed and in fact somewhat charmed. But, I am a fan of jazz and blues and like just a little edgy. We stopped in a "little place called Hope" the birthplace of Bill Clinton and spent the night in Little Rock. I recall they had this gay mega-complex of a nightclub in what was literally a warehouse. You entered an industrial complex and found it by knowing it was the place with a line outside. It had 4 or more different types of bars on multiple floors, one was country with two-stepping, another had drag shows, one had music, I forget beyond that what was there. I have no idea what Little Rock is like today. 

It was fun torturing my Proud Republican Ex through Clinton stomping grounds. I never knew why he was a Republican. He seemed to enjoy being the black sheep of his family in every way possible. His father was a the Director of Corrections in Nebraska, "Joe the Jailer" his obituary said he was nicknamed. Bart often joked about the fact that he was born in prison as he was born in a prison in Illinois that his father ran at the time. I never knew his parents but met a few of his siblings over the time we were together. Bart, to my knowledge, was the only Republican of the bunch. His father's career was party aligned. Bart talked about Christmas at the governor's mansion, presumably a Democratic governor at the time. But, he was/is (?) a Republican...

From Little Rock we passed through the northern tip of Texas and into New Mexico. We spent 2 nights in Albuquerque at a motel where we had forgotten to tell the front desk that we had pets. This created quite a stir with housekeeping. We were scolded when we returned from a day trip to Santa Fe. I was selfishly yet also justifiably only concerned about the well-being of my "children." I was being cheap in not wanting to pay a pet fee (again), but I also felt the cats needed a break and were more likely to eat, rest and use the litter box if not in the car for a day. Besides being ahead of our schedule, I felt this was a good time to rest us before continuing our journey, and the kids (Zuma a boy, Chloe a girl) had nothing to gain looking at pottery, jewelry and art pieces in Santa Fe...

We spent New Years Eve in Phoenix. The city was much smaller at the end of 1996, though in many ways much the same as I think of it now. It is very sprawling, though admittedly I think that sprawl has not only significantly expanded but know it has "filled in" significantly over the last 20+ years. It has had a changing population as you not only have more snowbirds that are there part-time, but more people who have migrated from other parts of the country and many more immigrants as well. But my impressions in 1996, and even today remain the same, are that it lacks much history and any real sophistication. I am sure that will piss off some readers, but as someone who has traveled almost all of the US, many parts over and over, who is well travelled abroad, there isn't much to talk about when talking about Phoenix. Scottsdale is just not that impressive. The Galleria is just a mall and now who goes to a mall? I will give credit that they do know how to make desert landscape impressive versus just forcing landscaping that does not belong. We had a nice time over New Years Eve. There were some that were favorable to our moving to L.A., which we didn't get much in our travels, while there were also many others who had moved from L.A. to Phoenix.

The next morning we headed off to begin our California dream together and my second one having lived in San Francisco in the early 90s before going to DC.