Ladies and gentlemen, I am pleased to say that I am getting quite near to Los Angeles, and should be arriving either late on Sunday night or on Monday morning. In Yiddish terms, one would call this a "schlep."

However, I'm not so pleased to say that I spent last night in the middle of nowhere. Right smack dab in the middle of it. And the nowhere was abounding. The town I stayed in had two traffic lights. The Days Inn I stayed in was run by the same family who ran the Grapevine Cafe across the parking lot, which seemed to be the main attraction of the town as the breakfast regulars included the sheriff, the newspaper delivery guy and one of the employees from a local gas station. The two exit town boasted four gas stations, the Days Inn, a liquor store (thank God for small favors) and a so-called supermarket cleverly disguised as a convenience store. At least the hotel had a pool and, by some miracle of God, HBO. I've become quite the urban snob, haven't I? Although I think there's something to be said for my craving for constant media feed, since it's been starving -- having driven through an area that had only 3 radio stations, 1 of which was in Spanish and another a country station.

In other news, I've gotten into a fight with the car. She believes that as a reward for making this trip for me, she deserves a weeklong vacation in Cabo San Lucas after we arrive in L.A. I said no beans. You can tell I'm kind of starving for human social interaction when I start having full-on conversations with my car, no?