Yeah, yeah, yeah — the beagle actually landed four weeks ago. I know that. I thought of this title the day after writing “It’s a Wrap,” my first post LA/XC-2 report, and have been wishing I’d used it ever since. Sort of the way Barack felt, I’m sure, on October 4, when he thought of all his great comeback lines a day late. Btw, if you’re wondering why the phrase “The eagle has landed” rings a bell, it’s from the first Apollo landing: “Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed.” (Of
course I just googled this. You think I’d know something like that?)
You may have noticed — or not — that I haven’t posted in over three weeks, since October 7. (Yes, I know, Ricky — you’ve already written 3 Roof Rack Reports since then. Good boy.) In my last installment, I promised one final LA/XC-2 post, to gather up all my “Random Road Notes” that never made it into Beagle Man while Ricky and I were on the road. That’s what today’s post is about. I want to get these bits down before the memories fade. And I want you to have something to read if you ever get your internet back after Hurricane Sandy. Our power is still out, but all in all, it wasn’t that bad. A tragedy
was averted when a large tree that toppled in Ricky’s run miraculously missed his doghouse by a hair. Ricky has never set paw in that doghouse —not even once — but still . . . In one of the hurricane’s lighter moments, Ricky and I spotted a local football-dad-friend who lives down near Southport Beach watching the waves and drinking a beer at 11 AM on Monday. “He does this for
every hurricane,” his wife said. For me, it was kind of hard to take a storm named after my sister too seriously.
One reason I’ve been so slow in getting to these Random Road Notes is that since Ricky and I got back to CT on October 1, I’ve been kind of busy putting together the final details for Carol’s Big Birthday Blowout in Austin, which we just got back from Sunday afternoon. Great party, if
I do say so myself. Highlight was a private concert by Trish Murphy, an Austin singer-songwriter Carol and I both love, at Maggie Mae’s on Sixth Street. And to the Beagle Man followers who wimped out and left before the end of the weekend because of Hurricane Sandy, Saturday night at the Broken Spoke (“Last of the True Texas Dance Halls”) was far out! Ricky, btw, did not make this trip; I’m sure you’ll be hearing from him about this down the road. But he was in Austin with me last month, when we passed through on our search-and-reserve mission — which I cleverly passed off in this space as a sight-seeing stop. Every once in a while, I can be one sneaky Beagle Man! Ricky left his mark in Austin, pooping in the
front hallway of Maggie Mae’s the very moment we arrived.
So there was Austin last weekend, and L.A. next weekend for the USC-Oregon game (which would have been huge had not SC stunk up the field against Arizona on Saturday) and an Eric Church concert. Makes me think there might be something to it when my friend Ilene, after hearing that I’d driven to both Vermont and Montauk within days after arriving home from a month of travel with a dog, wrote: “You aren’t just Beagle Man; you are clearly Wanderlust Dude, too . . . “
And now . . . the final roundup of Random Road Notes:
• Best tour guide: Robby’s friend Dylan, showing me the Penn State campus step by step
• Best restaurant meal: Mastro’s in Beverly Hills; Bones in Atlanta (tie)
• Best east-west interstate: I-40 (excellent condition, relatively speaking; great
cities)
• Worst east-west interstate: I-80 (perpetual construction; deadly dull landscape)
• Easiest GPS instructions to follow: “Take ramp right. Drive 413 miles . . . ” (from Elko, Nevada to Oakland on I-80 West)
• Worst road name: Traffic Street (Shreveport, Louisiana)
• Current country song most likely to make you bop up and down in the driver’s seat: Pontoon, by Little Big Town
• Funniest T-shirt message: “You look like I need a drink” (Qualcomm Stadium, San Diego)
• Strangest moment: In downtown Sedona when, out of nowhere, Lady Garmin starting giving me directions in Afrikaans . . .
• Worst name for a candidate for local legislature: Larry Boring (Hoxie, Texas)
• Cutest town name: Dubberly (Louisiana)
• Scariest sign: PARKING AREA; NO SECURITY PROVIDED (as if I wasn’t freaked out enough just being in Mississippi)
• Why-Am-I-Not-Surprised-To-Find-This-Sign-In-Tallapoosa-Alabama: Butts-n-Ribs — Next exit
• Coolest feeling: Arriving at my niece’s house in Menlo Park, CA — and thinking, I drove here . . .
And now, I’d like to announce a brand-new Beagle Man contest. The consultant who helps me with “social media” from time to time has asked me to use certain key words and phrases in my posts in order to . . . I don’t know what. (This is right around where I stopped listening.) But for whatever reason, for the month of November, I’ll be using these words or phrases. The contest will be to see who can find the highest number of them. To do: Start noting these usages throughout the month of November in my posts, and then send them to Beagle Man via “comment” starting on December 1. All entries must be received by December 15. The winner gets a beautiful white-on-black Beagle Freedom Project rubber bracelet I picked up at the Pet Medical Center in Santa Monica when I almost crushed Ricky’s paw in the revolving door.
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