From: Alex Chaffee [alex@stinky.com]
Sent: Sunday, March 15, 1998 1:57 PM
Subject: Just Desert

So I was in LA for Internet World and decided, fairly impulsively, to
rent a car and drive to the desert. Consider this a postcard. I'm
taking a dam vacation in synchrony with reading Cadillac Desert, which
is an incredible book, highly readable, fun, tragic. I recommend it
highly.

Friday I drove through Death Valley, ended up staying in Beatty,
Nevada, in the Stagecoach Casino and Motel where the reception desk
has a sign that says "Cashier." Yesterday I drove up the Owens River
Valley to Mono Lake (http://www.monolake.org/ , pronounced "Moan-oh",
cause "Mo rhymes with no" the waitress said 7 times last night). The
Owens River is one of the many that were essentially highjacked by
LA. In 1905 the city of LA, through various semi-legal maneuvers,
bought most of the water rights and diverted the flow into the
massive, 225-mile-long LA Aqueduct. Now there's barely a trickle in
the Owens River, while a few miles away the Aqueduct rushes past,
eventually watering lawns in Beverly Hills.

Today I'm driving to Nevada and Area 51. If I don't get abducted, I'll
be in Vegas by nightfall. Tomorrow Hoover Dam and the Grand
Canyon. Then Lake Powell (the catastrophic man-made lake at the head
of the Grand Canyon). I'll say "hi" to a friend in Flagstaff then
hightail it back to LA. From there I'll fly up to San Francisco, stay
the weekend, then attend JavaOne next week. I'll finally come back to
New York sometime in the fiscal second quarter.

So if you're going to be near any of these places, let me know and we
can have some cactus juice in the shade.


Sent: Tuesday, April 14, 1998 4:33 PM
Subject: Re: Party time!

> 
> Rich Santalesa remarked:
> 
> >Gheezz... I'm so glad everyone's vacationing... I hope to get away for
> >a week maybe the end of May... planning a trip to New Mexico..
> 
> i was in new mexico last week... it was divine... a little nippy as 
> they've had such a late winter but really fab. 1,750 miles on the 
> truck... 20 miles of hiking and enough big sky to cleanse the soul.. no 
> email for 8 days. personal record!
> 

I told you all I went to Arizona a few weeks ago, right? I know a few
of you got my postcards from Area 51... 

I drove from LA to Death Valley; stayed the night at a casino in
Beatty, NV; met a friend at Mono Lake (http://www.monolake.org/); got
abducted at Area 51; watched the sun rise at Glen Canyon Dam and set
at the Grand Canyon that same day; watched an Arizona thunderstorm on
the horizon -- every bolt of lightning made my AM radio go "PSHHHHZT";
gazed at the stars for a chilly hour in Flagstaff; pulled off the
Interstate at midnight to drive along Old Route 66 into the middle of
the desert, thinking, "Kerouac drove here at night;" and finally
hightailed it up to San Francisco for JavaOne.

I turned in the rental car with 2862 miles, a dent in the passenger
door, and an indelible stench. People who buy old rental cars and
think they're getting a deal are fooling themselves.

By the way, I realized that rental cars are just like the Java Virtual
Machine. You get in one and it's for all practical purposes identical
to every other rental car regardless of make or model. 

Write once, drive anywhere.

 - A (in SD,CA)

---
Alex Chaffee - Java Consulting and Training - alex@stinky.com