(As it turns out, not so) Quick thoughts

I'm really struggling with this travel blog thing. There's so much I want to write about, and so many pictures we've taken, but I'm usually tired, and rarely have access to an adequate PC. Case in point - I'm sitting at a communal PC right in front of the check-in desk at the Memphis Downtown Comfort Inn, where old people keep giving me dirty looks because of my t-shirt (My Unearth T-shirt which says "Boston Fucking Metal" in giant letters on the back.) A geriatric woman has just said to me "Do you think that's appropriate?". I should have said "It's 11:30pm, shouldn't you be asleep? In fact, shouldn't you have had the courtesy to fucking die 15 years ago so that people you meet would be saved the horrendous reminder of the ravages of time that we all have to look forward to?" Of course, I didn't, because I'm polite and choose to seethe impotently rather than inconvenience others.

Anyway, the tiredness and lack of access to PCs means that memories are bottled up, inevitably losing their verve and immediacy, while new experiences and events are jostling them for real estate in my extraordinarily limited short-term memory.

This post is an attempt to dump some of those thoughts. Chronological ordering will fly out the window at this point, since once Jo and I have the luxury of time and a PC where we can upload our photos, we will want to revisit certain memories in more detail.

San Diego
I loved San Diego. It's quite a bit like LA, but not as sprawling, and LA's size is one of its failings as a tourist friendly city. On our first day, our gracious host Dave printed out a list of things that we might like to do, and like any self-respecting 'kidult', we fixated on one thing: motherfucking Legoland. Photos to come.

Sea World etc. has already been covered, so I just want to say 2 more things about San Diego. First, the mexican food. The city is 18 miles from the border so there is a lot of authentic mexican food around. The tacos are NOTHING like the finely ground, sadly spiced beef served on bent corn chips and topped with ketchupy salsa that pass as tacos in Australia. Here you get interesting fillings, topped with finely diced, fresh vegetables, in your choice of flour or corn soft-tortilla, with your choice (from a self-serve bar) of any number of fresh salsas that are made daily. You want to know about interesting fillings? Here's a conversation that went down in Roberto's:

Dopey asian tourist: What the hell is cabezas?

Proprietor (with some relish at the prospect of horrifying said tourist, and with the kind of accent only heard on Cypress Hill albums and Robert Rodriguez movies): Cabeza eez the HEAD.

D.A.T: Oh, fucking awesome, give me two of those.

They were delicious. It's only boring fuckers like Anglo Australians and young poms (ooooh racist stereotype!) that don't appreciate interesting meat, and they should be disqualified from having anything to say about meat on the basis that breast is their preferred cut of chicken. The rest of us appreciate an ox-tail soup, any number of tripe dishes and blood sausages, and beef head tacos. The carnitas (crispy pulled pork) and fish tacos were also awesome.

Secondly, there are beaches in San Diego where you can watch seals frolic. They're seals! And they frolic! On human beaches!!!

I'm adding San Diego to my short list of "Cities I think I could live in." (the list currently consists of Sydney, Rotterdam, Paris, NYC, and San Diego.)

Memphis
We got to Memphis last night and I'm still jet-lagged. Just as I was getting used to California time, we flew most of the way across to the east coast and confused our bodies further.

Today, we hit the Rock and Soul Museum first up. It was very good, but as I am a philistine when it comes to music and thus unfamiliar with many of the early blues/rock/country musicians, I didn't enjoy it as others might have. Then we hit the Gibson Guitar Factory, which was awesome. It's not a tourist attraction, it's a genuine guitar factory which runs factory tours, so you get to see luthiers at work. After seeing the sweat that goes into each guitar (even in a mass production environment), I'm beginning to understand why the guitars that Jo drools over cost more than my car.

Then we went on a Moby Dick type quest for a small, out of the way BBQ restaurant that was recommended to me by internet message board BBQ afficionados. I knew exactly where it was. The problem was that with Americans seemingly being allergic to driving, maps don't always give you the best indication of how you can get to certain locations on foot. Anyway we wandered for over an hour, and I was ready to give up; I wouldn't have if I was on my own, but I was mindful that Jo and I were on this trip together, and she might have better things to do than walk around looking for artfully smoked pork ribs. Luckily for me, Jo was a real trooper, and insisted that we keep looking for the place. We found it, Jo had the pork sandwich, I had the ribs, and it exceeded expectations. Photos and proper description to come when we get to a better computer.

For dinner tonight, we had a Dyer's burger. These burgers are famous in America. The patties are allegedly deep fried in the same oil that they've been using since 1912 (strained daily, of course). The texture of a deep fried pattie is difficult to describe. It barely holds together, and the mouthfeel is like what pate might feel like if it had been soaking in too much grand marnier and was starting to come apart. There was greasy oil sheen ON TOP OF THE BUN. It was delicious. Tomorrow, we hit Graceland.

VP debate
The US election is an amazing spectacle. Even in Australia, I was keeping up with it, because it's an entertaining circus (compared to Howard/Rudd). I had to watch the VP debate, because Palin is functionally retarded and it promised to be gripping train wreck TV. On the way back from Dyer's Burgers on Beale St. I picked up a 6-pack of Tecate beer (I'm impressionable and I recently re-watched Hellboy 2) and settled in for the ride. Overall, Biden was the picture of restraint. There were times when he was audibly (you could hear the sighing) restraining himself from pouncing on Palin, because while everyone knew he could destroy her in an intellectual debate, it could hurt the Obama campaign to have Joe Blow in the street saying "Oh, that horrible old man belittled that woman!"

Here are some running thoughts (It says something about me that with a sixer in my belly, I took notes):

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA Palin respects women's rights. Go charge for some rape kits.

The number of times she employed the "Oh look, we agree on that one little thing! Now let's forget our troubles with a big bowl of strawberry ice cream!" tactic was amazing. She didn't answer any fucking questions. But they both agree that Israel is important, and that's the point, right?

Ok. Apparently Nukuler weapons are about there being too many people? And there are too many parties? And so they're bad? Also, apparently Afghanistan is geographically different to Iraq. Thank you for that primary school analysis of foreign policy, Sarah.

McCain knows how to win a war? Are they employing the "crash planes and be captured" strategy now? Ok, that was a cheap shot, I apologise.

She referred to their ticket as the "Team of Mavericks". Do they have a Fortress of Justice which is in geosynchronous orbit from which they fight crime?

Ok, why would Palin even mention taxes? The everyman knows that the Republicans are fucking them over a barrel in favour of tycoons and corporations. Why would you hand that to Biden on a platter?

Ok, Palin has just given a shout-out to her family in the audience. You are not 18, you're not on Spring Break, and you're not being interviewed by an MTV personality. Fuck.

The whole thing came off as a really bad job interview by an applicant who didn't really prepare, but was still desperate to sell themselves. "These words are in my head, and now they're coming out of my mouth! I'm Sarah Palin!"

I'm going to go eat that pork sandwich I got take away from the BBQ place, now.