Yesterday,  in my quest for contacts at libraries, stores, etc., I went to the north and east of Los Angeles. I’ve concluded the obvious: California has too many cars. However, in spite of the traffic, surprisingly, I found drivers more careful and polite than in New York. There was some smog, but when it burned off some I was quite taken by the the beauty of the mountains and the beaches (I managed to see two briefly, Santa Monica and Venice). I saw the famous HOLLYWOOD on the hills, but was not as stirred by it as I thought I would be.  I also made it to the famous Huntington Library and spent some time there. What a wonderful bookstore, beautifully landscaped grounds, and art and literature exhibitions.  It also has excellent resources for Western research. I’ll try to have another post on that place later. You can see more of the Huntington Library here: http://www.huntington.org/

Today, I’m off to the desert (one of my other quirky geographical interests) and hope to get some writing done. If you are interested in the desert, there are two movies that you should perhaps see: One is Slow Burn, and the other is the English Patient.

Although I am a committed Southerner, who at this point in life would live nowhere else, I think it is good for me to see California other parts of the country.  And it looks like travel is going to become a greater part of my life. I’m sure there will be many stories in my travels.