Road Trip: Part 2

I was the pilot and Jake was the navigator. I had Jake on Google maps and a local traffic website. He panned through the area and noticed Compton. He got really excited, "Dad, can we go all 'gangsta' and roll through Compton?" What the? Where does this come from? I humored him and told him that I knew where Dr. Dre lived and maybe we could hook up with him and knock back some 40's. He picked up my sarcasm.

As we traversed west on the Artesia Freeway, (only the local old timers call the freeways by name and NOT by number i.e.-the San Burdoo, the Santa Ana, the Long Beach Freeway, etc.), Jake was getting giddy. "Are we in the ghetto now, Dad?" "No, Riverside. Your Grandpa lived here." It was almost like a let down to find out that such a decent man like grandpa lived here. Not quite gangster enough for him. "How 'bout now?" "Fullerton-- your grandma moved here from Salt Lake City, she went to college here, and your great grandparents lived here." When we got to Long Beach I informed him that Snoop Dogg lived here. He started to look for him.

After we got the tool we came for, there seemed to be a few more minutes of daylight so I told him we needed to pay a visit to mother ocean. We headed south to the harbor. I love the ocean. We looped around to San Pedro and headed up the Harbor Freeway, we saw a Torrance sign. I asked him if that had any significance. Nothing. I told him I was born in Torrance. "Whoa, I didn't know you were ghetto, that's cool Dad." He's funny.

It was supper time and I quizzed my son again. "What do you want for dinner?" "Whatever" Ouch. Not the right answer. I explained to him that if we are this close to Tommy's it would be a sin not to partake of it's greasy manna. So went to the nearest one. It was good. It always is.

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!!!