Mountain goats mini-tour of Southern California

So we were in California for Christmas, and as it is the easiest time for R. to take a few holidays, we decided to do a mini-road trip. But we had no time to plan or research it, so we decided the easiest thing to do was pick a theme and follow the road. 

The Pacific Ocean - from the other side!

As we were in California we decided that doing a mini-Mountain Goats Tour would be fun. So we brainstormed some of our favourite Mountain Goats songs and where they referenced locations in Southern California. We also chucked in a few extra locations on the way for good measure! Let the adventure begin!

We had a playlist filled with the Mountain Goats and songs referencing California (apparently it knows how to party). We took the Pacific Coast highway - which R. had promised to do in his visa interview - through Santa Cruz, stopping for lunch in Big Sur, driving over the bridge, and coming into San Luis Obispo (SLO)! 

San Luis Obispo: "Happiest City in America"

SLO is a reference from one of my favourite Mountain Goats songs so I was pretty pumped! We also had read that it was a small University town, so we imagined it as an American version of the city we met in. Coincidentally, they had a bar of the same name as our regular haunt in Dunedin! (Eureka!) So it was an easy decision as to where we should have dinner! We wandered the city for a bit trying to imagine what it would have been like to grow up there. We then sat down to dinner at Eureka! Looking over the menu I had a brain fade as I read through the ingredients of the salad I ordered. So as it was placed in front of me I clicked - aren’t watermelon pop rocks a type of candy?! So we were very amused as my salad popped away through the meal. Our selections of beer and dessert were much more successful than my main!

A touch of Berlin located in SLO

Pop Rocks and Salad, the culinary equivalent to Romeo + Juliet

It looked so good I didn't even pause for a photo before tasting it!

"Alright I'm on Johnson Avenue in San Luis Obispo ..."

The next morning we drove the length of Johnson Avenue looking for a two storied house that looked like John Darnielle  might have lived there. I was surprised that R. had thought that it was going to be in a dodgier neighborhood, as I hadn’t really read that into the song - but we will get to my rose-colored glasses later. 

Then we hit the highway again, sticking to the coast, Santa Barbara, lunch at Malibu, looking around L.A. We spent some time debating whether we should book “into a bargain priced room on La Cienega” or get a motel in San Bernardino, eventually settling on San Bernardino because it is one of my favourite songs! 

Now, I’m not going to say that all of San Bernardino is dodgy - because I’m sure there are some nice parts, and it is highly likely that we just got off at the wrong turn off! We decided on one of the two motels that were open, we checked ourselves in, and as we were carrying our suitcase to the room we saw a pimp dropping off a prostitute. 

The old school phone in our San Bernardino motel room

Once we reached the safe, though unsanitary, haven of our room we exchanged a look before laughing at the situation we had landed in. We wondered how much better motels on La Cienega would be. I wondered aloud how such a lovely song must have been written about a different motel in San Bernardino! R paused and looked confused. 

“What kind of motel did you picture a couple of runaways giving birth in?”

“Giving birth? What? No I’m talking about San Bernardino!”

“… maybe we should listen to it again eh?”

*listen to San Bernardino*

*pause*

“Yep, that’s what that song is about …. I don’t know how I missed that"

We ventured out to find some dinner, the MacDonalds had closed down (didn’t even know that was possible!) and In and Out burger was the only food establishment open, so we had some of that (the other promise R had made in his visa interview). As we arrived back at our motel we found the pimp tooting his horn and the prostitute coming out of her room. 

Joshua Trees!

We lived through the night and ventured on to another few sites, spotted some Joshua Trees, and drove home via the desert. I feel like we each had our own new insights into The Mountain Goats, and what is more special is that now we have a collection of our own memories to associate with our favourite songs! Which I have appreciated all the more since I flew back to Berlin. 

I still can’t believe I misunderstood San Bernardino so drastically, but I maintain that, though they are in a desperate situation, there is love and a thread of hope in the lyrics!