Here comes the Trojan Marching Band.

Face to face with a French Horn.

Saxophones getting down.

Traveler didn't have much to do until the Trojans started scoring late in the game.

I hope the University of Arizona Kitty Cat had a nice visit to Los Angeles. But what's up with those shorty shorts?

Now you can show your support of USC by eating cardinal and gold tortilla chips.

Life on the Other Side

Spent a lovely Thursday on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevadas. Perfect weather for lots of driving.

The historic Mono County Courthouse.

A church in Bridgeport on the edge of town, literally.

Sometimes you can just tell a place is going to be great. Walker Burger (in Walker, California) certainly was.

The only bad view in Mono County.

Surf or Ski

Spent Monday and Tuesday at a client meeting at the Four Seasons Biltmore Hotel in Santa Barbara.

That hotel is about as sweet as it gets.

The weather was stunning, especially Monday. Driving up on 101 along the coast I had the clearest view of the Channel Islands I ever remember.

Giant orchids in the restaurant.

Croquet anyone?

Crossing the Sierra Nevadas today from Sacramento I was surprised to see snow on the ground near the pinnacle. I guess it's that time of the year, whether I'm ready or not.

Apparently it snowed about 4 inches this morning, but the roads were clear and dry by the time I was on them in the late afternoon.

Wednesday night I had a superlative dinner in the Steak House at the Carson Nugget Casino in Carson City, Nevada. I was very impressed by the outstanding service and food.

When was the last time you were served sorbet -- to cleanse the palate -- between the appetizer and the entree for a dinner costing less than $25? Heck, when was the last time you were served a sorbet course at all?

Obscured View

Flew into the Imperial Airport yesterday in the middle of a sandstorm. The pilot had to circle a few times in order to see the runway. As you can imagine, it was very bumpy on the way down due to the very high winds.

I spent today at a convention in Downtown Los Angeles for work, missing my first USC home football game in many, many years (maybe 8 years). I wonder if anything out of the ordinary happened at the game?

Visibility was reduced to just a few feet during the sandstorm.

This is what the airfield looked like a few hours later -- after the sandstorm had blown through.

I don't want to say few people use the Imperial Airport, but a couple of employees were throwing a football along the main corridor when I walked in.

Complying

Stopped off at Casa de Fruta in Hollister today -- one of the greatest roadside fruit stands in California.

(I think there's a law that all cars driving over the Pacheco Pass must stop here and buy something.)

There's lots to look at while getting out of the car and stretching your legs. And the smell of garlic is pretty strong too.

Well, I guess my personal boycott of Hilton Hotels is over.

Ever since the Conrad Hotel in Istanbul tried to overcharge me by $1000 in February -- and Hilton Hotels failed to take any action on my complaints -- I've taken my business to Starwood Hotels.

Over the past couple of months I've been traveling a fair amount and keep having trouble sending outgoing emails from my hotel room from my work email account. Emails from my personal AOL account always go out with no problem.

Our company's IT guys tell me the problem is with the security settings of the hotels I'm staying at.

I've spent hours on the phone to India getting technical support at various Starwood hotels. Most annoying, the "test" emails to Bangalore always go through -- leaving the tech support guys suspicious when I assure them the rest of my emails aren't getting out.

But I know they're not because I keep having "you mean you didn't get my email" conversations the next day.

Yesterday, after I had the same problem at a Starwood Hotel in San Francisco it dawned on me that maybe the problem is systemwide with Starwood Hotels. So I checked out and moved to the San Francisco Hilton.

Sure enough, I fired up my laptop tonight and have been sending emails (and getting responses) all night long.

I guess it feels good to be home.

Fun Food Day

Breakfast was a Country Waffles in Hanford. (Not so good.)

Lunch was at the Happy Burger Diner in Mariposa. Excellent!

Dinner was at Max's off of Union Square in San Francisco.