road trip!

Since letterpress as a hobby is more about the journey than the destination, I thought it was appropriate to share a little of our journey, literally, between San Francisco and Los Angeles - roundtrip in approximately 15 hours - to pick up my new (er, old!) printing press. (Clicking on the pics significantly enlarges them.)



1. We flew into Orange County Saturday morning, rented a mid-size SUV, and drove to Garden Grove. We found the press, thrillingly, in beautiful condition and strapped it into the back of the car. Shortly thereafter, we turned around to head back home.


2. We drove home via I5, some 460.6 miles, stopping for lunch at a taqueria in Los Angeles where, incidentally, we also had a Jimmy Kimmel sighting. Afterward, the horizon was in the distance, the sun setting to our left, and we passed cacti and cornfields, feeding cattle and open countryside. There were vineyards laden with grapes, and we smelled onions, and passed trucks hauling tomatoes upstate.


3. We stopped for dinner at Harris Ranch, where I hadn't been since my adolescence. The tomato beef salad hit the hunger spot.


4. And then, finally, the Craftsmen platen press met San Francisco, sometime after midnight. Some names were discussed, including Shirley and Henrietta, but I prefer calling her plain old "Red." And she's not just red -- rather, as her former owner said, she's "red hot." A shade I've heard referred to as "ox blood."

A huge thanks goes out to my husband for his company, and for keeping his calm - even when we nearly missed our flight and went running through the airport, were pulled out of the security line and boarded our plane with minutes to spare; and when, before that, the long-term parking lot was full; and for all those times I freaked out on the 405 because LA drivers are a different breed. Another big thanks to my brother Mike for driving out Sunday morning to help my husband carry the press into our apartment. For all my weight training at the gym, nearly 200 pounds of free weight in an awkwardly shaped package was more than I could handle.

It was a long day, but a good adventure, and the journey, as it were, is just beginning.