Halfway Around The World 2017
Los Angeles, California
Hold onto your hats because I had a very busy 2 and a half days in the greater Los Angeles area.
My flight from Honolulu to LAX was actually quite good, nobody in the middle seat which was a rare bonus.
Upon exiting the baggage claim, the Uber app was absolutely positive I was still in Hanoi so I took a conventional taxi to my AirBnB in Hawthorne. USD $36 instead of about USD $12 on Uber. Better get that app working fast!
My AirBnB host is a former Thai police officer. She married an American and moved to Los Angeles. He died three years ago so she’s trying to figure out what to do with her life. I can certainly empathize with her.
More jet lag but managed to get about 4 hours of sleep. I loaded all of my destinations into the Uber app and headed off to the first, the studios of the TMRO YouTube channel. TMRO is a weekly everything-about-space show. They’ve been going for 10 years and I’ve been following them for about 2 years. If you’re interested in space, I recommend checking them out.
After a long Uber ride, I arrived at their address in Anaheim and went upstairs and found Ben and Duta talking about the process of upgrading their audio and video equipment, which is very impressive for this kind of operation. I then met Cariann, Kat and Jared, and sat quietly just off-set as they did the intro and news section. A planned interview was cancelled due to the interviewee’s Skype problems, so they did a round table discussion on the pros and cons of colonizing the Moon and/or Mars. After everything wrapped up, I thanked them for their hard work to bring us the latest and greatest information, in a fun and entertaining way. As with anything, people like to complain but the TMRO team is doing a really great job and I’m happy to support them on Patreon.
I then jumped into another Uber and went to Historic Park near downtown Los Angeles where the National Drive Electric Week event was happening. I knew the timing would be tight but I got there with only about 20 minutes to go. I raced through the event taking pictures and video of Teslas, BMW cars and motorcycle, an Audi and the Chevy Bolt as things were wrapping up. I got the last test drive of the day in an electric city car by the blueLA car sharing organization. They’re just getting ready to launch and it looks like they may be successful.
From there I walked about 2 miles into downtown LA and had fish & chips and red beer at Grand Central Market.
I walked another 2 miles to a cinema and saw the new “It” movie. Very well done, good acting by the kids.
After a glorious 11 hour sleep, I went to the California Science Center to see Space Shuttle Endeavour. This will be my second shuttle after seeing Atlantis at the Cape. The rather poor Uber ride earned the driver 2 stars. I would have given him one star but we didn’t have an actual collision. I had made a tour appointment online and time was getting tight due to blocked off roads in the area due to an American Hand-Egg Game, or Football as the locals call it. I saw multiple massive RVs parked in the Science Center’s parking lot. People were dressed in Hand-Egg regalia and watching the game on a TV mounted to the side of the vehicle. Hey this area is for science nerds, bitches!
With 10 minutes to go until my 1 pm appointment, I raced through the center, as people pointed the way down some hallway when I showed them my appointment barcode. I finally get to the space shuttle and asked the girl at the desk where to meet for the 1 pm tour. She says “There’s no tour.” “Then what did I sign up for at 1 pm.” “Oh that’s just so we don’t get too many people in the Center at once.” Damn.
So I walked back to the start of the exhibit and looked at everything in detail and took a ton of pictures. I did the Endeavour simulator from launch to Hubble repair to landing, pretty well done with an enclosed capsule, big screen and hydraulic pistons. They also showed the video of bringing Endeavour to LA and driving it through the streets to the center. At one point it was towed by a Toyota pickup truck as an advertising gimmick, that says something about the crawler’s weight and balance.
I finally make my way back to the shuttle – damn! Tingles! I spent about an hour looking at the timeline of all shuttle missions and then the ship itself. It’s mounted horizontally on short earthquake-resistant poles. If I was 4 feet taller I think I could have almost touched the tiles, but of course I would never do that!
A docent was talking with a group of clueless tourists about fun space facts, I was cringing on most of them but it was close enough for the space unwashed I suppose. Yes, I am an unrepentant space nerd.
On the way out, I spotted the genuine Gemini 11 capsule crewed by Pete Conrad and Dick Gordon and a Mercury capsule flown by Ham the Chimpanzee 4 months before Alan Shepard was the first American to fly in space. They also had Ken Mattingly’s space suit from his Apollo 16 mission.
I jumped in an Uber and went to Fry’s Electronics to buy lots of electrical goodies for my projects back home. It didn’t have a couple of things I was looking for, like better quality connectors and Arduino boards, so I’ll keep looking.
I walked to a nearby cinema and saw American Assassin. When the price requested was less than what I saw on the sign, I asked and the little ticket kid told me he gave me the senior discount, which was listed as 60+. Well, OK if you want to give it to me, I’ll take it, but I’m not happy you little whippersnapper!
If this weekend felt epic so far, you aint seen nothing yet. The reason I picked the Hawthorne area is because it is home to SpaceX, the Tesla Design Studio, the Hyperloop test track and the Boring Company, all in the space of a couple of blocks. And of course, all of this is the result of Elon Musk thinking really, really big.
On Monday morning I walked north toward the main SpaceX building and about half a mile away I saw a tiny pole sticking up in the distance. As I got closer, it resolved into a SpaceX booster rocket. This rocket launched itself into space and then landed itself automatically. And it’s 11 stories high. And it’s now sitting in a parking lot in Los Angeles. You can’t make this stuff up!
I walked down an alley towards the Tesla building and saw lots of cool rocket parts sitting on palettes. I didn’t take any pictures because I didn’t want to get arrested or something. I arrived at the Design Center and its iconic supercharger station with solar-topped carports. Most of the spaces were used with people charging up Model Ss and Xs. I went into the lobby and chatted with the security guys. They pointed me towards the Hyperloop so I walked out and spotted it on the other side of the road.
Hyperloop is a white metal tube that goes down the side of a city street for a mile, as far as the eye can see. I did notice a gap which I assume is a section that’s pulled out to let traffic through when they’re not testing, and then bolted back into place during the competitions. I was there just after the second round of University testing and the Technical University of Munich won, running their pod at 201 mph. Elon’s eventual goal is 700+ mph on a real hyperloop between cities. Sign me up!
After all this excitement I completely forgot to find The Boring Company’s hole in the ground and the start of the tunnel under Hawthorne. Ah, next time!
Back to the AirBnB to pack, then a ride to Union Station in downtown Los Angeles. The driver was Armenian and apologized for his (not) poor English. With the help of Google Translate, when he dropped me off I said “Shat shnorhakalutâyun”. I’m sure I botched the pronunciation but his face lit up nevertheless.
I’m heading up to the San Luis Obispo area halfway to San Francisco to hang out with old friends, so I booked a business class seat on the Amtrak Pacific Surfliner. Reading the fine print I noticed I get to go into the Metropolitan Lounge, it almost feels like I’m back in Europe on my Eurail pass. The free snacks were nice but then we were given a ride in an electric cart right to the door of the business class car on the train. Sweet!
Going north the train passes through the area of Vandenberg Air Force Base where both SpaceX and United Launch Alliance have launch pads. The timing was right for an Atlas V ULA launch 3 days ahead, but it was just turning dusk and the fog rolled in so I couldn’t see the rocket on the pad.
Sean picked me up at the train station and we stopped for Cool Ranch Doritos, DC, milk, cereal and fruit, so I’m good for a week or so!
Next up: The Most Awesome Geeky Tesla Thing Ever. And it came true so I can talk about it!
Videos:
TMRO: https://youtu.be/z-wyYyYsrXA
National Drive Electric Week: https://youtu.be/TVffnwz4JWg
Space Shuttle Endeavour: https://youtu.be/7Wvj_UoIoPI
SpaceX / Tesla Design Studio / Hyperloop: https://youtu.be/ot5fujkAptU
