Day 6: Homeward Bound

We left Avila this morning and headed north to Hearst Castle, something that we've talked about seeing in the past, but is just far away enough that we've never gotten around to visiting. The tour was nice; I am not sure if I am in awe of the splendor, or disgusted by the excess, but either way, it's a hell of a house. I asked the tour guide if Hearst had ever screened Citizen Kane in his theater; she said no, but I doubt that is true. A lot of the tour seemed to gloss over and whitewash Hearst's past, so I took all of it with a grain of salt. Sand? Whatever it is you take a grain of. Regardless of whether you view Hearst as a Nazi sympathizer or great American capitalist, the idea that this man was spending $10,000 a month on ice for his polar bear at a time when most of the world was plunged in the depths of the Great Depression strikes me as obscene.

After the tour, we headed home, and wrapped up our trip across the western part of America. According to the odometer, we covered more than 1,500 miles. According to the temperature gauge, we went from the low 50s leaving SF to 114 in the Mojave Desert. We played some good (and not so good) poker, ate fantastic food, met interesting people, and didn't kill each other. A successful vacation, indeed.