Well, we are on the last leg of our trip. Got into Minneapolis tonight just before 10 PM, checked into the Sofitel by 11. This hotel rocks, by the way.

We’ve only stayed in one bad hotel this trip and it was a Radisson. I made Dave promise never to make me stay in a Radisson again. They use Wayport for internet access and I have never been able to get Wayport to let me send email. I can download and browse the web (albeit s-l-o-w-l-y) but can’t send email. I would have fired off a scathing email to them, but I couldn’t get it to go.

So … since I last posted we have stayed in three other hotels and had five meetings. Our mileage in California came to 1006 miles. We traveled from Bakersfield to Santa Monica to Pismo Beach to Carmel to San Francisco to San Rafael to Santa Rosa to Stockton to Modesto to Sacramento. It’s been crazy but good. One more meeting and we’re home.

I’m looking forward to getting home, walking my dog, playing violin, digging in the garden. I always feel like I’ve dropped off the planet when I travel. It’s hard to remember what I’m supposed to be doing. Maybe someday I’ll figure out how to keep my equilibrium on the road.

Yesterday we had a meeting with a showroom owner in Woodland Hills in the morning. Then we met Dave’s brother for lunch in Santa Monica.

We spent the afternoon driving around with Jason. He had an errand to run at Paramount Studios so we tagged along and got an informal tour of the backlot. The above photo is water tank B where they filmed the oceanic battle scenes in the Winds of War mini-series.

We also drove by a location Jason scouted recently for a new Disney Channel series called “Lincoln Heights.” It was an ordinary-looking house in a slightly down-at-the-heels neighborhood, but it was what passes a crack house in the minds of studio executives. Here’s a photo:

They added the chainlink fence and quite a few other features to match the house used in the series pilot. I guess the original house was too far away to use for filming the regular series.

On the way back to Santa Monica, we drove through the Hanover Park area, filled with beautiful homes valued in the millions. All I can say is that people in California are either in hock up to their eyeballs or are all just fabulously wealthy.

After relaxing a little bit at the hotel, we had dinner at Wabi-Sabi in Venice. Today we’re heading up the coast for a meeting in Buellton.