Cows and Cars The only site (and smell) of note on the stretch of I-5 between SF and LA is Harris Ranch.  In gross-looking fields by the interstate, THOUSANDS of cattle are packed within inches of each other, chewing cud and crapping their brains out.  At the next exit, there's a huge steakhouse where you can eat them.

Depending on which way the wind is blowing, you can smell the fields far in advance of when you can actually see them - a horrible, penetrating stench that fills the car.  Each trip, I think about stopping in at the (supposedly tasty) steakhouse, mostly just for how messed up the whole experience would inevitably be, but the drive is SO unappetizing that I can't bring myself to eat there, even ironically.

Still, part of me has come to look forward to 'cowschwitz,' as it's often called - it serves as a nice way to mark my progress on what is a pretty uneventful trip. 

These days, I've been bringing along an audiobook to make it go by faster, though this time I thought I'd try a few of these 'podcasts' all the crazy kids are talking about. 

Did two episodes of This American Life - really, really great, and only recently available via podcast.  Also, in a rare piece of alumni correspondence that wasn't asking me for money, I found out that several of my former professors now have select lectures online.  I obviously hadn't done any reading on the topics (much like my lecture experience when I was actually in college), but the John Gaddis and Bob Woodward ones I listened to were big picture enough that it didn't matter.

Somewhere in the middle of all that, I busted out the debut rap album from a former male prostitute/heroin addict.  After the fact, it's proving far more hummable than 'American Foreign Policy: Multilateralism or Unilateralism.'

(above photo from flickr)