Part 3: San Bernardino, Ring-a-Ding-Ding

This is Part 3 of my Road Trip Across America story. 

    After hiking and camping in Joshua Tree I was tired, so I decided to stop in San Bernardino for the night. I drove around downtown San Bernardino for a bit but didn’t see much that interested me. There were some breweries around, so my plan of action was to grab a drink and ask some of the locals if there are any neat areas to visit. There were some dudes playing the ring game inside, so I decided to ask them. Specifically, I asked if there were any alternative places. I wanted a place that had graffiti and art on the building walls, neat shops, a hangout place, or at least a place with some stickers tagged on the walls. Their answer wasn’t very satisfying, though they did point me to Orange Street Alley in Redlands, CA.

 

            Orange Street Alley has an alley that has a bunch of colorful umbrellas hanging from the roofs. There are also some bars and restaurants around. I got there just before most of the restaurants opened, so I found a bench to sit down and read for a few minutes. Quite a few people walk around this area. At one point, a black guy riding on a bike that was too small for him rode around my bench. I didn’t pay much attention. Then he did it once again. This time he said, “I have some bitches coming over. They like beards and shit.” (It should be noted that this writer, at the time of this trip, did have a beard and, perhaps also, shit.) And he just rode off, I’m assuming, to said bitches. I would never find out if they, indeed, liked beards and shit. But in California anything is possible. After eating, I drove up to north San Bernardino to find a hotel. 

 

            Now the unavoidable question. I know many of you are asking, “did you visit the first McDonald’s?” The answer I have for you, dear reader, is that I did not. How, as an American, did I somehow forget to visit the first McDonald’s? Perhaps second only to the original Walmart in Arkansas, this is (or at least should be) a National Landmark (or some would say). The simple answer is that I had no interest in visiting the home of Ronald McDonald, the Big Mac, Golden Arches, and those sodium infused, wonderfully delicious fries. In fact, I only visited one McDonald’s the entire trip, and only because it was so late that no other restaurant was open.

 

            And so concludes my trip to San Bernardino.

The Umbrellas in Orange Street Alley