Back Home Again
Jul. 21st, 2019 04:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kevin_standleeSaturday was the first SFSFC Board of Directors meeting after we won the Tonopah Westercon bid, and my committee's report was longer than all of the other SFSFC committees combined, in large part because we don't really have a full-blown Westercon 74 committee in place, and so I'm having to lean upon the SFSFC board (some of whom will be part of WC74) for now until I get everything arranged.
After the meeting, I had multiple errands, one of which was time-constrained. At the recommendation of Andy Trembley and Kevin Roche, I drove down to a thrift store in South San Jose near where they live and bought a large crockery drink serving container they'd seen there. That should be useful for Tonopah hospitality, but it's heavy. It was very inexpensive, however. I might have spent more on fuel in the Rolling Stone than the cost of the crock.
Then the time constraints started to kick in. Lisa had asked me to go to Ham Radio Outlet to buy 50 feet of a particularly type of cable that she's not been able to locate in the Reno area on account of all of the electronic stores are gone. The HRO in Sunnyvale closed a while ago, so the only one available was in Oakland, and it closes at 5:30 PM. However, I'd not had lunch other than a food bar after the SFSFC meeting, so I really had to stop and have something to eat. After that it was an annoyingly slow slog up I-880, which even on a Saturday included a long slowdown that stretched from Union City to near Oakland Airport before finally freeing up. I made it to HRO with 20 minutes to spare and picked up the cable.
Having now pointed in the direction of home, I either needed to back-track to Sunnyvale (not desirable) or keep going. Fortunately, other than another slowdown around the Caldecott Tunnels, it was pretty smooth sailing up to Sacramento, including another meal stop at Cordelia Junction and a fuel stop on the edge of Sacramento at the Pilot 49er Truck Stop. I didn't get to the nursing home until around 9 PM, just as Kelli was getting ready for bed, but I delivered a package of chocolate to her and some other things she'd requested, briefly filled her in on my adventures for the past week, and promised to come visit her around her birthday (first weekend of August).
By now it was too late and I was definitely too tired to go all the way home to Fernley, but there aren't a lot of good places to lay over in this area. (Before you say "Wal-Mart Parking Lot," I note that this is dependent upon the individual store management; it's not a blanket policy.) I thus pushed on to the Gold Run Rest Area on I-80. This is actually a really good place to lay up for the night. You're allowed to stay 8 hours in any 24 hour period (and they didn't closely enforce it; I was actually there closer to ten hours), there's a relatively quiet corner that stays shaded in the morning, and I felt safe. Not fretting over someone banging on your window saying, "Move Along" does wonders for being able to relax. Besides, there were half-a-dozen other vehicles clearly doing exactly what I was doing, plus the fleet of big rigs that clearly had sleeping drivers aboard. I settled down for the night and got the first solid eight hours of sleep I've had in many days.
Here's the spot the next morning just before I set off for home. While getting things switched back from sleeping to driving configuration, I realized that for the first time in I can't remember, I was not in a huge hurry, and could therefore stop and eat at a place whose signs I've seen for years but have never tried.
The Sierra Woods Lodge and adjacent The Rustic Table restaurant are just off I-80 in Emigrant Gap at the Laing Road exit.
I enjoyed my breakfast of scrambled eggs, hash browns, and chorizo and link sausage. I think I like the breakfast at the Wigwam better, but that may be because I've grown accustomed to it and they have to me; this was still pretty good.
The view from my table at the restaurant was very nice. They also have outdoor seating, but I worry about getting sunburned.
After breakfast, I went for a bit of a wander around the grounds, including down here on approximately the opposite view of the photo above.
I was amused by this small cabin that looks like it can be set up as a meeting room. None of this stuff is handicapped-accessible, of course, and don't worry; I have too many irons in the fire already to even think about another mad project, but Conrunners' Disease means it's hard for me not to evaluate every place I visit in meeting-planner terms.
After a relaxing breakfast with a cool Sierra breeze wafting through the window, I set off for home, stopping at Truckee for more coffee and at the Pilot truck stop just before I got home because I was concerned that I might run out of gas. In fact, I was down to only three gallons, which is only 27 miles' range on the RV, but it wasn't quite running on fumes.
Lisa helped me unload the RV, we went and got some groceries, and I'm working on unpacking things and getting back to "home normal" for a few days.
After the meeting, I had multiple errands, one of which was time-constrained. At the recommendation of Andy Trembley and Kevin Roche, I drove down to a thrift store in South San Jose near where they live and bought a large crockery drink serving container they'd seen there. That should be useful for Tonopah hospitality, but it's heavy. It was very inexpensive, however. I might have spent more on fuel in the Rolling Stone than the cost of the crock.
Then the time constraints started to kick in. Lisa had asked me to go to Ham Radio Outlet to buy 50 feet of a particularly type of cable that she's not been able to locate in the Reno area on account of all of the electronic stores are gone. The HRO in Sunnyvale closed a while ago, so the only one available was in Oakland, and it closes at 5:30 PM. However, I'd not had lunch other than a food bar after the SFSFC meeting, so I really had to stop and have something to eat. After that it was an annoyingly slow slog up I-880, which even on a Saturday included a long slowdown that stretched from Union City to near Oakland Airport before finally freeing up. I made it to HRO with 20 minutes to spare and picked up the cable.
Having now pointed in the direction of home, I either needed to back-track to Sunnyvale (not desirable) or keep going. Fortunately, other than another slowdown around the Caldecott Tunnels, it was pretty smooth sailing up to Sacramento, including another meal stop at Cordelia Junction and a fuel stop on the edge of Sacramento at the Pilot 49er Truck Stop. I didn't get to the nursing home until around 9 PM, just as Kelli was getting ready for bed, but I delivered a package of chocolate to her and some other things she'd requested, briefly filled her in on my adventures for the past week, and promised to come visit her around her birthday (first weekend of August).
By now it was too late and I was definitely too tired to go all the way home to Fernley, but there aren't a lot of good places to lay over in this area. (Before you say "Wal-Mart Parking Lot," I note that this is dependent upon the individual store management; it's not a blanket policy.) I thus pushed on to the Gold Run Rest Area on I-80. This is actually a really good place to lay up for the night. You're allowed to stay 8 hours in any 24 hour period (and they didn't closely enforce it; I was actually there closer to ten hours), there's a relatively quiet corner that stays shaded in the morning, and I felt safe. Not fretting over someone banging on your window saying, "Move Along" does wonders for being able to relax. Besides, there were half-a-dozen other vehicles clearly doing exactly what I was doing, plus the fleet of big rigs that clearly had sleeping drivers aboard. I settled down for the night and got the first solid eight hours of sleep I've had in many days.
Here's the spot the next morning just before I set off for home. While getting things switched back from sleeping to driving configuration, I realized that for the first time in I can't remember, I was not in a huge hurry, and could therefore stop and eat at a place whose signs I've seen for years but have never tried.
The Sierra Woods Lodge and adjacent The Rustic Table restaurant are just off I-80 in Emigrant Gap at the Laing Road exit.
I enjoyed my breakfast of scrambled eggs, hash browns, and chorizo and link sausage. I think I like the breakfast at the Wigwam better, but that may be because I've grown accustomed to it and they have to me; this was still pretty good.
The view from my table at the restaurant was very nice. They also have outdoor seating, but I worry about getting sunburned.
After breakfast, I went for a bit of a wander around the grounds, including down here on approximately the opposite view of the photo above.
I was amused by this small cabin that looks like it can be set up as a meeting room. None of this stuff is handicapped-accessible, of course, and don't worry; I have too many irons in the fire already to even think about another mad project, but Conrunners' Disease means it's hard for me not to evaluate every place I visit in meeting-planner terms.
After a relaxing breakfast with a cool Sierra breeze wafting through the window, I set off for home, stopping at Truckee for more coffee and at the Pilot truck stop just before I got home because I was concerned that I might run out of gas. In fact, I was down to only three gallons, which is only 27 miles' range on the RV, but it wasn't quite running on fumes.
Lisa helped me unload the RV, we went and got some groceries, and I'm working on unpacking things and getting back to "home normal" for a few days.
