On The Road Again

Lisa and I are driving to the Bay Area today and will mostly be out of contact. I expect a mountain of e-mail in my box when I get to the hotel in Mountain View. Please don't consider my lack of instantaneous response to anything you send me to mean I'm ignoring you.

Trudging Back to the Bay

Today was not a good day to be driving to the Bay Area. The Hot August Nights event in Reno/Sparks ended today. (Those of you who arrived early for Renovation may remember the car event moving out as we were moving in — that's Hot August Nights, and it's a Big Deal in Reno.) This means that the large number of people who come up from California for the event were all heading back down the hill, and that meant that I-80 was clogged up badly, sometimes at rush-hour stop-and-go and sometimes just heavy-but-moving, from Truckee clear down to Roseville. Also, the slightest problem would lead to a slowdown due to there being so many cars out there. I don't know if going via US-50 would have been any better, but I think I would have tried it if I'd thought about it.

We left Fernley around 9 AM, stopped at the Nugget in Sparks for breakfast, and (including a stop for coffee in Colfax and fuel at Lodi Junction) got to the hotel in Mountain View eleven hours later, tired and frazzled. We bought a couple of tortas from the taqueria across the street from the hotel and tried to unwind. I'm worn out. And I have to be up at 5:30 AM Monday, so I think it's time to say goodnight.