Almost Ready to Roll

We packed most of the Match Game gear and much of our traveling kit into the Astro last night when it wasn't so hot. Lisa is very good at packing the vehicles. Things that are heat-sensitive or very obviously valuable we'll put in just before we go. We're mostly ready to go except for our "hand baggage" and the fact that I'm still at work for a while. When I'm released (I hope no later than 2 PM), we'll finish packing and hit the road for Alturas, the first leg of our trip up to Portland and Westercon.

At least two banker's boxes are MGSF prizes, some of which are now sufficiently old that every contestant is going to get one, win or lose, until they're gone. This will (we hope) make the return trip lighter.

This time we remembered the MGSF banners. We've forgotten them in the past, which is annoying. And now we have nice permanent vinyl banners, thanks to Sasquan who made them for us last year.

Looking at how difficult it was to fit everything into the minivan, Lisa said she's relieved we decided to not try and carry the show to Kansas City in August.

Westercon Trip Day 1: Surprise Train in Alturas

Having been pretty well organized, including going through the written checklist we have for securing Fernley House for when we leave for a road trip like this, we got away at 2 PM, an hour earlier than I expected. We grabbed lunch at the In-N-Out drive-through in Sparks (where they seemed to have great difficulty understanding "I want a #3 combo, plain burger, plus an extra plain hamburger"), then turned north on US-395. Despite getting stuck behind slow-moving traffic a few times, our progress was good. Lisa drove while I read from recent issues of RAIL magazine.

We stopped only once after leaving Reno/Sparks, that being at the Honey Lake rest area, and we had to take the stop in turns, because due to the annoying heat-related issue with the Astro, if we turn off the engine when it's hot, we need to wait at least 30 minutes to let it cool down sufficiently to restart. My mechanic is at a loss to understand it. It's definitely heat-related, as we didn't have any such problems during our winter road trip to Texas.

( Train Spotting in Alturas )

After our bout of surprise rail enthusiasm, we went to the hotel and walked across the street to the Rite-Aid where we bought some microwave meals and milk. We thought of going out to dinner tonight, but decided we'd be happier if we just laid up in our comfortable (and cool) hotel room than going back out in the high-30°C heat.