The Drive Home
Aug. 3rd, 2022 06:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kevin_standleeAs I did want to take advantage of the included breakfast at the Holiday Inn Express, I did not rush out early this morning, but instead took my time packing up after eating. After checking that my counter-commute intended route did not seem to have any immediate delays, I left Fremont about 8:30 AM (being sure to collect my hotel statement, as much of it should be able to be reimbursed on my AAA trip-interruption insurance) and pointed myself eastward.
Google maps claims one should be able to drive from Fremont to Fernley in about four hours. I suppose if you drove like a maniac, did not have to refuel, and had a catheter installed, you might possibly be able to do so. I don't drive that way, and I do indeed need to stop a lot, which I did, so it took me more like eight hours to make the drive. As usual, I stopped at the Flying J at Lodi Junction to refuel, and I also made sever other pit stops along the way, plus an errand to the Roseville Galleria's Lush Store.
It has been several years since I've last been inside that Lush store in person, thanks to the pandemic and other reasons. My main reason for going here was to try and turn in these empty containers. The staff there suggested that I should hold on to them, run them through the dishwasher to make sure they're completely cleaned, and plan to take them to the new Lush store opening soon in the Reno area. After mid-August of this year, apparently if you return the containers completely cleaned, you can get a return credit good against future purchases, rather than getting a face therapy mask, which I have never redeemed and that neither Lisa nor I want.
I'm glad to hear that Reno is supposed to get a Lush store, and I'll be happier if I can get something usable out of the returned containers. I have previously just turned them in without claiming anything, just because I like the fact that Lush is able to re-use containers.
I did buy some more Lush items while I was in Roseville, because I do use Cosmetic Lad as after-shave, and Ocean Salt as a facial scrub before applying a Breath-Right strip each night improve my breathing on my CPAP machine.
At Colfax, I got a soda and a sandwich, and then drove a little farther east to a place that is both secluded yet right off the freeway to eat lunch.
Exit 140 on I-80 is Secret Town Road. If you follow it about a mile east to the end of the pavement (the dirt road, with a Lincoln Highway monument, continues, but the maps suggest that it eventually peters out rather than continuing through and reconnecting to I-80), you find a small area where you can usually park in the shade and both eat lunch and watch for any passing trains. (There were none this time.) It's screened from I-80 by trees, although you can definitely hear them.
After lunch and a pit stop at the Gold Run rest area, I continued homeward. There was a longish delay working through heavy traffic caused by a bridge replacement project for which no detour was available, which was unfortunate. I stopped again at Donner Summit, where it was almost starting to feel cool, but only in the shade.
By the time I reached Nevada, I finally caught up to the thunderstorms that I'd seen building ahead of me, and when I stopped at the Gold Ranch Casino (not to be confused with the Gold Run rest area), I actually got rained on a bit walking from the van. Unfortunately, the rain did not appreciably cool things down; it just made things more humid.
When I got back on I-80, I saw something I really did not want to see: the SERVICE ENGINE SOON light on the dashboard. I stopped at the vista point on I-80 past Boomtown, stopped the van, let it sit for a few minutes, then restarted it: no light, nor did it come back on for the remainder of the trip. Lisa and I will get out the instructions for reading what the failure code was. The detectors in auto parts stores these days don't read older vehicles like ours, but we found the instructions on how to trigger the computer to display the codes on the dash light.
I got home around 5:30 PM, unloaded my luggage, then popped over to the post office to collect the mail and to Family Dollar to buy a gallon of milk. But before heading over for those errands, I opened windows, refilled the swamp cooler, and started the effort to try to cool the house. Lisa is sufficiently worried about COVID that she's isolating from me in her travel trailer for a few days, and she was asleep when I got home as far as I can tell.
So that's the end of the trip and my enforced three-day hotel vacation, which was not bad. My manager, however, is anxious to have me back, which I will be tomorrow morning, so I need to get the bedroom cool enough that I can get some sleep.
Google maps claims one should be able to drive from Fremont to Fernley in about four hours. I suppose if you drove like a maniac, did not have to refuel, and had a catheter installed, you might possibly be able to do so. I don't drive that way, and I do indeed need to stop a lot, which I did, so it took me more like eight hours to make the drive. As usual, I stopped at the Flying J at Lodi Junction to refuel, and I also made sever other pit stops along the way, plus an errand to the Roseville Galleria's Lush Store.
It has been several years since I've last been inside that Lush store in person, thanks to the pandemic and other reasons. My main reason for going here was to try and turn in these empty containers. The staff there suggested that I should hold on to them, run them through the dishwasher to make sure they're completely cleaned, and plan to take them to the new Lush store opening soon in the Reno area. After mid-August of this year, apparently if you return the containers completely cleaned, you can get a return credit good against future purchases, rather than getting a face therapy mask, which I have never redeemed and that neither Lisa nor I want.
I'm glad to hear that Reno is supposed to get a Lush store, and I'll be happier if I can get something usable out of the returned containers. I have previously just turned them in without claiming anything, just because I like the fact that Lush is able to re-use containers.
I did buy some more Lush items while I was in Roseville, because I do use Cosmetic Lad as after-shave, and Ocean Salt as a facial scrub before applying a Breath-Right strip each night improve my breathing on my CPAP machine.
At Colfax, I got a soda and a sandwich, and then drove a little farther east to a place that is both secluded yet right off the freeway to eat lunch.
Exit 140 on I-80 is Secret Town Road. If you follow it about a mile east to the end of the pavement (the dirt road, with a Lincoln Highway monument, continues, but the maps suggest that it eventually peters out rather than continuing through and reconnecting to I-80), you find a small area where you can usually park in the shade and both eat lunch and watch for any passing trains. (There were none this time.) It's screened from I-80 by trees, although you can definitely hear them.
After lunch and a pit stop at the Gold Run rest area, I continued homeward. There was a longish delay working through heavy traffic caused by a bridge replacement project for which no detour was available, which was unfortunate. I stopped again at Donner Summit, where it was almost starting to feel cool, but only in the shade.
By the time I reached Nevada, I finally caught up to the thunderstorms that I'd seen building ahead of me, and when I stopped at the Gold Ranch Casino (not to be confused with the Gold Run rest area), I actually got rained on a bit walking from the van. Unfortunately, the rain did not appreciably cool things down; it just made things more humid.
When I got back on I-80, I saw something I really did not want to see: the SERVICE ENGINE SOON light on the dashboard. I stopped at the vista point on I-80 past Boomtown, stopped the van, let it sit for a few minutes, then restarted it: no light, nor did it come back on for the remainder of the trip. Lisa and I will get out the instructions for reading what the failure code was. The detectors in auto parts stores these days don't read older vehicles like ours, but we found the instructions on how to trigger the computer to display the codes on the dash light.
I got home around 5:30 PM, unloaded my luggage, then popped over to the post office to collect the mail and to Family Dollar to buy a gallon of milk. But before heading over for those errands, I opened windows, refilled the swamp cooler, and started the effort to try to cool the house. Lisa is sufficiently worried about COVID that she's isolating from me in her travel trailer for a few days, and she was asleep when I got home as far as I can tell.
So that's the end of the trip and my enforced three-day hotel vacation, which was not bad. My manager, however, is anxious to have me back, which I will be tomorrow morning, so I need to get the bedroom cool enough that I can get some sleep.
no subject
Date: 2022-08-04 05:07 am (UTC)Glad you got home OK after the extended trip on which you didn't even get to partake of the main target (the baseball game).
no subject
Date: 2022-08-04 12:56 pm (UTC)