Fault Poking: Prologue and Epilogue
It is convenient that dsch and I have many of the same friends because that means that several of you have already seen his writeup of Fault Poking and Further Fault Poking. Unfortunately, Mitya's journal is friends only so those of you who are not friended won't get to see those entries. Never fear! I will post my own summary of those days when I post what I am sending back to Devin!
This entry is what happened before and after those two days, though, and include things that I am not very likely to include in that other write up. Like my speeding ticket.
Thursday (March 29th!) was the day Mitya was arriving, and I had class! Remote Sensing and Image Processing goes from 5:00 to 8:00 but usually the first hour and a half or so is lecture and the second part of class is lab. I decided to stick around until 6:00 and then head home, since Mitya planned on arriving at 7:00. (All of this was figured out in advance as to what would work out best.) 6:00 rolled around and Zhang looked like he was about to wrap up his lecture but things kept adding on until finally it was about 6:30 when the lecture ended and I was out of there.
Yes, I realize I could have walked out in the middle of the lecture. I had told my professor ahead of time that I needed to leave early that day, but RemoSense is one of those classes where I like to stay on top of things. Everything is complicated enough that missing lecture feels like a bad idea.
In any case, I left a little late and was speeding a little.
This has never been a problem before.
Apparently going at the flow of traffic (which is always fast, everywhere, especially 101), on a clear day, on a stretch of the road that is poorly marked with speed limit signs, at the end of the month, means ticket.
For the record, at Blanco, Reservation Road turns into River Road. At that point the speed is 65. Then, just before a curvy part, it is 55. Later, where Davis Road comes in, it is 45. Then it is End 45 and largely flat with one long, gently sloping, rolling sort of hill and then finally a stop light at Hwy 68.
For some irony, that VERY MORNING I was thinking, "Gee. I'm really not sure what the speed limit is on this stretch between 68 and Davis!" That is because they put the speed limit signs in Stupid places. Places where you are looking in the other direction to make sure someone won't pull out in front of you or so that you can safely merge.
In any case. My first ticket. I find it upsetting mostly because I'm not sure what all I need to do, partly because I'm concerned that this might affect my standing as a driver for Foundation (since I'm the only one of the Weed Warriors who can drive the trucks), and partly because, well, speeding ticket. Bleh.
Then I got home and everything was all betters because Mitya was there and Mitya is cool! We geeked out and then departed the next day for Fault Poking!
This is where Mitya's write-up goes. Also, this thread. Hehehe.
Sunday (April 1st)
To quote Mitya, "Sunday morning started off on an interesting note when I set off my smoke detector while trying to cook eggs and sausage. I lose at cooking, but we still had a leisurely breakfast in spite of it. I dropped Cata off at the Riverside train station at around 11:30 in the morning, thus ending this awesomely geeky whirlwind of a trip. We're already planning another more extensive geeky road trip for the summer. I propose we call it The Big One."
It is a good thing that it was a hearty breakfast, even with the smoke alarm shrieking because it didn't get any hostages sausages. This is because there was almost no food the rest of the day! So I boarded the bus and found a seat and decided that I would watch out the window until the bus had either gone through The Roadcut near Lamedale or I determined that we had taken a completely different route.
...we took a different route. I DID see a metal elephant (or possibly mammoth?) on a hill. Also, a hotel called "The Stanley."
And then we hit one of the last stops before Bakersfield (Armpit #2 of California) and the driver decided to use the facilities in the back of the bus before letting the person waiting there on the bus. After a while, the guy waiting tried to get on the bus, at which point the driver returned and pretty much blew up at the guy, shouting and pretty much humiliating him in front of the (sparsely filled) bus. At that point, most of the other passengers decided that the driver was, in fact, a ginormous JERK.
Aside from that, the ride itself was pretty comfortable. Just long.
Once we got to Bakersfield there was a 45 minute wait for the train. Probably because I looked approachable, roughly the same age, and almost as equally lost, 'the guy' asked me where to get his passport back. (I wouldn't want to talk to the driver either!) This was the start of a conversation and led to us riding together on the train. Because it is cool to make friends while traveling.
I had a hard time not laughing, though, when he told me his name was Andre. After spending Friday driving over (and on top of!) the San Andreas fault, it was just too perfect!
At Bakersfield I found an ATM and bought a Twix which might have been a bad idea because it made me not hungry right up until about 30 minutes before arriving at Merced, which meant I did not take advantage of the snack car. Though I suppose that the engineer warning me away from the food didn't help that either.
I've gotten a little ahead of myself, but not by much. Waiting around for the train to leave, I ended up talking to the engineer. I'm not exactly the greatest conversationalist by any means but it was kind of a weird conversation. I didn't help that it more or less started with him asking if I was a student, me explaining my major was environmental sciences, and his response being along the lines of, "Oh so you're one of those doom and gloom people 'the world's going to end' global warming, Al Gore sucks, etc."
...eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeh. (My response was, "I just like knowing how Earth processes work." Which is true.)
After the fact, it occurred to me that he was probably teasing on some level but I was too nervous in general to pick up on it. (My first time on Amtrack and traveling by myself and so forth. Not exactly comfort level. I get around just fine but don't exactly relax into banter with strangers by any means.)
The engineer did warn that the food is likely to move. And that the pizza will strangle you if you don't watch out.
Otherwise, the train ride was quite pleasant, watching the countryside go by (backwards) and chatting with Andre.
We did divert on to a side-track twice, though. First right after we left the station to let an incoming passenger train get in. Second to let the longest freight train ever (with some strange cars that I couldn't make out because it was too close) pass.
And so we were almost an hour late getting to Merced, which made me worry about my connection. Needless worrying, though, since apparently the bus had a list of passengers and knew that the train was late.
This final bus was the lamest part of the trip. Andre was continuing on to Stockton, so I didn't have anybody to talk to anymore. The bus was small, not comfortable and very rough. The driver insisted on playing country music. Loudly.
I was so very glad at that point that I had brought my mp3 player and headphones with me. Even listening to Rammstein I couldn't quite drown out the country music without cranking it up to insanely loud levels.
We got in to Salinas at about 10. The entire day I had only eaten a Twix bar, a granola bar, and breakfast with Mitya many, many hours before.
Dad picked me up at the station and I convinced him to take me to In-N-Out where I proceeded to purchase and then utterly demolish a DoubleDouble.
And then we went home. And that was the end of the trip.
This entry is what happened before and after those two days, though, and include things that I am not very likely to include in that other write up. Like my speeding ticket.
Thursday (March 29th!) was the day Mitya was arriving, and I had class! Remote Sensing and Image Processing goes from 5:00 to 8:00 but usually the first hour and a half or so is lecture and the second part of class is lab. I decided to stick around until 6:00 and then head home, since Mitya planned on arriving at 7:00. (All of this was figured out in advance as to what would work out best.) 6:00 rolled around and Zhang looked like he was about to wrap up his lecture but things kept adding on until finally it was about 6:30 when the lecture ended and I was out of there.
Yes, I realize I could have walked out in the middle of the lecture. I had told my professor ahead of time that I needed to leave early that day, but RemoSense is one of those classes where I like to stay on top of things. Everything is complicated enough that missing lecture feels like a bad idea.
In any case, I left a little late and was speeding a little.
This has never been a problem before.
Apparently going at the flow of traffic (which is always fast, everywhere, especially 101), on a clear day, on a stretch of the road that is poorly marked with speed limit signs, at the end of the month, means ticket.
For the record, at Blanco, Reservation Road turns into River Road. At that point the speed is 65. Then, just before a curvy part, it is 55. Later, where Davis Road comes in, it is 45. Then it is End 45 and largely flat with one long, gently sloping, rolling sort of hill and then finally a stop light at Hwy 68.
For some irony, that VERY MORNING I was thinking, "Gee. I'm really not sure what the speed limit is on this stretch between 68 and Davis!" That is because they put the speed limit signs in Stupid places. Places where you are looking in the other direction to make sure someone won't pull out in front of you or so that you can safely merge.
In any case. My first ticket. I find it upsetting mostly because I'm not sure what all I need to do, partly because I'm concerned that this might affect my standing as a driver for Foundation (since I'm the only one of the Weed Warriors who can drive the trucks), and partly because, well, speeding ticket. Bleh.
Then I got home and everything was all betters because Mitya was there and Mitya is cool! We geeked out and then departed the next day for Fault Poking!
This is where Mitya's write-up goes. Also, this thread. Hehehe.
Sunday (April 1st)
To quote Mitya, "Sunday morning started off on an interesting note when I set off my smoke detector while trying to cook eggs and sausage. I lose at cooking, but we still had a leisurely breakfast in spite of it. I dropped Cata off at the Riverside train station at around 11:30 in the morning, thus ending this awesomely geeky whirlwind of a trip. We're already planning another more extensive geeky road trip for the summer. I propose we call it The Big One."
It is a good thing that it was a hearty breakfast, even with the smoke alarm shrieking because it didn't get any hostages sausages. This is because there was almost no food the rest of the day! So I boarded the bus and found a seat and decided that I would watch out the window until the bus had either gone through The Roadcut near Lamedale or I determined that we had taken a completely different route.
...we took a different route. I DID see a metal elephant (or possibly mammoth?) on a hill. Also, a hotel called "The Stanley."
And then we hit one of the last stops before Bakersfield (Armpit #2 of California) and the driver decided to use the facilities in the back of the bus before letting the person waiting there on the bus. After a while, the guy waiting tried to get on the bus, at which point the driver returned and pretty much blew up at the guy, shouting and pretty much humiliating him in front of the (sparsely filled) bus. At that point, most of the other passengers decided that the driver was, in fact, a ginormous JERK.
Aside from that, the ride itself was pretty comfortable. Just long.
Once we got to Bakersfield there was a 45 minute wait for the train. Probably because I looked approachable, roughly the same age, and almost as equally lost, 'the guy' asked me where to get his passport back. (I wouldn't want to talk to the driver either!) This was the start of a conversation and led to us riding together on the train. Because it is cool to make friends while traveling.
I had a hard time not laughing, though, when he told me his name was Andre. After spending Friday driving over (and on top of!) the San Andreas fault, it was just too perfect!
At Bakersfield I found an ATM and bought a Twix which might have been a bad idea because it made me not hungry right up until about 30 minutes before arriving at Merced, which meant I did not take advantage of the snack car. Though I suppose that the engineer warning me away from the food didn't help that either.
I've gotten a little ahead of myself, but not by much. Waiting around for the train to leave, I ended up talking to the engineer. I'm not exactly the greatest conversationalist by any means but it was kind of a weird conversation. I didn't help that it more or less started with him asking if I was a student, me explaining my major was environmental sciences, and his response being along the lines of, "Oh so you're one of those doom and gloom people 'the world's going to end' global warming, Al Gore sucks, etc."
...eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeh. (My response was, "I just like knowing how Earth processes work." Which is true.)
After the fact, it occurred to me that he was probably teasing on some level but I was too nervous in general to pick up on it. (My first time on Amtrack and traveling by myself and so forth. Not exactly comfort level. I get around just fine but don't exactly relax into banter with strangers by any means.)
The engineer did warn that the food is likely to move. And that the pizza will strangle you if you don't watch out.
Otherwise, the train ride was quite pleasant, watching the countryside go by (backwards) and chatting with Andre.
We did divert on to a side-track twice, though. First right after we left the station to let an incoming passenger train get in. Second to let the longest freight train ever (with some strange cars that I couldn't make out because it was too close) pass.
And so we were almost an hour late getting to Merced, which made me worry about my connection. Needless worrying, though, since apparently the bus had a list of passengers and knew that the train was late.
This final bus was the lamest part of the trip. Andre was continuing on to Stockton, so I didn't have anybody to talk to anymore. The bus was small, not comfortable and very rough. The driver insisted on playing country music. Loudly.
I was so very glad at that point that I had brought my mp3 player and headphones with me. Even listening to Rammstein I couldn't quite drown out the country music without cranking it up to insanely loud levels.
We got in to Salinas at about 10. The entire day I had only eaten a Twix bar, a granola bar, and breakfast with Mitya many, many hours before.
Dad picked me up at the station and I convinced him to take me to In-N-Out where I proceeded to purchase and then utterly demolish a DoubleDouble.
And then we went home. And that was the end of the trip.