Driving day
Today I accomplished my goal and made it to Williams, California, which is approximately half way to Venice.
I slept about five hours and wanted a little more but couldn't get back to sleep, so I got up, washed the pink dye out of my hair, and started to pack up for real. It ended up taking about three hours total, which was simultaneously not bad at all, and longer than I wanted. I had suitcases completely done but the "little things" like toiletries, electronics, and food took a while to assemble, and then I took the time to clean up the kitchen completely. I'm glad to have gotten things at the condo sorted a bit better before leaving for a month or more. I managed to completely fill the car trunk with my two suitcases plus three smaller bags, cooler, ukulele. It felt like too much stuff once I had the hallway filled with bags, but I could only think of a couple of things to leave behind.
When I got on the road it was still almost too dark to read outside, no rain but thick clouds. I yawned and yawned despite multiple coffee stops and eventually ended up using a rest area for actual rest. I laid the car seat back and fell hard asleep right away, and when I jolted awake 20 minutes later I felt a lot better and continued the rest of the day with no more issues. It helped a lot once the sun came out around 1pm; after that several hours of beautiful shifting light. Mount Shasta had multiple layers of lenticular clouds and I may have gotten a pic from one vista-slash-rest-stop. The sky was full of pink streaks as I passed over Lake Shasta which was still enough that the slowly moving boats made distinct ridges stretching from shore to shore. There should be a vista pull-off somewhere at the lake!
By Redding I was seriously ready to be out of the car so I stopped for what turned out to be a delicious dinner, a big salad with pink steak and blue cheese. I was tempted by the hotel there but decided to get back on the road and see if I could get closer to half-way, maybe even as far as Sacto. Once back on the interstate I realized that it's difficult to assess my own tiredness and so stopped at a hotel not too much farther down the road, and I was relieved to bring things inside. I'm feeling smart because I don't have to bring in either of the big suitcases; one of the small bags has clothes and toothbrush for the night. Just had to dig out the computer cables.
I slept about five hours and wanted a little more but couldn't get back to sleep, so I got up, washed the pink dye out of my hair, and started to pack up for real. It ended up taking about three hours total, which was simultaneously not bad at all, and longer than I wanted. I had suitcases completely done but the "little things" like toiletries, electronics, and food took a while to assemble, and then I took the time to clean up the kitchen completely. I'm glad to have gotten things at the condo sorted a bit better before leaving for a month or more. I managed to completely fill the car trunk with my two suitcases plus three smaller bags, cooler, ukulele. It felt like too much stuff once I had the hallway filled with bags, but I could only think of a couple of things to leave behind.
When I got on the road it was still almost too dark to read outside, no rain but thick clouds. I yawned and yawned despite multiple coffee stops and eventually ended up using a rest area for actual rest. I laid the car seat back and fell hard asleep right away, and when I jolted awake 20 minutes later I felt a lot better and continued the rest of the day with no more issues. It helped a lot once the sun came out around 1pm; after that several hours of beautiful shifting light. Mount Shasta had multiple layers of lenticular clouds and I may have gotten a pic from one vista-slash-rest-stop. The sky was full of pink streaks as I passed over Lake Shasta which was still enough that the slowly moving boats made distinct ridges stretching from shore to shore. There should be a vista pull-off somewhere at the lake!
By Redding I was seriously ready to be out of the car so I stopped for what turned out to be a delicious dinner, a big salad with pink steak and blue cheese. I was tempted by the hotel there but decided to get back on the road and see if I could get closer to half-way, maybe even as far as Sacto. Once back on the interstate I realized that it's difficult to assess my own tiredness and so stopped at a hotel not too much farther down the road, and I was relieved to bring things inside. I'm feeling smart because I don't have to bring in either of the big suitcases; one of the small bags has clothes and toothbrush for the night. Just had to dig out the computer cables.