Trip south

The trip down south was uneventful, except for the stress involved in driving here. I was 54 when we left, I feel 56 now. Let’s see, by the time this whole thing is completed I should be…..mmmmmm….117 years old.
Things went pretty well until we left home at 3:30 AM. We saw a lynx at Stone Lagoon. It was pretty neat, since that’s the first one I’ve ever seen in the wild. It stopped on the edge of the road in front of us, so we got a pretty good look. It was pretty fat and appeared to be in good condition. When we left Eureka we were struck with the realization that we were not stopping there and our trip had just begun.

To miss as much traffic as possible and to reduce the stress of driving through SF we got on I5 at Williams. We used the GPS on the car and found it to be a little more accurate than our old memories and hunches (guesses) of where to go and which roads to take. Let me rephrase that, it was a lot more accurate. The lady’s voice that comes on giving directions is pleasant and reassuring, relaxing, even calming, except for the times when we don’t do what she says and her Ms. ugly side comes out, then she’s a obnoxious, mean-spirited screaming &8#@!.

There’s nothing new about the Central Valley. It’s boring, sticky,stinky, and long. And, those are its positive attributes. Even though it’s the ‘bread basket’ of the US, how interesting is it to see grass grow while you’re driving 65 MPH down the freeway and being passed by people doing 85 MPH?

When the traffic started getting backed up and we thought we must be close, we plugged in the street address of where we were going and found that we were still 80 miles away. By that time the lady in the GPS had yelled, screamed, and cursed at us enough (I learned some more four-letter words) we just gave up and went to wherever she said. We inadvertently tested her knowledge by turning off on a small windy two-lane pot-holed road with no traffic called ‘Flint Ridge Road’ guessing that she was taking us on a short-cut. How nice and thoughtful of her! We drove on it about 7 miles all the while looking down on the freeway. Then about back on the freeway again. Some shortcut!

We went from 70 MPH to being stopped in the middle of the road in 5 lanes of traffic about ten times during those 80 miles. The worst was when it got dark and we were following a truck and everyone in all five lanes started to slow down and came to a stop. Then everyone started to move quickly, except the truck, and of course, us. The truck had died and we were stuck behind it. I felt like we were in the ‘Tron’ movie with the vehicles passing by about 200 MPH. Eventually we inched out and got by the truck and into the lanes of traffic. That's the point where I think I may have aged about 2 years. My feet were stinking and my palms were sweating. I don't know how I'm going to get those hand prints pulled out from the steering wheel.

That GPS lady really knows her way around. She must have been around the block a couple of times. She led us right to our pre-arranged studio apartment. The lady that I had been e-mailing with had been here, left the door unlocked, and turned the heat on. It was nice and cozy. As it turns out we’re within about a 10 minute walk of the Proton Treatment Center. It seems that they only rent to patrons of the Treatment Center. The manager stopped by this morning and we had a good conversation. It’s pretty quiet around here as it’s in the middle of ‘Adventist Central’ Loma Linda University. It was nice to arrive here after 16 hours driving and two years of stress. Sandi put my prayer quilt on the futon and we fell into a deep, well-deserved sleep.

The place that we're staying is called 'Creekside Court Theme Cottages.' This morning we walked around and there's not a creek in sight.
Jim