Day 31: Santa Clara to Mesa

Good news!  I now have consistent internet.  Your daily updates will now resume to their normal schedule!

Anywayyyyy! 

I wake up around 7:30 this morning.  Good timing.  I have about 12 hours of driving to do today and want to head out early.  I have decided I don't ever want to camp in the desert again unless I have a friend with me.  Therefore, I am driving about 750 miles from Santa Clara to Mesa in one day! I wander down to Ellie's room and she is up already.  Excellent again!  I always feel bad for waking people up.  I pack up my stuff and she asks if I want coffee.  Yes, I sure do!  We head to the cafeteria and get come coffee.  We head back to the room and I grab my stuff.  I awkwardly say goodbye.  I am the worst with those.  "Uh, bye!"  hug!  "Oh, lets talk some more... blah blah.  Sorry, I should go now.  Bye!  See, I make these so awkward.  Ok, I'm really leaving now." That is my goodbye in summary. I finally walk out the door.  I get to my truck.  Some asshole is parked ridiculously close to T Rex.  Luckily, I have plenty of room in the front.  I just don't appreciate people getting that close to my truck.  They clearly do not respect it as much as they should.

WTF?!?! Is that really necessary??

I set off down the road. My speedometer is reading correctly. I guess I did fix the problem yesterday.  I drive down the road and quickly paint the T Rex with bugs guts.  Sexy.  South California is very buggy it would seem.  I have an uneventful drive until I get about 100 miles out of Los Angeles.  At this point, the wind starts to pick up pretty substantially.  I then see a sign:  "All semi trucks take bypass". A bypass of what?  LA is still miles away.  I head a bit further down the road and see another sign: "Turn off AC to avoid overheating".  I soon hit a very very long mountain pass. With a strong headwind. The T Rex drags a little but does fine on it, better than a lot of newer cars that I pass.  I see several cars on the side of the road with their hoods open.  In the middle of all this, my friend Tanya calls to tell me about her super exciting new job opportunity.  It is pretty sweet. In the middle of the conversation I lose reception.  At the top of the pass, my gas light starts flickering on.  There is no gas at the top of the mountain pass.  I quickly check my GPS for the next available gas station. (The GPS is a bit of a lifesaver)  Good, the next gas station is only 8 miles away. I know I can make at least 20 miles before I run out.  My fuel economy has been terribly on this tank.  I can usually make 350 miles with no problem and I am only a little over 300.  I guess it is all the uphill driving I have done.

I take the next exit to the gas station and get gas and an energy drink.  I really want to be awake and alert for this long drive.  I get to the bottom of the pass and call Tanya back and finish my conversation.  Traffic in the LA area picks up a little but really is not too bad.  I make it all the way to the Palm Springs area with little to report.  There, I am met with fields of wind turbines.  Thousands and thousands of wind turbines dot the landscape.  I am happy to see this renewable energy source being harnessed but honestly find the wind turbine fields really eerie.  I am not sure why but looking at them just kind of creeps me out.  I think it is just the sheer number of slowly rotating blades that does it. 

I drive a bit more.  I look down and realize I am going 85 in a 65 zone.  And there is a cop right behind me.  Shit.  I panic and put on my brakes. Smooth, I am sure he won't notice that. The cop blows by me and doesn't seem to care.  Thank goodness!  I have seen a lot of cops staked out with radar guns in the last week. I really need to be more careful about that.  I then hit the "remote" part of the drive.  70 miles to the next services!  I realize I have picked up a driving buddy at some point.  I am delighted to see that it is a Toyota pickup. He follows me as I weave around the semis for 100 miles or so.  We pass a semi pulled off on the side of the road that is on fire and surrounded by fire trucks.  Yikes.  In this stretch, I talk to my Mom and my friend Brittany.  I am feeling very up to date on the happening in Anchorage today!!

Almost all of the roads I drive today have a speed limit of 70 or 75.  I hit a few 65 spots.  I go 75 to 80 most of the day.  I am shocked at the number of people who blow by me like I am going 50.  I don't even want to know how fast they are going.  

I cross over into Arizona and decide to stop for gas and food.  The place I pick to stop turns out to be a clusterfuck of oblivious people.  It takes me half an hour to get food gas when it should take 10.  Most of the time is spent waiting for people to meander around in the way.  They seem to have no idea there are other people in the world that also would like to get food and gas. Araghh!! I text Hanna and let her know where I am at and when to expect me. The last 150 miles are the worst.  It is dark and I am tired.  I finally make it to the neighborhood. I drive by the houses I don't see house number 312.  I loop around.  I still don't see it.  My phone goes off.  "You just passed me! I am across from the pool."  Uhhh, what pool?  I totally missed that.  I then see a door open. Oh!  That house!  She lets me know that one of my headlights is burned out.  Hmm, maybe that is what was making the rattling noise that has now stopped... I am going to need to fix that soon.

It is nice to see her again.  She gives me a tour of her house.  I get my own bedroom to stay in.  And bathroom.  Frikin awesome!  We spend some time catching up.  She has school tomorrow so I let her go do her thing and get to work updating my blog!

Since I have no fun pictures for today, I would like to spend some time discussing observations made while driving. First, I am extremely jealous of all the people out on their motorcycles in February.  The further south I get, the more I see. I saw a few around in Washington.  This far south, they are almost common. Second, I have seen lots of Ford Raptors. I want one!  Though I don't think I could replace T Rex after all we have been through.

Third, I hate concrete roads.  The slab spacing seems to line up in the worst possible manner with T Rex's wheelbase. I remember them being bumpy from family road trips back in the day.  What I end up is beyond just bumps.  The whole truck lurches and rocks back and fourth in a sort of resonance.  It is really really annoying.  And they are louder than asphalt.  For durability, concrete all the way. However, unless it is brand new, the ride quality is really pretty poor.

Fourth,  I have finally gotten used to driving with semi trucks around me.  However, it is extremely annoying when I am on a road with 2 lanes (4 total including both directions) and a semi decides to pass.  The line of semis is going 55 and the one passing is going 57.  It takes soooo long!!!  I really can't blame the guy.  I would do the same thing probably.  It is just painful from my perspective in my nice little truck that is not pulling thousands of pounds of stuff.

Anyway, nothing exciting planned for tomorrow.  Fix my headlight, buy some toothpaste, do my phone interview for the State of Alaska Engineering Geology position.