Trail head: Fresno
I got up 6:20. started doing final preparation to go to Grand Teton. At 8, I listened to my Tuesday weather webcast while eating breakfast. Then I started loading the back of our Highlander. It is stuffed full. By the time I got done, I was hot and sweaty. But I got everything in.
And then it is time to say goodbye to Steven. At 11:10, we left the house for a little less than two weeks, going up to Grand Teton and Yellowstone. Meeting up with Andrea and Lawrence will be interesting-not interesting, like in apprehension, but interesting to see what they see after spending a month and a half on the road.
 |
| Packed Car |
Sherri is driving and stops at Starbucks before leaving Fresno. The plan is to exchange drivers in Bakersfield. But when we got to Bakersfield, there was a lot of construction around the turn off to Costco for gas. So we missed the turnoff and even missed the off-ramp for Highway 58, east bound. Does not sound like a good way to start our trip. But within two miles, we corrected our course.
In Tehachapi we stopped for a brief break and put a couple of gallons in the car to make it to Las Vegas and its Costco. We also switch drivers. The drive to Tehachapi is longer than Sherri's usually stent behind the wheel-three hours. So I feel pretty fortunate. 45 minutes later we stopped at the Boron rest stop. Besides the obvious, it was good to stretch our legs.
Sherri has us listening to Fredrick Backman's Anxious People. She thinks he does a real good job on character development. I don't like how he is repetitive and does not tell you the whole setting, leaving out important pieces only to retell that section with the missing pieces.
We make some pretty good time, passing through Barstow and going up I-15. but about 20 miles before Baker we come to a screeching stop. The GPS says there have been crashes. The one on our side of the road involved a flooring tile truck, but I thought I saw a Coors sign on it. But the one on the southbound side was with an Amazon truck. The news report said there was a 4-5 hour backup. The temperature outside of our air conditioned car: 115o.
By the time we got through the crash area, it was pushing 5pm. After a few minutes of discussion, we decided to stay in Las Vegas. There is a Holiday Inn with a decent price in Henderson, so that is where we go. We get in about 7:45. Then go across the parking lot to an IHOP. This is the first time we ate inside a restaurant since the start of the pandemic. Seemed a bit weird, but the booths were partitioned off with plexiglass and the wait staff was masked. So I think this was as good as we were going to get.
When we got back to our room, we just crashed. It has been a very long day.
Background
Crash Information: Here is the news report on the crash near Baker.
Trip Advisor:
Holiday Inn: Our stay was what you would expect from a Holiday Inn. Clean, quiet and comfortable. The continental breakfast was complete and filling. We slept well after a long day of travel. We are glad we found this place at a reasonable price.
No comments:
Post a Comment