hey, moooove over.
Darin and I made it from our house to the San Jose Fairmont in 4.5 hours. Way shorter than I was expecting. I associate the San Francisco to Los Angeles run with a 6 to 8 hour drive, or, if my father is driving and my mother is telling him when to stop, a two-day drive, with an overnight stop in San Luis Obispo. 4.5 hours is almost acceptable. It can sometimes take longer to get from our house to downtown Los Angeles.
We took Highway 5 ("The Freeway of Choice for Serial Killers Everywhere!"), of course. Highway 1 rambles along the coast and can take the better part of a day to drive. 101 is faster, but it's still windy. Highway 5 is straight and direct and cuts through agricultural land: you'd swear you were driving through Kansas, except the crops are avocados and grapes instead of wheat.
There are also a lot of cows. I associate cows (and their smells) with Highway 5. I saw a pack of cows early on and mooed at them. Then, about an hour later, Darin said, "Hey, there are some cows."
Some cows? Try all the cows.
For several miles along the freeway there were cows packed in like sardines on acres and acres of fields. I imagined cow riots in response to overcrowding and cow immigration. I have never seen so many damn cows in one place at one time, even on previous Highway 5 drives.
We did not hit the air recirculate button fast enough though.
Mitch, Morgan, and Eric had dinner with Darin and me at the Grill Restaurant in the Fairmont, which turns out to be an upscale version of the Daily Grill. Or, rather, the Daily Grill is the downscale version of the Grill of Beverly Hills, a chi-chi steak place. Darin was very happy to find it.
I was exhausted after our drive, but Darin, as you might imagine, was pretty darn perky (Darin + people = perky), so he drove over to Mitch's house after dinner where he, Mitch, and Rob played StarCraft until 2 in the morning. Scott, when he got in from the airport at midnight, also played a game of StarCraft with them.
I don't know how he does it.
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Copyright 1999 Diane Patterson
Send comments and questions to diane@spies.com