I wasn't able to post yesterday, so I'd like to recount the day's details: I packed everything from my apartment in Seattle into my car, and left for Southern California at 11:34 pm. 1204 miles from door to door. Drive takes about 20 hours if you only stop for gas and pee breaks, and if you purposely don't eat much for a few days beforehand so you don't have poop breaks. I was ready to rock.
Everything was cool until I got around Sacramento. Stopped in a place called Elk Grove to get some gas, and noticed that it was warm out. Being in Seattle makes you forget about heat because it's usually very cool there, and apparently there was a heat advisory for the entire planet Earth yesterday. The way I was going took the 5 freeway down through basically all of California, but after Tracy, you go south through the most bleak-ass, desolate-ass farmland with nothing to look at but rows and rows of plants and perhaps some cows every now and again. It's the most terrible boredom, even with music to listen to or whatever, because you just go in a straight line from Tracy until you hit the Grapevine and I think it takes around five or six hours for just that stretch. Add to this the fact that you'll see signs that read, "next gas 35 miles" and you know that you absolutely do not want to break down anywhere along this stretch, because it's going to be a zillion dollars for a tow truck, and way out in the sticks like that, your tow truck is going to be driven by either a conman or some inbred cannibal. So, not wanting to encounter this fate, I opted to not run my air conditioner, as to place less stress on my engine. My car has given no indication that it would break down on me, but being twelve hours into the drive by the time I got to this point, I wasn't taking any chances.
I brought drinks with me, so as to stay hydrated, but to also spend less time off the road shopping for things. Two drinks were consumed earlier in the trip, but I saved my big bottle of water for this long stretch. I had it propped against the passenger seat and wedged between some of the stuff I'd packed from the apartment. Zero sunlight had touched this thing. But because the air was so hot (at multiple points I checked and it was 108F for probably four hours straight), when I went to drink the water, it was super hot. I still drank it anyway, because at least it's moisture, but it was not refreshing. Finally pulled over for gas and when I went to take my keys out of the ignition, they were so hot that they burned my hand. I'd taken my shoe off because my heel was hurting from being in the same position for so long, and the gas/brake pedals burned my foot through my sock. It sucked super hard.
By the time I got through the Grapevine and saw that "now leaving Angeles National Forest" sign, I rolled the windows up and fired up the air conditioner, and had no further issues for the last 2-ish hours to get home. When I got off of the 5 freeway after being on it for over 1,000 miles, I felt a wave of relief. A small bit of traffic in the more populated areas, but that's a given. Pulled up to the house at 7:14 pm, just shy of the 20-hour mark. Unloaded the car, drank a ton of water, and found a Pepsi that I'd left for myself in the fridge when I was last here in June. Took a very satisfying shower, and slept for hours after that.
And now, after having done this 1200-mile drive nonstop a handful of times, I can say these things honestly:
- don't do it. stop somewhere in the middle
- I'm never doing it again. I will fly instead
- I'm too old for this shit
(also, today was much more mellow by comparison. I got groceries, did laundry, and plugged my PC up so I could just lounge around)
