Avoiding Carmageddon By Michael

In Eureka, we were hosted by our good friends the Stewarts. In addition
to taking us around King Salmon in his skiff, Dr. Stewart and I
checked out the revamped municipal harbor--it'll be a good place
to stay as transients when we head north.

We made it to Pheonix last night. It was a long, slow trip from SoCal. I estimate we doubled the weight of the trailer and it is a real challenge to both get it going and get it stopped. Tonight we'll stay closer to the Nogales border crossing and then head across early Saturday morning. A guy at the Beacon Marine chandlery in Ventura advised us to not be lured by the bypass road as we enter Mexico, but to go straight through town. He said that the trucks all take the bypass and the checkpoint is accordingly much slower and less lenient. Anyone have an opinion about this?

Apparently, we dodged a bullet getting past the LA area when we did. Caltrans is shutting down ten miles of the 405 freeway for three days, in both directions. This is unprecedented. This is one of the busiest stretches of road in the world. In human terms, it is like clamping the carotid arteries on both sides of the neck and redirecting all of the blood to the head via local capillaries. The local news has been referring to the event as Carmageddon. In addition to the warning signs we began seeing 100 miles out, several people have warned us about this. In a genius marketing move, Jet Blue is offering $4 flights from Burbank to Long Beach.

--MR

Windy getting acquainted with her new
nephew Otis.

We saw lots of friends and family in the
Bay Area. Here our friend Von gives
Eleanor a fiddle lesson.



In Malibu, the girls showed their appreciation for the fact that our friend Ron was the second
person to warn us of Carmageddon.



Susan and Liam didn't warn us of Carmageddon, but we still enjoyed catching up on their
cozy patio.