June 2017 End of an Era

Monday (Jun 19)

This will be my last visit to 1234 Santa Clara St, Eureka CA. Friday is official moving day, and I want to be there with my van to help and carry stuff down. I have of course been having my own internal drama about whether to sell my place and move, so this is feeling sort of like a preview, or a the beginning of the end of this phase of my life or something BIG like that.

In a five day stretch it has gone from excessively cold – 40’s at night, heater running for three days, to excessively hot, 101° predicted tomorrow. Give me the cold any time, I hate this sweltering crap. The heat really oppresses and depresses me.

After making even more distressed noises for the last few months my van fridge finally died, so in this heat wave I am having to return to old fashioned ice cooler technology. So the trip is starting out weird.

I plan to get my 80K service at Oakland Freightliner, which means I need to be within striking distance of Oakland tonight.

Sherman Island is very pleasant surprise. Also very busy on a scorching Monday night. I’m guessing this is perfect windsurfer weather. The intense inland heat brings up the wind, so there is a perfect warm breeze here.Families are swimming, the windsurfing bums look happy as can be, a very pleasant scene.

The breeze kept the mosquitoes down all afternoon, but tonight in the shelter of the scrub brush, they are ferocious.

Tuesday

Well, what a complete and utter clusterfuck of a day. 300 miles of driving and a lot of failure. I couldn’t get to sleep last night … probably a premonition of coming futility. So when I turned over and saw that it was 8:45 this morning I was pretty groggy but new I had to get moving. The route that took 54 minutes when I looked last night takes like 1:43 on rush hour. So, with no coffee, nothing but a stiff drink of water to hold me I strap myself in and take W Sherman Island Rd to the 160 to the 4 to the 680 to the 24 to the 880 to Helgerberger Rd to the Freightliner place. Got there around 10:45. Not bad really!

The officious lady is filling out my work sheet when I mention that I am gasp!! badged as a Dodge, not a Mercedes or Freightliner! Silence! All three people freeze in place, and look at me with deep concern. The upshot is that they refuse to work on my van. “We don’t work on Dodges here.” I could rant about this for a few more paragraphs, because it really, really upset me at the time, but what would be the point. All I will say is I will do not do business with Golden Gate Truck Center, nor should anybody who reads this. They are deeply stupid and they suck.

So, here I am at 11:15 sitting in their lobby, in deepest industrial wasteland Oakland. I’ve already driven 70 miles of Bay Area freeway rush hour traffic today. The reason for planning the trip this particular way has gone up in flames and I haven’t even had my morning coffee yet. First up: get that coffee!

The immediate choices in my warehouse neighborhood are Denny’s and such. Since my plan is to escape straight up I-80 to I-5, why not put in another twenty minutes or so of urban freeway hell to go to a breakfast or coffee place in Berkeley instead? The breakfast places near I-80 for some reason don’t have wifi, so I downsized my plan to just coffee in Berkeley, then food further up the road. Worked great! Found a coffee place two blocks off the University Ave exit, ran my credit card in the parking meter for 50 minutes of parking, got my caffeine needs met, had a nice cheese and blueberry danish to get me through the next bit of freeway, and researched lunch.

Yelp pointed me to a Cuban restaurant in Vacaville. It was a little off the highway, but close enough to the I-505 cutoff that I was able to essentially cut off that corner – north from I-80 to the restaurant, then east on surface streets to the Nut Tree area and 505.

Still a pretty fucked-up day. It is still unpleasantly hot, so that camping in the Valley isn’t going to be much fun, so I might as well do just one more night out and get to Martha’s Wednesday night, so I can help them pack for two days in the coastal coolness. I aim for good ole Sycamore Grove in Red Bluff.

After a couple of hours of I-5, I got there 5:30-ish, found a shady spot and tried to settle in. Damn it’s hot here! My weather app tells me another favorite, Oak Bottom on Whiskeytown Lake is 10° right now and will be 15-20° cooler tonight. It’s not that far away, so I decide to get back in the van and blow though Redding and stay there tonight instead.

Longest day of the year. I sat at my picnic table in the parking lot writing this blog through sunset, and I just looked at the time and it’s 9:40 pm!  Went inside the van around 10:30, slept with the door open until after daylight and today’s boaters started to appear. It was a great decision to punt Sycamore Grove and come here.

Wednesday

The sun pounding on the fan heated it up pretty early, but I re-opened the door and hung out pleasantly till 11-ish. The security guy had written me up last night, so I did the right thing and stopped at the office and paid the $14. No good deed goes unpunished! They managed to make it more annoying than it needed to be – show my drivers license, take it out the wallet, that kind of crap. Maybe showing your license to use a credit card is necessary when your clientele is the good people of Redding.

Hit the road, leisurely drive to Weavertown, where I decide to give Mamma Lama another chance. I had the biscuits and gravy. It tasted ok at the time, but didn’t sit real well. I think I need to knock biscuits and gravy off my “acceptable” list. The cholesterol isn’t worth the self-indulgence. Remembering the taste of what I had today will help.

At the bend in the river before Pigeon Point is a river access park called Bagdad. I always notice it driving past because I’m looking for Pigeon and it looks similar coming from the east, … and I just like the name! The heavy meal made me sleepy, so today is the day I decide to stop here. Turns out it’s pretty small and not very level, but I wedged myself into some shade and caught up on the sleep I missed this morning. Felt great.

I stop at Strawhouse for an Americano. I don’t really need more coffee, but I love the experience of hanging out on the patio watching the birds and the river. As I’ve mentioned, there’s no connectivity of any kind, so it’s an old-school experience – write in the journal and read.

By the time I get to Eureka the whole family is already at the mini-golf course for Tyler’s going-away pizza party in Manila, so I go straight there. It was bittersweet. Ty’s friends and friend’s parents are really nice, and it’s making me and especially Martha sad to think we’re leaving them. He’s even got a sixth grade version if a sweetie, and she is very sad to see him go, which is the most heart-tugging. Sixth grade boys aren’t much for displays of feeling.

Thursday – Pack Martha’s inventory day:

I decide my contribution to the moving effort could be taking Martha’s inventory in my van. It would all be in one place and off the table in terms of things they have to worry about. She thought that sounded pretty good, so today’s task is to do it. She packs all her stuff into storage bins then the rest of us cheap labor shlep them from her office in the far back of the backyard to the street – whew!

It turned out to be 45 of those standard-issue Costco clear-sided plastic bins – a solid cube of 4 wide x 3 tall x 3 deep (=36) in my sleeping area, plus 5 underneath plus 4 in the living area. We’ll cram some more in that part before it’s over.

Friday – Pack the U Haul day:

Today is when the real work gets done. Chad’s gets the UHaul, his friends Josh and James come over, and we pack all day.

Early afternoon, Martha packs the toddlers into their carseats in her minivan and leaves for San Rafael. Just us guys now. After a long hard day, we all go out and spend too much on Italian dinner, at a nice place downtown, then have a drink at a couple of places.  At that point James and I were done, so he thankfully gave me a rode home so Chad and Josh could do whatever they did.

Saturday – Actual moving day, drive the UHaul and Chad’s car to San Rafael:

It takes a while for us to get going in the morning, but eventually Chad pulls it together and cranks up the van and heads to San Rafael.

For complicated reasons I never did understand, they rented the UHaul one-way, which means he will get to San Rafael but his car will still be in Eureka. The solution to this is that I lock up my van and leave it Eureka for the time being and drive his cool old Mercedes full of his music equipment to San Rafael

Sunday – Me and Chad back to Eureka:

For this one morning, all grown-ups and kids have made it to San Rafael. But it won’t last. My van full of Martha’s inventory is still in Eureka,  and the house has to be cleaned.

The Gannons are a little bit shocked that I am here! Nobody told them I was part of the deal. Usually I try to get clearance up front from them and stick to the “no surprises” rule, but this time I was completely focused on the moving out end, and didn’t think about the moving to end. Tonight is about as crowded as it’s ever going to get at Chez Gannon. On top of everything else, Collin is unexpectedly home and has a friend over. Martha saved me by having Tyler sleep with them, so I could snag his excellent bedroom (with its own bathroom!) for the one night.

After our best efforts at a restful morning, Chad and I pile into Martha’s minivan around 1 and drive back to Eureka to finish up.

Monday – Tidy loose ends at the old house:

Chad spends the day cleaning the house. Start with the bedrooms and the attic and work his way towards the kitchen/living room complex. It’s a lot of work.

I mostly stay out of the way – spend some time with Katie at Because Coffee, then manage to be a little bit useful by taking their ancient laptop computer to the official recycling place. Computer weighed 33 pounds, there’s a $.10/pound disposal fee, so for $3.30 it’s gone!

Surprise, there’s way more stuff still to move than anyone thought. I get a gaming monitor and an additional 4-5 boxes piled into the van, but there’s still a LOT more.

Tuesday – Finally get Martha’s work to San Rafael:

This is it for me, my last morning ever at 1234 Santa Clara St. I think I am quite a bit more sentimental about these things than either Martha or Chad (or Tyler for that matter). Anyway, after one last look around I crank up the van (full to the brim of boxes) and head to San Rafael.

Chad is staying a couple of more days, till the end of the month, to get the place totally cleans out and deposit-return worthy.

The van doesn’t handle noticeably different with all the extra weight. I think the “extra weight” would be just a run of the mill load for a Sprinter being used as a delivery van, so I am probably just trippin’ that this is any big deal in terms of the van’s load carrying abilities.. I do drive extra careful so as not to have to slam on the brakes and have all those neatly stacked boxes come flying at my head.

Since I require unloading, in San Rafael vehicles are moved to give me the treasured parking spot nearest to the gate in the driveway. We postpone unloading to the morrow.

Wednesday – Unload van:

Brian and Martha have a bit of a discussion about where to put all those boxes, but after that gets ironed out Brian has a couple of his workers chip in to help unpack. Works for me, I’m over that part. It goes quickly, which is just awesome, because I really want my van back.

Recall that this trip started with an unsuccessful attempt to get an 80,000 service for the van. With a trip to Eureka and back under my belt I am now another 7-800 miles more overdue for the service. Brian tells me to go to his place, D&K, in Corte Madera. He gets “all his trucks” serviced there, as do all the little southern Marin Police Departments.

I take the van over there tonight, and sure enough there are a couple of Sausalito Police cruisers in the lot.

Thursday – Finally get that van service:

I get a call at 9:40, expecting them to say they are getting started, but they’re calling to say they’re done! I like this place! Collin drives me over there, I pay and pick up, and do my coffee thing at the ever-so-fancy Equator Coffee in Larkspur. Ah #Marinlife!

For old times sake, Martha and I stroll with the stroller over to the Thursday downtown Farmer’s Market, which we have been attending off and on for … twenty-four years! She’s nuts for the giant bag of caramel corn.

Friday – Chad arrives, the move is complete:

Did I mention that I have been sleeping in a tent under the porch? For reasons that no doubt make sense to a teenager, Collin had set up a 4-person umbrella tent in the sheltered area outside the basement and under the porch and slept there with his friend last Saturday.

I reduced the stress of my presence by volunteering to sleep in the tent these last few days. It takes me off their mental board in terms of sheets and pillows and such and does not disrupt their use of one of their actual rooms. And in fact, I like it quite a lot. The wifi’s good and it’s my own space.

Some time well after dark, Chad finally arrives in a packed-to-the-gills minivan. It turns out there was SO much stuff spread around the house and garage that needed to come that his friend James actually drove down with him in his own truck as far as the storage unit in Petaluma with a load of stuff then turned around and went back. Now that is a good friend! Pretty poor planning on Chad’s part since they could have just stuffed it all into the U-Haul when they had it, but that’s the way it goes.

Saturday – Back to Reno in one long, slow (but fun) day:

1. This is Fourth of July weekend, so campgrounds will be full and everywhere else will be crowded and annoying, so I might as well go home in one day and not even try.
2. I hate the I-80 drive from here to Auburn with a smoldering passion.
3.  I really enjoyed the drive through the Delta to get here.

… so I decide to take the long, scenic way home. I guess I’m feeling pretty energetic. The basic plan will be the Delta to US 50 to South Lake to home – boom! As it was I spent a fair amount of time in stupid holiday traffic slowness and even stops, but I oddly really enjoyed the day.

Say goodbye to all the eight(?) folks living there at the moment – other grandparents, step-grandson-in-law (Collin :), three kids, two parents – and I’m off. By the time I get to the foot of 2nd Street the trip is already different. My invariable way out of here is 101 north to 37 or points north, but this time I take 101 south (briefly) to the Richmond Bridge.

I don’t particularly love any of my local breakfast options in Marin – the combination of not particularly special yet really, really expensive is not appealing, so I Yelp for a restaurant in Pittsburgh/Antioch – after I’ve made it to the far side of the urban sprawl, but before I head out into the boonies. I luck out spectacularly in the form of the Bridgehead Cafe. In a shabby corner of Antioch, a couple of blocks before the 160 bridge over the San Joaquin River – gateway to the Delta. The polar opposite of Marin breakfast. Completely unpretentious, large portions and cheap. Great start to the day!

Right after that the traffic started. Slowed to 10 mph on the bridge, then was 5-20 mph in Isleton and Walnut Grove and all the little towns in there, maybe getting to the speed limit in between. In my good mood this just meant I had more time to enjoy the scenic river :)

I-5 to the bottom corner of Sacramento to US 50 were traffic-y but not too bad. 50 hummed right along until somewhere around Strawberry where it stopped dead. After that it was real sucky all the way to Nevada. Stop and go in the deep piney forest was boring but not unpleasant. Next, stop and go along that spectacular descent to the lake above Meyers was really cool. But stop and go through the middle of South Lake was no fun, no way around it. I made it worse for myself by forgetting about that Pioneer Trail cutoff until too late. I haven’t been to South Lake for a while.

I took a break at the Zephyr Cove Safeway; I’ve been in the saddle since breakfast in Antioch. Then easy driving up the Nevada side of the lake to Incline Village to Mount Rose to South Reno to home … finally!