Means and Ways: The SFO > STL Roadtrip Move, Day 1

Well, today was the big day: goodbye to more than ten years in San Francisco, CA and hello eastward highways, bound for St. Louis, MO. So many things seemed fitting to start out on December 1 (aside from my being expected at work in just 5 days): first day of a new month, first day of Hanukkah, 55th Anniversary of Rosa Parks refusing to move seats on that bus, and here I was - on the move. It was bittersweet to pass through Davis, CA, home of my first post-master's degree job and hard for me to believe that was over 17 years ago. As I continued over the Sierra Nevada mountains and crested over the Donner Summit, I was reminded of a small play I helped direct for a community theater group in San Francisco that I first got involved with over 8 years ago. I thought about the tragic fate of that group of westward pioneers over 160 years ago: surely my fortune will turn in a decidedly far more favorable way as I traversed their passage in the opposite direction. It's impossible to know that future for sure, but this first day of the move did give me some insights to new meanings in my life that kept me company along the way:

• "Goodbye" does not mean "forever"
• "Departure" can include a future return "arrival"
• And perhaps most importantly (for a solo driver on a long roadtrip): moving forward demands that you can not look back. Sure, you might miss some sights around you with only occasional glances away from the road in front, but the only safe, sensible, smart way to move ahead is to keep looking up and out.

Leaving the San Francisco Bay on the San Rafael Bridge

Changing Landscape: I-80 East (CA)

Changing Landscape: I-80 East (CA)

Changing Landscape: I-80 East (NV)

 Day 1 Seen Scenes:

• Crows flying low just over the vehicles on the road; Black vultures climbing high on morning thermals
• Skies that changed from watercolored cornflower blue to brilliantly sunlit sapphire blue
• Telephone poles seemingly stripped bare in the mountain winds, contrasted by living pines with limbs loaded full of snow
• Jet contrails like wispy clouds in the skies overhead, and snowmelt mist kicked up by passing vehicles on the ground below
• Ironic scenes throughout Nevada (see below)
• Northern Nevada desert landscape matched with emotionally bleak and desolate roadsigns like "[insert name of place]: No Services" or "Prison Area: Hitchhiking Prohibited"
• Snowpacked motel parking lots (thank you for my new all-weather tires, San Francisco Honda) where my car is the only vehicle that is not an SUV or a pick-up truck (scary)
• Camouflage-wearing motel room guests next door frying up dinner on the tail of their pick-up truck inviting me to join them ("Aw, sweet: how cordial of you.") for "Hibachi venison and salmon" they just caught from the river ("Oh, gee, look at the time...")
• Breakfast for dinner (good) at an all-night diner (very good) which is actually the restaurant inside a casino (bad) where the first slot machines by the entrance are themed to "Jersey Shore" and "Girls Girls Girls" (yuck, and double-yuck), but the dining area was a no-smoking zone (phew) and at least there was a vegetarian omelette which of course had to be named on the menu as the "California Omelette" (nonplussed)

Snow covered evergreens in the Sierra Nevadas

Donner Lake, CA

Note to Alanis Morrissette #1: Forget the black fly in my chardonnay; if this is the only interesting sight at the Boomtown, NV "Scenic View" turnoff, that's actually ironic.

Note to Alanis Morrissette #2: Keep the 10,000 spoons and the one knife: can you explain why markers for the California Trail are all over...Nevada?

Clouds or Passing Airplanes over Nevada?

"It's in the trees!" No, Kate Bush, those are not "Hounds Of Love," just cows.

Light and Cloud Cover changing quickly

Nevada Skies: all kinds of blue

So here I am blogging from a thankfully warm room in a Super 8 motel in Wells, NV because I decided to stop when it got dark and rest for the day instead of pushing too hard and driving to a destination in the dark. So believe it or not, this Myers-Briggs "J" might be making this roadtrip with intermediate destinations unknown and unplanned! (Cue "Freedom" by George Michael, please!)

"Watch for Snow Removal Equipment:" Where? Anywhere? Everywhere? Scary!

"Reduce Speed When Wet:" Good words to live by! Or not?

Dear Nevada: Couldn't you blast more tunnels through mountains instead of just this one so I didn't have to drive all the way around so many?

The only safe way to look back: Pink sunset in Nevada

Day 1 Fact File:
Starting Mileage: 78,979
Average Miles Per Gallon: 29.20
Visible Roadkills: 5
"Oversize Load" or "Long Load" Trucks: 8
Places Passed: Sausalito, CA; San Rafael, CA; Richmond, CA; Pinole, CA; Vacaville, CA; Davis, CA; Sacramento, CA; Colfax, CA; Truckee/Lake Tahoe, CA; Boomtown, NV; Mogul, NV; Reno, NV; Lovelock, NV; Humboldt River, NV; Valmy, NV; Battle Mountain, NV; Elko, NV.
Highest Elevation: 7,227 feet (Donner Summit, CA)
Soundtrack: "GLEE: The Music, The Christmas Album;" "GLEE: The Music, Volume 4, Season Two;" "Cavalia;" Adam Pascal & Larry Edoff, "Blinding Light;" Larry Edoff, "Duende;" Robbie Williams, "In And Out Of Consciousness, Greatest Hits 1990-2010" (deluxe limited edition 3-disc set).

Finally, speaking of my journey's soundtrack, this is a reflection inspired by one of the first towns I drove past after crossing the border from California, into Nevada:

Verdi, NV

Lyrics from Verdi Cries
(by 10,000 Maniacs, lyrics by Natalie Merchant)

...Holidays must end as you know / All is memory / Taken home with me...

That's the start of the final stanza of one of my all-time favorite sweetly sentimental and poetic ballads. Although the last several months of my unemployed job search days were not really holidays, I did try to work hard and play happily each day. Soon life will change again... Another day towards my new home begins tomorrow; with a heart full of memories that I am taking with me, for now it's good night.

From Wells, NV,
The Man in 117 (not "the man in 119" from Verdi Cries, if you know the start of that song; and if you don't, follow the link above for a video of Natalie Merchant performing it beautifully)