Thursday, July 18, 2013

To San Jose and Back

Now that the trip is over, I can reveal that Sheila and I were up in San Jose within the past week so that she could meet my parents.  The trip was not foreseen at the beginning of the month as that I was involved in a hot project at work and that Sheila didn't think she could get the time off.  I decided to take the week after the Fourth off thinking that I would be spending it in Tucson, but Sheila made some inquiries at where she works and she learned that she could get a block of time off.

Since we didn't know when we would have this opportunity again, we took it.  We left Tucson on Thursday the 10th and we were up in San Jose the next afternoon.  We bypassed both Phoenix and L.A. on the way up, and with a detour at the Tehachapi Loop there were 892 miles on the trip odometer when I pulled into my parents' driveway.

We took three days to drive back as that I had my heart set on taking her down Route 66.  Ever since I did that drive in November 2011 I had been wanting to repeat it, and with some company this time.  I have to devote a separate post as to what we saw that day, as that there was more than one abandoned gas station between Victorville and Barstow.  Also, what I thought was once a truck stop east of Barstow was instead an agricultural inspection station.  The Spirit gas station next to I-40 is now a Valero station, and is operational.  And there's some new graffiti at the old gas station at Cadiz Summit.  I plan on posting some pictures of this trip and the previous one.

As for San Jose, there wasn't much time to play tourist.  There were my parents, some longtime friends, and we got to visit Mark's parents with the help of Skype.  I didn't get to see everyone that I wanted to see either.  That will have to wait until the next time.

I hope we can be back in San Jose for the holidaze, but all indications are that Christmas will be spent here in Tucson.

I do know one thing.  I really enjoy being with Sheila, and like me she thought that 66 was the "bomb".

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