Sunday, January 01, 2006

happy new year

I was travelling south on Interstate 5 to San Jose when I passed the signs that said that 505 was closed due to flooding. This is the major throughfare that connects I-5 with I-80 to get to the Bay Area. I tried to take side streets to the freeway, but all the on-ramps were closed. My fellow new-years motorists informed me, maps in hand, that the three main freeways that I usually take to get to the Bay Area were all closed due to flooding. This was apparently a breaking news story that I had yet to hear about, so I ignored their warnings and continued south, and finally wound up on 80, 15 or so miles north of Fairfield. When I hit Vacaville, the entire interstate turned into a parking lot. No joke. I took the first exit I could, and made my way to Damien's house. Watching the news, I quickly learned that I-80 was closed at Fairfield, still 13 miles from where I was - and the traffic was already backed up. The news cameras all showed something like this:



That's the highway that connects the north with the south on the west edge of california - the ONLY highway that does as you can see from our friends at google.

Anyway, had to skip out on San Jose and spend an uneventful new year at Damien's place. We are already planning our own celebaration when we are all back in Chico. And now, I drive back up to the mountain for another fun filled day of snowboarding.