Some bikes are unloved.
I had a theory. I though that if instead of taking Highway 101 from Santa Barbara to my house in Sonoma County that it might be faster to go up to Sacramento and cut over and this avoid the traffic of Marin.
Well I was wrong.
The traffic that I normally encounter when going home for Thanksgiving (by bumming rides off of friends) is normally intense in Marine due to everyone going north. There are also exits, merging freeways and bridge like things.
Today the traffic had no discernable cause. We were on Highway 5. In the middle of Nowhere, California. Nothing in any direction, no traffic accidents, no off ramps, no buildings not even any cows. Not a single feature to look at aside from road and traffic. Yet there was traffic.
Stopped.
Unmoving.
Traffic.
The drive normally takes (Santa Barbara to Sacramento) six hours or so. At hour seven and a half we could see the off ramp leading to my friends house. The front right tire blew out.
We pulled over and he fixed it while I held my flashlight to illuminate his handiwork. Once we arrived at his house I was then picked up by a family member and taken the rest of the way home. Ten hours.
Ten hours is roughly three more hours then I prefer to be in the car when driving to and from school. But then again Thanksgiving Eve has the heaviest traffic of the year. Or at least of the year when I am on the road.
Seriously though, traffic on Highway 5?
i took the 101 from west la to san jose on wednesday night, leaving at 730pm, and it was smooth sailing all the way through.
took the 5 from san jose to la sunday night. left at 2:30pm from sj and arrived in la at 9:30pm. 7hrs. damn. remind me never again to take the 5 on holiday weekends.
I left Sacramento at 11:30am on Sunday on 5, it was not good. We cut over to Salinas via highway 156 and 101 was clear except for about ten minutes of traffic. Still, it took about two hours longer then it should have.
It made flying seem often tempting.