America has ground to a halt for the very long holiday weekend that is Thanksgiving. As this is the time of year to get together with one’s family, travel is famously a nightmare.
Kevin and I planned to get on the road around midday and actually managed it about 12:30. Amazingly the roads were clear all through Niles Canyon and up 680 as far as the dreaded Cordelia Junction where we stopped to stretch our legs on the grounds that the van wouldn’t be going that much slower in a car park than on the road.
Fortunately the snarls don’t last too long. Today’s were perhaps a little longer than usual due to a couple of accidents around Fairfield. It took us an hour to get to Cordelia and another hour, including leg stretch, to get to Vacaville where we stopped for lunch.
North of Vacaville the roads were fairly clear and we were able to roar along and turn off the traffic news, instead opting to treat the good Christian folk of the Sacramento Valley to the dulcet tones of Miss Amanda Palmer. We did not get arrested, though the idiot in the SUV who was doing around 90 did get pulled over by a passing highway patrolman. As he was passing us at the time he attracted the attention of the officer I can conclude that the CHP is more concerned about speeding than my singing. This was no consolation to Kevin.
Talking of singing, you know you are still congested from teh hamthrax when you try to breath deeply. -sigh-
Anyway, we are now safely in Yuba City and tomorrow will make the short trip up to Sutter to have Thanksgiving lunch with Kevin’s family. I was pleased to have the hotel reception guy ask us if we really needed our room serviced tomorrow because they didn’t want to keep the maids at work too long. Here’s hoping for a nice, quiet weekend.
I’m thrilled you get to have a US Thanksgiving! Have a wonderful time!
You guys must have very calm dispositions to be able to make a road trip on the afternoon before Thanksgiving and arrive with your sanity intact. Hope you have an excellent holiday!
There’s an actual place called “Vacaville”? :O Did you see many cows there? 😛
Have fun for the holiday break!
Larry: Yep, cow town California. Not a huge number of cows, however. This is orchard country. And paddy fields. Lot of rice in California.
Peggy:
I hate the drive, and would have preferred taking the train to Sacramento and renting a car; however, we had extra things to carry with us. Once we decided to drive, we traveled heavier than ever, though.
We were pretty lucky, really. With the exception of the Cordelia-to-Vacaville segment and one brief slowdown in Concord, traffic was heavy but moving at the limit. I’ve had the unfortunate experience of being stuck in traffic for 50 miles or more on this drive, which is maddening.
When I was a kid, stopping at the Nut Tree in Vacaville was a special treat when we were taking car trips to Sacramento or Lake Tahoe. Just hearing the name makes me smile.
Kevin: I empathize. My husband and I decided to stay home this Thanksgiving because we couldn’t bear the thought of sitting in traffic over the Grapevine and up I-5. We’ll be driving home for Christmas, though, which is pretty much our only option because of all the stuff we’ll be carrying.