Bridge over the bay Originally uploaded by MisterBlue It is 90 in San Francisco. Here doing the tourist thing.

We just finished stomping around San Francisco. We left Reno Thursday morning thinking we’d drive down to Yosemite. It wasn’t long before we ran across and informational sign saying Highway 120 was still closed for the winter. Sigh. Rather than drive all the way around and spend many hours getting there, we decided to drive directly to the San Francisco bay area.

Driving from Tahoe to SF means driving on I-80. Besides the temp being 102, this entails driving at 75 MPH on an 8 lane highway with cars shoulder-to-shoulder and bumper-to-bumper. It's insane! This went on all the way across the central valley. There must be millions of people in central California and they must all be in their cars.

We counteracted the highway experience by ending Thursday in Muir Woods National Monument. This is a small patch of redwoods that was saved in 1904 and it is one of the last samples of the gigantic trees that covered northern California when it was first settled. Beautiful, gigantic trees.

Friday we hiked around the Marin park which is across the bay from San Francisco. This afforded us wonderful views of the bay and SF. We also explored many of the bunkers and old military constructions that are scattered about. We finished off the day by diving into SF and having dinner at Fisherman's Wharf before driving Lombard Street.

Pictures are now available at http://pics.misterblue.com/v/20080500-Trip/.

I really don't know what is going on with gas prices -- in two days here in California I've seen prices between $4.06 and $3.61. It can't just be the price of oil.

The phoned entry for Reno didn’t work yesterday so today I’m using a sad Internet connection. We stopped in Reno because we can get $30/night rooms (casinos are good for something). Once hanging out close to cheap rooms and massive buffet’s, we can drive up to Tahoe and hike and photograph the high altitude lake beauty.

Reno is an odd town. Growing by leaps and bounds. There are clearly the very rich (Jags and Mercedes abound and there are houses on the hills that, from 10 miles away, are clearly massive) and the very poor. The people aren't friendly in the saying 'hi' as they pass by way. But there is also an acceptance of the divides in money and people. It seems they keep the 'inconsequential' and 'real' separate. One is a show girl in the casino and a mom at home and those worlds are separate and everyone accepts that. That acceptance seems to go for money and position as well.

Another thing making Reno 'ok' is a temperature of 70 with white clouds in the blue sky. I'm sure it is a different town when it's 100.

We drove up and around Lake Tahoe. I will have some pictures up when I get some bandwidth but it was beautiful as always. We visited several of the lookouts and we threw a few rocks into the lake. The Tahoe area is getting developed so t's not like you're out in the woods.

Tomorrow (Thursday) we will be driving to Yosemite for another day of nature before diving into San Francisco.

Out of Oregon Originally uploaded by MisterBlue Made it into California. We made a dash out of the local area and, at the moment, we are looking to be in Lake Tahoe tomorrow. The road has been clear and the temperature about 65.

Getting ready for the road Originally uploaded by MisterBlue I’m packing and getting ready for a road trip. After working for many years at one place, my work gives a sabbatical to spend refreshing and preparing for another many years of working. Over the next few weeks, I am packing my family and possessions into a van and driving around America. I will be using my phone to post daily notes from the road as well Twittering in the sidebar.

We did a similar trip 15 years ago. I found, on an old backup, the web pages I created to record that trip. Check out the original Trip Around America. That's from 1995 so appreciate the hand wrought HTML. Hey, back then the drop shadow on the GIF of America at the top of the page was Hot Stuff.

Like I said, I will be posting more as we travel. We'll see how far we get this time -- now the boys are grown and they will have opinions on where we go and what we do.

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