Amy’s on Vaca – Day 1, the drive
This would be better titled “I am a Crazy Woman”. I’ve done the drive from Seattle to Sacramento more times than most people and i still love it. It’s been more than a few years and there is something really beautiful to me about coming out of the tree lined valleys of northwest Oregon and climbing up into the more arid hillsides of Jefferson State. I’ve driven all over most of the US and there really isn’t anything that looks like this part of the country. Driving through this time of year and one could wonder how all those beautiful trees ever survive as it’s hot and dry. Generally a very tree unfriendly combination of forces. It’s hard to imagine enough snow on the ground in the winter to support them year round, though i’m sure it is many many feet deep.
After 10 hours in the car, i made the right hand lean on to 505 towards Winters and all the sudden I was in my early 20′s again. Roll the windows down, turn up the music and i was back in Erin’s jeep heading home from whereever. The roadsigns were all little pieces of memories; Lake Berryessa, Putah Creek Rd. Bear right onto 80 and continue through to Vacaville and Fairfield where I can see the lit of signs of places I used to be. Little changes in the topography spark more memories. The little hillside that I noticed on my way to a Giants game. I’d never noticed it before going to that game because it was the first time i’d been in the passenger seat on that stretch of road. That little tiny hillside always reminded me of home somehow, it just *looked* like Seattle when nothing else did.
Cross the bridge, bear left onto 850 and exit the freeway into a neighborhood… WHAT?. Ugh. Wrong exit, wrong neighborhood. There are bars on the windows of boarded up buildings and a pregnant girl on the street corner having a loud argument with a young guy on a bicycle. She hold her hands under her belly like extra support, but you can tell my the expression on her face she needs a little more support in her life and her belly. hum not in Fairfield anymore. Certainly not Kansas. Skip across afew lights thanks to the GPS in my phone and after a few minutes we’re back on track taking neighborhood roads to the hotel in Alameda. Still not Kansas, but there’s wifi, a complete but empty kitchen, a tv and clean bed. There are fast foodplaces and a drug store, but no sign of a grocer nor a bank.
Will find what i need tomorrow. Even when you like the drive, 13.5 hours is a long drive. 
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