This morning started out wonderfully. As I was pulling the shower door shut, my hand slipped and slammed into the metal frame. Normally that wouldn’t be too bad, but after a shower, the skin is a little bit more vulnerable, so I ended up with a cut on the knuckle of my right index finger. Doesn’t really hurt, but it’s troublesome since you can easily smear blood on everything the knuckle brushes against. Especially not helpful when packing clothes and loading a car. I resolved it with a band-aid. Mini band-aids are so useful for little things like this.
So traffic. Yes, the I-5 is terrible near the holidays. There’s a high influx of vehicles, which means a higher percentage of people who don’t know how to drive on the I-5.
A few pointers:
- The left lane is the fast lane. If you are going 60mph, I don’t mind sharing the lane, but please be aware of cars behind you and move over to the right so that faster cars can pass.
- And if you are in the left lane, please, please don’t maintain the same speed as the car to your right. Either accelerate and go faster or just slow down and merge to the right. Otherwise, top speed for everyone else behind you drops to whatever you’re driving at because nobody can get past the two of you, which then creates a ripple effect. Which, I have a feeling, contributes to the traffic all along the I-5.
It seemed as if every rest stop along the way was swarming with people. There was one I saw with a line of cars so long that they were parked backed up on the exit ramp leading to the rest stop. It was kind of ridiculous.
Really appreciated the new Google maps app. Near Los Banos, I ended up doing an extended detour on the local streets because the app indicated red for a pretty long stretch of the upcoming road. It saved me about a half hour and it was kind of fun speeding through the countryside. There were heavy rainclouds up in the sky, but the sun was still shining, so it was real pretty contrast and all the fields were green. I saw abandoned trains, run-down farmhouses, and sheep! I even went through a rough patch of road that kind of melded into the fields right next to it. Kind of exciting, but I was slightly worried I might blow a tire with how fast I was going over those muddy potholes.
The whole stretch I ran into traffic at various points, even when I made it down to Orange County. At least there were no visible car accidents that I passed. But I hate when there’s traffic for no reason.