www.BrettDaniel.com

Last week, between April 20 and May 7, I took a long vacation in the San Francisco Bay Area. It was a full week: I caught up with Eric and my housemates from last summer; hiked through Big Basin Redwoods State Park; tasted wines in Sonoma County's Russian River Valley; went to Maker Faire 2008; and biked around San Francisco.

• Day One: Big Basin Redwoods State Park
• Day Two: Wine Tasting in Sonoma County
• Days Three and Four: Maker Faire
• Day Five: San Francisco and Golden Gate Park
• Day Six: San Francisco Waterfront

I have wanted to revisit the Bay Area since interning in Mountain View last summer. I fell in love with Silicon Valley's pervasive geek culture, perfect climate, beautiful mountain parks, and vibrant urban areas. This summer I accepted a great opportunity with a company in UIUC's research park. That meant I would not have to move across the country, but I would need to find another excuse to go to California. The excuse came when I learned that this year's Maker Faire fell much earlier than last year, perfectly positioned between a paper deadline and the start of my summer job.

I booked plane tickets a month in advance and asked several friends if they wanted to join me for part of the trip. That week worked perfectly for me but was terrible for almost everyone else thanks to final exams and term projects. Fortunately, Eric was very interested in the Maker Faire, so he and his girlfriend Shannon decided to meet me in San Francisco.

I also emailed my housemates from last summer, asking if I could stay in the house during my visit.

They said I could and went out of their way to make me feel welcome. Joseph picked me up from the airport on the day I arrived, Sarah set up a couch in the garage with an incredibly comfortable sleeping bag and let me use her bike for the entire trip, Laura gave me a ride to the second day of the Maker Faire and let me use her laptop when my wireless connection didn't work, and they even had a barbecue and took me to see Iron Man. It was much nicer to come "home" to a welcoming house than an expensive hotel. I can't thank Joseph, Sarah, Laura, and Feddy enough for agreeing to let me stay and for helping to make the trip so enjoyable.

Day One: Big Basin Redwoods State Park

I spend the first morning of my vacation biking around Mountain View, Los Altos, and Palo Alto. The entire area is crisscrossed with bike paths.

That afternoon, Eric and Shannon picked me up in their rental car, and we drove to Big Basin Redwoods State Park southwest of Mountain View.

We hiked one of the shorter trails through the towering redwoods. We did not see the largest trees in the park, but the ones we passed were still very impressive.

On the way back, I showed them Skyline Boulevard and some of the spectacular panoramas bordering the Open Space Preserves.

Day Two: Wine Tasting in Sonoma County

On the second day of the trip, the three of us sampled wines from several wineries in Sonoma County's Russian River Valley. For me, the day began with a train ride into San Francisco where I met Eric and Shannon at their hotel overlooking Telegraph Hill.

From there, we drove about an hour north to wine country.

We visited four wineries: Kendall Jackson, Martinelli, Hook & Ladder, and a fourth whose name I forget because they charged a ridiculous amount for wine tasting.

The four wineries could not have been more different. Kendall Jackson looked like a French mansion complete with manicured garden. Martinelli appeared more rustic, offering wine samples at a rough-hewn wooden counter in the back of a dimly-lit barn. Hook & Ladder was much more industrial with stainless steel tanks behind a prefabricated building. The fourth looked like an Italian villa with olive trees lining the building and a mural behind the wine rack.

Eric was the most well-informed judge of the wine since he took a wine-tasting class during his senior year. Shannon and I just enjoyed trying the different varieties.

We returned to San Francisco for dinner in Chinatown. I have never seen a more frenzied staff than at the restaurant where we ate. The hostess ran full-tilt down the main aisle several times, and I cringed when she brushed inches away from fully-loaded waiters speedwalking in the opposite direction.

Days Three and Four: Maker Faire

Maker Faire provided the initial motivation for my trip, and the two-day celebration of technological creativity did not disappoint. The theme of the weekend remained unchanged from last year: to show off a huge variety of interesting gadgets, artwork, robots, and tools. However, I was impressed at how different it was from last year's event and that the two days had different exhibits and talks.

There were too many amazing creations to describe individually, but I particularly liked seeing several items in person that I had only seen online. For example, I got to try on Johnny Lee's 3D Wii glasses:

...admire Abney Park's steampunk instruments:

...confront an instrument of terror:

...and watch the motion of ferrofluid in a magnetic field:

I also took many more pictures.

Eric and Shannon joined me for part of the afternoon. They had an epic journey to the event center. First they had to return the rental car through San Francisco's rush hour traffic. Then, they had to take two trains: one to get out of the city and another to get to the event center. For some reason, the Maker Faire organizers did not advertise the train stop from which people could walk to the gate. Instead, they shuttled people from a more distant stop. So Eric and Shannon had to wait on the shuttle, then wait in a blocks-long line to get tickets. By the time they got in, they could only spend about two hours browsing the exhibits. Because of that, I don't think they enjoyed the event as much as they could have. Fortunately, they both live in Austin, Texas, so they can attend the Austin Maker Faire in October.

I spent most of the second day listening to talks. Robert Bruce Thompson discussed home chemistry experiments and asked the question, "What happened to children's chemistry sets?" The Paper Airplane Guy demonstrated, as you may expect, many paper airplanes and explained their history and aerodynamic characteristics. An engineer-turned-magician put on a magic show using homemade tricks that he learned from his father.

The headliner was definitely Adam Savage of Mythbusters fame. He talked about the many things he has made both professionally and personally. For example, he is currently building a replica ZF-1 gun from The Fifth Element. He has no plans, just screenshots captured from the DVD. He found the decal on the yellow rocket in a model rocket kit. That gave him a size reference which he could use to fabricate the rest of the gun entirely from scratch. Pretty amazing.

His talk culminated in a description of the process he followed to create a replica Maltese Falcon cast in bronze. He is definitely a perfectionist. His current casting is 10% too small, so he, in his words, "hates it!" and has to start over from scratch.

All of the talks—and Maker Faire in general—have inspired me to build something.

Day Five: San Francisco and Golden Gate Park

I regretted going to San Francisco only once last summer, so I spent the last two days of my vacation biking around the city. On day five I biked all the way across the city from San Francisco Bay to Ocean Beach and back via Golden Gate Park.

I started from the train station, then traveled roughly west on 4th, Market, and Haight streets. I passed the capitol building (with homeless people sleeping on its lawn) and the famous intersection of Haight and Ashbury.

Haight dropped me into the eastern entrance of Golden Gate Park. I passed more sleeping homeless people and was offered drugs three times. I walked the paths, passing the Conservatory of Flowers, then headed into the neighborhoods north of the park.

I resumed my westward journey, ending when I met the cliffs at the edge of the ocean. There, I got an amazing view of the Golden Gate Bridge and Ocean Beach.

I reentered Golden Gate Park from the west.

I biked about halfway through the park, then decided to get lunch in a neighborhood to the south. I returned to the park after eating and walked through the San Francisco Botanical Garden.

After leaving the garden, I biked the rest of the way through the park and along a winding path through the panhandle. I zigzagged back to San Francisco's eastern shore at the Ferry Building where I turned south to follow the Embarcadero back to the train station. I had traveled almost 20 miles by the time I collapsed into the train seat.

When I got back to Mountain View, I went to see Iron Man with Feddy and Laura. Finally, a good superhero movie! I thought it appropriate that I watched a movie about a robotic suit of armor a day after going to the Maker Faire.

Day Six: San Francisco Waterfront

On my sixth day, I met my former coworker and collaborator Marat for lunch in the city. He took me to a hidden French bistro where we talked about programming and research.

I biked around San Francisco's waterfront for the rest of the day. I did not bike as far as the day before, but I saw more of San Francisco's traditional "touristy" attractions: The Cartoon Art Museum, Piers 39 and 45, Fishermans Wharf, the Musee Mechanique [Warning! Annoying sounds!], and the USS Pampanito.

The Cartoon Art Museum had some interesting original artworks—including an original Calvin and Hobbes—and a good collection of cell animation. A TV on one wall played old Popeye cartoons in a loop. The museum was smaller than I had expected, only filling a normal-sized retail space.

I circled the dock around Pier 39. Like when I saw Alcatraz, I could not shake images of the Pier 39 course in Tony Hawk's Pro Skater video game. I saw Pier 39's famous sea lions lounging in the sun.

Fishermans Wharf was teeming with people.

I passed quickly through the crowd to get to the Musee Mechanique hidden behind the main shops. The Musee Mechanique contained dozens of ingenious coin-operated machines. I particularly liked the player pianos with their punched scores and pneumatic tubes. Unfortunately I was unable to get any pictures since the light was terrible.

The WWII-era USS Pampanito submarine was tied to the dock behind the Musee Mechanique.

I took a walking tour through the ship. I found it amazing that submariners lived in its cramped hull for weeks at a time. I took many pictures, but cannot explain much of what they show.

After that, I returned to the train station and Mountain View to prepare for my flight back to Illinois the following day.

Conclusion

I visited California to capture some of what I missed last summer. I feel I got everything I needed and wanted out of the trip and did enough in just six days to fill a summer. Thanks again to Eric and Shannon for meeting me in San Francisco and to my Mountain View housemates for their hospitality.

Now I need to find another excuse to visit.

You can find all of my pictures in my California Vacation Gallery.

Aside from the University of Illinois, I have never named my employers on this website. Doing so could cause problems if a coworker or supervisor did not like being associated with something I wrote. I don't think I have ever written anything compromising, but there are too many stories of people whose jobs have been affected by something they posted online.

However, I think I can now make an exception for Agitar Software, the company that I worked for last summer, since they named me in a recent press release:

AgitarLabs is actively involved with the open source community and academic researchers. In addition to the "No Java Class Left Behind" initiative, AgitarLabs runs internship and fellowship programs involving high-impact industrial research projects in software testing and test automation. This past summer, AgitarLabs hosted Brett Daniel, a graduate student from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), who worked at Agitar's California headquarters for several months.

"I am very glad that Brett Daniel interned at AgitarLabs," said Dr. Darko Marinov, a professor at UIUC and Daniel’s dissertation advisor. "Agitar’s research interests align very well with the topics of Brett’s work in my research group. It's great that Brett had an opportunity to focus on real-world research issues, with the potential to publish research papers contributing to his graduate student career."

Agitar is a vibrant startup that is heavily involved in research. Marat Boshernitsan, who is the Director of Research at Agitar, and I are collaborating on several projects. He recently came to UIUC to give a talk in CS527: Advanced Topics in Software Engineering, the class that I TA'd this semester. I have had a very positive working relationship with him and Agitar, and I am sure that it will continue in the future.

Last Saturday I began my return trip from Mountain View, California to Champaign, Illinois. The drive took me through Yosemite National Park, across the deserts of Nevada, over the San Rafael Swell, through the Rockies of Colorado, and over the Great Plains to Illinois.

The day before I left, I went to a company picnic. At one point the conversation turned to the trip ahead. Reactions ranged from envy that I got to take four days off to see the country, to surprise that I was driving the whole way by myself. I feel the trip was akin to an Australian walkabout: I got to wander the country, enjoy the sights, and be alone with my thoughts.

People asked what I did with my time. Play music? Listen to audiobooks? I listened to the radio when I could get a signal, but mostly I contemplated the land around me. The spectacular mountains and rock formations made me wonder about the geological forces that shaped them. I also found it fascinating to watch plants appear or disappear as I changed elevation and crossed ecosystems. For example, dropping out of Yosemite's pine forests into bare desert was particularly jarring. Human settlements, too, varied with natural as well as economic features. One particular ridge in Utah separated salt flats from thriving farmland irrigated by the flow of a shallow river.

This trip, like its counterpart three months ago, was as much about the journey as the destination.

Day One

Unlike my original trip west, I got an early start on my trip east. I had everything packed the night before, and with the help of my housemates, it only took about an hour to load everything into my car. I departed from Mountain View on Saturday, August 11 around 10:30 AM PST.

By the end of the day I crossed California and made it a quarter of the way through Nevada. Here is a map of the route I followed.

It did not take long to leave San Francisco Bay behind me as I took various 80-suffixed interstates toward the Central Valley. The air became drier and dustier the further I got from the coast. I turned onto Highway 120 midway across the valley and was soon surrounded by orchards and fruit stands. Having grown up in the Midwest, I found it interesting to see farmland covered with rows of trees rather than corn.

120 was perfectly flat and straight across the valley, but became much steeper and twistier as it rose into the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. I started seeing signs for the first waypoint of my trip: Yosemite National Park.

As I ascended, pines replaced farmland and touristy mountain towns replaced fruit stands. I reached Yosemite's western Big Oak Flat entrance around 2:30.

I regret that I could not stop to do some hiking, but fortunately the highway passes right through the center of the park and overlooks some of the most beautiful landscape in the Sierras.

I saw signs of wildfires throughout my trip. In the Central Valley I passed several patches of scorched grass by the side of the road. In Yosemite I smelled the remains of a forest fire before I saw it. It was a sweet woody smell, like carmelizing sugar and mulch.

The road continued to rise. I ate lunch around 3:30 in a secluded picnic area near a dry stream bed.

Continuing on, I started seeing more gray rock jutting above the pines.

Turning around a bend, the road revealed a spectacular granite-lined valley. Far away in the haze I could see the famous Half Dome.

Had I seen only that valley, I would have been perfectly happy, but Yosemite had many more sights to show me. Not far from the Half Dome viewing area, the landscape once again opened into a breathtaking valley. Tenaya Lake lay at the bottom. The road dropped steeply to follow its northern bank.

Beyond Tenaya Lake lay Tuolumne Meadows, the largest sub-alpine meadow in the Sierra Nevada. Here the urge to go hiking got even greater, but I remained firm. I had 150 to 200 more miles to drive that day.

The eastern park exit came all too soon after the meadow. I left the park and entered the drier, rockier, but no less picturesque Tioga Pass.

The pass spat me out onto the banks of Mono Lake, one of the oldest lakes in North America. The road abruptly turned south, passing through a surreal pine forest. Trees were separated by at least ten feet with open sand or sparse grasses in the gaps. Like the forest of stumps in Yosemite, parts of this forest exhibited some fire damage.

I had entered true desert by the time I joined US-6 beyond Mono Lake. I was the only car for miles, and I was surrounded by sand, scattered shrubs, and mountains. At dusk I ascended a rise to the former mining town of Tonopah, Nevada, where I spent the night.

Day Two

The second day of my trip took me through the remainder of Nevada, across all of Utah, and several miles into Colorado. Here is the route I followed.

US-6 shot straight as a plumb line out of Tonopah. It rose and fell with the mountain ridges like a toy boat on the ocean.

Between Currant and Ely, Nevada, I passed through a section of the Humbolt National Forest. I did not expect to find a forest in the desert. It was populated entirely by stunted juniper trees clinging desperately to the sandy soil or rock faces.

I passed many mesas and eroded rock formations between the forest and the Nevada-Utah border.

Desert and salt flats returned when I entered Utah, but they only lasted a third of the way through the state. I was surrounded by farmland by the time I got near Holden, Utah. There, I got on I-15, rejoining the interstate system for the first time since California. I then made my way to I-70, which I would follow all the way to Illinois.

I-70 through Utah is the most beautiful interstate I have ever seen. It bisects the San Rafael Swell, a 30-by-50 mile outcropping of eroded sandstone. I-70's entrance into the swell is awe-inspiring.

The freeway borders unbelievably beautiful canyons and mesas. Fortunately, the Powers That Be have placed viewing areas every few miles. The first was perched on top of some white sandstone cliffs that overlooked miles of scrubland and rust-red valleys.

I climbed onto an outcropping and admired the view for at least half an hour.

The next viewing area was no less amazing. A 100-foot path through gnarled pine trees revealed the colorfully-stratified Devil's Canyon.

The third seemed uninteresting at first glance, but I climbed up a small hill next to the pulloff area and was rewarded with a view of dozens of artfully carved mesas on the other side of the freeway.

Then, for the grand finale, I-70 dropped a few hundred feet to pass through a slot carved through the apex of Spotted Wolf Canyon.

Amazing.

The scenery remained interesting for the rest of the day's drive, but it could not compare to those 30 or 40 miles. I passed into Colorado at dusk and spent the night in Grand Junction.

Day Three

The third day of my trip took me out of Colorado and two-thirds of the way across Kansas. Here is the route I followed.

I-70, the train tracks, and the Colorado River braided around each other in system of canyons northeast of Grand Junction.

At one point the walls of the canyon were so narrow that the westbound lanes of I-70 had to be routed on stilts above the eastbound lanes.

After leaving the canyons, the freeway began to ascend into the Rocky Mountains. These were the Rockies that I envisioned when I thought of Colorado: huge cones, covered in pine trees, with (alas, very little) snow on the highest peaks.

I passed Vale and other sleeping ski resorts. At that height, the air was relatively cool compared to the dry desert air I had passed through the day before. I passed under the Continental Divide while in the Eisenhower Tunnel and began the long descent to Denver.

The transition between mountains and plains occurred abruptly in Denver. One moment I was on a ridge with a beautiful panorama of the metropolis, and the next I was looking across golden grassland. Denver itself seemed to end just as abruptly, and I almost missed getting gas before leaving the city. (As you can see, I also missed getting pictures of this stretch of road.)

The plains across the rest of Colorado and Kansas were unremarkable. I won't say "boring" because there is still something particularly impressive about cresting a small rise and being able to see unbroken prairie in every direction.

I stopped for the night in Salina, Kansas.

Day Four

Day four took me across the plains through Kansas, Missouri, and Illinois to Champaign. Here is the route I followed.

I admit that at this point in the trip, I was ready to get home. I was returning to familiar territory, and I kept stops to a minimum. It was a relief to see large broadleaf trees start to reappear halfway through Kansas. I passed through the pair of Kansas Cities and quickly burned across Missouri to Saint Louis. I meant to get a picture of the arch and Mississippi River, but traffic and a desire to return home kept me from stopping.

Illinois, too, went quickly. The only landmark of note was the intimidating, 198-foot Effingham Cross. The final leg of my trip began when I turned onto I-57 after passing the cross.

I arrived in Champaign on Tuesday, August 14 around 7:00 PM CST having traveled 2,269 miles.

Epilogue

It was very dreamlike walking up the stairs to the exact same apartment I had abandoned three months before. Everything was exactly how I left it, including the single drinking glass I left out before beginning the trip west. I joked with Dad, "it was like entering Pompeii."

This trip was an ideal end to my summer. I took the path less traveled and saw some of the amazing sights the western United States has to offer. It also piqued my interest in a third trip. In addition to passing through Yosemite, the route I took also came tantalizingly close to many other national parks—Rocky Mountain, Great Basin, Arches, Canyonlands, and Capitol Reef—and dozens of state parks, recreation areas, and national forests. On my next trip, I would love to budget enough time to thoroughly drink in more of the wilderness away from the highway.

Two weekends ago, I took a drive.

I started in Mountain View, then drove up into the hills where I followed Skyline Boulevard north. Every mile or so, the trees would clear and I would be treated to a view of the valley to my right or the hills to my left.

At one point I stopped to take pictures, and a train of Dodge Vipers passed me going the other direction. This happens more frequently in Silicon Valley than one would expect. A few weeks before, I passed a train of Lotus Elises on the same road.

I turned south on Highway 1 near Half Moon Bay. Not long after that, I stopped at a rocky beach where I got my first close look at the Pacific.

Some fishermen got an even closer look when they tried to help an injured pelican.

Unfortunately, it had a broken wing, and they could not do anything for it.

As I continued south the sky cleared and the air warmed. Near Santa Cruz I passed a windy bay that was filled with dozens of wind and kite surfers.

The last leg of my trip went quickly. I passed through Santa Cruz and crossed the hills back into Silicon Valley and home.

Last weekend I updated my gallery system. Most of the changes make it easier for me to upload pictures, but I also made two small externally-visible changes. First, newer galleries should load much faster because they no longer create thumbnails on the fly. Second, I have begun posting full-size images (example). To see them, click the displayed image on a gallery page.

Now that I have updated the gallery, I can finally post some pictures that I have neglected. Over the next two days, I will post accounts and pictures from some of the weekend trips I have taken, starting with trips to two open space preserves.

Rancho San Antonio

Rancho San Antonio Open Space Preserve is the closest OSP to the developed valley. In addition to great trails overlooking Sunnyvale and Cupertino, it has an open field for flying model planes—it even has a sign! "Caution: model plane area"—and a small educational farm. My hike started behind the model plane area and wound up the hillside via several switchbacks.

At the top of the hill I joined the "Pacific Gas and Electric trail", whose wide, sandy paths wandered around the feet of all-natural, virgin high-voltage power lines.

I then looped around into the woods and followed a dry creekbed back to the park entrance.

It was a short trip, but it certainly piqued my interest in seeing other parks.

Russian Ridge

A week after visiting Rancho San Antonio, I hiked around Russian Ridge Open Space Preserve. The park is perched at the top of the hills southwest of Los Altos, adjoining scenic Skyline Boulevard. It is covered with golden meadows with woods nestled in dips and valleys.

Borel Hill, the higest named point in the county at 2,572 feet, offered a spectacular view of the entire central peninsula. (If anyone has panorama stitching software, I would love to have the following pictures merged together. Hugin, the only software I have been able to find for Linux, crashes every time I run it.)

Unfortunately, I had to turn back earlier than expected due to leg trouble, but like Rancho San Antonio, the latter half of my hike took me through beautiful green forests.

These hikes were two of the highlights of my time here in California. The parks' beauty and proximity to Mountain View made them the perfect day trip destination. The unfortunate leg trouble prevented me from hiking any of the other two dozen parks, but I certainly plan to visit more if and when I return to Silicon Valley.

I got the first half of the week off for Independence Day, and I put the free time to good use. Fortunately, my vacation coincided with Mel and her boyfriend Ryan's visit to the bay area.

Stanford

On Monday, I met them at Stanford. Mel has been working the Los Angeles area and is thinking about returning to grad school. She wanted to visit the campus because she hopes to apply to Stanford and several other west coast universities. I wanted to visit because it was just down the road from Mountain View.

I called Maurice, a fellow UIUC grad who went to Stanford as an undergrad, and asked if he had any suggestions for what to see. At his advice, we visited Hoover Tower, Memorial Church, and the Rodin Sculpture Collection.

We also wandered around the rest of campus. Mel wanted to see the biological sciences building, which we all thought looked like a space station.

And I wanted to see how Stanford's computer science building compared to UIUC's Siebel Center. The building had a lot of interesting displays. In the basement, we found the original Google server.

San Francisco and Alcatraz

On Tuesday I boarded the CalTrain with my bike and rode into San Francisco. I was excited to see the city for the first time. I biked up and down San Francisco's famous hills, along the edge of Chinatown, and between the downtown skyscrapers. I did not get any pictures because I was busy pedaling. I met Mel and Ryan at Pier 33. From there, we boarded a ferry to Alcatraz.

I greatly enjoyed the visit to the island. I find it very interesting how the buildings deteriorated after just 50 years of disuse. Ryan and I debated when the water tower will fall over.

There was a powerful sense of history at the prison. A video in the basement and an audio tour of the cellblock, narrated by former guards and inmates, imparted some of that history. The audio tour was especially well done. It had great ambient prison sounds and pointed out the locations (and remnants) of several escape attempts.

After taking the ferry back to the mainland, we drove across town to visit the Golden Gate Bridge. It is certainly bigger than it appears in pictures.

I had a great first visit to San Francisco, and with a month and a half left in my summer, I am sure I will return.

Two weeks ago I went to the Bay Area Maker Faire.

This festival showcased the creations of hundreds of technologically-inclined hobbyists. It was an unapologetic celebration of geekiness, and I absolutely loved it. I saw too many amazing things to describe individually, but I did take pictures. Highlights included amazing Lego mastery, plenty of fire with a helping of steam, many, many robots (some of which fought each other), and the power tool drag races.

So. Awesome.

Last weekend I went with one of my new roommates to Shoreline Park, located near San Francisco Bay just north of Mountain View. There, we walked the trails while I snapped pictures of the landscape and summer revelers.

Then this weekend I took a drive out into the mountains to the west of Mountain View. The road wound through the grassy hills overlooking the city.

On the return trip, it descended into valleys filled with towering redwoods.

I am continually amazed at the scenery around Mountain View. I passed dozens of amazing vistas and "open space preserves" in just an hour or two of driving.

I am sure you can expect more pictures as the summer continues.

One of the benefits of living in Mountain View is that I am right down the road from the Google campus. This means that when the company rolls out an amazing new map feature, Mountain View is one of the first cities included.

I still plan to post some of the pictures I have taken of the area, but while you are waiting for me to find time to do that, you can take a virtual tour.

• Downtown Mountain View
• The Train Station
• The Library
• Stanford
• Up in the Mountains
• NASA Ames Research Center
• Near the Google Campus

I could see Google striking a deal with a shipping company or the postal service to attach panoramic cameras to the top of delivery trucks. That way, it would not take long to index most of the major cities in the country.

And to answer Eric's question: no, I am not working for Google this summer.

Last Wednesday I embarked on the longest road trip I have ever attempted: four days, eight states, and 2,225 miles. I drove from Champaign, Illinois to Mountain View, California where I will spend the next three months working as a "research intern" for a company that makes software testing tools.

I debated for several days whether to fly or drive to California. I decided on the latter for several reasons. First, convenience. It will be nice to have my car for groceries and other errands. Second, I hope to visit the many state parks in the mountains around San Francisco and San Jose. Third, and most importantly, I truly enjoy long road trips and eagerly looked forward to seeing the western United States for the first time. I was as excited about the journey as the destination.

I planned to leave early Wednesday morning, but by 10 PM on Tuesday, having nothing packed, I realized I might miss my deadline. I finished packing by noon on Wednesday, ate one final lunch with my CS friends, ran a few errands, and finally left Champaign at 3:00. That's the other good thing about driving: flexibility. I do not think a plane would have waited several extra hours for me to show up.

Day One

And I was off! I followed I-72 from Champaign across Illinois. At exit 31 near the Missouri border I took the first of several impromptu detours that peppered my trip west. I saw a lone power-generation windmill on top of a hill. Since I had never seen one up close before, I went to investigate. I was unable to find a path to the windmill, but did find a picturesque gravel road lined with farms.

Not long after that, I crossed the Mississippi River into Hannibal, Missouri, the home of Mark Twain. This was the first time I crossed the Mississippi north of Louisiana. From there I continued on US-36, a state highway that acts just like an interstate across northern Missouri.

I stopped for the night in Cameron, Missouri, having traveled 346 miles.

Day Two

Before leaving Cameron to begin my second day, I stopped at a grocery store to buy food. I was reminded of the old Oregon Trail game in which one had to buy provisions in St. Louis before starting the trip west. Fortunately I did not have to buy a shotgun, oxen, or extra wagon axles, but I did get sandwich ingredients and some vegetables.

Once I got underway, I heard several news stories about flooding in northwestern and central Missouri. I soon saw evidence of the flooding in the fields surrounding the highway.

I picked up I-29 north outside of St. Joseph, Missouri. I crossed into Iowa, but only drove 10 miles into the state before turning west on highway 2 near Nebraska City. I then followed highway 2 west to Lincoln, Nebraska where it met with I-80.

I left I-80 at exit 382 and instead followed US-34 which parallels the interstate. It was along this stretch that I got my first real taste of the Great Plains.

I found a plane on the plains near York, Nebraska.

I rejoined I-80 near Grand Island, Nebraska and stopped for lunch at the mile 270 rest stop near Kearney, Nebraska. It had a peaceful lake with an interesting sculpture.

I stopped for gas at Ogallala, Nebraska where I saw two semis struggling to get their very long cargo through a traffic light. That cargo turned out to be vanes for power-generation windmills like the one I tried to find in Missouri. I had no idea they were so big.

Throughout my trip, I was amazed at the changes to the landscape and foliage that unfolded around the interstate. The trees thinned and it grew hillier as I traveled across Nebraska. By the time I reached the Wyoming border, there were few trees and cattle had replaced farms.

I stopped at sunset in Cheyenne, Wyoming having traveled 629 more miles for a total of 975 miles.

Day Three

On the morning of my third day, I took scenic highway 210 out of Cheyenne. It traveled up the hills to the west of the city and passed through Medicine Bow National Forest. It contained some incredible scenery.

I was amazed to find snow remaining in shadows and depressions.

After about 40 beautiful miles, 210 rejoined I-80 at its highest point.

The landscape transformed drastically around Laramie, Wyoming. Trees disappeared almost completely and it became much more mountainous.

I passed through the desolate Great Divide Basin after which the land dried and became steadily more rocky.

The descent into Utah became greener and passed through a beautiful gorge lined with red rock formations.

There was even some wildlife.

I-80 dropped quickly through the mountains around Salt Lake City. I was unable to get pictures of the approach, but the views made me understand why Brigham Young decided to settle there.

I fought Salt Lake City's traffic and continued into the desert west of the lake.

I soon came to Utah's famous salt flats.

I did not try to set any land speed records, but I did see several deep ruts made by people who tried to drive on the salt.

The highway rose once again after crossing into Nevada. Every time I crossed a rise, I could see the highway continuing for miles ahead of me. Every so often, I passed a small town splashed across the foot of a mountain.

I stopped for the night in Elko, Nevada having traveled 670 miles for a total of 1,645 miles.

Day Four

Day four saw the largest and quickest changes to the landscape: I went from mountains to desert to alpine forest to lush farmland to the Mediterranean climate of Silicon Valley.

I ate breakfast at a restaraunt in a casino along Elko's main street. It seems like all Nevada cities, no matter how small, had at least one casino.

I spent most of the drive winding around mountains and through valleys. I saw several more salt flats, but none compared to the austere beauty of Utah's. By the time I neared Reno, the landscape had turned into true desert, the only green surrounding human settlements.

I even saw some tumbleweed. When I stopped for gas, one stereotypically blew across the road in front of my car.

After passing into California, the mountains exploded with trees as I passed between the Tahoe and Eldorado National Forests. I ate lunch at the Donner Lake rest stop near the famous Donner Pass. The rest stop sat in a beautiful pine forest next to a small mountain lake.

I found a path through the trees that led to a rocky peak alongside the highway. I could see for miles from the top.

I stopped again at the Emigrant Gap where California settlers would lower their wagons by rope to the bottom of the valley.

From there, I-80 fell several thousand feet to Sacramento. I passed through the city and several miles of orchards. When I neared San Francisco, I turned onto I-680 which flows through the hills around San Francisco Bay. I transferred to I-880 near San Jose, then navigated the suburbs of Silicon Valley to my home for the summer.

Again, I was unable to get pictures while driving, but this entire stretch was incredibly beautiful. I saw Navy ships on Grizzly Bay, multimillion-dollar homes perched on grassy hills overlooking San Francisco Bay, and the tree-lined boulevards of Mountain View. The vibrant and colorful plantlife of California could not have been more different from the shining deserts I had passed through mere hours before.

I had arrived.

Epilogue

Yesterday I moved in and got settled into my room. I even went grocery shopping for the first time. I am living in a large, beautiful house with three Google employees and a microbiology graduate student who is married to one of them. I start work on Wednesday. Until then, I plan to explore Mountain View. I hope to write about the town and post pictures in a future post.