is a 1,500-acre wooded nature preserve about 40 minutes southwest of Champaign. The University of Illinois administers the park and uses it for conferences, academic retreats, and teaching. Yesterday, , , and I went hiking on two of its nature trails. Afterward, we stopped at the day's , which were only about two miles away.
We first passed through the meticulously-groomed formal gardens.
Then we entered the peaceful and shadowy nature trail. I periodically pointed out the trees I recognized and the animal tracks that crossed the path.
Eventually, the trail curved to follow the .
It was obvious from the muddy trail and lack of groundcover that the river had recently flooded the area.
We had to detour around standing water or ford small streams several times. The moisture also meant that we had to constantly fight off swarms of mosquitoes. Unfortunately, I had forgotten the insect repellent. When we passed through sunbeams I could see dozens of the insects buzzing around our backs and unprotected arms. At one point, Manish killed five mosquitoes with one slap. Today my shoulders and elbows are covered with red welts.
Despite that, we all enjoyed the hike. The forest was lush and beautiful, and I found it fascinating to see the effects of the flood.
We made it to the opposite end of the park and returned along the higher and dryer access road. We passed a family attempting to break into their car, having locked their keys inside. I called AAA for a nearby service station, but the father decided to break a back window instead. That idea excited his young daughter who enthusiastically ran into the woods to find a big rock. We left before she found one.
After returning to my car, we circled the park to the day's . In a drastic departure from previouscoordinates, which fell in cornfields, Saturday's coordinates fell in a soybean field. I placed a marker flag while Manish and Yun-young took some pictures. Unfortunately, we arrived late and did not meet any other geohashers.
It was a fun day trip, and all three of us look forward to exploring the rest of Allerton south of the river.
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 and my housemates from last summer; hiked through ; tasted wines in Sonoma County's ; went to ; and biked around San Francisco.
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 . 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 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: , , , 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 :
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. discussed and asked the question, "What happened to children's chemistry sets?" 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 of fame. He talked about the many things he has made both professionally and personally. For example, he is currently building a replica from . 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 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 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 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 .
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 for lunch in the city. He took me to a hidden French bistro where we talked about programming and research.
I 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: , Piers 39 and 45, Fishermans Wharf, the [Warning! Annoying sounds!], and the .
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.
I have often said that Champaign and Urbana seem bigger than their populations would imply. There are two interesting and walkable town centers (three if you count campustown); a reasonably dense street plan; and a good amount of culture through the university. Champaign is even getting a skyline thanks to several . I recently took pictures of the most visible projects.
The imposing 18-story building is just two blocks from my apartment. Every morning I see the construction crane from my bedroom window. The building, scheduled to open in August, will house retail shops and a grocery store. It will be nice to be able to walk down the street for groceries. Right now, the outer walls are nearing completion.
One can see Burnham 310 and the Tower at Third for miles, but the 24-story highrise at will eventually become the tallest building in Champaign. It sits on the former location of a Burger King, hence its nickname "The Whopper". It does not look like much right now, but it will eventually have a fitness center, pool, and 17 floors of apartments over parking and businesses.
There are three comparatively short infill projects nearby, one at 507 East Green Street, Presby Hall on John Street, and the Saint John's Catholic Newman Center on the western edge of campus.
The university is also for reasons that no one seems to be able to explain.
Finally, will provide nine floors of retail, office space, and high-end condos in the center of downtown Champaign. I heard a story that the university bought one of the condos to house rich alumni for fundraisers and sporting events.
It has been interesting to watch these construction project progress over the winter. A fellow Champaign resident named Dan O'Brien has .
Yesterday I finished some classwork earlier than expected, so I took part of the afternoon off to enjoy the beautiful spring weather. I brought my camera and took some pictures of campus.
Last Saturday I began my return trip from Mountain View, California to Champaign, Illinois. The drive took me through , across the deserts of Nevada, over the , 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.
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. .
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 .
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 , 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. .
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 , 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 .
Day Three
The third day of my trip took me out of Colorado and two-thirds of the way across Kansas. .
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 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 .
Day Four
Day four took me across the plains through Kansas, Missouri, and Illinois to Champaign. .
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 . 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.
I started in Mountain View, then drove up into the hills where I followed 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 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 .
Rancho San Antonio
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 . 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 . The park is perched at the top of the hills southwest of Los Altos, adjoining scenic . 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. , 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 . 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 , 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 , , and the .
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 .
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.
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 amazingLegomastery, plenty of fire with a helpingofsteam, many, manyrobots (some of which foughteachother), and the powertooldragraces.
So. Awesome.
Last weekend I went with one of my new roommates to , 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 woundthrough the grassyhills 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.
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.
I briefly mentioned the small desk that came with my apartment. It did not take long for me to realize that it would not work for the several years I would expect to use it. The following terrible pictures captured from a video I sent to Dad and Sue when I moved in will illustrate the problems:
I had to remove the annoying shelves over the desk so my monitors would fit.
It had barely any space for my keyboard, much less paperwork.
I used my filing cabinet to make space for the mouse, but the metal would periodically interfere with the wireless signal.
It was crammed in the space between the wall and my bed.
It had no storage space to speak of.
I seriously considered building a loft with an attached desk. I drew beautiful scale diagrams and went home one weekend expecting to build it. After poring over the plans and much discussion, Dad and Sue convinced me to instead use a drafting table we had stored in the basement. They also suggested moving my "office" to the living room where I have more space. I am glad they were so persuasive because it was an excellent setup (and my bed got to remain on the floor).
But it still felt like a temporary solution.
During the discussion that weekend, Sue proposed that I take her large executive desk because, as she said, "it is a real piece of furniture that would look good in your living room." I felt the drawing table was a better choice, but her idea got me thinking about a "real piece of furniture". Over the next few weeks I casually browsed some of the online office furniture retailers.
I eventually found The Desk. It was large (66"x30"), it looked superb, and the price was excellent.
I ordered it several weeks ago, and it arrived on Monday in two 100-plus-pound packages. With the promise of beer, I recruited , a friend in the human-computer interaction group, to help me carry them up the stairs to my apartment. I started assembly on Tuesday.
First I had to unpack everything.
The top and sides came together pretty quickly.
Next, I had to put together the main body and supports.
The connectors that held the boards together were pretty interesting. Here are some videos that show how two of them work:
I also thought the drawer joinery was very ingenious. The sides had an angled tongue that would lock into place when perpendicular to the front. The other end of the side slid into a T-shaped groove on the back. The bottom slid into another groove and was held in place by plastic clips and nails. []
I felt like an assembly-line worker while putting together the drawers.
After screwing in the final drawer handle, I was ready to take apart the drafting table to make room for its replacement. Fortunately, the drafting table packs up nicely.
It took some straining to turn the desk over and slide it into place. Yesterday I reconnected all the computer equipment, and now I have a large, well-lit, good looking, and enjoyable workspace.
Last weekend I went camping, hiking, and whitewater rafting in West Virginia with the . We drove through four states, camped for two nights, got rained on, and had an absolutely grand time.
The trip began with a marathon from Champaign, Illinois to Fayetteville, West Virginia. I rode with four other people— Scott, Bianca, Amanda, and Greg— crammed into Scott's Chevrolet Impala. We were one of the first groups to arrive at the campsite. Other groups trickled in all night. I am told that the last group arrived sometime around 5 AM local time.
We drove through sporadic rain to get to the campsite, and it rained during that first night. This would become a common theme for the weekend. Fortunately, the tent held up with only minor drips.
I awoke on Saturday, donned my PVC rain suit, and ate a breakfast of dry granola on a wet picnic table. The rain let up around 10 AM, after which the majority of the group emerged from their tents. It took a while to get organized, but eventually one of the OAC veterans declared that we were to find a car, drive to the , and split off to do whatever we wanted from there. Several groups walked down 800+ stairs to the banks of the New River. Others went to hike through some abandoned coal mines. Scott, Bianca, and I decided to hike the that follows the cliffs bordering the gorge.
I think we made the best choice.
The trail began on the opposite side of the ridge from the river. There, the woods were lush and moist like a rain forest.
After we crossed over the ridge, the forest became more rocky and dry. We soon came across the first of many amazing vistas overlooking the gorge.
I lost count of how many beautiful overlooks we came across.
At one point, a train went by on the tracks far below us. It looked like a miniature toy.
We also saw some tiny kayaks and rafts navigating the rapids. We could faintly hear their whoops and laughter from where we sat.
After admiring two or three more overlooks, we came across a “climber access point". We learned that this was where the park rangers have set up ropes and ladders leading to popular rock faces. Scott went down the precarious-looking rope first, and Bianca and I followed.
The rope led into a cave beneath a building-sized rock that had broken off from the main cliff face.
Beyond the cave we found two ladders that took us through a crack in the rocks to the bottom of the cliff.
We explored the woods at the bottom of the cliff and found some impressive rock faces that had obviously seen some use by climbers. We could see chalk marks and rope hardware in many places.
We eventually made our way back up the ladders and through the cave to the main trail. We admired several more amazing overlooks and saw some interesting wildlife.
None of us were able to identify a pair of strange birds we saw on a rock outcropping.
It turns out they were .
We soon found another climber access point. It had a knotted rope leading through a narrow crack in the rocks followed by a very intimidating ladder.
At the bottom we saw more climbing walls, hundreds of enormous spiders (no pictures of those!), and some interesting rock formations.
We found a final climber access point near the end of the trail. This one had a very -like staircase curving between the rocks.
After that, a ladder deposited us on a very steep, very slippery slope. Strangely, it was easier to climb back up the slope than it was to scramble and slide down it.
We had been hiking for several hours by that time, so we quickly finished the last leg of the trail and walked along a one-lane country road back to the car.
None of us expected such an amazing and adventurous hike. We would have been perfectly content with the views of the gorge and the trail itself, but the side trips down the climber access points made the trip many times more fun and surprising.
We ate dinner at a highly-recommended Mexican restaurant and returned to camp just as the night’s rain started. We knew we were fortunate that it had not started pouring while we were on the trail. A few folks were optimistic enough to start a fire despite the rain, but I decided to get some sleep in preparation for an early morning. Everyone in the club had to be awake, packed, and ready to go whitewater rafting by 7 AM.
I almost made the deadline. I had all of my stuff packed except for the tent which I planned to take down after I returned from rafting. The morning was lukewarm and overcast. I arrived at the camp general store just as the first rafting group was leaving. This left me time to eat some more granola for breakfast while waiting for the second trip’s group to gather. It wasn’t long before we boarded a bus and made our way to the dam at the start of the .
The Gauley is one of the top whitewater rivers in the country. I am not sure how far we traveled, but the guide told us we traversed five and numerous threes and fours. Obviously I was unable to bring my camera, but I seriously considered buying a waterproof enclosure just for this trip.
I sat at the front of the boat for most of the ride down the river. I caught all of the splashes right in the face but only fell off twice. The first time, everyone but the guide was forcefully ejected when we slammed into a rock. The second time, the entire boat flipped for some reason I was unable to determine. Just before I hit the water, I remember noting calmly that the boat was tipping an unusual amount. I also swam through the “swimmer’s rapid" and jumped off one of the diving rocks.
The most exciting part of the river was one especially long class five. After my boat ran it successfully, we sat in a calm area to watch the other boats navigate a rock funnel that my boat missed. Several rapids earlier, we succeeded in “surfing" our raft on a particularly large current.
Unfortunately, my enjoyment of the trip was tempered by the rain that started about halfway through the river. It caused the air temperature to drop and prevented me from drying between rapids and swims. Despite wearing a layer of wool over polyester, I was shivering by the time we reached the end of the river. It is disappointing to think how much more enjoyable rafting could have been had the weather been sunny and 80 degrees.
We returned to the campsite exhausted and dripping from the adventure. I ate the lunch provided by the rafting company, packed up my tent, and not long after rejoined my carpool for the trip back to Illinois.
I cannot wait to do it again.
Update
Bianca posted some of her pictures in . It is interesting to see pictures from a different point of view.
I know what you probably thought after reading the title of this post: "Brett joined a club?! What is he doing in a social organization?" Yes, I joined . They go on all sorts of fun trips throughout the year and this weekend went canoeing on in .
We carpooled to the campground separately throughout the day on Friday. The group occupied a large tree filled campsite right next to the river.
Friday night turned into a big outdoor party. The 50 (!) of us gathered around various campfires and socialized late into the night. I brought my harmonica, and at one point I was jamming with a guy who brought a ukulele and another who brought a mandolin. It was a great time.
I slept terribly since I my sleeping bag was still in my Indiana home. Instead, I used a makeshift bedroll made from some extra blankets from my apartment. Luckily, I was able to snag a tent, but several people chose to sleep under the stars.
I was the second person—after the club president—to wake up the next morning. People slowly trickled out of their tents, and we ate a breakfast of bagels and PBJ. Someone eventually realized that with the time change, we had only 30 minutes to pack up the tents and meet at the canoe rental place across the river. We must have made it in time because not long after that we were in a repurposed school bus driving to the headwater. We cast off about five miles upriver.
The river was cool and clear, the weather was absolutely ideal, and the scenery was spectacular.
Much of the river was lined by steep rocky banks.
Near the end of our portion of the river, we stopped at a beach nestled against a sheer rock face. There, we ate our lunches, and a few of us followed a small stream a few hundred yards back into the woods.
We were only on the river for maybe two hours. Everyone agreed that it was too short, but that it was definitely worth the trip.
While leaving the apartment to run some errands, I noticed some skateboarders practicing their hobby in a nearby parking lot. I had my camera with me, so I practiced my hobby by taking some pictures:
