talktome@clarebayley.com

When I originally set up my personal domain I debated for a while about what my email address would be. admin@clarebayley.com was too sysadmin-ish, clare@clarebayley.com was too redundant. I wasn’t entirely happy with me@clarebayley.com, but it was the best I could think of at the time. Now I finally came up with something better. :)

Emails to thursdaymorning@gmail.com or me@clarebayley.com will continue to get to me indefinitely, but cbayley@mit.edu will be deactivated soon.

This is one frame from a panorama shot from Twin Peaks. The full thing is here: (click for high res)

Whooooo! :D I’ve arrived, finally finally finally, in San Francisco. I literally started crying when I first rounded a corner and saw the city skyline off in the distance. Some of you reading this know how long I’ve been waiting for this and how hard I’ve worked to get here. Part of me still doesn’t quite believe it’s real, that I’m actually going to live here and not just visit, that I’m actually out of school and living on my own terms.

If you’re in in the bay area or silicon valley, let me know! Message me on FB or email me, me@clarebayley.com. I’m taking the next few days just to get settled in, but over the weekend I want to start making local friends. :)

Just to round things off:

Let me tell you, that last little bit was NOT easy. I thought snowstorms and Wyoming mountains were hard, those last 400 miles were a gauntlet.

Apparently Nevada doesn’t believe in plowing their highways, so even through downtown Reno the 4 lanes of traffic were crawling at 30 mph through half a foot of slush. There were deep tracks where the lines of cars went, but trying to change lanes was like going off-roading for a couple feet. Ridiculous.

Exactly at the California border the snow disappeared on the roads, but then the real mountains started. Up and down, right and left, curving and climbing and twisting all over the place, those roads are crazy. The grades were consistently around 6%, which is ridiculous for large vehicles. It was also incredibly beautiful, but I didn’t dare take my hands off the wheel to get a picture.

After the mountains CA got almost completely flat, and that’s when the winds started. I don’t know quantitatively how fast they were, but fast enough to make all the digital signs along I-80 flash “danger, high winds.” It was terrifying – I was being pushed around like a toy truck in the hands of a toddler. Not to mention the roads are incredibly bumpy and that RV has no shocks to speak of, so I was grasping the steering wheel for dear life, just trying to stay in my lane and not hit any passing cars. My side mirrors were vibrating so much they were basically useless because the reflection was so blurry and indiscernible. I didn’t even dare take a second to free one hand to grab my coffee.

Speaking of coffee, I stopped at a Starbucks before Sacramento to eat lunch and take a break, and the barista had a very interesting interpretation of my name…

Really? That’s just… not even a real name. It reminded me of the “Swarley” episode of HIMYM. Pretty strange, but it provided a good laugh in the middle of a scary drive.

As soon as I post this I’m off to turn in my RV. I’m honestly a little sad to let it go – it’s been my constant companion and my home this past week. It feels somehow wrong to just hand the keys over to someone else. Although, it will probably enjoy a break – look how dirty it’s gotten from going through all those snowstorms. :\

Yesterday was a glorious but difficult bit of driving. 75 mph all the way through mountains and desert, and then mountains again. I stopped for the night about 40 miles East of the CA border, which means today is my last day on the road! Whoo!

I didn’t set up my tripod again because the roads were ridiculously curvy, steep, and bumpy, but I did manage to get some shots with my phone camera during some of the long straight aways. First were the Wyoming/Utah mountains, absolutely gorgeous:

Then came the Utah salt flats, which were kind of trippy. Completely flat, with mountains rising up in a line far off in the distance – so far away and hazy they might just be clouds. It would suck to get stranded out there.

I did make one rest stop in the middle to take pictures with my good camera – and damn I’m glad I did. Soooo beautiful! Here’s one of the regular shots I took, but I got a rather breath-taking panorama as well that I’ll post later once it’s all put together. God it was picturesque. Like standing in front of a real-life postcard. The land you see in the picture above was dry/muddy and dusty, but below, closer to the mountains, the salt was covered in a thin layer of water.

Immediately upon leaving the salt flats on I-80 you hit the Nevada state border, and the very first thing you encounter is:

::sigh:: I mean “first thing” literally, too. They had a line drawn on the road, one side marked “Utah” and the other marked “Nevada.” The entrance to this casino lies directly on that line. It’s a little ridiculous how rife with casinos this state is. They’re integrated into everything. Want a coffee from Starbucks? They’re all located inside casinos. Want to stop for a bite to eat along the highway? All the road-side restaurants are attached to casinos or strip clubs. Even the freaking gas stations had slot machines in them. I quickly got out of the populated part of Nevada though, and struck out across the wild countryside which featured stunning mountain views.

The day ended driving into yet another spectacular sunset, and I’m camped out at an RV park just outside Reno. The truck stops were insanely full and none had RV-specific parking anyways so I ended up paying for a spot here. I get free electricity and showers though, plus there’s no sounds of the highway or extra light, so not a bad deal.

Alright, enough blogging. To California! :D