Post Holiday Syndrome

I managed to do the unthinkable, and all by accident. I got Zach to come down to California for the holidays.
And, a week and a half went by really quickly, and we drove back yesterday. Which is what this blog is about.
First of all, I have to say: California SUCKS! Not that I'm anti-California (although I am), but if you have ever driven along I-5 from Los Angeles to Sacramento, you will know what I am talking about...and I thought Kansas was bad.
Naturally I started out driving in the morning, since Zach refused to drive in LA traffic, although it wasn't all that bad yesterday when we left. We did get to drive by Magic Mountain which brings back fond memories of the good old days. But then it just turned bad. There was no scenery for about 300 miles. It was just flat. Some fields. Unfortunately a lot of cow feed lots (smells yummy!). On top of all that it was very windy. There was lots of tumbleweed. In fact, there was one tumbleweed that ran us off the road. No kidding. Granted, it was the size of my Xterra, and no matter which lane I went in, it followed me, so I just went off the shoulder and into the median instead. We avoided the tumbleweed. Naturally we were hunting out the smaller tumbleweed we were driving by, trying to crush them. Maybe the big one was revenge? Tumbleweed karma?
After driving through miles and miles of nothingness, we entered Stockton. In itself it was pretty uneventful except that it was the first signs of civilization we came across. Then we entered upon Sacramento (state capital #1 of the day). I'm sure it's a nice place and all, but from what I could see from the freeway it looked rather similar to the suburban sprawling hell that the suburbs of Denver have become. All the cookie cutter houses in their cookie cutter developments. No thanks, not for me.
Somewhere in Northern California (note: Northern California = north of Sacramento) we switched over on driving duties. Naturally, this was when the scenery started getting really pretty. And really dark. Once we got to around the Mt. Shasta area, darkness fell on us. Once we hit Yreka, it started snowing. And it didn't stop until we got to Medford, Oregon. Now in nice weather I'm sure this is a fine drive, but in a near blizzard on an unknown road at night, it was a little unnerving. I wish I had been behind the wheel of my car, but I trust Zach and I know he's a good driver. I just don't trust California drivers, because (strong generalization here) they don't know how to drive in snow. Or in general:
When you're on a two-lane highway, you stay in the right lane. You use the left lane for
passing purposes.
I was getting so unbelievably frustrated at all these drivers I was passing on the right, or stuck behind because they simply refused to pass trucks. If people knew how to drive properly, we literally would have cut two hours off our total trip time.
Shortly after the blizzard, I fell asleep, and for most of Oregon. I woke up in time to watch us drive through Salem (state capital #2 of the day) and remained awake through Portland. I have to say, Portland is an absolutely gorgeous city. At least at night, I've never seen it during the day. We were both in awe as we drove through. Maybe it's not even that cool, but they just hired someone to light up the city in an amazing way. Regardless, we're looking forward to a weekend off to go back down there.
Then I slept again and when I woke up, we were in Olympia (state capital #3 of the day)! Amazing how that happens. As much as I hate my house, I was glad to be back last night, especially since the house was still in one piece and it hadn't flooded. Home, sweet home.