Can someone please drive Miss Girlfriend - the tale of a long drive

Rodin Sculpture Garden
Stanford

Driving is not one of my favorite activities.  I would say it is a perfunctory task, necessary for getting around the gargantuan town I reside in.  I am comfortable and familiar with the roads I travel – the ten and four oh five.  I can get anywhere, know where the hills and potholes in the roads are.  On my little stretch of road, I am a road warrioress.

I get into the fast lane and get there.

In my perfect world (not) I would have a driver.  I would make a great passenger.  My granny on my mother’s side didn’t drive.  She walked, took trains, maybe buses or my grandfather drove her.  I remember sitting in the front with him, then climbing in back with her.  Unfortunately, I have to drive and thus have altered my mobility karma.

But I was not a road warrioress on my trek north to pick up my son from college.

I was not even sure I could do it in one straight stretch.  Time and constrains put me in the position of having to do the long stretch.

 After committing to this long driving trek, I asked myself why was I doing this!! Couldn’t he just ship his stuff home? Couldn’t he just leave it there? ( well no, it all has to be washed, you know boys only wash what they need – underwear and socks- maybe).

So back to the road.  I had to leave at noon.  And my goal was to be in Northern Cal by dark.  Thank god it’s daylight savings and not dark until eight.  I considered that an act in my favor.  I packed some healthy snacks and sipped water.

My hands get sweaty, my feet even start to sweat. I was driving a big huge car, but in my imagination I thought it could be blown over by the wind.  It was gusty in central California. I said “ can’t it be gusty after I pass through – thank you very much”.  So I spent some time just following a truck.  I got excited when I stopped for gas in Salinas and discovered San Jose was only an hour away – that meant an hour and a half in my terms.  It was still too light to stop, so I had to keep going and I swear there was a wind at my back and something was propelling the car forward.

And  No traffic, no traffic…. by then it was six o’clock.  I just breezed through. Crazy right?

I arrived at my destination by 7:20.  It took me seven and a half hours to drive up to Palo Alto.

the patio off my room

a rose outside my door

Once I was there I had to find a place to sleep, originally I had reservations for two nights, but that changed.  Oh and it was graduation weekend.  And everyplace is booked.  The kids had to be out of their dorms by Friday am.  So I had to look for a place to sleep as well. Comical.  I went to three places before one place took pity on me and said I could use their computer for find accomadations.  I am not a sleep in the car kinda gal.  that’s what I thought I would do, if it came to it. But in reality no way.  I found a beautiful hotel, it was their last room,price decent and it was way too lovely – the Zen Hotel.  They even served breakfast.  My kind of healthy breakfast.  I even found a Whole Foods the size of Cosco.  It was huge.  It was in Los Altos. 

The way back!!! 

You really don’t want to know about that.  It took me nine, nine, 9 hours to get back home. There was traffic, there was road work, there was a bicycle race, there was the ocean and that made me dizzy.  By the time I got to the sunset exit at the 405, I had had enough. 

Even though there was street traffic, I was happy to be home. And I was exhausted.  Of course I enjoyed the time in the car with my young man. Of course he slept a lot, pulling an all nighter before getting in the car with your mom helps one relax! Ahem!!

I managed to keep my spirits up by texting my friends at rest stops and the responses made me giggle and keep going.

This experience is like childbirth to me.  I will complain about it for a while, forget about it and then be ready to do it again in the fall.

I continued to eat healthy.  We made it back in one piece. I am happy.

Rodin sculpture garden Stanford
I love the juxtapositon of children's art
next to this great sculptor's work.
children were having lunch and visiting the museum at the same time
as me. Lovely grounds.