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The Home Page. Date: Tue, 12 Nov 1996 Subject: The Saga of a Steel Magnolia in Transit
Hi All,
Friday was my last day at Lockheed Martin in Salt Lake, it was a sad day indeed. I miss my friends already. They made my stay in Utah a pleasure. And they appreciated the merits of chocolate, a true (and noble) accomplishment.
Katherine and I packed the truck for our journey to California and wondered if it would all fit. :-) Ever seen a hot-dog just before it explodes in a microwave? Well, the truck wasn't exactly bulging at the seams, but it was close.
5AM Saturday morning was as cold and clear a morning as you can imagine. We left Salt Lake and headed west into Nevada. Along the way we passed the Bonneville Salt flats. They were crystalline white and very large. I stopped at a rest stop and walked out on it. I expected loose sand-like material. Not so. The surface was a hard crust of salt crystals and not at all like what I had imagined. It was a blinding white plane as far as you could see towards the mountains.
BTW, at mile marker 26 there is a modern art thing that looks like a tree. A very big (huge) tree like art form. Kinda reminiscent of a lollie pop tree, only much bigger.
Well, Nevada was a long succession of desert flats and mountain passes. Lots of scrub land and little else. Every intersection with a gas station (and casino), hotel (and casino), fast food (and casino) had a crowd of RV's parked there. You could see little towns along the freeway with trading posts (and casino) displaying western items for sale. Well, if I were inclined to gamble, this would have been a good place to stop, every 3 feet, and throw money away. We stopped at a KFC (and casino) for lunch. It was my first time in a casino. Icky place indeed. Loud and filled with strange people. I guess I'd better not go on, any one who wears a stick in their hair on a regular basis had better be careful what they say about other people. Oh well. Westward Ho!
We cleared Donner Pass with plenty of daylight to spare. California is mountainous along it's border with Nevada and the Sierra Nevada Mountains rise steeply before us. You know you have gone up...up...up when you get to the top and you see the sign that says '40 mile down-grade'. Oh crap. Well, we made it in fine form and stopped in Sacramento for the night.
Sunday morning was foggy as we headed towards San Francisco. Katherine wore out her squeals as we traveled over the bay bridges. It was exciting. A new city and new views were before us. Wow.
By 10AM we were in Sunnyvale. I will be working in Santa Clara, Silicon Valley U.S.A. We found our apartment and unloaded things, time to set up the new 'camp site'. With the help of a local map, I found my new work location without any problems. Good news. It's only a 6 mile drive from the apartment to the office. The trees here are going through their color change and it's very pretty.
Monday morning was foggy and gray. But, my first day at Hitachi passed without incident. (I left the rubber chicken in the truck :-)
Traffic, so far, has not been bad. There is a large Indian presence in this area, as well as Oriental and Hispanic. The number of terrific looking restaurants in the area is off the scale. Katherine is ecstatic over the shopping. Actually, this area reminds me of south Florida. The buildings are all two stories at a max, and they have planted palm trees in front of every thing.
We have plans to do San Francisco in the near future. Who knows what we can find there.
Take care and write when you can.
Jan Noble, steel_magnolia@mindspring.com
If you would like to trade stories, email me at steel_magnolia@mindspring.com
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