California Crusin'

Once I got to California, it hasn't been that bad of a week. Yesterday I literally had to run to catch my third plane of the day. I was running late at ABE, had a tight connection in Cincinnati and an even tighter one in Salt Lake. I'm glad that's over though.
I did have a very nice drive north and west from Reno into CA. I was about 85 miles from Reno. I stayed at this nice little back-woods motel. Once you got into the real mountains, as opposed to the mountains in the Reno area and just into CA, it turned into a totally different place. Some of the roads made my PA roads look flat and straight. Sorry about the glare on the picture to the left, I took it out the windshield with my phone. (I found out last night that my camera batteries are dead and I didn't bring extras...) Yes, this is California. I felt more like I was in Colorado or Utah or even Maine. It was a great drive on a back country highway. You know that romantic image of family road trips through the mountains or whatever, that's where I was. I truly felt sucked back to the 50s or 60s when vacations moved at a much more human pace. I went for a bit of a drive looking for dinner last night and both then, and my drive back to Reno today I kept being amazed at how beautiful the place was.
Today was almost a waste. I say almost, because I did teach or reinforce a few things. They've been working with the new system for over a year now and have had our software for quite some time. I only spent about 3 hours there total. They were happy though and asked me all the questions they had and I answered them all. Good people, but I couldn't help feeling like I'd wasted my week. It did mean that I got to drive back to Reno in daylight and enjoy the views.
Shortly after entering back into Nevada, I saw a huge fire. When I drove through yesterday, I could still smell the burnt land. (It wasn't as 'clean' as wood smoke, but not as bad as it could have been...) I actually watched a plane or helicopter (not sure now...) drop a load of retardant on the fire. I couldn't really see the flames, just the huge plume of smoke. I could tell the dropped retardant instead of just water because I saw this swath of orange falling and disappearing into the smoke. It must have been huge, as big as the smoke plume was and as far away as I was. I know there are lots of fires out this way right now. I hope they get under control without anyone getting hurt.
Reno looks somewhat like Arizona or a slightly dryer California than the LA area. I keep forgetting that California has a very lush, green northern part.
Ok, I just realized I'm totally rambling. This has been a hard week for me. I've been very home sick this week. I'm not 100% sure why. I think part of it has to deal with the fact that couldn't be there when mom needed me to help with Gram's appointment. (That went very well by the way.) I also think that since it's been so very hard on Gak recently, that I'm not as able as I was to put that aside and just get the job done. This is my job. I love my job. Or at least I love the training part of my job. I'm also tired and feel like my brain is turning into Swiss cheese. (I have it on good authority from my Dr. that that's impossible, but it sure feels that way...)
Next week I'll be home, maybe the week after if the pains in my butt from Utah don't get back to me by Monday. I was supposed to cut them off this Monday, but since they'd contacted me last week asking if the week was still theirs, I cut them some slack. I am not supposed to book travel less than one week out, so I let them know if I don't have information by Monday morning, they're looking at rescheduling in October. Yep, that's right, October.
Well, I've got to get up painfully early for my flight home. Yes, I know, I'm still on Eastern time to some extent, but 4am is early any way you slice it.
Peace to all and may you find the beauty in your world.