reentry, 10/12

[jfb]

I ate the last lunch of my trip in Reno, surrounded by tourists and casinos. I didn't like it very much.

Fifteen miles later I was in California, instantly recognizable as I conducted a late merge into the out-of-state vehicles lane for "agricultural inspection". (As far as I know, California is the only state whose state line feels like an international border.) Apparently some days they don't bother inspecting anyone, so I needn't have put so much thought into whether I was in-state or out-of it after a month on the road.

The Donner Summit Roadside Rest Area was crowded and sunny, with a pond and giant conifers and a mountain vista. All around me were yuppie couples and working families and vintage hippies, taking a break on their way back from gambling or camping at Reno or Tahoe. Everyone looked healthy and happy. A guy sat outside the restrooms playing classic rock songs on an acoustic guitar.



And an hour after that, I was in the Sacramento suburbs, passing chain stores and exit signs, surrounded by everyone else going home. Traffic on I-80 was stop-and-go starting sixty miles away from San Francisco.



Home at last.

Comments

[emmacrew.livejournal.com]

wrog was in an "eating club" in grad school at Stanford. They had lots of foreign students. He has a story of the guy from Czechoslovakia driving in to CA from NV and seeing the sign and having a total "I didn't bring my papers" panic moment, and being all ready for them to arrest him when instead they asked if he had any fruit. It is a bizarre experience.