canyonwalker (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
canyonwalker) wrote2024-09-20 09:28 pm
canyonwalker) wrote2024-09-20 09:28 pm
Friday Night Halfway - Back in Jackson. Lights Out!
It's been 5 weeks since we've done a Friday Night Halfway trip. The last one was to Jackson, California— and tonight we're in Jackson again! In fact it's not just Jackson we're staying in as our halfway point, but we're also headed tomorrow to the same all the way spot as 5 weeks ago. Tomorrow we'll drive up into the Carson Pass area of the Sierra Nevada mountains (which, BTW, are mostly in California, nephew) to hike to The Nipple again. Five weeks ago we only got partway there due to tough weather.
The drive out here was similar to last time. It's just 120 miles from home and it should have taken just over 2 hours to drive. Instead it took over 3 hours because of rush-hour traffic. Yeah, we knew we'd hit traffic snags leaving at 5pm. But I didn't sweat it because we were able to leave at 5pm. That's one of the nice things about working from home.... When we want to get out of town on a Friday night, we don't have to commute home from the office, then pack, then leave. We can throw together our bags during a short break (it doesn't take us more than about 10 minutes to pack for a simple overnight and a hiking day) and then leave when the workday's done.
This trip isn't exactly a do-over of 5 weeks ago. One thing that's different is we're staying in a different hotel. 😅 Tonight we're at a Holiday Inn Express instead of a Best Western. It's not that the BW was a bad hotel. I mean, okay, it did feel a bit slummy, but we've stayed in worse. But I would have stayed here again tonight— except that it was booked up! And I wish that it wasn't, because when we arrived at the HIX just after 9pm it was in a blackout.
The front desk person explained that there was an accident nearby about 45 minutes earlier that knocked out power to about a quarter of this small town. Indeed we saw flashing lights of emergency vehicles a block down the road. We don't know when the power will be back on.
Thankfully the batteries on our devices are mostly charged. We have backup power banks, too. And since we've got our hiking gear, we've got dedicated flashlights as well. And at least the weather's neither oppressive nor chilly this evening, so we're fine without AC or heat.
Update, 10pm: The power came back on a few minutes ago. We'd been in the dark for about 40 minutes. Surprisingly it wasn't that bothersome. We just stretched out in the room with our electronics. The cell network was still working fine to provide us data.
The drive out here was similar to last time. It's just 120 miles from home and it should have taken just over 2 hours to drive. Instead it took over 3 hours because of rush-hour traffic. Yeah, we knew we'd hit traffic snags leaving at 5pm. But I didn't sweat it because we were able to leave at 5pm. That's one of the nice things about working from home.... When we want to get out of town on a Friday night, we don't have to commute home from the office, then pack, then leave. We can throw together our bags during a short break (it doesn't take us more than about 10 minutes to pack for a simple overnight and a hiking day) and then leave when the workday's done.
This trip isn't exactly a do-over of 5 weeks ago. One thing that's different is we're staying in a different hotel. 😅 Tonight we're at a Holiday Inn Express instead of a Best Western. It's not that the BW was a bad hotel. I mean, okay, it did feel a bit slummy, but we've stayed in worse. But I would have stayed here again tonight— except that it was booked up! And I wish that it wasn't, because when we arrived at the HIX just after 9pm it was in a blackout.
The front desk person explained that there was an accident nearby about 45 minutes earlier that knocked out power to about a quarter of this small town. Indeed we saw flashing lights of emergency vehicles a block down the road. We don't know when the power will be back on.
Thankfully the batteries on our devices are mostly charged. We have backup power banks, too. And since we've got our hiking gear, we've got dedicated flashlights as well. And at least the weather's neither oppressive nor chilly this evening, so we're fine without AC or heat.
Update, 10pm: The power came back on a few minutes ago. We'd been in the dark for about 40 minutes. Surprisingly it wasn't that bothersome. We just stretched out in the room with our electronics. The cell network was still working fine to provide us data.