Seattle BBQ for Bluepoof and WCRM II - Day 4

Saturday night I decided to get some sleep, and had no inclination of going to breakfast at 7am. I woke up Sunday around 8 or so feeling much less tired. While packing the bike, I noticed that it wasn't hot yet, like I expected it to be. I left Bend around 9:40am, and took 97 South. I have no idea why the speed limit on it is 55 in OR. In most places it's completely straight and has no intersections. In some places it even has 4 lanes. Anyway, after droning on I got to Klamath Falls, OR and filled up there. I went on and soon entered California. By the time I got to Redding it was really hot, but I was still feeling fine, so I filled up and kept going. The next stretch of I-5 and I-205 to Vacaville sucked. It was really hot, there was no shade and the road was straight as an arrow for miles and miles on end. I had to pass some cars that would not get out of the left lane.

Around 70 miles North of the I-5/I-205 interchange I caught up to Bluepoof. I knew I was going to catch up to her, but I thought it would be later, maybe past Vacaville or so. Either I was moving faster than I estimated, or she was moving slower, or maybe she just left later than I thought. For a second there I thought about tagging along, but it was hot and she showed no inclination of going faster. She let me pass, and I kept on going until I hit Vacaville. This heat was exhausting, and I stopped at a gas station to fill up and rest. I was there for about 20-30 minutes, took my 'stich off and drank a lot of Gatorade in the shade.

Thoroughly refreshed and cooled down, I continued on down I-80 and then I-680. The traffic started getting slower and slower, and finally came to a stop. It was so bad that people were shutting off their engines and getting out of the cars and walking around. I was thankful I could lanesplit, but it sucked doing so with the sidecases on - they are pretty wide. When I got down to the front I realized what the problem was. There were a bunch of firetrucks and police there, and there was smoke coming up from the ditch on the side of the road. (I found in the news the next day that a truck went off the road there and crashed and caught on fire. The driver apparently died.) All the lanes were closed and cars were getting by on the left shoulder, directed by the helpful officer. On the good side of things, there was almost no traffic after that, and I made good time down to Mission Blvd to I-880 to 237 down to Mountain View. Rolled into my garage around 6:10 pm, earlier than I expected.