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Monday 18 September 2000: the 5 (part I)

Today was the main leg of driving home, and I decreed it right and salutary that the long swaths of the boring 5 be accompanied by some U2. Amazingly, after a little bit of looking I walked into a little store in Ashton (just south of Medford) and walked out with a cassette tape, which we played while heading south on the 5 through beautiful forests and mountains. Then we got stopped for possible fruit fly possession at the California border. The closest we had were some rather sickly looking dried apricots in the trunk, so we went right through. Back in the land of inefficient border crossings, however.

Mount Shasta looked pretty cool out the window, and Jon mumbled something from Ringworld about the beauty of useless tall mountains rising in the middle of nowhere. We averaged about 80 all the way down until we stopped in Sacramento just before 5 and toured the capitol for 29 minutes so we wouldn't have to pay an extra dollar at the parking garage. I didn't run into my old graduation pal Mrs. Davis though.

We stopped in Santa "everything for the traveller" Nella. It's the only town on this long stretch of the 5, and nothing more than a pit stop. We ate at Pea Soup Andersen's, a place overflowing with attempted charm and loud little birds outside. After finishing up a good meal, we sat around talking for a long time, and then left.

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