I stopped in Whole Foods today and heard — instead of music — birds chirping. I thought that they were maybe piping in a nature sounds CD or something. Nope, they had actual birds flying around in the rafters. I can understand one sneaking in, but two or three? Maybe Whole Foods brought them in to serenade the customers. That might be a nice idea in theory, but it just seems a little… unsanitary, doesn’t it?
I wonder how many of their customers have been shat upon so far.
I had an idea this morning. I’m currently in the process of setting up a FlexRay cluster for my research (more details on this coming soon), and I had been thinking about paying a visit to the GM Tech Center to have another look at their cluster. They already gave me a good demo on my last visit, and I would really only need to go over a few details. It wouldn’t really take too long though, and it didn’t seem worthwhile to make a trip up just for that purpose. My route home passes right through the area anyway though, soooooo…
I put in a call to one of my colleagues at GM, and we set up a time for tomorrow. I figured that I could make it to Ann Arbor this evening, spend the morning there tomorrow, and shoot over to GM for my meeting at 2:30. My luck with the weather, though, seems to have finally run out.
Traffic started to slow around Gary, IN, but the weather was still OK. That changed as I got on I-94. The snow started to come down, the wind started to blow, and visibility plummeted. Traffic was moving, but even our 20 MPH pace seemed too fast. Three lanes of traffic were filled nearly bumper to bumper with vehicles, with semis making up the overwhelming majority. People were making their own lanes. Every once in a while you would see a semi blow by in the right doing about 50, followed closely by some courageous — or idiotic, it’s a fine line — soul in an SUV. One semi passing on the right nearly touched my side view mirror.
It takes a lot to make me nervous on the road. I’ve definitely driven through some sketchy weather before, especially on I-80 taking snowboard trips to New England. I was genuinely worried about the conditions on the road tonight though. Conditions were ripe for another horrendous pileup.
There was barely any traffic on the road off of the exit… not that I could see it if there was. A couple of inches of snow had accumulated on the road, but once again the Subie proved its worth. I had no problems making it through unplowed secondary roads looking for a hotel. Snow tires were a fantastic investment.
I ended up at the Country Inn & Suites. It’s a decent place with a pool and a hot tub, which was sorely needed after being on the road all day. I’m watching the weather channel right, and there are winter weather warnings all night. Lake effect snow, near blizzard conditions, accumulating 1 or more inches per hour through midnight. Low of 0, with a high near 2 degrees tomorrow. Hopefully they’ll get the roads clear enough that I can make decent time to Detroit tomorrow. For now though, I’m just glad to relax in a nice warm room, and not be stuck in my car.
OK, “great success” might be a bit of an exaggeration, but I’m happy with my decision to stick around for a day in Omaha. Didn’t really get to see much of the city, but I got some work done, and that was my goal.
Time for bed now. I’ve got a long day of driving ahead of me.
I originally planned on driving to around Gary, IN today, and then making the final push to Pittsburgh tomorrow. I have some work that I have to get done by Thursday morning though, so I decided to lock myself in the Comfort Inn here in Omaha to try and finish it up today. I know that if I drive all day today, I won’t feel like doing anything this evening. Same goes for Wednesday. So, I’ll just get as much done as I can today and then maybe make a 14 hour push for the ‘burgh tomorrow. Or, I’ll just get home a day late.
The Comfort Inn here is actually pretty decent, and the room isn’t that expensive, so I don’t mind staying an extra day. I was pretty impressed with the continental breakfast too — fresh waffles with biscuits and gravy.
Maybe tonight I’ll go out and explore Omaha a little bit.
I made it to Omaha, NE today. Leaving this morning, I was a little worried by all the snow in Boulder. Last night they had gotten 3 or 4 inches, and the roads were still pretty bad because they don’t salt or lay down traction material. Apparently it’s OK if pedestrians get run over while cars bounce around like pinballs, as long as the road runoff is clean. Honestly, I understand the environmental issue, but there has to be a better compromise.
The Subie performed admirably in the snow though, and I had traction when some big Jeeps and SUVs were struggling. It felt good. After getting a little farther out into the plains, the snow cleared up and the roads were fine. Nebraska was actually sunny. I have never experienced such wind though! It was rocking my car in the parking lot, so imagine what it felt like doing 80 MPH with a full ski rack! I actually had to pull over about an hour outside of Omaha to reinforce the rack with duct tape. Duct tape fixes everything.
A meal of beef goulash and Pilsner Urquell.
