not my day

Jan. 26th, 2017 08:12 pm
calimac: (puzzle)
[personal profile] calimac
This was the day I decided to go to UC Santa Cruz for a little necessary library research. Although Santa Cruz is over a rugged little mountain range by way of a twisty highway, if one avoids commute hours (or summer weekend beach traffic), it's usually possible to get there in half an hour from here.

Not today. I hit stopped traffic at the foot of the mountains, and it took over an hour to travel the two miles to the next exit, where the cops were funneling all the traffic off. It appeared that most people were just turning around, but I know the back mountain roads, so I circled around six miles to an entrance further along, where the highway proved to be open. (If it hadn't been, I could have easily gotten to a good parallel back road from there.)

By this time, my first stop in Santa Cruz was a late lunch, which was pretty fast, and I got my library work done in about 20 minutes (maximum parking without a day permit is an hour, so I've learned to work quick there). I came home on a less direct, and even narrower and twistier, highway, which was also closed in two places, requiring more detours, and thus a trip which should have taken no more than 2.5 hours, including lunch, took 6.

I think the closures on the road back were due to floods or mudslides that have been frequent there, but I learned after I got home that the highway was closed due to a manhunt for a bank robber, who'd done the act just about the time I left home. So add "wasting my time" to the very bottom of the long catalog of his sins.

Date: 2017-01-27 05:04 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] whswhs.livejournal.com
Murder, arson, and jaywalking, as they say on TVTropes?

Date: 2017-01-27 05:27 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] kalimac.livejournal.com
As I said, "the very bottom of the long catalog." Wasting four hours of my time has a given level of irritation. It may seem worth less when juxtaposed against a bank robbery than it would be if it wasn't so juxtaposed, but it really isn't.

Date: 2017-01-27 06:34 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] athenais.livejournal.com
I rarely go to Santa Cruz because of the traffic. I just can't stand being stuck on 17 and I don't know any alternatives. Well, the coast highway, but that is only convenient for me, not you.

Date: 2017-01-27 06:46 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] kalimac.livejournal.com
For you, I'd try Skyline to 9, then switch at Felton either to 17 (which comes out of the mountains there) or Graham Hill Road, which is closer. 9 is twisty, especially near the top of the mountains, but a lot more bearable than any other mountain-crossing alternative, and you wouldn't have to be coming up from Saratoga on Congress Springs Road, which is worse.

I do like to match quick library trips to Santa Cruz with evenings I need to be in San Francisco, so that I can take the coast road when I leave. I like that road, and it gives me an excuse to stop at my favorite taqueria in Half Moon Bay.
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