That drive along the Columbia is gorgeous. And because I’m listening to music instead of audiobooks, there is very loud, very off-key singing involved.
It occurred to me: not only does the Rivian have wi-fi (which is awesome), but I have Android Studio installed. So, in theory, I could install any EV charger apps into the emulator, and operate them that way. I’m not at that point … but it’s nice to know I have options.
Training the interns uncovered a handful of deployment issues, but that actually worked out great. They got to see very real world failures, and we got to walk through how to debug them. (It reminds me that I am actually pretty good at teaching, mentoring, explaining, etc.)
Most of the doughnuts went uneaten. That's their loss.
Tomorrow is a half day of work, followed by 8-9 hours of driving. Destination: Winnemucca, NV.
The plan is to get some doughnuts to bring into the office today, and then spend the morning helping the interns get their dev environments set up on their laptops. Later today, we're pair-merging and deploying a huge Terraform refactor I wrote.
(We hit a TF bug which causes resource cycles, which then leads to deployment thrash, so I moved us over to auto-generating like 80% of our TF based on TypeScript annotations and build-time handlers.)
This will likely be my longest day: working for 7 hours and then on the road for 8-9 hours. (My choice, not work's.)
Leaving the state for the first time in ... 3 years, I think? Exciting!
Obvi, I'd prefer to be doing this with Corri, but logistics. We did a road trip together maybe 8 years ago to Vancouver & Calgary which came back along the same route. It'll be nice to see again.
My headspace is clear. I'm as prepared as I want to be.
Had a good day yesterday. Enjoyed breakfast and board games with my sister in law. (Check out Game Train in Denver. Food, drinks, games, and nice folks!)
This morning, I find myself in Green River, UT. The goal for today is to make it to Madras, OR, via Boise, ID. That'll be ~15 hours of driving and charging.
Day 3 of #RickOnTheRoad complete. Arrived in Elko, NV, US.
Drove 530mi / 850km today. About 730mi / 1170km to go. With charging sessions, that'd be 15-16 hours, so I probably won't make it tomorrow. Which is fine.
Seems like maybe Grand Junction, CO would be a good target - about half way.
I had a very pleasant, very human interaction with a nice woman named JoJo at the charging stop in Winnemucca, NV. (Maybe I'll detail it later.)
Also got through "Ex-Wives of Dracula" by Georgette Kaplan.
#RickOnTheRoad Day 6. Long day. All details would need to be redacted, so I'm just going to skip them.
My mental health is fine so far. I'm physically running low on energy, but tonight should be a solid night's sleep. Outlook for the next week is mostly positive.
I did get to introduce my family to the card game "Beyond Baker Street", which was hilarious. (Think "Hanabi" but better.)
I haven't been outside much to take photos, so here's a Pride heart sorbet popsicle.
Found out I have some additional family who will be in town, including my Mom. Which is ... a whole thing. But with [REDACTED], I can't really fault her.
Also, it's rainy and gross through this whole area for the next week at least. I had really wanted to carve out time to see the Zoos and photograph all the things. Ah well.
The current plan is to get back on the road Friday morning. Maybe 60% confidence. We shall see.
Somehow, it is #RickOnTheRoad Day 12.
Somehow, I am still in the Denver area.
Also: I have reached semantic satiation for "somehow". What a weird word. Anyway.
Today's schedule is supposed to be breakfast and board games with my sister in law before I get on the road back toward home.
My headspace is pretty good. If I'm honest, it feels like I'm holding more tension than I should be. I'm curious to see if that's only about the travel.
(Note for me: remember to pick up more 'rona tests.)
Sweet salty balls, I am ready to be back home. I miss my boo.
Today's itinerary:
Madras, OR (200 mi)
Crescent, OR (+90 mi)
Klamath Falls, OR (+90 mi)
Crescent City, CA (+180 mi)
Fortuna, CA (+100 mi)
At 640 mi and ~13 hrs, that's probably where I'll stop for the night. The next stop after that would be Ukiah, CA, which is +140 mi, and likely pushing it too far.
#RickOnTheRoad Day 10. My last full day in the Denver area, with the drive back starting tomorrow afternoon.
Today included a trip to the Denver Zoo. Where, as near as I can tell, I was one of exactly 2 people masked, out of several thousand.
Sure, you’re (mostly) outdoors so masks aren’t necessary, right? But also: thousands of kids, coughing and sneezing and touching everything. Yeah, nope. (How can you bring your coughing child to the zoo? Seriously?)
Without getting into redacted territory, I can say this: I think we got to a local maximum/optimum milestone. It's not a perfect solution. Not everyone is happy or even better off. But everyone can agree it's good progress.
I struggle to see my value in being here, but people keep telling me I've had an impact, so 🤷.
No photo today, sorry. I basically didn't slow down all day. Tomorrow and Thursday should have all the photos.