PERT: A Detour, Then Home

The boys had planned to make a stop at Gold Bluffs Beach to see the new facilities, but once they started rolling for home they lost interest in anything else. About 100 miles from home, they discovered that I-5 northbound was closed due to grass fires between Eugene and Corvallis. The handy GPS guided them through the backroads of Oregon to Independence, and they jumped back on I-5 at Salem and arrived home about 9 pm on Wednesday.

Observations of a Road Warrior

The boys are heading home and Craig made the following observations:

• Clean restrooms are more likely to be found in restaurants than in gas station convenience stores or rest areas.
• Colleges are casual places. If you fail to wear shorts on a college tour, then people will stare at you and smile politely while thinking, clueless tourist.
• Non-smoking, no-pet hotels do not use perfumed cleaning agents. A good name for a hotel chain would be, Non / No. I would stay there.
• All luggage should have wheels, even the cooler. All luggage should be small enough carry with one arm when going up or down stairs, even the cooler.
• The worst drivers--in the states we traveled through--are not in Oregon or Washington, but in Tennessee.
• People do go outside in the south. Cocoa Beach, which is as hot and humid as any other place in the south, is filled with people walking and cycling. So the problem in the other areas of the south must be that weirdos live there.
• Death Valley National Park is evidence drug use was a problem in the old days too. National land fill would have been a better idea.
• Cell phones are nice to have. But a GPS in a car is truly wonderful thing. Do not do a 19-day road trip without one.

PERT: Stanford

There are a lot of lists in the world of universities, for a couple of examples, lists of the best science and engineering schools and lists of the best computer science departments. When it comes to computer science Stanford is usually at the top, as Peter says, because of their graduate programs. The newest part of the Stanford campus is named after the guys who paid for the buildings, the Moore Materials Research building, the Packard Electrical Engineering building, the Hewlett Teaching Center building, the Allen Center for Integrated Systems building and the Gates Computer Science building. With friends like that, how can you go wrong? Here is the computer science building, which Peter would not pose in front of as he does not want himself associated with Bill Gates. Both Cal Poly and Stanford are big enough campuses that bicycles are the default transportation.

After touring Stanford, the fifth college on the tour, Peter's first choice for undergraduate is Caltech, the coolest place on the planet, and for graduate work, Stanford, the center of the computer science universe.

After leaving Stanford the boys crossed the Golden Gate Bridge and got this postcard-perfect photo:

Ah, San Francisco ....

PERT: Cal Poly

In a number of ways Cal Poly is different than the other colleges the boys have toured. It's the first college not specialized to science and engineering. The tour guide recommended getting to know the agriculture students because they really know how to barbecue. Second, Cal Poly is the first public school they have toured. They were told Cal Poly has the leanest acceptance ratio of any school in the CSU (California State University) system. The other public school they will tour on this trip is Berkeley. And third, Caly Poly has about 5,000 students in their school of engineering (there are half a dozen different colleges on campus), which compares to 720 for Harvey Mudd, 900 for Caltech and 1,400 for Rose-Hulman. Class sizes are bigger too, but the average class size of forty is only about two to three times bigger than the other colleges they have seen so far. So forty is not crazy. For these reasons Peter was initially determined to not be impressed by Cal Poly. Peter intends to major in computer science and software engineering, which are combined into a single degree at many colleges but not at Cal Poly, which offers those plus computer engineering. That sounds impressive. Peter has yet to compare the actual courses offered to see if that is so.

Perhaps the most interesting thing they learned about Cal Poly -- and what turned Peter around -- is that Boeing Aerospace, one of the main contractors at the Cape Air Force Base, has students working on satellites right on campus. In Florida they learned there is a lot more space activity generated by private money and by classified government spending than by NASA. Boeing's involvement is a huge plus for Cal Poly for someone who wants to make a living in the space business. Most of the colleges toured so far have been secretive about the average SAT scores of entering students. But at Caltech it is 1,500; at Cal Poly it is 1,317. So these last two factors make Cal Poly a terrific choice as a safety school for Peter. And although Peter is not influenced by such factors, Craig was impressed by the city of San Luis Obispo and by the campus, which although a public campus draws a lot of private donations, especially the engineering college. I have done high school visits in San Luis Obispo and, when Peter was six months old, attended my cousin's wedding at the Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa ... it's a charming city.

PERT: Death Valley Sans AC (no pun intended), and other mishaps

Yes, that is sand, not snow, drifting across the road. I hear it's hot in Death Valley, particularly in a car without air conditioning. As the boys tried to leave Las Vegas, they noticed a power drain in the Contour and spent the morning at a Ford dealership. Assured that everything "checked out fine" (how many times have we heard that from a Ford dealership?), they continued on their trek to Yosemite. The power drain worsened and, worried they would not have enough power to cross the desert, they were forced to turn off the air conditioning, head lights, and all other devices powered by the car's battery. Including Peter's computer. Stripped down to his boxers, with no other diversions, Peter had his road warrior patience tested. I hear he did fine. The first Ford fix-it opportunity is in San Luis Obispo, so the boys have been running in low power mode. Probably the reason they were unwilling to spend any idle time on the road in the Yosemite Valley.

On the home front, we are dealing with an excess of water. Grandma noticed steam rising from her bathroom floor and through the seams of the cabinets. The access panels were so badly warped that I couldn't get them off, so I enlisted the help of Bob the neighbor, interrupting putting practice in his backyard. Steam fogged my glasses as Bob removed the access panel and he stated the obvious: "You have a hot water leak". The weekend was filled with plumbers and water damage assessors, and I now await a visit from the insurance adjuster.

PERT: Yosemite

I hear that Sunday is not the day to see Yosemite. The boys bailed on the Yosemite Valley as traffic on the turnoff was mostly not moving at all. So there is still something they need to go back to see -- on a week day. After reaching that decision, after miles of majestic scenery, they finally decided to get out the camera to get a few shots before exiting the park.

Yosemite is the kind of majestic place you would carry a backpack to see, but you can just drive through it. There were about 100 bicyclists out, although the roads are not bicycle friendly. A convertible or motor cycle might be the best ways to see the park. The speed limit is 35 mph most of the time as the roads have many sharp curves. There are many side roads that would be worth exploring if a person had a day to do it.

The Final Voyage

Ben and I flew to Las Vegas to join the Epic Road Trip, at least for a day. Ben is the only one who hasn't seen Star Trek: The Experience at the Las Vegas Hilton. As it is closing September 1st, we thought he should have the chance to be chased by Klingons and assimilated by the Borg. We went straight from the airport to Quark's for lunch. While we were waiting in line at Quark's, Jean-Luc Picard, some anonymous Andorian, and Benjamin Sisko happened by.


After lunch we flew over Las Vegas in a shuttle craft, then were rescued from assimilation by the Doctor and Janeway. Unfortunately, I forgot that space flight makes me a bit nauseous, particularly when the shuttle craft is being rocked by phaser fire, but I persevered ... for the children. No cameras are allowed inside The Experience. Sorry for the blur. We left the flash turned off.

We visited the strip to see the Bellagio fountain, which is across the street from The Paris where I usually stay in Las Vegas. Peter and Craig confirmed the fountain is much more impressive than Old Faithful.There is very little point trying to take a picture of the fountain. If in Vegas, then see it for yourself. In the photo above, Ben is imitating Marvin the robot from the Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy. We tried to explain to Ben that Marvin is a warning, not a role model.

On the way to the airport we stopped at the Hard Rock Cafe for a snack. Here Ben is trying to be the un-Marvin. We had the same waiter Peter and Craig had when they were here in March. The waiter said tourism in Vegas is down twenty-five percent this year over last year due to the slow economy.