On this trip, I suddenly recalled Mission Bay, a place where we had a family reunion many years ago. It was one of the last times I saw my father alive.

A stop in Leucadia, one of the beautiful towns on the water north of San Diego. It was a nice place, but I was shocked to realize how cold it was, with temperatures hovering around 50 degrees.

A quick stop in Anaheim, on after navigating the whiteout on the grapevine. I wasn’t crazy about the hotel, but is was private and had a great Internet connection.

Well, I made it past Portland, my prime objective. Going through that place I find nerve-wracking, but my trusty GPS helped enormously. One thing that caught me by surprise was when it suddenly dimmed to accommodate dusk. That gave me a bit of turn as it was now much harder to see the display. I took that as a hint to take off my shades for the day.