Missing the Eastbound I-80 turnoff at Sacramento

                                                   Eastbound I-80 in Nevada.
YOU'VE heard of making a wrong turn ... How about NOT making a RIGHT TURN literally and figuratively?

During an August 2016 drive from San Francisco to Reno and beyond on I-80, I didn't turn off as I should have.
In what is actually an unusual situation, I-80 eastbound at Sacramento requires a right-hand turn off the current road (and up and over a ramp to the northwest) to remain on I-80. Otherwise, the current road turns into California Highway 50, eastbound to Lake Tahoe, with little additional signage.
If you look closely at highway maps you can see this requirement, an important one to stay on the correct road.
But there are not a lot of prominent signs to spot before the turn.
As I sailed past the correct turn I thought I saw a Reno sign on a ramp headed over the highway, but at 65 mph, there's little time.
The rest of my family in the vehicle was oblivious -- either sleeping, or playing or texting on their cell phones and missing and sights to behold.
I didn't fully realize I was on the wrong road until "Freeway ends" signs appeared near Placerville.
As it turned out I went to Lake Tahoe and then had to head north to Truckee and I-80. That missed turn probably cost me 90 minutes and Lake Tahoe was somewhat hazy that morning and not its usual perfect blue self.
Also, I had turned down needing to use a GPS to guide me that day, as I didn't believe it was possible to get lost on I-80.
It is, though, if you miss just one sign ... Don't make my mistake.

Hollywood Sign hike probably not worth the effort ...

THE Hollywood Sign in Los Angeles might seem like an attractive hiking destination. However, be warned! There are lots of inaccurate directions and plain wrong hiking lengths on various Internet sites out there about such a hike.
Also, you can't actually hike to the sign, you end up just above it and to the side -- not an appealing photo angle or ideal destination.
In addition, fairly often it seems like either fog or smog -- or both -- may significantly hamper views during a Hollywood Sign hike.
The day I was in the area (August 2016), it took until late morning before the smog/haze burned off enough to even see the Hollywood sign clearly from the Griffith Observatory..
I HAVEN'T actually hiked to the sign. I wanted to, but was curtailed by totally wrong hiking information on several slick, seemingly accurate Web sites. They appeared very reliable, but when I arrived in the actual starting area, it was plain to see they were plain bogus.
What I had read was that it was only 1.5 miles one-way to the sign and that the Griffith Observatory parking lot was the best trailhead, 
As it turns out in fact, the distance from the parking lot at the Observatory is almost 4 miles away or over 7 miles roundtrip. (see official sign below as proof.)

-There apparently is in a residential neighborhood under the sign, a starting point where it actually is just 1.5 mile of a one-way hike to get an off angle view just above the sign. The problem with this:  you have to be hiking super early (by 6 a.m. or so) in the morning and your vehicle gone by 8 A.M. OFF THAT STREET  to avoid a parking fine.
Given the fog or haze early in the morning for many days a year, this is also not an ideal situation either.
--Personally, I'd just drive to the Griffith Observatory and enjoy that view from the grounds. (However, some music events in the area can jam pack the Observatory road some evenings.)

Hearst Castle is the manmade gem of the California Coast

ON my August of 2016, 2,150-mile driving trip to California from Utah, the Hearst Castle was my high point. I had always mistakenly believed it was simply a “Castle.” I had no idea of all the vast and diverse artwork therein. I doubt all but a handful of the world’s museums can match what resides inside and on the grounds of Hearst Castle. A 2,000 BC Egyptian sculpture and far too many others to name. For just $25 a person for the Grand Rooms tour, the value was also a bargain. Kind of ironic too today, that a newspaper kingpin could amass so much money back in the first half of the 20^th Century.

(I was upset though, that at one point on the Castle tour, the guide specifically mentioned that “publishing” any photos taken on the tour was prohibited without getting permission to do so. What? I don’t believe legally they can really say that on a tour that’s open to the paying public – plus in this era of social media and blogs – what does “publishing” really mean now? Purely an outrageous statement to make ….)

-Also, with a massive wildfire raging off the Big Sur Highway, I had few views to enjoy on that drive, thanks to smoke.

                              Lone Tree along the Pebble Beach Drive.

-The 17-mile Pebble Beach Drive was also surprisingly more than worth the effort and $10 a car.

                      A northern viewpoint on the Pebble Beach Drive.

-Low point of my trip was San Francisco. Far, Far too much of a crackerbox/sardine can for my taste. The Golden Gate Bridge seemed overrated to me, but my son, Steven, who lives there put together a one-day whirlwind tour of S.F. 

                                        San Francisco

(Give me Yosemite or the Oregon Coast any day over S.F., or any big cities for that matter.)

-For more information on Hearst Castle, go to: www.HearstCastle.org.

-For more details on the 17-Mile Drive at Pebble Beach, go to:

pebblebeach.com

--ALL above photographs by Lynn Arave.

Where to find the best view on the Oregon Coast ...

                       The actual view from the window at Toby's Crab Shack.

THE absolute best, No. 1, superior view on the Oregon Coast, available for public lodging is at Rainbow Rock, 3 miles north of Brookings.
I stayed here for 5 days in August of 2015. Having traveled on vacations along the Oregon Coast some 24 times in the past 32 years, I've seen the majority of what's out there -- and the place called Toby's Crab Shack is light years ahead of the rest.
Case in point: My 19-year-old son has always turned the TV on and plopped down on a chair whenever we've stayed anywhere else. 

                 The 2 indoor window seats at Toby's Crab Shack. There's a deck too.

However, at Toby's Crab Shack, he went to the window and sat down and starred. He never ate at the dinner table -- he took his food to the deck or the window chairs.
Now I have not idea why the name Toby's Crab Shack was given to this place. It should be called "The Room with THE view."
You will NEVER want to close the blinds at this place -- just keep the view always open.

Toby's Crab Shack is in the building on the left, second floor, far left (or north end) in these two photographs with a 180-degree clear view of the Pacific Ocean and rocky headlands galore.


Besides the spectacular view, the place has access to a private trail to a remote beach north of Brookings. It also has elaborate accommodations for 4 people (2 bedrooms) and is very affordable when you consider how much plain motels cost along the Oregon Coast.
Now, I'm not paid, affiliated or compensated in any way with or by Toby's Crab Shack. I just think it is a great place to stay and it has redefined my formula for lodging along the Oregon Coast.
The ONLY improvement I'd make in the place is to have a good spotting scope available by the window.
I will return to this place in the future. It is a gem.
Toby's is part of the large complex of condos at Rainbow Rock. It has a locked car gate and is its own private community. It is a very quiet, serene and well kept place.

-If you'd like to look at Toby's Crab Shack as a rental, go to VRBO.com and search for: 

Oceanfront Condo in Brookings at Rainbow Rock

(NOTE: However, children are not allowed at Toby's Crab Shack. Yet, there is another condo for rent by the same company at the south end of Rainbow Rock that caters to families with young children.)

         What the beach below Toby's Crab Shack is like ... My family members were often the only people there, even on a warm summer day.

The Contradiction that is a Job Interview

I'VE seen this happen time and time again over the decades ----- People landing jobs simply because they do well at job interviews.

All too many employers seem confused and seem to the think that just because someone does well at a job interview process, then they are the best one to hire for a job.

Hello! Unless you are hiring someone to actually do job interviews, that's the fallacy of all too many job interviews today.

I've never been that good at job interviews and in the past some of my references have had to ask my future employer -- "Do you want someone who can do the job you are hiring for well, or do you want someone who is good at sitting through job interviews?"

The two aren't always the same.

Some people have outgoing personalities and seem to always do well at job interviews, even if they aren't the best candidate for the job in actual fact.

So, I doubt employers are going to change their thinking and so prospective employees need to "play the game" well and get better schooled at how to pull off a great job interview.  Sadly, being able to do so is more important than just about anything else you can do in landing a job.

-Also, I've wondered if having the talent of being able to "suck up to," or brown-nose people is another factor of why some people get jobs when they are not qualified, or the best qualified.
EXAMPLE" In the past 6 years this woman I know has landed 2 jobs that she was not really that qualified for. Her greatest talent? Being able to suck up to anyone .....

-AND, while I'm talking job interviews --- anyone with excessive or obvious tattoos should note the downside in this: I was talking to a big company executive a while ago. Tattoos came up. He flat out said that if two candidates for job hiring were evenly matched and one had visible tattoos, it is no brainier which person he is going to hire. I doubt he is alone in that opinion.

Thermal action ever changing Yellowstone, even its roadways

                                                    Fire Hole Falls on Oct. 7, 2014.


YELLOWSTONE National Park is ever changing, as a gigantic ancient, super volcano, that's not dead yet.

Even the park's paved roads are not immune to geothermal effects: Recent example from an official Yellowstone National Park Service (NPS) news release (and yet apparently NOT reported by news organizations): the Firehole Falls Road. 

Back in July of 2014, extreme heat from surrounding thermal areas caused thick oil to bubble to the surface, damaging the blacktop roadway and creating unsafe driving conditions on the popular, scenic, one-way road, located off the Grand Loop Road, just south of Madison Junction in the park’s Lower Geyser Basin.

So, although the one-way (southbound) road did eventually reopen, the Park Service apparently took most of the parking away at the swimming hole area with log fence barriers, just to be safe. Proves, once again, even nature's treasures are fragile.

When I traveled this road in October of 2012, there was parking for a dozen or so cars right by the swimming hole at Fire Hole. Now, October of 2014, there is essentially none, without blocking the road.

The only parking is 400 yards or so to the south or the north of the Fire Hole "pool," so you have to walk.

(Of course, you could block the road, as I almost ran into a woman who unsafely and un-smartley left her car on the narrow, winding Fire Hole road -- and her door open -- to go meander around, as if she was the only one driving the road!!!)

There is only one other official swimming area in Yellowstone: Boiling River. You used to be able to swim there throughout the summer, but never in recent years.

Now Boiling River isn't open for swimming until mid to late summer, when water is lower on the Gardiner River. Even then, it is a half-mile walk from a parking area to the "hole."
Hot and cold water mix here and it is warm, spa-like water there (as I have been there.)

By the way, the NPS claims the Fire Hole Falls swimming area has no direct thermal input to the river there -- that it is just swimming pool temperature water, heated gradually from elsewhere along the river.

-I'm also amazed how little of Yellowstone's weather or thermal effect incidents go unreported by the media.

EXAMPLE: Mid-June of 2010. An overnight ice storm closes the loop road from Tower Falls to Canyon. The road is closed from morning one day, until late afternoon and required an hour-plus detour.
Also, the NPS doesn't tell (or can't readily communicate with) the ranger at the Mammoth/north entrance to the park about the closure. You only found out about this closure by driving to Tower Falls, as I did, and seeing the barriers on the roadway.

                                               Tower Falls.

This also illustrates, communication wise, how poorly Yellowstone Park could handle a true disaster. The park is huge, rustic and apparently lacks a good communication system.

80 mph speed limit on I-84 is Insane at night

I recently drove I-84 southbound at night and found the posted 80 mph speed limit to be simply insane.
There are deer and elk crossing warning signs posted all along the Snowville area, where 80 mph speed limits rule.
In the day, that might be fine, but at dark, that's a disaster waiting to happen -- especially when you factor in a lot of curves and mountain grades.
I think 65 or 70 mph at night is more reasonable for that stretch of road, until it meets I-15.
-The same is true for I-15 north  Malad, Idaho. In those mountains, an 80 mph speed limit at night is unwise too.