Berkeley, Cynthia and Sam.
I’ll keep working on my heading back east plans today, and so far have decided to head for South Dakota on the first leg of the continuing journey. That’s a long way, about 1,800 miles, which will take a few days as I still don’t want to drive more than maybe 4-5 hours a day if I can avoid it, rather than 6-8 hour days, which I can handle but can be boring. In that case, the goal simply becomes getting from point A to point B rather than taking a more interesting, although longer, route. However, in this case there is no way to avoid some of the more deadening drives, such as getting across the salt flats west of salt Lake City, which are interesting for a few minutes but then become endless.
After Sioux Falls, in South Dakota, I’ll have to decide whether to keep heading more-or-less east on the northern route back home, or swing down to visit friends in Austin, Texas, and then continue eastward to New Orleans, and north-east from there, back to Baltimore and then up the east coast. I do feel as though my trip is now going to wind down as I start to head back, but part of this is that I still really have little interest in returning home, or motivation to do so, other than getting the house ready for winter. Importantly though, the election is coming, and as I can’t figure out how to now get an absentee ballot as I really don’t know where I’ll be, I have to be back for election dah on November 5. That now represents a deadline for getting home.
Around 11:15, I headed up to Fairfax to meet with Cynthia and Sam for lunch, and we spent the afternoon together, until about 5:30.
After some Indian food for lunch, we went to Lagunitas Lake, and walked around the lake itself, which is a little under 2 miles. It was good seeing Sam, and I’m sorry I didn’t see him earlier. If things don’t work out seeing Steve tomorrow, I may see Sam again tomorrow night, although at this point Steve and I tentatively plan to get together tomorrow, but we’ll see. Being with Sam and Cynthia together was especially nice, and the lake is a nice area, and a very easy walk.
After I later got back to Kaye’s, around 7:15, I received a very sad text from Indrina saying that Shikha is not doing well, is hospitalized, and may pass in the next few days. Once things become clearer, I will go back through Denver, but I’m not quite which route to take, and it really will depend on what’s happening with Shikha. Will I get there before she passes or after, or perhaps there will be some improvement, if only for a short while?