Monday, September 22, 2003

"Continue on 29"

::Driving on the highway up to Napa Valley from the Bay Area::
Miriam is driving her hot red Mustang, and I'm navigating. After we get past the bridge over the delta waterway on highway 80, our Mapquest instructions tell us to take the highway 37 exit, but we know we need to be on highway 29. She's not trusting my navigating skills (based on experience and the Mapquest map) so decides to hit the earlier 29 exit. She cuts across the whole freeway and just manages to get on the exit by the graces of a fellow traveller who waved us in. Now, 29 goes thru a city called Vallejo. It's been said that Vallejo is the armpit of California. On the plus side, we are on highway 29, so the route is easy to follow. Umm, well, not quite. As anyone who knows 29 in Vallejo, there is one confusing 5-way intersection. She hits that intersection and instinctively goes the wrong way. I forgot about the intersection, so wasn't able to direct her in the correct direction in time. We are forced to make a mid-street u-turn. We get back to that intersection, only to find it does not allow us to turn in the direction we need to go. So, we go straight thru again, and make another u-turn. Finally, we can turn the right way. After all of this, she asks, "Which way now?" I innocently look at my map for reference (though we are not following the route laid out). I reply, "Just continue on 29".

Some time passes, and we finally get thru the city streets. The intersection with highway 37 is ahead. Hmmm, we really shoulda gone that way. Oh well. She asks, "Is this the right way?" Again, I innocently look at my map. We are now following the path on the map again. The directions read, Continue on 29 so, I say, "Continue on 29".

Some more time passes. We are driving down 29. Now she asks again, "Is this the right way?" At this point, it is starting to be a running gag to me. I slyly look at the map, smiling, and just read what it says, "Continue on 29".

No more than 15 minutes later, "Matt, what's the next road we take?" she asks. "Let me look at the map. Oh right, it says 'Continue on 29'!" LOL She finally gets it. So finally, we get to the hotel. It was just off of highway 29.

The next day, we head up 29 to hit up some of the wineries. "Continue on 29" as again uttered several times, but mostly in jest. All of the wineries we were interested in are on highway 29, of course.

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