Leaving home [after the usual four hours loading out plus closing up the house – for six months] I decided to see if google maps could find me my way to Wall and it actually did,

repeatedly warning about the several many speed traps through Sacramento and then, after a quick stop at the Eagle Lakes turnoff to get the grapes out of the cooler, coming up with the

seemingly counterintuitive advice to exit 80 at Rainbow Road and take Old Donner Pass to Soda Springs, happily bypassing miles of unforeseen stopped traffic before returning to the

mysteriously empty Interstate which then got us down to 89, over to Sierraville

and across Sierra Valley to a final fill of that expensified California Gas at Hallelujah Junction.

After gas I Foiled the Voice by turning north on 395 though she quickly

recalibrated, guided us off 395 at Doyle and around the Fort Sage Mountains to welcome me into Nevada where I stopped for a late minimal lunch after Civilization thinned out out beyond

Fish Springs. The only annoying note was her insistant “turn left on Surprise Valley Road”

where Fish Springs intersected the Sand Pass Road…a longstanding and stubbornly defended Google error dating to the late nineties when Washoe County arbitrarily renamed CR33,

which had run north from Pyramid Lake up the Smoke Creek Desert to CR 447 as long as memories served, “Surprise Valley Road”.  Local confusion and general objections duly forced

a reconsideration though instead of restoring the original designation the County made up names in accordance with the geography – what goes over Sand Pass became Sand Pass Road

until it reaches Smoke Creek where it meets what had by then become the Smoke Creek Road

coming south from 447 which at that point turned NW to follow the eponymous Creek. Less confusing than calling the whole thing after a place some sixty miles to the north in California to which it didn’t directly connect but a whole lot more bewildering than a simple “CR33”.

Anyway, aside from that small reminder of Google recalcitrance [which often leads to problems with deliveries as our address is Smoke Creek not Surprise Valley Road and Google has Smoke Creek Road, in deference to the signage at 447*, extending south maybe six miles until their name change.  Unfortunately we’re eight miles down…] it was a fine and pleasant trip, and ending as it did with the Exhaustion of Unloading ameliorated by Seth and Sonny getting most of the heavier stuff from truck to porch we were able to settle in for a late tired dinner of fresh salads with Indian leftovers from Benicia’s Aroma.

So…summarily, summer.

*I’ve subsequently discovered that on the phone google now reliably finds either Wall Spring, 71600 Smoke Creek Road or 71600 Surprise Valley Road, something the computer still doesn’t do. A progress of sorts.