She'll be coming round the mountains..

Tony and I did a test run of a potential new route home from work for me at the beginning of March. An hour earlier than my early shift ends, we took Sand Hill Road up to skyline, and skyline down to highway 9. It was at the point in the year that sunset was happening around 5:30 and we had the pleasure of one of the most beautiful drives we have ever taken. It was the day that big storm came through with heavy rain and a good fifteen minutes of hail. After about fifteen or twenty minutes of east facing views into the bay area we reached the aptly named Skyline Boulevard. It was gorgeous.

After driving it solo in the morning and evening, I have to say I'm loving it. There are so few cars along the same commute. It's all one lane each direction until I get passed 280 heading into Palo Alto, but the drivers all seem to know and follow the "courteous drivers" rules (someone come up behind you, going faster than you? Pull over! Flash your hazard lights as a thank you to those who pull over and let you pass!). The views were stunning again, here's just a few of the spots I was able to stop in on my way home Monday evening. 

the same view, at night, on a terrible iphone camera

I took a wrong turn, stopped multiple times, and still made it home in an hour. I can't drive too incredibly fast through a good two thirds of the drive, a lot of it is windy and narrow, but it keeps the drive interesting. My car has the awesome feature of telling me my average miles per gallon and heading up the hill to Skyline I get about 32 mpg, but once I hit the real skyline, it's mostly a decline towards the north so I can cruise at high speeds (when safe) and my mileage goes up! By the time I got down by the Sand Hill - 280 overpass my mileage was at 37! Of course that meant that coming home was the reverse of that a little bit, but it still averaged to around 36 by the time I got home. My car is a small city car, good for parallel parking and commuting, but it feels like it was made for this drive. 

We were really worried that tony would face a lot of traffic going from Boulder Creek to Milpitas every morning, but it only took him a little over 50 minutes. Coming home was equally timed and simple on monday, same as mine, and around an hour and fifteen minutes the rest of the week. He does get stuck in stop and go traffic on the freeways, but once he exits for H9 it's a smooth and relaxing drive. 

Tony credits the podcasts with helping make the drive not feel so long, and I totally agree! I love listening to a few when I'm tired of all my music, and they really do help while away the hour(s). Hollywood BabbleOn, Fatman on Batman, and Pointless podcast are Tony's favorites right now; It's two by Kevin Smith, and one by Kevin Pereira. All comedy. I'd definitely recommend Star Talk, Stuff You Missed In History Class, and Ask Me Another. I didn't learn anything in history classes, so that's obvious, and Star Talk covers a lot of  science ground including a lot of sci-fi and theoretical stuff, with comedians and science celebrities. Ask Me Another is a trivia show from NPR, and it's so much fun to listen to and play along in the car.

Honestly, I'm grateful that my drive is so peaceful and beautiful. If it was as busy and as rough as the freeway at the same time, I'd be miserable, and it'd be really hard to keep putting a positive spin on things.