My Semi-Mobile Prison
So, I didn't see anything in the news about it anywhere, but I was stuck in what became the worst traffic jam of my life on Friday.
I went up to Sunnyvale (a few miles north of San Jose) to work in our office there on the laptop that the VP of Sales is using. My employee came with me in his car with the intention of meeting his wife there and then going on to San Francisco for the weekend. I wasn't able to leave until 3PM, which is right at the cusp of when you would normally want to get out of that area before hitting bad traffic.
Many people know that there has been some construction going on south of Gilroy where there is a turn-off of the 152 that leads to Hollister. Although it usually doesn't happen to me, I got stuck in traffic there for about 20 minutes. I was a little frustrated, but okay.
I drove past the Hollister turn-off and accelerated back up to about 80MPH, went about two miles and noticed a CHP car leading a group of cars in front of me. Before I knew it, I had come to a complete stop.
10 minutes go by... we start moving a little. 30 minutes go by... then an hour... two hours and I've only traveled about 3 miles.
After every turn, when in the back of my mind I would picutre an end to the line of cars and signs of high-speeds ahead, I would always find a never-ending line of steel and brake lights.
I sent a text message to John (the IT Tech in my department), letting him know what was going on. I also sent messages to a few other people. I tried to make some phone calls but the calls rarely went through.
I passed the time by listening to a horde of CD's, scanning for radio stations that were in English (not much luck with that in Pacheco Pass), and finally by watching a movie on my laptop- the only one I had, "Blazing Saddles".
I also mastered the art of using "Gravity Power" to move my car. This involved coming up to a steep hill, turning my engine off, throwing it into neutral, and using the emergency-brake to control my speed. Whether I did or not, I'd like to think that I saved some gas this way...
The movie finished and the sun had set. I was still progressing very slowly. Earlier on, I had reached the lake at the East end of the pass. I could see a portion of the road on the other side of the lake and could make out what seemed to be two or three large trucks, all of them motionless.
After nearly losing my mind along with what must have been another 20,000 people, I finally reached the end of the line of cars. It seemed that one of the lanes was closed off due to an accident and they were nearly finished with the cleanup.
Now, the clock on my dash read 10:05! I sped off into the Valley below towards Los Banos where I could get something to eat.
I then sent another text message to John, telling him that I was finally on my way home. He then called me and told me that he and his wife had decided to cancel their trip to San Francisco and come back to Fresno. He had discovered the traffic jam for himself not far past Casa De Fruta, and had been there for about 45 minutes...
So, I suggested that he either turn around and go back to San Jose or hope that the authorities open up the second lane.
As it turned out, I stopped at Ryan's Place for a late dinner (which is always good) where one of the employees told me that a tire truck had caught fire over the pass. Since it was tires that was burning, there was nothing to do about it but let it burn itself out, which apparently took about 5 hours.
John sent me a message the next day saying that they were out right after midnight, which was about when I arrived at home.
To sum up, it took me 9 hours to drive from Sunnyvale to Fresno, which usually takes about 2.5 hours... I hope to never experience that kind of madness again.
I went up to Sunnyvale (a few miles north of San Jose) to work in our office there on the laptop that the VP of Sales is using. My employee came with me in his car with the intention of meeting his wife there and then going on to San Francisco for the weekend. I wasn't able to leave until 3PM, which is right at the cusp of when you would normally want to get out of that area before hitting bad traffic.
Many people know that there has been some construction going on south of Gilroy where there is a turn-off of the 152 that leads to Hollister. Although it usually doesn't happen to me, I got stuck in traffic there for about 20 minutes. I was a little frustrated, but okay.
I drove past the Hollister turn-off and accelerated back up to about 80MPH, went about two miles and noticed a CHP car leading a group of cars in front of me. Before I knew it, I had come to a complete stop.
10 minutes go by... we start moving a little. 30 minutes go by... then an hour... two hours and I've only traveled about 3 miles.
After every turn, when in the back of my mind I would picutre an end to the line of cars and signs of high-speeds ahead, I would always find a never-ending line of steel and brake lights.
I sent a text message to John (the IT Tech in my department), letting him know what was going on. I also sent messages to a few other people. I tried to make some phone calls but the calls rarely went through.
I passed the time by listening to a horde of CD's, scanning for radio stations that were in English (not much luck with that in Pacheco Pass), and finally by watching a movie on my laptop- the only one I had, "Blazing Saddles".
I also mastered the art of using "Gravity Power" to move my car. This involved coming up to a steep hill, turning my engine off, throwing it into neutral, and using the emergency-brake to control my speed. Whether I did or not, I'd like to think that I saved some gas this way...
The movie finished and the sun had set. I was still progressing very slowly. Earlier on, I had reached the lake at the East end of the pass. I could see a portion of the road on the other side of the lake and could make out what seemed to be two or three large trucks, all of them motionless.
After nearly losing my mind along with what must have been another 20,000 people, I finally reached the end of the line of cars. It seemed that one of the lanes was closed off due to an accident and they were nearly finished with the cleanup.
Now, the clock on my dash read 10:05! I sped off into the Valley below towards Los Banos where I could get something to eat.
I then sent another text message to John, telling him that I was finally on my way home. He then called me and told me that he and his wife had decided to cancel their trip to San Francisco and come back to Fresno. He had discovered the traffic jam for himself not far past Casa De Fruta, and had been there for about 45 minutes...
So, I suggested that he either turn around and go back to San Jose or hope that the authorities open up the second lane.
As it turned out, I stopped at Ryan's Place for a late dinner (which is always good) where one of the employees told me that a tire truck had caught fire over the pass. Since it was tires that was burning, there was nothing to do about it but let it burn itself out, which apparently took about 5 hours.
John sent me a message the next day saying that they were out right after midnight, which was about when I arrived at home.
To sum up, it took me 9 hours to drive from Sunnyvale to Fresno, which usually takes about 2.5 hours... I hope to never experience that kind of madness again.
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