We got off to a good start not too early nor too late in the morning. A quick stop to buy supplies, dies sodas for me and water for her then a sandwich for my breakfast and we were on the road.
The drive went fairly well for most of the trip. Los Angeles had stop and go traffic, but it would be surprising if that city didn;t slow down our average speed. We stopped near Magic Mountain for our lunch and then over the mountains and down into the central valley.
The Central valley is the sit of California’s great agricultural production. That means mile after mile of farm and ranch. It makes for fast highways and dull scenery. The most exciting part of the scenery were the frequent sighting of signs that read, “Congress Created Dust Bowl.” I’m sure they need to add a word or two to that sentence. Perhaps making it “Congress created THIS Dust Bowl.” It’s all part of recent water wars in the Central Valley.
We arrived at the hotel in good spirits and despite being told otherwise by a gopher we were able to pickup our badges from registration.
We had dinner at a little Philly Cheesesteak place, but that turned out to be a mistake for me. Oh I had them hold the dreaded and dangerous mushrooms from my sandwich, but the sandwich itself seemed to be constructed from concrete. For hours now it has sat there resisting all attempts to be digested like a politician resisting a straight question.
Tomorrow the convention starts in ernest. I hope he doesn’t mind.

10 geek points for the reference in the title.
We have arrived at Baycon 2009. TThere is not free internet in the hotel rooms and I refuse to pay $40 for 4 days of internet access. However there is an internet lounge and it does have free Wifi. Therefore I will make occasional posts from here.