Mammoth

After about 8 hours, we finally arrived at Mammoth. The first 80 miles took about 3 hours on the I-15 freeway. I think it's all Vegas traffic; once we got on the 395, I was able to drive at 80mph without any problems. There were lots of CHP cruisers, especially in the 25mph zone in town. My radar detector was going off all the time, even in Ka band.

Right after dinner in Bishop, it started to snow. There was not a CHP checkpoint but everyone pulled off the road to put chains on. I had just got new chains for my 4Runner so it was an experience trying to put them on at the side of the road. After several tries, I think we got it on pretty good, even though it was banging something loudly near the rear-left wheel. We stopped to check several times but could not see anything wrong. It was a good thing we put them on; the parking lot of the condo we're staying at is covered with snow plus there's a layer of ice underneath.

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It's 3:25am and I can't sleep. I hate when this happens: usually it takes me several days to get used to a particular bed. I'm actually pretty tired from driving for so long but here I am, wide awake and blogging away on some random wireless LAN connection. The one notible exception was in Thailand. That was a crazy schedule with basically a different hotel each night. I noticed that if I got a massage, I was so relaxed that I slept through the entire night without waking up. Maybe I'll look for a Thai massage parlor in town today.

Sigh... we have to "get up" in three hours so we can go rent skis. I guess I'll try to go back to sleep. Both my roommates in the loft snore but I probably snore louder than either of them. Arg, right now someone's car alarm is going off right outside the condo. I know it's not mine since I have the crazy Viper alarm; even if it was my car, there's no way I'm going outside in 8 degree F to turn it off.