California 2007 Trip Day 3

November 7:

This was definitely the worst day so far. I didn’t get maps from two of the nine cities I planned to hit today. Additionally, I spilled the cooler over a lot of the maps leaving 14 of 23 maps with some water damage although mostly minor and not ruining any of them for my purposes. I started off at about 8:10 AM and was doing OK until I hit Sacramento. I was running about 30 minutes behind for the rest of the day. I made it up to Red Bluff, but was late by only a few minutes. They closed at 5 PM. So I got some gas ($24.51 for 7.566 gallons; filling from a distance of 316.6 miles), had dinner (Denny’s for $10.02 plus tip) and then drove to Ukia. Supposedly, the trip on the 20 had beautiful scenery, but because it was dark, all I saw was a winding road that looked something like Skyline Blvd back in San Jose, only it was 70 miles rather than around 10. Around halfway over the mountain I started running into towns. Evidently, this is because of Clear Lake that I drove past, but only saw dimly. When I got to Ukiah I was confused about the directions to the Motel 6, so I ended up staying at an America Best Value Inn, which turned out to be at the intersection of Talmadge and State, across from a gas station I’d turned into to get maps. Somewhere in the trip, I think at or after Sacramento, I noticed fall colors on some of the trees and leaves on the ground. Here’s the rundown.

Merced:
A modern city hall in a quiet area – I could walk across streets without lights. The map was $10. I got it at 8:31 AM – a good start.

Atwater:
I messed up the directions a bit, but managed to find the City Hall with the help of a map. I had no problem getting the map, but had some confusion on the price. I ended up paying $10.26. I got the map around 9:03 AM. There was a funny mailbox out front. It said everything deposited would be destroyed – not much of a mail service.

Turlock:
Turlock was a small town. The City Hall was in a refurbished brick building. I think there had been a downtown revitalization project within the last few years. The map cost $28 (I think the highest for the day). I got it around 9:40 AM.

Modesto:
The City Hall address was correct, but the street had been turned into a city walk. Fortunately, I was able to find parking. The building was quite nice. I think it was both county and city offices. There was a fountain out front which was just trickling, probably due to water restrictions.
I had to wait for 15 minutes or so before I got some help. As the cities get bigger, it seems, the wait gets longer. The map cost $9.66 and I got it at 10:37 AM.

Stockton:
Parking was difficult. Although it was straightforward to find City Hall, there was very little parking available around the Hall. The one-way roads didn’t help. I ended up parking at a bank about a block down. The building was an impressive old-style building. There is also a great view of the river. Unfortunately, that building didn’t have the maps. I ended up making three stops total before I found the right building. Fortunately the annexes were across the street. I ended up getting the map from the office of the person whom I talked to. It still cost $14. I got the map around 11:42 AM – about 15 minutes behind schedule.

Sacramento:
This was a big disaster on several fronts. Sacramento no longer has print maps. The front desk person told me this, but I decided to talk to a more senior person. That was about a 30 minute wait. That person told me the same thing. However, he did suggest getting a PDF from their website printed at Kinko’s to get a large printout. Strike 1.

The City Hall building was very impressive, in the old style. However, it seems that building is just for show and the real activity happens in the new building just behind it (in fact you walk through the old building to enter a courtyard in front of the new building).

When I went back to parking, I tried using the automated machine. I ended up without a receipt and left the ticket, which evidently was offered back to me after I paid my parking ($3), but I didn’t notice. The woman at the gate suggested I go back to look for it (which it turned out was a waste of time). Being frustrated I was racing up the garage to find a space. I stopped suddenly when I saw a space causing my cooler to lurch forward and spill ice, drinks and water over my zoning maps. I did a quick survey and then raced around looking for my ticket, which I didn’t find. I did a more complete reshuffle, wedging the cooler in between the back seat and the back of the front seat and piled all of the maps on the back seat (which is how I started). I didn’t find out the state of the maps until I got a hotel room. All of this put me horribly behind for the rest of the day.

Marysville:
This was another small town. This took me off the main highways and put me on two lane county roads. With the fall foliage, it reminded me of driving down ridge road or Brockport-Spencerport road between towns. Getting to the town hall wasn’t hard. The map was $5 and I got it around 2:34 PM.

After getting a street map, I ended up in a traffic jam of cars and trucks following the next CA route out of town, including some turns through town. I got a picture of State Theater, which was in an odd state of kept up in parts, but not in other ways. There also appears to be a lake and park in the town (I got a bad picture of this).

Chico:
This feels like a small college town. The runs in and out are one-way, as are several of the streets in downtown. I suspect this keeps things organized during starting weekend of College. This was also another one where the real City Hall was behind the main Hall. I actually got the map for free. It was a map with two outdated zones that was going to be thrown out. I got both a zoning and planning map all in one plus an explanation of the difference between the two (a planning map has less detail).

The trip out had some added aggravation. CA-99 and another route crossed going out of town. If you turned too early or two late, you ended up looping back to entering the town. It took a second try before I make the crossing correctly, slowing down a truck in the process.

Red Bluff:
This was the capper for the day. With all the wasted time in Sacramento, I arrived at the City Hall at 5:03 PM, three minutes, by my watch, after they closed. Actually, I think my watch is around 2 minutes fast, so it was even closer. The door was locked and the lights were off. There wasn’t much else to do, so I took some pictures and got some gas and food.