Friday Night Potpourri

A week of sun, cars, sand and finding sand everywhere:

• We started out our trip south last week with loading the car with the kids and stuff. When we got in, I turned the key and click, click, click. The battery was dead and the battery terminal was corroded to beyond use. We had a three hour delay getting on the road.
• Note to the Outback Steakhouse next to McDonald's off the interstate: You need a drive-thru.
• Last Saturday night we were at Petco Park in San Diego to watch the Padres lose to the Orioles, which helped out our Giants in their race with the Padres. For more info, and pictures, see my baseball blog here.
• A 500 mile drive back on Sunday with three kids in the car wasn't as bad as it might seem. Portable DVD players make the day, and week.
• Unpacking from a beach trip? Need I say more?
• Traffic out in the middle of nowhere on the interstate can be really challenging, especially with two different speed limits, one for autos at 70, the other for trucks and trailers at 55. With several times as many vehicles in the fast lane doing 75+, trucks driving 56 would pull out into the fast lane and slow everybody down for miles, taking minutes to pass other trucks doing 55, then pulling back into the right lane. Irritated drivers in the left lane would use the huge gaps between vehicles in the right lane to sling-shot past everybody, then cutting back in line when blocked by a truck, making things worse. There were many stretches for miles where driving at any speed was futility.
• It's totally unbelievable that the maximun speed limit used to be 55, even on highways out in the middle of nowhere. I wonder what people were thinking back then.