Once again today it took about two hours to get out of the hotel. It was cold again today, though it wasn't raining in the morning, at least. As I was going to be at the conference for a full day, I was prepared to have another big parking bill.
I came to the realization that I liked being inspired at this conference with non-technical discussions. I could always learn the technical aspects via web sites, books, and YouTube videos. But I needed inspiration to make use of the technical items I would learn. There were two competing first sessions about business related areas. I'm glad they were posting the audio so I could hear the one I missed.
Lunch was not fun. I wanted to go to the Tex Mex restaurant I couldn't find on Monday. I got totally lost. It started to rain and I was carrying my laptop. Fortunately, I had a plastic bag in my pocket to shield the laptop (I didn't have an umbrella). My second choice was a Thai restaurant. When I found that, I noticed a line going out the door for people waiting to be seated. I skipped that one and then located the Tex Mex restaurant. They too had a line. Had I waited, there is no way I would have gotten back to the conference in time. After walking around and asking people for directions, I found myself in some very seedy sections of the city. I was not really comfortable holding a laptop and being a stranger. Finally, a city construction worker explained how to get back to the convention center. I found a Subway restaurant for a quick meal.
In the middle of the day, the sessions stop and there are speakers in a large auditorium intended for all participants of the conference. Today, the Director of New Media for the White House spoke, along with the CIO of the New York State Senate. Drupal is being used for both the White House and NYS Senate sites. While Drupal is already in use for major media companies (LucasArts, Lifetime Channel, MTV, etc.), having two big government web sites is a major coup. The CIO of the NYS Senate pointed out that in the next few years, many state agencies across the country, along with many municipalities, will be overhauling their web sites. The opportunities are endless for people who want to focus on these areas. Among other niches, I would be interested in local government sites, being that I work on the Round Lake web site. But, aside from just doing government sites, I want to create sites about areas that might integrate information from local government sites. While there are others doing this sort of thing for metropolitan areas, I would of course develop something unique that would complement rather than compete. But, I also have other niches in mind as well.
The final sessions were not very remarkable. As I had gotten no more than 5 1/2 to six hours of sleep each night, I was getting exhausted and looking forward to the end of the conference. There was supposed to be a group meeting for freelancers to share ideas, but it never seemed to materialize. The last session ended at 5:15, while sessions the previous days when until 6:30. Even though I spent one less hour at the parking garage than I did on Monday, the final bill still came up to $28. So, all in all, I paid $77 in parking fees for the three days at the conference. This was really quite a bit. In fact, even with taxes, no individual hotel stay for the three days cost that much.
I was definitely looking forward to getting away from SF and its expensive parking fees. I am sure there are a number of great museums and other places to see, but I couldn't justify the cost of parking beyond what I had already paid (and even that was difficult to justify).
I typed the address for the next hotel into the GPS while still in the parking garage. The GPS is unable to receive satellite signals inside a parking garage. But, by being in a garage, it seems to be unable to get a signal for a long time after leaving the garage. I knew how to navigate to US 101 and head north. I basically had to follow US 101 north for my next hotel. It seemed the GPS got a signal just after I got on US 101. It instructed me to get off US 101. I stupidly complied, even though I had looked at this route on Google maps and saw that I could take US 101 most of the way. The GPS took me all over San Francisco, adding lots of time to the trip. At one point I got caught in gridlock traffic along with a number of other cars. The light was green when I went, but I got stuck in the intersection because nothing was moving. The cars who could travel were headed right towards me, blaring their horns, ready to slam right into the passenger side of the car. I was able to angle the car and just move forward enough to be out of the intersection....but the red light had a giant camera on it. I certainly do not like going through red lights, but obviously in this case it was either do it or risk injury to myself or someone else. I'm wondering if SF will give me a ticket for a minimum of $370 for that? (On the other hand, there were so many cars that my license plate was likely obscured from the camera.) If they do, I probably would go back to SF to fight it in court. This whole mess could have been avoided if I had just ignored the obnoxious GPS and stayed on US 101.
In the end, after taking me through more of SF than I ever wanted to see, the GPS brought me right back to US 101, just in time to travel over the Golden Gate Bridge. As I was heading northbound, there was thankfully no toll.
While SF is fairly flat, the surrounding land (after crossing the Golden Gate Bridge) is mountainous. It's quite a sudden change. I had decided to eat at a Mexican restaurant. The GPS directed me to an exit for San Rafael (I think) which involved taking a very twisty road to the bottom of the mountain. I was very concerned about whether this car could successfully go back up the mountain once I wanted to get back to US 101.
After getting to the bottom, of course it turned out that the Mexican restaurant was no longer in business (or had moved). I needed to turn around to get back to US 101. I had to take a side road to make a turn. The side road suddenly became very steep. It was so steep that it was as if I was looking straight up. It was so steep that I could not back down. I was getting very nervous about whether the car would be able to climb this or not. But then it got worse. The street I was on was a dead end and the only way to go was to take a left turn. I had visions of the car toppling over as I tried this. Thankfully, it did not. I was driving at such an angle that I really was surprised that all four wheels stayed on the pavement. (Of course, other cars were actually parked on this road, though they likely were using their parking brakes.) Anyway, at the next turn I was able to easily go down the hill and get back to the main road.
On the way back to US 101, I found a Chinese restaurant. I decided to try it. In looking over the menu, I decided to try something different...Mongolian food. They had a few Mongolian dishes and warned that these are VERY spicy. I tried it anyway. I like spicy food. This was a pricy restaurant. While many Chinese meals come with rice (either plain or pork fried), this restaurant wanted $6.00 just for a side of rice. The waitress tried to get me to order rice but I told her I'd pass if it was not included. She gave me rice anyway (I noticed the noodles that supposedly came with the meal were not present, so likely they were out of them and had to give me rice instead). Thankfully, I did not get charged for the rice. But, the meal was delicious. It was bits of beef with vegetables. It definitely was spicy, but not too spicy for me. It was perfect. I wouldn't recommend it for anyone who has a problem with spicy foods, though. Personally, just as I love Thai food, I definitely want to try more Mongolian food.
As I got back to US 101, things became more flat. I did not have to go up another mountain to get on. The main road basically went right into US 101.
Normally, I stay at hotels at least three or four hours away from the place I had been during the day. But in this case, I was running on very little sleep. I got a hotel in Ukiah, CA. This was just over two hours away from San Francisco. It allowed me to have a reasonable travel time and get some much needed rest. When I arrived there, it was just about 9pm. The clerk said he hoped I had had dinner because everything was closed by then.
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I had a very good signal for the Internet, but for whatever reason, my computer did not want to get online. Although this was annoying in terms of determining the hotel for the next night, it was good in that I had an excuse to catch up on sleep. If I had Internet access, I'd have spent at least two or three more hours between email, blogging, uploading photos, looking at maps, etc.
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