The Road to Paris...

The road to Paris is long. Certainly not as long as the Roman legions faced. And certainly not as long as Napoleon's army faced on the return from Moscow. According to google those trips were 1000 km  or 8 days 5 hours and 2760 km or 23 days 9 hours of walking, respectively. This is without sleep or restroom stops or breaks for coffee and pain au chocolate since Google does not need to stop for those things. So my journey of 62 hours, starting on Friday and arriving on Monday, is not something I should gripe about if I happen to meet a Roman Centurion or Napoleon in Paris. 

My route is longer in distance, especially since my frequent flyer tickets introduced a circuitous route that even the Romans would have wondered about. First leg to SFO, 348 miles (560km), second leg to Charlotte, 2704 miles (4351 km), and third leg to Paris, 4152 miles (6698 km), for a total of 7204 miles (11594 km). The highlights so far...

Day 1: Left home at 9:30 PM and arrived in Atascadero at the Rancho Tee Motel just after midnight. I have no clue why it is called Rancho Tee since there is no golf course in the proximity. There is a pool, just in case you are going on vacation and your destination is Atascadero. But aside from the retro Route 66 style sign there is not much memorable about my six hour stay.

Day 2: Left the Rancho Tee at 6:45 AM and arrived at SFO at 6 PM. 

Breakfast at Margie's Diner in Paso Robles was a bit more memorable. Breakfast was good but it was the menu that caused me to smile. 

After the Rancho Tee motel, Margie's Diner seemed a fitting place to continue the on the road theme.

So, the journey to San Francisco did not take 12 hours, 9 hours were spent with he kids and the most precious granddaughter in the world. Very fun interlude. Hung around the airport until my red eye flight at 10:20 PM to Charlotte, NC. 

Day 3 - Part 1: Arrived in Charlotte at 6:15 AM waiting for my 6:00 PM flight. See circuitous route note above... Considered going into town as I had plenty of time. We've seen Budapest in a 10 hour layover and Zurich in a 4 hour layover, and that one was with students. So 12 hours seemed sufficient to leave the airport and see the sights of Charlotte. The trade-off was relaxing in the airport lounge, reading, writing, perhaps even working, or leaving the airport to spend much of the day outside with 90 degree and 35% humidity weather in order to see the NASCAR museum. I'll save the NASCAR museum for a time when I can spend a more leisurely time seeing their collection of Monet and Rodan - Oh wait, it's not a museum as I think of museums. They describe it on the web site as not just a museum, "It was built to be a shrine ... To the sport we love." I would probably enjoy a few of the powerful cars they are bound to have but my religious fervor to make the pilgrimage to the NASCAR shrine is outweighed by the chance to be bored in the airport (or just about anything else).

So, here I sit, waiting...