Day 1: The drive down -- Mitch and Simeon's Excellent Adventure to Berkeley 2/15/08 - 2/19/08

After stuffing some socks and underwear in back packs and packing some high-calorie meals, we headed South, hitting the road at 0545 and making great time all the way through Oregon. We stopped a few times to pee but the car is getting about 40 MPG on the highway so it was not thirsty for petrol as often as we needed to stop. We ate lunch in the car, cruising at 75 on the I-5.

I-5 is pretty boring in Washington but more interesting in Oregon. If we had more time I would hug the coast or go further East (not take I-5). We did not see the dense forests of Oregon I wanted to experience. We did not see the amazing coastal areas either.

We did see Mt Shasta and lake Shasta in all their splendor.

We also saw went over the Columbia River bridge and experienced the beauty of the river in the early morning light. We did not spend enough time "smelling the flowers" or appreciating the scenery. We did get to talk a lot, however, which made the whole trip worthwhile.

We arrived at the "Inn at the University" in Berkeley which is actually 5 blocks down from the campus on University Ave in the "little India" neighborhood of Berkeley. It's a nice little hotel with clean, modern, functional accommodations.

Across the street is an Elvis-bar 1950's style diner with great food (vegetables and hash browns for me) on which we gorged ourselves before heading to the Sheraton in Emeryville for registration. The GPS battery died but we managed to get to the hotel while the registration line was still relatively short. It's a HUGE debate tournament with hundreds of kids competing for the California State title and trying to break into the National "tournament of champions." It really is the "best of the west" debate event and it even appears in the Lincoln-Douglas Wikipedia entry. We bought some bottled water and energy food for Simeon, discovered where the pairings would be posted on campus at 0700 Saturday, verified the information in his "packet," and headed back to the hotel. Simeon started to get nervous and commented about how terrible the highway onramp on Powell St. in Emeryville has become as a result of the detour. It is completely dark (no lights or street lamps) and looks more like the area one would dump dead bodies (in the lake next to the on-ramp).

While Simeon did some "pre-flow" for his "aff and neg cases," I reviewed work email and made some plans for Saturday. Simeon crashed early and started snoring. I went to bed later.