Leaving the snow behind in Wyoming, the rest of our passage was uneventful as we passed through Utah and across Nevada and California. In fact, we started so early from our overnight stop in Elko, NV, and the traffic was so light around Sacramento and San Jose, that we arrived at Martha's house while she was out, several hours before we had predicted.

Our early arrival was accomplished even though we had kept within the speed limits during our transcontinental expedition but it was a little surprising how much the maximum speeds varied on the Interstate highways. During the first part of our trip we were limited to 70 mph, in Texas and the mountain states we could legitimately (but rarely did) go up to 80 mph, and in most of California the maximum limit is 65 mph (respectively, 112, 128, and 104 kph). We saw surprisingly few drivers exceeding the speed limits by more than a few mph, except in busy areas where the limits were lower than the state maximum.

Stopping to swap drivers in Utah, we found ourselves in a rest area that was overlooking a salt-lake. A sign erected in 1972 explained that across the water was the Bonneville Salt Flats measured mile which was used for many years during attempts to break the world land-speed records. The measured mile was within a longer course, typically about 10 miles long, one end of which could not been seen from the other due to the curvature of the earth. Records were based on the average of two runs, one in each direction, made across the measured mile and accomplished within a one hour period.

Sir Malcolm Campbell set the first record at the site in 1935, achieving just over 301 mph (482 kph). Craig Breedlove was the first person to travel on land at 400, 500, and 600 mph (640, 800, and 960 kph) and in 1970 his last record at Bonneville was broken by Gary Gabelich who reached 622.407 mph (995.85 kph). The latter two drivers accomplished their records in vehicles that were, respectively, powered by jet and rocket engines. According to Wikipedia, the current world land-speed record was set elsewhere in the USA by Andy Green in 1997 and was the first supersonic land-speed record of 763.035 mph or 1,227.986 kph. We may not be breaking any speed records, but we can feel smug that our little hybrid car undoubtedly has much lower rates of fuel consumption.

Having unpacked our bags in San Jose, it was encouraging to find Martha in good spirits and very optimistic about the improvements that her hip-replacement surgery should provide. As we had observed when we saw her for a few hours in San Francisco airport in January, her limp was still terrible with a painfully slow, painful gait. It would be quite a disruption to her usual routine to have two extra people living in her townhouse for a few weeks but there was no question that she was very glad that she would have our help while she recovered and was limited in her mobility. It is a strange world in which an unexpected triple by-pass surgery for Randall (from which he has more-or-less fully recovered in terms of stamina and chest-muscle utility) resulted in us being available to be recovery-coaches for his sister.