Kage Baker always believed in the therapeutic value of a good collapse after returning from the North. Several hours on the road leaves one noticeably brain-dead and exhausted – especially dimension-skipping down I-5, that Road of Weirdness. So I’m home, but not quite open for business – gonna lie down under a nice pile of cats and recoup my scattered energies tonight.

There was a lot going on today on the road – some of which I may never be able to figure out. At one point, near Corral Hollow Road, I glanced in my rear view mirror just in time to see a fireball rising into the air behind me. It was followed by a vigorous plume of black smoke. Don’t know what blew up back there – all that had been visible for the last several miles were dead trees and live cattle, neither of which usually explodes – but I resisted the temptation to go back and see.

Busy road crews were digging up, filling in, and moving bits of, every road I was on today – which impeded my progress somewhat. What ordinarily takes 6 hours took 8 1/2. But I had a pound of liquorice and my family waiting for me here in Los Angeles, so I am going to settle down for a nice at-home evening.

And fog has filled the L.A. basin, and it is cool … oh, it’s nice to come home.

More details tomorrow!