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The Daily Bucket. San Francisco visit. Sutro sights. Tesla travel. [1]

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Date: 2025-05-05

I had really thought of putting this photo, below, in the title. Because this is what I looked at for ninety-five percent of my time in San Francisco:

No, not precisely true. 95% of my time I was looking at a book, reading. I don’t watch television.

Which wasn’t all that worse than my actual view out my hospital room window:

Gorgeous, eh?

But that would have been misleading. Because I did get over to the site of the old Sutro Baths complex, about a half mile walk from the hospital, on the afternoon (Tuesday, April 22) I arrived. And it’s a good thing I went there prompt as I could because when I came back to the Hoptel where I was supposed to stay overnight Tuesday, there was a message waiting for me: get your butt over here to the hospital pronto and get admitted. Tonight! NOW!

And sheesh. I’d already done lab, x-ray, colonoscopy, and was supposed to have a few hours personal time in the early morning Wednesday before checking in. Didn’t happen.

But, by golly, as I said I did get over to the old Sutro Baths site. You can watch this fourteen minute documentary or skip it as you wish. No, watch it. It’s definitely worth it. My own photos and very short video follow.

😍😍😍

The gray immediately above the tree line is the ocean. This view from the back side of the hospital as I’m walking my way down to the Sutro Baths.

White-crowned Sparrow, my first bird pic for the trip. I’ll take what I can get.

A rooftop shot of the houses immediately adjacent to the VA hospital campus. Ocean visible in far background, center right.

Here’s me with the foundational remains of the Sutro Baths and the Pacific Ocean in the background. It’s about five in the afternoon of the 22nd.

At the site, in the big pool that’s seen to the left in the photo above.

Great Blue Heron

Snowy Egret

Double-crested Cormorant with a mouth full of grassy stuff

Now turning to look out to sea from the Sutro Baths site, immediately off shore.

A cormorant on the top, easily visible. Seagulls out there also, pelican in the air.

This rock is just loaded with seagulls. I wouldn’t know the species(s).

Closer in on the gulls

And another pretty San Francisco front yard

And my own video, short, but you get to see it as it was very recently.

😀😁😊

Anyhow, the surgery went just fine, I was out of it for the rest of Wednesday, managed to get up and start walking on Thursday, by Sunday midnight my Foley was out and I could walk the ward corridor without even needing the walker (to lug the damn Foley bag, was all), and discharged Monday afternoon the 28th at 3:00 p.m. Then began the Tesla Ride from Hell home. Yeah, yeah, I exaggerate, but I found out that using an electric car for this kind of trip, normally four and a half hours by the Feather River Canyon Route, and only a little longer (about twenty minutes) by the I-80/Truckee route (in a regular gasoline powered car), isn’t the right choice of car for the circumstances. But, me being at the mercy of the transportation the VA can get for me, that makes me a beggar that doesn’t get to choose. See, it was an Uber ride, and the guy who took the call for an all-day sucker of a drive (he said it was a high-payer, so that’s why he took it) just happened to have a Tesla. That’s the way it goes. Or, maybe this map better shows the way it goes, er, went.

We left the VA hospital in San Francisco at about 3:30 p.m. Six and a half hours later I was home. Two hours longer than normal.

So, yes, you are seeing that map correctly. Four stops to charge, adding up to over an hour and a half sitting at the charger stations, plugged in, not moving, and I’m in some pain, emotionally quite exhausted, and just want to get the f**k home and into bed. But instead, stop, stop, stop, stop, and twiddle thumbs. Here’s another rub: this is the only way the route works for a Tesla. The car tells you where to go. You don’t figure it out on your own. Good thing? Maybe. Not good: the Feather River Canyon route, somewhat shorter mileage and time, was out of the question. No charging stations in the needed locations on that route, apparently. And my home town, Quincy, does not have any charging stations. The driver’s option would have been to find a motel here in town that could let him plug in for slow charge, take a room and spend the night.

Electric cars are good, in my now one-time and limited experience, for trips to a one-hundred mile radius, but not great beyond that. What’s the S.F. to Quincy radius?

One hundred seventy miles. Uh oh. Damn near twice as much.

Six and a half hours for a normal four and a half hour trip.

When we did finally get to Quincy at 10:00 p.m., the driver turned right around and headed on back to the bay the same route we came up, although he wasn’t going back any farther for himself than the east bay area. But the point is that he said he would barely have enough battery to get back to Truckee, so I was damn glad I was home and not in his shoes. I hope he made it back to Truckee and the charging station; he said he would probably have about 4% battery left. Way too close for me. He said, at worst, he’d have to call Triple-A. Yeah, if he could get cell phone coverage out there in the mountains on Highway 89. But, that was not my worry.

I was home and promptly climbed into bed. It’s now May 1st as I write this and I’m feeling on the mend, although quite sore still at the incision. That’s just going to take time.

Bottom line on electric cars, as far as I’m concerned? Well, I’ll never own one, and would only want one under specific circumstances. They’re good for some kinds of trips, not so good for other kinds. You would have to decide on your own after doing your homework.

I dunno. Maybe the stops were a good thing. Slow down, smell-the-roses kind of thing. But I gotta say, having a lifetime of experience of being able to drive non-stop for hour after hour after hour, electric cars have a drawback. Good for the environment? Yeah, maybe, I guess. Good for practicality? Definitely practical in some situations, not at all the best choice for others. In fact, for certain kinds of trips, like the exact one that was my way home, electric cars suck.

*****

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