I left for the airport when Mom called to say they'd landed.  It took me the usual 25 minutes.... but she was first off the plane, and her luggage was first off the carousel, so she had to wait for me at the curb about 10 minutes.  Usually I get to hang out in the cell phone lot for a little bit, so I had brought along reading material.

Driving to the airport I saw that there was some sort of major tie-up on I-10 westbound.  It was hard not to notice, since traffic was backed up and virtually stopped from the time I got on (going eastbound, luckily) until I exited for the airport 10 (?) miles later.  I did see a number of police cars with their flashers on, and figure there was some sort of accident.  Feeding all those lanes of traffic into one lane or onto a shoulder could create a backup like that. 

So to avoid that mess I took the 51 home (nice to have options!) and it only took us 25 minutes.  (As bad as that tie-up was, some of those folks may still be sitting in traffic!)

I grilled some steaks for dinner, and then we played several rounds of Rummikub.  Mom voted to not keep score during her visit, which turned out to be a good thing since she lost every hand.  Tomorrow when she's not so tired (it is 3 hours later back home) she may even up the score.