Good people: I have arrived!
Here's how The Trip went. I do believe it is the longest road trip I have ever taken, roughly 1200 miles from start to finish, covering three days and at least that many inches of rain.
By the way, I will write a separate log about all the travails and helps that I had to deal with/was blessed with to give credit to all the lovely people who helped make this move possible. (Yes, the cheese was intentional, but your help is much appreciated nonetheless.)
The travelog:
Wednesday, 6:45 am. Put keys into the box. Get in car. Drive away. Get gas. Get on 405. Wind through hills, past the Getty, past that circular tower in which I will never live but will always wish I had experienced. Down into the valley, with smog hanging like a silk curtain (let's romanticize a little). Average: 80 miles/hour. Topanga, how I will miss hearing your name being memorialized daily as being a traffic hazard. Wind westward on the 101. Rain falls.
Just before San Luis Obispo: Jack in the Box. Lunch at 10:45. A bit early for me, but it turns out to be a great decision, as there was a guy in there who drove the 101 all the time and gave us good directions. He heard us asking the former CalTrans employee (now JitB on break) about if there was a number to call about landslides and he gave it to us, along with directions of where to get on.
We started up the 1. I have never done any driving like that before. Curves winding so steeply, rising and falling in elevation. 15 miles an hour, in heavy, heavy fog. Sometimes I couldn't even see where the road was going to curve next. It was like being in Mordor, except with no fire and ash, fog and (sometimes) angry surf instead. For miles we saw no one.
We got out a few times...the turquoise water was too alluring. Once we stopped and stood on the edge of a steep ravine, rain gently misting our glasses in perfect tiny drops. We couldn't see the ocean, but we knew it was there. We could see streams trickling toward the ocean, but we couldn't see the destination. It's cold by the sea. It was grey and the sea seemed to be content...but grey days on the ocean always remind me how powerful it is - no man can stop the tide. Good thing too...it would be a sorry thing if men could control everything.
The UPS driver whipped around the curves that I had been inching round for hours, smiling and waving. Waving? How can you take your hands off the wheel for long enough? My back was tense and I was ready for a break. We stopped at a lonely roadside store, past strings of solitary mailboxes with no homes attached to them, out of sight up steep steep driveways, or without driveways, seemingly random in placement. We bought salami, to go with our delicious crackers which there seem to be a looming shortage of. Salami, hummus, broccoli, townhouse crackers. Randomly, some Fritos. That's our food inventory.
The sun came out, and the fog rolled back. We could now see across the sparkles - noting the changes in depth, clearly marked by water color. (oh, fishies, live on amid the filth that daily we add to your playtank! ) We twisted and bent to Monterey. Up and down we wended our way toward San Francisco, with a stressful (for me) set of conversations about where we were going to spend the night. Apparently wednesday night is a busy night for hotels, as many were completely full. I began to wonder if we would have to camp out in the car. But no, such was not our fate! We got the last room with two beds at the Stratford Court. We were tired and were showing shocking signs of travelburn. N came to stay with us at the hotel, after a lovely dinner. I think perhaps that was one of my most favourite restaurant meals ever. I had steak - a tender cut, done just right, with wild mushrooms that were oh so tasty on the side and carmelized onions, with a baked potato. The portions were perfect, and the food...yum. I fell asleep at 9:30, earlier than I have in years.
We got up and had croissants for breakfast, and took a quick visit to the Grace Church Cathedral. Saying our goodbyes, we got in the car after a lengthy conversation with the valet and made our way north. I must say, I rather enjoyed those long strips along the 5, looking at orchards upon orchards, thinking...this is a completely different way of life than I am used to. Also completely different Wendy's service, as they messed up both our orders in fine fashion, which hasn't happened to me in years. Harmony, population 18. Road 5. Rural America, at its finest.
Then came the mountain passes. Miles and miles up up 6% grade, then down 6% grade. Passing trucks, downshifting, tested the limits of my car and of my driving ability. A little skittish from the previous day's near encounter round a curve, I set the pace slow and concentrated. Oh, Mount Shasta, how you awed me!
We came upon it, seemingly out of nowhere, as it rose starkly off to the left. It was so white! Its shape leads to very few places where snow cannot settle, making it nearly impossible to tell where the mountain began and the sky ended, if you didn't look closely. All alone, it sits in quiet elegance, snow blinding white and seemingly evenly coated, leaving just a few crags uncovered. To follow the LOTR references, it was like Lonely Mountain.
Too bad we didn't get any pictures. Though I doubt it would have done it justice. What we did get pictures of was another small mountain that appeared out of nowhere. Shasta, how I miss you, even two weeks later.
Oregon, here we come! Land of no sales tax and not putting gas in your own car. We stopped to get directions and I drank an odd green drink at Starbucks that had kiwi and celery in it, but actually taste pretty good. We were hijacking the wifi in order to find a place to live. Needless to say, we did not plan our vacation before started it. We found a hotel that had a nice breakfast room, and walked to a place called Greenleaf for dinner, where I had the most awful chicken I do believe I have ever tasted and where we both kind of spread out along the booth bench. Luckily our legs are not long enough to have our feet dangling at the end like forgotten drooping balloons. Then we took a nap. Yes, a nap, at 6:30 pm. After which, we took in a play: Pride and Prejudice. We sat in the back, and later commented on how they did absolutely nothing with the set, and how it was a bit stiff at the beginning (this was one of the first times they'd ever performed it). Darcy had a weird speech "thing" I didn't like - his s's were strange - and poor Lizzy, I felt like she was straining so hard, her neck cords were popping out. Mr. Bennett was completely ineffective and Mr. Collins stole the show. The version we saw put a lot of emphasis on Mrs. Bennett - which I am used to, thanks to A&E, but that even surpassed. They did do some interesting things about the passage of time that I thought were cool though.
Day 3: 9am, we head out. Day 3 was Rain Day. It rained. And rained. And rained. ALL DAY!!!
After a few more hours of mountain passes (now I know why only trucks come this way!) we stopped at a gas station and out of habit I drove up to the pump even though we didn't really need gas. We went inside and it was the oddest mix of convenience store and J&L, with a little Home Depot thrown in. It was very strange, but the people seemed friendly enough, and mum found some cards she liked, that also made me laugh.
We hit some snaggleteeth of traffic near Portland, and then it was stop-and-go solidly from near Olympia all the way to our destination. I have never felt more "are we there yet? are we there YET?" whines build up inside of me. Sadly, let a few of them slip out. We listened to O Brother, Where Art Thou? and decided to visit the Big Rock Candy Mountain someday and to 'stay on the sunny side of life', which seemed incredibly ironic at the time, as we had not seen a single direct ray of sunshine all day up until that point, and didn't see any for the rest of the day, either.
We had all these plans about how we were going to listen to the book club book of the month and get naps in the car. I was the only one who took a nap, and we didn't listen to a single minute of that book on tape the entire way. My nap was for an hour or so on the third day. Mom drove between the odd gas station/hardware store/seed store and Portland. I think. I don't know, it was all a blur. That entire third day was just, let's get there, let's get there! I drove a little faster than was strictly safe with all the rain that was glutting the roads and was glad for my mudflaps. In LA mudflaps are obviously gratuitous but they may prove useful yet!
And now I am here. Ready to start my new life. I'll add pictures as soon as I get them (hint: yes, that means I want you to send them to me!)
No comments:
Post a Comment