Day 1 - the full play-by-play account is now here!

Day 1 – Tuesday – June 25, 2013

 

0500 Ron heads off to work

0530 I don’t want to but I have to get up so I can finish packing.

1112 Finally leaving.  Drop the house key off at Yogi’s house so they can water for us while we’re gone.  Go back to pick up the veggies I forgot in the frig.  Also take out the trash that I forgot.  That would’ve been really smelly!

1118 Leaving – Take 2.  Starting odometer is 132,056 miles.

1120 The strap on the roof is humming.  Rocco does NOT like it at all.

1134 Stop at Staples to FedEx refinancing documents to USAA for Denver house.  Take the strap off.

1145 76 degrees as we start to head over the grade.

1153 Rocco finally sat down.  GPS is giving us an ETA of 7:09 p.m.  Sounds like we might be setting up camp in the dark by the time you add gas stops, etc.  Hopefully we don’t run into traffic heading through the Bay area.  It’s going to be close.

1157 Change GPS voice from Ron to Bella.  Ron doesn’t want to get directions from himself.

12:03 p.m. Check Facebook.  It took 31 minutes before I got my first “like” of our departure photo and it’s the only like so far.  Where is everybody?  Why aren’t they online waiting to be informed of my every move?!  Haha

12:04 p.m. Paso Robles.  Having all-star soccer flashbacks.  “Paso Poooowwweeeeeerrrrrrrr!”  Blech.

12:22p.m. The rent check is ready for the mail, whenever we find a post office.

12:25 p.m. Spot a deer enjoying a bit of shade under a lone oak tree.

12:26 p.m. Hitchhikers looking for a ride.  Sorry but we are completely FULL!   There’s not even room to ride on the roof!

12:27 p.m. Broken down apple truck and 2 dudes taking a tandem road-side leak.  Such interesting scenery, eh?

12:30 p.m. Oil field

12:40 p.m. Grapes as far as the eye can see, backed by the golden California hills.

12:47 p.m. Giant cut-out of Granny and some flowers on the hillside.  Maybe a memorial?

12:48 p.m. I’m up to 3 “likes” on my picture now.

12:49 p.m. Amtrak headed south

12:50 p.m. Felisa is hungry.  “When’s lunch?”

12:53 p.m. King City.  Stop at Subway for lunch.

1:10 p.m. Gas, $3.99/gallon

1:20 p.m. Pimento farm.  Quite possibly the only one because, really – how many pimentos do we need?

1:38 p.m. Traffic jam.  Construction.

1:40 p.m. Lots of field work going on in this area.  Tractors and workers in almost every field it seems.

1:46 p.m. Romaine lettuce truck.

1:48 p.m. It’s the land of giant cut-out people signs!  I remember this from living in Salinas.  That one was of a farmer and his dog.

1:50 p.m. Broccolini truck

1:53 p.m. Broken down truck.  Looks like he lost a couple wheels.

1:54 p.m. Valley Pallet, Inc. It’s a pallet farm!  Heehee

1:55 p.m. Rocking out to Belinda Carlisle on the radio.  “Heaven Is a Place on Earth”  High school flashbacks!

1:58 p.m. Salinas, CA.

1:59 p.m. Oh look – they have a Portugese hall here too.  I don’t know that I’ve ever seen one before moving to Arroyo Grande.  Now I’ve seen two.

2:00 p.m. There’s the hospital where Ryan was born!

2:01 p.m. Black Bear Diner.  Mmm. They always had good food there.

2:10 p.m. The Pink Kennel.  It’s looking a bit rough these days.  That was the place Bailey escaped from.  She climbed the 6-foot chain link fence (or did she jump?!) because she wanted to be in the house with the people.

2:23 p.m. Cows!

2:24 p.m. Garlic Shoppe and Garlic World – Gilroy, CA

2:25 p.m. Raccoon roadkill.  Don’t look, Felisa!

2:29 p.m. Alpacas – lots of them.

2:50 p.m. 50 miles to Oakland.  Reminiscing about my looooong weekly commute (100 miles each way!) between Salinas and Oakland.

2:55 p.m. Discussing the schedule for next summer’s move trip.

3:00 p.m. Golfland.  That’s a pretty fancy putt-putt place.

3:05 p.m. Fry’s Electronics.  Ah memories.  I bought my first TV/VCR for deployment there.

3:22 p.m. Contra Costa County line.

3:38 p.m. Pleasant Hill – my old stomping grounds.

3:46 p.m. Toll plaza to cross the bridge.  $5!

3:49 p.m. Ship graveyard off to the right.  Ryan says it’s really more of a ship retirement home.

3:50 p.m. New cars from the factory filling a huge parking lot

4:00 p.m. I-80 East

4:16 p.m. 505 North.  We’re in new territory now.  We’ve never been this way before.

4:19 p.m. 200 more miles?! We’re never going to get there!

4:23 p.m. Lost my cell internet.  L

4:25 p.m. Winters, CA.  Gas, $3.91/gallon. Pick up some peaches from the roadside stand.

4:40 p.m. My turn to drive.

4:46 p.m. Sunflowers and corn growing.

6:21 p.m. Sacramento River

6:22 p.m. Sacramento River again.

6:40 p.m. And one more time – the Sacramento River!

6:44 p.m. Redding exits.  Sign for  Lake Shasta Caverns.  Raining as we head up the mountain.

7:00 p.m. Big crash on the south-bound side of I-5.  UPS trailer on its side.  Traffic is backed up for about 10 miles!

7:32 p.m. Exit – Castle Crags State Park

It is sprinkling as we are setting up camp.  It takes just 40 minutes to set up and have dinner ready.  The mosquitos are swarming like crazy here. Not fun.

9:20 p.m. Bed time. It’s raining.  I’m wondering, What was I thinking?!