Sunset to Sunrise...pics from the road...

Ok, so I found the camera cord..woooo hooo. This picture is the sunset Saturday night, the 16th... still in California... sorry about the powerlines, but this was taken as we were driving down I-5. (did I actually say down? I meant up! We were driving UP I-5)

Here is the sunrise the next morning...Aug 17th... from our hotel window.

The evening of the 17th was the harvest moon and it was absolutely amazing, but neither of us could get the camera to take a picture correctly. It was amazing, but will have to remain in our memories.

It's Raining!

I know it's crazy, but it didn't rain much in California. If you move away from the rain you forget how good it smells when it's about to rain, and the feeling of it in the air. There's just something about it. We lived in the Seattle area before California, so we went from extreme amounts of precipitation to literally none.

Patrick is registered for 5th grade! Woo hoo! Taylor's registration appointment is Friday. She is so excited we can hardly stand to be around her. Who knew putting her back in public school would be such a treat for her. Especially when part of the reason we stayed in California these last few months is because she was still begging to continue her acting adventure.

We've settled in at Dordo's house! She has graciously provided us with more than enough space to make our own little home away from home. I've been called a gypsy in the past and today I feel that title.

I know this wasn't an exciting post, but I wanted to check in and let you all know that I'm still kicking!

Why did you move?

We sold our furniture and packed up everything else we own in plastic tubs. Darrinn loaded them all onto a trailer that he spent 4 days looking for and away we went. It wasn't quite that simple as we still have alot of stuff, but that's the short version.

If you've been to visit us, you know that California is a mixture of things... Its a fast lane, full of rude people and dirty places. But the other side of the reality is that there is so much stuff to do and if you can see past the insane rush everyone is in and the dirty places, you will likely wish to stay.

So many beaches...parks...theme parks...We were there 16 months and only saw maybe 1/100th of the sites.

Everyone keeps asking me "Why did you move?" And some people have asked more than once...as if they don't believe the answer. Well, we left the Spokane / Coeur d' Alene area about 5 1/2 years ago. Darrinn took a job in Auburn, Washington ( Seattle Area ) and he was gone for 18 months before the kids and I followed.

We settled into the area and loved it for about 4 years. Then the company he worked for transferred him to California. He was there 4 months before we headed down to join him. The transition was easier in California than it was in Seattle. Perhaps it had to do with the fact that we moved into my dream house a block from the ocean. Our stay there was short lived as the dream was for sale and sold while we were living it. : )

Our next move took us to the middle of the desert as he was out working at a different store and the commute was killing him. After being there for 6 months we moved yet again. Yes, we had been in California for 8 months and were now planning our 3rd move. He had been moved back to the original store and again he commute issue. Commutes here are different than anywhere I've ever been. Here, you can be 12 miles away from something and it can literally take 3 hours. Not pretty.

I just looked at my title and man am I sidetracked... We chose Long Beach for the next destination. People who've been to Long Beach go "Oh...Long Beach." Long Beach has been revamped in the last 10 years. The entire downtown waterfront area has been redone and surrounding areas cleaned and made safer... so we didn't live in the hood people. We lived about 3 blocks from the water. LOVE THE WATER...

Darrinn took up sailing and as a family unit we've determined that we love sailing. Lots of little shops, restaurants and such within walking distance. We lived in an amazing complex with two pools, a gym and a theatre room. Fun Fun.

The car business isn't going too well at the moment...kind of like the rest of the world...mortgage...real estate...appraisers... the car guys are suffering too. The gas prices are killing us. Darrinn is always weighing his options with his job and started looking for ways to get out of the car business. We were on the verge of a career change it would seem.

I have 3 grandparents that are aging and a mother in law that we miss dearly. Not to mention a new grandson that I am missing his every new moment. It really all just happened. The kids and I took a last minute 3 week vacation to Washington. We spent 2 weeks in Spokane / Coeur d' Alene and 1 week in the Seattle area. We were so blessed with all of the friends and family time that we had over those 3 weeks.

There are so many good things about home and equally as many good things about California.

When we returned home, Darrinn was open to returning permanently. We've talked about it a million times since we moved... it really wasn't as last minute as it appeared to the rest of the world. It was a long time coming and finally time to just do it kind of thing. So, it was that simple. We sold our furniture, packed our stuff into plastic tubs and headed North.

Delirium sets in.

I want to start off by saying that when the kids and I went to Spokane last month, I drove straight through 20 hours. We stopped for gas, food and bathrooms and thats it. I did have a moment of feelin tired, but then I realized I only had 6 more hours to go and that all went away. 6 hours from holdin little Dylan!

Now, here we are almost 36 hours later and I'm exhausted. Our original plan was to go all the way up I-5 to Seattle and then head over to Spokane. More gas stations, more food, more rest stops, more familiar in case of a trailer malfunction etc. It took so long to get the trailer thing handled that we decided to go out across Oregon the way I had gone before. I warned Darrinn that it is a long, uneventful, winding, drivin through lots of small towns so you gotta slow down, not enough passing lanes so you get stuck behind semis, few rest stops, few restaurants, seemingly endless drive. He was up for the challenge.

We arrived in Biggs Junction around 930 Sunday night. Darrinn was the first to admit that was an awful route to take, I was absolutely right. We got out and ate at the restaurant. (yuck) We discussed continueing on through the night. I opted for the hotel next door. They had one more room available. Done!

It was a harvest moon and it was absolutely amazing, but we could not get the camera to take a good picture of it. Perhaps it was the 60 mile an hour winds blowing us. Oh and maybe all the sand blowing in the 60 mile an hour winds. I don't know...

I was asleep before anyone. Watch tv, I don't care. Darrinn slept in the truck that night. We couldn't park close to the room and he was worried about all the stuff in the room and it bein a truck stop and all. Who knows what goes on when no one is looking. I am on to him though... in the truck he has peace and quiet, no snoring, teethgrinding, coughing, tooting kids. : ) (I forgot giggling after the tooting)

We awoke early and were back on the road after the usual gas, fast food breakfast and coffeeee.

We arrived in Spokane around 11am I think. Dylan was on the porch waiting. He is such an angel. I thank God everyday for him. And Megan and Taylor and Patrick. And Dru. He was a trooper through the 1100 mile journey, both 1100 journeys for that matter. Those kids never once threw a tantrum about being in the car. They slept, played, ate and just had fun the entire trip.

The wheels on the car go round and round...

We had a "boys in one car, girls in the other" deal and it was fine with everyone involved. We had the backseat of the Malibu completely loaded with some room for Shelby's (Taylor's Russian Tortoise) traveling box. That tortoise walked in that box during all of the light hours and walked even faster when we had the music on.

We only made it to Sacramento. The trailer was a used trailer and apparently we had a little heavier load than we should. We were told the tires were overinflated as well, which also contributed to the excessive wearing on the inside of the tires. Darrinn was worried that we would have a blowout if we went much farther. As you can imagine, all the tire stores are closed at 8pm on a Saturday...and most of them closed on Sundays.... what to do?!

We used the navigation to search for Super Walmarts (because they all have tire centers, did you know all Walmarts don't have tires???) The tire centers closed at 8 but did open the next morning at 7am. Woo hoo. So, we set the navigation to the closest Super Walmart... in Dixon California, exactly 18 miles west of Sacramento. I was totally bummed to be honest with you, I had a few more hours of driving in me and was hoping to put more miles behind us. The kids were happy to get out of the car though.

We found a hotel a couple miles from Super Walmart and crashed. 2 Queen size beds and a rollaway bed! Manuel Boys on one bed, Manuel girls on the other and Drudles got the rollaway. He felt like he was the king of the room with his own bed in the middle of the room. We awoke to an amazing sunrise the next morning. I'll post the pictures once I find the cord to download my pictures.

Welllll...Darrinn ran to Walmart at 7am only to return by 8am. It would seem that Walmart does sell tires, but not the size tires that go on a trailer. Another problem, the man at Walmart said that we would have to unload the trailer before they could jack it up and put the new tires on anyway. I was worried about that... Darrinn said the guy was really non friendly about the whole thing. Oh goody!

Would you believe there was a tractor supply store across the street from Walmart? It didn't open until 9am. We packed up all our stuff and got ready. I wanted to go get the cars gassed up and breakfast in our tummies by 9am so we could do whatever we had to do and get back on the road.

They had the tires we needed! Darrinn bought them and we headed back to Walmart, cuz the tractor store doesnt have the stuff to do anything with them. But the important thing was that we had them. The same friendly guy came out with that "oh geez, he's back" look on his face. Darrinn actually had to go inside and BUY a lug wrench. The Walmart man allowed him to use the floor jack and the jack stands.

Yes, Darrinn jacked up the trailer all by himself. Yes, with all of the stuff loaded on it. He pulled the tires off and the Walmart man took them in so he could take off the old tires and mount the new tires. It took them at least an hour. They came back in to tell Darrinn they couldn't seat the tires. I don't know what that means, but something about not getting them to seal on the rims. Darrinn actually had to tell them how to do it. And then Darrinn actually had to get one of HIS ratchet straps to let them use so they could do it. I know what you're thinking... are you serious? Oh it gets better. As Darrinn was going to get the ratchet strap the guy started telling Darrinn how he was just telling the other guys how to use the ratchet strap to fix it. HE WAS ACTUALLY NOW TRYING TO CLAIM IT WAS HIS IDEA IN THE FIRST PLACE.

Anyway, the guys were done, Darrinn put the new tires back on away we went. Finally. It was like almost noon if I remember correctly. We drove and drove and drove. Quite uneventful day as far as I can remember. The sunset was equally as amazing as the sunrise that day. Again.. as soon as I find the camera cord.

Preparing for the trek...

My aunt says I should write a book...shes not the first person to tell me that...what should I think of that? Well, it would seem that anytime I plan something it just doesn't go as planned, there are always 15 different little things that happen along the way, generally comical in retrospect, that causes our adventures to go array.

Our drive was delayed..Darrinn wanted to leave early early on Saturday. We weren't completely loaded by late Friday and the whole plan to leave early Saturday just didn't jive. We weren't loaded because of Craigslist. Yes, I'm blaming Craig. Craigslist buyers are a pain in the (beeeeep). If you've ever worked with Craigslist people you'd know what I'm talking about. They either don't show up on time, or don't show up at all. We had several people interested in our fabulous king size bed and Darrinn is big on the "first guy with the cash wins" method. This guy was on his way with the cash so Darrinn put off the others... he arrived, measured the bed and determined it was too big. Too big? Measured? Its not like king size beds come in several different sizes... helloooo! So, by the time the fool finally arrives and then determines he doesn't want it its after 9pm. The downside...now we have to call the others that we told no and tell them it is available...which makes people leery as to why this other guy didn't want it. The only good part to the whole late night last minute cancellation is that I didn't have to sleep on the blow up mattress after all!!!! As you can imagine...no one wanted the bed now. Ugh. Hence...its Craigs fault. That is why our trailer was not loaded on time and we were unable to leave early Saturday. But, hey... we weren't on a deadline and didn't need to rush anyway. We got a good nights sleep and planned to finish loading in the morning.

Taylor and I awoke before the boys. Oh, did I forget to mention we had an extra boy with us? Yes, we had MJ's son Dru with us. He made the trek to California with us for a little 2 week vacation turned into a 2 week adventure to three different states. Fun vacation, huh!? Taylor and I headed to Walmart to purchase some more plastic tubs and some breakfast items. Yes, I said more tubs. It was determined that tubs stack better on the trailer so off we went to get more. Yes...run as fast as you can and invest in the plastic tub stock. Upon arriving home the boys had arisen and the loading had commenced. Let the driving begin.