The first day of our trip across the country did not start out quite as expected. We’d spent literally months working on our itinerary, yet item number three, “Hit the Road”, didn’t happen until three and a half hours late. And because of all the work we put into preparing for the trip, we had purchased discounted gift certificates for specific restaurants along the way. So the late start meant also that lunch was not until 3:00.
I know, “Wah, wah, wah.” You don’t want to hear about the little hiccups. I’m done now.
We left home about 11:30 am. Fortunately, this wasn’t supposed to be one of our longer days of driving, so even with the late start we made it to our destination before the sun had gone down. Well, okay, at least before full dark.
We headed east out of Portland on I-84 through the Columbia River Gorge. Pam is usually not fond of this drive because it always seems to be rainy and/or windy there. In contrast, today was sunny and quite warm. We listened to music our daughters didn’t like and had a grand old time singing along and clicking off the miles. Mica and Delia did their best to ignore us, made all the easier with Mica’s new iPod Touch and convenient headphone splitters. I’m not going to insist that they participate with the rest of us while we’re driving. There will be plenty of shared experiences at all of our stops along the way.
Speaking of new technology, Pam also got a new toy, one of the new Droid phones. At one point she told me that she is hooked now, and will never be able to not have one. This was while looking for a particular address in Spokane. Her phone allowed her to plug the address in and bring up a map with directions. Yes, nothing new about that if you have a navigation system in your car, but handy enough for those of us without, plus the phone and looking things up on the internet. More on that later.
I drove as far as Umatilla, but then I was ready for Pam to take over. I had been up late arranging things that I was leaving behind, and I had been feeling drowsy after eating. Unfortunately, Mica wound up taking the wheel, and since I wanted to nap, Pam needed to be in the passenger seat. So I folded my 6’ 3” into the back seat. It actually wasn’t that bad, even in a Sentra. Pam scooted the seat up and all was well. It certainly was comfortable enough to begin sawing logs shortly after entering Washington.
Much of the drive today was filled with large farms and hills empty of anything but grass, fence lines, and occasional small cattle herds. There have been some changes to the gorge since the last time I went through. I saw at least a hundred of the giant three-bladed windmills harvesting wind energy.
We ended our drive north of Coeur d’Alene in a small town called Careywood. Aunt Carol Ann, at whose house we stayed, described it as nothing more than a post office, but she was exaggerating. They have a fire department too. She greeted us with pie, we visited for a while, then we all headed to bed.
Delia’s addition:
We rolled out about 11:30. Then we played mad libs in the car. We were running pretty late, so we had a late lunch at The Desert River Inn and Restaurant in Umatilla, Oregon. Then we went and took pictures at the Spokane, Washington Temple. Then we drove to Uncle Chuck and Aunt Carol Ann’s. We got there around 9:15. Then we ate yummy peach, cherry, or apple pie. Then we talked and updated and then I had a shower and we all headed for bed. The end!!!
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