The first 31 hours of our trip… yes, that number is very specific and important so keep on reading!

The day we left, Shaun still went into work to get some things done before our trip. I made any changes that I needed to make now that I knew some of our plans and I also dropped Ellie off at Grandpa and Nana’s. When Shaun came home, we finished up any of the last minute details and hit the road. It was a bit later then we had expected but still, we were on the road.

After stopping for gas and something to drink we were traveling on I-5 at 70 mph and glad to be on our way. Our destination for the night was Redding, California which is about eight hours away from our home. We hit the road at about 6:30pm which meant we would arrive in Redding around 2am. Not bad for us and that still gave us plenty of time to sleep and then drive to Spokane the next day.

We made good time, stopping for a bite to eat in Castaic and enjoyed a beautiful sunset over Grapevine. In the middle of nowhere (Harris Ranch area of California’s Central Valley) we stopped for gas and Shaun and I switched for a bit. The plan was to have me drive until we reached Sacramento and then we would switch again.

Sunset Over Grapevine

I was driving along, listening to my iPod while Shaun slept and Abby watched a movie on our portable DVD player when traffic suddenly came to a halt. We were between Patterson and Modesto, so I thought that maybe we were hitting a slow down as we came into civilization again but alas that was not the case. Traffic came to a dead stop and from that point did not move. Five minutes went by, nothing. Ten minutes, still no movement. The moment the fire trucks, ambulances, and police cars came flying past us on the left shoulder was the point at which I knew this wasn’t good. People began to get out of their cars. I-5 Northbound was now a parking lot. Whatever was going on wasn’t that far from us. Cell service was spotty. We were stuck with a hill to our left, steep enough that you could only walk up it and to our right was the California Aqueduct. We were stuck with no hope of CHP even making an effort to turn us around. When I finally had decent cell service I was able to look up the CHP road incident website and found out that a big rig had overturned and was now blocking all lanes.

We knew we were in for a wait. An hour passed, then two, then three. This whole time Abby sat quietly in the car watching movies, eating snacks and singing songs with us. We were lucky to have just stopped for gas before running into this mess, which allowed us to keep the car running, the AC going (at 1am it was still 85 degrees out) and the DVD player on so that Abby could occupy her time. Abby was an amazing little trooper. I think she thought it was fun and more of a game. Shaun and I tried to look at it that way but it was hard. As the clocked ticked over to about 3am, I couldnt help but think that we should have been asleep in our beds in Redding. I also couldnt stop thinking about a bathroom. Finally I became desperate. Let’s just say I was glad that Shaun bought a large drink, but I will never look at a Taco Bell cup the same way again.

At about 3:45am, we started moving again. Shaun and I couldn’t help but giggle as we moved slowly and could see all of the “puddles” from the other cars in front of us. The big rig that over turned had been carrying tomatoes.  CHP and the other crews had done a good job cleaning up but you could see the tomato carnage  off to the side. From there we attempted to march on but eventually had to stop in Woodland, California just North of Sacramento. There was no way we would make it to Redding by a decent time and wouldn’t even attempt the drive to Spokane without any sleep. So we stopped and tried to get as much sleep as we could.

After about 4 or 5 hours of sleep we were back up and on the road. I actually didn’t feel as bad as I thought I would but then again, we were just starting a 12 hour trip to Spokane. Ask me how I am feeling halfway through the trip and the outlook might change. Coffee, soda and a few naps along the way can fix anything.

The trip from Woodland, California to Bend, Oregon was pretty uneventful. The day was hot but pretty. There were several fires burning in California so the skies were a bit hazy through Redding but it wasn’t horrible. Abby enjoyed seeing Mt. Shasta and all of the lakes and trees along the way. She also crossed over into Oregon for the very first time. Because of the highway we were on, Shaun and I had the chance to stop and take a picture of this very occasion in front of the Oregon sign. It was a great photo op as well as chance to stretch our legs a bit.

Refreshed and ready to hit the road again. Abby is a real road warrior!!

“Please, no pictures.” I have a picture like this of Shaun on just about every trip we have been on together. It’s fun to harass him while he is driving.

Mt. Shasta on a beautiful, cloudless and blue sky kind of day!

Abby is about to cross into Oregon for the very first time!

All of this traveling can really tucker a girl out!

Once we hit the cutoff to Crater Lake, the road to Bend and the Columbia River was new territory for all of us. The road was tree lined and very pretty. It was my kind of place and even though the trees were not Lodge pole pines, they were still pine trees. We stopped in Bend for a bathroom break and some food and then continued on our way.

About half an hour in we received a phone call from our friend who was taking care of Jack. There were problems so for about thirty minutes we were occupied trying to resolve them. Once things were taken care of, we settled in and enjoyed the view. Mt. Hood was getting closer to us and the forest around us was becoming more dense. The sun was setting and our scenery was beautiful. So beautiful that I couldn’t remember if this road took us close to Mt. Hood or not.

Pretty soon I became suspicious of our location and then I noticed the signs stopped telling us the mileage to The Dalles and only mentioned Portland. I hopped on to my GPS and sure enough, WE WERE HEADING TO PORTLAND! Having to drive to Portland, which meant heading West instead of East, would have added over 75 miles to our trip and we would have lost another hour or so. I just wanted to get to Spokane and get to bed! I was starting to feel like this trip was cursed! But my GPS saved the day and we got lucky, very lucky. We were only a mile from the one and only cutoff that would lead us back in the right direction and only a few miles off course. It would drop us in the town of Hood River and less then 20 miles off our original destination of the Dalles.

From that point on, things ran smoothly. We checked in about Jack oce we had cell service again, gassed up and just drove. Abby, during all of this, was amazing. She watched movies, read books, napped, listened to the radio with us, colored and stayed pretty happy. We arrived in Spokane at about 2:30am ready to pass out. Abby was excited to have her own bed (a rather cozy roll away) and loved that we were staying in a hotel with a lion (the Red Lion). After a full day of travel on only 4 or 5 hours of sleep, Shaun and I slept well. My parents wouldn’t be in to Spokane until about 6pm the next day so we slept in. We slept in and enjoyed every wonderful moment of it in our very comfortable beds.