For the first couple of years, Kent averaged two weeks out of every two months in California. For his second trip, we decided to drive out - our first cross-country trip. Since most of my families' vacations had stayed in the midwest, I was thrilled at the thought of seeing the Rocky Mountains.
I learned a lesson about traveling through the mountains in October.
We left on a Thursday night, planning to stay overnight in Reno on Saturday. When we arrived, we couldn't find a hotel room anywhere (well, there was one pent-house available, but not "quite" in our budget.) So we drove on, finally finding a room in Truckee, CA. We had driven over 1700 miles in 2+ days, and I was so tired, and cold, and hungry, and the room was such a dump, I cried. Kent begged the only restaurant that was still open (and they were closing) to find us anything to eat. We took the food back to the room, and the room very slowly began to warm, and all was okay with the world again.
It was really a blessing in disguise that we couldn't stay in Reno, because it started snowing. If we hadn't been as far as Truckee, we would have been stuck. We were one of the last cars to get through Donner's Pass before they closed it. For a southern Missouri girl, that was a completely new concept - roads could actually have to be closed because of snow?!
But we made it down out of the mountains and on to San Jose, where I met Kent's other two brothers, and we spent Sunday with them. Then it was on to Costa Mesa and my first visit to the Pacific Ocean. While Kent had to work on his project each day, I lounged about the pool and discovered the fun of travel. We went out sight-seeing most evenings, spent a lot of time at the ocean, visited Calico ghost town, and stopped at Meteor Crater in Arizona on the way to Missouri and then back home.
That travel bug bit hard.
-- Dana
This was a hard trip because we only had 3 days to drive from Illinois to California and we didn't go the shortest route. We made very few stops along the way and when we did they were limited. By the time we got to Reno we were exhausted to the point of "crabby" and everywhere we stopped to find a room was full. When we finally drove on to Truckee we were struggling to keep alert enough to drive. The room we finally found was decorated in "rustic/crud" (the kindest way I could find to describe it). We did, however smile all the way to coast the next day while listening to the radio warn people that Donner Pass was closed indefinitely.
I still remember when the Pacific came into view on that trip. I have always loved ocean views after coming out of the mountains.
After that it was work, jacuzzi, eat, tour, repeat as necessary.
--Kent
I learned a lesson about traveling through the mountains in October.
We left on a Thursday night, planning to stay overnight in Reno on Saturday. When we arrived, we couldn't find a hotel room anywhere (well, there was one pent-house available, but not "quite" in our budget.) So we drove on, finally finding a room in Truckee, CA. We had driven over 1700 miles in 2+ days, and I was so tired, and cold, and hungry, and the room was such a dump, I cried. Kent begged the only restaurant that was still open (and they were closing) to find us anything to eat. We took the food back to the room, and the room very slowly began to warm, and all was okay with the world again.
It was really a blessing in disguise that we couldn't stay in Reno, because it started snowing. If we hadn't been as far as Truckee, we would have been stuck. We were one of the last cars to get through Donner's Pass before they closed it. For a southern Missouri girl, that was a completely new concept - roads could actually have to be closed because of snow?!
But we made it down out of the mountains and on to San Jose, where I met Kent's other two brothers, and we spent Sunday with them. Then it was on to Costa Mesa and my first visit to the Pacific Ocean. While Kent had to work on his project each day, I lounged about the pool and discovered the fun of travel. We went out sight-seeing most evenings, spent a lot of time at the ocean, visited Calico ghost town, and stopped at Meteor Crater in Arizona on the way to Missouri and then back home.
That travel bug bit hard.
-- Dana
This was a hard trip because we only had 3 days to drive from Illinois to California and we didn't go the shortest route. We made very few stops along the way and when we did they were limited. By the time we got to Reno we were exhausted to the point of "crabby" and everywhere we stopped to find a room was full. When we finally drove on to Truckee we were struggling to keep alert enough to drive. The room we finally found was decorated in "rustic/crud" (the kindest way I could find to describe it). We did, however smile all the way to coast the next day while listening to the radio warn people that Donner Pass was closed indefinitely.
I still remember when the Pacific came into view on that trip. I have always loved ocean views after coming out of the mountains.
After that it was work, jacuzzi, eat, tour, repeat as necessary.
--Kent
