Road Trip!

I don't think I can acurately post everything about my trip North and West in one shot, so you may hear random stories for some time. But I'm guessing that's ok. What I can tell you is that it was pretty much everything you might think a road trip with two girls and two cats across mountains in winter might be...Interesting.

It took us quite a bit longer to get to Vancouver thanks to the weather, but at least we had the time for it. Tuesday before leaving, there was the big storm in the midwest. So I kind of had to wait on leaving on Wednesday until the roads cleared, but I probably left later because I was still arranging things in the car. It was hard to leave, and hard for me to leave behind my things. I know I'm materialistic, so it's probably a good exercise in leaving behind things that really aren't important, but still...no room for my TV? Uh! (you'll be happy to know I've since bought one here from the second hand store, but sadly, no cable for another week...it really is killing me.)

Anyway, I got the cats and my stuff in the car, and then it was off to St. Louis to pick up Melissa and pray there was room for her stuff. Of course, on the way, one of my windshield wipers broke. In all of the car checks before leaving I'd forgotten to mention that I thought they were getting bad. It's ok...Melissa is car savvy, and she picked up blades and attached them. Yay!!! So then we were off! But it was already later on Wed. than I'd planned. So that first day, we only made it to Lincoln, Nebraska, because as it got dark, a light snow was falling and the slushy roads didn't seem so great for driving. We had grand plans of making great time the next day. Nature had other ideas.

On Thursday, we naively thought we could make it to Park City, UT (Near Salt Lake) and possibly stay with my cousin there. It would have been nice, but about 16 miles outside of Laramie, WY the roads got crazy-bad. It was sunset, and three semi-trucks were jack-knifed on the road, bringing traffic to a crawl. Why were they jack-knifed? Maybe because the wind blowing snow across the mountain roads decided to freeze the snow to the pavement, creating ice and slush, and crazy-treacherous conditions. Park City was at least 5 hours from Laramie, and all the sudden we were worried about making it that far. It took nearly an hour to go those last 16 miles. Thank goodness for AAA Trip Books so we could call ahead and book the soon-to-be-popular hotels. It was nice to stop driving after that. Besides, mountain driving is tough anyway...and my car was so loaded down...yeah...best to stop.

Of course, we woke up the next day to find that they had closed the Interstate for the entire day. SIGH.... The truckers were nice and friendly with the information (we had waited until Noon hoping it would open up, even loading the car with the cats and everything...but no luck), so at Wendy's, we finally gave in over cokes, salads, and burgers. Well, we hadn't totally given in on I-80 opening up, so we decided to look around the town (the cats were fine in the car, but I felt bad). We went to the University's art museum (quite cool! and one of the artists is soon to have an exhibit here in Vancouver! she uses only men's coats to create landscape-like "art"...very neat!). Oh, and I forgot to mention...the roads were closed not for snow, exactly, but for a wind storm. The wind was nearing hurricane strength (65mph gusts, with 35-50mph sustained winds!) and creating white-outs with the powder on the ground. So yeah, couldn't see anything if you were able to drive...but around town (maybe protected by the mountains?) things were fine...but windy. After the art museum, we went to Wal-Mart. why not? We had a room reserved for the night, but had to confirm by 4pm. We were still hoping to do some driving. At 4pm, we finally gave in. And we bought swimsuits at the Wal-Mart, so for the evening we could at least enjoy our hotel's hot tub. Yeahhhhh! Oh, and we also visited "Cherries" for dinner. Basically an old Dairy Queen converted into something local, that was still... pretty much a dairy queen. It had a Ms. Pac-Man arcade game in the corner...otherwise, it was pretty dead. Fun times.

All in all, it wasn't a bad "Stranded" day..just not very destination-productive. I guess it was nice to have time off from driving, but we really had to book it those last two days.

I guess the other half of the trip was relatively uneventful. Driving through mountains is pretty, but annoying after a while. Especially when the speed limit is 75mph, but random snow flurries, and loaded down Saturn lets you only do between 55mph and 65mph. We decided Idaho is a total punk for not having free potato chips at its welcome centers (Washington advertised free coffee). Also, the Subway in Boise, Idaho is totally on our list for evil restaurants because it's listed on the Interstate exit signs, and it's outside sign is all lit up, but it closes at 8pm (we got there at 8:20pm). Early-closing losers. Del Taco was an ok substitute, but we'd really been hoping for a break from the grease.

Let's see...Athena doesn't need to be drugged for the car trips. That kitty needs drugged at night in the hotel rooms since she wants to meow the entire evening. But little Aja needs drugged in the car because that's where she won't shut up. I wonder if they had an agreement to take turns on bugging the heck out of me for taking them on this long roadtrip. Probably.

Nebraska has ethanol-mixed gas that is cheaper, but I wasn't sure if it would go in my car, so I had to pay more. That was annoying. We saw tumble weeds in Oregon (sweet!...and they totally disentegrate when you hit them!). Melissa and I both picked out places to live in Morgan, WY. Was it in Weber County? I can't remember where that was...but what a cool county!

Washington state...yup, bring on the Starbucks! We totally got these awesome cupcakes at a stop there. And as for the Canadian border...well, let's just say I'm lucky I brought my car title, because i really didn't know I would need it to import my car (they could have cared less about the cats and their paperwork), and I didn't have the proper payment documentation for my school, but the crusty border guard cracked a smile when he got to call my parents to verify that there would be plenty of funding to get me in and out of Canada (they have such a distrusting policy when it comes to immigrants, yeesh! ;).

Hmmm...we also got pulled over by the cops in either Oregon or Washington. I think it was Oregon (yup, right before we stopped for the night at this dive of a hotel...oh well, it was a bed. thanks, Melissa for putting up with it!). The state trooper pulled us over because one of my headlights was out! (what were YOU thinking?? how dare you think we'd be speeding...with our heavy car, we couldn't if we tried...poor tired saturn. ;). Luckily, we just picked up a new bulb the next day at Wal-Mart and Melissa expertly replaced it.

And Canada...helloooo no cell phone service! Argh! Despite being promised by Sprint that I could at least use my phone (although somewhat on the pricey side), there was no signal at all. Thank goodness they were nice enough to agree that I should not be charged an contract-breaking fee, nor where they charging me for all the add-ons that they had put on my monthly bill promising I'd be able to use my phone. Luckily I got a Canadian cell phone the next day, though their cell phone companies are equally ruthless (what do you mean I have to pay extra for voice mail and caller ID???). But yes, my florida number is no more. No messages, no phone service. It's kind of sad. I had that number for 6 years. Oh well. Time to move on.

And that, my friends, is what a road trip is all about. Moving on, but doing it with good friends ready for the ride (God bless Melissa for going with me, and being car-smart! And even though the long road trip prevented her from really seeing Vancouver before she had to get back to work, I am so lucky she came with me and kept me sane).

So I am here in Vancouver now. Cats are happy to be out of their crates, that's for sure! Lots to tell about being here, but it must wait for another post. Classes start on Monday the 26th, and I'm in a temporary apartment until March 1. Hopefully I'll have regular Internet access after that.

Oh, did I learn anything from my road trip? just that I probably won't drive the mountains in winter again, even though I think we had a really good trip, and it was just beautiful. But some adventures are best when they are only done once. Anyone want to sign up for the return ride next spring??? hee hee.