Holy cow...here I am almost 2 months later finally publishing the post about our road trip. Here it is!
Our car made it! We got back last week from our 6 state roadtrip. We packed up the Natural Gas car and headed north to Boise Idaho. We of course left a little late, but that is nothing new to us...We got to Boise around midnight on Saturday night and stayed with my brother-in-law Cardon's family. We sported his family's new Buddy scooters around town and swam in the pool. We met up with my brother Cameron and his girlfriend Kristin. They had planned on going to Portland too, but by way of trainhopping. Yes, my brother hops trains and has traveled to Portland before by doing it. This time was different though...they arrived just west of Boise from hitchhiking and had missed the train that he knew was going to Portland. So they waited around for a day and decided to hitchhike back to Boise and wait for us to show up so they could hitch a ride with us in our car to Portland.
It was the first time I had seen my brother act flirty towards a girl. He was happy and it was interesting to watch. Mandee and I both got a kick out of it. It was a good thing that Mandee had brought a huge cartop travel bag to put all of our stuff in so there could be room for Cameron and Kristin inside the car. We said goodbye to Cardon and family and headed out the next afternoon for Portland.
It was an uncomfortable drive all squashed together in the car (except for me, I was driving). We entered into the only state in the Union that does not allow you to pump your own gasoline! I wasn't sure if you had to tip the gas pumper; what if he cleaned your window? I did anyway just so I wouldn't feel like a jerk. We got into Portland and we dropped my brother off at 2:00 am at his friends house. We then accidently found our way to Mandee's brother's house in Aloha. The next 3 days were a blur to me. All I remember is shopping at thrift stores! There is a warehouse where all of the unsold thrift store merchandise from the multiple chains receives it and brings it out in huge bins for all of the vultures to scour through. It is funny to watch how serious some of the people get about it! No on is allowed to touch the merchandise until the bin is in place. When placed, people start digging, throwing, spitting and kicking (just kidding) to find their treasurs. I thought that it was cool, but I don't last long at any store, especially with Kenton. I bet we filled 5 shopping carts of stuff. They sell it for .69 per pound which is awesome! Mandee sorted out some of her stuff and we drove around Portland selling it to consignment shops for fun. Mandee made some more spending money for the trip which was nice! We were able to see Mandee's other brother Eric and his wife Skyi. I wish we had more time to spend with them since we only hung out for a couple of hours.
We went to breadfast with Mandee's brother Shane and his wife Callie and their daughter Mackenzie. They are also thrift store junkies and went with us a few times to the stores. There is something in that Schanderl blood....
We left for California and made it to Dunsmuir, California. It is a small railroad town. We got there just before midnight and found the Railroad Motel. It was the coolest thing ever! It was too bad that Kenton was asleep and didn't get to see all of the train cars that were scattered throughout the park that were converted into motel rooms. We tried to get a room, but the office was closed and the person living above the office was to tired and lame to let us stay. So we drove around forever and found the main drag in the town. Mandee went in to a bar and asked for directions to a cheap campsite. It took forever for her to leave the bar because there were a couple of drunk dudes acting like drunk dudes (talky talky talk). We got back on the interstate and headed for a National Park. We set up camp and slept well. We had some quarters to pay for the heated shower at the campsite and we all took a shower which felt great. We then headed back to Dunsmuir to check out the railroad motel and giftshop. Kenton loved it! We hung around town for a couple of hours and even hit up a garage sale before we left.
We drove for awhile and went and saw Shasta Lake and the damn. You could see evidence of the burnt mountainsides from California's tragic summer of fires. We got off of the freeway and headed for route 99 to Chico. It was very scenic full of orchards and farmland. We found the natural gas station to fill up the car with, but to our dismay, you had to have a special "member only" card. We luckily were able to pay cash to a member who let us use his card to get gas. We then headed through Sacramento to Oakdale where Mandee's Uncle Max and Aunt Kathy live. But just a few minutes from Oakdale, disaster struck! I had to take a serious toilet pit stop and there were no gas stations or any stores off of the highway! I became desperate and thought that it would be better to let it all out off the side of the road in somebody's orchard instead of my pants. I decided to pull over and get out. There were houses down the whole street with orchards to the sides. There were also lots of cars traveling on the road. How could I accomplish this task and not get caught? Well the Macgyver in me saw the bridge close by and I climbed over the railing and under the road I went...Literally! Wow, that was too close! Mandee thought that it was pretty funny and decided to share my adventure with her uncle on the phone...Thanks babe, and thanks Taco Bell!
We got to their house and visited for a few minutes until we turned in and went to bed. For the next few days, we actually got to relax! We just hung around the house and swam. It was very relaxing. A couple of days later, we all drove up to Big Trees National Park where there were of course...BIG TREES! The biggest one was around 40 feet in diameter at the base of the tree. Crazy!
We left a couple of days later and drove to Southern California to visit Tyler and Erica Johnson. They live in Dana Point. We went surfing a couple of times and I loved it! I was able to get up a few times. The first day i went out I got so tired from swimming and I threw up in the water. It was not pretty. I just hope that no one noticed...
We all drove up to Hollywood and got to check out Hollywood Boulevard. It was cool to see the stars on the sidewalk and see the famous Chinese Theater. Tyler then drove us all over and pointed out famous clubs and what not. We had a blast. Of course Kenton had a meltdown on the sidewalk in front of hundreds of people. Before we left Tyler and Erica's, Tyler gave us chiropractic adjustments at his office. My back and neck are so wack! Tyler touched my back and just laughed...he was suprised that I could live with my bones the way they are. Mandee's were bad too, but I think mine were worse.
We also got to see Karisa, Scott, and Nick. We all went to Laguna Beach and played on the beach. We wish that we would have had more time to hang out with them, but we were drawing closer to the end of our trip. We also got to spend a couple of days with Mandee's uncle Wolfgang and his wife Dawn. They have a cool Murphy bed that folds out of the wall that we got to sleep in. We went to a petting zoo for Kenton. He had so much fun. To top it off, there was a train ride that he got to ride on. The bad thing is when the ride ends....Kenton thinks that he has the right to ride anything as long as he wants! It is always hard to leave somewhere that he likes.
We took off a couple of days later and visited one of my missionary companions Josh Leavitt. He is a medical student in Las Vegas. We got to visit his family for a few hours along with my other missionary buddy's wife, Amber Parry and her kids. We weren't planning on staying to long, but we just got talking and lost track of time. It was great to visit them. I hadn't seen them for about a year (except Amber).
We left and I was really going to try and drive the whole way home that night. We got to Mesquite and tried to find a campsite because Mandee was afraid of me driving at night (with good reason). After an hour, I decided to drive to St. George. We were going to camp, but we found a CHEAP motel on the edge of town. Holy cow what a dive! We found a rat,its droppings, and cockroaches in the beds! We were so tired at this point that we just took our sleeping bags out and put them on the bed. I guess that we can't expect too much for $20.00 on a holiday weekend. We got home the next day and found ourselves spending the next week or so trying to catch up. But hey, that is life, right!
