Leaving - Day 2

On Thursday we woke up in Yreka CA and had breakfast before heading on the road. It was chilly, only about 10 degrees (50 F) and already I was missing the heat of Fresno. The kids were still tired and the morning drive was relatively quiet. We crossed into Oregon by 10:30 and shortly after it started to rain.

And it rained

And rained

And rained....

It was a bit depressing, since we haven't seen that much rain in, well, probably a year. We stopped in Eugene Oregon for lunch and ran to the restaurant in the rain. I was frustrated because this place was third of three places we ate that didn't have a baby changing station in the bathroom. Have you ever tried to change the diaper of a squirmy 10 month old on the front seat of the van, with your back exposed to the soaking rain while balancing an umbrella? If I have time when I get home, I'm going to write someone a letter!!

Thankfully our trailer had much better suspension and/or the load was more balanced because we didn't have to worry about it swaying behind us when we hit 100 km/hr. I could actually keep up with the rest of the vehicles. So while I stewed over the changed table thing, I could drive in the rain and pass and conquer vehicles on the highway and feel better about life....

Oregon is a really beautiful state. The trees are mostly coniferous and the mountains aren't rocky. Just green and wet with rain. Washington is probably very nice too, but it was so rainy that it the rain clouds hid everything.

For supper we stopped in Olympia Washington for dinner (and again no changing station and Kathy was getting angry again) and realized that it would be late before we got to B.C. We propped up the laptop in the van and put on a movie for the kids. The battery didn't even last 90 minutes and so the movie just barely finished. Oh well. Thankfully we had more snacks and presents to open. Joel and Kezia were happy but Asha started to get restless. We were toying with the idea of stopping in Seattle for the night. But then she settled, stopped yelling, and we continued on in the rain.

Goodbye Target

Goodbye Marie Callendar's

Bye bye Trader Joe's...

The kids were already in their pajamas and we drove into the late evening. Carl and I chatted a bit, but then sat in silence because we both were tired. Out of nowhere Carl says, "I have very poor night vision".

!!!!!!!!!!!

"What are you saying? Do you want to switch?"
"No. I'm okay. I'm just following the blurry white lines. Ha ha".

I laughed too, but with a hint of nervousness. Was he just joking or was he trying to tell me something? Don't fall asleep Kathy, stay awake for Carl's sake!

We had directions to Curtis and Deneen's and were getting closer to the border. All of a sudden I realized that they would probably have to wake up the kids, we'd have to go into the building, it would be a while before we could continue on because of the border inspection. And then I remembered I still had cherries and nectarines from Fresno in the bag. I panicked. No one will take my precious fruit!!! I hid them in the bottom of the bag and decided that if they tried to make me throw them out, I would stand on the last square of U.S. soil and eat the entire bag, pits and all! You can't make me throw out this heaven sent fruit! Never!!

We drove up to the window and my stomach felt uneasy (boy if it felt weird now, how could I be prepared to eat3 lb of fruit at a moments notice?). The customs officer asked us where we were from, asked us where we were heading, asked what was in the trailer, waved away our passports and told us the exit was to the right. No questions about food, about any specifics, he didn't even look in the van to see if we had three kids or 100 lb of pot or cherries. Well, hallelujah! We were at the border for 90 seconds total.

It was only 5 minutes to Surrey; I hadn't realized how close it was to the border. We found Curtis and Deneen's place with no problem and got the kids in to bed. Their kids were up and so excited that we came. We visited until after midnight before we headed to bed.

It felt weird that we weren't in California, but I think I was just telling myself that we're on holidays and that we'll go back in a few days. Plus, I was getting sick of the rain and the damp cool and kept saying that we'll go back to enjoy the heat soon. Maybe this was stage two of processing this move and so I continued to think late (though I can't really remember much, it was close to 2 a.m.) I fell asleep missing the sirens of Fresno and woke up with Joel puking in his bed. What a yank back to reality.