Capricious California and Rolling Roadies

6/18/06

Mmm…just downed a cinnamon roll and some Minute-Maid orange/tangerine juice. Not a bad road trip breakfast. Mom and I are headed down to San Francisco after months of paperwork and preparation. Both of us worked yesterday, and I still had a bit of paperwork to take care of, so we left Divide about 7:30 PM. We spent the night at Penny and Coop’s. We hit the road again just before 7 AM, and have been driving ever since. We stopped in Twin Falls for food, and now are on 93 S to Wells. The sun is out, the tunes are jammin’….

6/20/06

Oi vey. The pavement is a little chilly but otherwise the weather is tolerably amiable, although it was warmer at 4:40 AM. Yep, that’s right…I’ve been here on the sidewalk by the consulate since early this morning, although, technically, it’d only be 5:40 AM in MT. There are roughly 20 of us at this point, from all locations across the US, waiting for the Spanish consulate to open. Following my entry on the 18^th, we proceeded to take a nice detour, which added about 100 miles or so to our already lengthy trip. We saw an awful lot of the lower Great Basin, and it is, well, a lot of nothing, really. We made it to San Fran after dark, and after a long, drawn-out, frustrating attempt to find the Redwood Inn, we finally found it. We arrived at the consulate at 7:20 AM, thinking we would be fine. We waited in line, talked with a few people, and discovered that the first people in line had arrived at 4:40 AM. I was already 24^th on the list. When the place finally opened at 9 AM, the lady informed us that she would only be taking 15 people. The rest of us had to leave and come back the following morning. I was, by then, sick of San Fran, and I just wanted to go home. Mom wanted to sightsee, so we drove down Lombard Street, “the ‘crookedest’ street in the world.” Even though I really didn’t want to be driving around the city in the heat of the day, I sort of enjoyed that street. We went to Fisherman’s Wharf, which was too touristy. The Balcoutha was a 3-masted ship that was interesting to see up close. I hadn’t realized the sheer amount of rigging a ship has. We made a final stop at the ocean near some old salt baths. We walked through a sea tunnel, where the surf pounding on the rocks created a soothing tempo that eased away the stress of the day. We got a room at the Holiday Inn on Van Ness St., and then walked a few blocks to Tí Piacerá, an amazing Italian restaurant.

6/22/06

How very frustrating to have come so far, spent so much money, and have waited so long, only to finally make it into the office and spend less than 5 minutes going through everything! And I didn’t need a doctor’s note! Arghh! Oh well, at least I got in the 2^nd time. It was an answered prayer that the lady even took 28 instead of 15 people. I walked back to the hotel just in time to find Mom checking out. We walked to Subway for lunch and then headed out of town after a short stop at an art shop for some clay. I drove most of the way to Dunnigan, CA before I had to hand the driving over to Mom. One of my contacts ripped, so I’ve been wearing my glasses for a couple days. Without sunglasses, my eyes get rather strained, and I got a headache. Mom drove around for a while trying to find her childhood friend Shirley’s place. When we arrived, Shirley ushered me directly to the guest bedroom for a nap extension. I woke at 4 PM, at which point we all went out to help her feed horses. We had chicken stir-fry for dinner, and stayed up late talking of horses, spiders, etc. We left pretty early this morning and decided to bag our original route and make it up as we went. We got out of Cali and on the Oregon Scenic Byway. Speeds were slow, but it was scenic indeed. We made it to Baker City, OR by 7 PM. Phil is gone to a convention, so we took Breanna out to the Parkway Café. We ate outside on the porch. Mom went to bed early, but Breanna and I stayed up talking about life, and love, and happiness, and then the Holy Ghost…. (See the Houseplant Song). :D

6/23/06

Before leaving town, we got gas at Albertson’s and discovered a quirk of Oregon. Apparently, they have a state-wide mandate that all gas pumps must be full service! The guy asked us how much gas we wanted, and we just sort of stared blankly at him for several moments. I like MT better. Much less confusing. J We stopped in Boise, ID to visit the Hertels. John was gone, but the rest were there. It was nice to visit with Lisa. Just before noon, we hit the road again. Mom’s original plan was to drive up through Salmon, but we both wanted to get home ASAP, so we stuck to the interstate the whole way. We got dinner and groceries in Dillon and made it home in time to share them with Dad and the boys.

Well, the trip is over, I’ve called off work tomorrow, so I’m set to go. Hasta pronto.