Backwards

If you have spent any length of time with me, you will know that I can often mix up my words. I have a horrible habit of leaving sentences half finished (this drives Scott nuts). My brain often works faster than my mouth, so the result is often a jumble of words that have no relation to each other. Go figure.

So, the next few blogs will reflect this unique part of my personality. I've decided to embrace my procrastination and my mixed up words at the same time and write about the month of July - backwards. I'll start tonight by writing about the drive home from Lake Almanor, and then work back towards Singapore, and even before if anything strikes my fancy. What do you think? Feel like sticking around for "The Rest of the Story"? (Any Paul Harvey fans out there?)

I've discovered that I REALLY like to drive. I don't enjoy packing, and I hate leaving my house, but I truly love to travel. That may sound like opposing ideas, but they really aren't. Or, at least in my head they aren't. :) However, even though I love to drive, I really dread the nearly 700 mile drive from San Diego to my in-laws home near Lake Almanor. Anyone who has had the "pleasure" of driving I-5 through the middle of California knows why I dread this drive. There is nothing to see but grass (brown grass), plenty of large, slow semi-trucks to impede steady speeds, and lots of cattle farms to smell. (Eli really liked the last part - he'd nearly stuff his nose into the vent every time we'd pass a cattle farm.)

So, it really surprised me to truly enjoy the time I spent on the road this past weekend! The girls and I left Lake Almanor around 2:30 in the afternoon (late, even by my standards). I had been having difficulty finding a hotel room for us to stay in that was along our route, accepted the dogs, charged less than $75 for the dogs to stay with me, had 2 beds and cost less than $200. I know, picky, picky, picky. :) Once that task was accomplished we stuffed everything we could find into the truck and took off down out of the mountains.

This portion of the drive was gorgeous. Tall pine and cedars lined the road, the sun was high and the sky was such a clear blue. Rascal Flatts and Brad Paisley surrounded us as we talked about all we needed to get done before Scott gets home. It was a good beginning.

Dinner was an adventure, as I was tired of fast food, and my GPS has decided to not pick up satellites. So, without a working GPS, I couldn't scan for a decent restaurant near our location. We eventually found a Chili's restaurant in the middle of Stockton, and settled in for some grub. We spent the night in Santa Nella, CA, at the Ramada - not ideal, but livable.

The next morning found us once again heading south, but we were able to turn off of I-5 and head west on CA-41 as we drove towards Aunt Amanda's house just outside of Atascadero, CA. Whew! Scott had said the girls and I would enjoy the drive, and boy was he right! The last few miles were full of dips, bends, turns, and loud "Wheeeeeee's" from the back seats. My road-hogging Suburban sure felt like a sports car!

I'm sorry to break this into a two-blogger, but it is now almost 11pm. I've promised myself a full 8 hours of sleep each night, so I need to head upstairs within the next few minutes. I'll write about our visit with Amanda, Tyler, and the twins tomorrow, as well as our unplanned but fabulous Ventura County stops.