Of course, this time it wasn't a one-day car trip gig, and it got me thinking. FOUR days, folks, FOUR days of driving up I-15 loomed in front of me, four days of singing along to my favy songs, four days of sippin' Diet Coke that gets progressively flatter with each mile that goes by, four days of munchies galore, four days of Seeing the USA in my Chevrolet (or, y'know, Ford), four days of...of...semis cutting me off, because the truck in front of them is going too slow and they waited until the last second to switch lanes, so now I have to stomp on my brakes in order to keep from plowing into the back end of the trailer, four days of idiots who think any speed that's only in the double digits is for losers zigzagging in and out of traffic, four days of people riding my tail for miles, so I move over to let them pass me, only to have them change their minds at the last second and decide that, now I'm out of the way, they like my speed just fine, so they pace me instead, and meanwhile, the car now ahead of me is getting closer and closer, which leaves me in a pickle - do I slow down, thus breaking my cruise control streak, or do I switch back into the fast lane, and cut off Tailgating Terry over there?
Four days of driving.
My car is not the best for road trips. The seats don't adjust well, they're too short on the bottom so leg support is dodgy, and the center console has to be open in order to provide driver AND passenger with drinks space. I do love my cute lil' red Es-cah-pey, and I made sure she was all kitted out for this trip with balanced and rotated tires, an oil change, and a detailing job that makes other cars weep oil with envy. But at the end of the day, whatever the commercials tell you, the Escape is not the ideal road trip car, especially for those over 5'5", like my poor, saintly mother who made the trek north with me.
DAY 1:
At long last, the day came. The car was loaded (much thanks to Cara, Gillian, Hayley, Michael, and Victoria), the cooler packed with healthy snacks (four days of munchies is three days too many - I haven't been enduring 2 Isagenix shakes a day for nothing), I said a fond fare-thee-well to my loving family (I miss Cameron!), and Mum and I headed out on the open road.
After we hit a few stops and had lunch at Rubio's.
But after lunch, I pointed my car north, and north we went. For about 20-30 minutes, until we came close to the Cajon pass, and saw this:
And this:
I don't know what started it, but there was a rather good-sized fire going in the Cajon Pass, so Mum and I got to spend an hour and a half slowly creeping by. At this point, we knew it was near the Pass, but it wasn't until we got further up the road that we realized just how close to the road it had been:
We didn't get shots of the firemen and emergency vehicles, but the right two lanes had been blocked off, and there was one crew of firemen in orange jogging up the hill from the road when we drove by, and another crew in yellow making a firebreak on the side of another hill. I admire those firemen and emergency workers.
Once we got past the fire, it was time for a potty break. The air on the north side looked like it was a foggy day, and there was ash floating down everywhere.
Traffic was light after that - I'm sure everyone who got caught in the jam felt like they had to make up for lost time, so we all went quickly on our merry way. The only slow down came near Baker, where there was some sort of big rig fatality on the other side of the interstate. It didn't really slow us down, but everyone headed south had to exit at Baker to get around the accident. I managed to convince Mum to drive after a pit stop in Primm, Nevada (heh heh heh), so she ended up driving the rest of the way to Cedar City, where our beds awaited us at the Quality (lies!) Inn.
Then it was time to use the Magic Bullet, which is my new favorite gadgety gadget EVER - a tiny little blender that makes your shake right in a little plastic mug/cup thingie, and cleans and packs so handily. I think that was my favorite part of the day. :-)
DAY TWO:
Bless my sainted mother, she took the first leg of driving on Day Two, in order to allow me some extra sleep time. The bed in the hotel that first night felt more like granite than anything else, and I am a finicky sleeper, especially in unfamiliar beds, so sleeping? Didn't happen, so much. Thankfully, I was able to catch a few z's during the drive from Cedar City to Orem. I didn't feel too bad about missing the beautiful scenery, as it's a drive I've done more times than I can count. I was a little sad, though, that I was NOT driving when we got to the 80mph test zones. Mum put it at 85. I'd've pushed that sucker to 90, at least. On second thought, it was probably better that Mum was driving.
We stopped in Orem for lunch, and to do some shopping. I'm never eating at another Sbarro's. I got breadsticks with parmesan and garlic butter. It looked more like clear, yellow snot smeared all over my bread. Never again.
After a stop at Best in Music (Mum+B.i.M = luv 4-eva!!) it was my turn to drive, through all the never-ending construction Utah keeps doing on I-15, and thus Mum's revenge for making her drive through Vegas was complete, mwah-hah-hah! Seriously, though, I don't think I have EVER driven that stretch of I-15 between Provo and Salt Lake when there HASN'T been construction, and I was there for 5 straight years. Yeesh!
After navigating the maze of construction barricades, a fill up in SLC which gave Mum and me the chance to experience the "poor air quality" that the news had been talking about (not smog, but the stench of a dump, baby diarrhea, and sewage, all stewed together in 95+ heat), and passing some pretty northern Utah scenery, we made it over state lines and into Idaho.
If you're a rock geek, you need to drive through Southern Idaho, at least to Pocatello. It has the coolest-looking igneous rock formations all over the place, and in some spots, it's like God just started chucking down squares of lava rock in piles along the side of the road.
We drove to Idaho Falls, making good time to the Cottontree Inn, when we ran into the first snafu. See, my car was packed pretty full of stuff. I'd planned it so there was space behind the driver's seat to pack our small car-trip bags and cooler, and get them out, without having to un-pack and re-pack the whole dang car each night. That worked fine when the car was right outside the door of our room at the Quality (lies!) Inn, but this was a REAL hotel, where you had to go inside to get to your room, and we had a room on the second floor. No way was I leaving all my stuff out there all night, so we snagged a cart and proceeded to load that sucker up with everything but the smallest bins (which were full of unimportant things like nail polish (hush, Gillian) and extra shampoo). Luckily, it fit snugly into the corner of our hotel room.
Falling prey to the advice offered by the hotel that Jakers was a great place to eat, Mum and I decided to skip the shakes in favor of having some yummy delicious salads at the restaurant, located across the street. Alas, how foolish we were! Surely, even shakes would have been better than the horrible travesties masquerading as salads at that accursed place!! In all seriousness, while our server rocked and never left us hanging with empty glasses, the salads were awful. Mine had been advertised as a Waldorf Chicken Salad, made of rotisserie chicken, apples, grapes, pears, candied pecans, and red peppers, on a bed of greens, drizzled with raspberry vinagrette. What I got was a clump of Chik-en Food out of a can, plopped on top of a bunch of lettuce, with strips of the bitterest-tasting peppers, pears, and apples "artfully" splayed around the edges, and the occasional grape peeking out from under the lettuce. I think there may have been one pecan in the salad. The restaurant had made the mistake of leaving "tell us how we're doing" cards on the table, and boy, did Mum tell them.
On the plus side, I snagged the rolls from the table, which were pretty good, and which filled my tummy enough to allow me to sleep peacefully through the night.
Since this post has entered novella territory, and it's late, I'ma save the rest of the trip for the next entry, Part le Deux.
