December 2008 was an interesting month for me. As a person that likes driving, I always wanted the opportunity to do a really long drive, and when October 2008 came along I found out I still had 13 working days of vacation left, and my wife kept reminding me about Christmas with her parents I saw that as the perfect chance.
The first decision was "Who?" was driving; Only me! "of course", since the idea of driving with my "Can't stand another half and hour on the car" wife, a non-stop talking four year old boy, a "Oh NO! I dropped my bunny!" meltdown crisis two year old daughter, and my high decibels screaming six months old baby boy, was pretty much a big NO NO. That's more like a prescription for personal suicide. Don't get me wrong, I love my family, but when you put all of us together in car for about 2k miles. The scene above was bound to repeat several times.
Anyhow, Erika was for sure flying, I decided to drive, meet her in WA and then drive back to Texas. But since she could only take two kids, I decided to take the non-stop talking four year old with me. I thought, "Well, at least he'll keep me awake!", and he did!
Since GC was going with me, we decided to take time and drive no more than 500 miles a day, leave early every day, and take time for him to stop, play, see some stuff, etc. So we planned a trip of 3 nights and 4 days to get there. The route there: Texas - New Mexico - Colorado - Utah - Idaho - Oregon - Washington
We prepared everything, got my AAA subscription, gather all the flash lights, tools, sleeping bags, blankets, snacks, etc... for the trip. I made hotel reservations on every destination city and carefully planned gas stops.
I was able to borrow a strap on DVD player from some friends. However, I decided I didn't want GC to watch too much TV, so I only let him watch 2 movies a day. The rest of the time was drawing, coloring, playing with Thomas the Train, talking about Thomas the Train (A lot!), and if I was lucky his nap time.
Day 1 - TX to NM (Dec 11, 2008)
Texas to New Mexico is pretty much... NADA to see. I hardly took 3 pictures during this time, of the same subject. The most interesting thing found were the big giant electric wind generators. I am sure I could have found more interesting things to photograph but the fact is that when you're traveling with a four year old the priority is to get there, safe and soon so you don't have to drive during the night.
Wind generators closed to the Texas-NM border.
We made it to Clovis, NM early that afternoon, and it was perfect because right there on day one a rock hit my precious truck's windshield and made a crack. The insurance people were amazing, I called them and immediately they conference me with a local glass repair company that was minutes from our hotel, so GC and I took the truck there and they fixed it in 20 minutes. Great!, because I was going to need the defroster every day after that, and with cracks on the windshield it would have broken the glass completely. I am glad to say I had no more incidents after that. Best thing is, I didn't have to pay a penny. GC and I had pancakes that night for dinner, went back to the hotel and enjoy a swim in the hotel's warm pool.
Day 2 - NM to UT (Dec 12, 2008)
NM to Moab, Utah was a super nice drive. We crossed Colorado as you can see in the map, and the view was fantastic. I loved the whole Utah panoramic mountains. One of the most amazing things was the last 15 miles before arriving in Moab. It felt like we were going to hit the center of the earth. Going down at 6% incline for like 15 miles (No kidding) at about 75 miles/h hitting only the brakes watching for dears on the road (Dead or Alive). We finally got to the bed and breakfast at Moab and there was no-body there in the place. We were a little confused but figured out the doors were opened and that our room key was left with a note and instructions in the kitchen, so we unpacked and enjoy dinner in a local Moab restaurant.
View from our hotel window in Clovis, NM
GC ready to go to Utah.
Some where in Cuba, CO
Colorado
Colorado
I have a good story about this picture
Utah
GC playing in the bed and breakfast room
Day 3 - UT to ID (Dec 13, 2008)
The place we stayed at turned out to be fantastic, really good service and that morning we had an amazing gourmet breakfast. GC got to play with the owners dogs for a long time before we left and jumped around the rocks in their beautiful yard. By the time we left Moab and started getting close to Salt Lake the weather changed dramatically and we hit a snow storm - of which GC has no memory of because I kept him DVD plugged so I can concentrate on the road. His only comment was "Daddy everything is white!". It was my first time driving in snow, so as a smart "inexperienced" driver I decided to follow the guy in front of me with an older vehicle non 4WD that seamed to know what he was doing, and I didn't stop driving behind this SUV until I got to downtown Salt Lake City, where many of the local drivers didn't seam to have much more of a clue than I did about how to drive in snow.
Picture me, the Dominican guy who used to drive in the all-summer year weather of DR, now driving a rear wheel drive truck in snow annoyed at the lack of skills of Salt Lake City drivers. That, is an oxymoron!
Finally we left Salt Lake City and everything after there until Boise, ID was very good. I said "Great!, no more driving in snow". Ha! God does has a sense of humor. In that part of the country it gets dark around 5:00 pm, so in order to gain some time I am driving at 80m/h getting to Boise. My GPS said I had 20 more minutes before I arrived to our friends house and I was happy because it was already dark and I didn't want to keep driving at night. It was about 6:00 pm when out of the sudden I see everybody is on the right lane in a huge long line doing 20m/h and as a good Dominican, since I didn't see any traffic sign saying I needed to keep on the right lane - I simply kept driving. But I kept wondering why everybody is doing 20m/h on the right lane when there was no obvious sign of problem in the left? Perhaps is an Idaho thing I said. Speed limit said 75m/h so I kept going 80m/h when out of the sudden I figured out the why 20m on the right lane. My truck did a very tiny little sudden slide to the left and corrected itself and I saw smoke coming out of the road. I realized I was "Ice Skating" at 80m/h on a truck. I also kept seeing some cars on the sides of the road (not parked) that probably had the same experience I did.
At this point Idaho drivers on the right lane are wondering what the heck this "Texan son of a gun" (as written in the back of my truck) is doing?. My heart beat started to do 160 and I simply let go of the gas without even thinking about touching the brakes. Praise to God, there was NOTHING in the left lane and I got the truck to like 10m/h and from then on my famous GPS 20 minutes to destination became 2 hours. I was never so happy to arrive at a place, then when I arrived at my friends house in Boise that night, intact only by the grace of God. By the time we got to Idaho at our friends home I was so excited to have adult conversation that I forgot to take my cell from the car and Erika kept calling me thinking we had an accident.
GC playing at the B&B
B&B back yard
Right above the Moab city limits sign
About 40 miles north of Moab
GC playing in the snow
Day 4 - ID to WA (Dec 14, 2008)
This is day four and after a great BBQ snowed-in dinner, a good night sleep, and a fantastic breakfast GC and I were ready for the road, or were we? During the night, and that morning snowed even more in ID. Then I was warned by friends about the Blue Mountains stretch in OR and that I needed tire chains to be able to drive there "just in case" the snow was too bad. Now, Idaho people know how to drive in snow. They get snow all the time, so what for them is normal for me is like "Oh my gosh, chicken little, the sky is falling down!"
My friends told me "You'll be alright, we never needed chains unless it was really, really bad", so as a precaution I got a 5 minutes crash course in the passenger seat of a FWD Volvo of how to drive in snow, plus went to Wal-Mart to buy chains for my truck.
Leaving ID was no big deal. I took all I learned from those long 5 minutes in snow school and applied it... Plus I found some people with OR license plates at a gas station, I asked if they were going to OR (Obvious because the immense amount of junk up to their SUV roof), and if I could follow them? They said "of course" and I proceeded. At first during the snowed-in part of the roads these people were going really fast - but I had a lot of space and decided to follow them at a good distance. I figured, they had an older vehicle rear wheel drive, and they are doing alright. This would have been a somehow logical conclusion other than the fact the person driving that SUV was a kid no older than 18 years old. At that time, my now awaken senses told me it was better to take it easier, and I decided to let them go. Further than the road, way passed Boise where there was no snow this kid was doing 60m/h on a dry, clean, very well to drive 70m/h Hwy and my Dominican driving skills kicked in so I passed them at 80m/h.
Unfortunately that weather didn't last long. About 1 hour only to be precise. We hit the Blue Mountains and from then on it was a white nightmare. Lots of snow, but still I was reluctant to put on chains because I still wanted to get to WA during 2008 and with the tire chains is 30m/h maximum. Me being reluctant had to do with the large amount of old cars driving in snow, including an old Datsun pickup truck full of junk in the back that passed me in the mountains doing 70m/h. At that point the Dominican pride kicked in again and I said, heck, if these guys can do it without chains, I can too. Also to my surprise the Hwy signs only required chains for the big freight trucks 10k or more, so I kept going now following a lady in a Ford expedition FWD about 50m/h all the way to Portland.
By God's grace I made it through the lots of snow foggy roads in the mountains with no chains (Yeah!). After the Blue Mountains the snow in the roads was cleared and a new challenge arrived, ICE.
Man! that was horrible. I drove on ice for 4 long hours until we got to Portland. NOT COOL. Ice follows no rules, I saw lots of people crashed on the side of the road, but the fact that I had my little boy in the truck kept me focused and careful all this time, even when I was driving in the snow. During the last four hours before we got to WA we hit every combination of water, snow, fog, and ice in the road. You name it - we got it! Needless to say this day I took no pictures. I was too preoccupied with keeping the four wheels on the road.
We finally got home to my in laws house. It was nice to see the rest of my family, hug my wife and kids, thank God for getting us there in one piece, and relax... for 5 seconds before my wife told me we had a dinner that night at her sister's home and that we were late. Ha! I just drove 2,100 miles across the country and you're telling me I am late. You bet I am late! (Sorry Shaunna). And like any man that wears the pants in his home... I pleased my wife and went to the dinner ;-) (I was very hungry any way)
Of all the states I drove by, the ones I liked the most were Utah, Colorado, and some parts of New Mexico. I wish I had the time to take lots of pictures, but to me this was more like a driving, exploratory trip done for the simple sake of driving. I also learned to hate power lines and understand conservationist a little more. This is a gorgeous country, and I only saw a bit of it, but we keep ruining the view with this barbarian power lines. Outrageous!... OK, OK, I am starting to sound like a tree hugger.
I know most people don't find driving fun, but for me it is. I like driving, and now I know more places I'd like to visit with time and take some pictures. Perhaps take a vacation time with my family in the future. Also, I had a great time with my son. He reminded me of a couple of things about being the sweet kid he is that I had overlooked for the past months when I've been very busy at work. I discover some new things of his sense of humor, I learned the name of many of Thomas the train characters I didn't really wanted to ;-), and we had a great time. He is the reason I am writing this so I can look back at this when I am too busy or distracted again. He is the true King of the Road. For four days he sat in that truck watching a couple of movies, coloring, drawing, playing pretend with his daddy, enjoying the scenery without the "Are we there yet?", eating out, and playing with snow a few times. That time with him in the road is what made this whole adventure like Mastercard would say "Priceless".
Well, now I am going to bed and will tell you more about the trip in part II.
