Day 2 - Sacramento CA to Medford OR

11.25.12

Riley woke up just before 7:00am, on our second road trip day, which pretty much meant that I also needed to get up ... and that was not cool considering we only slept for about four hours. But I was excited to see what Oregon looked like during daylight.

{I do want to point out that some pictures are not clear, a bit grainy even and others were taken while in motion from behind a dirty windshield ... however I saw such gorgeous scenery that I want to share with you.}

 

 

When we first arrived in northern Sacramento in the middle of the night on Saturday I could see Fall-y trees from the trucks headlights shining on them. Even at night those trees looked so pretty and I couldn't wait to see them the following day. It was a super cold night ... to were you shake uncontrollably. We sped walked to our room with teeth shattering, frozen smiles {because it had been a long time that we experienced such freezing weather and it was more like crap lets hurry and get inside kind of a smile}, and I'm pretty sure I had a frozen runny nose but since I couldn't feel my nose the snots were probably halfway down my upper lip but hey, I didn't care. It was all part of the experience.

 

In all my years of living in San Diego I had NEVER been to northern CA and I had NO idea how pretty northern CA really is. And this is from driving on I-5 and not the coastal route. Bet that is super pretty too. So not only does the east coast have pretty Fall-y trees ... we have them here too. Just look at all these lovely trees!

 

 

 

 

 

All Riley kept saying was "eaves" for leaves. He liked walking on them and throwing them. Even just shy of 2 years this little guy appreciates beauty.

After checking out of the hotel we stopped in town to get gas and we found a small taco shop and bought breakfast burritos. The kids and Jacob got chorizo burritos. I got a machaca con huevo burrito which is shredded beef with egg ... so good! And no one finished their burrito in one sitting. They are just too big but great to save for later.

This time we didn't wake up as early as the day before. We needed our rest but we still didn't get enough of it. After eating breakfast we were on the road shortly after 9:00am.

Ok, I'm not really sure what you call these ... rolling hills, foothills, etc ... all I know is that I love the way they look and I would love to have a piece of this land, plant a buttload of different types of trees and build my dream home in the middle of it. Just wished the city wasn't so far away though. I love the country lifestyle but I also like to have the city close by.

We stopped in Redding, CA around noon. We ate the rest of our burritos because we really didn't want to stop at a restaurant and waste time but what we did do was park at a retail parking lot and right across the street from that was an elementary school with a neat track. We needed to stretch our legs and rest our slouched backs from sitting too long plus I also wanted to tire the little guy so off we went on the track for a bit of exercise.

Sydna is looking down at Libby while she took in some sun and enjoyed laying on the grass. Nathan was being silly and was stuck in that position until he finally called Sydna to help him get up, lol. kids.

And this little guy was just having a blast running around. That's what he loves doing the most of ... running.

I remember this ... I was looking at Nathan run towards us, fast then out of nowhere this little dog came running beside him and Nathan almost tripped. That's why he looks the way he does. He was avoiding tripping over the dog and falling.

Why haven't I never heard of all this beauty in northern CA? Seriously! This is Lake Shasta. It's such a pretty sight.

Here's a different view.

I really don't like driving over bridges. Gives me the willies ... especially the ones that are under construction. Whenever I'm not driving and we drive over a bridge I close my eyes. If I'm driving I just look straight ahead and think of happy thoughts or else I might freak out. I cannot imagine how I'll feel whenever we visit San Francisco or any other tall long bridge we have to cross. I hope I don't get an anxiety attack. {there is a floating bridge in WA ... we'll see how that goes}

Sorry about the extremely dirty windshield but I think this picture is super cool. Behind the barn you can see low fog near the mountains. I thought that was neat! ... and it looked way cooler and eerie in person.

This is Mt. Shasta and it is huge. It will forever have snow. It is an active volcano but hasn't erupted since the 1800. That's a lonely gray cloud above it and not my dirty windshield. Cool right?!

 

Here we are entering Oregon. Jacob actually wanted to stretch it all the way to Portland. There was NO way we could have made it ... even with me helping with the driving. It would have been too hard and not worth it. So this time I did tell him that we should stop before we became tired and that we should stop in the next decent town.

 

For me, this heavy awesome looking fog topped it off. I thought it was super cool looking ... but for Jacob it was stressful. We had to drive 7 miles at a 6% downgrade in super heavy fog towing a camry. We really couldn't see more than five feet infront of us. What was a little nervewracking was knowing that semi trucks were on the road with us. I remember praying during this time to safely make it out of this thick fog. I liked it though. It was exhilirating for me.

 

Before the fog became super thick. I tried taking pictures in it but the quality was very poor.

 

So the next decent town we came across with was Medford ... we stopped here for the night. We were stopped at the hotels parking lot while Jacob looked for a place to eat dinner. We had to plan everything ahead since we were towing his car and backing up was out of the question. Towing anything is scary and stressful.

 

But before we had dinner we unloaded our suitcases and Libby so we wouldn't have to worry about doing that after we ate. Libby was sure glad to be out of her crate. Poor thing. She sure was a trooper.

 

We had Panda Express then some Starbucks to thaw us out a little. It sure gets cold in Oregon. I bet it has been cold everywhere except Tucson. It wasn't a desireable place to live in, at least for us it wasn't. To me the holidays are meant to be celebrated in chilly/cold weather and not in 80/90 degree weather or tropical climate. At least that's not ideal in my opinion. And thank you Lord for opening this door for us! I'm humbled and oh so appreciative.

 

 

Day 1 - Tucson AZ to Sacramento CA

11.24.12

We went to bed around ten the night before and I woke up around 1:30am and couldn't go back to sleep. Jacob finally woke up at 4:00am and the kids twenty minutes later. I guess with all the excitement and nerves it was hard for me to sleep well. I was nervous about driving the truck with Jacobs car attached to it. I had done it before when we moved from CA to TX but that was years ago plus Jacob used to drive a smaller car then.

We left the house at 5:07am. It felt weird leaving. Even though my heart was not in Tucson one still leaves a bit of history behind. After all we did live in Tucson for 3 years. It was also sad leaving Jacobs parents behind and also realizing we were about to get farther from San Diego. But this is the direction God wants us to go and I really don't think it happened this way for me because I love gray skies and cloudy weather but because I really feel this move is specifically directed for Jacob. I guess I can safely say it was a double blessing and I'm grateful.

The office in WA is very small but they want to grow it fast and Jacob was chosen to make that happen. So no ... there's no pressure on Jacob to get things rolling right away {yikes}. I know he can do it and he's such a likeable guy. I'm sure he'll turn this office around.

I do love mountains! That was one thing I missed seeing when we lived in TX because there's nothing but flat land. I think that was the best thing about living in AZ ... being surrounded by mountains. Several of them tall enough to get snow in the winter. That was such a pretty sight.

8:33am
Riley after waking up since leaving the house at 5:07am.

8:30am
Our first rest stop. Needed to stretch our legs and let Libby out. She actually rode in Jacobs car for the entire drive to WA. We knew that she wouldn't stop meowing and we really didn't want to deal with that. She was fine in her crate though.

10:13am
Goodbye Arizona ... Hello California

11:45am
Drove past Palm Desert/Palm Springs.

1:50pm
Another rest stop.

Libby didn't mind the leash at all. She walked like nothing, rolled around on the grass and dirt and just enjoyed smelling and looking around. I'm sure she was happy being out of her crate. Whenever I walked away she would follow me and meow. She was so cute!

There's my truck ... sandwiched between two RV's.

3:08pm
Shortly after entering Los Angeles. I love how those foothills look. Aren't they cool looking?!

3:45pm
Keeping it real. This little guy wanted out of his carseat and I'm sure he missed his things and was bored. We stopped to eat dinner at El Pollo Loco in Newhall/Santa Clarita, CA {which is about 13 minutes to Six Flags Magic Mountain}. We had never had El Pollo Loco in our 16 years of marriage. Last time I had it I was a teenager. The chicken was good but my rice and beans are so much better.

Riley wouldn't stop crying. He wanted to go with Jacob to order the food but since I didn't let him he began wailing. I had to take him outside to distract him for a good ten minutes so he could calm down. Although from the outside it seemed like I was all cool and had everything under control in all reality I was stressed and tired since I didn't get much sleep the night before.

Once his daddy sat next to him and we served him some food he was fine. Boy! That was stressful.

8:14pm
Another rest stop. Riley's face is so funny. He looks frightened ... probably from a semi approaching. You know they are loud when they are shifting gears.

 

Jacob drove the whole day on day 1. His goal was to make it to Sacramento. I'm not sure if it's a guy thing but Jacob always underestimates time. I knew reaching Sacramento on our first day was stretching it but I didn't say anything because guys tend to get defensive when it comes to driving. But sure enough he got super tired. Driving through Sacramento we came across some heavy fog patches and the town we drove through was eerie. But we made it. We spent the night in N Sacramento. We arrived at the hotel at 3:24am.

Riley acting like if it was noon. Wide awake. But once we got our pj's on and turned off the lights he didn't have any trouble falling asleep ... and neither did I.