Epic California Trip--Going Home, Days 8 and 9

Blegh, almost done! 

It was hard to leave Tiff's house on Saturday, especially for Annalee. She had a tearful breakdown and I suddenly realized that on this trip--in one week--she had seen every single cousin she has (except for the babies who were asleep when we passed through Utah). And then she had had to say good-bye to every single cousin she has. Perhaps that is why she latched onto her buddy Taylor and wailed that she didn't want to go.

Truth be told, I didn't want to go either.  The drive home is always the longest.  You just want to GET THERE and there's not too much to look forward to along the way.  We had planned to stay that night in Marysville, CA (near Sacramento) with my Aunt Jessie, but since everyone there had the flu she sadly had to cancel.  Since that was still the fastest way home it was with forelorn longing that I gazed at the turn-off as we passed it that afternoon.

We decided to stop in Reno, NV that night.  I risked getting a hotel on Priceline.com for the first time ever.  Unfortunately, the one we got was also a casino (aren't they all?) and the lobby smelled horribly of smoke.  Nathan waited in the car while I waited in a super-long line at the front desk.  They were very busy but only had one guy working.  When I asked for a luggage cart so I (pregnant lady) could get our stuff up to our room he shrugged apologetically and suggested I look around on each floor to see if I could find one.  Really?  We were on floor 7 and we weren't even close to the top.  So I'm just supposed to look around on each floor?  Instead, Nathan brought the stuff in (braving his asthma) while I bundled the kids up to our room.  It was an insanely cold night, probably around zero degrees, and our room was just as cold as the outside!  Unbelievable.  Can I say anything else bad about the Ramada?  Oh yeah.  In the middle of the night I got up to go to the bathroom and banged the top of my foot on part of the bed that was sticking out.  I screamed silently so I wouldn't wake the kids.  Man oh man, it hurt!  It left an awful bruise!  When I mentioned it to the front desk in the morning the gal said, "Oh yeah, sometimes the beds aren't pushed all the way back on the frame so part of it sticks out."  I was like, WHAT?!  Sometimes this happens?  You know this happens and you don't have housekeeping routinely make sure they're all in the right spot?  My other beef is that if the bed HAD been pushed all the way onto the frame there is probably no way I could have walked between the bed and the wall because there was no room.  (I didn't move the mattress, but now I know why the people before me did.)  The bruise lasted for weeks.


We stopped at a McDonalds in Winnemucca. It had a pretty fun PlayPlace that Vander could actually use. (The one near us in Nampa is built so that only big kids can get up into it.)

From there we turned north toward Oregon and Idaho.  I had been concerned about this stretch of highway because I didn't know if it would be winding or unplowed or what.  I was pleased to find it clear and relatively free of traffic.  There were a few blink-and-miss towns.  Of course, when Annalee needed a potty break we weren't near any of those so we stopped at a fire station in the middle of nowhere and knocked on the house next door.  A lady and her doberman unlocked the fire station for us so we could use the bathroom and told us about the many travelers she had rescued with her snowplow.

We made it home just after dark and collapsed in exhaustion.  Tavi was sooooo happy to see us.  We sure were glad we had a few more days to rest (and do laundry) before Nathan had to go back to work.

THE END!