The process of clearing the deck to get out of town for five weeks is always intense. Patti worked like crazy to help staff she’s supervise finish out the end of the school year, get all of her clients and notes settled in, and just try to help make plans for the counseling agency and its functioning well she is gone for six weeks. She also had her last days at the Children’s Hospital, finding it a little odd to come back for three months (having been on leave for a full year) and then leave for a summer trip. But that’s just how it rolls.
Dick had his hands full finishing up research that he is doing with a colleague on the effects of Covid on the travel industry. This is a fascinating research project that they have enjoyed working on in this crazy time. He also had his last days at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park and will now take a break from that until the beginning of August.
And, we were both busy doing things to take care of business at home, as well as getting ready for the trip. Dick produced one of his epic Excel spreadsheets covering the 40 days that we will travel, with mileage routes, and the time we will arrive at all of our destinations. It also includes contact information of people we’re staying with or having dinner with. It has information about Airbnb places and hotels and camping reservations. Reservations in this time includes reservations to enter a national park which we will use in a few days at Rocky Mountain National Park. It takes a lot of planning to do this kind of trip, especially when it’s a time that so many people are out on the roads and wanting to travel again. Getting camping reservations and hotel reservations is fairly challenging this year. We are very grateful we are driving our trusty Sienna minivan and are not having to fight with people to get rental cars. Those are particularly scarce and expensive.
So we did all of the things that we needed to do and then spent the last couple of days packing the car. We started by staging things that we were taking in our dining room, in our bedroom and in our kitchen. They eventually moved out to our back patio and then into the car. We were able to use yet again Dick’s amazing shelf that he created for our minivan that allows us to put a lot of gear in the back, while still keeping space for a single-sized foam rubber mattress for naps while we’re driving. Things were extra complicated because we needed to fit in seven boxes of textbooks that we are driving to Saint Paul and which will be donated to a non-profit organization that ships textbooks to Africa. Patti was uncertain that we were going to be able to fit all of our clothes and gear and food and seven boxes of books, but somehow they all fit in. Patti commented it was sort of like one of those clown cars with an infinite number of clowns that could come out.
So, at noon today we turned on the alarm at our house and headed out of town. We realized this is the first time since January 2020 that we have been out of the state of California. We think it is likely that’s the longest we have ever gone with not leaving California since we moved out here 23 years ago.
When we crossed the state line into Arizona we cheered in spite of the over 100° temperature. It was shocking to get out of the car to use the restroom or fill up with gas. We also noticed at the gas station in Arizona, not a face mask in sight. Where we live in California, when we left, most stores were still requesting people wear masks. We understand that things are opening up rapidly. We will keep an eye on this as we drive across the country.
The destination for tonight is Williams, Arizona. This is an old town that we are going to learn more about. The main attraction is this is the place that the Grand Canyon Railroad will take us on a two-hour 65 mile train trip to the Grand Canyon tomorrow. We chose to stay in a “historic” hotel, not one of the more modern Holiday Inn or Hyatt hotels in town. It seemed if we are going to take an old-school train to see the Grand Canyon you should stay in an old-school hotel historic hotel. We arrived at about 7:30 in time to check in and grab a little dinner before they roll the sidewalks up at 9 PM.
We also saw a gunfight skit in the street. These actors played their parts with enthusiasm to the delight of a happy crowd.
We were pleased to start our annual cooperative version of the license plate game. We have upgraded from just writing notes on a tablet to a downloadable page that has actual license plates printed out. It’s exciting to see people from all across the country on the move and so we’ve already seen maybe 15 different states license plates. We know we will see many, many more.
Day one was a success. We are launched on our vacation.
Note: Blogspot changed some of their controls so we can't add the photos with the correct paragraphs, only here at the end. Make it a game to match the photos with what we said above.
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