June 18, 2017 Day One Oceanside to Flagstaff AZ

We’re off on a new adventure.  Knowing we had no deadlines a the end of the day, we took our time to get everything finalized in the morning.   No 8:00 departure today. We finally got off at a little after 11 knowing we had an 8-hour drive.  The preparation for this trip got a little less of our attention because we are just two months into living in our new home.  The past several months have been filled with looking for and buying a home, packing, moving, unpacking, and then attending to the areas of the house that needed attention. We were reminded again that homeownership can be expensive.  So now, we have a new whole house fan, new carpet, a new shed, new patio roof, and a number of electrical updates.  That said, we love our new home, and are happy to leave it for a bit of a break.

Our departure date was set by Dick having to be at the University’s commencement ceremony yesterday.  Patti has now finished her work at the counseling agency and children’s hospital until the end of July. Dick will have to do a bit of university work, but hopefully not too much.

The first day of a road trip includes making sure we have every last thing we can think of that we think we are going to need for a month.  We informed our new neighbors that we would be gone, made arrangements to have the plants watered, stopped the mail and the newspaper, and packed it all up on our minivan. 

We no longer sleep overnight in our minivan but do have a nice napping set up with a single cushy foam mattress. Patti took the first nap when we were a ways into Arizona.  Ahh, so nice to be able to stretch out.

We were both aware that today is Father’s Day, and we each missed both of our dads who have passed away very much.  Patti had brought along a National Public Radio (NPR) Driveway Moments CD that was filled with wonderful stories about dads.  We listened, laughed, and wiped away some tears as we heard reflections on fathers-stories by dads and about dads. 

As we travel, Dick especially loves to watch the changing of the landscapes.  Today he noted that the grasses of southern CA had turned brown after a very green spring. We climbed away for the coast and onto the Mojave Desert, and the land dried out, and the heat climbed higher. By the time we got to Kingman AZ, it was about 110 degrees (about 43 degrees C for our metric folks).  We didn’t stop much except to get gas and go to the bathroom.  You don’t hang out long in that kind of heat.   

We were then happy to start climbing up to the high plateau of Northern Arizona (over 5000 feet climb).  As we drove onto the northern plateau, we first saw expanses of grass and Juniper trees.  Then we got to Ponderosa Pine forests and even more green.   

Flagstaff is just an hour south of the Grand Canyon, but we are not visiting there this trip.  And, we also noted a couple of cool museums, including one dedicated to Route 66, which was already closed when we rolled by.  Another time. We arrived in Flagstaff about 7:30 as the sun began to set, lovely as we watched in the mirrors.  The temperature was a much more comfortable 80.  Much nicer! 

Not much of a sightseeing day today, besides just watching the change of scenery.  The goal was to get on the road and move a ways away from southern CA, driving a total of 500 miles.  It always takes a couple of days to get back into our road trip routines.   We know how to do this, and we love hitting the road. 

The adventure begins.