I moved up to school. My parents were in town to help me pack up my little truck. We got it all in the truck...after lots of repositioning. We bought a tarp and rope to tie everything down. I headed to my parents house that night and we planned to leave early the next morning.
Thanks to Sam and his children, my family woke up the next morning very ill with stomach flu. As the saying goes, we were sicker than dogs. I did not want to travel. In my mind that was the worst idea. My dad kept insisting that we needed to go. I refused as long as possible. Around 8:00 a.m., his mind was made up--I would ride in the back of the car, my mom would drive the car, and he would drive the truck, and the rest would stay with Grandma. Ugh. I asked for a blessing and the Pepto-Bismol and we were gone by 9:30 a.m.
We bought the tarp to tie down the stuff and it was helpful in case it rained. Who would have thought it actually would? It poured rain in the first week of August. Well, the tarp was great until the bike ripped holes in it. We had to stop after driving four hours at a Home Depot to pick up a heavy duty tarp and more rope. We lashed the tarp to the truck by making our own netting system. After two hours of standing in the cold, pouring rain, we got back on the road.
We finally made it. The roads were small and weaved in and out of the mountains. The directions we got online stated it would take 8:55 hours. Just under nine hours. Do-able we said. Leaving at 9:30 a.m + stopping for two hours in the rain + crossing a time zone (back an hour) + taking normal gas fill-ups and bathroom breaks +driving slow in the rain = getting to the hotel around 10:00 p.m. local time. So a 13.5 hour drive.
My grandma called me later to see how it all went. She said I looked very bad that morning when she and my grandpa came over to see us off and have my grandpa help with the blessing. I must have looked half dead or something. She said that now I know how the pioneers felt as they packed up everything they owned, traveled through rain, and endured sickness. I can't compare my trip to the pioneer experience at all. But I still did not enjoy the trip and will not be driving the long way back for awhile. We have the blessing of airplanes and I will utilize that method of travel, thank you very much.
