California Bound

Dad and I started the next day feeling well rested, after checking the load and filling the cooler, we were once again on our way. We left Beaver and headed South once again. I have to say that I was a little concerned about traveling with my Dad alone, since I had not done that since I was a kid, but it turned out that we are good traveling companions and I am a good lookout and navigator.

Arizona welcome sign

 I am really glad that I got to spend the time with my Dad as I was able to get to know him again and talk to him about how much I miss my Mom. I should say that since my Mom passed away last August, my Dad has done a pretty good job of helping me through things that Mom would have handled in the past, such as my surgeries and most recently the loss of my right ovary in May. You could say Dad was thrown into the female fire after we lost Mom.

 As we were driving towards Las Vegas, Dad and I had the great idea to go see the Hoover Dam. Dad had seen it and stated it was worth the detour and I had never seen it. Dad had vetoed a trip to the Grand Canyon earlier as I was planning the route for the move, so I believe that he felt like this would be a good compromise.( I got my strong wanderlust streak from him, so it was nice to be traveling with someone who shares my desire to go see something on the way.) Andy, my husband, is not this way, maybe it is the scientist in him, but he is more of a point A to point B person, but he does indulge me from time to time.

 After driving though a crazy amount of construction in Arizona and Vegas, we were finally within 3 miles of the Hoover Dam. Before you can drive down to the dam you have to stop at a security checkpoint to ensure that you are not a terrorist. It was at this point in the journey that we were denied entrance to the dam because the officers who inspected the truck, were not sure

The Dam that I would NOT get to see.

 "what is really in those boxes." Dad tried to plead our case, but these guys were not impressed, and we were turned around, and denied entrance to the Hoover Dam. It was about this time that we had to make our next fuel stop in Henderson Nv. We had store bought sandwiches and stuff from the cooler. We ate in the truck because it was so hot outside and there was no shade to be found anywhere. It was very hot and we ate and sweat together.

Traffic Jam!

Sweat should be the theme of day two because there was to be a lot of it throughout that day. Truth be told I had been hot since the whole moving adventure began, but I had no idea how hot I could really feel until we got caught in a traffic jam on Southbound I-15 right outside of Vegas. This traffic jam was crazy, I have never seen anything like it, so of course I took a picture of it. We had the pleasure of being bumper to bumper clear into California.

As we crossed the desert going a top speed of 30 mph, Dad announces that it is too hot to run the AC and he is afraid we could overheat if we do not turn it off, I took this a a very real threat as I had seen many cars off to the side of the road, with hoods up, many were moving trucks. As I rolled down the window, it became clear to me that there would be no relief found from outside the truck, the air felt like it was on fire, so Dad drove and we sweat together, occasionally pausing to drink, or pour water on each other. It was miserable. After we left Barstow in the dust the traffic started to thin out some, but now we were pulling steep grades, so still no AC was allowed. I am confident that Dad and I both lost a few pounds during that crossing. 

Another Traffic Jam

  Being caught in heavy traffic really impacted our travel time and it did not help that CalTrans was doing road construction from Baker on, so every 50 ft. or so we would cross a small dip, and I would get jostled around. As we approached San Bernadino we got caught in another traffic jam and we were in heavy traffic until just outside of Riverside. I should mention that my cell phone had died earlier that day in Utah and so Andy had no way to get a hold of me so when I turned on my phone outside of Riverside, it was full of  frantic  messages from him. I explained where we were and told him we were going to try to make it all the way to San Diego that night instead of coming in the morning. The last hour of that trip felt so long, but around 10:30 pm on Aug. 12 Dad and I pulled into the LaQuinta Inn parking lot and Andy was there to meet us.

We Made It!

We went and ate dinner (a real dinner this time). We went to our apartment and starting formulating a plan for unloading the truck the next morning. We dropped Dad off at the hotel, agreed to meet up the next morning and I went home with my husband for the first time in months, to sleep on a flat air mattress on the floor of what was to be our new bedroom.