Quick Trip to Vancouver; Longest Trip Back Home
My cousin, Amanda, is currently in Afghanistan for the third time. About one month ago, she had learned that her apartment rent was being increased by $300.00. She had decided it was time to move out. Her boyfriend, Jonathan, her mom, and I would be the ones to help move her out. Because I was in Sacramento and San Diego the past 4 days, I wasn't able to fly up with my aunt. The morning after my San Diego trip (mentioned in my last blog post), I flew on up to Portland to help them finish up the move.
My flight took off at 6:40am. Since I wasn't going to have any checked luggage, I planned to arrive at the airport at 5:40, which for Ontario is plenty of time to get through security. When my sister dropped me off, and I walked inside of terminal 4, I was surprised to see one massive line to go up towards the security check point. I have flown out of Ontario now well over 50 times, and I had never seen the security line this long before; especially this early in the morning. The line went from the escalator east through the baggage claim area. At the east wall of the terminal, the line horseshoed back towards the escalator. The line passed the start of the line, and headed right into the ticketing booth area. As I got in the line, I began to be worried that there was a chance I would not make my flight on time. As I went through 1/3rd of the line, I began hearing announcements of last call before the plane would take off. After last call, another announcement would say that the gate is closed, and the plane has taken off. Looking at the line, I would next see around 10+ people get out of line. Those people had missed their flight. As the line kept slowly moving forward, more and more people had missed their flights. I finally got to go up to the escalator with only 20 mins left before my flight was to take off. TSA was taking their sweet time moving the line along. It almost seemed as if they didn't care if many people where missing their flights. Only the two full body scanners were being used. All the metal detectors remained in not use. With so many people missing their flights, and having one massive line of people, you would think that TSA would use all they have to be more efficient. I was sweating for time. I finally got to the x-ray scanner. I had everything put into my backpack while waiting in line to make things move fast as I got to the body scanners. I had gotten through security, put my shoes and belt back on, and headed right to the gate. I had gotten on my plane with 5 mins to spare. The flight was 2/3rds empty. After I set down, I over heard two flight attendants talking to each other right behind me saying that we were missing 16 passengers on the plane. Ten mins later, we took off, and only 4 other people made it on the plane. I was so glad I was able to make it on the plane, especially when I needed to be up there, and Amanda was the one who had paid for the flight.
My flight up to Portland was a good one. Had a stop in San Jose, but I didn't have to get off the plane which was nice. For the most part, I was asleep. I was hoping to see at least Crater Lake from the plane, but as we flew over that section of the Pacific Cascades, it was covered by clouds. I landed in Portland around 10:20 am. Jonathan picked me up, and we drove right over to Amanda's apartment in Vancouver, WA. On the drive there, I just had this disappointment feeling that I was up there just to help clean the apartment, then drive home the next day. I had only been up to the Portland area once, back in 2008 if I remember right. I saw Mt. Hood out in the distance to the east, Mt. Saint Helens to the north, and as we drove over the Columbia River into Washington, all I could think about is wanting to go out and explore the area for as much as possible. Mostly wanting to explore the Columbia River Gorge the most since I have been to Mt. Hood and Saint Helens. Jon dropped me off at the apartment while he headed off to school. My aunt was inside cleaning. It was nice to see Amanda's dogs, Turbo & Kora again. Before getting into cleaning, we first walked the dogs. We walked on a road between the apartment complex and a westfield mall. On the side of the road, tons of blackberry bushes were in bloom. In the distance you can see Mt. Hood. The weather felt warm but enjoyable, which I believe it was close to 80 degrees out.
After the quick walk, it was time for cleaning. My task was to clean out all the dirt and marks from the empty cabinets and drawers. Now you would think cleaning cabinets would be quite easy, but sitting on the floor scrubbing away with a hyperactive puppy was not a good mix. Kora would try to play with the rag I was using to clean, so in one hand I was scrubbing while in the other would be a dog toy to keep her from eating the rag. It was fun, but took double the amount to clean. After I was done with the floor level cleaning, the rest of the time was spent on my feet. I came to the small cabinets above the stove, and I come to find them still full of stuff. It had seemed my aunt and Jon had missed that the other day when packing up the kitchen. Understandable because it was high. After that, I moved to one of the major cabinets between the stove and the fridge. The entire cabinet was full of stuff. At that point, we had to call Jon's move to stop by with boxes so we can pack them up. I was very surprised they had missed this one. After my task was finished in the kitchen, I had moved to the master bathroom followed by the guest bathroom. By that time, Jon had returned, and a friend of his came to clean the showers and toilets. We then started moving everything that was left in the apartment out to his truck. After most things were moved out, we steam cleaned the carpet and the hardwood floors. Once that was completed, we took photos of everything. At the end of all the cleaning, it was close to 7:30pm. We were hungry. We drove on up to Battle Ground, WA, where Jon's parents lived. We left everything in his car, and we headed out to the Old Spaghetti Factory for dinner.
When we arrived back at Jon's place, we prepared to go to sleep. Our plan was to wake up at 4:00 am to get on the road to drive home. I knew I was going to be unable to go to bed to closer to midnight. After the logistics of packing up Amanda's car was complete around 10:30, things calmed down, and Jon and I chilled for awhile. He had shown me his Land Rover he was re-building (inside and out) in the garage. Amanda and I had talked a month about about going on a camping road trip to Alaska next summer. She had said that I can go, so I got excited. Jon is hoping we could take his car up to Alaska. He had me sit in the back seat, the front seat, and the driver seat. I had to say, right when I got in the backseat, I was ready to fall asleep, that is how comfortable those seats were. Jon joined be in the back seat and we just chilled for a good 30 mins hanging out. Afterwards, he showed me his room, and this cool putty stuff that you can use to fix and build things that seemed very strong. We chilled for awhile more, and it got to be 1:30am. It was time to call it quits. We headed to bed. I slept in the living room on a pull out bed. I had wished I could have been up there longer to hang out with Jon more, and to do some exploring. That will have to be another trip up to the Pacific Northwest.
Later on that morning, we woke up and headed on out at 4:30am. If things would work out as planned, we would be home in just a short 17 hours. Little did we know the trip would last 25 hours...
When I wake up super early, I normally am starving. I had told my aunt it would be smart to eat a big breakfast, give ourselves a chance to wake up, then head on our way home. We had left Battle Ground, and we had decided to drive down into Oregon before stopping for breakfast. Our first of many stops on the trip would bring us to Woodburn, OR. We had been there a few times in the past for the Outlet Shopping Mall. We had a good breakfast at Shari's Restaurant. My aunt wanted to eat their, because she wanted to pick up two Marion Berry Pies to take home. I never understood their Marion Berry obsession. I prepared blackberries. As breakfast came to an end, I was prepared to continue our journey, but my aunt had other plans. We stopped at the Walmart in town before getting back on the road. We first walked the two dogs in the grass, so they can use the restroom, then we went right in to what I thought was to just grab snacks for the road. I had rushed through, and grabbed a few snack items within 5 mins. As I was rushing, I thought my aunt would have shared the same kind of rush to get on the road. That wasn't the case. We walked very slowly through the snack isles. During that slow walk, my uncle had called her. This only held us up even more. This type of things I sort of expected, but not while when we should be focused on getting back on the road. Once we had gotten the snacks we wanted and my aunt got off the phone, you figured we would be finished. My aunt had decided to do some shopping. We spent a good 30 minutes wandering around the Walmart looking for table clothes. It had seemed she was looking for a specific type of table cloth that she can use for her Farmer Markets she sold tomatoes for. She had said that our Walmarts where out. We had found the table clothes, and this Walmart had been out. With that, we got back into the car, and continued on the drive. I was hoping to drive a good amount of the trip, but I kept quite in Oregon, for the speed limit is 55 mph. I knew I would get into trouble, for to me, 55 mph was just a little slow for my taste.
We would stop every so often at rest stops to give the dogs water, food, and walk them around in order for them to go to the rest room. Each rest stop we would stop at would kick us back by 15 minutes or so because of the dogs. This part of the trip I had expected, which is why I had rushed at the other parts of the trip. About 3 to 4 hours later, we had arrived in Medford, OR. My aunt had known there was a Walmart and a Costco in the city. I figured we would be stopping at Costco for gas, and Walmart (unfortunately) to check for those table clothes. We got to Costco, and the line for the gas station was very long. Now for those who don't know, it is illegal to pump your own gas in Oregon. Because of this, it can take twice or three times more as long to get gas at your car. This was the case at Costco. We spent 45 minutes to wait in line, get to the pump, and get the car filled. Once we got the car filled with gas, my aunt parked the car, and went into Costco! It had seemed she wanted to buy some jelly. At this point, I felt this was a little ridiculousness. We had a long drive, and all of this was adding more time before we got home. I had to get home because in two days, I would be up at Summer Camp for 8 days. I stayed in the car to watch over the dogs. 30 more minutes had passed by. She comes out of Costco, and she had a few bags. In my opinion, everything was unnecessary. I didn't get to see most of what was in the bags, but I did notice two loafs of bread. Bread that we were not going to touch at all on the trip. With that, I got frustrated. To keep calm, I was texting Amanda via the Voxer Walkie Talkie/Texting App. In Afghanistan, she worked nights, which was our days. It worked great when needed to talk to her. Once my aunt got back, we headed off to Walmart, which just happened to be right next door. She went in. Spent more time that didn't need to be spent while she went shopping for her table cloths. Thank god, this Walmart had the table cloths. I started trying to hint that I could take over with driving if she was tired. My goal was to get behind the wheel where I would be in control, and start making up time that we had lost from these extra side trips. My aunt didn't take the bait. For some strange reason, she feels I am a very unsafe driver, and I didn't get the feeling that she trusted me driving. Even though I have driven many different cars for work in the past, and have driven 4-H members to different events in the past. No tickets, and only one accident (which was not my fault). We drove through Del Taco for lunch, then headed back on the road.
As we headed through Grant's Pass, I had fallen asleep from the boredom of being a passenger. We had stopped before we got into CA to give the dogs another break. Interesting about this rest stop, there were a group of homeless people who were begging for money. It seemed strange since we where nowhere from civilization at this point. For the next few hours, I had mostly been asleep. When I woke up, ahead of us was the beautiful vista of Mt. Shasta. I was pleased to see the high towering Volcano. One for it's beauty, second meaning we are getting oh so closer to home. It was 3 in the afternoon. It was quite late to be arriving in Mt. Shasta. If things had been normal, including the time to stop for breakfast, we would have arrived in Mt. Shasta around 11:30 to noon. We were behind schedule. Every rest stop, I would hint to give my aunt a break and let me drive. Even when in California, she wasn't driving as fast as she could have. She was cruising around 55-65 mph range. She was fine. 4 hours later, were getting close to Sacramento. To the east of the 5, I can spot the Buttes which give Butte County it's name. We stopped at the last rest stop before we got into the Sacramento area, and my aunt had finally allowed me to drive. I was excited. I plugged in my phone to place music, then got in the car and headed towards Sacramento. Now things were going to speed up. My cruising speed was 75 to 78 mph. We stopped in Sacramento for gas and in n out. We drove off the I-5 for a moment, and got onto the I-80 to get to a Cheveron and the In N Out. My aunt had questioned if I knew were I was going, but she really didn't understand how well I know how to drive in Sacramento. We had dinner, and then I was headed out on a drive I know way too well. While at In N Out, my dad had called. My parents were in Maine on vacation while I have been out traveling to Sacramento, San Diego, and now this trip. My dad had kept mentioning that we should just stop and finish the drive the next day. Little did he know that we were not going to stop, and we plan on driving all the way home that night.
As we were leaving Sacramento, the sun was going down, and most of the I-5 would be in pitch blackness. For anyone who has driven this part of the 5, you know that the drive can be a very long one. Or feel like it anyway, since there is not much in the central valley. Within an hour of the drive, things seemed into robot mode. It would be the type of mode where you are just there, awake, and driving. Your mind seemed to be blank, and tiredness seemed to have just consumed me. My aunt slept the entire time in the valley, and I just kept driving. With being in this robot mode, I wasn't even really listening to what my music was playing. Strangely though, it felt as if we drove through the Central Valley way faster in the night than the day. I guess driving in blackness was way better than driving in the day light were you can see miles of nothing around you. I enjoyed driving the I-5 at night. No cars on the road. Few Semi Trucks. It made driving through Central Valley much better. We arrived at Ft. Tejon at 1:30 am. We stopped to grab some gas, and I grabbed some coffee so I can make it the rest of the way home. I knew I could make it home, but something would come up down the road where things would change. We gave the dogs one last walk while each of us took turns using the gas station restroom. We got back in the car and headed up the Grapevine.
My robot mode had started to kick back in just a few miles into the Grapevine when all of the traffic south bound had come to a complete stop just as we passed Lebec. It was 2:00 am. I grabbed my phone and opened up google maps to see if a traffic report had been posted. Sure enough, the report said that three lanes where closed ahead due to construction. I then decided to measure how much ahead the red traffic zone stretched. Ten miles. The traffic would be stop and go for the next 1 1/2 hours. By time we the I-5 had gotten down to one lane, things moved real slowly, but at least there was no stop and go. What caused this major traffic issue? The large amounts of Semi Trucks on the road. Having this hour and a half delay on the trip was way frustrating to me since we were behind schedule as it was, and I had a camp to prepare for. The freeway had opened back up to all lanes as we passed Pyramid Lake. The thing that pissed me off the most about the lane closure. There was no construction to be seen! No trucks, no lights, no workers, NOTHING! That pissed me off! If there had been no lane closures, we would have been about 15 mins from home. We headed down towards Santa Clarita, and the tiredness that has been upon be for most of the night had decided to consume me. I began to crash. We were in Castaic, and I took the next freeway exit right away! I gave the wheel back over to my aunt. As we made the switch, my uncle had called wondering where we were, for he had woken up. It was 4:00 am. We was shocked to hear about the pointless traffic that wasted our time. At this point, we had been 24 hours since we had began to wake up back in Washington.
As my aunt started to get back on the 5 freeway, I passed out stone cold. What felt like only a few moments of rest, I had woken up. The first thing I see out of my eyes was the San Bernardino Mountains, Silhouetted by the light of dawn. Everything around us was pitch black. Only a very dim light had glowed from the back of the mountains. We arrived at my house at 5:30 am. Just 24 hours ago, we were just about to stop to have us some breakfast. I got my stuff, and we had said our goodbyes. I walked into the house in a very zombie way. I noticed a person was on the couch (who I figured to be John--Ashley's boyfirend). I dropped my stuff in the hallway, with no care of it blocking anyone's way. I walked upstairs, and noticed my sister was awake, preparing for her trip to LA. I walked into my room. I stood at the foot of my bed. I took a few moments, looked outside to see it being a little light outside, looked at the clock to notice the time. Then I dropped forward. It was a literal falling asleep. As I hit my pillow, my eyes had stayed open for only half a second before I had passed out.
I woke up at 3:30 in the afternoon, and I lived in a dim fog of tiredness the rest of the day. I didn't get much rest until I went to bed around 11 pm, for I was preparing for the next 8 days. I will be at Summer Camp.
Keep at mind: By time I had gotten home and passed out from this trip. 7 days ago I was in Sacramento for a tech team meeting. 6 to 4 days ago I was in San Diego for ISTE. 3 Days ago I had woken up super early to fly up to Vancouver, then the day before and this day I spent driving home. I had very little time before going right back out for another 8 day period. Summer is in full force!
My flight up to Portland was a good one. Had a stop in San Jose, but I didn't have to get off the plane which was nice. For the most part, I was asleep. I was hoping to see at least Crater Lake from the plane, but as we flew over that section of the Pacific Cascades, it was covered by clouds. I landed in Portland around 10:20 am. Jonathan picked me up, and we drove right over to Amanda's apartment in Vancouver, WA. On the drive there, I just had this disappointment feeling that I was up there just to help clean the apartment, then drive home the next day. I had only been up to the Portland area once, back in 2008 if I remember right. I saw Mt. Hood out in the distance to the east, Mt. Saint Helens to the north, and as we drove over the Columbia River into Washington, all I could think about is wanting to go out and explore the area for as much as possible. Mostly wanting to explore the Columbia River Gorge the most since I have been to Mt. Hood and Saint Helens. Jon dropped me off at the apartment while he headed off to school. My aunt was inside cleaning. It was nice to see Amanda's dogs, Turbo & Kora again. Before getting into cleaning, we first walked the dogs. We walked on a road between the apartment complex and a westfield mall. On the side of the road, tons of blackberry bushes were in bloom. In the distance you can see Mt. Hood. The weather felt warm but enjoyable, which I believe it was close to 80 degrees out.
When we arrived back at Jon's place, we prepared to go to sleep. Our plan was to wake up at 4:00 am to get on the road to drive home. I knew I was going to be unable to go to bed to closer to midnight. After the logistics of packing up Amanda's car was complete around 10:30, things calmed down, and Jon and I chilled for awhile. He had shown me his Land Rover he was re-building (inside and out) in the garage. Amanda and I had talked a month about about going on a camping road trip to Alaska next summer. She had said that I can go, so I got excited. Jon is hoping we could take his car up to Alaska. He had me sit in the back seat, the front seat, and the driver seat. I had to say, right when I got in the backseat, I was ready to fall asleep, that is how comfortable those seats were. Jon joined be in the back seat and we just chilled for a good 30 mins hanging out. Afterwards, he showed me his room, and this cool putty stuff that you can use to fix and build things that seemed very strong. We chilled for awhile more, and it got to be 1:30am. It was time to call it quits. We headed to bed. I slept in the living room on a pull out bed. I had wished I could have been up there longer to hang out with Jon more, and to do some exploring. That will have to be another trip up to the Pacific Northwest.
Later on that morning, we woke up and headed on out at 4:30am. If things would work out as planned, we would be home in just a short 17 hours. Little did we know the trip would last 25 hours...
We would stop every so often at rest stops to give the dogs water, food, and walk them around in order for them to go to the rest room. Each rest stop we would stop at would kick us back by 15 minutes or so because of the dogs. This part of the trip I had expected, which is why I had rushed at the other parts of the trip. About 3 to 4 hours later, we had arrived in Medford, OR. My aunt had known there was a Walmart and a Costco in the city. I figured we would be stopping at Costco for gas, and Walmart (unfortunately) to check for those table clothes. We got to Costco, and the line for the gas station was very long. Now for those who don't know, it is illegal to pump your own gas in Oregon. Because of this, it can take twice or three times more as long to get gas at your car. This was the case at Costco. We spent 45 minutes to wait in line, get to the pump, and get the car filled. Once we got the car filled with gas, my aunt parked the car, and went into Costco! It had seemed she wanted to buy some jelly. At this point, I felt this was a little ridiculousness. We had a long drive, and all of this was adding more time before we got home. I had to get home because in two days, I would be up at Summer Camp for 8 days. I stayed in the car to watch over the dogs. 30 more minutes had passed by. She comes out of Costco, and she had a few bags. In my opinion, everything was unnecessary. I didn't get to see most of what was in the bags, but I did notice two loafs of bread. Bread that we were not going to touch at all on the trip. With that, I got frustrated. To keep calm, I was texting Amanda via the Voxer Walkie Talkie/Texting App. In Afghanistan, she worked nights, which was our days. It worked great when needed to talk to her. Once my aunt got back, we headed off to Walmart, which just happened to be right next door. She went in. Spent more time that didn't need to be spent while she went shopping for her table cloths. Thank god, this Walmart had the table cloths. I started trying to hint that I could take over with driving if she was tired. My goal was to get behind the wheel where I would be in control, and start making up time that we had lost from these extra side trips. My aunt didn't take the bait. For some strange reason, she feels I am a very unsafe driver, and I didn't get the feeling that she trusted me driving. Even though I have driven many different cars for work in the past, and have driven 4-H members to different events in the past. No tickets, and only one accident (which was not my fault). We drove through Del Taco for lunch, then headed back on the road.
As we were leaving Sacramento, the sun was going down, and most of the I-5 would be in pitch blackness. For anyone who has driven this part of the 5, you know that the drive can be a very long one. Or feel like it anyway, since there is not much in the central valley. Within an hour of the drive, things seemed into robot mode. It would be the type of mode where you are just there, awake, and driving. Your mind seemed to be blank, and tiredness seemed to have just consumed me. My aunt slept the entire time in the valley, and I just kept driving. With being in this robot mode, I wasn't even really listening to what my music was playing. Strangely though, it felt as if we drove through the Central Valley way faster in the night than the day. I guess driving in blackness was way better than driving in the day light were you can see miles of nothing around you. I enjoyed driving the I-5 at night. No cars on the road. Few Semi Trucks. It made driving through Central Valley much better. We arrived at Ft. Tejon at 1:30 am. We stopped to grab some gas, and I grabbed some coffee so I can make it the rest of the way home. I knew I could make it home, but something would come up down the road where things would change. We gave the dogs one last walk while each of us took turns using the gas station restroom. We got back in the car and headed up the Grapevine.
My robot mode had started to kick back in just a few miles into the Grapevine when all of the traffic south bound had come to a complete stop just as we passed Lebec. It was 2:00 am. I grabbed my phone and opened up google maps to see if a traffic report had been posted. Sure enough, the report said that three lanes where closed ahead due to construction. I then decided to measure how much ahead the red traffic zone stretched. Ten miles. The traffic would be stop and go for the next 1 1/2 hours. By time we the I-5 had gotten down to one lane, things moved real slowly, but at least there was no stop and go. What caused this major traffic issue? The large amounts of Semi Trucks on the road. Having this hour and a half delay on the trip was way frustrating to me since we were behind schedule as it was, and I had a camp to prepare for. The freeway had opened back up to all lanes as we passed Pyramid Lake. The thing that pissed me off the most about the lane closure. There was no construction to be seen! No trucks, no lights, no workers, NOTHING! That pissed me off! If there had been no lane closures, we would have been about 15 mins from home. We headed down towards Santa Clarita, and the tiredness that has been upon be for most of the night had decided to consume me. I began to crash. We were in Castaic, and I took the next freeway exit right away! I gave the wheel back over to my aunt. As we made the switch, my uncle had called wondering where we were, for he had woken up. It was 4:00 am. We was shocked to hear about the pointless traffic that wasted our time. At this point, we had been 24 hours since we had began to wake up back in Washington.
As my aunt started to get back on the 5 freeway, I passed out stone cold. What felt like only a few moments of rest, I had woken up. The first thing I see out of my eyes was the San Bernardino Mountains, Silhouetted by the light of dawn. Everything around us was pitch black. Only a very dim light had glowed from the back of the mountains. We arrived at my house at 5:30 am. Just 24 hours ago, we were just about to stop to have us some breakfast. I got my stuff, and we had said our goodbyes. I walked into the house in a very zombie way. I noticed a person was on the couch (who I figured to be John--Ashley's boyfirend). I dropped my stuff in the hallway, with no care of it blocking anyone's way. I walked upstairs, and noticed my sister was awake, preparing for her trip to LA. I walked into my room. I stood at the foot of my bed. I took a few moments, looked outside to see it being a little light outside, looked at the clock to notice the time. Then I dropped forward. It was a literal falling asleep. As I hit my pillow, my eyes had stayed open for only half a second before I had passed out.
I woke up at 3:30 in the afternoon, and I lived in a dim fog of tiredness the rest of the day. I didn't get much rest until I went to bed around 11 pm, for I was preparing for the next 8 days. I will be at Summer Camp.
Keep at mind: By time I had gotten home and passed out from this trip. 7 days ago I was in Sacramento for a tech team meeting. 6 to 4 days ago I was in San Diego for ISTE. 3 Days ago I had woken up super early to fly up to Vancouver, then the day before and this day I spent driving home. I had very little time before going right back out for another 8 day period. Summer is in full force!
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