Ben’s California Trip Travel Log Part I 7/12/2002-7/14/2002
Friday July 12, 2002 – Today we started on our annual summer family car trip. I woke up at 8:30, my usual time and started gathering up my things and finishing packing and other miscellaneous jobs around the house. We ate a small lunch around 11 and planned to head out about noon. We left just about on schedule and made pretty good time down 35 to Des Moines with my Dad driving where we turned onto I80 heading West. Just outside of the Iowa border I got a phone call from Darci at TechTV who kindly arranged for Anna and myself to get tickets to two ScreenSavers broadcasts while we’re in San Francisco. It was quite thrilling to finally get to talk to Darci after having emailed back and forth on a semi-regular basis. Our first movie, chosen by my sister Anna, was Meet Joe Black which I had not seen before. Although I’m not a fan of Brad Pitt the movie was good and I look forward to watching it again. We stopped to stretch and get gas in Western Iowa, where my Mom started driving, and continued on to Lincoln, NE where we had dinner. After dinner my brother picked Air Force One and I started driving through Nebraska. The sunset was a very interesting and beautiful thing for me to see while I was driving, clouds hung low in the sky and the bright red-orange sun traveled in and out of them creating a distinct circle of color in contrast to the stark grey sky.We called ahead and found a place to stay in Fort Kearny, NE. It’s about 10:30 local here and I think I’m going to head to bed, planning to get up at 5 and start right away, apparently the interstate is flooded and closed outside of North Platte, NE and the detour can be time consuming if it’s busy so we hope to hit that early in the day.
Saturday July 13, 2002 – We got up at five this morning and soon headed out on the road. My dad, used to getting up early in the mornings took the first driving shift. I turned on some music and watched the scenery for a while before taking a nap. This is unusual for me since I have to be pretty tired to take a nap in a car, although as I get older it gets easier to do. We stopped about nine for breakfast at McDonalds just before we got to the detour area. After eating we headed out again and soon found out the bridge had been repaired and there was no detour so we gained a bunch of time. I took another nap(!) after seeing there was no detour. We stopped just before we hit the Wyoming border and I took over driving for a while Josie watched A Walk To Remember. We stopped at a rest area briefly in Wyoming to take some pictures and stretch a bit (pictures to come later). I continued driving the 200 miles to Rawlins, WY which is located in south central Wyoming. I should note that on our previous trip through Northern Wyoming to Yellowstone I was continually struck by the beauty of this state especially traveling up through the mountains and the fertile valleys. Southern Wyoming is nothing like this, it is desert, the elevation goes up; however, not through mountains and the land is anything but fertile. Our original plan was to stop for the day in Rawlins, but since we had few delays and had started so early in the morning we decided to push on after stopping at a local grocery store and eating a picnic lunch in the park. My Dad took over driving again and took us to Rock Springs, WY where we stopped to get gas and stretch our legs out. My Mom took over driving, this makes some of us nervous as she’s not quite as comfortable driving a loaded vehicle at these freeway speeds as my Dad and I are, but she did a fine job nonetheless. I watched my first movie on the trip, Rush Hour, chosen for the references to California in the movie. Mom took us to the last town on I80 in Wyoming, Evanston where we stopped, found the local Catholic Church, went to mass and ate dinner. My dad picked up driving again and we are currently headed through Utah to Salt Lake City where we plan to spend the night before heading to Reno, NV tomorrow. The scenery changed the minute we entered Utah, it’s an amazing contrast with Wyoming, suddenly there are houses along the freeway, and green mountains as opposed to the dry sand of Southern Wyoming. It looks like we’re going to be in a hotel before sunset tonight, which is too bad because I think it would be a beautiful location to see a sunset over these great green mountains in the distance.
Sunday July 14, 2002 – I got up a little earlier today than some of us and I went to go hear the Mormon Tabernacle Choir do their Sunday broadcast, the acoustics in that room are truly amazing especially considering its age. The choir was pretty good although I think the room and sheer volume of voices add more. After a pretty good breakfast in the hotel we headed out on the road with a destination of Reno for the night. The salt flats of Utah were something to see, the white seemed to stretch on and on to the distant mountains, and we stopped to take a closer look after we got past the Great Salt Lake. When we got just inside the Nevada border Anna took over driving and took us about halfway across the state to Button Point where we had a snack (no lunch today) and I took over driving. Movies today were Rookie of the Year, The Fugitive and Sister Act. I drove us the rest of the way to Reno where we had reservations ahead of time. Northern Nevada was surprisingly green for being desert; the mountains were a beautiful blue-green in the distance which contrasted beautifully with the blue sky. We walked around Reno a bit after arriving and had dinner at a casino buffet before settling in for the night. I think we’re going to sleep in a bit tomorrow because we don’t have to drive very far to get just outside of San Francisco where we’re spending the night before heading into SF Tuesday morning.
More to come as internet connections permit, pictures to come after we get the file developed at home…
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