Originally, we were going to go straight to Mom’s house. We found out that she had anticipated us in June and already arranged for another friend to stay with them from July 2-16. We had already claimed time for vacation from July 6-18. 🤷♀️ So, we decided to make a much slower family trip and just spend few of the last days at Mom’s on an air mattress instead.
We left around 7am on July 6th with a Starbucks breakfast. I tried to suggest to B that we could leave on the 5th after Ro’s Grandma Wanda’s 60th birthday on the 4th. B thought it would be a good idea to slowly pack since we picked up the rental around noon and we still needed to make sure the bikes would fit. We rented a really nice 2021 Nissan Rogue. I wish I had taken pictures of how we packed it. We were able to fit Ro’s carseat in the middle with on seat folded down to accommodate my cargo bike upside down and B’s bike right-side up with all the tires taken off. We fit the luggage (B’s backpacking pack, my roller-board, and the Streator Bulldogs duffel for Ro with his whole summer wardrobe) below and on the seats next to Ro. We also took some books and games for Ro for when we dropped him off at Mom’s house. We also took some of the bike equipment in case of any repairs needed.
Amazingly, we managed to make the whole ride to Crescent City without any accidents — bathroom, carsick, or otherwise. Our first stop was at a Chevron station in Elk Grove. The second stop was a Taco Bell in Williams.
The third stop was for gas in Weaverville, where I prayed that my credit card wouldn’t get skimmed (still no sign so far). Weaverville actually wasn't so bad after the passing the first few roads, but we were worried when we bough gas because the place reminded us of Squaw Valley. We might actually visit again because there is a neat historical section of the town similar to Old Town Clovis or Sacramento.
Ro had been asleep for most of the drive through the forest between Red Rock and Arcata. He woke up somewhere near Burney Vista Point feeling a little carsick and needing to use the bathroom. I realized we should have bought potato chips just in case from the gas station, but maybe I’ll remember next time. There were pretty colorful people hanging out at the vista point as were were walking around hoping it would settle Ro’s stomach. One lady motorcyclist was reading a text message thread to her gentleman friend about accusations concerning addictions to crack cocaine. We tried to get Ro out as fast as we could without making him sicker.
We made it to Arcata just in time for dinner at an Aztec Mexican restaurant. Ro was so happy to get out of the car, he almost forgot he needed to use the bathroom. Ro had mini taquitos, be had a vegetarian burrito, and I had three carne asada tacos. I was surprised to see the tacos served with cabbage and crema. The flavor for all the food was good, but we still had to talk Ro into eating three taquitos. The chips were served with two salsas and the flavor was also good.
We got back on the road to no incident until we reached a stretch of 101 just south of Crescent City. There was a posted traffic delay of four hours. Luckily, our delay may have only been one hour, but I did have to shut the car off to make sure we didn’t run out of gas just waiting in line. It was a good thing that we used the bathroom and had dinner when we did with that long wait. When we reached the other side, we saw that other people waiting were playing cards inside their RVs or smoking outside their vehicles. Our side had no such indications in the line about when traffic would start moving again.
We eventually reached the Ocean View Inn. B wasn’t very impressed with Crescent City when we entered. I hadn’t realized the town had a reputation for substance abuse and theft. There was a sign in the lobby suggesting that guests needed to store their bicycles in their rooms. So, we did after we took the bags up. Unfortunately, we also found out that when I took the wheels off B’s bike, I forgot to put the rear wheel in the car. 🙈 B and I were a little frustrated about it. Ro found a show on Cartoon Network to be much more interesting and ignored us. After our usual bedtime routines, we called it a night, and figured we’d deal with everything in the morning.
I love you and miss you.
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