California Trip - Day 6

Sunday - May 20th, 2007

To get to meeting on time, we had to be packed, done with breakfast, have the car loaded and be in the car by 9:15. We made it by 9:05. I even thought ahead and saved out travelling clothes (leaving space in one of the suitcases for our meeting clothes to go in later) so we could change into something more comfortable for the drive home. Dolly even got to go to Sunday-school class with Bells, so 'going to meeting in California' was just what she had hoped it would be. There was a potluck after meeting and it was a delicious Turkey dinner. They had an afternoon meeting scheduled for 2, but we wanted to get on our way and said our last goodbyes just as meeting was about to begin.

On our way out of town we stopped at the park where Sir and I were engaged. He needed to check his e-mail so he could stop worrying about work, and I took the opportunity to repack the car after putting our meeting clothes in the suitcase reserved for them. The kids got to enjoy the shade and chance to run around a little. They were especially drawn to the big shiny motorcycle that parked next to our car. If only Daddy and Mommy didn't make such rules like "stay out of the parking lot!" since it really makes life a lot less fun. Of course, I didn't take any pictures because I forgot about the camera until the next morning. I had packed it away very efficiently and it was well out of sight and definitely out of mind.

By the time we made it out of Red Bluff, it was already after 3. On our way down to California, Sir had discovered that my everyday clothes were getting pretty worn. Although I don't mind a few small bleach spots or little bitty holes here and there as long as the clothes are still comfortable (very few people notice right away anyway) Sir thought it was high time for me to start thinking of replacing my wardrobe. Since there was a Walmart Supercenter in Anderson we stopped there so I could take a look to see if there was anything available that I might like. PC was fast asleep, so Sir stayed in the car while Dolly and I killed the better part of an hour wandering through the clothing department. The problem with trying to replace your non-pregnant clothes while pregnant is that you can't tell how the clothes will fit when not pregnant again. Most of my clothes can be worn when I'm pregnant or not because I like loose fitting clothes. I did find two skirts and two tops that I was happy with even if I couldn't find any jumpers or dresses no matter how hard I looked. I'm not sure if the skirts will stay on when I'm not pregnant, but I guess they can always be taken in later.

Over the past few years, Sir and I have developed an 'exit California' tradition of stopping at a nice restaurant on our way out of town. Since it was nearly 4:30 when we left Andersen, we decided to stop for dinner in Redding after filling the car again with gas. We stopped at the Cattlemens restaurant and got free steaks for the kids. Of course they could have shared one free steak, but for each adult entree you could get a free kid's steak so we decided we could always pack steaks with us on our way home. After all, steak is almost as good cold as it is piping hot. We didn't rush and when we were finished, I dressed the kids for bed since there would be no reason to stop again for a few hours. It was almost 8pm so we found the nearest payphone and called Sir's parents to let them know we were on our way. I had forgotten to let them know when we had gotten to California and didn't want to leave them wondering how we were doing again.

Finally we were on our way with nothing but driving home ahead of us. While the kids settled down for bed, I set up an audio book on Sir's laptop for us to listen to while we drove. Sir had downloaded a few books to his computer before we left home and we had picked up an FM transmitter on our way down so we could play stuff over the car speakers. The book really helped the time slip by and it was already 11:30 when we stopped for a washroom, something cold to drink and to check on the ice in the cooler. The kids were still fast asleep, so the stop wasn't long and we were on our way again. By 1am, I started getting too tired to keep listening to the book, so we put it away and I dozed off.

Around 2ish, Sir stopped at another gas station, but I'm not sure where we were. He was starting to get tired and needed to get some snacks to stay awake. At 3, I woke up again because we had stopped at a rest area. Sir was too tired to go any farther and I wasn't awake enough to take over, so we decided to just stop and sleep for a few hours. Because the lights of the rest area were too bright and the car was parked almost downhill, I asked Sir to move the car a bit. We just kept going until we found a small exit where we could pull over on the side of the road. Dark enough and with the car on flat ground, we finally called it a night.