Oregon or Bust

We made it to Portland safe and sound. I'm using Kiah's travel journal to tell about our trip.
The Oregon Trail Adventures of Mom, Kiah, Amy, and Lani  

--Summer 2010--

Day 1 - Friday, June 11th

We left Ashland at 7:30 am and Dad drove us to Duluth. We could tangibly feel his anxiety. He said more then once to Mom, “Be careful.” To which Mom replied, “I’m not generally a reckless person, Dear.” Nevertheless Dad was still concerned.
Dad drove to the airport where we collected our rental car. Pouring rain made moving luggage from the van to rental car unpleasant. After the car was successfully packed, we piled in, along with Dad who told Mom yet again to “Be careful!" and then he prayed with us.
Mom headed for the nearest gas station with Dad following in the van. Me, being a coffee lover and ridiculously sleep deprived, got myself a rather large coffee and a Chai tea to start the trip out right!
Mom commented, “You’re getting two things! Why do you need to get two things?”
To this I replied, “I don’t expect you to understand, but I really love both so I’m just getting them both now while they’re available.” I also treated Amy and Lani to Chai teas of their own, to which they were eternally grateful and glad that their cool older sister was going along for the adventure!

We finally parted ways with the Pops. As we pulled out of view I said to Mom, “I think Dad’s pretty nervous to let us go.” Mom agreed, and then I joked, “At one point I thought he was gonna follow us all the way to Oregon in the van!”
So we made our way out of Duluth, sipping Chai teas and singing to Chris Tomlin’s song I will Rise.
Mom had borrowed a Garmin GPS which proved most helpful in our adventures. At the gas station Mom had Amy program the GPS for the best route to get out of Duluth onto I-35. It turns out the GPS talks to you, which initially flustered the bajeebers out of Mom. We drove 4 blocks and at every corner Mom thought she had to turn because she wasn’t sure how to follow orders from the GPS.
After 2 minutes, Mom exclaimed in exasperation and confusion, “I don’t know what I’m doing.” I shook my head and said sadly, “No. No you don’t know what you’re doing.”
When Mom started to get used to the GPS it told us to turn left onto a highway. Mom said, "Aagh!! I don’t want to turn here.”
Naturally I asked, “Why?’
To our horror Mom answered “Because I don’t want to turn left across traffic!”
Completely flabbergasted and with dread, I rolled my eyes and sighed, “Oh boy, this is going to be a long trip.”
When we got onto the interstate, Mom drove 62 mph in a 70 mph zone. Granted it was raining, but still. I indignantly asked, “Can you please at least go the speed limit?”
Mom (flustered) “I don’t want to go 70 until I figure this car out!”
Me (impatient) “What’s there to figure out!?”
Mom, with no real excuse grabbed for the first thing she could think of, “The mirrors! I need to figure out the mirrors out before I feel comfortable driving 70!” She then spent the next 10 minutes trying to figure out how to adjust her side mirrors. Thankfully the rain deluge finally let up and Mom drove almost 70!
We decided our GPS needed a name. Mom suggested Sacagawea because she guided Lewis and Clark to Oregon. The rest of us didn’t like it at first, but after calling her “Sacky” the name stuck.
We then named our rental car. Mom found extreme goofy delight in naming our Chevy Impala, “Paula.” In a parking lot Mom noticed the next car was an Impala as well, so naturally like any normal person, she started talking to the neighboring car! “Well hello there, you must be Paul the Impala!”
I rolled my eyes, “Mom, it’s not Herbie!”
We turned on Archibald Avenue in Brainerd, MN looking for Taco Bell, Mom’s favorite place in the world to eat. At this Lani pipes up in the backseat, “What’s with all the heads?” We all busted out laughing at the realization that the street and the town had a few brain cells in common!
We stopped next at Fargo, ND. Mom made me the most grateful and happy girl in the world by stopping at Starbucks and letting me get an amazing Iced Mocha.
For supper we stopped at a grocery store for sandwiches and fruit, and to Mom’s indignation, I snuck a Dove chocolate bar in the shopping cart. For all her complaining, she thoroughly enjoyed her square of chocolate.
When Amy opened her peach there was a nasty centipede-like-looking bug in it that had completely eaten the inside. It was exceedingly gross, but more then anything surprising because the outside gave no indications of the nastiness inside. It reminded me of how sin eats away at a person’s heart, and it’s not always easy to judge a book by it’s cover.
We wanted to make it to Dickinson, ND but Dad burst that bubble by telling us that the cheapest hotel in Dickinson was $165! Ridiculous! So even though Bismarck wasn’t as far as we’d hoped to get, it would be much cheaper to stay there. At 10 pm we checked into the Radisson Hotel.. After staking out and claiming beds, Mom went with Amy and Lani to the pool. I opted out as I’m allergic to chlorine.
After tickling, laughter, snuggling, and family bonding time we all zonked out and hit the hay because we all knew morning would come early….and early it did come!!
Quotes of the Day
Lani – While eating fruit leather, “I lost all of my sweet taste buds.”
(Everyone bursts out laughing)
Lani – “No, seriously - I burnt my tongue and now I can’t taste anything sweet!”
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Amy – While playing the license plate game in Minnesota, “Kiah, aren’t you gonna play?”
Kiah – (voice drenched in sarcasm) “Yes Amy, but we’ve had the same car in front of us for the last hour.”
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Lani – In the hotel room, “This pillow melts under my head.”

Road Construction everywhere

Beautiful clouds in North Dakota