The title of this post is a tad misleading...because technically, this post won't cover the Alaska Highway. We took the West Access Route through Seattle. It's still covered in The Milepost though.
So, picking up where I last left off:
Day 5: Dawson Creek, BC to Cache Creek, BC; 519 miles; West Access Route
On this day, I decided I didn't want to reserve hotel rooms. I wanted to hurry up and get to California, and I felt that we would do better if we pushed ourselves as far as we could, then stopped. I thought we could go farther each day that way. My mother wasn't too pleased with this new plan, but as she said, I was in charge.
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| Dead Bugs Galore! |
It turned out not to be that great of a day. At first, the day seemed to be uneventful. Sure, the scenery was pretty, but whatever. Towards the 400 mile mark, my mom was starting to get tired. I had the goal of Cache Creek in my head, but I wasn't sure we could pull it off. So, I just said, "Let's keep going."
And so we did. My mother was really tired when we passed through a nice little town with a bunch of well known hotels, including the one we had stayed at the night before. My mom wanted to stop (and I should point out that she was driving) but I said, "Let's keep going!!"
Now, in retrospect, we should have either a) stopped at the hotel she wanted or b) switched drivers. But we are both somewhat stubborn. So I figured we could keep going and she figured she could keep driving.
It got very dark. It began to pour. The road became very curvy. And the big rigs who are used to traveling on that road began to tailgate my mom.
To sum up: vision was bad, and the & @#$#@ drivers were dangerous.
It was at this point, my mother says, "I have trouble seeing at night. I can't see the road and we should have had you drive."
Well, what to do about that now? I realized my mother was struggling, so I tried to soothe her best I could. I told her everything would be okay when we got to Cache Creek, because it would be like a nice town.
Remember that scene in Willow, when Willow has Madmartigan go to Tir Asleen & it turns out the people were frozen and trolls took it over? Yeah, my night was kinda like that...only with no trolls. We weren't in danger....it just was more like a truck stop with motels. Not fantastic ones.
Since we didn't have a reservation, I had to stop at 2 motels before we found one that would take Dakota. My mom hated that one. I on the other hand slept great. The room was clean and in good condition. My mom and I were on different ends of the motel and she didn't like being so far away from me (or was it Dakota maybe??). We stayed at Canada's Best Value Inn and the price was good & they let me have Dakota. I think my mom was just done for that day.
Here are a few pics from Day 5:
Day 6: Cache Creek, BC to Salem, OR; 503 miles
I've said before that I don't travel well with people. Some people have scoffed at that statement, however, here's proof. My mother told me that she was not comfortable with me not calling ahead for rooms. My response was to tell her that she wouldn't be comfortable until she was back home, sleeping in her own bed and that we should hurry up and get her home.
But, to appease her, I had called ahead to the hotel chain she liked and found one right outside of Seattle. But that bothered me. I wanted a LONG day of driving. I didn't say anything but decided to see how we felt once we hit Seattle.
At this point of the trip, we had to stop using The Milepost because it didn't tell me how to get to Seattle. It reads as though you are already there and heading up. So, I turned to Google. And it used Google directions for the rest of the trip!
There were a couple of highlights on this day besides beautiful scenery: 1) We entered the United States that day; 2) THE BRIDGE; & 3) We drove through the entire state of Washington all in one day.
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| Canada/U.S. Border |
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| Back in America |
Passing the border into the U.S. was pretty uneventful. Except as we drove through, there was a big flash as they took our picture. I get it, but it unnerved me a bit knowing my picture was going through some facial recognition software and maybe, just maybe someone was saying, "That's Lara Ruark entering the U.S. from Canada, Sir."
It's kind of funny, but the border is right in the middle of this town. One part is Canada, then the next is the United States.
The next big piece of excitement was involving the bridge that collapsed in Washington. On Day 4, my Facebook account blew up of everyone telling me about a bridge on I-5 that collapsed. We were two days away, and I had debated rerouting our trip to avoid that whole area. Everyone was being advised to please avoid it if possible. And it was possible to avoid, but really out of my way. I decided to risk the detour. I knew one would be set up by this time and it was a weekend when we crossed it.
As we approached the detour, you could see the bridge up ahead. And you could tell the bridge was out, but it looked like the top had come down on the bridge. The detour took us right next to the bridge, and then you could see a span of the bridge was just gone! It is amazing that no one was seriously hurt.
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| The span was GONE |
The detour it's self was only about 10 minutes. I can see how during rush hour, it would be a nightmare. But for our trip, I was glad I stayed on course. It took no time at all before we were back on I-5 heading towards Seattle.
Once we hit Seattle, we just kept on going! I was deliriously happy to be passing Seattle. I wanted to keep going. Before I knew it, we had passed through the state of Washington and were entering Oregon. I was debating how far we could push it (my mom was driving at this point) when we drove through Portland.
My mom was starting to hit her driving "wall" and I noticed we were about to drive through Salem. I know I am a big dork, but I thought it would be funny to check in on Facebook with a location saying I was in Salem. Even though it was a different Salem that they had the famous witch trials, it kinda cracked me up. If it was only my mom, Dakota, and myself...I would have kept driving. But the cats hadn't been out of their carriers for over 10 hours. I felt bad for them. They had water but no way to relieve themselves. So, for their sake (sorry Mom, but it's true) I stopped for the night.
My mom was insistent on staying in the same brand of hotel that she had liked so much in Canada. I didn't want to point out that everything's nicer in Canada because she was so hopeful that she'd have a better night than the one before. So I found a Super 8 in Salem, and that's where we stayed. The breakfast wasn't quite as nice as in Dawson Creek and it was crowded due to the Jehovah's Witness convention being held that weekend, but I knew it was the last hotel I would be staying in on this trip. So all was well.
Here are some pictures (it really was quite lovely):
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| The Space Needle |
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| Seattle, Washington |
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| A blurry shot of Portland |
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| Portland, Oregon |
Day 7: Salem, OR to Benicia, CA; 564 miles
I was very excited. This was the last day of my road trip. I was so ready to get settled, even if it was temporary. My brother & my sister-in-law said I could stay with them. I just had to make it to Benicia to drop off my mom & then head over to their house.
Not much happened on the road that day. My mother didn't drive that much, mostly because I asked her to let me drive before she got over tired. It took me a few days to figure it out, but I started to catch on to her signs that she was tiring. The closer we got to California, the more jazzed up I became.
One little comical moment happened when I tried to empty Dakota's water bowl while we were driving. I didn't want to throw out the plastic bowl, so I grabbed it tightly and threw the water...only to have it come back in my face. I didn't mind, the temperature was climbing to 80 and I was really hot!!!
Once I dropped my mom off, I headed off to my brother's house. His wife threw together an impromptu celebration for me. It was awesome. Everyone quickly fell in love with Dakota, although the real love story is with Lola. When I find my own place, taking her will break some hearts I can tell.
Here are some pictures of the last day on the road:
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| Mt. Shasta |
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| Lake Shasta |
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| My mother lives on the top of that hill |
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| We made it! |
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| The spread my sis put out |
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| All smiles on the last day |
So life is returning to normal for me. I've traveled 3,446 miles to come back to California. I have a job for the next school year already. I won't mention where that is...maybe never. My blog is going to be about my adventures outside the classroom. Just know that I am a proud Elementary Teacher. I love teaching the little ones, and I will have some classroom adventures, but I'll share those somewhere else.
In two weeks, I will be leaving for Iceland. I haven't decided yet if I will be blogging every day or just journaling with a reflective blog post. It's a special event, so maybe a daily post would be in order.
I've been back for 3 weeks now. I've settled in and the novelty of running to the store when I want to has worn off. Life is kind of boring for me really. Which has made me stop and question what do I want to do about that.
I enjoy reading (I've already read 3 books the last 2 weeks) and watching movies (2 in the theater, several at home) and I've enjoyed walking Dakota around my brother's house & the end of First Street in Benicia.
But where's the adventure in that? I think I am going to adventure withdrawl. It's a good thing Iceland is almost here. However, I've decided to go out and have a weekly adventure. A day trip with Dakota! Or maybe to an amusement park. Or something different.
I miss the element of not knowing what to expect. I'm back in the land of things going according to plan. What is supposed to happen: happens. Stores are open when they say they'll be open. There's more than one worker to help out. Sigh. Where's the drama in that? Mail comes right to the house!
The sun sets. It's dark now. How sad. I find myself missing the midnight sun like a lost friend. Yet another reason I am looking so forward to Iceland. They have the midnight sun there too.
I don't miss the mosquitos though. That's been freakin' sweet let me tell you! And it's funny that I can now freeze out my manly friends.
I've gone through a book about places to take your dog in the Bay Area and dogeared some great places. I think this week I will start out slow. After all, I still have to get ready for Iceland!! I want to pack already but I have to pace myself to savor each moment!! As my friend Mandii said, it's gonna be EPIC!
Alaska brought out the adventurer in me, and now that I have a taste for adventure, I won't be able to give it up!
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