From Soldotna, Alaska to Irvine, California, I have finally arrived.
This past week has been a whirlwind of activity, as one can imagine when driving 1300+ miles on the west coast and getting settled into the apartment life, that I haven't had much time to catch up! But here I am, pumpkin spice latte fueling my system, so let's begin.
I began the trip by meeting Pops down in Seattle after a mere three and a half hour flight. We ended up spending a quick night there with some family and then ran into a couple of issues the next morning. What trip is complete without barriers to dodge? The first was that my shipped car was not yet ready for pickup, and then the second was a switching of bags concerning my dad. We ran around frantically that day but were finally able to get on the road.
I must say, this trip wouldn't have been possible without my friend Shelby Dykstra's delicious cake pops and my dad's teachings of the Birmingham birthplace for heavy metal rockers (such as Judas Priest, Led Zeppelin, and Black Sabbath).
Anyhow, the best part of the trip came when we were up in the Cascade Mountains in Oregon. We had just stopped for a milkshake craving and were headed up there when we realized that all of the gas places were padlocked and closed for the night. Turns out, Oregon has a state law for assisted pumping of gas and so they were all closed at that hour.
What can you guess comes next? That's right- low gas. Up the mountain we went, down the temperatures dropped, and lower did my gas gauge go. Now I was naturally getting a little stressed considering the circumstances (temperatures in the low thirties, no gas stations open for miles, no cellphone service, up in the mountains..), but my dad kept things very calm.
We ended up taking a side (and empty) road to this little itty bitty town called Cascade Falls and somehow made it to an open motel for the night.
On the next 22 degree morning, we filled up my 10.5 gallon tank with 10.53 gallons. My Fiat pulled through, by the grace of God!
That was probably the most of our issues and the rest from there was smooth sailing. We stopped for classic opportunities (an In-N-Out, a visit to Grandma and a cat fix, a coffee stop with a cute barista, etc), I drove a long ways, and spending time with Dad truly was the best.
So there's my road trip, in a quick nutshell! I'll try and get back on my feet here in the next couple of days. I think once school starts and the routine begins that I'll be able to get back on the bandwagon.
I'm now a California Girl!
Washington greets us.
Like I said, cake pops and heavy metal.
Speaking of heavy metal, we conveniently stopped at this cafe called "The Rock" for dinner in Oregon and it was naturally all rock based. Below are the booth covers and then farther down is the bathroom, which I thought to be pretty rocking.
This was the only empty gas photo I got. Proof enough, don't you think?
Next morning was the twenty-two degree shivers and frost kind.
On the road to Reno!
In-N-Out pleased us both. And here's picture proof that I ate one, for I don't eat burgers often. I gotta say, it was pretty darn delish.
Is that JohnnyDepp I see written there on the guardrails?
Just for future reference, this coffee place has delicious drinks and cute baristas.
My grandma took one look at this and cursed. It was great.
One mustn't forget the cat fix!
There she goes, on her way to Irvine!
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