California Day 2

We just drove through Sacramento, California. I’m actually typing in the car—how weird is that? I’ll post this at our next stop if we get wireless internet somewhere. We stopped and had lunch at a delightful little café in a grocery store near the Arco Arena. This part of the drive is fairly uneventful because there’s not much to see and the cities are few and far between. We’ll spend an awful lot of time on the road today, but that’s okay by me!

We left Redding a little later than we’d planned because we traded in our rental car. It reeked like cigarette smoke, and was quite uncomfortable as well. They were nice enough to provide us with a new car though, which went a little way to redeem their terrible customer service from yesterday.

I admit, I miss the kids already… but I’m excited for my California adventure none-the-less. I wouldn’t trade this opportunity for anything, but I sure would like some smooches from my kiddos! I keep thinking about Titus’s big smiles and Leeann’s sweet snuggles!

Rob informed me that it’s 66 degrees outside. This car, a Toyota Corolla, has a thermometer and Rob is getting a kick out of telling me anytime the temperature rises. Last night I got a kick out of telling him every time he was going too far over the speed limit, so I guess we’re even!

I don’t think I ever blogged about why we rented a car, and I’ve got nothing better to do at the moment, so here it goes: Like responsible little people we decided to take our car (the evil blue Buick) into the shop last Monday to ensure it would be safe to take it on our trip. The mechanic said he could make it safe, but it would cost lots of money and that the problems he sees on the horizons (oil in the water, head gasket issues etc.) indicate that we would be better off getting a new car in the near future, and that he wouldn’t recommend taking the car to California. We didn’t want to take the van because we wanted Suzy to have the ability to transport all four kids in their car seats (and we didn’t want to pay for the gas on that puppy), and we found a relatively cheap rental car… so we took the plunge and rented a car. I think it’s turning out to be a great choice! And, we’re getting the option to “test drive” a few cars that are similar in specs as to what we might potentially be looking at. We really don’t know what we’ll do, or when we’ll replace the Buick yet, but we know it will have to be in the relatively near future. So, now you’re caught up on the life (and nearly death) of the Buick. Congratulations!

In less than 24 hours I’ll be at Vortex! Man, I’m so excited! God has blessed us so much by literally providing for this trip. I can only imagine what it is that he’s wanting me to learn, or do, or experience by coming down here. His hand is obviously all over this trip. God is SO good!

We’re now in Stockton, California. Or, driving through, rather. I’m enjoying seeing the beautiful architecture in these parts. Rob’s listening to some music being a little bit silly as he’s singing along in the driver’s seat. He keeps referring to himself as “my driver”. I think it’s cute. Did I blog that this morning? Wow, sometimes I think in terms of what I’m going to blog, so I may end up blogging the same thing on multiple occasions by accident. Whoops! Oh well.
We’ve gone 194.2 miles since this morning. We went 385ish miles yesterday. I think we’ll log nearly 2000 miles by the time we make it home. That’s a lot of miles. We can do in a day what it took others months, or even years to do just over 100 years ago. Isn’t that a crazy thought? I wonder what life will be like 100 years from now. Will we all travel by jet packs? Hmmmm….

Well, I suppose I’m just rambling now (wow, imagine that!). I’ll try to keep you updated if possible, though I won’t be able to during the conference. We’re passing exit 471… wish you were here!