Day 1 - Los Gatos, CA to Twin Falls, ID

It's here! The big day has finally arrived.

Day 1, mile 0

2:30am
I drag myself off the couch and start the final loading.

2:45am
Laura and I go wake the kids to get them loaded into the van, too. Needless to say, at first, they are not thrilled to be piling in the car instead of sleeping

From Sabbatical Ro...

3:20am
Everything is loaded, including the kids and we're ready to roll

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at 3:27am we hit the bottom of the driveway (literally bottom out the bike rack) and we're off. We do make one "quick" stop to mail letters at the post office, but at least we're off.

At this point, I'm wondering if this was really such a great idea after all

From Sabbatical Ro...

but we're committed.

Day 1, mile 158

5:58am
Ok, so the van wasn't full of gas when we started. That's no big deal. I like to have a full tank when I leave Auburn to cross Donner Summit. It's a carry-over from doing the drive during ski season when you can get stuck... not much chance of that happening this morning, but old habbits die hard. So, we pull off at the Foresthill exit and gas up and take the trips first "bio break".

A quick poll shows that everyone is still having fun

We decide that we'll switch drivers. Laura is eager to test out the laser cruise control

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We're ready to hit the road, and then we remember that we forgot something




Day 1, mile 221

7:15am

We stop for breakfast at the "Coffee &" in Truckee. At first, Charlie is complaining of being carsick from the drive through the mountains, but a little toast and bacon seems to perk him up.

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We switch drivers again and I head us out of Truckee towards Nevada at 8:27am. Up until now, the trip had just felt like another "Tahoe Getaway"... but as we left Reno behind and started charting unfamiliar parts of I-80, it was clear that this was something different. I mean, I knew it was something different along, but it hadn't really pushed outside of my "vacation muscle memory" until we starting driving roads that were new to us.

Day 1, mile 308

11:00am

We gas up again in Winnemucca, NV. The tank's not empty, but things seem pretty spread out in Nevada, so getting gas seems like a good thing. Besides, I'm curious to see Winnemucca from a driver's perspective after having experienced it from the train last August when we had an unexpected 3 hour stop there to rest a crew.

From 2007-08-Chica...

This time, I'm coming and leaving when I choose to and I'm not searching for Children's Tylenol for Katie (she had a flu on that part of the trip).

We fill up and Charlie guides me into a parking space


Just to prove that this is really Winnemucca, I took Charlie's picture with the "W" in the background

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I wonder if George Bush stops to have pictures like this taken of him with he finds prominent W's.

11:25am

We're on the road on the way to Elko for lunch. Laura is driving and the kids are all engaged in some activity. I captured this viedo


I'm sure it will get old at some point, but for now, they are very "self-entertaining".

At some point, though, we do rely on DVDs in the car.

From Sabbatical Ro...

I know that some people scoff at this. "It's robbing the kids of the joy of experiencing the scenery." "It's a crutch." Or, some other similar rationale.
I just have to shrug and say it works for us.

Day 1, mile 528

1:18pm

Stopped for lunch in Elko. It wasn't very memorable. I didn't take pictures. Got back under way at 2:15pm, with Laura still driving.

4:00pm

We rolled through Jackpot, NV. We purposefully, did not stop, but we did notice that Kenny Rodgers was playing there. Guess you can sing, "Know when to walk away, know when to run..." and not have mastered the knowledge.

Day 1, mile 688

6:05pm

We arrived in Twin Falls, ID. Somewhere along the way, we changed time zones. I followed my friend Joe's advice and once we checked into the hotel

The kids had a swim

Then, we had dinner and a drink at Jakers

and then went to bed.


Well, everyone else went to bed. I stayed up and created this blog entry. I'm new to this, so I may start getting a little more terse as time goes on.

How do I feel after one very long and tiring day at this roadtrip thing? I'm not sure yet. I think it's going to take a day or two to get into the rhythm of this life on the road. I'm going to be doing it for 5 full weeks. I can see where I'm going to get to like it.