Feb 2009 Road Trip: Portland to Mississippi

So, by comparison…the trip to mississippi, once we got on the road, was a piece of cake!! The less than stellar beginning probably helped with that a bit! Hehe… the largest obstacle was the rain! We had rain EVERY SINGLE DAY!! Now, I’m not a hater of rain, but I must admit that it was tiresome while driving…mostly because it inhibits the ability to safely speed!! :D and can you believe that we had rain in both LA and phoenix??!!!?? I mean…how is that possible really? They both only have a handful of rainy days all year long!

"Our view for most of the trip!"

So, my friend mellisa was gracious enough to fly in from austin, tx to make the drive with me! We made it to yreka, ca after our disasterous beginning (see previous note if you are wondering!)…can I just say that if you want dinner anywhere other than denny’s in a small back hills town, make sure you stop BEFORE 9pm!!! It was like that little town rolled up the carpets and locked the shutters at 8:59pm!! we made our way into LA for the second night. Can I just observe here that you really shouldn’t have to take 5 different expressways in ONE city to get to one destination!! That would drive me crazy all the time!!!

"Mellisa, Pepper, and Me!"

Stayed with a good, and much missed friend, theresa, who I used to work with in portland before she moved back to cali. It was great to catch up with her! We went to dinner and enjoyed some much needed margaritas after the sometimes treacherous driving through the rainy mountain passes! We left a wet LA the next morning headed to phoenix (theresa texted me about 2 hours after we left that the sun had come out and it was gorgeous then! …huh…).

"Theresa and myself in LA"

we did end up getting some off and on beautiful weather on day 3, and it helped me remember that i LOVE arizona!!! It makes sense really…the landscape reminds me of the baja, mexico area, which most of you already know that i LOVE LOVE LOVE!! Don’t get me wrong, I love lush and green…but there is something that really appeals to me in the desert colors, scrub, and rocky mountains!! It helps that the speed limit was mostly 75!!! …which of course means to me that I can go 84. To mellisa, it means 95!!!!! Hahahaha…yeah, I’m not kidding…

"Pics of AZ and pepper enjoying the view!"

in phoenix, we stayed with another former co-worker and her husband, jeanne and brian. They are kind of like surrogate parents to me and grandparents to my dog! They are doing the retirement thing and becoming snowbirds!! They live in a retirement resort community down there…and let me just tell ya…they have got the HOOK UP!! They met us proudly in their golf cart that they then tooled around in, with mellisa and I following on bikes, showing off their community! It was pretty sweet! After dinner, we went over for a late drink/catch up session by the firepit with some dear friends of mine from alaska who also live in the phoenix area now, mark and jennifer. It was a short visit, but wonderful getting to catch up with them after such a long time!

"Brian, Jeanne, and Pepper enjoying the cart ride!"

"Jennifer, myself, and Mark"

Day 4 started bright and early…well, early at least as it was dark and raining as we left phoenix behind! Nothing exciting through new mexico (although, we did cross the continential divide and, thanks to trisha via text, know what it is again. I say again, because I’m sure we learned that back in school…but who really retains that kind of useless info?!!) i do find it interesting that, you would think that the landscape would flow seamlessly from one desert area to another…but it doesn’t! there is a perceptible difference in the deserts of AZ and NM. I def prefer AZ!

Anyway, on to texass…and yes, the extra “s” is on purpose as the part of TX that we went through must be the butt crack of all of TX!!!! You may think that I’m exaggerating…but even texas agrees!! From el paso almost to dallas, the speed limit is 80!!! Yes, that’s right…8-0! So again, to me…that means 89!!! (believing that cops won’t stop you for anything under 10mph over the limit…its worked so far!) for mellisa, that means 100…and again, I’m not kidding; she leads a charmed driving life!! The better to get through the worst part of the earth!! Nothing but flat, ugly, dead oil fields and dust storms!!!

"i swear i'm going under 100!!"

We attempted to get to dallas, but after 13 hours we gave it up and stopped in abiliene. A warm swim, a good meal, and comfy beds were just too appealing after all the nothingness of our drive! Funny story…there was a golden corral restaurant just down from our hotel. So we decided we would get take out from there. We got there at 845pm…their sign said they closed at 9pm. But the doors were locked!! So, mellisa slipped in the exit as someone came out and she confronted them about that fact. I was still outside, but mellisa musta been scary because the workers called the manager up and he promptly came out and let me in. he was declaring that his watch said it was after 9pm…we pointed out that he was mistaken. Well, they had already shut their cash registers down…so he actually just let us get food off their bar for free! I think he was worried that we would report him for closing early!! Hehe…ok, maybe not so funny! But after the horrible day of driving we had had…oh well, can’t go wrong with free food!

Day 5 dawned, and we made our way into dallas where I dropped mellisa off at the airport long term parking and I headed on to Mississippi uneventfully on my own! I got a short break, and then my dad and I headed up to Michigan to visit with my sister and pick up mom! …great, more driving!!! all total it will be 12 states in 6 days...thats WAY too much!!

Thanks for coming along with me!! more updates soon!

~~the most unbelievable day...so far!~~

Actual date of occurance: Thur Feb 5th, 2009

so...as some of you know, i was planning on leaving portland to head to mississippi today. WELL, you know the cliche of "whatever can go wrong, will go wrong"...yeah, i'm living that one today!!! i've been up and trying to leave portland since 6am....its currently 3pm.

and i'm still in portland....hmmmm.

so, we were running behind anyway...thats fairly typical for me and most of my friends (not ALL, to those who are reading this say "NOT ME!!!" hehe) but i figured being officially on the road by 10am. the first inkling that something was wrong was that my camera wouldn't work...i turned it on and the lens was opening/closing repeatedly. i shut it off and on a couple of times and got it to work finally, once. then it started doing it again!! mind you, it worked fine last night! grrrr...annoying, but not life altering!

THEN, the adapter that i got to play my ipod in my car wouldn't work...and not only wouldn't it work, it killed my ipod. black...nothing, no charge!! my friend mellisa pulls out my computer to plug it in and charge it, but it won't even open!!! AND...then my computer starts freezing up and refusing to open any programs! hmmm...about this time, i hear a commerical on the radio for a car store that advertises an ipod/car stereo adapter for $10. its close, and we need tunes for the road....so we zip over there!! when we get out of the car, i hit my key fob to lock it.....NOTHING HAPPENS!!!! are you freakin' kidding me!!!!!!

so, i go open the door to hit the lock button....but it doesn't work. i then put my key in and try to start it....NOTHING, NADA....dead dead dead!!! beyond dead....the hazard lights won't even work. there isn't even a click! i mean seriously, the door won't even lock!!

we go into the store and tell them whats going on....the guys there were phenomenally helpful!! in fact...a plug for them, if you need any car stuff and you are in the portland area, car toys is the place to go!!! anywho...they play with it for an hour and a half and FINALLY get it started by pulling someone's car over to charge it (their mobile charger wouldn't even work!!). it takes a full 5 minutes of this guy reving his engine and then mine finally, slowly turns over!!!! during this whole time, i'm trying to make my ipod/computer work and its still acting weird too!!! OH MY GOSH!!! anyway, one guys figures out how to reset my ipod thankfully, and they immediately send me over to a car repair shop to get it checked out. they run diagnostics on it and it turns out that i need a new battery....and thats seems to be it!!! crazy drama just for that...i mean, couldn't it have just died when i wasn't heading out of town!!! like, last week...when i was getting work done on it already!!!

so here i sit...waiting on my new battery for my trip that should have started over 5 hours ago!!! at this point, i'm thinking drinks are more in order with travel tomorrow....but we will see!!! hehe...i'll keep ya'll updated!!!! pray for us! ;) we clearly need it!!

~Cancer is an evil, evil word~

once the word cancer enters your world, life as you know it will never be the same...at least that holds true for me.

change has been coming for awhile...i've felt it, but i've tried to ignore it the best i could. honestly, i just thought it was me being discontent with my life. but now that i look back, perhaps the discontent was actually some kind of intuition that things were going to be out of my control soon enough.

my oldest sister, susie (known to some of you as angel) just got diagnosed with cancer. non-hodgkins, stage 3, diffuse large b-cell lymphoma. she has been feeling ill for a few months and we suspected cancer, but were all praying that it would just be some kind of infection. but, God has His own reasoning, so it wasn't to be. since that has been confirmed, it has been a whirlwind of activity! i now know more about cancer than i ever wanted to...and i wish with all my heart that she was someplace that had better cancer services than where she is! she starts her first chemo session tomorrow...and her first act of defiance against the cancer is that she let one of her grandchildren shave her head yesterday!!! hehe...i think its kind of her version of a middle finger to cancer! ;)

the ripple effect of this is that i am moving back to mississippi...my folks are in their 70's and are getting to that point where they need some help. susie was planning on moving down there this month actually, but with her own illness...its clearly not possible. so, i am going to do it instead. i never, in a million years, would have thought that i would ever live down there again...but i know its what i am supposed to do for now.

i am scared for her...more scared than i've ever been about anything else in my life! she represents sanity and security to me in my family...as well as unconditional love! for those who don't know, susie and i were born 20 years apart...to the month! so, she really has probably been more of a mother figure to me than just a sibling. she is also the greatest person i know! and quite selfishly, i'm just not ready to live my life without her in it!

i ask that my praying friends please add our family, susie's comfort and healing specifically, to your permanent prayer list...and for my non praying friends, i ask that you send many positive thoughts our way...we need them!!