The misadventures of our 2006 road trip from Ohio to San Francisco and back.  This is the 5th part in the series.  (4th part Yellowstone – here)

So. We left the hotel in Idaho.   MC says…”Mom, are we in Udaho?”   I said….”What?  You mean…I-daho!”.    And that would be the running joke until we got into Nevada.   It seems at soon as we crossed the state line it was incredibly hot.  Like hot, hot.   You could see that mirage like steam coming off the highway.   You could see the little fires burning in the brush on the sides of the highway and helicopters dumping buckets of water onto them.  It was weird.    I was driving now because seriously I couldn’t take much more of Shane’s driving.

In front of us….ON the HIGHWAY…is a State Trooper speeding head on in our direction on our side of the highway.  I almost crapped my pants.   Turns out he was warning people of stopped traffic ahead or something.   Then…all of a sudden the skies went from beautiful and sunny to Wizard of Oz like.   It was the first time I ever saw tumbleweeds.   My hands clenched tightly on the wheel.  Knuckles, white.   Tumbleweeds blew up over the hood of the car and people were pulling over to the side of the highway.

“Should I pull over?  OMG this is horrible!  I can’t see it’s raining so hard.  And the wind…I can’t stay in the lane!”

“Oh, you got it babe.  You can handle this.  Keep driving.”

He put on a song from a mixed cd we brought and I listened to it over and over for like an hour.   It was ‘Bad Day’ bu Daniel Powder.  It was relaxing.   It was a song that I played every time I felt stressed on this trip.

Just as quick as the weather turned bad, it went back to beautiful again.  We decided to get off the highway and grab some Burger King.   We took a wrong turn and went down a dirt road with some buildings at the end.   We’d have to turn around here.   One of the kids asked from the backseat,  “Mom, what’s a   b r o t h e l ?”

Yep, we managed to get off track and land up in the parking lot of the oldest ‘legal’ brothel in Nevada.   There’s some good conversation right there.

California was in our sights now.   We’re forging ahead to San Francisco baby!   Shane’s turn to drive now.   (yay).   We crossed the California state line and it was beautiful!   But I soon learned that California drivers are crazy!  (Shane fit right in).   And the elevations!   OMG!  So high and the highways are winding and where we were there weren’t any guard rails.    We’re flying along so fast and we’re keeping pace with the traffic.  There’s signs indicating steep grade/slow down and here we are flying though THE TURNS at 75.   It was INSANE!!!!

I kept yelling at Shane to slow down.  He kept telling me he was going with the traffic flow (he was loving this and in his element is what it was).     He finally calmly said to me….”Just close your eyes and go to sleep”.   I did.  And the sun was so bright that it shined through my eye lids.  And we were going so fast that it was like an acid trip with the flashing lights….you know what I mean?   I thought….wow…I always said I wanted to die in my sleep.  This is it.  I’m gonna die here.   And tears began to softly fall on my cheek.   I’m generally not a big baby and I only cry during sad shows.  Well, I cry on many shows.  I even cried on Overhaulin once.  lol.   But in real life I’m not a big crier.   It’s just that this driving was really taking it’s toll on me.  HIS driving I should say.   My right foot has been pressed into that dashboard since he took the wheel.   Every time we stopped for a break I sighed a relief.

The major cities in California are horribly congested with traffic.  OMG.  There’s like 6 lanes ALL bumper to bumper.  But not like slow bumper to bumper….it’s like 85 mph bumper to bumper.  By the time we got to our next stop….Pacifica (just outside of San Fran) it was dark and very very foggy.    And off ramps in Cali are like real quick hairpin turns.  Whoever built these was a moron.   Anyhow…it took us a while to find our exit because it was so foggy that you literally couldn’t see the signs until you were right smack under them.  And by then it was too late to get off.    Oh and it seems like it’s ALWAYS rush hour in those major cities.   At 8:30pm it was like this!

We finally found our hotel, the Holiday Inn Pacifica.   The hotel itself was HORRIBLE.  Well, not like infested or anything…it just was not close to clean.   The room they promised wasn’t the room we got.   It smelled like fish.  The vending machines were ALL broken and we had to get our keycard replaced because it wouldn’t open the door FOUR times.  But it was right smack on the ocean.  And that part was stunning.   And we’d be here for two fish smelled days.   A chance to relax and take a load off.    In retrospect, we should have stayed here longer.  (but not at the Holiday Inn….ughhhh!)   Pacifica was just that beautiful.
Having hot coffee on the cool beach early in the morning is something I’ll never forget.  Watching the kids get along and laugh and play in the cold cold ocean water was just the moment I had in mind when I pictured this whole trip.   They would be moments to take with me in my memory for the rest of my life.   It was sweet.

In the morning we’d venture into the heart of San Francisco.   I decided that no matter HOW MUCH it cost….we’d be taking a cab.  It was a 20 minute drive that took 45 minutes each way.  We had an awesome cabbie who although he drove EXACTLY like Shane….only I wasn’t uptight or scared.  He knew his way and I was at ease…..Even with the big giant crack down the windshield and the glass so oxidized that he could barely see.   But I didn’t have heart palpitations not once!   It was theeee best $225. we ever spent.   NO, I’m serious.

Stay tuned!   The next post is all about our time in the city of San Francisco!