The Trip Begins

Hi Readers!  I’ve asked my sweetheart and traveling companion to journal our California trip and will be posting her “reflections” here, albeit a day or two behind time.  She’s was hesitant to do it at first, but I think she does just fine and hope you will enjoy her “view” of things. (T.)

We went to Davenport last night to stay with Charissa and Ryan for the night.  Grampy had to take Lucy for a ride in our car as she said “Cah -go”.  When she got in she went straight to her car seat and said “Buc” (Buckle) and then said, “Go”.  So he drove her up and down the street for a while :-).  Margo is growing and smiley.  Lucy seems to be very clingy to Mom right now, maybe teeth – maybe a “stage”.

We were up at 4 AM this morning to go to the Moline airport for the first leg of our journey to California.  We left the care in the lot for Ryan to retrieve later.  Our flight was at 6 AM and we had expedited screening so I could keep my shoes on … Yeah!!!!  We got coffee and a bagel while we were waiting.  No big planes on this trip.  We had a regional jet to Denver with a four hour layover.  A little crowded on the plane but the flight was a good one.

When we got to Denver we went in search of breakfast and ate at Wolfgang Pucks.  You see a lot of interesting people in airports.  There was a family with children, the parents of whom were trying to get the kids to take doses of ciprofloxasin.  They sure didn’t want to take the yucky stuff.  We looked it up on google and discovered it is an antibiotic used for people who have been exposed to anthrax!!  It made us wonder why they were taking it.

Tim spotted a young man walking with a shopping bag that had a muscular chest printed on the bag.  In the bag was a ballerina doll.  The doll’s head stuck up over the edge of the bag.  Tim chased the man down the concourse and asked for a picture.  It gave us a good laugh.

at 11:15 we boarded another Regional jet for Bakersfield CA.  It was even smaller than the first one but we were in an exit row so Tim had more leg room.  It was warm in there until the air conditioning got going and then my feet nearly froze.  It was a good flight until near the end when some turbulence started tossing the plane from side to side.  I thought that it was a rather fast landing with a hard stop.  Needless to say, Tim was a little green when we got down but he recovered.

We got a red Ford Focus and headed up Route 99 to Merced.  There was a lot of construction in places but it wasn’t a bad ride.  We stopped along the way and bought some jam, crackers, cheese and nuts at a place called Bravo Farms.

We arrived in Merced at 4pm California time and checked in to the Travel Lodge.  It’s not a fancy place but it is clean with a King bed and even better it is free for these four nights due to the travel points Tim has earned.

After unpacking and cleaning up we went to meet with the family for dinner.  We met at DeAngelo’s steak house.  Mike, Valerie, Pat, Dan, Karin and Great Aunt Margie were there.  We worked on bulletins and plans for the memorial service tomorrow.  We had a good time visiting.  I had not met Karin before and had not seen the rest of them for years.

By 9 pm we were back in the room for a night’s rest before the activities tomorrow.