Day 7 & I’m Weighing In

So, we finally began this journey 7 days ago on June 19th (Father’s Day) and let me just say that it has been a challenge so far. Well, actually, I should say we began the “road trip” part of this journey 7 days ago. We really began this journey a little over a year ago and didn’t know it at the time, but life would, once again, throw us a curve ball that would delay our road trip for about a year. But here we are!

Yup, day 7 on the road and I’m sitting here in a hotel room in Salem, Oregon writing this.

The night before we left, we pulled out our map of California to decide which route we would take up north to Oregon. We were with a few members of our family while looking over the map and I do remember specifically putting in my request to avoid any bridges on day one. Of course they all looked at me like I was crazy.

“Avoid bridges?? What’s going to happen when you’re in part of the US that has a lot of bridges?” I was asked by multiple family members.

My response, “Well, hopefully by then I’ll be ready to face that fear but I’m definitely not ready on day one.”

You see, I have a heart pounding, sweat inducing, anxiety ridden, gonna lose my effin mind, makes me wanna cry like a big ‘ol blubbering baby fear of bridges. Seriously, no joke. Ask Bobby what happened when I found myself driving on the San Francisco bay bridge one time after a wrong turn caused me to be trapped on that bridge with no way to turn back.

So, day one and we’ve mapped out a route that will avoid any of the bay area bridges…yay! And we’re off. Well, let me just say that we must’ve crossed over about five bridges that first day. I wasn’t very happy. Now, they were all fairly small bridges when you compare them to some of the bigger city bridges. But still, a bridge is a bridge in my book. And there weren’t supposed to be any on day one. I guess they were good ice breakers for what’s to come. Not looking forward to the bridge part of this road trip at all.

The drive was pretty nice. Kinda winding roads and I can tend to get car sick but thankfully didn’t. I saw this cool looking log house from the road, so Bobby turned back and we checked it out. It’s actually called The One-Log House and it’s made from one huge log that was hollowed out. Took some pics and got back on the road.

Our plan was to stop and stay the night in Eureka, CA but that didn’t work out too well. Hotel rooms were more than we wanted to pay…duh…summer season…by the beach…why wouldn’t they be? It had been a long day on the road. We were getting tired. We’d already decided that we wouldn’t drive once it got dark. We were hungry. We were getting grumpy. My amazing, great husband had already turned into Psycho Bob on me and the fact that we now had to deviate from our plan to stay in Eureka, CA only meant more time on the road trapped in our car with Psycho Bob. Not good people. For either of us.

So we kept on driving. We passed through this very small town named Trinidad, CA. This town had some amazingly beautiful ocean views but not much for lodging. I snapped a couple pics and we kept on going. I wish I could’ve seen more of this town but dark was fast approaching. I was really getting freaked out by all the signs along the road that warned of being a Tsunami danger zone. One thing you’ll quickly learn about me is that I have many fears and phobias and now I think I have a new one.

We found a room in Crescent City, got some rest and headed out the next morning. We were headed for Oregon. We took the Redwood Hwy. 199 and aside from my fear of heights and, once again, some winding roads this was a beautiful scenic drive. I’m tellin’ you the scenery just took my breath away. Stopped to grab some pics and continued on right into Oregon. We stayed in Creswell, Oregon for two nights and had a few quick visits with some family on Bobby’s side and also had to get some work done.

Yes people, we still have to work in order to keep some funds coming in so that we can continue on this journey.

Salem, Oregon was the destination we decided was next on our list. The drive into Salem was uneventful but nice. The weather in these here parts of Oregon are about 20-30 degrees cooler than what we’re used to for this time of year. We’re not at all used to wearing a sweater in June but we’re adjusting. We’ve been here for the last three nights. I have to say that I really like Salem. It is really pretty. Everything is so green. There are green trees everywhere and I like the streams that are scattered around the town. We’ve driven by Willamette University many times now and it looks like a really nice university. The buildings look really old but very well maintained. It just has a really old feel to it but in a really good way. The grounds look impeccable. I don’t know, I can’t explain it. This university just has so much charm to me and a very inviting feel to it.

Bobby and I volunteered a few hours yesterday at Mid-Valley Women’s Crisis Service who does really great work for women and children who survive domestic and sexual violence. After that we decided to catch a movie while here in Salem. We went to watch Bridesmaids (which we both liked) at the Cinebarre theatre. Before the movie we decided to grab some dinner. We wanted to stay close to the theatre so we walked over to the Salem Center mall and picked up something simple from the food court. While in the mall, Bobby spotted a Proactiv vending machine. I have never seen a Proactiv vending machine before. All the malls I usually shop at have Proactiv kiosks but a vending machine? It was kinda cool and kinda weird at the same time…had to snap a pic of that.

Then on to the movie. Okay, we were both blown away. Never, ever have either of us been to a movie theatre like this. We didn’t even know they existed (after checking the web today, I now know there are five of these theatres in existence in the US). The theatre has a bar and restaurant in it. You can watch your movie and order a glass of wine or a bottle of wine and some food and have it delivered to you in the theatre. What? We were both trippin’ when we saw this. It was pretty damn cool. Before we went into the theatre that our movie was playing in, we kept seeing servers with platters of food and drinks delivering them into the theatres. Well, the theatres have a small row of tables in front of each row of seats for your food and drinks. It was pretty awesome. I’m glad I got to see this. On our way back to the hotel Bobby turned onto a one-way street going the WRONG way! Yeah, not good. Actually it was really scary because we could see the headlights of a car coming at us. Thankfully, I’m here today to tell about it. That’s one thing about Salem…lots of one way streets. Definitely not used to that where we’re from. I’m sure we’re gonna run into many more too.

Tonight is our last night in Salem and we’re moving on. Can’t wait to see what else is ahead. Being on the road has been an adjustment but I think we’re catching on now and gaining some momentum to be able to do more of the volunteer work that we’ve wanted to. There’s always that learning curve and adjustment period. It’s kinda funny because when we’re driving down the highways, we see a lot of travelers in RV’s and I told Bobby these are seasoned travelers…you can tell. They probably know all the tricks of the trade when it comes to traveling. We could learn a few things from them I’m sure.

Oh well, this is supposed to be a learning experience for both of us. Not only is this about volunteering our time to organizations we’d like to, but also trying to grow as people, and I’m pretty sure in order to grow you have to be willing to go outside your comfort zone. Well, I’m there. I thought I was there when we sold our things and moved into a teeny tiny room for what was supposed to be about 2-3 months but turned into a little more than a year. But it appears I’m there again, only in a different way now.

I don’t even remember what it’s like to be in my comfort zone anymore. In the past week I’ve been driven over at least five bridges (I stopped counting), been in what appeared to be a tsunami danger zone and was taken down a one-way street going the wrong way with headlights coming at us. I don’t even want to tell you what we’ve both been through in the last year. I know for most this is nothing. There are people out there really suffering. But for me, given the past year and knowing myself, this is definitely a personal growth experience. I don’t expect to see things the same after this whole journey is over, that is, if I really surrender to the experience and allow myself to grow. Those that know me and Bobby, know we’re both recovering control freaks, so surrendering isn’t something that comes easy to either of us.

I’m trying though dammit!