Long road to Phoenix

Well it's been a few weeks and a lot has transpired since my last post. Let's start with the adventurous trek from Beaverton, OR to Glendale, AZ with wife, two kids, dog and 2nd car in tow.

I can't start without pointing out some of the interesting epiphanies that I realized while onroute.

1) Rest stop work in reverse with children. Kids are more energized and uncontrollable as you leave than when you enter, meaning as parents you're more stressed out!

2) Mini-DVD players are the greatest travel invention since air conditioning. There's no better way to occupy kids attention on long drives than movies and video games.

3) Currency for kids today (at least elementary aged boys) is in Yu-gi-oh cards. Those have real value. Money is infinite and has no trade value.

Ok, so I was packing our ABF container 4 weeks ago today. With some help I thought we were ready to head out early Friday the 16th of July. However, I could hardly sleep after seeing how pitiful a packing job was done by the kids we hired to help. While I had been side-tracked disconnecting the refrigerator and packing loose ends, the two teenagers made a disaster of the last half of the container. I spent the first half of the next day, the 16th, unpacking that half and repacking as best I could: hard sweaty work. After having spent most of the previous two weeks removing dry rot under our house, I was tired of Portland and ready to leave.

Cleaning the house so it was ready to show to prospective buyers took the rest of the day. We didn't head out until about 8pm and so only made it to Salem. After running into a bizarre Indian hotel manager we found a place we could hide the dog in. Towing an Accord behind a Mazda MPV isn't fun to begin with, but when parking nazis force you to do gymnastics that threaten your vehicles and your sanity (kids were asleep) it's time to move. The funny part was the place we ended up was a dive. We got a room with 3 beds, but the conversations in the parking lot weren't for children. Let's just say we could have rented the place by the hour if we chose.

The next day, Saturday the 17th, was spent testing the MPV's V6 up the Siskou and Grapevine mountains with the heavy Accord in tow. It did great even though it was very hot. I'm very impressed with this vehicle so far. We made it to our hotel in Salem Saturday night without incident. Sunday was more of the same and the boys did pretty well. We made it to Grand Dad's in San Diego late Sunday evening.

Monday the 19th we relaxed and spent time with the cousins. Becky had a final interview in Phoenix Wednesday morning so we left San Diego Tuesday afternoon for the drive to our hotel in Phoenix, with one stop. Riverside is a mess. Yuck. We made it to my brother's temporary residence in Palm Springs for dinner and a swim after a hot day.

The mansion Dan is staying in for his intership is pretty impressive. It's about 5,000 sf and on a golf course. We enjoyed the cool swim and Dan's hospitality. I promised to visit him and the Annenberg Foundation he's working at and he agreed to move into our guest room in Glendale for at least the first few weeks of last year at ASU (MBA/MHA). Tuesday concluded with the boring 4 hour stretch of Hwy 10 from Palm Springs to Phoenix. Thank goodness for caffeine and the Flying J truck stop.