Off to Grandma’s House We Go
Day 1 - Well, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. When we first went on our West Coast road trip in 2016, Chad wouldn’t get in the car because he had to clean the entire house and car, review the supplies a million times before we started, research this and update that and we didn’t get on the road until later in the afternoon.
We have repeated history and worked to get ourselves settled starting at 5:30 a.m. and finally pulled out of the driveway around 12:30 p.m. Only for me to forget my passport. Oops. First U-turn of the trip.
So, where to? The general plan is to take I-35 south through Iowa, Missouri and head to Kansas City. From there, we have a choice of sneaking over to Saint Louis, MO or down to Dallas, TX to see a friend.
"The Name's Chad, Clean-Shaven Chad"
Since I have known Chad, he has always had some sort of facial hair and I have never seen what his actual face looks like. We have been joking for a while that when the next road trip comes along, he should shave his beard off and see how long it takes to grow back.
(Cheesy James Bond reference since we just completed a 5 month journey to watch the James Bond movies in the order they were produced.)
Buzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. Today’s the day!
He is so not the same person! He sounds the same, but whenever I look at him I do a double-take because he is not the Chad I know. What a transformation; he totally cut off years from his face. He said he looks like he could be casted as a high school kid for the Disney channel.
Blog & Freelance from Anywhere
With the need to use a laptop for blogging and working while on the road, Chad has engineered a work space for me. There are three pieces that come a part for easy storage and can be quickly assembled (after practice). All he needed was plywood, 1x1s, screws and 10mm bullet casings. To make the pieces assemble quickly, he used the bullet casings as dowels so they pop into pre-drilled holes in the two supporting sides. It is absolutely wonderful.
Chad even sanded the entire top surface to prevent slivers, rounded the corners, cut out a curve for the torso and designed the desk to allow the car’s middle console to still open. Don’t worry, the two cup holders are also still accessible. You can’t have enough cup holders on a road trip.
First Stop, Grandma’s House
Nothing better than stopping off for a pancake brunch at Chad’s grandparent’s house to start the trip. Thank you! These lovely humans shared with us their experiences of when they took road trips in their 60+ years of marriage. One story we thought was hilarious was when they were traveling in areas that had very few gas stations. They actually had to push the car into the station because they completely ran out of gas and only had fumes to spare.
With fully tummies, a packed car, and some sense of direction, we said good-bye and headed off towards Iowa.
Who Need’s Gas?
We finished off the rest of the daylight without even having to turn on the radio or listen to a podcast/book. This is because Chad and Katie were lit off coffee and tea from brunch. We constantly were bouncing ideas everywhere while I researched and read articles pertaining to those ideas. Imagine two squirrels sitting in a car, trying to communicate about everything all at once.
Des Moines finally popped up in our view and we made our way to Costco to fuel up. But, when mapped out, the destination was about 30 miles a way and Chad said we only had about 40 miles left before completely empty. Confidently, we continued our way thinking we would be able to make it. Yikes. The gauge kept dropping miles like dead flies – ticking away in 5-mile increments.
Sweating heavily, we were about 5 miles from our destination when the digital gas gauge said we only had 5 miles of gas left in the tank. Now the car is extremely hot, we are leaned forward in our seats, barely accelerating and openly commanding the stop lights to stay green so we could coast on through. Funny sense of humor they had – all red lights.
Limping along into the Costco parking lot, we prayed there was a gas station at this location (on the GPS it looked like there was) and we slowly went around the perimeter looking for it. When we finally pulled up to the pump, the gauge said 0 miles left and we let out a huge sigh.
Funny how earlier that day, Chad’s grandparents told us their story about running out of gas and we just HAD to replicate the situation. What a rush!
Sashimi Please
With Costco (wet wipes!!!) and Scheel’s Sporting Goods (MSR camp towel for Katie and propane for the grill) shopping trips out of the way, it’s time for dinner. Chad rearranged the car to make more space while I prepped a sashimi yellow tail dinner on the new desk.
We had purchased a sushi-grade yellow tail piece of fish and had it thawing in a cooler during the day. So, it was perfectly ready to eat by the time we stopped. Dinner consisted of an entire chunk of yellow tail, fried bean curd, bamboo shoots and three different types of sauces to dip the fish in. There was not enough room for the tomatoes. The fish was super filling and refreshing. We are not too sure about the bean curd and the bamboo shoots would probably be better in a stir fry. Either way, super bizarre and crazy first car camping meal.
First Camp
Chad continued to drive into Missouri and we broke camp at a Love’s Travel Station. All cleaned up from dinner, we prepped the car for sleeping. Of course, Chad manages to get his space all ready to go in no time and I am fidgeting everything around for the next 20 minutes. We brought at least 8+ pillows which we packed under our feet, lower back, head and next to the doors to lay our heads against. Once settled, it’s really comfy.
Final Check: Teeth flossed and brushed, sleeping masks adorned, blankets arranged, windows cracked for air, and we are good to go for the night.
