Days 8 & 9

These days shall forever be known as "Dennis is a rock star driving machine" days. Yesterday we woke up early and drove from St. George, UT to Fallbrook, CA. I think I drove somewhere around 45 minutes - just around my old stomping grounds in San Bernardino and Highland where I grew up, to my grandparents' old place in Fontana, which is unrecognizable. All their old chicken ranch buildings, house, and other miscellaneous outbuildings were demolished a few years ago and I'm pretty sure this was the first time I've been there since. Also since my last visit, I think about 10,000 new cookie cutter houses and 14 strip malls have been constructed in the immediate vicinity. SHEESH.

Anyway, it was incredibly smoggy in that area, but then we headed south to Temecula where Amber (friend and college roomate) teaches math and coaches soccer (and coincidentallywhere my two brothers used to live). Thankfully it cleared up a bit around there and we didn't feel like we were breathing chunks of toxic substances. We had a great visit with Amber AND got to watch the Phillies win game one of the NLCS AND we got to see it on TIVO so it was a fast game!


So we left Fallbrook early this morning and headed bravely through Orange County AND LA rush hour traffic and actually didn't have it too bad. Then we got Dennis his first ever In 'N Out burger in Santa Maria to fuel the long drive up Highway 1 from San Luis Obispo to Monterrey. Beautiful but NUTS. There's no cell phone OR radio reception, and you're basically within one wrong move of falling down a 100 foot cliff into the rocky Pacific Coastline at any time for a 4 hour period. We caught the first couple innings of game 2 and luckily got to Santa Cruz in time to listen to the last couple innings of the long game. Nancy's 4th inning text message that the Phillies were winning was clutch as we were just in civilization long enough to receive it midway through that drive.

THEN we navigated our way through San Francisco to the Golden Gate bridge just barely in time to cross as the last daylight was fading over the Pacific Ocean. What a traffic disaster San Francisco was. Dennis made it over the bridge and then I think finally needed a driving break, so here we are in Santa Rosa, CA (Hallie's hometown - we'd have called her parents if we'd known!) for the night and might make the push to Independence tomorrow. GPS says it's something like 8 hours from here, if we go the fast way. Which we might. Driving is SOOOOO yesterday.

Bork is doing great. I think he'll be really happy for a bath and oil change in Oregon, plus a little R&R in mom and dad's driveway.

Miles logged today:550-ish
Miles logged yesterday: good question... enough.