At least mom will think this is funny

Ok, so I know this is a bit late....really late. I left Arizona on November 16th and it is now December 2nd...Spain time. I was a bit busy after mom and I got home and now have a few minutes to write down all my memories from my road trip from Arizona to Washington and figured I should do it now before I truly forget or run out of more time! Warning…this may only be funny to mom and I…only because we were running on now sleep so of course everything was hilarious!


The trip started out with Mark, Laura, and I picking mom up at the airport Friday night. We fought Phoenix traffic and made it there just in time. I had already explained my mother to my two friends in Arizona and told them to be prepared but I don’t think anything could have prepared them for the red Sylvester bag she brought with her clothes in. It was late and we were hungry so we went to dinner close by after picking up the package. The conversation was going well and we were all having a good time until the one sentence came out that stopped the conversation to a halt....”Guess what I bought? I got travel pants!!”. I just stopped and stared at mom, as did everyone else, hoping I just didn’t hear her right. My response “what in the hell are travel pants?” Yes friends, she proceeded to tell me that she bought special pants that were comfortable while she was riding in the car the whole trip. Laura smiled and nodded agreeing it was a good idea and Mark just look as confused as I did while I tried to defuse the situation. The conversation continued and soon it was time to get back up to Prescott so we could sleep for an hour and get going. As we were leaving Laura looked at Mark and said “now I know why Sierra is the way she is.” Hey! Wait, yeah ok. It’s true. I then overheard Mark tell Laura “Sierra’s mom is cool”. Whew! He hasn’t gone running yet. We hit Prescott around 1:00 AM where I said goodbye to my travel friends, shed some tears, and got more frustrated with the “Mark situation 2006”. By the time mom and I fell asleep and woke up to get ready, we had a whole 3 hours of sleep. Nice. We drove down to the grandparents where we had breakfast and said our goodbyes before heading North and West to California. The drive was what you would think....long, brown, boring, brown, ugly, and brown. The lack of hours of sleep were setting in as we started our top 10 lists of everything we could think of. The top 10 reasons this drive sucked, the top 10 reasons travel pants were great (a few of which included they were slimming and versatile), the top 10 reasons we liked the people we do, the top 10 reasons travel pants vs. travel skorts were a good idea, and the top 10 reasons we thought top 10 reasons lists were great.

We had gone through some cd’s and I heard mom ask if we could go to every casino we passed (and driving through AZ and southern CA...there are a lot). I held my ground and gave her a stern look and said no! She whined but I didn’t give in...I am my mother’s daughter. We took a gas break and upon getting back on the freeway we saw a hitchhiker. He had 2 huge bags to which mom stated “he won’t get a ride with those 2 giant bags” and upon further review I realized “he doesn’t even have a right arm!”. Yes he had an amputated arm...and yes we’re going to hell for laughing at this! Mom belts out amidst the laughter “he can’t even stick his thumb out!” Our trip to hell has been confirmed, two tickets first class! The conversation turned from mom whining about wanting to go to the casino to wanting movie popcorn. Where the hell am I going to find that?!?!?! We are in the middle of brown, ugly hell. We hit another gas stop where we got snacks and mom brought back her purchase. “What did you get?” She was looking at me totally serious and said “I got something from each food group...the salt family, the sugar family, and the doughnut family.” I didn’t realize there was a doughnut family but I’ll go with it. She then pulls out the biggest Pepsi I’ve even seen. It wasn’t a 2 liter but it might as well have been. Evidently she figured for 20 cents more she could get 1 liter of Pepsi as opposed to a normal sized bottle. But it will help when washing down the doughnuts from the doughnut family...not the sugar family mind you.

The drive sometimes too a silent turn since we were both zoning out and tired and there was nothing to look at to which mom turns to me and asks “how do you do this by yourself?!” I guess it’s the introverted only child thing...I can spend time by myself and I’m good. Although I’m glad she came!

It was lunch time (the sugar/salt/doughnut families didn’t fill us up). We stop
in Barstow where we looked for something to eat and can’t seem to find anything but a Sushi/BBQ restaurant...and while that might sound like an odd combination we then encounter a restaurant that has a sign saying they sell Donuts, croissants, ice cream, and hotdogs. Well holy hell...that is a Jennifer/Sierra joint if I’ve ever seen one. However we opt out because we don’t need food poisoning on this trip.

We drive down the street to get back on the highway were we find a dancing goose at a car dealership trying to get people into their establishment. Now I’m not one to sporadically buy a car, but if they having a dancing goose...I’m all there! But we’re on a schedule so on we must go!

We kept heading North and West before we finally hit Oakland and crashed on Erin’s floor! Sunday was spent staying in California. Mom and Erin went around Oakland and I went to a 49ers/Seahawks game with a friend from San Jose. The game sucked…not only did the Seahawks not show up for the game my friend was one of those annoying guys you see and HEAR at games that you just want to turn around and tell to shut the hell up! I didn’t know this about him before we went, otherwise I would have opted out. However I was there and had to deal with it, although I was wishing I was somewhere else…anywhere else! The game ended and I fought San Francisco traffic and made it back to Erin’s. We went out to dinner to a Moroccan restaurant to celebrate her birthday. A very cool restaurant and very good food and the highlight…we had to stand up and belly dance. Nothing like the Wood women standing and belling dancing on a full stomach…I’ll stop now so you can settle your own stomach!

Monday morning mom and I got up and said goodbye before heading out in the very packed car. Our drive through Northern California and southern Oregon was a lot nicer than Arizona! We kept trying to stop for coffee but soon realized we were in the middle of nowhere…a very pretty nowhere…and there weren’t any Starbucks or any other coffee joints. So we stopped at Burger King where we got a coke and called it good. Of course 5 miles down the road after our stop we see a sign for Starbucks. Stupid road signs! We were more rested on this leg of the journey so it was just pretty tame. We talked and talked and talked and talked some more and finally hit home around 9:00 and went to bed!

It was a great trip! I’m glad I had my sidekick with me as I drove up...definitely make it more fun! I will get my Spain blog up as soon as I can! I am still trying to pack for Hawaii and figure out where I’ll be living once I’m there so it may take a little while!