Saturday, April 5

The California Desert and Route 66 Caching: Day 1

The alarm went off at 4 a.m.

Grumble grumble grumble, as I lay in bed wishing I didn't have to get up.  A part of me wanted to stay in bed but the other part of me wanted to get ready to go to the airport for my caching vacation.  I did my bathroom things, packed up the stuff in the suitcases, put it in the car, got Ben ready and off we went...all in less than 25 minutes.  We really did not feel like making a meal, mostly because of the time, so we ate apples and sang Disney songs on the way to the airport.  I have never gone from Bonney Lake to SeaTac so the drive was very different from the usual hour and a half from Rainier.

When we got to the airport it was very busy.  I pulled the car in to the Southwest area and wow, people were starting to line up outside to get their bags checked.  We got all the stuff out of the car, said our goodbyes and I went inside.  I had to use the bathroom ASAP.  I wheeled my suitcases as fast as I could.  I saw the insane line for Southwest and cringed.  Ugh, I have to stand in that.  I used the restroom and stood in the enormous line.  It actually didn't take as long as I thought it would.  I got both my bags checked in, I had my boarding pass and license all ready and now I needed to get in the security line.  It went quickly too.  My bag was screened further because I forgot to take my laptop out of its bag.

I found my gate, B12...talked to mom and Ben before it was time to get in line with the B's.  I got on and found a window seat in the back.  I sat next to a 13-ish year old and a guy in his 50's.  Both stared at their phones the entire time.  The boy played games and the guy watched music videos.  I read my book.  We took off a little behind schedule because of a luggage mishap.


Halfway though the flight to Sacramento  I was getting sleepy but I knew we were almost there.  I looked out the window because it was finally clear and saw Mount Shasta in the distance.

About a half hour or so later we were making our descent into Sacramento.  Last time I came through here was with mom and Doug in the car back in July 2010.  It looked so big from the sky.  When we landed, it took a long time for me to get off the plane and I was one of the ones who needed to switch planes...hurry up!  I thought I may have time to use the restroom but I didn't.  I literally got off the plane and got in line to board the one heading to Ontario.  I actually had an A boarding pass this time.  We went down the hallway and into the plane and I saw Brenda and Ray in the front row.  They had saved me a seat next to the window.  I had to cram my back pack in the overhead storage because we could not store them underneath the seat in front of us because we didn't have one.  We talked most of the way to Ontario.

We got off, grabbed our luggage and got on the rental car bus so we could pick up our van.  Because Ray is a gold member we didn't have to stand in line.  It was already parked with the keys in it so we could just drive it away.  His name was also on a board...almost like royalty.


We picked up Jim (Jholly) from a hotel he had an agreement with.  I guess the airport has a deal with hotels in the area for people to park there for a minimal fee, like 4 dollars a day. It was a few miles from the airport.  He had driven down to visit family in the area.  From there we hopped onto I-15 and drove towards Barstow.

Before actually making it to Barstow, we decided we were hungry and needed to get food.  We found a truck stop along the way and an IN-N-OUT.  I haven't had it in a year to the day exactly.  Every time I've gone to one it has always been swamped with people.  This one was no different.  People.  Everywhere.  I ordered the #2, which was the cheeseburger, fries and a medium drink.  It was delicious.


We got back on the road and continued to Calico and the ghost town there.  We arrived, paid our admission fees and parked the car.  It was already starting to get warm out.  We walked through the town, read all the history plaques and took a bunch of pictures.







We saw a lot of Asians and Jim asked us why they were holding up their wallets.  We told him those weren't wallets but smart phones with cases on them.  It was funny.  On the way back to the freeway, we managed to find 11 caches before we checked into the hotel and found some food.  Before the trip I started out with 7573 caches.




We checked into the Roadway Inn, brought our luggage and packs in and made ourselves at home.  We went across the street to Von's (a Safeway associate) and got some groceries for the next couple days out on the road (bread, chips, water, cookies, ice, bananas etc.)  We gathered everyone and decided on Mexican food.  Jenny's Grill was just down the road so we walked there.  They didn't serve alcohol so Brenda could not have her margarita and once we got our food, I ordered taquitos, beans and rice, it was terrible.  Ray had to send his food back because his taco salad was very watery and soupy.  We did not leave them a tip.  We went back to our hotel, took showers, internetted and then decided to go to bed around 10-10:30.

Next Adventure:  The California Desert and Route 66 Caching:  Day 2

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