The RV

To get to California from Utah, we were able to drive in an RV. Let me explain. My Grandpa doesn't get around very well. I don't think he ever really has in my lifetime but it has gotten worse recently. He was really nervous about flying to Utah for the trip. So much so that I believe he thought he couldn't go and would just have to stay home. Of course we weren't going to let him do that so my parents rented an RV so they could take their time, Grandpa could sleep and they could get him there. For going home, my parents were going to stay an extra week in Utah and Idaho to visit longer with the kids who live there so that opened up two spaces for Jason and I (and Anna who doesn't take up that much space).

My dad had driven the whole way to Utah so we had to take turns driving back. Jason had us go for about 2-3 hours at a time. That way we could get up and stretch a bit and no one has to go for any really long stretches. I drove the part through Nevada. There was very little traffic (always a possibility around Vegas and with construction) which was very nice. The strange thing about driving it was that the steering was kind of loose. At one point, I was going around a turn and holding the wheel straight. It was also kind of windy which was a bit tricky holding it steady in the lane. All in all, it was not that bad to drive; more like a big van. Another strange thing was that although there was a rearview mirror, it did you no good because it just showed the back of the RV. I hadn't realized how much I use that mirror.

Anna did really well. For the most part we kept her in her carseat for safety but I couple of times, I got her out. I didn't have her walk around because I didn't think she could stay up (it was kind of a bumpy ride) but I held her on my lap and had her color. We also had her walk around as much as possible every time we stopped. At one point, we were in a grocery store parking lot and there was a horse trailer with some horses in it. Jason took her over to let her see them. When it got dark, I put her to sleep in her car seat and put it in the back so it would be dark and she slept the rest of the way.

There was some talk of driving to a KOA, staying the night and finishing the drive on Sunday (it generally takes 13 hours), especially since we didn't get on the road until about noon. When the time came to think about stopping though, no one wanted to. By the time it was dark, the next stop would have been Baker but it was only a few hours more to the coast so why not? Plus, Grandpa especially was getting antsy to get home. Getting in at 3 am seemed like a small price to pay to sleep in your own bed that wasn't bouncing around (as I said, bouncy). So we soldiered on. When we weren't driving, the drivers all had little naps at various times so we were awake and we arrived safely at about 3 (so it took us more like 15 hours, not too surprising). I had called my brother Ben (who couldn't go to the reunion because he had a play and couldn't get the time off) so he could leave the door unlocked and he decided to stay up to welcome us. In a zombie-like state, we unpacked at little as we could to go to sleep and crashed.