Today was the last day of the LilliepadUSA 2008 Family Roadtrip -- a little bit of a sad day for all of us. I personally will miss the daily adventures and writing about it afterward, and I think Jill and the kids will miss .
I would like to start this post with a shout out to the Marriott Corporation for their customer service approach to their Marriott Rewards members. We arrived in Medford last night very late (around midnight) and were planning to stay at the Courtyard Marriott by the airport. Well when we arrived, they only had a room with a king and a sofa bed, even though we had confirmed a room with two queens and a sofa bed. They felt horrible and tried to get us a room at a sister property in town (the Fairfield Inn & Suites by Marriott) or their new property, the Springhill Suites. Springhill had a room for us, and on our way out the gentlemen (Cliff and Donald) at the Courtyard Marriott offered us water and apples and even stuff from the store. We took the water and the apples, declined the store, and off we went to the Springhill. When we arrived at the Springhill Suites, they told us the room would be taken care of by the Courtyard Marriott! I was surprised but also very pleased -- Marriott just reminded me why I try and stay at a Marriott wherever I go. Bill Marriott would be proud!
We had a leisurely morning at the hotel with breakfast and a swim. We left the hotel about noon and headed for Vacaville, California, where Jill's family would be waiting for us with a big family dinner. As we headed southward, we increasingly noticed the haze getting thicker and thicker. The California fires were impacting southern Oregon; in fact, when we were horseback riding in Buffalo Valley our wrangler told us that the haze around the Grand Tetons was caused by the California fires. Not sure if that was true or not, but I can tell you that they were wreaking havoc on southern Oregon! You can see the haze on the horizon behind the "Oregon Thanks You" sign in his photo we took:
As we entered California we actually missed taking the picture of the Welcome to California sign but I managed to scrape one up anyway:
We had come full circle and were now truly headed for home.
It was a fairly uneventful ride from here on out. Interstate 5 is fast but not extremely interesting, except when you hit the town of Weed, California and get your first glimpse of Mount Shasta. Mount Shasta is normally a beautiful, 14,179-foot stratovolcano that stands out in the sky above Weed, but today the haze from the fires was so thick you could barely discern it from the sky. The picture below is probably the best one out of several we tried to take while driving by it:
Check out the link provided on Mount Shasta -- it really is an interesting mountain and definitely worth a visit and even potentially a climb to the top.
After going by Mount Shasta we went through Dunsmuir and then by Shasta Lake. WOW! Shasta Lake is extremely low this year, probably 25-30 feet lower than last year according to some locals. And it is not just Shasta -- other lakes and reservoirs in Northern California have been affected. Global warming driving this climate change or just low rainfall and water exports to Southern California?
We drove through the ovens called Redding and Red Bluff (temperatures around 98 degrees Fahrenheit), where I saw a big, beautiful American flag flying in the breeze -- I had to take a picture of it for Uncle Matt:
A quick shout out to Uncle Matt, aka Matt Gallagher, Jill's brother, and Technical Sergeant, US Air Force Reserves who served in the desert recently for 10 months. Matt got deployed with a special military civil engineering team called Prime BEEF, to serve in both Iraq and Afghanistan (and several places in between). We are very happy to report that Uncle Matt is back home with his wife, Jane, and their two small children, Jared and Heidi, living in Vacaville, California. Being the patriot that he is, Matt reenlisted for two years when he got back from the desert. We love and respect you, Uncle Matt. Salute!
We continued to pound down I-5 and soon we saw the signs we had waited to see:
I-80 West to San Francisco...we were truly headed for home!
After seeing this sign we were just a short distance to Matt and Jane's house where we were going to have a family feast. Jill's mom, Lynn, is an **excellent** cook and when she told us she had prepared her famous ribs and that Jill's dad, Ken, was barbecuing them, we slightly exceeded the speed limit to get there as fast as we could!
When we arrived, it was like we had been gone for a year. Jill's parents, Matt and Jane and the kids, all came running out of the house to greet us with hugs and kisses. Let me tell you, after almost 30 days on the road where everyone you meet is a stranger, it was very nice to be greeted that way and welcomed home so warmly.
We had a great night, eating really good food with family. Jill's sister Gayle also came to the dinner with her friend Ernie and his three children. It was family reunion time!
Below are just a couple of snapshots Jill and I took of the evening:
Kids eating dinner with Big Nonno
Natalie and Ernie's kids playing a board game
Heidi presenting us with a home-made shell wind chimes from the beaches of Capitola
Jake presenting the flag we carried throughout our entire trip to Uncle Matt
Nick and Heidi just goofing around
Needless to say it was an excellent night. We ended up staying at the table outside (it was so pleasant) and talking until 10:30 pm, at which point I stood up, cried "Uncle!" and said we had to go home or we would be spending the night in Vacaville. Vacaville is about 90 miles from home, so we needed to get going in order to make it home at a semi-reasonable time. Another midnight run.
So off we drove into the night again, our bellies full, our hearts happy and with a jar of mom's home made pesto that we love so much. Into the night for the last 90 minutes of the great road trip of 2008. A trip for the ages.
Peace to you all,
Brian
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