July 14th - July 23rd - California or Bust (and Back)

On the fourteenth we took off for California to deliver the car we bought for grandson, Kellen, for his 16th birthday. It is a 2014 Toyota Camry that had 158,000 miles on it when we left Perryville. The trip out is 2100 miles. In conjunction with the drive out we rented a house in Sacramento, California, where the entire family could meet and hang out for a week. While we were driving out our daughter, Alexa, from St. Louis flew out.

2100 miles is a long trip to do in a short time. I planned on 500 miles per day, about all I want to drive (or sit) anymore. Our first stop was in Lincoln, Nebraska. We got a decent hotel, rested up, and after a nice continental breakfast headed on down the road early the next day.

Our next stop was Laramie, Wyoming. Laramie was quite a different experience. There were four hotels near the Interstate. Unfortunately, one was worse than the other. We spotted a Travel Lodge and headed there. It was so bad looking from the outside that I wouldn't even drive on to the parking lot. The entire place looked like a poorly maintained homeless shelter. Behind it was a Motel 6. It didn't look much better but I went in anyway. It was $130.00 per night. I passed. We crossed the Interstate and stopped at the "Budget Inn". The lobby seemed "okay", so we got a room. We drove around the back to where our room was located and the area looked like an abandoned warehouse grounds. We opened the outside door to the hall and found a nasty, dirty, long, hallway. Our room was the first one inside the door. Hopefully, the room would be better than the hallway. It wasn't. The carpeting was all stained and the bathroom looked like it hadn't seen any maintenance in decades. There were no trash cans, no nothing but two crappy beds. But we were beat and there was no other place around to go so we stayed. We were hungry so we drove around looking for a place to eat. Nearby there was an old, barn-shaped building called "Buffalo Indian Restaurant". There were no cars on the parking lot, which isn't usually a good sign. Kelly loves Indian food and I'm okay with it, so we stopped. Here is a picture of Kelly going in. Not very appealing from the outside.

At 4:00 p.m. we were the only customers but it was clear that a lot of their business was take-out. The place was immaculately clean and well-maintained although the decor was quite outdated. The menu was great. Here is a picture of the food, which was outstanding, and way more than we could eat. It ended up being a great choice.

We got up early the next day to check out of this hell hole of a motel. We went to the front desk, checked out, and inquired about any continental breakfast. The lady pointed to a bowl on the counter with "Cheerios Bars" in it and then to a coffee pot. This was their "breakfast". Why was I surprised.

Our next stop was in Coalville, Utah, where we found a wonderful "Best Western" motel. It was pretty new, very clean and well-maintained. We were on the third floor and had a view toward the mountains, rather than of the RV park behind the motel. Here is a picture.

The next morning we got up and had a great continental breakfast before heading West once again. We had time so we stopped to tour "Fort Bridger State Historic Site" in Fort Bridger, Wyoming. It was really quite interesting. It started out as a trading post in 1843 established by Jim Bridger on the Blacks Fork of the Green River. It became a vital resupply point for wagon trains on the Oregon Trail, California Trail, and Mormon Trail, and for the Pony Express. It was a military post until 1890. 

Here is a picture of Kelly by one of the "freight" covered wagons. They were quite large in comparison to family wagons.

Pony Express horses were stabled here. This is a picture of the stable from the outside and a picture of the windows that they threw the food through from the outside. I had never seen that before.

Bridger built a school house for his children, which was the first school in Wyoming. Here is a picture. The school was the taller portion of the building in the picture.

Today Fort Bridger State Park contains 37 acres and 27 historic structures, all accessible on a self-guided tour. Here is a picture of the "Guard House" and the "Commissary".  It was all quite interesting.

Just in front of the fort there is a set of buildings that were a motel in the 1930s with garages to get your car out of the sun. The accommodations were quite sparse. Here are a few pictures. 

From Fort Bridger we headed to Virginia City, Nevada. We looked online and there weren't many motel options so we immediately booked a room at the "Sugarloaf Mountain Motel". (Good thing we did because it filled up.) On the website there was only a picture of the motel sign, not the motel itself. When we drove up, we found the place to be an old, one-story motel like you saw in the 1940s along all the highways. Here are a couple of pictures.

When we walked up to the office a lady was sitting outside. She said it was her day off and told us to push the button and someone would respond. A nice gentleman came from the house next door and opened the office and checked us in. We were in Room 10 (out of 12). Despite being old-style, it was really well-maintained, and the rooms had clearly been recently updated. The room was very clean and quite small yet had everything we needed - a nice bed, a room air-conditioner, Wi-Fi, a nice TV, microwave, refrigerator, and an extremely nice, updated bathroom.  

Upon inquiring we were told of a nice place to eat within walking distance. It was early so before supper we decided to take a drive to check out the town. It is a typical tourist town with buildings on both sides of the street on the side of a mountain. The town plays up its old, miner town heritage and has a lot of Victorian buildings from the 19th century. There is a mine tour and a train ride. We didn't have interest in doing either. Here is Kelly walking along the boardwalk. Lots of places to drink, eat and buy souvenirs.

The mines in the town were owned by the Comstock Mining Company. Back in the day the miners were mostly Irish so the town has a huge, Catholic church - "St. Mary in the Mountains". Here is a picture of the outside.

It was built in 1857 and all but the brick walls burned in a huge town fire a few years later. It was quickly rebuilt. You can see why it burned so badly since the roof and all structure inside are wood. Here are some pictures. It is a beautiful church still being used.

After our little tour we had a nice meal at a Mexican/American restaurant and turned in for the night. 

The last leg of our trip was into Sacramento, California.  While we were driving the day before the "Required Maintenance" light came on in the car. A quick look in the manual indicated it was time for an oil change. We arrived in Sacramento before we could get in the house so to kill time, we went to get the oil changed. $116.00 for an oil and filter change on a four-cylinder car. 

We arrived at the rental house at the same time as the Wiseman Clan (Adam, Annie, Violet and Wren). Erin, Larry, Kellen and Free arrived about an hour later because they didn't want to wake Free up from his nap. We all chose bedrooms and hauled everything in. Erin brought a bushel basket of snacks. We brought beer, wine, whiskey, and Margurita mix. Adam and Annie brought breakfast food. We ordered pizza one night, Chinese another night.  Alexa made Tacos and re-fried beans one night, and Adam made home-made pasta and salad another night. All were delicious. 

We had a great time visiting with the kids and grandkids all week. The pool was small but the grandkids couldn't get enough of it. Being in a pool was a first for Free and after a while he warmed up to the idea. Here is a picture of Kelly keeping him entertained.

The girls absolutely loved the water. Violet, age 5, learned to dive in and to swim to Alexa in the middle of the pool. Here are a couple of pictures of Violet diving in.

With the help of Alexa Wren learned how to put her face in the water. She was a hoot. She would put her face in, get out, and walk over to me, and tell me what she did "all by myself". She did that over and over again. Lots of energy.

Kelly and our girls enjoyed the water as well.  Here is a picture of Erin's clan in the water.

The week passed quickly and Friday morning we headed to Tracy, California to get the car registered in California and to spend the night at Erin's before flying back to Missouri on Saturday. We went to the DMV in Tracy, which Erin said was the quickest one she has been to in California. We spent three hours waiting to get the car gifted over and registered. We had everything we needed except a smog test. Online it said you didn't need a smog test if the car was a gift but that ended up only applying to California cars. Monday Erin will have to get it smog tested and then wait in line again to pick up the plates. It cost $263.00 for plates, which I thought was high, but everything is high in California. Gas was $6.35 per gallon. August 8th she will go back there again to take Kellen to get his driving permit. There is only one DMV office in Tracy, a town of 100,000. Fortunately, once registered renewals can be done online.

Heading Home: 

We got up early Saturday and Erin drove us to the Oakland airport for the flight home. We flew Spirit Airlines and paid $40.00 in advance to check one bag. Upon arriving we had to weigh our bag and it was overweight, so we had to pay another $75.00! Crazy - $115.00 just for one bag. Spirit also charges for carry-on bags so you can't beat them. It is very difficult now to fly non-stop from California to St. Louis. We had to fly to Las Vegas for a two-hour layover then on to St. Louis. This was our first time flying Spirit Airlines and we found out that Spirit provides nothing - no water, no snacks, nothing. If you want a water or something else, you have to pay for it. We also found the seats to be totally awful. They looked nice but were basically leather stretched over a wooden board. By the time we arrived in St. Louis my butt was absolutely killing me. 

Kelly's sister, Joan, had our car at her house and came to pick us up at the airport. She had great sandwiches ready for us. It was 8:30 p.m. and we hadn't eaten since noon. We enjoyed sandwiches and then drove home. The entire trip flying was seventeen hours from the time we left Erin's at 7:00 a.m. until we got into Perryville at midnight. The drive from Perryville to the bay area is thirty hours. We could have driven over halfway home in that amount of time. I hate the hassle of flying but it is cheaper and easier than four, five-hundred-mile days by car. 

We will see the Wiseman Clan (Adam, Annie, Violet, and Wren) when they fly into St. Louis for a wedding in October. We don't know when we will see Erin's Clan next. Thank goodness for video calls so we can see our California kids and grandkids on a regular basis.