Day 1 – June 19, 2019

I maintained a daily journal during our 3 previous Big Trips. Once a week I would send an email to family and friends to recap all of the highlights of the prior week. The main intention was to let everyone know that we were still alive.

My plan was to do the same thing this year. But our first day was so incredible that I want to document the entire day in detail to give it the proper justice it deserves.

The day started for me at 1:58 am. I woke up with a dry throat and a powerful thirst. I staggered to the kitchen to get a bottle of water. In the dark, I searched the cabinet then realized that all the water bottles had already been packed in the van. Still slumbering, I wheeled around to find the silhouette of a glorious bottle of water expertly perched upon the kitchen countertop.

I quickly spun the top, threw my head back, hoisted the rim to my lips, and felt the cascade of liquid fill my mouth.

Though my brain was tired, it took me about a tenth of a second to realize this was not the life affirming refreshing taste of water my tongue was sensing. Before I swallowed, I remembered that Kathy had filled an empty water bottle with laundry detergent.

I rushed to the sink to spit out the vile elixir. My mind immediately rewound 45 years prior when mom would make me eat soap for saying bad words. Only this time, I consumed the soap before I said bad words.

My mouth foamed over like a rabid dog. Luckily very little detergent made it down my throat. And my night guard received a cleaning like never before. And better yet, I took the Tide Challenge. So yay me!

The next morning we loaded up the van and Ashley and I were ready to go. Kathy had expressed her desire to leave at 4:30 in the morning. My position is that we had no reason to leave that early. I was thinking like 10 am. Ultimately, we compromised and left at 2:03 pm.

As we were heading for Las Vegas, all I needed to do was take 52 to the 15. That’s it. But of course I missed the 15 (because I never take the 15 ever). We jumped on the 805 (traffic), then the 56 (traffic), then the 15 (more traffic). At least we were headed in the right direction, albeit slowly.

Suddenly my phone rang. Kathy answered. It sounded serious. It was our alarm company. We had a water leak near our water heater. In preparing to leave, I shut off the water and unsuccessfully attempted to drain the water heater.

As we continued north, Kathy called Cassie to have her evaluate the situation and call us back. It turned out she could not find her key to the house. She drove to Grandma Martin who believed she had a key, but it didn’t work. Another trip back to grandma’s and another key and still no luck.

We had no choice to but to turn around and realize that one more item should be added to the definition of Big Trip. A key ingredient of a successful Big Trip includes leaving a key with someone in town.

Two hours of grueling traffic later we pulled up to Cassie’s and gave her one of our keys and a hug. We raced home to find a very small puddle of water under the alarm sensor. I talked to dad who helped me drain the water heater.

By now it was 7 pm. Our Big Trip was 5 hours old and we were back home still 6 hours away from our Las Vegas hotel. Kathy was game for a run but I just wanted to go to sleep. We compromised.

We stayed the night at a quaint Best Western in Temecula. We first dropped off a house key with Susan and grabbed dinner at Rubios at Grossmont Center. At 8:30 we were finally on the road.

Seems to me these trips involve a lot of good luck and a little bad luck. I think we took care of all our bad luck in one day even if it was entirely self inflicted. This much is certain, there is no where to go but up!