The original plan was for Andrew to drive the moving truck and me to drive the car.
Our family of four (and a half) were going to make this lengthy journey on our own.
Parents on both sides had voiced concerned because of my back.
Peggy offered to have Derrick drive with us to keep us safe.
But we made what we felt was a conservative plan, breaking the trip up over five days, and felt that we would be fine.
And my back started to show significant improvement.
Then Andrew went to Boise for a week.
And I still had to bend over to make the beds and get things just right for house showings.
During that week, my back started to decline again, and it scared us all.
My mom offered to make the drive with us.
I was still reluctant to accept help.
But I started to get more and more concerned.
Peggy came over to help me pack one morning and the moment she walked in the door she said,
"Sit down - I want to ask you a question."
I had a seat on the couch and she very solemnly asked, "Do you want Derrick to drive with you."
Were I a person more prone to crying, I would have burst into tears right there.
As it was, I felt a huge sense of relief, swallowed my pride, and immediately said, "Yes."
Andrew called from work right then and I relayed the conversation to him.
His response was the same as mine.
As much as we wanted to do this alone, we were worried about my back and were grateful for the help.
Peggy had a couple of shifts scheduled while Derrick would be gone, and tried to pick up more to keep herself busy in his absence. She mentioned to Andrew that they (she and Derrick) had always wanted to drive to Alaska together. Andrew felt guilty that he was taking Derrick without her and started campaigning for her to come. So instead of taking extra shifts, she traded her shifts away and decided to come as well.
In retrospect, despite having no issues with my back during the trip,
I don't know how we would have made the trip
or the transition into our new home without BOTH of them being with us.
Before they had planned to come with us, we had intended to go out to breakfast with Peggy and Derrick before leaving.
But Peggy was working a graveyard shift the night before heading out, so we cancelled breakfast and agreed to meet them in Baker City, OR that night.
We were going to take the drive at a slow, easy pace.
I also had plans to meet a friend in Boise for dinner on the way.
We felt like Peggy could go home after work, sleep for several hours, and then drive straight through.
But despite our intentions to get out earlier in the morning, they actually ended up on the road before us.
We had spent the night at Joe's house since our house was all packed up.
Andrew had driven back to our house to pick up a few things we accidentally left behind.
He noticed the air in the tire was low.
He had gotten two of our tires replaced just days earlier, and had asked the auto people to check the two we kept.
Apparently they didn't.
So, instead of heading out on our journey, Andrew headed to the tire repair shop.
As it turned out, we had a nail in one of our tires.
We were glad to get it fixed before leaving.
Our delays also gave us a chance to say goodbye to several of my family members one last time.
My parents, Rebecca, and her boyfriend Rick all came over to Joe's house for a final visit.
Then we headed out.
We caught up with Peggy and Derrick in time to fill the moving truck with gas in Idaho.
It turned out to be a fun stop with some animals to feed and pet.
Then we headed to Boise together where they had dinner with Andrew and the boys.
I was able to meet with Teri and have dinner with her.
We made it to Baker City, our first stop, around 9:00 at night.
The hotel/motel was AWFUL!
The heat was off, so when we got there, our room was freezing cold.
The smoke alarm needed new batteries so it was chirping.
We got the heater turned on, and the room warmed up quickly.
But there was not thermostat.
So all night long we had to manually turn it on and off as needed.
The boys DID enjoy the complimentary breakfast the next morning, though, so that part worked out well.
Day 2 was the WORST day of our trip.
In terms of driving time, we had two 7 1/2 hour days and two 8 1/2 hour days.
This was one of our 8 1/2 hour days.
It was also the day we crossed the border, which slowed us down.
AND we got lost.
Even when I had planned our agendas for the trip, this was the day that refused to come together.
Coming off what was probably the worst nights sleep we got during the journey,
this day was just a recipe for disaster.
We DID get to stop and see some amazing "dry falls".
It was an awesome sight.
And we eventually made it through the border after they ran background checks on us...
Even dinner was a flop.
We had planned to eat at an Indian and Western Cuisine restaurant in Canada.
We got there at 7:00 - just as they were locking their doors for the night.
We found a pizza place in town.
The service was SLOW.
The boys were wild and crazy.
(I took them outside to run around while we waited - and waited.)
Then Ammon, who had been starving, didn't like his pizza.
Ugh.
And after dinner we still had a 2+ hour drive to our hotel.
By this time Andrew's nerves were shot so I drove that last stretch.
It was dark and the roads were windy with steep drop offs to our right.
We were SOOO exhausted.
That stretch of the drive felt like sheer torture.
I was SO grateful that each vehicle had two adults in it to talk to each other.
That was a miserable stretch as it was.
I would have been freaked out if Andrew had been driving the truck alone.
I would have been worried if Peggy hadn't been there with Derrick.
And I would have been bawling the entire way if I hadn't had Andy there to keep me alert.
That night we FINALLY arrived to the Day's Inn in Kelowna BC.
It was the NICEST of our hotels and we were SO happy to be there.
Our third day was another 7 1/2 hour of drive time day.
We took it easy which made the day much, much longer.
We stopped for this gorgeous hike at 100 Mile House.
I don't think the boys have ever run as fast as when we let them out of the car there.
They were so happy to be out.
The hike was short and completely beautiful.
From there we headed to Quesnel where we ate dinner.
Weeks earlier I had promised the boys we would eat at Denny's somewhere along the way.
So that's what we did.
It was nice to be somewhere "familiar" in this foreign country.
But it was still a late meal, and we had another nail biting drive in the dark before getting to Prince George.
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