Just a thought… Stay Calm and Erin Go Bragh.
Happy St. Patrick’s Day if you celebrate. I have an Irish king (John) in my family tree but even that wouldn’t get me a free Guinness in Dublin, I’m sure. So I’m happily a Canadian Queenager instead.
We’ll call this blog a Long Day’s Journey into Nice: short tales of the long road trip as we headed home from California’s Coachella Valley, up the Pacific coast through the state, then into Oregon and finally Washington before hopping the ferry back home to Victoria, BC.
Like so many Canadians, it was the last time we’d be leaving the US for a good long while. Even though tRump and his crooked, market-manipulating cronies have been turning tariffs on and off like he got the Clapper for Christmas, we seem to be holding firm and slapping back.
Anyhoo…a few stories from little stays along the way home, breaking up our six- and seven-hour daily drives.
As you may have heard me mention to Lisa in Episode 116 of our Gracefully and Frankly podcast, our first three nights were at Best Westerns. They varied in layouts and amenities, but most were clean, convenient and friendly (and one even had no pet fee). All three had Keurig-like coffee machines and if you know me, you are aware that oxygen ranks second on my list of needs to stay alive. (I kid, but barely).
We deviated from motels late in our trip, hoping to have memorable and romantic experiences. We got neither. We did learn that two tall-ish adults and two little dogs don’t fit all that well on a queen mattress. But Rob made do with the floor. (Kidding!)
We learned that website pictures often do more justice to a place than it deserves; when you book a room in a cabin condo, you don’t learn until you get there that there will be several paces along an elevated outdoor walkway, followed by two flights of stairs to get in and out. Do we travel light? No, friend, we do not, considering we were away for three months. While we mostly organized what we needed per hotel night, a lot of bags were involved for us and the dogs.
So, one in particular was a real slog…and we were rewarded with that queen-sized bed. Also, you don’t find out until you see the room how tired it is, and how long it’s been since its owners (presumably in a timeshare) have updated it. A crap shoot for sure.
Rob could save us a fortune fixing things along the way, just as he did in the house we rented! He worked off the cost of heating the pool to 85F each day by cutting to fit a solar blanket for the pool to retain the day’s heat and save money, adjusting the frame of an old dishwasher so the door stayed closed (and later installing the new one); moving an old fridge out to the curb, repairing the gate opener so that the remote signal was stronger, and countless other small fixes to make the older house better for the owners and future guests.
We learned that driving long-haul with an electric vehicle is an exercise in hope, trust in apps and patience, not all of which are rewarded. One hotel we stayed at had two chargers (yay! free!) but one guest plugged in for about six hours, and had parked so that no other vehicle could possibly back in safely to get to the other one. There we lost out. But the next night there was a slow-speed charger and we were one of only two couples in the little cottages (they didn’t drive an EV), so we got to stay on it as long as we needed, and saved ourselves a few hours’ charging on the final leg of our trip. Plus, free!
We learned not to let me book a hotel at the end of a long day on the road. I did that on Wednesday night for the next night’s final stay in the US and inadvertently had us staying the wrong night. When I wrote “see you tomorrow” in an email confirming our resos, thank goodness an alert human saw it and said, “Did you mean tonight?” She was kind enough to change the booking (which we could have had to pay) and even gave us five dollars off for a cheaper night’s rate. Maybe it was karma for the next story I have to share….
Sometimes you swallow your pride and plea to pee: at one daytime stop at a Motel 6 we found a highspeed charger, but there was no one in the office to ask about washrooms. So I searched out a cleaning cart and, sure enough, an older couple (likely the owners) were servicing the room. I offered to give them money if I could use the washroom, provided they hadn’t cleaned it yet. They said “Sure!” but refused the money. So I peed, then asked if my husband could also do the same. Once again they happily said yes, and I left the five-dollar bill on the bed, saying I insisted. Hey, pay to pee? Just like Europe! We were relieved. Literally.
On our last full day in Washington State I not only saw but talked with Sasquatch! Okay, not the real deal (as if one exists), but a 52-year-old woman in the hospitality industry who had no idea what I was talking about when I mentioned trade wars with Canada. I want to live in her rainbow bubble. She says news stresses her out, as she’s afraid of what might happen to her as someone who immigrated from Hungary and has been in the US since she was six. Imagine that kind of fear.
I felt melancholy saying farewell to the memories we made all those winters in California, from long-ago visits with Mom while she was living in Palm Desert, to adventures with the grandkids there two winters ago. We won’t back down and our little sacrifice is nothing in the big picture. If anything, the gorgeous scenery and kind people we encountered reminded me that we are so much more alike than different. It also strengthened our resolve to see more of our new-ish home province, Beautiful British Columbia.
So we’re home: not sad it’s over, but glad it happened. With elbows up, we’re ready to take on whatever lies ahead. And whoever lies incessantly. Oh and next winter? Looking at you, Puerto Vallarta. No driving, but definitely taking Dottie and Livi again. Our options will be fewer but that resolve is strong.
Enjoy this week and thank you for spending some time here on these last days of calendar winter! (Spring arrives Thursday just in time for Ep. 118 of Gracefully and Frankly. If you haven’t been to the website yet, please visit and click through to listen or even leave a voice message to air on our show! And follow the podcast so you don’t miss an episode, won’t you?)