3/17 Weed, CA to Castle Rock, WA (HOME) – 410 mi
To see the entire road trip visit www.tanstaaflpress.com/tgrt/
Don’t ask me why, but I woke up in Weed at 4AM and couldn’t shake a sense of foreboding. I think I worried about possible border closures and travel bans. Adding to that was my overriding desire to be home and close out this disaster of a trip.
I only had 6.5 hours left to drive. Why not right then instead of waiting for some mythical “wake up time”. So I bundled up and hit the road. Nominally I should have done laundry and a shower but home beaconed. My wife would forgive me being scrubby. And I’d have plenty of time to do laundry later.
I don’t remember ever being so single-minded about driving on this trip. No movie. Only a bit of music. I stopped for gas only. Bathroom had to wait for gas stops. I pushed my tank so that I only stopped twice (pretty good when you are only getting 15-16 mile per gallon on a 14.5 gallon tank). I ate stuff that I had in the trailer and gutted it out.
I focused only on getting home, counting down the hours. Each new town in Oregon was a milestone as was crossing the bridge into Washington. I knew it would only be a bit more. I came up our road at about 12:30PM feeling the tension in my body release (and oddly watching my wife drive past me on a post office run).
I will say I came close to crying with relief when I pulled in and shut off the engine. I just sat there for probably fifteen minutes. The end was here. My responsibilities for this trip could be dropped. Home.
I collected some essential items from the car and trailer and went inside for a shower, food, and sleep.
My wife returned and caught me in the shower. She hadn’t been expecting me until late evening. Then, of course she hadn’t expected me to leave at 4AM or even make it to Weed.
Next: Wrap-Up