Let the Madness Begin!!

On this particular trip Shannon and I got an early start. We decided that we since we were both able to get the time off, that we leave on Friday morning to start our journey instead of the usual Friday after work.

This was a great way to go about it!! But I guess there are few people in this world that would prefer to work rather than go on vacation. Sure there are people that think that they should be working rather than taking vacation, but I would argue that is not because they enjoy it more, but rather a feeling of obligation or of necessity. I have met few others than my Father that would rather work than go on vacation and that is not a feeling that we share.

Needless to say there was no arm twisting involved in getting me to agree to take the Friday off. I know that it was not a popular decision since it was right in the middle of campaign time at my office, but I had made the plans for the trip a year in advance and months before I even started working the new job that I am working now. So I thought that was enough of a reason to not really care too much about how people felt about me not being present for that week’s campaign meeting J.

Leaving Friday morning was a pleasant change from the ordinary. It allowed us to treat Thursday evening like the beginning of the weekend. In our household, this means staying up a little bit later, snacking a little bit more, and sometimes even including a night cap or two since we would be able to sleep in slightly more than we usually would on a Friday morning. It sounds great and it was great!

After a relaxing and rejuvenating Thursday evening we woke up on our own without the usual help we get from our alarm clock. Not to say that I have any issues with our alarm clock, because as far as alarm clocks go, I think we have found a great compromise (http://www.philips.ca/c-m-li/light-therapy). It wakes us up on time like it should, but it does not do so by using the same scaring techniques used in horror films. Maybe it’s just me, but I prefer not to be woken by a simulation of an air raid siren that has me diving under my bed seeking protection!

This year we woke up at a decent time and we got ourselves collected and ready to go in record time….well at least record time in relation to how things went down on our last trip. We had a quick but adequate breakfast, enough to get us going and then we were on our way. Shannon also insisted that she be the one to drive on this occasion as a birthday gift to me. This was a lovely surprise! It is rare that I ever get the chance to be a passenger on a road trip and honestly I wasn’t quite sure about it.

I didn’t know how I was going to occupy my time just sitting there for a 6 hour drive. It didn’t take long for me to make the adjustment from driver to passenger and I have to say, it’s a welcome change to hand over the reins of the chariot every once in awhile. Thanks again Shannon for being my chauffeur!!

The trip went as smooth as we hoped it would. Traffic was a breeze since we had a head start on all of the other travelers the might have had their eye on getting into the States later that day. There were limited slow-downs in Seattle and Tacoma…much better than last year once again. The 6 hours went by very quickly.

One thing that I would recommend for any road trip is getting your mitts on some new music before you embark on the journey. It takes your mind off the other aspects of the trip that might usually get your attention when you are listening to the same music that you have been listening to in the car that you have been for the past year.

Another tip for long road trips and what you play on the radio, try new things that are not necessarily music. We have tried audiobooks in the past and that was very successful. You get so wrapped up in the book and what is going to happen next that the hours of the trip just seem to melt away.

Something that was suggested to me by my younger sister, who also road trips on a regular basis, was to listen to comedy acts. This was a brilliant idea! Shannon and I downloaded the new Louis C.K. stand up and loved it! He had us smiling and laughing for an hour straight. It is quite difficult to get aggravated in traffic when you are hearing the comic genius that is Louis C.K. I cannot believe that I have not thought of this before! All I can say is try it!

During our trip we encountered a déjà vu scenario. We must have had close to the same amount of gas in our tank at the beginning of this trip as we did the last time we went to Portland just a couple months back, because we engaged in the same “how long can we go on one tank of gas” game and we ended up pulling off at the same exit as we did on our last trip.

We rolled up to the exact same gas station as we did the trip before. The same gas station that Shannon left her only pair of flip flop sandals outside the car as we pulled away to drive the last leg of the trip. All of this was completely unplanned but strangely amusing. Shannon even went to see if they had a “Lost and Found” to see if she could recover her long lost sandals. She did this not because they were particularly special, but rather as a “wouldn’t that be crazy if they were still there” exercise.

Unfortunately they were not there waiting for us to come and save them. Though the woman behind the till was wearing a pair that looked very familiar…..I joke, I was not even in there to see. The experience allowed us to get the gas we need to finish the drive and the closure needed in the lost sandal saga. We wish you all the best in your future endeavors cheap and well used Old Navy flip flops!!

With the chance of running out of fuel no longer an obstacle we were back on the road and headed to our sleep quarters for the night. We decided to spend the first night in downtown Portland since none of our friends were going to arrive until noon the next day. So Shannon found us an eccentric, reasonably priced place in the industrial area of downtown Portland. I was happy to experience yet another McMenamin’s hotel, this one called White Eagle Saloon and Hotel (http://www.mcmenamins.com/WhiteEagle) at least until she did some further research and found out it was haunted.

I am going back a little bit in our timeline because this was something that I had forgot to mention.

During our enjoyable, relaxing evening that we spent enjoying our time together and getting excited about our trip, Shannon started to look further into our first night accommodations and found out it had a haunted past. This was not something that I took well initially. Why would I willing spend a night in a place that I know has ghosts? I don’t know a whole lot about ghosts but from what I know most people’s experiences with them are not overly positive. They involve being scared and creeped out and in some cases being sexually assaulted (http://www.spiritualresearchfoundation.org/spiritualresearch/difficulties/Ghosts_Demons/ghostspictures/sexualmolestation1). None of these are situations that I would knowingly put myself in the position to experience.

This being the case, my first reaction was to ask Shannon to cancel our reservations and book us a new spot. She responded by saying that it’s too short notice and that we wouldn’t be able to find any other place that was so reasonably priced in that area…..I wonder why they are so much cheaper than everywhere else lol?

My second reaction was to take a deep breath and come to grips with the fact that we are going into ghost territory, and I decided that I was not going to be scared, because, I mean, hey are you really going to be that surprised to see a ghost if you were told before hand that they might be stopping by? I was now more excited than nervous, and I was ready to see some crazy stuff and have more exciting stories to write about on my blog J.

So back to our trip, we made it from the gas station to the hotel with little incident and we checked in, and even lucked out and found a place to park in the busy lot… and we didn’t even have to pay. Score!

I have once again run out of time so I will save the rest of the story for another time. Hope you enjoyed it up to this point and I hope I have you interested enough to come back and hear the rest of it at a later date!