Road Trip 2024

We had a few transportation options to get to Southern California for my Dad’s Memorial this summer. I thought about taking the train, we did that two years ago when we came down for a family reunion and I really enjoyed it! The slower pace of things, and the train stations at some of the stops made me feel like we were taking a step back in time. Plus it was great not to have to have my eyes on the road all the time and just enjoy the scenery. 

I looked into flights but we already have to buy 4 plane tickets to get down here in December for our cruise, so I wasn’t excited about buying 4 more tickets, and then also having to rent a car once we got there. 

Ultimately we settled on driving, in part because my uncle Steve has a chair that he made and wants to donate to the Casler Farm property in North Idaho, so he’ll be strapping that to the top of my rig for the trip home, (and that’s why we are just making a quick stop back home before heading over to Idaho, so I don’t have to unstrap and restrap.) 

Another factor that made the drive seem more doable is that Jenica has her permit (getting her license in less than 2 months) and could help with the driving and gain some valuable practice. 

Road Trip 2024 was born! I had a hard time planning what we would do and where we would stop, so I decided to be spontaneous and go without much of a plan. 

The Lord has totally had favor upon our trip, from great parking spots, good road conditions, perfectly timed arrival for the Oregon Vortex tour, to affordable hotels, His presence can definitely be felt.

We decided to have my Dad’s celebration of Life a year later and in SoCal so more family could attend. He grew up in the San Diego area and two of his 4 siblings still live close, along with a handful of cousins.

All these hours in the car had me reflecting on my Dad’s life, and a childhood memory came back to me of a time he set out on a single parent road trip with his two daughters. My sister and I were Tenley and Kenton’s age when my mom decided to move from North Idaho to Missouri without us. 

That must of have been the summer of 1991, I think… it was right before my 7th grade year, I remember that for sure. So I think it must have been spring break of 7th grade year that my dad, sister and I set out on a road trip from Clark Fork, Idaho to Branson, Missouri. 

We made it as far as Salt Lake City, and my Dad’s VW Bus was having car trouble. I have a vivid memory of being broken down on the side of the freeway, and my dad having a close call, almost getting hit or sideswiped by a truck going by, and coming back to the car to teach us about roadside safety. 

He ended up buying us plane tickets out of Salt Lake and putting us on a flight to Missouri alone while he stayed behind to fix his rig. 

I think experiences like this have shaped who I am and fostered the adventurous spirit within me. How many other single moms would set out on a thousand mile road trip with 3 kids in tow?

It wasn’t til this trip that I thought about how stressful that “adventure” must have been for my Dad. First of all, his wife had left him and he had been solo parenting two young girls for 6 months or so. I was so hurt and broken at the time and honestly that period in my life is void of most memories, until things like this pop up. 

He was taking me to live with my mom, because I had told him that’s what I wanted in the midst of a big argument where I probably said lots of other mean and hurtful things to him.

So now not only had his wife left him, his daughter wanted to leave him too. As a mom myself now, I realize how devastating that whole experience must have felt to him.

My divorce was the worst thing I’ve ever gone through. And mine was amicable. No one moved far away and we have always made sure to put the kids’ best interest ahead of our own desires. 

I’m trying to imagine what that trip must have felt like to him. He was driving thousands of miles to leave me with my mom, while he and my little sister went back to North Idaho. Our family was shattered. His life turned upside down. 

Then his car breaks down, far from home, and who knows how he paid for two last minute plane tickets for my sister and I when money was always tight. 

I’m glad our trip is nothing like that and I’m eternally grateful that I am brave and strong enough to take trips like this as a solo parent.

P.S. I wrote this post on our way down to California. We’ve now been back in Oregon for a couple of days and the Lord continued to be with us for the trip home. The chair that my uncle strapped to the top of my car came loose on the freeway somewhere south of San Francisco and almost blew off the top, which would’ve been so disastrous and could’ve caused a horrible accident. Thankfully, Jenica wasn’t driving at the time, and I was able to safely and quickly pull off the freeway, get the chair down from the top of my car and shove it in the back (which definitely cramped the kids style for the next couple hours until we could get to our hotel for the night and rearrange things the next morning.)