Spokane, Washington --> Gainesville, Florida: Day 1

We stuffed our bags back into my tiny car, said our goodbyes and set our GPS for Florida. Our time had come to an end. We were going to miss our rotation and all the people at the clinic, but we definitely won't miss that apartment!

Departing conditions: 4:17pm (Pacific) Friday, April 22, 2011

• City: Wellpinit, Washington
• Temp: 55

Day 1!!!!

We got our maps, glasses and sunroof: all we need!

And we were off!!!! We knew that our first and last day of the trip would be about covering as much distance as possible, so we settled in and remembered what it was like to travel all day! Originally, we had planned on going through Oregon, then Nevada and eventually make our way down California, but at the last minute, we flew by the seat of our pants and decided to go down I-5!

During the change in plans, the GPS decided to have a little hissy fit. It took us down some super sketchy (and super dark) country road. We stopped on some random street off of this country road to take a look at our map. While sitting in our car with our hazard lights on, the cabin light on and two confused young women staring at a giant map, a very nice mom and daughter stopped and asked if we needed help. At first, we were hesitant, but then we probably looked just as sketchy to them and they did to us. With their help, we decided to get back onto I-5 and take the "longer" route. At least we knew we weren't going to hit a deer, potentially roll our car into a ditch and eventually get eaten by bears. It was definitely a much better decision for us.

Stop #1:

• Time: 6:55pm (Pacific) Friday, April 22, 2011
• City: Kennewick, Washington
• Temp: 61
• Eating Place: Panda Express --> we were craving Chinese ever since we passed up the opportunity in Vancouver
• Miles driven: 154.6 miles

With a lot of open road before us, we settled back in for the long haul.

Stop #2:

• 9:20pm (Pacific) Friday, April 22, 2011
• City: The Dalles, Oregon
• Temp: 50
• Gas: $46.63
• Gallons: 12.051
• Miles driven: 284.1 miles

BTW, Oregon is the BEST place to get gas! Gas attendants should be employed all over the country. It is unbelievably awesome to just sit in your car while someone fills up your tank, and they clean off the million bugs smushed on my windsheild!

SLEEP!

• 12:05am (Pacific) Saturday, April 23, 2011
• City: Salem, Oregon
• Temp: 49
• Sleeping place: Howard Johnson. While in one of the last major cities off the interstate, we started calling around to different hotels to find a great place to snuggle up and get some sleep. One of the problems that we had during the entire trip with hotels was getting across to the front desk that we wanted ONE room with TWO beds for TWO people with ZERO kids. Seriously, I cannot recall how many times we had to repeat it. So to our amazement, we got quoted $76 for ONE room with TWO KING size beds. SOLD! So we checked in and got our keys and hiked up the stairs to our room. Yes, I said stairs because most of the hotels that are two stories don't have elevators. We got to our room and realized that our key wasn't working. We were able to use the key to enter the main building, so we couldn't understand why it wasn't working for our room door. So I went back downstairs and left Margaret with the luggage and asked our China man what happened. He probably thought that I couldn't figure out how to work the key, so he reset the key and walked me upstairs to "show me" how to use the key. Wouldn't you know that it didn't work for him either! The whole lock mechanism was broken! You would have thought that we would have been offered a different room, but NOPE, we were told to make sure we both didn't leave the room so one of us could open the door. Seriously? And of course, I locked myself out of the room while Margaret was in the shower the next morning. Fail!
• Miles driven: 436.9 miles