California to Washington

Day five. The final push

Clearly I suck at posting timely entries on this blog. I'm into over a year and a half of travel nursing and here I am still on day five of my first trip across the country! I think after this entry I'll do a quick update on what I've been doing and then shoot off quick little updates once I get caught up. So finish this damn story already!

I was a little nervous about this last leg of my drive across the states. I kept an eye on the weather and traffic reports before I went to sleep for the night and there was plenty of talk about using chains and snow in the mountains ahead of me. I've never driven in snow, let alone driven with chains! I pictured my car sliding off the side of some windy mountain road.

Lucky for me, the snow had let up and the roads had been plowed all the way through the mountains. I did make a mistake of trying to pass a line of semi trucks, wondering why they were all only using one  of the two lanes available for travel in our direction. I found out quickly I hit ice and at 50 miles per hour. I was scared witless but was saved by the car's traction control and was able to wrestle it back to the lane with proper traction. WHEW! I think my life flashed before my eyes as I began to slide towards the rear wheels of the semi in front of me!

I emerged from the mountains covered with mud and road grime (my car) but relieved that I did so unscathed. The drive through Oregon and into Washington was scenic and relaxing. I was making good time! Or so I thought... Major traffic jam as I approached Olympia. I think it took a good 4 to 5 hours to drive from Olympia and finally into Seattle. It was cold and rainy, Seattle just like I remembered it. I was exhausted and glad that the drive was finally done. It felt great. I was looking forward to more adventures!

Arizona to California

Day four

It's 3 in the morning. Freezing cold. Only about 3 hours of "napping". Waking often to turn the car on long enough to heat the cabin, then sleeping lightly until time again to turn the car back on. My semi-reclined sleeping position in the driver's seat was very uncomfortable! I looked outside around me and saw a few vans and RVs parked nearby. Pillows and blankets propped up against the windows. Fellow travelers in the same predicament as myself. I envied the extra room they must have had to sleep in. After a few choice curse words, I opened the door and made my way to the bathroom and vending machines. 5 minutes later, I was hurrying back to my car with a bottle of Mountain Dew in my hand. I decided to hit the road again. No sense in trying to go back to sleep now that I was wide awake. I felt strangely energized and the miles began to melt away. It wasn't long before my stomach started to growl. I found a truck stop a couple of hours outside of the Arizona-California border. Time to fill up on food and gas.

The sun started to rise behind me as I pulled back on to the road. Full tank of gas and full stomach, I was determined to make it to Northern California!

I decided to avoid Los Angeles' famous rush hour traffic by leaving the interstate. I soon found myself in the middle of nowhere. "Off the beaten path" I guess you could say! I had a great head start in the day's driving so I decided to explore and maybe even get lost a bit. My Garmin diligently offered new routes to get me back onto the freeway. I decided to turn it off, confident that I could rely on it to get me back on the right path should I become horribly lost. Before long, was driving through the Mojave desert on highway 58. A whole lot of nothing. I saw and took a picture of a sign pointing to Kramer Junction that I knew one of my friends would get a kick from. I was enjoying having the road to myself. No big semi trucks around. Actually there was very little traffic to speak of at all! I flipped the GPS back on and plotted a course north. I connected with highway 99 and drove into Fresno where I stopped for an iced soy mocha at Starbucks. I logged onto the web to check the weather ahead. Snow in Northern California and through the passes heading into Oregon. A friend had just driven through these passes a few days ago and told me horror stories of being stuck on the freeway due to snow and how they had to turn back around because the roads had been closed off. I stopped at Walmart and picked up a good set of tire chains just in case. I've never driven in the snow before, let alone installed chains on my car but the instructions looked clear enough. I started to feel a little anxious about that leg of my trip as I imagined trying to install the chains in the middle of a snow storm. I grabbed a quick bite to eat (some bad Chinese food) and hit the road again.

99 proved to be one of the worst highways so far during this journey. Tons of traffic.  Narrow lanes. Crazy drivers. I hit Sacramento at the height of evening rush hour. After a few moments of white knuckle driving, I navigated back onto Interstate 5 and continued Northward. Smooth sailing from here on. The sun had started to set.

I pulled into the town of Redding around 9pm and decided to call it a night. This time there were plenty of hotels to choose from. I was looking forward to a good night's rest. I tuned into the weather channel in my room and watched reports of road closures for the route I had to take. I fell asleep thinking about sliding around on the snow and ice.