Some times you just need to down size, regroup, and throw it all to the wind~ That is exactly what we did. We threw everything in storage. Our daughter and her family remained in Maine with family. Tim and I packed up our car, with our dog, and headed to New Mexico.Albuquerque to be exact. Yes, we drove from Maine to Albuquerque, New Mexico! A total of 2,436 miles a total of 40 hours not counting stopping.
The trip was more than a trip. This was the first time I was without kids. (Most mothers can relate to this.) During the time our kids were growing up. I was the primary parent. As a car wife, I was the primary parent. I did it all. So, for me, it was an actual pivotal moment. Or as Oprah says it was an Ah! Ha moment. I had to be Hayley. Trust me when I tell you. I didn't have a clue about how to be me. I was Mom. The other issue is all the years going out with the car people is a total bore for me. No offence, but y'all just talk way to much! I am home with the kids. I have zero adult interaction. (This is before internet, cell phones, and unlimited calling plans) Normally, we are in another state with no family and only friends were from the dealership. This posed to be another problem. Being the wife of the manager. I knew all the sales people's secrets. So this prevented me from having any kind of friendship with any other car wife or girlfriend because I knew way too much. I can tell you that it was not fun. I learned early on not to get too close. Nothing good would ever come out of any friendship when you know the man in the relationship is doing the secretary of the dealership. Or the husband got the sales girl pregnant and told her to have an abortion. Knowing this and understanding the girl code and how if I was the one to tell. Somehow it would be my fault kinda thing. Needless to say, I opted out of female friendship and wrapped myself around my kids.While in Albuquerque, I loved the weather. I never met a rude person. Coming from Maine, I was impressed. Case in point. The Motel 6 that our daughter and Tim staid at while doing the last sale. The lady actually remembered them and gave us the same room. That was amazing customer service. We were ready to work a sale there and we were called to go to Roseburg, Oregon. 1486 miles 23 hours. We did an awesome sale there 1500 ups. Cool people and a great owner. After the sale was over we picked up a sale in New Port News, Virginia. 3,005 miles 50 hours minus sleep time. During this trip we passed the Hoover Dam, Las Vegas (sadly it was night) the California National Redwood Forrest, and 26 hours drive on Death Valley. (freaked us out) Hit snow storms in Wyoming. Saw beautiful natural scenery in Iowa. Missed so much of the major scenery by driving through the night because we had 2 1/2 days to get there. This was where we learned to stop at the nice truck stops and use their showers...Little travel tid bit. I also learned to check the bathroom stalls before choosing for toilet paper.
ROSEBURG, OREGON
This was at a rest area in Nevada.
During this trip we used the Sprint Nav on our phone. I don't know where the hell they come up with this route, but when we got to West Virginia it turned ugly!!! We went off the highway and went through the mining towns. No big deal. As we got out of town we began to see little to no life. By the time we figured out we were going into the road that would have been seen in Deliverance. It was too late to turn around. Pitch black on this old log road. Up mountains and down mountains. Going down was a nightmare! I promise you that there is no words to ever express the fear we both had during this leg of our trip. Going down the mountain it was winding with nothing on the side, but a huge bottom of darkness. If Tim had got to close to that edge. We would have plunged to our death. I have never seen fear in my husbands face, but that day I did. Thankfully for his amazing driving skills and the graces of God and whatever angels we have watching over us. We go to the bottom. I was crying. I turned around and saw this huge dark peek and had totally confirmed what we weren't saying. That was pretty flipping close! Not long after that we got to the highway. PHEW! I called Sprint and told the rep what happened and demand that route never be available for another human being again. By the time I was done she was sobbing at my story and how scary it was. Apparently the Nav people meet monthly on this kind of thing. After I got done. They were meeting the very next day.
We got to Virginia just in time to check in and shower, change, and show up. Hadn't been to sleep for about 34 hours. This trip took it's toil on Tim, especially. He had recently been diagnosed with severe sleep apnea and has to sleep with a Cpap machine. Sleeping at the rest areas there was no way for him to use his machine. We would try to stop for one night in a motel for him to get a good sleep using his machine. We got to the dealership and for the most part our guy was surprised we showed up. He figured it would be the next day. There wasn't much for me to do and we had been drinking the 5 hour energy drinks to the point I was getting ill. Tim sent me back to the room. I was so tired I was fussy and felt guilty for being able to do this, but I totally didn't argue. Got back to the room with our dog and we conked. Tim came back to the room and I got his machine all set up for him and that was it for him. I don't remember even eating. I dropped him off and poked around a bit. Day 3 we were offered another account. This turned out later to be the best thing to happen in our journey. We were being sent to Corpus Christi to All Star Mitsubishi. this would be 1,605.3 mi one day and a few hours. That is what we call a Sunday drive! So total miles driven to this point is.......8532.3 miles this ended up being. That doesn't count stopping, sleeping, or eating.
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