The Long Road Trip

The Long Road Trip--


Car time is an important part of my life.  It is essential that I have a certain amount of car time everyday to maintain a healthy attitude.  My husband often says I should have been a semi driver.  That might be fun if I could take the semi where I wanted to go.  Love a road trip.  Love to see new things and meet new people.

We usually have a destination in mind when we decide to take a road trip.  That was the case last month.  We were so excited about that trip.  We were going to lease a cottage on the Oregon coast for a year.

We decided to buy a van and take many things we would need for the cottage with us.  We loaded it.  Dishes, linens, art work, silverware, pots/pans, kitchen things, a table, lamps.  All of that and more was carefully packed into the van.  The van would remain at the cottage.  We had reservations to fly back to our home.

On the appointed day we were off.  It is quite a distance from the Midwest to the Pacific Coast.  Twenty-two hundred miles, I think.   We quickly became accustomed to driving around 80 mph.  So, the miles sailed by.  No storms to contend with on the trip.  No vehicle challenges.  It was all going so well.

We arrived at the Oregon Coast and located the cottage.  Ok--now I need to tell you that we had only seen the cottage through pictures.  I had visited with the owner many times via email and phone.  We were relying on honesty.  Usually that approach works.

Our first glimpse of the cottage left us a bit stunned.  But we are upbeat, positive people so we decided that after a night's rest in a motel on the coast, things would look better.  They didn't!  The next morning we drove to the cottage to begin unpacking the van.

It is interesting how each of us tried to convince ourselves that it would be ok.  We didn't share our thoughts at that moment.  We were both in denial, I think.  So, we made trips to furniture stores and purchased a sofa, lamps, end tables, mattress, table and stools for the kitchen.  Oh--and a tv that would be hooked up that Friday.  We did all of this on Monday.

Then my husband began cleaning what was supposed to be clean when we arrived.  That took more than half a day.  Monday came and went.  Tuesday morning we were up early.  There were cabinets to clean and dishes to put away.  Everything from the van had to find a place to live.  Our own personal thoughts were still unshared.

A few things were a bother.  The kitchen floor slanted so much we would need to support the legs on one side to keep it level.  The living room floor was like walking into a ditch.  The room shook when we walked across it.  It seemed like it might cave in at any minute.  And there was the issue of the bathroom sink.  It had rust in the bowl and around the faucets.  I was later told it was an antique.  No excuse for rust.

Still, we kept a positive attitude.  Surely we could use this cottage for a year and enjoy the coast.

Tuesday afternoon we had a little talk.  That talk resulted in both of us being honest about our feelings. We could not call this cottage our home away from home.  So, we decided to contact the owner and see what we could do.

Long story short, we drove away on Wednesday and began the trip back across country.  We had arrived Sunday.  We were back on the road Wednesday.  We gave away many items, packed the sofa, end tables, lamps, table/stools in the van along with a few other items and headed back across country.  We thought we might go to Yellowstone, but it was too early for that.

We arrived back in the Midwest Sunday.  We had been gone nine days and had driven about 5,000 miles.

I realize many people think we are nuts.  And perhaps they are right.  However, we don't feel that way. We had much time to visit and dream about having a place on the coast.  It didn't work out as we had planned, but it was fun just the same.  We met some wonderful people on that trip.  And I certainly got my car time in!:)

My son got a chuckle about our trip.  His one comment was, "Mom, that is a long way to go for a sofa!"  I agree.  However, when someone comments on how lovely the sofa is, I have a great story to tell about how it came to live in our house.  The end tables and lamps look lovely with it.

Our attitude is this--we had a dream.  We did everything we could to see it come true.  This time it didn't.  There will be another time.  We will make a plan and drive away.  Who knows what the outcome will be.  It is the journey that tells us who we are.  Sometimes we reach an unplanned destination.  When that happens, we look for a Starbucks and make a new plan.

Anyone interested in a white van?  Give me a call!:)

Happy travels.