Adventure! Day 25 -West Covina
This morning was the first time all month we didn’t make it out the door at our planned time (of 9:00). It was 9:37 and I have analyzed the situation and still can’t figure out why. Nothing was different from any other time. We woke up at 8. We should only have needed one hour based on our past history. No one took a shower, laundry didn’t hold us up, and breakfast was cooked and ready in time. I’m letting it go. Our bus is also packed all Willy-Nilly and it’s making my eye twitch but I’m gonna fix it while we drive later tonight.
We are technically headed home now but stopping for the day in West Covina to feed two birds with one scone. It’s too hot to drive in the day because you simply can’t run your ac while climbing a mountain in 115 degree weather. And sometimes you have to run your heater. And if we ran the heater I’m pretty sure we would all die. So we are taking the southernmost route back to Florida for 2 reasons- 1. To avoid the climbing as much as possible and 2. Because we need to hit south Austin to see a man about a tuba. As for the other bird we are feeding, it’s the Crazy Ex Girlfriend bird. West Covina is the place one of Tanners favorite shows was filmed and how could we get all the way over here and have it directly in our path home and not stop? So we are planning the day there (first bird- somewhere beyond LA to chill for the day). Torie suggested we burn time at the movies after we tour filming locations so maybe we will see Despicable Me 4. Mainly we need to be busy, inside until 6:00 or so, otherwise we will overheat Miss America and be stranded.
I’ve been working on my driving home playlist. Our roadtrip playlist has been amazing and song one is on the road again which Eli now hates so I decided to make a home playlist so we can all stay focused on being excited about heading home. I am thinking we will need the hype as we will be keeping the pavement hot from the west coast to the east for the next 3 days. But first we will listen to the season 1 CXG playlist.
Tara’s aunt told me that we got lucky as this week was the first week they’ve seen the sun in a long time and she referenced the June Gloom. It did feel idyllic- just the right amount of fires around that the sunsets were unbelievable but not so many that the air quality was bad. Too many fires and you can’t see anything and it is just foggy. Damien texted today and said it’s raining in Florida and we all miss the rain. What’s that song about missing the rain? It needs to go on my playlist.
Great news! We got a new gas cap. So the gas cap light turned off but then the check engine light came on. We turned it off and on again and now no lights. Whew.
We popped over to Roman and Virginia’s to say goodbye and Uncle Ron helped me and Eli look at our motor and check fluids. We added a little oil but he was impressed that we were only a quart low after all that driving.
Both Grandma and Grandpa have nine decades and some change. Grandpa was born before the 1930s. He told me today he that he saw his doc who did his pacemaker 30 years ago. He was proud to have the same doc and was sad to have gone to the visit in such a modern office.
We haven’t been able to post our last few days but hopefully we will be able to while we are on the road. I’m just the words though, so our illustrator will have to decide. She was too tired yesterday at the end of the day. I dropped my photos to her and was shocked to see that just the day before we were in Yosemite. This last leg has happened at warp speed. And I think all the hiking and sleeping on the floor is catching up with all of us.
Tara is driving right now. She enjoys the city driving and we are going to have to navigate the LA traffic. I drove us out of the mountain and it wasn’t scary at all from behind the wheel. I feel bad for telling Eli to slow down. California and Colorado need to get together and make up their minds about road speed suggestions. In California when it says 30 our bus can comfortably go 10 over but in Colorado when it says 30 you better slow down to 20 or you’re flying off a cliff. We need the Goldilocks state. Maybe it’s because it’s suggested for bad weather? I don’t know. I’m pretty sure Colorado people are just crazy pants. California road people are surfer chill.
Surprise! we are stopping at the Erewhon. We have time to burn so it’s cool. It’s a grocery and apparently iconic and Torie had it on her California roadtrip bucket list.
We ran into Jenna and Eric. I guess the instinct to go to the Erewhon is genetic. Kinda like how generations of mice return again and again to the place of their ancestors no matter what. Some gene in there telling them it’s home.
We are on the road again and Eli is behind the wheel. Tara drove us through LA traffic- 7 lanes and 20 mph in some spots. Took a while but we did not over heat. Made it to West Covina and iconically the place we wanted to see was closed. But we had a plan to go to a movie to eat up the daylight and the movie theater we picked was the filming location for the opening sequence of CXG (Iconically the fountain was not operational). We saw despicable me 4 and then got back on the road and started our going home playlist for the first time.
We stopped at an In and Out burger because we are into iconic food experiences and it was pretty good actually. Eli is going to drive for a while and then Liam will do the very late night drive. We are trying to do the hottest part of the drive in the night. It’s 10 and 97 degrees where we are right now and our drive has a climb. Also of note: lots of traffic on this road right now. Everyone has the same idea.
Ok it’s midnight. I’m calling today over. It’s tomorrow now. Eli is still behind the wheel but we are switching in 12 minutes. I think we’ve pretty much decided to keep driving and not stop to sleep. It’s so hot out and we want to get through it while it’s dark out.
