The Final Day

After the blur of yesterday, I awoke today much more alert and ready to eat. The hotel breakfast again proved phenomenal and we realized that only 12 hours and 39 minutes of driving to make it to my in-laws home in Washington. We decided to drive hard and not spend another night on the road. Amyrlin, my co-pilot, is always up for a push day, and she ensures that we make good time. For her part, she finds places to eat along the route, washes the windshield while I pump gas, and most importantly provides entertainment. She mixes audiobooks and Spotify playlists, entertains the little kids, and tells amazing corny jokes. We made great time and were looking forward to an early arrival.

However, we made an unscheduled stop due to my stomach making an eminent demand. I ran from the car, raced inside, and arrived just in time while my stunned kids sat in the car, confused. When I emerged I was disappointed to see that our stop had cost us about 20 minutes, but after another pepto-bismol we were back on track. Unfortunately that 20 minutes came back to haunt us as we got caught up in a 'road closed for blasting' situation. Had we been 15 minutes earlier we would have missed the closure. Instead we sat parked in an ever lengthening line of traffic. We called Brian who looked it up and told us that no routes around existed. The driver of the semi in front of us passed the time by getting out of the car and taking calls while standing in the oncoming traffic lanes. When we would move up, he'd stand on the running board and drive his truck without actually getting in. While I'm sure it wasn't safe, it at least provided us some entertainment while we waited. 

Despite that delay, and another road closure, we made it to grandma and grandpa's house safely and ended the longest driving stretch of the road trip. Time for a good night's sleep!