A grandmother is a mother who has a second chance

Monday, June 9, 2008

Tidbits from Highway 5

A week ago Saturday Ed and I headed out on a road trip to Tucson. Our prime objective was to retrieve my mother's cedar chest from my sister's house and bring it back here for my daughter. Hence, the road trip. It was actually a great week and we'll probably do it again in a year or so.

Driving from Northern California to Tucson means Hwy 5 - which is probably the most boring highway imaginable. It's faster, true. But oh so boring. So you have to find little things to entertain you along the way.

Like trying to decide if the next gas station will have cheaper gas. For those of you who don't live in California, "cheaper" means anything below $4.50 a gallon! And, of course, the gas station we came to immediately after filling up always had cheaper gas. We passed several large RVs towing cars and you could almost see the tears streaming down the driver's faces. There must be hope on the horizon, though, because we saw oil derricks in the middle of vineyards.

And did you know that there is actually a 20 Mule Team Road in California? It's where they mine borax which is one of the ingredients in 20 Mule Team Borax Soap. I had no idea. But that was the highlight of our visit to one of the Rest Areas.

At one gas station, Ed went in to buy something so I moved the car from the pump to the parking area. He has a Lexus hybrid SUV and, being a short person, I had to make some adjustments to get to the parking space. Like move the seat up and forward, move the rear-view mirror, move the side mirrors. We paid for the gas and got back in the car - at least Ed tried to get in but banged his knee on the steering wheel because the seat was too close for him. I got the "dang short people" glare as he moved the seat back a bit. When he finally sat down, he noticed everything a bit out of whack. Now this car has these little buttons which supposedly remember each person's settings for the seat, etc. Ed pushed the little number 1 button. The seat started to go back and he looked at me with his "isn't this cool" look. Until the seat kept going back AND decided to recline. Now he's practically flat on his back on the seat and I, of course, am laughing and saying "Wow, what a great feature!!". He grumbled something, put the back of the seat back in place, moved forward a bit, adjusted the mirrors, and then decided to try the little number 1 button again for some odd reason. There he went, seat flowing back, now going into recline position. There's no way to stop it mid-way so he just said, "oh, shit" and let it go. I sat there munching on pretzels watching the show.


We decided to break the trip up and spent the first night in Laughlin which was a lot of fun. A little gambling, a nice walk along the river, a nice dinner at Joe's Crab Shack and then we hit the road the next morning. In the morning, I was in the shower and Ed came into the bathroom. I mentioned something about my hair and the soft water and he said, "Speaking of hair - oh, yeah, I found some." Turns out he was looking for the sunscreen to put on his head, but I couldn't see him and had no idea what he was looking for. And since he's pretty bald on top and quite paranoid about it, the whole thing sounded pretty funny. Well, at least to me - he couldn't see the humor in it.

Next
  • Day 2 and the London Bridge
  • Ed's dad
  • Dust devils
  • So many memories
  • Missing the dessert

11 comments:

tunia said...

you have an art to bring out the humor in a situation...So one can actually imagine the whole thing happening..while reading it!

Unknown said...

I'm laughing picturing Ed in his reclining driving position. You two have so much fun on your adventures!

namaste said...

LOL! on the reclining seat. oooh i miss joe's crab shack. there none in these here mountains.

$4.50?! i think i'm gonna be sick!

;)

~m

Desert Diva said...

Yikes, gas is averaging $3.79 here in Las Cruces. I totally agree that Highway 5 is boring. However, you both seemed to do well entertaining yourselves!

Wendy said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Wendy said...

Sounds like fun...I hope to get to go back to the dessert this year. Haven't been in a while!

Chatterness said...

LMAOOOOOOOOOOO AGAIN! I can just see Ed reclined in his seat at the gas station and you munching on pretzels!! Oh my gosh! That is way too funny!!!!

Nikki said...

I think there are tears coming out of my eyes lol! I am a desert rat and LOVE Tucson...I think you two should be a sitcom...ed and sandi. You see humor in everyday life and I think that is what makes people love your blog! It is so rare and refreshing! :)N

Just Laura said...

I heard a statistic today - the oil companies make 83k every minute of every day off of us! Isn't that sick?

Glad your trip is going well (or went well)!

Jenni said...

Why on earth did Ed push that button again?! Too funny!

Melissa said...

Love the car seat story. gave me a laugh for the day and a great visual