52 Weeks of Family: Week 36 = Summer Road Trip

Some 25 years ago I watched a box office flop called Pontiac Moon with Ted Danson & Mary Steenburgen. It barely made $11,000 in the US but I remember loving it. The abbreviated plot included a dad & son driving to the Craters of the Moon National Park in Idaho and arriving just as the first lunar module landed on the Moon in 1969 (the distance to the moon and the odometer on the car matched as they both arrived--it was a whole thing) I had never heard of this National Park but it has been on my bucket list ever since.  Moving to the Pacific Northwest two years after seeing this movie made an actual visit a bit more practical, it's just taken me 23 years to get around to getting there. Somehow being a single mom to two essentially non verbal children with Down syndrome with a new van seemed like a good time to cross this bucket list item off.    

So, our mission was this: drive the 745 miles to SE Idaho to visit a National Park I heard about once in a crummy movie in high school and back again over the course of a week; don't kill each other; don't leave anyone at a rest stop (intentional or otherwise); see as many sites as possible along the way (my goal), and swim every evening (the kids' goal).  And outside of the epic puke fest entering into Hells Canyon and the accidental hotel microwave fire, we had a GREAT time. Truly. 

DAY 1:

Here we go!  I've spent months planning and researching and plotting and organizing. The van is fueled up, the kids are well stocked with activities and I have everything we may need in a pinch within quick reach. 

First stop = Columbia River Gorge, Oregon. Multnomah Falls was our destination, but it seemed everyone else had the same idea...

We ended up at Horsetail Falls and had a great time. Perfect spot for a lunch break.

I got good at (safely) taking pictures while driving!

Quick break outside Pendleton, Oregon. BEAUTIFUL plateau.

DAY 2:
We are on the road early in the morning. The kids continue to do great in the car. Having a visual schedule on the roof above me has been really helpful!

Lunch on the Boise River.

Rest stop at Goodale's Cutoff. A large portion of this part of the trip has been along the Oregon Trial.

DAY 3:
We made it!  There is no way to adequately describe how strangely beautiful this place is and the pictures don't do it justice. I had set my expectations pretty low but I was wildly impressed with the history, the art of the geology, even the accessibility. I could have spent the entire day here if the kids would have let me...probably would have come back for the star viewing at night too!  I left with a full heart. I saw something I've always wanted to see and it was pretty darn cool.

At the end of the day, the kids were sworn in as Jr Rangers!

DAY 4:
Today is a LONG day and I didn't realize how long it would be when I planned out the route. After seven hours already in the car and one epic backseat puke-fest, when we stopped for gas and the nice lady said we still had 3 more hours to do I nearly cried. It was too long, truly.  BUT, we got to see this:

 Shoshone Falls, you have our hearts!!

Hells Canyon was stunning!

DAY 5:
We are back in our home state and are making our way across some of God's most beautiful country...

Pit stop at Palouse Falls. Incredible!

The last hour of the trip was stuck in Friday night Tacoma traffic and we got a little rummy. I rolled the windows down, turned the music UP and we sung our way as loud as we could through the final 18 miles HOME.

The final numbers... Five days, 104 trip hours, 30hours 13min of which was traveling in the van. A grand total of 1,625.7 miles traveled. Whew!

Mila:

I'm so proud of you, honey. This trip was A LOT to take in. There were a couple of times when I missed judged the sensory input of a particular stop (waterfalls are big and scary!) or how quickly we needed to move through a parking lot. I know those times are hard for you BUT YOU DID IT.  On day 3 it occurred to me that I should probably tell you that we get to go home after all this. You said "HOME? Mila's house? In America?!  YEAH!!"  Well, yes. We didn't actually leave...doesn't matter, yes. Mila's house in America, on Friday.  Just having the reassurance that you hadn't been taken from all that you now know was enough for you.   Your biggest gains were in the swimming pool!  You had never been swimming prior to our outing last July in Albania.  You LOVED it then and even more so when we vacationed in San Diego over spring break. The problem was you are a 100lb anchor...straight to the bottom.  Enter the life vest...what a beautiful gift of independence and confidence!  You went from MOMMY!!! NO!!! when I tried to have you float with my assistance to blowing bubbles and paddling into the "deep end" (5 feet) and attempting the crawl stroke. The joyous screeches that came out of your face every evening when you got to swim!   MOM!!  Mila fish!  Mila ARIEL!!    There was really no way for me to get a photo of it all, but here is proof of you 'swimming' (in three feet of water *wink*)

Also...after belching like a lumberjack in the middle of a restaurant you were given a round of high fives by the Harley Davidson bikers sitting near us.  Thank you daughter. That was a special memory for everyone. *eyeroll*

Isaac:

You are a traveling rock star!  Your side of the van was an absolute disaster zone, but you powered through 30 hours of van time with very little issues and lots of stickers, coloring pages, and dollar store games.  You did, however pull the most little brother prank ever on your sister...I asked everyone to clean up their things in the hotel room and put them in their backpacks. I did not think to check said backpacks, I only saw that everything was picked up. As we were headed out the hotel room door I asked your sister where her glasses were and you started snickering...you had hid her glasses AND EVERYTHING THAT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE IN HER BACKPACK in the little hotel freezer!  If I hadn't had noticed Mila was without her glasses, we would have driven to Boise before I realized her backpack was empty.  Well played son.  Very well played. 

Me:

We did it!  I took two kids 1600 miles through mountains, deserts, waterfalls and lava zones. Everyone had milk, protein and fruit/vegis with every meal and the token treat of Oreos lasted the entire trip. Dirty laundry was kept separate (pop up mesh laundry basket in the back of the van = pinterest genius!), and no one was permanently physically or emotionally injured. In fact, we had a really good time. This will be a trip that we all remember with fondness. AND I got to cross off a major bucket list item. I hope this is the first of many SUCCESSFUL family trips.

P.S.  I re-watched Pontiac Moon this weekend. The first time since 1994.  Turns out they never went to Craters of the Moon National Park. They shot the movie in the Sonoma Desert and drove to a fictional Spires of the Moon which looks NOTHING like the park we just visited. They also drove an amphibious car through a lake in the park (which doesn't exist) in Southern Idaho over the US border to Canada...which is impossible, because of the whole Northern Idaho situation.  The whole box office bust scenario is making sense now...   STILL GLAD WE WENT.