Getting Real With Shadra Bruce
We’ve now been on the road for two full weeks. Our kids have been troopers about the time spent in the car, and Dave so far has driven every mile. Today’s drive up 101 from Garberville, CA to Newport, OR was challenging. The kids are restless, the roads were windier and curvier than before. Construction delays and slow trucks made the 8-hour drive seem as though it would last forever. Add the stop and gos through every town, and I think everyone was glad that the arrival in Newport meant the end of long drives for a while.
We’ll be in Newport for five nights (I can already tell I could stay forever – just listen to that ocean!), and then it’s a short drive up to Seaside and over to Portland, where we’ll be for another three nights.
For me, though, it also represents that we’ve already come to the midpoint of our adventure, and soon we will be heading East again. I like being on the road. If it wasn’t so expensive to live in hotels, I think I could get used to doing this on a regular basis.
Newport is not like the Southern California beaches of my childhood. I spent months shopping for a new bathing suit that I will never need to wear here because 1, it’s chilly enough to need clothes, and 2, the water is so cold that even getting my feet wet for a few minutes froze all the blood in my lower body. Yet there is something about the place that lowers my blood pressure, eases my worries, and makes me feel totally at home…I could stay here. (The kids are still hooked on the idea of moving to Utah to be closer to the cousins).