“We’re going to California!” I yelled as I walked through the front door at home. The kids cheered.
“Yay, where are we going?”
“To visit your Grandpa Joe!”
It was my very first road trip as a single mom. It was just me and the kids traveling from Keizer, Oregon, to California. I could not afford to travel until now. I was both excited and a little scared. Would we be able to travel with just the $200 that I allotted for our trip? How would the kids behave? I finally owned a halfway decent car that I figured would make it to my Dad’s house in Sunnyvale, California, just north of Mountain View, south of San Francisco.
Dad told us to bring swimsuits because his apartment complex had a swimming pool. He also took a week off work to hang out with us. I drove a maroon Ford Escort Wagon, five-speed on the floor. I’d always driven stick shifts since my very first car, a Chevy Vega. In fact, Dad taught me how to drive a stick shift in San Francisco back in the 1970s.
Off we went down I-5 towards California. Our first road trip in years. Yes! I decided to take the coastal route part of the way down instead of just I-5 because we all loved the ocean, not realizing how much longer it takes to drive down Highway 101 than it does to take the Five. But that was okay. There was a Motel 6 in Crescent City, and it was only $32 for the night — kids did not cost extra! So we all crammed into one room for $32, and then I took them to breakfast at Denny’s the following day.
I ordered coffee and asked the waitress to keep it coming.
The kids looked at the big menus, but it didn’t matter. Wow! They had those Grand Slam breakfasts on sale for $1.99! that’s even cheaper than the children’s meals..
I made an executive decision.
“Okay kids, we’re all having Grand Slams for breakfast!”
“But what if I don’t want a Grand Slam,” Melissa said.
“What’s there not to love about a grand slam breakfast?” I asked. “You get pancakes, eggs, and even bacon or sausage. Grand slams it is!”
The kids tossed their menus to the middle of the table as I sipped on my first cup of coffee.
“And no drinks either. You guys can drink water here. The drinks here are more expensive than the food.”
I heard grumbling and the inevitable remark that always came from at least one of my kids. “But Moooommmm, you’re drinking coffee…”
“Be quiet about my coffee! That’s different. You would not want me to be without this!”
I glared at the kids, Stevie, Melissa, and Jeremy, as they sat quietly, staring at me like I was some crazy person.
Each child, even two-year-old Megan, was given a giant plate with two pancakes, two eggs any way they chose, and two pieces of bacon. That’s a lot of food for a kid! and plenty for me, too. What a deal! The kids chowed down on that food and ate every bit of it, even little Megan. She had one heck of an appetite at times, that girl. The same with the others.
We then continued down Highway 101 and stopped at the Trees of Mystery, where a giant Paul Bunyan stood in the parking lot. When my little redheaded daughter Megan jumped out of the car and followed her older siblings, the giant Paul Bunyan spoke. “Hey, cute redheaded girl! How are you today?”
Megan stopped in her two-year-old tracks and looked up. “Mommy, that giant man is talking to me!”
I smiled. “Yes, he is!”
The redwoods at the Trees of Mystery were incredible. We took a trail that was supposed to lead us around, but I got a little lost as the shadows began to form, preparing for sunset. But the trees—oh, they were beautiful, ancient redwoods with so much to tell us all—holding stories of lives we never knew. I must’ve gotten sidetracked. It took a while, but I did get us out of the woods before dark. I realized it was time to make some headway on our road trip to California. But how could we not stop at the redwoods?
“C’mon, kids, we gotta get to Grandpa’s house!” Stevie sat in the front seat next to me, already 12 years old. Melissa and Jeremy crammed themselves into the back seat next to Megan’s giant car seat, but they didn’t complain.
I drove through the night until we got to Grandpa Joe’s house. I was excited to see Dad and spend some time with him. I knew there would be some fun adventures.