I Left My Heart - In Sacramento

For anyone my age and older, you've probably heard of the song, "I Left My Heart in San Francisco". Well....I think I probably left a big chunk of mine in Sacramento. : (

"Uncle Brandon" drove me to the airport at 6:00 a.m. on his way to work. (Yes, he REALLY does goes to work that early!) I didn't sleep much the night before because I had so much going through my mind and I didn't want to oversleep. I was so thankful that he offered to take me because I wasn't sure that Payton would be able to find her way back from the airport to Brandon's house. It was probably best that I told Payton "good-bye" at his house and didn't have to try to do it at the airport. Brandon got out of the car long enough to pump some gas, and I could feel the tears start building. He jumped back in the car and I said, "Just start talking fast or I'm gonna lose it!" I held up pretty well and only used up two tissues!

The flights into Denver and out of Denver were very rough. I'm not a "seasoned flyer", but I do know that it's not supposed to feel like you're on a roller coaster and they normally take the seatbelt sign off at some point during the flight. That didn't happen very often. I felt sorry for the people who needed to use the restroom. Every time they stood up to get in line, the pilot would come back on the PA system and say, "Please return to your seats. We're experiencing turbulance." He actually used the word, "scary" at one point, which is NOT something you want to hear your pilot say! I kept thinking, "God, you've gotten me this far. I figure you'll take care of me the rest of the way, too!" My flight into Pittsburgh ended up arriving about 40 minutes later than originally expected, but Mom and Dad hadn't given up on me and gone home yet!

I was totally exhausted, both physically and emotionally, by the time we got home. It was good -VERY GOOD, to see the green, WV hills again and to get my arms around Tommy and Landon. Even the pets seemed to miss me. (Of course, I'm not sure they'd been fed for the last few days and they know I'm their "meal ticket".)

Tommy patiently put up with my tears last night as I climbed into bed and wondered what Payton was doing out in California. I think this will take a little getting used to, but life will be busy back here, as usual, and I'll get to talk to her often.

I'll try to post some pictures of our trip a little bit later today. I had to take them from a moving vehicle at 80 mph since Payton didn't want to waste the time to actually stop, so I'm not sure how great they'll be. Maybe I can add some descriptions: "this blur is a snowcapped mountain.....this smear is actually a huge rock formation!"

Check back for a few pictures. Until later, Debbie

Time for Thelma to Tell Louise Goodbye…

Well, it’s my last night in California. We’ve had a very full day. Payton and I spent several hours at Woodland College today. The campus is absolutely beautiful: palm trees and sunshine galore, and a Starbucks in close proximity! We met with an academic counselor, scheduled her classes, paid her tuition (YIKES!), discussed her scholarships (YEA!), and basically asked a lot of questions and got a lot of information to try to digest. I think both of our brains were ready to explode. (Nothing that a Starbucks drink and scone didn’t fix!) The good news is that it appears that most, if not all of the classes she took this past year will transfer successfully to the new college. She’ll also be able to receive 3 elective credit hours for working part-time. It is called General Work Experience. That was a nice surprise.

I also got to meet all of the “adoptive” family who will be caring for Payton while she’s in California. They have all been so gracious to us and will be providing Payton with a temporary home, assistance in her job, and lots of advice and guidance. I feel so much better leaving Payton after having the opportunity to spend some time with all of them. Thank you, Brandon, Shannon, Matt, Hayden and Kellen (and Keenan, of course!)

I’ve got to get up at 5:30 a.m. tomorrow to head for the airport, so I’d better end my blog with this entry. This will probably be my last post, since I’m fairly certain that I’ll be sobbing hysterically at the airport and won’t be able to type coherently.

I’ll close with the lyrics of a Rascal Flatts song that Payton and I heard many times during our road trip. I took the liberty of changing the word, “wish”, to “prayer”. It will probably always remind me of this memorable time in our lives.

"My Prayer"

I hope that the days come easy and the moments pass slow,

And each road leads you where you want to go,

And if you're faced with a choice, and you have to choose,

I hope you choose the one that means the most to you.

And if one door opens to another door closed,

I hope you keep on walkin' till you find the window,

If it's cold outside, show the world the warmth of your smile,

more than anything, more than anything,

My prayer, for you, is that this life becomes all that you want it to,

Your dreams stay big, and your worries stay small,

You never need to carry more than you can hold,

And while you're out there getting where you're getting to,

I hope you know somebody loves you, and wants the same things too,

Yeah, this, is my prayer.

I hope you never look back, but ya never forget,

All the ones who love you, in the place you left,

I hope you always forgive, and you never regret,

And you help somebody every chance you get,

Oh, you find God's grace, in every mistake,

And you always give more than you take.

But more than anything, yeah, and more than anything,

My prayer, for you, is that this life becomes all that you want it to,

Your dreams stay big, and your worries stay small,

You never need to carry more than you can hold,

And while you're out there getting where you're getting to,

I hope you know somebody loves you, and wants the same things too,

Yeah, this, is my prayer.

I love you "Sis"!

CALIFORNIA!

View Larger Map

We Made It To California!
Wow! Where do I even begin? It's been an interesting day. Right now we're sitting in Pete's restaurant in downtown Sacramento at 8:45 p.m. Why, you ask are we sitting here? Because we could not get the internet connection to work where we are staying tonight and we had to try to find someplace with free wireless internet. We stopped at a Starbuck's and they told us to go to "Pete's" and gave us directions. We were finally able to find it. But after walking in and being seated, we found out that we were supposed to be across the street at a coffee shop called, "Peet's". Embarassed, we left the restaurant and walked across the street to Peet's, only to find out that they were in the process of closing for the night. So.....we walked back across the street to Pete's and they seated us back at the same table we were seated at previously. Fortunately, I'm able to pick up a wireless connection from our table! The waiter thinks we are hillarious!! We thought we better go ahead and order something!

Today was all about desert, dust, and wind! We drove for hours through Nevada and couldn't see more than a mile ahead of us. We couldn't even see any sunshine for most of the day. We did encounter a tumbleweed that was about 4 feet in diameter. I was able to swerve to miss it, but I had visions of arriving in Sacramento with a huge tumbleweek embedded in the grill of our car!

We tried to stop and gas up just East of Reno, NV. It was a one gas station town, and the gas was $4.09 a gallon. Needless to say, we got right back on the interstate and drove to the next exit.

We encountered very few vehicles on the highway while traveling through the desert. We did come up on a tractor trailer that was swerving quite a bit. As we hurried past it, Payton noticed that the driver was actually READING A BOOK!

We were stopped at the border of Nevada and California by the Agriculture Border Patrol. They were letting everyone else go through, but when they found out we were from WV, they made Payton get out and open the trunk so they could check for illegal fruit! (Good thing they didn't know we had two apples we'd "borrowed" from the continental breakfast at the Comfort Inn yesterday!

California is beautiful! The mountains around Lake Tahoe were breathtaking! I think I'd like to visit again, but would prefer to fly than to drive!

I'd better get off here. We still have lots to do tonight. Thanks for traveling with us.
Debbie and Payton

NEVADA!

View Larger Map

We're In Elko, Nevada!

The internet connection in our hotel room wouldn't work, so I'm typing this from the lobby. Today was a little shorter in terms of mileage, but seemed much longer according to the aches and pains in our bodies! (I've got body parts aching that I didn't even know I had!) We couldn't wait to get out of the car and go for a walk when we got here. It was still light out (8:00 p.m. PST) and the temperature was a comfortable 75 degrees. We've had about 30 seconds of rain during our entire trip! Where yesterday was all about farms and cows, today was all about large ranches, grasslands, rocks and snow-capped mountains. The mountains were beautiful. The grasslands got a little old. I thought I saw a herd of bison, but Payton quickly pointed out that they were really some sort of weird, clumpy, trees.

We thought we would be wise travelers this morning, so we decided to check our oil when we filled the car up with gas. We did fine figuring out how to open the hood, but not so well on figuring out where the oil level checker thing was. I reached for something toward the front of the engine while Payton reached for something toward the back. Fortunately, a nice man was using the adjacent gas pump and must have seen a look of total confusion on our faces and came to our rescue. He checked the oil and even added a quart for us. We paid close attention so we'll know just how to check it tomorrow a.m.!

We ate lunch at the M & P Truck Stop today. For those of you from New Martinsville, it was like a Mexican "Choo Choos"! We figured the food would be good because there were a lot of local cars parked there. We were right! I had the best grilled chicken and avacado sandwiches I ever tasted. Wait.....that was the ONLY grilled chicken and avacado sandwhich I've ever tasted!

The most excitement of the day was probably trying to negotiate through the center of Salt Lake City in rush hour traffic (with Payton behind the wheel)! Imagine 5 or 6 lanes of traffic (it was too hectic for me to count) and everyone driving bumper to bumper, about 75 miles an hour. We have affectionately named the GPS system, "Betty", because we decided her voice sounds like a "Betty". Anyway, "Betty" was yelling all kinds of voice commands at us: "Go LEFT! Go RIGHT! Go LEFT then RIGHT! We were thankful to get through the city in one piece. (By the way, "Betty" has been a wonderful blessing. I HIGHLY recommend using a GPS system.)

Well, it's after midnight EST and even though it's only 9:30 here, the bed is calling my name. I'll try to post again once we make it to California tomorrow. Thanks for checking in, and thanks for your prayers! Debbie and Payton

On The Road Again!

I found that the little "time change confusion thing" works both way. I found myself wide awake at 4:00 a.m. this morning (due to the fact that I am normally up at 6:00 a.m. when Tommy's alarm goes off). I thought, "Oh well, it's 7:00 a.m. back home. I'll go ahead and give Landon a call to wish him good luck in tonight's baseball game." Well...the phone rang and rang and FINALLY a very groggy sounding Landon answered it and said, "What do you want? I'm sleeping". I said, "It's a school day today isn't it? You should already be up!." He said, "Mom....it's only 6:oo!" Oooops!

Now to the guys at work. Kevin is in charge while I'm gone. Try not to let things get too out of control. I'll be back to "micro-manage" you in one week. Now get to work. Chop! Chop! (Larry, you just take it easy today). Bill said to tell you all "hi"!

Talk to you later!

WYOMING!

View Larger Map

We Made It To Cheyenne, Wyoming!
We arrived at the hotel around 6:45 p.m. (8:45 EST). These time changes can get very confusing. We planned on sleeping in a little this morning since we’d put in such a long day yesterday. That was NOT to happen. My cell phone rang at 6:30 a.m. I stumbled around the pitch dark room trying to find it and stubbed my toe in the process. It was Tommy. He asked cheerily, “What are you doing?”, and I grumbled, “SLEEPING! It’s 6:30 in the morning!” He had forgotten about the time change! Needless to say, that was “it” for the sleeping.

Today was all about miles and miles of farms and lots and lots of cows. Hours and hours of farms and cows……and beautiful skies and clouds. I wished Landon had been with us to tell us what type of clouds we were seeing. They were beautiful.

We learned two very important lessons today. (1) If there are rumble strips carved into the roadway, it WILL feel like a flat tire. For some odd reason, there were stretches of road that actually had these on the road itself, not on the berm. We thought we had a flat tire two times and actually pulled off the road to check! (2) It is NOT necessary to swerve to avoid tumbleweeds. It won’t hurt your vehicle to run over them. (I looked like a drunk driver trying to avoid the first dozen or so!)

Payton was very proud of my driving skills today. As one of my dear co-workers (Dan, I think) warned me, I-80 is heavily used by trucks. We had been pinned in the slow lane for several miles with one truck in the passing lane and another in front of us. Both Payton and I were getting a little impatient and she said, “Drive like NASCAR!” I said, “WHAT?” And she said, “Get right up on the guy’s bumper in front of you and then whip it over into the other lane.” Well…..not to brag, but I pulled it off perfectly. Did a little drafting, too, (I think).

Well, I’m pretty worn out so I’m going to call it a night. Thanks to my special niece, Kayla Brill, for taking the time to make all of the CDs for us. They’ve been put to good use. Also, congratulations to Luke Seavy for winning the 400 and 800 at the State track meet! Cheer on the Blue Eagle baseball team for me tomorrow. Make sure you keep that bench warm, “Ichiro”!

Until tomorrow, Debbie.

IOWA!

View Larger Map

We Made It to Iowa!
After 14 ½ hours on the road, we arrived in Des Moines, IA at 9:00 p.m. We left town at 6:30 a.m. after Payton and “Bubba” (her Dad) had an emotional goodbye. Payton told me that it was the hardest thing she’d ever done. She cried for the 1st 40 miles, but insisted that she was “OK to drive”. I had my doubts, but she seemed rather emotionally unstable at the time, so I didn’t push it!

The trip went pretty smoothly, with the exception of us getting temporarily “misplaced” in a bad section of downtown Indianapolis. I woke Payton up as we were approaching the city to get her help in reading maps, watching the GPS screen, etc. Somehow, the maps didn’t match the directions that the GPS was giving us. I thought it might be a good idea to pull off the road and try to “analyze” things, but the always adventurous Payton said, “That’s what happens when you have too much information! We’ll put the maps away and just use the GPS.” To make a long story short, we took a wrong exit and ended up where we shouldn’t have been. The voice on the GPS kept saying, “RECALCULATING….GO LEFT!....GO LEFT!”....so Payton insisted that we GO LEFT. I started to say, “that looks like a one-way street”, but I went ahead and made the turn anyway. We were immediately faced with 4 lanes of oncoming traffic! After coming to a stop, bumper-to-bumper, with a BIG guy in a BIG car (and he didn’t look happy), we made an illegal U-turn and got back on track!

The rest of the trip paled in comparison to that adventure. We saw lots of plowed farmland, and road kill. Our posteriors were pretty numb by the time we made it to the hotel, so we used the exercise room for awhile and then went swimming. Neither of us had packed a swimsuit, so we ended up swimming in our clothes! I was afraid we might get kicked out, but I think they knew we were from WV so they were merciful to us!

I’ll try to update again tomorrow night. Should be in Wyoming by then…..I think.

TAKEOFF TIME!

View Larger Map

CALIFORNIA HERE WE COME! (Man, does it look like a LOOONNNNG way across there!)

Please forgive my blubbering last night. With the exception of some puffy eyes, I'm in pretty good shape this morning. Payton is telling me to "hurry up!", so I guess I'll make this short and hit the road. We've got a long way to go and a short time to get there. (That sounds like a song...) I'll try to update tonight from the hotel. Keep us in your prayers!

T minus 7 hours and counting.......

OK. It's 11:00 p.m. and I'm sitting here crying.....well....actually snorting & hyperventilating a little (and it's pretty ugly!) I probably should just go to bed since we have a very long day ahead of us tomorrow. It's been an emotional evening with Payton trying to tell everybody goodbye. Not outwardly emotional for her.......but very emotional for the rest of us. I'm sure that everything will seem a little more exciting in the morning.

I think I'll end this post with a few of the words from a Miley Cyrus song. (Anyone with younger kids will know this one)

Get Ready, Get Set, Don’t Go

She's gotta do what she's gotta do and I've gotta like it or not - she's got dreams too big for this town and she's needs to give em' a shot - I'm at the starting line of the rest of my life, as ready as I've ever been - got the hunger and the stars in my eyes, the prize is mine to win - She’s waitin' on my blessings before she hits that open road - baby, get ready, get set, don't go. Looks like things are fallin' in place, feels like they're fallin' apart - paintin' this big old smile on my face to hide my broken heart - if only she knew. This is where you don't say what you want so bad to say - this is where I want to but i won't get in the way of her and her dreams - she's spreading her wings - I'm at the starting line of the rest of my life, as ready as I've ever been - got the hunger and the stars in my eyes, the prize is mine to win - She’s waitin' on my blessings before she hits that open road - baby, get ready, get set, don't go…..

T minus 24 hours and counting.....

Well, I’ve packed my suitcase…..TWICE. After completing my 1st attempt at packing last night at 11:00 p.m., Payton decided that (1) my suitcase was entirely too big and I would have to hold it on my lap the entire trip and (2) I had packed all the wrong clothing! She actually started taking things out of my suitcase, piece by piece, laughing as she went. In my defense, I’ve never been to California before and don’t pay a whole lot of attention to the weather conditions out there. I had opted to pack a little bit of everything – just in case we’d run into a freak snow storm on the way out. (Dad always taught me to be prepared for ANYTHING). She informed me that she’d just gotten off the phone with her “Sacramento connection” and it was 99 degrees out there at 8:00 p.m. So, I am now “repacked” into a smaller suitcase and have left most of the cold weather gear behind. (I am going to sneak in a couple of pairs of warm socks & a blanket when she’s not looking!) SHHHH!

I’m planning on hitting the road tomorrow morning around 6:00 a.m. Payton is planning on hitting the road tomorrow morning around 8:00 a.m. Not sure how that will work since we’re traveling together. (She says she’s too grumpy in the a.m. to leave that early. I said, “You can grump yourself down to the car and go back to sleep!”) Should be an interesting trip. Please pray for us! :D

T minus 2 days and counting….

Well…..my laundry is caught up, the bills have been paid, Landon has been taught how to use the washing machine to clean his ball uniform and has also been reminded numerous times that he’ll have to remember to let the dog out and feed her occasionally. Routes have been mapped, hotel reservations have been made, Payton’s car has been lovingly pieced back together after some mechanical problems (thanks, Butch!) and she has most of her earthly belongings packed into totes and already in the truck of her car. I think she’s a little bit excited! Tommy and I, on the other hand, are not sleeping very well due to the realization that our “little girl” will soon be leaving home. I have not even started packing yet. For some reason, I find the idea of a 37 hour drive to California slightly overwhelming at this point in time.

Being the “micro-manager” that I am, I not only obtained printed directions from Mapquest and a AAA TripTik, but I also borrowed a GPS navigation system for the car (thanks, Pat!). Not sure what I’ll do when they try to send me in opposite directions! I’ve copied and laminated any type of paperwork that I thought Payton might need. She looked at my collection last night as I lovingly explained what each item was and why it might be needed some time in the next 10 years. She laughed, shook her head, and said, “Mom, you’re ridiculous!” (I think I drive her crazy some times!)

The guys at work were gracious enough to provide me with a list of items that I simply MUST have with me on the trip: everything from flares and water jugs, to a distress flag and 8-inch hair pins (don’t ask). If I packed everything that was suggested, I would need to rent a U-Haul. Instead, I opted for a AAA membership!

I’ll try to update this blog as we make our way out West (if the hotels have internet connectivity and I’m not too exhausted from hours of driving). Our plan, at this point in time, is to be in Iowa on Saturday night, Wyoming on Sunday night, and Nevada on Monday night. “If the good Lord’s willing and the creeks don’t rise”, we should hit Sacramento some time Tuesday afternoon!