Get Your Kicks...

Hello world and sweet readers!!I'm here (waves hands)!!! For those of you who thought I died,let me put those rumors to rest. In actuality, we have relocated to Virginia via the good 'ole Army and military schooling. We left our beloved Fort Lewis in early August and took a 30 day walkabout (or drive-a-bout, if you will) coast to almost-coast summer vacation (read blog for deets) visiting family and landmarks along the way. I had planned to blog about our escapades as we traveled, but like so many good intentions, things (like shitty hotel wi-fi, kids bouncing off the walls, funner stuff) kept me from a nightly/weekly/monthly update. But I am mostly settled and so happy to get back to making random thoughts and experiences public forum on the world wide web. Oh... how I've missed my blog.

The interstate. What can I say about this many lane-d deathtrap, other than I hate it? The interstate was invented to get travelers from A to B quickly, and with as little fun as possible. It's fast, usually packed with non-courteous drivers and there's nothing to see except the random outlet mall, kooky 18-wheeler driver or dead armadillos. As I'm sure many of you learned from Cars and Lightning McQueen, this dastardly thingy we call an Interstate mostly killed off small town America.It turned once bustling vacation stops into ghost towns and slums. Ever heard of Route 66? I'm sure you have... but have you ever DRIVEN it? You can barely drive the whole 2,448 miles, in its original entirety anymore without the help of websites, or following historic marker. According to Wikipedia, and The Mother Road the original highway has been altered and even abandoned, disappearing into the horizon. How about the 101? It's also called the Pacific Coast Highway - for one because it runs along the rocky coasts of Washington, Oregon and California. It is literally the most beautiful strip of two lane blacktop I have ever taken. Evergreens, ocean, tiny forgotten towns. And so much to do along the way.How about HWY 285? HWY 380? HWY 460?

Well, I, for one, can't pass up a good detour. Ever. It's become a little joke-sky in my family that I can't ever just go from A to B. It's just not in me.The largest Rocking Chair? I saw it. Meteor Crater? Been there. And I've got the magnets to prove it. So... when we were planning our PCS (move), I got to looking at an atlas(not google maps, but the real paper deal) and realized quite a few things. First - there are several ways to get from A to B; a lot of them awesome, fun packed ways. Secondly - there were ALOT of things in our area we hadn't done yet. And thirdly - we had done this almost exact same drive 5 years earlier when we moved from Maryland to Washington. We needed a different route. We had to make this one better. I talked the hubby into taking some much needed leave,and making an even bigger adventure out of the already wacky thing called the military PCS. 30 days of travel. THIRTY. In some states, that's a month. We mapped out routes; places we HAD to see before we left the Pacific NW, places we had to see along the way, and all the friends and family in between that would offer to put us up. What we got at the end was the adventure of a lifetime, some good quality memories, and a new appreciation for our own beds.
Don't get me wrong, not every moment was fun (like when Hope pooped in the car), not every outing was worth the money (the Sea Lion Caves were MEH) and not every hotel was worth the "deal" (Econo-Lodge in Oregon). There were plenty of times I wanted to (did) scream at the kids to "keep it down/stop fighting/shuttheeffup" and I took baths in some pretty seedy tubs, just to have a 20 minute break from the craziness. 5 people and a dog should never co-habitate in the same motel room, but we did it and lived to tell the blog worthy tale. The next few posts will be a time line of the adventures - or mis-adventures - of the Foster Family. And the next time you're headed west (or east, in our case) Grab an atlas and make your own adventure. Lifes too short to just take the Interstate.