30 in 30: Day 22

We drove from Crater Lake to northern California today, and while there's nothing exciting to report about the drive itself, there's one thing I've been missing on this driving trip - and particularly from the midwest, through the west coast and Alaska. Clean, spacious, well-lit, non-sketchy gas stations! At home, we have Sheetz, Royal Farms, and my beloved Wawa. The fueling areas are well-maintained, the restrooms are clean, you can get sandwiches and snacks, and most importantly, you can get coffee.

We haven't been able to find a decent gas station that even comes close to matching this criteria for weeks. WEEKS. And don't get me started on not being able to pump our own gas in Oregon. Utter nonsense! While there are many things I love about the west coast, the terrible gas stations are not one of them! I seriously cannot wait to be back on the east coast so that I can go to Wawa! We watched Mare of Easttown this past week (if you haven't seen it, I highly, highly, highly recommend it - it's only seven episodes, it will keep you guessing, and Kate Winslet is beyond phenomenal in it) and they mentioned Wawa in the show and it made me miss it even more!

Get it together, awful midwest and west coast gas stations!

Daily Stats

Starting Mileage: 39,827

Ending Mileage: 40,252

Miles Traveled: 425

States Visited: OR, CA

until next time, Crater Lake

Mount Shasta

so much haze/smoke in the air!

One thing that was noteworthy: the different temperatures we experienced in a relatively short amount of time. When we woke up this morning around 6 am, it was 46 degrees, and then during our drive, these were the temperatures:

So bizarre to have a range of 63 degrees in less than 9.5 hours, and a drop of 43 degrees in less than an hour!

Finally, as I mentioned in the post back when we were in Utah, I love the movie Up. One of my favorite quotes from the movie is from Russell:

“And afterwards we’d go get ice cream at Fentons.

I always get chocolate and he gets butter brickle.

Then we sit on this one curb right outside and I’ll count all the blue cars and he counts all the red ones.

And whoever gets the most wins.

I like that curb.

It might sound boring, but I think the boring stuff is the stuff I remember the most.”

There are two Fentons locations, and we had lunch at one (in Vacaville) and dinner at the other (in Oakland, not far from the Pixar campus). So the day was amazing based on those meals alone!

July 23 is a bittersweet day for us, Today would have been our Maddy's 16th birthday. So at lunch, we shared a Black & White sundae in her honor and at dinner we shared a Black & Tan sundae in her honor. I shed many tears throughout the day, but also laughed a lot as we recalled her antics that kept all who knew her entertained. She had a huge, loving personality inside that little wiener dog body and we miss her every single day. The little moments that maybe didn't seem like a big deal at the time, are the very memories we cherish now. For me, the boring stuff is the stuff I remember the most.

how we miss our girl

the movie ending gets me every time

Happy Tails to you!