Sunday July 11, 2010 - Bend, Oregon to Stockton, California

It's been some time since we've had a full day of driving. I was worried that the kids might not handle it well. Heck, I was worried I wouldn't handle it well. As much as I know that heading south to do some scouting for a place to live is the right thing to do, I was not looking forward to the long drive down.

We packed up and left the Jones household around 10am and headed to Best Buy. Because our beloved and highly necessary portable DVD player had died on the last stage of our drive to the Jones' household. A little more very-high-tech testing last night confirmed that the unit was not going to be, how do you way, functional? So we bit the bullet and got a replacement. With an extended warranty. We'll put that little sucker through it's paces to be sure, and if it poops out in less than two years, we're likely to score a new replacement. Yee-haw.

We finally got on the highway proper (97 South) about 11am. We reached Klamath Falls, OR a little before 1pm. This is interesting for two reasons. First, the LCMS congregation there had expressed interest in interviewing me for a possible Call a few weeks ago. Very flattering. Secondly, because we had driven this route, stopped in Klamath Falls and eaten at the very same Applebees there when we did our trip last September. Deja vu all over again, I tell you. Except this time the service was slow, but we ordered very light to minimize the unpleasantness of the food.

Then it was back on the road, where Caedmon promptly fell asleep. Well, in his car seat in the back of the van - not on the actual road. Sheesh, what sort of parents do you think we are? So we pushed hard to make it past Mt. Shasta and the accompanying twists and turns through the beautiful mountains and over the lovely rivers that had made Caedmon sick at his stomach last fall. We succeeded - he slept through it all and we didn't pause until Redding, California to gas up and pee and reward the kids with some well-deserved snacks.

Back on the road. Our plan had been to stay overnight in Sacramento, but the kids were engrossed in watching Mulan for about the 13,000th time in the last five months, so we pushed another 50 miles to Stockton. Did I mention how essential the portable DVD player is?