The Trip>>Day One (6 July)..............................Two Spirit

The first day of our vacation began very early. We woke at 3:00 in the morning to get ready to go to the airport in Birmingham. We had made the decision to drive up to Birmingham the day before and get a motel room, since we would have had to get up at 2:00 if we drove from home. After freshening up and getting everything loaded, off to the airport we headed.

We arrived at the airport about 30 minutes before the ticket counters opened. At 4:30 in the morning, it was already sticky out, although the temperature was not that bad. It had rained just outside town, and their was a light breeze blowing. When the counters opened, we did the automated check-in, and within a few minutes were headed for the boarding gate. We had about an hour and a half wait, so we logged on the laptop and did our regular posts to keep people thinking that we were still at home doing our every day routine. Finally it was time to board, and right on time, we began the first leg of our trip.

About an hour and a half later, we were landing in Dallas. The airport had changed considerably since my last flight through there in 1989. It was a lot easier than I remember going from concourse to concourse, and we reached our gate about ten minutes before boarding time. Because of heavy air traffic at that time of the morning, we were about ten minutes late getting off the ground, but were able to make it up on the way west. The pilot had to divert our route a bit because of weather over the Rockies. For much of the trip we were able to look out and see cloud tops up to almost 30,000 feet, and a few even higher. Finally over Utah, the clouds beagn breaking up, and we could see some of the land below. For the most part, flying over Utah and Nevada there was not much to see, until we got over Carson Valley. That was when we could see the first of the snow capped mountains of the Sierra Nevadas. Next came the announcement that were flying over Lake Tahoe. Even from the air, it is a site to see.

As we crossed the mountains, we started our descent into Sacramento. For anyone that has never seen the Sacramento Valley, it is a long wide expanse of flat land filled with all manner of farming. We landed in Sacramento just before 11:00, to find temperatures in the upper 70s, a light breeze blowing, and very little humidity. For the first time in my life I could say that I was in California.

We caught the bus to the rental terminal, and had to wait about 40 minutes for a vehicle. We were supposed to get a Chrysler 300, but almost all the cars had been rented. We had the option of a SUV or a Grand Caravan, so we took the van since it had plenty of room and a DVD player that would come in handy to keep my granddaughter occupied.

After loading into the van, we hit the interstate south for Manteca. I had always heard of the nightmares people have driving in California, but I found it to be a rather pleasant experience, other than not being able to see much because it was so flat. After about an hour's drive, we finally made it to my daughter's. It was the first time we had seen each other in almost a year. We spent most of the afternoon just relaxing, enjoying the weather, and talking. There was a constant breeze blowing, and not a cloud in the sky.

A bit later her fiance got home from work, and after showering, we all headed off for a steak dinner. We drove to Modesto to find a Black Angus Steak House. The dinner was excellent, although MsPriss complained about the steaks not being big enough, and we could not get sweet tea. When we asked if they had sweet tea, the waitress knew right away that we were from the south. Of course, in California they do not have sweet tea. After dinner, we drive back to my daughter's and relaxed some more after getting everything ready for the drive north the next day. Finally about 11:00, we called it a night, knowing that we had an early start againt the next day.

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