In a change of pace from my usual writings, I wanted to post a couple of shorter blog entries regarding our journey from California to Tennessee this September. As much as possible I’ve tried to keep true to the original intent of this blog: paths (trails), pilsners (beers), pedals (cycling), and pinots (wines). As you can read and see these tales may be a little bit thin on the paths and pilsners, but big in terms of family humor and stories. I hope you enjoy them. At the same time I post here, I will also post condensed versions on my Instagram account: @d_a_acosta. Feel free to browse those as well. In the meantime, enjoy our adventure and some paths and pilsners along the way.

This is my “stand by for adventure” face

Here we go…

Some of us kept our sanity better than others

Day 1 of our cross country odyssey is in the books! We’ve left the Monterey Coast and started heading east, getting on the road around 1ish. No other way to describe it but a long day. By far one of the highlights was the sign at the pet area at a random rest stop warning of rattlesnakes. Our first destination was Palm Desert near Palm Springs because we didn’t want to go through Barstow and because of the dinosaurs of Cabazon (but more about those tomorrow).

Here’s a rollup:

Total distance: ~ 475mi

I love when there’s a 40% chance of rattlesnakes where my dog poops.

Total time: ~8 or 9 hours (we lost track)

Pit stops: 4

Infant meltdowns: 6

Toddler meltdowns: 2

# of times the Lion King Soundtrack played: 12

#of times the dog managed to nearly crawl past the cargo separator into the back seat: 3

# of bottles of wine we’re transporting: 8

# of bottles we consumed upon reaching our hotel: 0 (we were exhausted and it was after 11)

# of times I nearly lost my sanity: 3

Some of us were not impressed with the road trip

We got into our hotel in Palm Desert finally around 11. We were exhausted. It was a mess. We were a mess. I hadn’t run, but still managed to get in nearly 8000 steps. I could only imagine what day two would bring.

Time for a water break