The 1995 Adams Trip Around America

Prolog

Sabbatical was coming and we wondered what we should do. One of the great benefits of working for Intel is the eight weeks of paid "sabbatical" every seven years. So, after nine years of "the great place to work", I scheduled my eight weeks during May and June of 1995.

But what to do? We could goto Europe or Tahiti. We could stay at home and work on the house. We could do something with the kids. Hhhuummmmmm...

When my wife was little, her mother would pile the kids into the car every summer and drive around the US. She had visited every state but Hawaii. While the time in the car was no fun, she has memories of interesting places all over.

Well, why don't we do that! We'll just pack the kids in the van and take off for a month. This will be an adventure!!!

We'll see.

We decided to leave on Monday May 22, 1995. Friday we didn't bother with packing. We even had people over for the evening. Saturday we puttered around the house. Sunday we had a potluck for 12 people at our house.

Monday morning, the alarm went off at 8am to get the kids off to school. Together in bed, the parents and the kids made a checklist for the day. We sent the kids to school and I got the suitcases out of the garage. My wife went to AAA and asked for maps and books for a trip around the United States. "When do you plan on leaving," they asked. "This afternoon," was the reply.

Mad packing, car stuffing, a quick oil change, a few errands, and we're on the road by 6pm driving south on Interstate 5 toward California.

It quickly became obvious that my and my wife's driving styles are very different. I tend to go the speed limit plus 5 and set the cruise control and just roll down the road. She, on the other hand, turns on the radar detector and goes anywhere from the speel limit to 90 -- whatever she thinks she can get away with. We're just grinning and bearing the other's foibles. This is the stuff marriages are made of.

So, along with myself and my wife, our two son's John (7) and Tim (5) were stuffed in a Dodge Van heading for America.

We'd decided to not spend any time on Oregon or Northern California because we could always visit on a short trip (relitivily). We'd made reservations at Disneyland for Wednesday thru Friday nights so we zoomed south stopping in Ashland Oregon for dinner and stopping in a run down Motel Orleans in Yreka, California. Wednesday, we pulled into Disneyland at about 8pm.