Minutes on a Road-Trip : 8/6/19 : Part II

10:20    Departure from Manteca, CA. Less than a quarter tank of gas. Mom driving, Rachel co-pilot. Erica in the back with Finn.
10:24    Minor, humor-infused kerfuffle about directions. Sorted out, on track.
10:26  476 miles - google maps estimation 7 hour 29 minutes.
Estimated arrival time, 6p/18:00. Estimated arrival time based on guesses from folks in the car:
    Erica - 8p/20:00 “that’s my optimistic guess”
    Mom - 8:30p/20:30
    Rachel - 10p/22:00
10:34    Mom: We only need to plan stops around Finnegan.
    Finn: EaahGHGHGHG
10:35    Discussion about the onomatopoeias of child cries, or how to spell the sounds Finn is making.
10:48    Getting gas, Rachel pays, also uses the bathroom.
    Upon leaving, Rachel: Oh! Look at those pretty flowers over there!
    Erica: You already used up your 15 minutes.
    Mom: (drives away)
10:50   Rachel: How much was that?
    Mom: $47.71, but we can round it to $48.
10:51    Mom: Trip of a lifetime, us girls..
11:05    Status update - driving with cornfields on the right and some kind of pink flower wall on the left in the meridian. Erica is sleeping. Finn is quiet. Mom is still driving.
11:13    Rachel reflects on relationship dynamics in the family.
11:41    During heavy slow-moving traffic because of an accident ahead, Rachel: Think maybe I can run alongside the car and pick flowers?
Mom: Those are the kind of flowers that kill dogs. Or cats. Your Dad told me that.
11:48    Mom: It makes me stick my finger down my throat whenever I hear people talk about their annoying OCD quirks.
11:58    Mom: 155 miles until Redding. I thought it was closer.
12:04    Mom is silently singing “Yesterday,” by the Beatles. They have not once played music during the drive allowing prolonged moments of silence to settle between them as they think their private thoughts.
12:34    Mom: This is probably the longest stretch so far. What time did we leave?
Rachel (referring to minutes) We left at 10:20. 2 hours. I think my body absorbed my waste water. I don’t have to pee anymore.
12:40    They pass by a vintage car being shipped by a newer car.
    Mom: Were those Washington plates?
    Rachel: California.
12:42    Finn stirs, but settles back down.
12:48    Erica reads Judy’s post from Facebook. They all reflect on the weekend.
12:55    Erica: Are you guys gonna be hungry by Redding?
    Rachel: Well, there’s a Grocery Outlet.
    Erica: Think we could make it to Redding?
    Mom: I’ve been a long time driving and my wrist .. (rolls her wrist to demonstrate stiffness and discomfort)
    Erica: I’ll pick up driving from there.
    Rachel (musing on the choice of provisions at every exit): Every place in America looks exactly the same. Taco Bell, McDonalds. It’s not even real food.
12:59   While passing through Sacramento, Mom: Your Dad and I would always argue in the car right here.
    Rachel: What would you argue about?
    Mom: Driving. Me smacking (while she ate, demonstrates the sound of lips smacking while eating). Just directions, basically.
Rachel: Was it more peaceful when you were driving?
Mom: Yeah, because he would go to sleep.
Rachel: Did you like driving?
Mom: Yeah, if he was sleeping. But he liked doing it, so it was fine with me.
13:34    First stop, Olive Pit. Sample peppers and olives. Use the bathroom. Diaper change. Breast-feed. Duration of stop, unknown. Maybe 25 minutes. Rachel finds unripe olives in the parking lot and an unripe pomegranate down the street. Mom warns everyone about sitting on the lawn in the parking lot because that’s where the dogs pee and poop.
13:37    Erica driving, Rachel co-pilot, Mom in the backseat with Finn.
    Rachel: Anyone have any comments about the rest-stop?
    Erica: I wanted to say it was really nice that Mom thought about Bob. (we stopped at the Olive Pit because Bob, Erica’s partner, likes olives.)
    Mom: They’ve changed it a lot. They didn’t have a sample bar, or the place with burgers and shakes.
14:19  Stop at Sundial Bridge in Redding, CA. Walk across bridge, investigate the way it works. Everyone muses about how it cool it would be to see a tightrope walker on the taut cables. Erica wears Finn strapped to her chest. She comments about the oppressiveness of the weather. Rachel stops into the gift shop, doesn’t see anything too interesting. Realizes she looks for lumpy ceramics wherever she goes.
14:50    Back in the car.
14:51    Rachel requests to look at a structure acknowledging a quarry mined for concrete to be used on the Shasta dam. It indicates there was enough concrete used in the dam to make a three-foot sidewalk that could circumnavigate the earth at the equator. Dazzled at the vision of the dystopian concrete structure and the bones of architecture Rachel is simultaneously disgusted at the ridiculous excess.
14:55    Mom (referring to the concrete structure) Was it called the Monolith?
    Rachel: I don’t know what it was called.
15:23    Stop at a large liquor store by request of Erica called “BevMo!” rumored for its insane selection and cheap prices relative or Oregon. Mom gives Rachel $17 for “whatever” and stays in the running car to watch over Finn.
Erica loads up on a lifetime supply of liquor. Rachel doesn’t see how the selection or prices differ from anywhere in Oregon.
    Erica: I remember it differently.
Rachel purchases a large container of tequila with half Mom’s money, BBQ chips, and a sugary green drink for Erica in compensation for one she drank at her house before the trip.  
Erica also buys Mom special Guinness chocolate treats.
15:38    Stop at Chipotle to eat.
16:00   Back on the road. Erica driving, Rachel co-pilot, Mom in the back with Finn.
16:23   Passing Lake Shasta.
16:47    In or around the halfway point.
17:35    Stop at Ray’s Grocery store in Weed, CA for fiery poops from crap Chipotle food and restock on caramel M&M’s. Finn is fed.
    Mom: We almost didn’t leave. There was a man who had a mustache and a sleeveless shirt.
    Rachel: Were you thinking of staying in town and starting a new life?
New car setup - Erica driving, Mom co-pilot, Rachel in the back with Finn.
18:27    Arrive in Oregon
19:53    Gas in Chemult, OR. Erica paid. Didn’t get a receipt for the scrapbook. Start to work out logistics for paying each other back for different things. Doesn’t go very far.
19:59 Erica talks to Bob on the phone. Expresses disappointment when he indicates he is at a friend’s (Peckham) shop helping Tyler (Rachel’s partner) with a project and might not be home when she gets home.
    Erica (not on the phone any longer): If he is not home he will be shunned.
    Rachel to Finn: Hear that Finn. Shunned. When you see your father you must pretend you don’t recognize him.
Erica, in a time before, not recorded in the minutes, reflected on her own OCD nature, predicted the sense of relief she would feel returning home will be overshadowed by some small irritation. Rachel asks her now if this is already the case with being frustrated with the possibility of returning to an empty home.
20:06   Prediction of time based on google maps from Chemult to Sunriver, one hour.
    Erica: Of course I’m gonna get there faster than an hour.
21:04    Arrive in Sunriver, OR at Erica’s house. Unpacking Erica’s things from Mom’s car. Bob and the twins are there. There are train tracks set up in the hallway.
21:12    Back on the road for the final leg.
22ish?    Arrive at home in Redmond, OR
22:58    In bed with Tyler. Trip complete.