Amy Pawloski's NaJo Journal chronicles a long move across the United States that involved a lot of driving. Imagine what our pioneer ancestors could have done with audio books and AirBnB.

Turned out that most (all?) of the truck's fuel lines were rotten, and simply disintegrating, so they were replaced. While this was being determined and fixed (for the truck had been towed in right at closing time), we spent a couple of days at J and M's house, with the dogs having the run of their large fenced back yard, and their dogs being kept in the house and the front yard. Once we knew how much of a delay we would have, reservations and plans to meet up were shifted accordingly. We decided to keep the same stops, as the run from Yreka to Sacramento would be a good test of the fix – plus, we didn't know what time of day we'd be heading out. Changing motel reservations wasn't difficult, but I'd also made reservations at a couple of AirBnBs along the way, as breaks from traveling (each was going to be a 2-night stay) and spaced to coincide with when we'd need to do laundry. Our first AirBnB hosts were able to accommodate our change, but our second was not, so it was back to trying to find somewhere available on the dates we needed that allowed dogs and wasn't out of our budget.

We had a lovely time with our impromptu hosts, but we were glad to get on the road, as we were only about 3-4 hours from Crescent City, under normal circumstances. As we traveled south, the air got smokier and visibility reduced until, outside Redding (where the delay had cost us being able to meet with a "chicken friend" that we'd met before), you couldn't even see to the far edge of the highway. I roused PaperKid from her podcast to point it out. She was duly impressed/appalled. (Notepad was back to riding with Tom.) I was working my way through the audio books that I'd gotten for last year's solo train rides through the UK, before I discovered that trains have wifi... Those books lasted me the entire trip, plus a bit.

Our first night at a motel, in Sacramento, was the only time during the whole trip that we needed to unhitch the trailer from the truck to park. Rehitching in the morning was delayed a bit, as firecrew vehicles pinned the trailer in...

After checking in for the evening, we met with some friends, Tom's sisters, a brother-in-law, our niece and her son for dinner. We had a lovely time.

The next day, after a quick shopping run to get myself something to support my back while driving (ended up getting a cheap bed pillow, rolling it, and tying it with some spare shoe laces) as well as some other travel essentials that had slipped under everyone's radar, while the guys waited to be able to rehitch the trailer to the truck, we were on our way to Bakersfield. Truly, most of the tale of the trip will be rather boring, as it was mostly driving. I don't have many pictures of the trip, since I was one of the drivers, though PaperKid did record some footage for a vlog that she still needs to put together and edit. Links will be provided, once they exist...

Amy Pawloski

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