Cancer Diary, Sunday December 24, 2001, Sunriver Oregon
Sunriver
We drove up from Salinas to Sunriver yesterday. Aside from having a Christmas vacation in the snow, this was as much an experiment to see if such trips would be feasible while I was doing the therapy. The answer is a qualified “yes”. I say qualified since driving almost 600 miles is hard work under any circumstances and the preparations required are extensive. And such a trip required making minor deviations from the therapy, in particular, skipping the mid day coffee breaks, getting over-tired, and drinking aged juices. We arrived, but we are quite exhausted. Today, we are recovering.
We had spent most of Saturday afternoon and evening getting ready. I mentioned in my previous diary the number of boxes of foodstuffs we were carrying. The Explorer was pretty well filled up from the front seats on back with crates of food and other necessary items, utensils, clothing, and things to do while on vacation. I estimate the weight of everything to be in excess of 1,000 pounds. There was about a six-inch airspace above all the boxes and luggage that yielded a small aperture for the rear-view mirror. It turned out that this was one of Natasha’s preferred perches so the view behind was limited to that afforded by the side view mirrors.
We awoke at 5am. It took us until 8:30am before we were ready to leave. This time was spent doing “coffee”, making juices for the day (3 quarts), making breakfast, and loading the car. But at 8:30 we hit the road which was quite empty (not unusual for a Sunday morning) and we moved along at quite a good rate. However, I had to make a pit stop at least every hour, so we had a few interruptions at rest areas, gas stations, and promising roadside bushes. The car handled well in spite of the extreme extra weight.
The weather at the start was cloudy, almost gloomy with a hint of rain. I drove the first leg, a two and one half hour segment to Fairfield, just north of the Benicia Bridge over the Sacramento River Delta. We had our first “lunch” at this stop. During the trip we had both “meals” and snacks. The meals consisted of a tossed green salad, Gerson soup out of a fourth thermos jug, potato salad in yogurt and dill, and sliced cooked beets in lemon juice. The snacks consisted of fruits and raw vegetables. The former were tangerines and pears. The latter consisted of plastic bags of radishes, red and yellow peppers, sliced turnips, celery stalks, baby carrots, and cauliflower. We had a ready supply of fresh carrot-apple juice.
After Fairfield, Gayle drove until a rest area near Reading in the northern end of the Central Valley. This three-hour segment is the most boring segment of the trip consisting of driving on the Interstates through absolutely flat terrain. During this leg I had an hour’s nap and woke up rested. I don’t think Gayle slept at all during the trip. As we traveled north, the weather dramatically improved until it was a bright sunny day with temperatures in the 50’s. I resumed driving at Redding for our climb into the Sisquoyu mountains. This is a beautiful section dominated by Mount Shasta. As we gained altitude, more and more snow appeared on the ground matching the entirely snow-covered peaks surrounding us. Mt. Shasta is one of the truly dramatic California landmarks.
Mt. Shasta from the town of Weed.
At Weed, on the northwestern flank of Mt. Shasta, we switched to US Route 97 and Gayle resumed driving for the 2 hour trip to Klamath Falls as dusk fell.
One unique aspect of this trip was being accompanied by our cat Natasha. “Tasha” and her predecessors had always been required to stay at home because of the obligatory Christmas stopover at Gayle mother’s house. Juanita does not abide pets other than the stuffed or stone varieties and would never have permitted a furry animal in the house. But this trip we are bypassing Susanville, so we decided to take our pet along. We made room in the top layer for a box of kitty litter and Tasha’s carrying case. When all was packed, Gayle fetched Tasha out from under the bed in the guest bedroom and placed her in the cat case. Tasha was predictably miserable, assuming that she was headed to the vet. But we popped her in the truck behind the driver’s seat and started off. She wailed plaintively for the first half an hour and was probably wondering “Aren’t we there yet” when we just kept on driving. After about a half hour we opened her kitty box door and she zipped out. It was necessary, of course, to explore the entire length and breadth of the Explorer and to catalog all the objects and creatures contained therein. At one point she climbed onto my left shoulder, down my left arm to my lap and would have continued down my left leg to examine the brakes and accelerator had not Gayle intercepted her progress. After a thorough survey and the occasional wail, she settled down and was the most polite and interested traveler for the entire duration of the trip. She spent the majority of her time on the box directly behind the passenger’s seat. Looking over his/her right shoulder. Another favorite perch was the console between the seats. She was a dear. She was all alertness and we don’t believe she ever put her head down for a catnap at any time during the trip. Once we arrived at Sunriver, she followed us around the house everywhere we went and slept firmly between us when we went to bed. She has been a love. It’s as if the unfamiliar surroundings has bonded her to us. She has been a pleasant but a relatively distant pet thus far in our two-year association. Something subtle has changed for the better.
Tasha and Jonathan
After a quick stop in Klamath Falls, we proceeded north. It was, by now, totally dark, and the two-lane Route 97 was covered in snow with only occasional glimpses of the pavement. Traffic was light. Around Chenault we went through several extensive patches of fog that also deposited a film of ice to the windshield. This was exceedingly unpleasant driving and we were both mindful that we could not get stranded because of my therapy needs for fresh juices and organic vegetables. Fortunately, these conditions did not last long. We passed two accidents. I drove carefully and slowly and at about 8pm, eleven and one half hours after departing, we arrived at Sunriver.
I backed the car into the one-car garage, and we unpacked, a major undertaking. Once that was done, coffee-break time!