Big Cross-Country Trip, Day 1

May 20th, 2009
Eastvale (Corona), CA to Tucson, AZ
Miles: Approx 470
Time from departure to Hotel arrival: Approx 9 1/2 Hours

Our big cross-country trip is finally here. We are driving from the Los Angeles area to Florida, with a long stop in Houston. So I'm writing a daily summary here for posterity and for the fun of it. By the time this trip is done, we'll have been on almost every mile of Interstate 10.

For those of you who read this and don't know why we're taking this trip, the quick answer is that my son's main doctors are in Houston, TX at MD Anderson Cancer Center, so this will be our fifth...or sixth...or??? trip there. We are continuing onto Florida for his Make a Wish trip to Disney World.

A quick summary of part of that story is here: http://www.christandcancer.org/about

My son's medical journey is detailed here: http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/matthewrager

My medical journey is detailed here: http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/ericrager

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Our day really started before today. It takes days of preparation for these trips to prepare the house, get our dog Rocky taken care of , wash and pack the right clothes, and clean out perishables. Last night was the bulk of our packing and this morning we loaded the car and attended to various last minute needs. But the trip actually started a little before 11AM today.

We all got in the car and got it started to cool it off. As soon as Cade got in the car, he noticed something amiss. The kids have video players that we hang in each seat for our long trips. But Cade noticed that I'd moved the one he's used to over in front of Matthew's seat. This is the one that controls what both systems view when they're linked together. Cade likes the control. But unfortunately his poor motor control has caused him to kick the cord enough that it is causing functional problems. So for this trip I'd swapped them -- and he noticed immediately -- and he didn't react well.

So I captured a pic of him bawling before we even started out the driveway.




After he reasonably settled down, we said a prayer for our trip and got on our way.

Our first stop was only about an hour from our house, to the outlet mall. Cade and I need new sneakers for the walking at Disney World, so we stopped in the Skechers Outlet.

Here's Cade after he got his new pair of shoes:


And here's Miracle Matthew running around the outlet mall. God has been so gracious to our family and has abundantly blessed Matthew. His health is in such a miraculous state today.




By the time we got back to the minivan, it was lunchtime. So we made sandwiches and hit the road. My work started getting quite busy, so we pulled off at the Starbucks in Blythe for a rest stop and some coffee. Cade had a Chocolate Milk, and Matt guzzled a Vanilla Milk.




From here, Denise took over driving and I worked for the three hours from there to dinner in Chandler, AZ - a suburb of Phoenix. We ate at Chino Bandido, a creative place we'd been to several times. They mix Mexican, Chinese, and Caribbean food styles. You have to get the explanation from the owners about how it sort of works.

What you see below is, clockwise starting at the 12 O'Clock position:
-Chicken covered in a bright and flavorful green-herb medley. This is sort of a chinese dish.
-Refried beans
-White rice topped with half of a chile relleno (split with wifey)
-Half of a Chinese BBQ Chicken Quesadilla





Here on my wife's plate, also starting at the 12 O'Clock position:
-Machaca beef -- this is a fabulous version of machaca, moist and flavorful with garlic. Not the sometimes-bland and watery stuff you'll see served.
-Refried beans
-Jamaican Jerk Chicken Fried Rice, topped by her half of the chile relleno. The relleno was a really nice version with a crunch exterior, almost like fried chicken. The pepper texture had some toothsome crunch and the filling was good cheese.





Here is Matthew making a face while waiting for our food.




Cade and I are enjoying ourselves too:



After dinner we had snickerdoodles and got on our way for the remaining 90 miles to Tucson.

We pulled into the Hampton Inn in Tucson around 8PM and got in our room for our nightly Bible-time. Here is Cade in his jammies with his Bible. He got this one as a gift from Grandpa and Nana Rager and loves toting it around and trying to read along.



The kids are asleep now. And after catching up some with work and getting all our batteries charging, I'm headed to bed as well. Tomorrow we'll make it to Texas, God willing.