We spent about a month this summer on a 7,000+ mile road trip across the country, from the Washington, D.C., area to California and back. I began posting privately about the trip while we were gone, but we’re home now, so I’m updating my posts with photos and making them public. Here is a rundown of Days 7-10, which were July 9-12.
Success! On July 8 we had achieved our goal: early on our sixth day of driving, we arrived in Auburn, California. Because of the pandemic, I had not seen my father and stepmother in three years, and was so glad to finally be able to spend time with them.
I was also glad to meet their dog, Riley. I am not a dog person; in fact, I’m allergic to the little guys. But Riley is a remarkably cute, appealing, quirky, and sweet-tempered dog. I took antihistamines, and I was smitten.
It was great to see my dad and stepmom, but we didn’t do a lot that would be all that exciting to read about, so I won’t go into detail about our days there. We took walks, watched episodes of Alone on television, and had long conversations. My father and stepmother also had boxes of old family photos in the garage and let me go through and take whatever I wanted. I’m the self-appointed family historian and have been doing a lot of family-history research, so I jumped at the chance to add more to my photo files.
I had also finally finished the family tree book I’d been making for my father. It arrived there a few days before we did, and he seemed excited to see it. I don’t think he’d had any idea just how far back I’ve been able to get in my research of his mother’s line of the family: I have names and dates for some of my dad’s ancestors back into the 1500s. I included the family tree, photos of people and places, when I could get them, and historical background.
My sister Karen and her husband live nearby in Granite Bay. She wasn’t able to spend a lot of time with us, but we did drive over one evening, with my father, to visit her and have dinner there. She’s been in her house for years, but I had not been to California in even longer, so I had not actually seen it. I was particularly interested in the beautiful collection of art on the walls.
Once we left Auburn on July 12, our next stop would be San Francisco. But that’s a story for another post.
The Petrini Page 