Day 1 - "The Smoking Cowboy"

The alarm clock rang at 4:03 am announcing the beginning of our journey to California. We decided to take the bus to the train to O'Hare to catch our first flight. Leaving and landing on schedule, we arrived peacefully in Salt Lake City and waited our 1 hour lay over. With Jon by the window seat for our second flight, and I in the middle, the lottery began... Who would be the lucky winner? Actually, I was! I was selected to sit next to the fantastically smelling cowboy (and by "fantastically smelling," I mean a tidal wave drenched individual smelling of freshly smoked cigarette the whole ride), for his 1.5 hour nap. NO offense to any of you smokers out there, but it was a long 1.5 hours. I pulled out a piece of gum for take off and stuck it under my nose to help ease the stuffy, smelling environment of a closed circuit air system aboard the airplane. I decided I had better take a short nap myself to help pass the time. (Note: the stewardess came by to offer complimentary snacks and Jon ate my cookies!)

Upon arrival to Sacramento airport, we excitedly exited our plane, retrieved our luggage and rental car, a Ford Focus, and began the road trip. Jon being an awesome planner, we had our hotels lined up, our trip mapped out, and a tentative plan for food. What could we have missed you asked, a map of California! Thankfully, we had Garmin to show us the way, for good or ill.

After a brief visit with Betsy, Dave, and Justin, and to Mario Valdez (Mar-Val, the local grocery store) we headed to our final destination for the evening, our hotel. Or so we thought. The first hotel had given our room to someone else and sent us to their sister hotel in downtown Sonora. We were just thankful to have a room that we unloaded, over viewed our plans for day 2, and went to bed.

That... was day 1.