Every year we go back we have some sort of epic adventure, and this is the story of this years:
Emily had a track meet on Saturday night(she ran a 2:07!), so the plan was to hit the road after the meet, spend the night on the beach, do some stuff in the morning and then make it back for mothers day. The meet went long and we didn't end up leaving until about 10:30 PM. I am borrowing my moms car because my car has been making some weird noises. So, I'm not use to driving an automatic and I'm so excited for the trip, I ended up driving right past Emily's house and forgetting her. But a block later I realized it and turned around to get her. I pick her up and then we start taking off to the beach, but then realized Emily for got her singing tooth brush which is extremely important and tradition, so we have to go back again and pick that up.
Finally we get on the road and choose the Hannah Montana soundtrack to listen to first. We start talking away catching up on life because it had been almost a whole week since we have talked. I get caught up in the conversation so much that about 20 miles out I realize that I totally forgot to put gas in the car. The gas light is on and it is even with the empty line. I scream. Emily prays. We talk it through. The only option is to just keep driving, knowing full well that there will be zero gas stations and even if there were they would be closed. And if we run out of gas we'll just pull over to the side of the road, sleep there and then figure it out in the morning. I start to freak out a little because I know we have a least 40 more miles to drive. But after about 5 minutes I calm down and realize whatever the case is, it will be an adventure. So, I would accelerate up the hills and when we would hit the down hill I would put it in neutral and coast down. Meanwhile Emily is making up a song that I think would be fair to call it "Coasting to the Coast". For those who know the road from Eugene to Florence, we made it to the Casino before the car starts losing steam and lose a lot of acceleration power... So we move over to the side as we coast so cars can pass. With very little acceleration we start up a major hill and Emily turns on the very fitting song "The Climb" by Miley Cyrus. We are now singing at the top of lungs while slowly climbing up this hill at a good 20 to 30 MPH. We made it to the top and coast down enough to make it to a flat part of the road and try to keep a constant. However we lose complete steam and I need to pull over. I didn't make it over enough, so Emily and I get out of the car and push it a little to move it completely on the shoulder. I turn off the car and we sit there for a minute or so and decide to see if it will turn back on a give us a little more. The car doesn't start. What now?
We get out of the car and walk over to a lake that's on the side of the road and see if there is a place to put our sleeping backs and sleep.
What I have failed to mention right now is that we are roughly a forth mile from the town of Florence. So, we decide to walk to town and see if there is a gas station that we could push the car to. As we walk, we also realize we were about 200 meters from making to the "Entering Florence" sign!! SO CLOSE. We get a gas station and it's about 3 minutes to Midnight and we think it's going to close, but it's a 24 hour station! We ask them is they have gas cans and they did, but only one left. However, neither Emily or I brought money on this walk. So we walk back to the car while deciding if we want to try to push it or just go buy the gas can. We get the car and decided hey, maybe while sitting there the gas condensed. I put the key in, turn it, and the engine starts!! Put it in drive and very slowly tried to start driving. I make it a constant 10 MPH and we made it to the gas station!!! Crazy! God was our gas can. There is no logical way we should have made it. But we did!
So we fill up and drive to a side street along the coast where we bump "Open Skies" and have a dance party under the full moon and stars. Then we grab our sleeping bags, cross a bridge, go through some bushes, make it to the sand and fall asleep talking.
We wake up around 8:00 AM and drive to a time capsule that we hid last year. Find it and read some amazing things. I wrapped mine back up, hid it again so I can come back to it later in time. Emily took hers. Emily went on a run for an hour and I hiked down to a hidden, serene, beautiful river where I sat on a log that went into the middle of the river and read my bible. We then reunited, brushed our teeth, went to Freddies, and drove home. Then I spent the majority of the day with my Mom on Mothers day because I love her lots! And I beat her in cribbage.
And this was successfully long. Pictures of the trip to come later!
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