Chapter 5 - THE HIGHWAY NORTH
The morning we left for California, the sky over Portland was the color of wet slate, heavy with the promise of rain.
We didn't pack Mickey Mouse ears. We didn't buy matching shirts, and we didn't have a color-coded spreadsheet tracking our hourly movements from one tourist trap to the next.
We packed three backpacks, a box of audiobooks, a massive stash of gas-station powdered donuts, and a worn-out paperback copy of The Call of the Wild.
My phone buzzed against the center console as I put the car in reverse. It was a picture message from Seth in the family group chat. It showed Max, Elise, Leo, and Brynn standing in front of the castle at Disneyland, wearing matching sunhats, looking hot, tired, and thoroughly overwhelmed while my parents smiled stiffly behind them.
The caption from Dad simply said: Wish you were here with us.
I looked across the passenger seat.
Taryn was fiddling with the radio dial, trying to find a station that played indie folk instead of pop music, her denim jacket resting comfortably across her lap. She didn't look back at the phone, and neither did I.
I put my thumb on the screen, swiped the notification away, and shifted the car into drive.
As we pulled out of the driveway and headed west toward the coast, the rain began to fall—gentle, steady, and clean against the windshield. Taryn rolled her window down an inch to let the crisp, damp scent of the Pacific air fill the car.
May you like
I turned the heater up, glanced over at my daughter, and smiled.
We didn't have a plan for every single mile, and for the first time in our lives, that felt like the best possible way to travel.
