By mommie2zs in The Great Western Tour — Aug 14, 2019

The Great West Coast Tour - Day Twelve - Utah to Santa Clarita

Sunday morning we were up and ready to roll relatively early.

The children took a bit longer.

We were headed to Santa Clarita, CA to spend time with one of my best friends from grad. school, Nathan, and to meet his wife and two sons for the first time.

It’s about six hours of driving, but we wanted to drive down the strip in Las Vegas and Nathan wanted to be sure we saw the world’s biggest thermometer. (Nathan is a lover of all things obscure and quirky. One of the reasons we are friends.)

Las Vegas was its expected flashy, flashy zaniness. We were glad to drive down through it and just as glad to get on the interstate and continue our journey.

The thermometer was zany in its own special way.

Buds found a hotel close to Nathan and Frances’s house. We were just in Santa Clarita for one night before heading over closer to the coast in Solvang, CA.

We settled the girls in at the hotel, then Buster, Buds, and I headed over to Nathan’s.

Nathan and I were friends during one of the toughest years of our lives; our first year being teachers of record for our own classrooms. His teaching assignment was much tougher than anyone else of our cohort, and he handled it with good humor and courage and so many hours of phone calls to parents.

We managed to survive it together.

Nathan was an extra special attendee at our wedding. Not realizing he was going to be able to attend, I was so happy to see him when I looked out at the church when I was standing up at the altar, I squeezed Buddie’s hand and said loudly, “Nathan’s here!”

He kept the program from our wedding and the thank you letter I sent him later.