Day 6: Salem to Seattle

We left Salem the morning of the 26th and drove to Centralia Washington 136.64 miles away. The plan was to go to the vet & finish Finley's flight paperwork, medicine, etc and then head to Seattle to sight see and visit friends. The best made plans though...
We drove through McDonald's (again) and discovered their oatmeal is quite good. I was grateful for it because I hadn't eaten a lot in the last 24 hours since most food requires chewing and I was in too much pain for that.
At the vet in Centralia I decided enough was enough so I asked for a phone book to look for a dentist and the receptionist recommended a dentist who was just down the street, I called them and they said they would fit me in.
The dentist took xrays, looked at my teeth for about 30 seconds and then said "You need a root canal so we need to get that scheduled." I said, "we are leaving the country in two days to move so can it be done today?" He said, "You might not be getting on that plane." My options were not looking good. Luckily he was able to call an endodontist he knows in Olympia and he was able to schedule me for an emergency root canal for the next day. I was so excited to walk out and deliver this news to Bill (insert heavy sarcasm and sigh here). I remembered though that my niece had a brother who was a dentist so I called her to get some advice and she called him and he actually was a endodontist and he said to give him a call with any questions I had... so I was able to get a second opinion via phone which was great. Thanks Kelsey and Stu!!
So after getting all that scheduled and figured out we finally head to Seattle. Traffic is a nightmare, I am in increasing pain & everyone is sick of being in the car. We were staying in the Sheraton in downtown Seattle... I did not realize this until we pulled up in front of it. It is a beautiful hotel and I would love to stay there sometime without my kids and dog :) I felt like a country bumkin though as we unloaded onto a baggage cart with our tons of mismatched luggage and we all just looked awful - everyone in the lobby had one smart looking bad and were very polished. It was about 8:30 by the time we got all checked in and made it up to our room and then we realized we had to feed the kids and Finely probably needed to go the restroom which could not happen in front of our posh hotel so we loaded back into the car and headed out.
We had a mission of three things: food, potty for Finley and then we needed a few things for the flight for Finley so we needed Walmart or something. We start driving and our GPS stops working just as Bill takes this exit that happens to be a long bridge headed in the exact opposite direction we need. About 20 min or so later we turn around and head back the way we came, having no idea where we are or how to get back to our hotel or where to go... GPS still not working. I am ready to cry again, the kids are falling asleep but complaining about being hungry, Finley is whining and Bill was about to lose it. GPS kicks back on. We type in Walmart and drive to where it says...there is a car dealership there. We try another Walmart address... again nothing where it should be. Bill is really starting to get a little testy and we still need to eat. Its about 9:30,10:00 at night now. We pull into the next parking lot we see so Finely can get out on this tiny patch of grass we have found & we can calm down. I think we were at our breaking points. The day should have been simple and fun and instead it was drama and running around until all hours of the night. We loaded Finley back up into the car and drove to the nearest McDonald's, got food and headed back to the hotel.
Once back at the hotel we had to figure out the next day. Due to my emergency root canal we had to re-plan our day. We had on the schedule drop off van at the port, pick up rental car, drop of Finley for his flight and repack suitcases. Add in root canal. And of course these events were happening in THREE different cities - now add root canal in a FOURTH city. Good times people good times.
Salem, Or to Centralia Wa 136.64 miles
Centralia to Seattle Wa 84.68 miles