Found!

One of the frustrating things about moving is not being able to find stuff both in home and in the new town. While I feel silly saying we aren’t yet fully unpacked (I mean come on, it’s been over a month) it is true. We unpacked most of what we need to function daily, but it is the little details that stay buried for a while. After two weeks our packing inventory went out the window when we started digging through boxes for that one needed item or re-using boxes completely (little used kitchen stuff went back in boxes). I think I have finally unpacked all the boxes of books and this feels good, now I just need to get them in order on the bookshelves (and decide to what degree of obsessive I want to follow).

And I am very happy to report I found my to go mug! Not that anyone else in the world was worried but me. I was sad without my pretty to go mug (in fact I took it with me on errands this morning filled with yummy Jasmine Green tea).

And, even better, I finally found drive-up USPS mailboxes–in two different locations. I wouldn’t be opposed to walking to a mailbox to send everything wider than a greeting card (ie netflix envelopes) if there was one reasonably near me, but until today I had to park the car to walk the Netflix envelope to the mailbox situated inconveiently for me. Sadly the USPS website simply uses Switchboard for their “locate a postal office” feature. It probably isn’t Switchboard’s problem that the USPS doesn’t clue people into where the drive-up mailboxes are located (or that they don’t tell you what services are available at which post office locations… my first attempt found a “package pick-up” only location).

In other news (the weekend trip update) we went on another apple pilgrimage (because we were almost out of apples). This time it was on a Saturday so more fruit stands were open (and we brought more cash, in hindsight that might have been a mistake). Our find of the day was a stand selling apples and pears at 25 cents/pound (the most we paid was 85 cents/pound). We stopped at 4 different stands, bought 12 varieties of apples and 3 varieties of pears (plus 2 small squash, 1 jar lavender honey, 1 jar raspberry jam, 1 lavender scented soy candle tin, 2 lavender-white chocolate truffles, and 3 skeins of alpaca worsted weight yarn). We now have three boxes in the garage (dark and cool) storing slightly less than 94 (original total) apples and pears.

My turn, the beach

Another weekend trip. We started at Cannon Beach , just walking along the beach and enjoying the day. We strolled through the town as well, stopping for an early dinner and then salt water taffy (the blackberry and sour apple were fabulous).

Finally we ended the day watching the sun set at Hug Point:

A Pilgrimage, diverted

The 11 o’clock start was later than either of us would have liked, so we skipped the waterfalls for the first time. The waterfalls were the first thing that awed me about Oregon, and now they are part of the trip that we skip. The exceptional becomes routine I guess.

We did take time to stop at Wygant State Natural Area. It was uneventful except for the wind. It was 60 out, but I zipped my fleece to fight the wind. I don’t want to imagine living there in the winter if the wind doesn’t relent in the cold.

After a quick lunch, we found apple goodness for 50 cents/pound. 8 pounds and 5 varieties later we left the first fruit stand. I bought several varieties of apples I had never heard of, and we got some Asian pears and Pear Hazelnut preserves. It was a nice stand, and we had planned on going to several more, but our first fruit stand turned out to be our last fruit stand.

Other than the from the summit, Lost Lake is supposed to have one of the best views of Mt. Hood. So after seeing a road sign, we decided to ditch my search for alpacas and pilgrimage for apples to take a hike. One curvy ascent later, we started the easy 3.2 mile hike. The view was indescribable — least of all by me. I like Missouri, and miss it, but the beauty of Oregon is overwhelming.

We got back at from our hike at 4:50, but the odd clicking noise we heard near the car told us there might be a cold night or a long walk ahead. Luckily, the noise was the blinker I had left on. Luckier still, the park ranger was still there and gave us a jump.

All is well and all that, but we should definitely start keeping an emergency kit in the car. If we would have gotten back to the car 10 minutes later, we would have been stuck. It was 12 miles to the nearest pay phone, and there was no cell phone coverage.

Lately

We went on a celebratory camping trip over the weekend. (More actual information is coming later, the first week here was pretty busy). I give you pictures instead.

Day 4 & 5, late again

Day 4:

We started out great, leaving relatively early in the morning (although La Quinta’s breakfast buffet disappointed me today, and someone complimented them, which worries me, maybe our good La Quinta experiences are deviations from the norm).  It was fun to watch the landscape change from Wyoming to Utah.

As I write this on day 5 I cannot believe I was in Wyoming yesterday and now am just a few miles from the Oregon border.

Shortly after we got on I-84 the moving truck overheated again.  We decided to call about it right after we crossed the Idaho border (around 3 pm).  About 45 minutes later we determine we will stop at a shop along our path.  We stop, for almost 2 hours, determine that they don’t have the needed part, and we continue on towards Boise (canceling the original hotel an hour before Boise, playing phone hunt for a new dog friendly hotel in Boise–thank you AAA person in St Louis).  We drop the truck off around 10 p.m and head towards our hotel.  After getting lost near downtown Boise (population 190,??? in case you were wondering) we find the hotel, with little help from the very friendly front desk person who should NOT be allowed to give directions to their hotel.  Thank goodness dog friendly also had a very comfortable king-size bed.  Day ends: near midnight (truck is fixed, unloading all our stuff not required)

The days highlights: comfy bed, Futurama on cartoon network, eating at a locally owned (if eh) restaurant for dinner.

Day 5:

This should be a short day.  Approximately 6 1/2 hours of drive time.  Despite that we didn’t pull into tonight’s hotel until almost 7 pm.  We started out decently, all had a good night’s sleep, left the hotel just before 9:30.  Then truck stop hell.  We arrived sometime between 9:30 and 10:00 due to craziness at the filling area and then lack of attention in the restaurant we didn’t leave Boise until 11:00 am.  Arg.

There are a lot of hills between Boise and Pendleton.  And it is crazy beautiful in a way that I just did not expect.  But it also meant slow going up and down the curvy interstate through the hills.  We really didn’t stop much but time just dragged and dragged.  Dog seemed quite enamored by the Columbia River.  He looked out the window with what I think was a happy pant for nearly an hour, and he would lay down when the river wasn’t in view.  I think I got a good picture of his face (even though most times he heard the camera he’d change his position and gaze).

Once we arrived in Portland R and I went to go check out our new place (unofficially).  We didn’t get lost finding it (although giving directions will be a chore).  It is very taupe.  But looks quite decent.

Our dinner conversation began with, “No more truck stops” and then “What is chinese food?”.  Oh boy.

Day 2 & 3 (late)

Day 2:
We started the day in KC going up North 29 into the rolling hills of NW Missouri.  The license plate game continued with Kansas (dubbed “the suck”) dominating the at the beginning (go figure we are driving very near, but not in, Kansas for quite some time). We stopped in Omaha to have lunch with Michelle’s aunt and college roommate and continued West on I-80. Nebraska has really nice rest areas along I-80, and pretty sunflower fields.  The day ended in North Platte, Nebraska and Taco Bell — we are both already tired of generic fast food.

We also discovered that sometimes you need wires to access the internet!  Wires that are packed up somewhere in a box in the middle of a 26 foot moving truck.

Day 3:
We left North Platte a little after 9 AM and headed west on I-80.  As the flat plains of Nebraska changed to gentle inclines, the farms started being spaced further apart, and the sky started to dominate the landscape.  Before we crossed into Wyoming, the hills started getting bigger, and I started worrying about the truck making it over the Rockies.

We learned from our map that Wyoming has the smallest population in the US, and it makes for a desolate drive.  The largest city in the fair state is Cheyenne, and it has a population of around 50K.  There are exit ramps from I-80 that have cattle guards and go into peoples driveways.  The moving truck got a little hot so we stopped in a town with a population of 2 and it felt like civilization — I could buy a Pepsi there.  We ended the night in Rock Springs, Wyoming which was nice — I’ll never be as happy to see an Applebee’s as I was last night.

Colorado (dubbed “Subaru”) owned the license plate game today — I stopped counting a couple of times.  There might have been more Colorado plates in Wyoming than Wyoming plates.  The tally sheet was left in the car last night, so we will give updates on our Dork Project, road trip edition later this week.

We forgot to post this yesterday morning before leaving the hotel.  And we are now behind on yesterday’s update.

Trip log Day One

Long.  The day started well, we picked up the truck around 9:30 in the morning and by 12:45 had more than half of it packed.  That is when we discovered that they gave us a 16 foot truck instead of a 22 foot truck.  To top it off, we ended up with a 26 foot truck.  The thing is frakking huge.  We left our house around 4 pm thanks to the hard work of family and friends (but it was closer to 5 pm when we got out of the St. Louis metro due to a early stop.  We made it to the hotel around 10 pm.

While I remembered to take the camera in the car and we set up a Flickr account for pictures; I didn’t remember to pack the USB camera cable with our car luggage.  So no pictures until the end of next week.

Dork Project*, the road trip edition

Our rules:  Count the number of different state license plates that we see on our trip, excluding the state we are currently driving in.

Today’s state count: 22 plus 1 Canadian province.  If you are interested in the count (given in order seen): Illinois 17, Minnesota 1, Iowa 4, Ohio 6, Indiana 2, Tennessee 5, Nebraska 7, Kentucky 2, Alabama 1, Ontario 1, New York 1, Georgia 1, California, 2, Oklahoma 3, Florida 6, Oregon 1, Kansas 20, Arizona 1, Pennsylvania 1, Virginia 1, Colorado 3, New Mexico 1, Idaho 1.
*I don’t know when this was renamed “dork project” but several of my friends have dubbed it such so…

(this whole post is posted a little late due to a hotel internet access code snafu)

In one week…

We will hopefully sitting somewhere west of here. The dining room table we are sitting at will be packed away in a truck. By now, there should be boxes to the left of us and boxes to the right. But here we are, not much packed.

At least operation “find better housing than a Gortex(tm) box” was successfully concluded. We found a nice 2 bedroom place in Vancouver with an on-site dog park, a garage, and inexplicably 2.5 baths.

Quick rundown:
job –check
Truck rental — check
traveling companions — check
traveling companions flight back home –check
new residence -check
packing
packing
packing
packing
driving

The Oregon Trail, about 20 years later

One of the treats of grade school was being allowed to play The Oregon Trail on the computer. I don’t remember finishing the game but I do remember crossing rivers and perishing of dysentery (among other exotic and scary sounding diseases).

In a couple weeks we will be moving west.  I’m glad we don’t have to do so in a wagon.