The "Home" Stretch

So, we're back on the road once more, for the last leg of our journey. Idaho was pretty boring, and we didn't really drive through it for long (only the southwest corner). We did see some pretty awesome wind farms on our way out, though. I have a fascination with windmills... I could just watch them for hours. For some reason I assign human emotions to windmills when see them. They seem like soldiers that go out into battle, standing up and enduring the elements to protect us from ourselves. Like no matter how tired they get, they never lose sight of their purpose, and they just keep going round and round.

Then, finally, our new home state: Oregon!

The eastern part of Oregon is pretty flat and is mostly farmland. It doesn't get green and "Pacific Northwest"-looking until you are almost to Portland. And, most of the road-side attractions are part of the Oregon Trail historic route.

Tangent: Does anyone remember that old computer game 'Oregon Trail'? We used to play it all the time in elementary school and I don't think I ever made it to Oregon. I'm pretty sure I was the one who always died of dysentery or had to kill all my oxen or something. Here's a screen shot because I'm feeling nostalgic:

We had heard great things about the Columbia River Gorge, which is just outside Portland on I-84. We didn't think we could make it all in one day, so we decided to stop in a little town called Pendleton, which appears to be the largest town in Eastern Oregon. That way, we could leave early the following morning and take our time driving through the gorge. On our way out, we passed this sign:




I'm not really sure what the signifance is, or why anybody really cares, but, I guess I care since I went to the trouble to take a picture and put it on here. I did a little research and the 45th parallel is a great place for grape-growing and wine-making. Apparently, the Bordeaux region in France is also located along the 45th parallel. I have not yet delved into the world of Oregon wines, but even before moving here, I always knew that Oregon reds are often the best. So, I'm definitely looking forward to that.

Anyway, Columbia River Gorge. I actually was slightly disappointed with the scenery in the gorge. It was still pretty brown, and there was a lot of industrial traffic: trucks, trains, etc. However, there were definitely some things that are worth discussing. First, the train traffic is crazy. There are tracks on both sides of the river, so we were constantly seeing freight trains going back and forth. We saw one train so long, it had SEVEN engines pulling it. !!!

Also, the river is HUGE. And we saw at least 3 dams along the way...I'm sure there are more. Here's a picture of one at The Dalles (a city in Oregon):

There's another place along the Columbia River, near the town of Hood River, that is famous for windsurfing. There were TONS of windsurfers out (like hundreds) and it looks super fun. I'll definitely have to try it out.

So, once you're almost to Portland, and if you look back the way you came into the gorge, it is absolutely beautiful... lush and green:

After we came out of the gorge, Justyn and I started to get pretty nervous and excited. It's a bizarre feeling to be driving into your new home city, having never seen it or been there before. Every mile we got closer, we both inched toward the edge of our seats, our shoulders tensed up a little bit, and our eyes started darting back and forth, trying to take in every detail. Our original apartment was supposed to be downtown on the river, so we headed downtown right when we got there. Downtown Portland is cool... it's located right where the Columbia River and the Willamette River meet, so there are tons of bridges, and it makes for a cool skyline.

There it is, folks. Portland. City of Roses. The "greenest" city in the U.S. (yay!). To Portland, we say, "Nice to meet you, hope we get along." And it says to us, "Welcome home."

On the road again...

By this time you may be wondering, "How's Oliver doing?" He's fine, see?

He pretty much looked like this the entire trip.

In true Oliver fashion, he was totally chill. He is such an angel, a perfect feline specimen, and he absolutely lived up to these standards the entire trip. He wasn't too fond of hotel rooms where he could hear the neighbors, but otherwise he was great. No vomiting, no feces, no howling or scratching. He's such a joy!

Our next stop was Colorado Springs, where we spent a day with family and went to the Royal River Gorge. It was very beautiful, and was the first place I ever laid eyes on the Oregon flag. I have to say, it's definitely not as cool as the Tennessee flag, but I'm not going to judge a state by its flag.

It was really freaking hot that day, I think it was almost record-breaking, and it we didn't stay long. The gorge was beautiful, and made us wonder if the word "gorgeous" comes from that. I did some research and couldn't find anything to definitively say yes or no, but methinks the answer is yes.

The other thing you may not know about Colorado Springs is that NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense Command) is there. It's hidden in a mountain under granite that's 1300 feet thick, and is protected by 2 blast-proof doors that weigh 30 tons each. It's been there for 50 years, this year being the 50th anniversary. I'm not 100% clear on what happens there, but the gist is that they montior and respond to any disturbances in our airspace. Parts of the facility have appeared in some movies (think War Games and the the Terminator movies). Incidentally, I don't really understand the abbreviation for this place. I like things that are very logical, and as a result I'm thinking this should be called NAADC. But whatever. That's just my OCD coming out.

There also are a lot of prisons in Colorado and I'm curious why. According to my research, there are 30 prisons in the state (including federal, state and private prisons). There are only 17 in Tennessee. Also, the only "supermax" prison in the country is located in Colorado. Many federal and state prisons have a maximum security area, but there is only one in the country that is entirely maximum security, and it's called ADMAX. Lots of famous criminals are there: Ted Kaczynski (the unabomber), Robert Hanssen (the guy they made the movie Breach about), Richard Reid (the shoe bomber - we can thank him every time we take our shoes off at airport security), and lots of others from the Oklahoma City bombings and a few mob bosses I've never heard of.

On our way to our next stop (Salt Lake City) we drove through Glenwood Canyon in Colorado, and it is truly one of the most amazing places I've seen. It's so majestic and dramatic, words cannot describe it:

Our next stop was Salt Lake City, where we drove through at night and thus did not take any pictures of the city. On our way across eastern Utah, though, it was SO gorgeous. This picture doesn't even come close to doing it justice, but here it is anyway:

You probably can't tell, but there is a rainbow in that picture. We thought that was a good sign.

Anyway, we stayed at a KOA campground in my dad's RV which was kind of hilarious. It sleeps like 8 people, and we had our own room, see?

It was kind of a tight fit, really, but it worked out nicely. It gave us a nice break from the road, and my dad keeps it a cool 65 degrees in there all the time. It's also totally equipped with a full kitchen and bathroom (including a shower). But seriously, it was really nice to have a last visit with some family before we said goodbye for a while.

Next up: Idaho and OREGON!!!

Gentlemen, Start Your Engines!

We decided to drive to Portland instead of fly out. This is for several reasons: 1) shipping cars across the country is expensive (like $2000) 2) we suspected Oliver (our cat) might not like air travel too much, and 3) we thought it would be therapeutic for us, you know, like a rite of passage or something like that.

It just so happens that some of our family lives in strategic locations so that we could drive for about 10 hours west/northwest each day, and then could stop and stay without having to pay for hotel rooms. So, after packing up our house we set out to our first destination, a short visit with my Grandma who lives in Oklahoma. It was a short, uneventful visit with one exception. As we were driving through Arkansas (somewhere between Little Rock and Fort Smith) we passed a chicken truck on the highway. It looked like this:

It was kind of crazy, I mean, I guess I just never really thought too much about how my food gets transported, but it is wild and a little unsettling to see that many chickens crammed together. It definitely makes me glad I only eat free range chicken & eggs, and also makes me re-think whether I should become a vegetarian (something that's been on my mind lately).

Sidenote: Justyn thinks I would be an excellent vegetarian, because I get so grossed out by raw or undercooked meat. I can't even go to the meat counter at the grocery store, and really don't enjoy eating meals where the food resembles any sort of living thing (even fish). I even have a problem with eggs from time to time...I know... it's weird. It's not a cruelty thing at all, it's something else... just can't put my finger on it. Portland is supposed to be a very "veggie-friendly" city, so maybe I'll think about that some more.

Anyway... the chicken. We pulled into the left lane to pass the chicken truck and this is what we saw:

Okay, I have a small confession. This is NOT what we saw. I, being the passenger at that particular time, did not have easy access to the camera, so I stole this picture from some other guy's blog, who apparently saw something quite similar and has cat-like reflexes so he managed a picture. (I don't know him, and I've never read his blog but I figured I should link to it just to be honest). What we actually saw was quite a bit more dramatic - the chicken was out of its cage about 5-6 levels up, and it was facing outward so we could see the look of distress on its beak. It was squawking like crazy, and I'm pretty sure it wasn't saying "I'm FREE!!" Anyway, apart from that, I found Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Kansas to be quite uninteresting.

The most interesting thing in Kansas was in a little town called Sedan, where the main attraction is an actual yellow brick road. We didn't stop (there was no time, and we thought it best to get out of Kansas as soon as possible) but I found this picture on the Sedan, Kansas website:

I don't know about you, but that picture makes me glad I didn't stop.

The only other thing that happened in Sedan is that we stopped for gas and the owner of the gas station talked Justyn into buying some homemade hot sauce made from Carribean red peppers. Justyn is a sucker for hot sauce, and likes to support the little guy.

Next stops: Colorado & Utah. Those states were SO incredibly beautiful they deserve their own post, so until next time...

Moving Companies Suck, part II

So, after the packing drama from the previous day, we really didn't know what to expect when the actual movers showed up. The driver of the truck was stoned, I think...his eyes were all glazed over and and partially crossed. He reminded me of Brian Wilson... like maybe he did so many drugs in his younger days that he was permanently high or something. But he could drive an 18-wheeler like a mo fo and I guess that's what's important.

Anyway, the movers were actually way better than the packers, though it still took way longer than we expected. The only real drama on this day was that the packers from the previous day had left a bunch of random stuff laying around, and they had told us, "oh, don't worry. The guys tomorrow can take care of that." And of course when the movers came they were like, "Uh... we don't have any boxes or anything for that stuff..." Otherwise it was pretty smooth on that end of things (little did we know what we were in for on the other end!)

So, as soon as everything was loaded onto the truck, we took off to go pick up our new car (having previously sold our other 2 vehicles). Then all we had between us and the west coast was the open road!

The moving company told us the delivery estimate was 7-10 days... not bad in my opinion. As part of our agreement, we had to be immediately available as early as the 7th day in case they called for delivery. But, we were also told that we would have the driver's cell phone #, and we would get updates along the way so we could plan accordingly. Incidentally, we never did get the guy's cell #... one of many broken promises (amongst many other broken personal belongings). So, we grabbed Oliver the orange monster and hit the road, planning to stop and stay with family along the way. (Don't worry, I'll blog about our road trip later.)

My dad and evil stepmother (who's really not evil at all) happened to be on a cross-country road trip this summer in their RV, and happened to be in Salt Lake City the same night we were. So we decided to shack up with them for a couple of nights, and then get back on the road to meet our delivery deadline. After Salt Lake City, they were going up to Yellowstone which we really wanted to do also, but there was no time. So we parted ways, and about 8 hours later we got a phone call from the moving company that our stuff was going to be delayed at least another 4-5 days.

The reason we were given was "mechanical difficulties", which to me means they found someone else who wanted to move and they wanted to combine the trucks to save themselves some cash. The worst thing about it, is that by this time we were seriously having some laundry issues (and by "issues" I mean it was all dirty). Luckily, we had pre-rented an apartment in Portland that was just waiting with our name on it, so we figured we'd go ahead and scope it out, and sleep on the air mattress for a few days. No big deal, right? Wrong.

We arrived in Portland, found our apartment, and went to check it out. But whoa, Goldilocks. It was way too small. (More details on the apartment fiasco to come in a later post also.) Suddenly, there we were, homeless, jobless, and alone. So we got a hotel room, dropped off the cat, and started the mad dash to finding another place to live. Suddenly it seemed quite serendipitous that our furniture was delayed...

We finally found a new apartment and the movers finally came, 5 days later than planned. We had already notified the moving company of our new address, and when I did so, I said, "there are some additional stairs that we weren't aware of...is there an extra charge for that?" and she said "no, there's no extra charge for stairs." Great. Perfect. All is well.

The truck driver had a different opinion, and it just so happened this was one of the few 95+ degree days in Portland, and there was a lot of "hemming and hawing" about 2 extra flights of stairs (which, by the way, were all outside, which in my opinion is easier than trying to maneuver inside a building when there are walls and stuff you can hit, but I guess what I think doesn't matter too much). The driver stands there shaking his head and says "I'm going to have to call this in." So it turns out they want to charge us $200 extra labor for the stairs. Well at this point they haven't unloaded any of our stuff, so we tell them we'll work it out later, and let's just get everything off the truck. Once again, Justyn helped them move everything off the truck, which they admitted NO ONE ever does. But do we get any credit for that? No... just good karma, I guess.

Remember how the packers forgot to box up the bathroom and hall closets before we left our house? Yeah. We came across a box that looked like this:

Hmm...that doesn't look good, right?

Ewww.

And so we opened it and Ta Da!

Yes, friends... those are glass bottles banging around with a metal trash can, full of liquids, unwrapped, unpadded, leaking onto my brand new shower curtain.

Not to mention we found about 25 boxes labeled "Misc Items".which of course all got dropped in the living room because we didn't know what was in them. WTF? (Thanks Darell and Darell. You guys were awesome, and my life has been so much richer since you came into it.)

So, to keep a long story from being longer... we ended up with an antique wooden box that was cracked into 2 pieces, a Salvador Dali woodcut print with a hole punched through the mat, among many other things. Oh, and guess what? If you don't have receipts, don't even think about making a claim for the damages.

The moral of the story, here, kiddies, is that moving companies don't care about your shit. No one cares about your shit because it's your shit, not theirs. Pack your own stuff, and rent a freaking U-Haul.