Thursday, March 28, 2013

BEND or Bust!

We made it to BEND!!! And it has been wonderful, and exciting, and beautiful! 

We packed a lot in during Dad's stay!  I guess that's easy to do when you're living without any of your belongings, thanks to my extremely tardy movers. 

We went for a hike, 

Took in the scenery with Little Henry, 

Climbed Pilot Butte, 

Read about the Three Sisters (and why it never rains in Bend, right Dad?), 

Admired Oregon's natural beauty, 

Hugged some trees, 

And sadly, said good-bye. 

Thanks for everything, Dad! You are the absolute best. 

"I'm as lucky as can be, for the world's best dad belongs to me."

Saturday, March 23, 2013

Best Laid Plans...

Sorry to leave you all hanging for the past few days! Things have been quite busy here!

The last time we talked, Dad and I had just made it into Oregon! Once crossed the state line, our plan was to drive 55 miles to the town of Ontario and stop for the night. When we arrived there, it wasn't even 7:00pm yet so we figured we would drive for another hour or so before stopping for the night.


Well, the universe had a different plan in store for us!

A few towns beyond Ontario, I was pulled over by a cop. As soon as I saw those flashing lights, I thought to myself "Oh great, bad sign, I'm moving back to the east coast." The cop explained that he saw me touch the yellow line and he wanted to make sure everything was okay. After living amongst some of the craziest drivers in Boston, I thought that was a bit minor to pull me over. He elaborated by saying he just wanted to make sure I wasn't texting or drinking. No ticket or warning, thank goodness. After this, I was exhausted and just wanted to stop for the night so I asked the cop where we could find the nearest hotel.  He explained that we wouldn't see another hotel for about 90 miles. Ughhh!! What he didn't explain though, is that we would have to drive through the most enormous mountains in the ENTIRE world to get there!

To say we were scared out of our minds, would be the understatement of the year. It honestly felt like we would fall off the mountain at any moment. We were driving in the dark, with no cell phone service nor civilization for over 2 hours!!! I was so scared I drove extremely slow and every single person passed me, including huge truckers going 80 mph! Here's a picture of our path.
Ha! Just kidding! But that's definitely the way I will remember it.

We literally counted down each and every mile until we arrived at the town of Burns! I was so scared of what lied ahead that I just pulled over at the first motel I saw. Dad ran in to see if they had any rooms and luckily, they did!

Or unluckily! This hotel was The Bates Motel 2. It was run by a mother and her son and they seemed a little off. And I'll just let the pictures do the rest of the talking...




YUP! That's a chair up against the door! I was convinced someone was going to break in and kidnap me! I slept in my clothes and we were out of there as soon as the sun came up!

As it turns out, the joke was on us! We pulled out of the parking lot, turned the corner, and there was a McDonalds, Subway, Grocery store, and beautiful well known hotels - an actual civilized town!!!

Oops, our fear got the best of us!




Monday, March 18, 2013

4th day = eventful

Yesterday started off so well! We slept in a little and enjoyed breakfast at the hotel. They had the coolest instant pancake machine.


You just press a button and 2 pancakes come out a minute later.


Then we got on the road....

As we drove through Wyoming, Utah, and Idaho we experienced all sorts of crazy weather.



We hit snow, 35+ mph winds, black ice, and dust storms.


We saw warning signs for about 20 miles leading up to the actual dust storm. Once it hit, we couldn't even see the cars right in front us. Luckily, it only lasted a mile.

With all the crazy weather excitement, we were so happy to arrive at Cracker Barrel for dinner!



I had my eye on this place since Nebraska!





I'm not going to be able to eat at a Cracker Barrel again for a while so I ordered one of everything on the menu! I was starving!

We entered Oregon soon after dinner. Then the excitement REALLY began! We're still recovering! Stay tuned...

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Sunday, March 17, 2013

Big Wonderful Wyoming

We spent yesterday driving through Nebraska and Wyoming. Dad's favorite state so far is Nebraska but I fell completely in love with Wyoming!


I've always loved watching long trains pass by but seeing them with a beautiful country backdrop has been simply breathtaking.


We finally stopped shortly after hitting the 2,000 mile mark. We found the greatest restaurant in Rawlins, WY, Bucks Sports Grill.



We were so excited when we walked in and saw a relaxed, friendly, and sporty atmosphere! The hostess even offered to take our picture.


Look at these HUGE menus!!


Notice the prices...


11 BUCKS, 10 BUCKS. How clever!

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Saturday, March 16, 2013

Best Buddy

After Henry saved the day in Iowa, we thought we'd reward him with letting him take the wheel for a bit....


He wouldn't keep his eyes on the road though so we moved him back to passenger duty.



He really is the best little buddy in the world!


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Half Way!

We made it to the half way point - 1490 miles!!


We were doing pretty well snapping a picture of each state sign but Nebraska had to ruin it for us. We had our camera ready but there was no sign! Just as we crossed into the state we saw a "Welcome to Omaha" sign though, so we snapped that. Maybe they take more pride in that city than the rest of the state...pretty cool sign nonetheless.


We did experience some excitement earlier today when an extremely nice man working at a convenient store came running after our car as we pulled away. It turns out I left my Dad's wallet on the counter and he was trying to return it. Thank goodness Henry was sitting on the gear shift and delayed us from leaving right away. If it wasn't for those few minutes we would have never seen the man running after our car and Dad's wallet would have remained in Iowa!

Here's our little hero!



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So lucky

Do I have the greatest dad in the world or what?



Not only does he pump the gas, but he cleans the windows too when we stop.



I think all his wonderfulness has tired him out.

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On the road again...

We had a big day yesterday and made it through New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa.


Sorry for the blurry Iowa picture. Clearly, I was driving a little too fast as we crossed into the state.

So far...
We've driven 1,242 miles,



Stopped at 4 McDonald's (mostly for Diet Cokes),




Enjoyed 1 delicious dinner at Cracker Barrel where I played the peg game (according to this I'm "just plain dumb" since I left 3 pegs on the board,


And have seen a million farms (give or take a few hundred),



Looks likes we'll be seeing a lot more of that as we venture through Iowa and Nebraska today!

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Friday, March 15, 2013

Hittin' the Road

We finally made our way out of Boston around 7pm last night



We stopped in Utica, NY around 11:30pm and hit the road first thing in the morning. Here's a picture of the master and his cargo carrier masterpiece.



Eat your heart out, Home Depot!

And since I can't go very long without mentioning Henry, here's a pic of the handsome little man resting in the car.



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Bye Bye Boston

After three and a half years of Boston's city life, I'm on the road to the Pacific Northwest! But first I had to say my good-byes..

First stop, Dewberry Dogs to give hugs to Carma, my breakfast date every Tuesday and Thursday for the past two years. Henry and I are so lucky to have met this wonderful family.


Then, off to my work where my awesome colleagues surprised me with breakfast consisting of homemade waffles, fresh fruit, and danishes. This group has a heart of gold, that's for sure!



Of course I couldn't even begin to say my good byes if it wasn't for these two flying up to Boston and loading me up!



And thank goodness they did because I clearly have a problem with space management. But after one FedEx shipment, one homemade cargo rack, and an extremely packed car we are finally westward bound!

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