SPRING TEXAS

Oh Happy Day!

We’ve finally reached our destination. Hooray! The last few miles just breezed by. It would be nice to kick back and relax by the pool, but there’s still so much to do. So far, we’ve unloaded and returned the U-Haul ; unloaded my car; unloaded the pickup; fixed the garbage disposal; fixed the dishwasher; bought a fridge, a trash can, and other assorted items, and had dinner with our friend Nancy and her family. The gas is supposed to be turned on and the fridge delivered today. I’ll be happy to skip the COLD showers. Although it was warm enough yesterday that I didn’t really mind all that much. The weather is lovely. Mid 80’s with a slight overcast, gentle wind and only a little bit humid.

Along with lots of unpacking (it’s challenging to figure out where everything will go), I think we’re going to buy some cabinets for the laundry room, and since our washer & dryer isn’t here yet, we need to find a Laundromat, too. I haven’t been to one of those in years!

Time to get busy! But first, check out my hot pool boy. :-)

New Mexico to Texas

New Mexico – TEXAS!!

Do you know the New Mexico state question? Red or green? It refers to your choice of chilies. Makes me chuckle. Tumble weeds make me chuckle, too. New Mexico seems to have a lot of them. I found them amusing until one jumped in front of my car as I was cruising down the freeway at 70+ miles per hour. Hit that tumble-bugger head on! It didn’t fare too well, but I think my car’s OK. Hard to tell, it’s so dirty. At least the massive rain storms we drove through in Utah washed away most of the bugs. For awhile I had bug-soup on my windshield, but that too was eventually cleared away.

Santa Rosa is behind us now, and we’re officially in Texas. As we were cruising down the highway, I was wishing for a rest stop. I saw road side picnic areas (no facilities) and road side parking areas. I don’t know what was up with that. Just an off ramp and back on ramp with a place to park and dump your trash. I’m not sure why anyone would like to park next to the highway to do that. Go figure. We did eventually come across a real rest area. Wow! Texas really does them up right. It was beautiful. Great covered picnic areas, play structures for the kids, vending machines, history vignettes, even the ladies restroom was lovely with its vaulted wood planked ceiling. At one point, as we were driving through Memphis Texas, the song “Deep in the Heart of Texas” came on the radio. (It was one of those rare moments when I hit the SCAN button and the radio numbers didn’t keep spinning like a broken roulette wheel.) Memphis is a very quaint little town (rustic), and coupled with the tune emanating from my speakers, I felt like I’d already arrived.

-- At the Rest Stop --

Click on the picture to the left to see what the informational sign says. An take a look at that blue sky and fluffy white clouds!

And to the right is a picture of the ladies restroom.

------

We were feeling pretty good, so we stopped in Amarillo for a burger, then kept driving. We tentatively set our goal for Wichita Falls, but didn’t feel quite like stopping just yet, so we kept going. I must admit, the panhandle area of Texas really isn’t very pretty. But the further south we got, the lovelier it got. The weather is nice – in the 80’s, there’s lots of green, and some gently rolling hills. Little did I know, my awe and admiration was about to come to an abrupt end.

We timed it perfectly… hit Fort Worth rush hour traffic at exactly 5:30 p.m. Fort Worth is the 5th largest city in Texas, and the traffic didn’t disappoint. I was right behind Rick on the freeway, but that didn’t really matter. In a matter of moments, there were cars between us, beside us, all around us, knowing where they were going, and going there very quickly. We were totally at the mercy of our GPS advisors. Unfortunately, since he was pulling the U-Haul, Rick wasn’t able to maneuver as quickly as required, and missed his turn. I didn’t see where he went, so I just followed my GPS voice commands and end up on a completely different highway. We tried to keep in touch via cell phone, but in the middle of the horrendous traffic, there were times that talking on the cell phone just wasn’t advisable. I kept driving south, and into a gigantic black thunder storm. I felt like I was driving into the belly of the beast!

We pulled off the freeway as soon as we could, and checked into a Best Western. We RAN to the entrance because it was raining and blowing so hard. It wasn’t until we got inside that we found out that we were also in the middle of a tornado outbreak. WHAT??? Still not sure if we’re out of the woods, but I sure hope so! We’re only about 3 hours from our final destination so should arrive early and ready to work (unloading and unpacking). I’m hoping this final leg of our road trip is quiet and uneventful. I’ll post as soon as I can, but we won’t have internet for awhile, so I’m at the mercy of my unsuspecting neighbors and their unsecured networks. :-o

UTAH-COLORADO-NEW MEXICO

We woke up Easter morning in our Holiday Express Hotel room in Green River. It looked just like our hotel room in Ontario. Kind of made us wonder if we’d actually gone anywhere – or was this just our own private version of Ground Hog’s Day.

We went to our free breakfast, and I found myself pondering two questions. First, who thought up biscuits and gravy? That person should be awarded a golden spatula! And second, how did that lovely French couple with a small child find themselves in Green River Utah? I don’t think it would be high on my list of “Places I must visit in a foreign country.”

We got on the road a little earlier this time. Saw more fantastic scenery in Utah, especially in the Moab area. I would have liked to stay and explore a little, but we’re on a mission and it was raining buckets!

There is a place in the canyon that has a HUGE hole in the cliff. You couldn’t really miss it, but just in case, the kind people of Utah have provided advance notice. OK, the sign really applies to a house that has been blasted out of rock and is open for public tours. But the sign cracked us up. Click on the picture -->



We drove only short distance through Colorado, and then entered the Land of Enchantment. Or as some of my former NM friends say, the Land of Entrapment. We stopped at an Apache Casino for a bite to eat and to donate a couple of dollars to the cause via their slot machines, then headed out for Albuquerque.

I learned an important lesson in Albuquerque. One I’ve learned many times before, but for some silly reason it never seems to stick. The lesson? Don’t be a smart ass. Let me explain. We met with my cousin Di and her husband Paul for a cup of coffee and a good visit. When we were ready to go, Di wanted to take our picture with her new iPhone. We waited and waited, but for some reason it just wasn’t working for her. So I took HER picture with my LG cell phone. Thought I was pretty smart, until I got to the hotel and realized I hadn’t saved the pictures, so I came away empty handed. Rats. Serves me right.

Another lesson I learned today – don’t try to grocery shop at 8 pm on Easter Sunday in a small town. Everything was closed up tighter than a new pair of jeans. I ended up at the Shell station and bought a 6 pack of beer and a subway sandwich. Yum! So now we’re in our 3rd Holiday Express, this time in Santa Rosa, getting ready to call it a night, and plan for tomorrow’s adventure. I must admit, I was somewhat dreading this road trip, but as is often the case, the reality is much different than the anticipation. I’m really enjoying the journey, and find it at times to be rather relaxing and serene to drive those long straight drives through the canyons and valleys and open range land. More tomorrow.

ORE-IDA-TAH

Oregon - Idaho - Utah

I’ve driven almost a thousand miles. I’m tired and achy. I had a banana, Ritz Bits and red wine for dinner. And I’m enjoying every minute of this road trip. First, let me share that we are driving two cars – well, a car and a pick-up pulling a U-Haul. And in each vehicle there is a GPS unit – one Sony and one TomTom. So basically, there are FOUR opinions about how to get from point A to point B, and rarely do we all agree. Add to that, we’ve also consulted MapQuest and GoogleMaps, and made a last minute change of plans due to a snow forecast in Rawlings Wyoming. So it’s a wonder we know where we are. In fact, when we got to our motel tonight, Rick did ask me “where are we?” I was way ahead of him… I read the signs as we pulled into town. We’re in Green River Utah!

Mountain View from Tremonton

We slept well last night and didn’t get on the road until almost 10am this morning. Just a few miles from Ontario, we entered Idaho. I like Idaho. Their speed limit is 75 mph… which of course means I was going almost 80 – sometimes even faster when I had to scoot past a semi. Our first stop was to gas up in Boise. Then again in Tremonton for gas and lunch. We went upscale this time and had lunch at Denny’s. The view of the mountains there was wonderful. So was the view of this most interesting “Scottish” Ford Escape. And you should have seen the driver!! See… it’s stuff like this that makes road trips fun!

(Click on the picture and see it in all it's Tartan Glory!)

I think that anyone who is interested in geology, which I am, would fall in love with Utah. The rock formations, green soil, plateaus, mountain ranges, are all spectacular. And add to that, a sunset to light the stage and a rainbow for window dressing and it just doesn’t get any better than this. Our drive through the Wasatch Mountains was beautiful, but a little nerve wracking as we watched the temperature drop until we hit the Soldier Summit. Fortunately, there were only a few snowflakes and no icy roads.

Took this picture with my cell phone @ 70 mph. (Shhhh -- don't tell).

The road construction, on the other hand, I could do without. At one point, the road narrowed to the point that it was necessary to drive on the shoulder with the right side tires hitting those annoying “rumble strips”. They’re a great feature for keeping sleepy drivers awake, but for miles on end – OYE!

I love to keep an eye out for the wild life too. Today I saw an antelope, a prairie dog watching the traffic go by, and a ground squirrel (chubby little fella) playing Russian roulette. That is to say, he ran across 3 lanes of traffic buzzing by at 80 miles an hour, to get to the other side. Hey! He made it! Which is more than I can say for the fascinating assortment of road kill I’ve seen. Including a bloated elk, miscellaneous birds, and something that looked like an albino opossum.

I can hardly wait for the adventures awaiting us tomorrow. We have less than 1300 miles to our destination. Yeah!

ON THE ROAD -- Finally

Finally! Everything is packed, loaded, swept, vacuumed, dusted, double checked, triple checked, and locked up tight. The POD has most of our inside furniture, the U-haul has most of our outdoor furniture, the truck bed has miscellaneous furniture (including my beloved oak card-catalog that’s destined to be my new wine rack), and my car is full of crap. We are seriously questioning our sanity. First, for deciding to move – and second for deciding to move all this worthless junk!

But we’re happy to be on the road and taking the next step of our journey to adventure. It was a beautiful sunny day, and we made it as far as Ontario Oregon. Not too bad, considering we didn’t get on the road until 11:30. I had forgotten how really beautiful the Columbia River Gorge is – especially this time of year. The apple trees are in bloom, there were mountain goats on the hills, lots of green in the valleys, little to no wind making the Columbia River as smooth as glass, just an overall spectacular sight.

We stopped at a gas station restaurant in La Grande. Sounds risky, huh? I was hungry for a bowl of clam chowder, and they didn’t disappoint. As we started up Cabbage Hill, there were patches of snow along the side of the road. Then I started noticing – what – snowballs? Giant hail stones? No, silly… they were ONIONS! I had a good chuckle to myself when I figured that one out.
We’re spending the night at the Holiday Inn Express in Ontario. It’s OK, but not as nice as the Gladstone Oxford Suites we stayed in last night, or the HIE in Seattle back in January. But the WiFi is free, and breakfast is included, so as long as the bed is comfy, I’m good.

Sorry I don’t have any pictures to post, but since I’m driving solo, I thought it better to keep my eyes on the road and my hands on the wheel. I can hardly wait to see the sights tomorrow. I’ll keep you posted.

AWAY WE GO -- EVENTUALLY

I received a wonderful send off from Marylhurst last week. There was a fun fare well party with carrot cake (my favorite), lots of kind words, nice cards, gifts, and many hugs. And so many great emails – I can’t thank everyone enough.

But as the sadness of leaving fades, the pain in my back and knees is all too vivid! I’ve decided that moving is a lot like having a baby. Over time, you forget the pain involved and foolishly do it all over again. The POD arrived on Monday. We started loading it on Tuesday. Shortly thereafter, we found we needed more boxe$. By Wednesday we determined that we have TOO MUCH STUFF and had to rent a U-Haul for the exce$$. We hope to finish loading both POD and trailer on Thursday, cleaning on Friday, and then hit the road! As excited as we are for our new adventure, I’m ready for this part to be over.