Day 7: Dayton, OH - Easton, PA

2 hours after we left Dayton, OH, we arrived in Gallia County in Ohio, and enjoyed a nice breakfast at the original Bob Evans farm. Yum! We walked around a bit, and Arlo told me about his many childhood visits and how things have changed. Afterward, we visited his hometown, Gallipolis, OH. The town has a colonial, french feel to it, and was very interesting to walk around. The history of towns and buildings interests me to no end. I loved hearing which buildings used to be home to local theaters and ice cream shops. And how he got kicked out of this place for being a little punk, or how he and his friends did this and that there for fun. I heard stories of time capsules, biking around town, and land marks for many firsts. We walked by his old home, and found his hand prints and name that had been imprinted and scraped into the sidewalk many years ago. Many things had changed, but many were still the same. So fascinating!

We spent the rest of the day making our way back to Easton. About two hours before our arrival, we stopped for some slices of glorious, dearly missed East Coast pizza. That totally hit the spot! We got back around 10pm, and were very happy to be off the road.


Home Sweet Home!

Day 6: Colfax, IA - Dayton, OH

This morning, we woke up in Colfax, IA and got on the road at about 9am. It was nice to sleep on a bed after driving for almost 30 hours. We originally planned to drive the rest of the way through until we got back to Easton, PA, but we decided to get a hotel for the last night. Tomorrow, we're grabbing breakfast from the original Bob Evans, and then visiting Arlo's hometown of Gallipolis, OH. Then it's smooth sailing to PA!

We did a lot more driving today. The best part was stopping for dinner in Indianapolis, IN. We ate at Brugge Brasserie in Broad Ripple! I was there 3 summers ago, and fell in love with their food and sour beer. I was afraid that I had psyched it up to be something better than what it was, and have a poor second experience, but IT WAS SOOOO GOODD! It's really my favorite restaurant in the world. I'm so sad there's nothing like it closer to PA/NJ.

Now we're crashing at a hotel in Dayton, OH. Last night on the road! We should be rolling into Easton late tomorrow night.

Day 5: Somewhere in Wyoming - Colfax, IA

This whole day went by in a blur. I don't even really remember what happened. We drove through the night and stopped for an hour and a half to nap. After that, we drove until about 5pm when we got a nice hotel room in Colfax, IA. We spent the remainder of the night relaxing. The hot tub was nice! It was a very uneventful day.

Day 4: Bozeman, MT - Somewhere in Wyoming

Butte, MT is a really crazy place. It's like taking a walk back in the early 1900s when it was a booming mining town. Since then, it has been left behind by many and inhabited by few, most of which are now meth addicts. As I'm told by an old roommate of mine who grew up there, the town has never ever changed. All the brick buildings have faded adsvertisements and many are in terrible disrepair. Over half of them are uninhabited, including the spooky old hospital. I guess there's just no point in renovating buildings that no one will use.

YELLOWSTONE!!! Oh my god... it was so beautiful! It got to the point where is was really just overwhelming. Like, it got stupid to be taking as many pictures as I was. It's more of a place you just have to go see with your own eyes. I may have enjoyed it more if I didn't have a camera with me, because then I wouldn't have felt obligated to try and capture the beauty. It was a much bigger place than I imagined. I think we spent about 6 hours there. And we drove through Teton Naitonal Park right after (they're right next to each other). It's amazing how different the two parks look from one another even though they're so close. Teton was more mountainous and had beautiful poplar trees with yellow turned leaves. From there, we drove through the rest of Wyoming. We made our way through this great mountanous region as the sun was setting. Everything was covered in snow, and the valleys were full of rusty red colored bushes. The mountains themselves were striped with layers of sediment. I just wish we had another hour or two of sun light...

The night lasted long. We drove straight through. At one point, we stopped the car out in the middle of nowhere and looked up at the stars. I've never been able to see so many stars in the sky!! It was gorgeous, and then absolutely freaky. I kept imagining that some creature from The Hills Have Eyes would appear two feet from our car as soon as the head lights came back on. We hightailed it out of there!

Arlo took the first 5 hour shift of driving while I slept. In the middle of the night, I was jerked from my slumber by Arlo laying heavy on the brakes, swerving the car, and screaming, "HOLY SHIT!!!". Apparently, as we were driving through the very remote back roads of Wyoming, a big horn sheep ran into the road from the left side, and Arlo almost ruined his day. I found this kind of funny, because we were eagerly spotting and checking off animals on our yellowstone wildlife checklist. And we were disappointed that we hadn't seen a big horn during our visit. Be careful what you wish for.
 
Later that night while I was driving, I noticed some light in the sky off to my left. It was a giant slash of pure white light that shot from the sky to the ground. It immediately turned a bright emerald green for about 5 seconds, and then vanished into a puff of smoke in the same shape. The entire phenomenon was accompanied by a punch of sound. At first I thought it may have been fireworks, but that was the only one, and I have NEVER seen a firework like that! Sooooo, it was either a meteor falling from the sky, or Thor was crashing down to planet earth via the bi-frost. It was the absolute most incredible thing I've ever seen! I had goosebumps for 10 minutes afterward. It looked a lot like this.

Day 3: Spokane, WA - Bozeman, MT

It's incredible how animals sometimes know when something big, like a move across the country, is about to happen. Clearly, no one has told them, "Hey, get ready to leave all your familiar smells, say goodbye to your best doggie buddy, and sit in the car for hours and hours on end." But somehow, they get it. I guess they read our body language and stress levels, and reflect them back to us in the form of destroying our carpet, chewing through a hard plastic crate, and decorating the new carpet with a variety of pet stains while we're at work. Keep in mind, Damascus was home in our room by himself while we were at work for 3 months, and never did any of that. But here we are, two weeks away from leaving Portland, and he pulls out every bad trick in the book. Crazy little mutt...

I forgot to tell you! Arlo and I stopped at a cider mill on the way to Bellingham, WA two days ago. On one side of the barn, they made the cider, and on the other side, they sold it! As soon as I walked into the small store (complete with straw on the ground and posted signs about what happens when you fail to abide by the honor system for purchasing cider) I was handed a fresh sample. SO GOOD! We bought a half gallon, and 2.5 lbs of apples at $1/lb. I found out today that the apples are VERY TART!

Right now, we're driving through the golden and green mountains of Montana, on our way to Butte, MA to hang with former Portland roommate Joey! I'm a bit bummed we decided not to go south through California, but these snow capped mountains surrounded by autumn reds, yellows, and pine greens are anything but disappointing.

I must say, the gas mileage is incredible on this Toyota. We got over 40 miles to the gallon yesterday. That's a giant difference from the 17 mi/gal we were getting on the way here in my Mercury!

Sorry for the lack of pictures. The hotel we stayed at last night was charging $3 a day for wireless, and we refused!! Plus, we were way tired, and crashed as soon as we got in. But we've already chosen our hotel for tonight, so pics are coming!



tree       tree       tree
mountain       mountain      mountain
cloud       cloud       cloud

Day 2: Bellingham, WA - Spokane, WA

Drinks and dancing last night... wish we had enough energy for more of both! After some margaritas, we went and saw a band called Petunia and the Vipers, which plays a bit of a rockabilly/western swing mix (think the music from spongebob squarepants!). It was a blast!

A cool thing happened yesterday when we took Damascus for a walk at a park in town. We met an older guy who told us all about his travels and his experience with Australia/Australians. He gave us a bunch of tips and had a bunch of funny stories. It's amazing, the kind of people you meet on the road! For those of you that don't understand the connection, Arlo and I are planning to get 6 month work visa to use over in Australia starting May of next year. We've already set up plans with a resort in the outback, so all we really need to do is apply for our work visas, buy the plane tickets, and make a little money to take over there! We were stoked to find someone to tell us about their first hand Ausie experiences!

I wish we could stay here in Bellingham longer, but the road is calling! (And I want some damn East Coast pizza!!!) Today, we're heading due East through the Cascades on rt 20. It should be a gorgeous drive! We'll likely spend the night around Spokane, WA before we head over to Yellowstone National Park. =)


More later (and hopefully some pictures, too!)!

Day 1: Portland, OR - Bellingham, WA

Ohhhhhhhhhh my dog...

This past week has been intensely busy, and the exact opposite of what I wanted from my last week in Portland. Instead of spending my last few moments chatting at coffee shops with best friends, hitting up the bar, playing some pool, and grabbing final bites from all my favorite restaurants, I spent my time frantically packing, selling, shipping, organizing, cleaning, and running countless other errands in preparation for this trip and moving out. I thought an entire week off was more than enough, but I clearly have more to learn about this. One time does not make me an expert by any means. Though not spending every last minute with my friends was a hard choice, it was the right one. I mean, I regret not being able to hang out with them more, but if I did that instead of everything else I did, I would probably still be in Portland come this Tuesday.

As for the trip!!! We woke up at 5am and loaded the car with all of our stuff, and got on the road at about 5:30am. Loading the car was a surprisingly pleasant experience. After the trunk was loaded, we only had a few bags and one suitcase to put in the cab. In comparison to our last trip, our car is half the size, twice the age (almost), and half as weighed down. Our secret? Selling, shipping, and donating. We made about $1000 selling the bikes and some other household items. We shipped our PCs and a lot of clothes back to NJ for a depressing total of $380. But it's a lot better than having to buy a new car back on the East Coast because we over-loaded our current car and ran it into the ground (a mistake we made last trip)!

After driving only 25 minutes this morning, everything became unrecognizable, and that's when I realized Toto and I were no longer in Kansas. However unfamiliar everything was, it was absolutely beautiful. After the early morning fog burned off, we found ourselves cruising up Rt 5 on a perfect autumn day. We stopped in Seattle, WA and met Arlo's cousin Jenny and friend Jess for some coffee. We shared friendly conversation of future plans and past adventures, and parted shortly after to resume our separate road trips. But before we split, we met Jess' dog Celia! She's a corgi/chihuahua mix puppy, and cute enough to steal without second thoughts (don't worry, I didn't!).

We admired Seattle's genius architecture and had fun walking the streets. Just a couple more hours up the road, and we found ourselves in the company of Arlo's family once again at his cousin Nat's house (where we're staying the night). What a cool place! This is a small town I think I might like to visit, or even live in, for awhile. BUT IT'S COLD UP HERE!!! Too cold for my blood. I'm missing summer...

Time to go out for some dranks!!!

Geronimo!!!

As I stand here at the precipice of something great and new, I peer over the side to catch at glimpse of what's to come. I can make out a few things, but many are much too small to tell what they are. All at once I'm exhilarated and freaked the f*** out. It's a long way down, and possibly even enough to make my feet a bit cold. But rest assured, I have filled my pockets with rocks, and will follow through with this to the very bottom. (And I'm sure the end result will be much more positive than Virginia Woolf's.) I've got one foot over the side, and my weight is starting to shift toward the deep. Just a little less than two weeks and.... Geronimooooo!!!