7/7-7/16/17
Current location: Silver Creek CG, Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie NF, WA
We would have liked to have stayed in New Jersey to continue to visit for a while longer but we had…well, life…to make happen back on the left coast. We headed out of New Jersey early in the morning with our sights set on Cincinnati, Ohio. We have some dear friends who live just north of Cin-city and with repaired air conditioning the 12 hours or so of driving was spent in relative comfort compared to our last month or so.
Our driving routine tends to consist of 3-4 hours apiece, tons of podcasts and relatively incoherent topics of conversation brought up by yours truly (Eric). Our route took us the length of Pennsylvania, through the sliver of West Virginia and into southern Ohio. We rolled through some healthy thunderstorms in Ohio and upon arriving at our friends house got to listen to the tornado sirens going off in the area.
Grant was bachelor for the weekend as Becca and the girls were vacationing in Iowa, their home state. We partook in what is now a tradition when we show up at a friends house and they are still driving home from work…sit in their yard and drink a beer, this time complete with a swing set. The evening was spent sharing stories, a few beers, some great smoked chicken and healthy campfire antics. Who says you can’t light a fire that just had a torrential downpour on it?
Two beers, civilized, mature...
4 beers...
The next morning we saddled up again and pointed west and a bit south as we headed through Indiana, Illinois, Missouri and eventually Oklahoma, the last two of which were states number 46 and 47 on this trip. Another 12 hours or so of borderline numbing roads that fall into the category of “impressively boring”, meaning after (it’s key that it’s only AFTER) the drive you kind of say to yourself, “Wow, that was really boring but kinda cool at the same time.” We had planned on finding a state park or other camping option on the edge of Oklahoma. However, after seeing the thermometer hold steady in the low 90’s most of the day we decided “cooling off” to 75 was not the kinda of sleeping we wanted to do. So we looked up some hotels in Tulsa and thankfully, and not surprisingly, they were not very many points to use. We rolled into there late afternoon and after striking out at finding some cool areas of town that were packed with a festival and general crowded restaurants we sampled the fine cuisine at the bar and grill attached to the hotel.
The next morning we got an early start to make the drive slightly west and then north to the border of Kansas and Oklahoma. We needed a stretch of the legs and to round out the lower 48 for this trip we wanted to get a run in on the border of both states. We found the state line, drove about 10 miles down some dirt, farm roads off the interstate and parked in the grass. We hopped out and did a little 4 mile run along and up a couple roads on both sides of the border. The sun beat down at 8am and we were quickly sweating uncontrollably. Thankfully the end of this day of driving would put us in Colorado and some showers. The lower 48 were complete for this trip!
Kansas and eastern Colorado passed by just as it always has the previous half dozen or so times we’ve drove through. Straight roads, highway noise and a horizon that seems to never actually arrive. Eventually the Rockies started to show themselves and we flew through the Denver area to the west and Golden. We stayed again at Rick’s house for a couple days as we swapped out things from the van, got my car’s windshield replaced and ran errands before we started the two-car caravan to the west coast. Thankfully we were able to meet up with friends for a beer or two, this time saying a more official goodbye.
On the way out of town check off our 83rd and 82nd month of skiing, respectively. We made a quick stop at Loveland Pass for a strip of snow we know is easily accessible and holds on into July. Halfway down the run I see Lara stop and take out her phone. Thinking she was just taking a picture I was surprised to hear her start talking. She had gotten a call for a job interview and decided at 12,000’, skiing in July to have a 15 minute conversation with an Athletic Director in the Seattle area. Well done! They wanted to have a more formal phone interview later in the day so after we got done we packed up and headed to where we knew we had service so she could have that call.
Later we passed by the “Leaving Colorful Colorado” sign on the western edge of the state. Although the landscape is stark contrast to the Rocky Mountains, it still cause quite a bit of choking up in both cars as we pulled over for a picture. We didn’t say much to each other in our brief interlude outside next to the sign. We got back into the cars and headed further west into the deserts of Utah, eventually leading to a recreation area in rural central Utah for camp that night. We took in the sunset from a beautiful overlook above Price, Utah and shared our not-so-glamorous stories from a day of driving in two separate cars.
Drive time was repeated the next day as we headed through Salt Lake City, pretty much during rush hour, cutting a diagonal through southwestern Idaho and into the upper corner of Oregon. We stopped at a state park right near the Idaho-Oregon border but decided we could make it further that day. Plus the heat was oppressive, clocking in at 106 just west of the park we decided to forgo. Another hour and a half on we headed up a steep gravel road to a free camping area around Morgan Lake, just outside of La Grande, OR. Free and a lake seemed like a good set up for a short evening and early wake up call the next day. However, after about an hour of making some food and seeing the “locals” at the lake we decided this was not somewhere we wanted to spend the night. The campsite we parked at was completely trashed, others around the lake looked more like they were living there rather than camping and the nice woman who maintains the free lake shared some stories of rowdy drug parties and people with rifles. Onward we went! The sun was setting as we pulled into a tiny state park along interstate 84 and bordering a nice river. The park had a few families with tents, some older couples with RV’s and smiles/waves as we drove in. We are both sure we would have been fine up at Morgan Lake but we also wanted to actually sleep, rather than worry about every noise outside the tent. Animals walking around camp is one thing, stupid humans is another.
After a nice night sleep with the sound of interstate white noise and river flowing next to us we awoke to once again pack up the cars and head west. This day saw us cross into Washington, likely the last ‘welcome to’ sign we’d see on this adventure. The hot air of eastern Washington gave way to cooler temps as we headed up and over Snoqualmie Pass. This area of the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest is the eastern edge of the greater-greater Seattle area and we decided that with good cell service and striking distance to Seattle we’d find a campground to stay at for the weekend.
A few days earlier we didn’t know how much progress we’d make on the house rental front this weekend but started sending out emails and contacting owners anyway. Thankfully, numerous great choices got back to us. Friday, after setting up camp at about 1pm we were down in West Seattle looking at a house at 4:30. We made some aimless drives through West Seattle to get a feel for the area as well as make a drive-by on some other houses we’d see that weekend. Saturday we saw two more houses and Sunday we saw a final one. For various reasons it came down to two houses and after one landlord said she actually didn’t want to have dogs in her rental we had decided. We were still in the West Seattle area when our now landlord asked us if we wanted to drop off an application. Thankfully, after a night of fitful sleep from finding that one other application was submitted before us, we got an email the next morning that our application was accepted! House life was about to begin. At this point we still had a few more days to sign the lease and decided on move-in date so we celebrated with a beer and planned out some Washington adventures.
