SA to PDX? That’s right, we’re back!

We’re back in the Pacific NW and couldn’t be happier! KS got a job with Providence Portland, which he’s already loving, and I’m on the hunt for my next great opportunity. The blog is officially back up and running, so stay tuned for adventures in home buying, re-acclimating, and plenty of delicious food cart goodness…

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Road Trippin’ to Our New Home

We have arrived!  In a flurry of fast food, increasing speed zones, increasingly crazy drivers, and over 2300 miles of towing a 1800-pound trailer with a Toyota Matrix, we are here in beautiful (read: rainy!) San Antonio.

Our Rig, complete with two bikes on the back and a trailer filled front to back (60% in front, of course).

We are absolutely thrilled to be here.  The road was long, boring/insanity-inducing at times, and full of billboards I’d only heard of previously on Ripley’s Believe It or Not.  All said and done though, it was a great ride and we saw some awesome stuff on the way.

NOTE: this post is long, folks.  We have an entire road trip and apartment arrival to get through, so pop some popcorn and grab a frosty cold one if you want to ingest this all at once.  Or just skim the pictures and watch the video at the end.

Our full route from near PDX to SA with stops in Reno, NV, Yucca Valley, CA, and Phoenix, AZ.

DAY ONE: Oregon snow to Reno light show

We set off from Salem, OR with used McDonald’s gift cards in hand (thank you, McSkillet burrito, for starting off all the gastrointestinal fun of the trip) and headed south to Eugene.  At this point, the trip just felt like a jaunt back to school for me, but I knew we were in the big time when we took a turn east and headed for Klamath Falls.  We weaved over the mountains with plenty of snow around, Mandy the Matrix revving her little engine like life depended on it.  These were (obviously) some of the most beautiful views of the trip because a) we were still in the NW and 2) we were still in the glow of road trip adventure-ness.

Beautiful lake...something. (Ed. note: O'Dell lake, here's looking at you Randy)

Riley's small-yet-comparatively-comfy spot in the backseat

Riley loved the snow. Or maybe just being out of the car.

We stopped in K-Falls where we had a greasy trucker lunch at Mollie’s upon recommendation from our good friend A-Davis.  Let me just say right now that we had a big ol’ bottle of Tums in the car and they came in very handy.  When we finally made it over the mountains, we crossed the California border, where we were cavity searched and Riley was forced to sell his kidney to bail us out of border jail.  Not really, but they did ask if I had any fresh produce in the car.  Eastern California is very different from Eastern Oregon, in that there is nothing scenic and so few small towns along the freeway, I thought my intestines just might burst out of my middle and do a potty dance on my dashboard.  Check the map of this leg of the journey and trust me: it was much worse than it looks.

We landed around 7:30 in Reno, which we now call mini-but-cooler-Vegas.  Our wonderful friend Alicia not only let us crash at her place but took us out with the Guatemalan sisters she works with to an excellent sports bar.  We enjoyed rounds of tall MGD’s/Bud Lights (they’re very different, mind you) and a delicious pizza with ranch sauce and a fat content higher than my blood pressure while we were navigating mountain passes.

DAY TWO: Border Patrol Adventure

The fun part of this day was going back across the California border after leaving Reno and hearing the patrol officers joke about getting a cavity search when we stopped at the border the day before.  I wish I could take credit for that earlier joke, but it’s really thanks to the California taxpayers.

We saw some awesome sunsets on the road. Night driving is...exciting.

Today also marked the second sketchiest gas station stop of the trip.  It was at sundown, right off the little highway we were on.  We were the only people there and the guy closing up the station didn’t look at us once.  The pump was rickety and barely worked and we thought we were going to be axe murdered in the middle of Eastern nowhere California.  In other words, we were extremely relieved when we reached the Super 8 in Yucca Valley, CA that night around 10:30.  The Pizza Hut down the street didn’t close until 11:00, so that was a big time score.  One pepperoni and olive pizza and two episodes of Family Guy later, we had a very restful night of hotel sleep.

DAY THREE: I can see Palm Springs from here!

Upon waking up, we realized it was approximately a billion degrees out and all we had packed for the three days of driving we had left were jeans.  So we took a walk over to the Wal-Mart and got some shorts and sunscreen.  MUCH better.

U-haul+Super 8 = winner

KS is a bit of a national park nerd.  We had stopped at Mono Lake the day before, and I even let him take the time to watch their award winning documentary Fire and Ice: The Story of Mono Lake while Riley and I sniffed and subsequently peed on all the native plant life.  But today was the big park day: Joshua Tree National Park.  It’s a windy and very scenic road that goes all the way through the park in about an hour (in a Matrix towing a trailer of course).  We took a detour to one of the scenic overlooks where we could see all of the Salton Sea and even clear to Palm Springs.

If we lived in Palm Springs, we could have seen our house from here.

My boys checking out the view

A Joshua Tree, in case you were wondering.

After our scenic adventure, we headed for the CA/AZ border and stopped at a little town called Blythe, CA.  If you ever go on a road trip that takes you close to the Arizona/California border, DO NOT stop in Blythe, CA.  It is an ugly city with an ugly McDonald’s and people who do know to wear shoes in public restrooms.  There’s no greater entertaining story here, we just need all of you to arm yourselves with knowledge and stay away.  It was with great joy that we left SE California behind us and hit Arizona.

This is an awesome state flag, by the by.

We stayed with our wonderful friends Kayla and Jon, who made us authentic SW style tacos.  We slept with the patio door open and couldn’t drink the water.  Welcome to the Southern states!

DAY FOUR AND FIVE: Onward and let’s get the hell out of here

We don’t have many pictures from the last two days because let’s be honest: it was really freakin’ boring.  Scenic, mind you, but extremely boring.  We also advise avoiding Southern New Mexico at all costs. We covered over half the miles of our trip in these last two days in a burst of what we like to call “balls to the wall” motoring.

Overall, we have a few pieces of roadtrip advice:

• Bring audiobooks, reusable cups, a stocked cooler with drinks and extra water, fiber caplets, and an emergency stick of deodorant
• Use the unstoppable combination of Google Maps printouts, a GPS, and a smartphone to never be lost and only fight on occasion with your copilot
• The Super 8 is your friend if you’ve got a 4-legged friend – they accept pets, are cheap, and are in every imaginable city.  Lie to them if your dog is over 25 pounds.
• Only get gas at exits where you see a gas symbol on the sign.  Not following this instruction is a quick way to get yourself lost and perhaps shot.
• Bring shorts.
• Use teamwork.  Gas stops, hotel check-ins, lunch breaks – having a buddy is always better than going it along.  Remember this when you want to kill each other over skipping a rest stop.

And now the moment we’ve all been waiting for: our road trip in cinematic form.  Please excuse the Blair Witch-style camera work and profanity.  Also sorry about the Oregon crack.  We were tired and sweaty.

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