Family Daze

Yesterday and today we got a taste of "family life" as spent time with Charlotte, Owen, Elise, and Mike. On Saturday we ate breakfast, and then we went to the grocery store, and then we went to the park, and then we took a nap, and then we had pizza, and then we had ice cream, and then we watched olympics, and then we went to bed. And on Sunday we ate breakfast, and we met Uncle Kurt and Aunt Robyn [Mike's brother and sister-in-law], and we ate hotdogs, and we watched olympics.


All in all, we enjoyed the lazy [as much as that can be said with 3 year old twins] warm summer days. This was the first part of the summer that felt like vacation to me--up till now I've been mostly concentrating on courses, itineraries, driving, and the like. It was good to get to know family a bit better, and see what a good job they're doing with the twins. I honestly don't know how they manage with a 1:1 parent to child ration, it felt like we could barely manage them with all four of us!


Our visit to Michigan (and our tour across the country) have made us wonder where the best place is for us to settle down. We have friends and family in many places, but no one place stands out to us yet. We see our families age and we want to be near them; our friends and siblings are settling down and having children and we want to be part of their lives. We won't have freedom to choose until my green card arrives this year, but once it does, we'll have to make some decisions about the next step in our adventure. Your thoughts and prayers are appreciated!

Same trip, only backwards

We got into Dexter MI around 1 after 650 miles of driving. It was nice to see a familiar home and to sleep in a decent bed again! Due to the late hour, we didn't see any familiar faces, unfortunately.


Highlights of the day included:
-visiting Victory Glass near Des Moines to get some jukebox parts
-lunch in Des Moines at an artsy coffee shop
-Chicago style pizza in Chicago
-Driving on freeway that's 18 lanes wide, boxed in on 4 sides by semi trucks
-Listening to our book on tape to help the miles of corn and soy fields pass by quickly
-fields of sunflowers!

Our plan is to stay here for one more day, then drive home on Monday morning. This way we can recharge, and enjoy a bit of a visit.


This morning was a bit of an adventure. Ollie woke us up early with great meowing because he needed to use the litter box (in the truck). After taking care of that, we enjoyed the peace and quiet. Until we heard someone down the hall say "Did someone lose a cat?!" Apparently while Cara was fiddling with the lock he escaped to explore the exciting world of the Motel 6!

From Nowhere to Nowhere

We left Sheridan WY early this morning and drove 800 miles to western Iowa. Cara took a few shifts driving which let us accomplish this admirable achievement. If only cross-country driving was an olympic sport...


Today we had the culinary lowlight of the trip while in Wall SD. We went to a restaurant (can't even remember the name!) that had been recommended to us by the hotel we stayed at on the trip westward. I had a "broasted chicken" dinner, which I assumed would be broiled or roasted. But apparently it means "drowned in batter and fried into oblivion." It was served with white bread and french fries. The only vegetable in the restaurant was there courtesy of Ronald Reagan and the good people at Heinz. I guess the salad bar should have been a clue... Lettuce and three types of salad dressing does not a salad bar make! I spent the rest of the afternoon eating tums and dreaming of vegetables. But it wasn't all bad; as Garrison Keillor says, "you can't tell stories about GOOD weather."


Everything else went well though, including finding a hotel at night. We got the last room, which was also (fortunately) the only pet-friendly room, so Ollie got to spend the night indoors.

Spokane to Sheridan

The title says it all.

One interesting thing: When we stopped for coffee in Bozeman, we saw an ad in the local newspaper. The Subaru dealership that's adjacent to the campground was having a "Hail Sale": 40 cars were damaged by the hail storm the other week. I'm sure glad our truck was parked across town during the storm, as it may have saved us a lot of damage.

Bellingham to Spokane

This morning we said our goodbyes in Bellingham and headed south. We went on the Chuckanut drive, a scenic highway that hugs the coast. We wanted a picture of us by the Pacific ocean, and a picture of the truck with its front wheels in the water. We did this at Larrabee state park. With the photography done, we headed east(!) on Highway 20, the North Cascade highway. It's a little slower driving than I-90, but much more scenic and also shorter. Cara would add another word to the alliterative series: seasick.


We looked around Winthrop, which is an "old west" town. It was a little too touristy, so we went on to Twisp, where we found a small bakery/deli. We were surprised to find a bunch of environmentally oriented publications there, which made us wonder if it was a secret hippie haven. sustainablemethow.net , if anyone wants to join us out there.


In the afternoon we went past the Coulee dam, which is an impressive site in person and on google earth. It's amazing to find that oasis in the middle of the desert!


We finally arrived in Spokane around 7. We had a mission. We've been listening to a book on CD from the Lexington Public Library called "Outlander." It took the whole trip until now to finish the 27 discs so we were ready for the sequel. While in Vancouver I looked at various libraries en route to see who had it on the shelves, and Spokane was the only place West of Michigan that had it. This gave us an hour to find the library, get it off the shelf, and copy the 37 CD's to the ipod. It took 35 minutes of competitive driving to get from the outskirts of town to the front door of the branch that had the prize. We ran inside and started downloading, but within a few minutes it became clear that we wouldn't be able to get more than two or three discs. Cara talked to the librarian and found out that we could get a one month temporary card for $3.50--so we did! We took out the book, went back to the hotel, and spent the night copying. Don't worry, we'll delete it all when the book is due!

Mission Postponed

We got off to a decent start this morning. It was really hard to say goodbye to family, as always, so it was a slow departure. These trips back home are always busy and whirlwind and expensive, but they really make us feel the love and connection of family that spreads across the continent. We thought about staying an extra day, but it didn't seem like it would make it any easier to leave.


We got through the border with no difficulties and ended up in Bellingham before lunch. This gave us enough time to tour around Bellingham before meeting Aaron and Jess (and Noah!) for lunch. They bought what could euphamistically be called a "project home" (apparently it was a running joke for local realtors for years) and they gutted and rebuilt it, from plumbing to electricity to roof to flooring and heat. They just moved in in the past few days, concurrently with Irene's (Aaron's sister) wedding. During lunch conversation we talked about all the things that needed to be done yet, and we really wanted to stay and help to show our support for them. So I rewired the dryer to match the outlet, worked on installing the dishwasher, and we made dinner. After dinner Aaron took us on a tour of the Bellingham harbor on his sailboat. We finished the evening with good conversation over ice cream. We'll stay here tonight and head east tomorrow morning.

Here at Last, Here at Last, Thank God Almighty, We're Here At Last

We got into Vancouver on Tuesday night around 9pm. 6500 miles so far. More details to follow!