Travelin' Ain't Easy!!

The journey out here was nothing short of dramatic, but it was equally, if not more, enchanting and amazing. My best friend Stephanie and I began our trip in Austin, with a sad farewell to all of our friends. It was certainly bittersweet to leave the home I've known for 19 years, but I was so excited to leave! 

Our route from Austin to our final destination in Monroe, WA

On our first day, we stopped in San Angelo, TX where my dad lives so I could say goodbye to him and my little brother. He also got to double check our 16' moving truck that we towed my car behind and made sure everything was hooked up properly. After staying the night, our real journey began! 

***

From San Angelo we drove about 9 hours to Albuquerque, NM. On the way we stopped in Roswell for some delicious New Mexican food and walked around for a bit. Too bad we didn't see any aliens!

Stephanie at the restaurant we ate at, I had green chile chimichangas!

I have an old family friend going to college in Albuquerque, and we got to stay with a friend of his and hang out for the night! It was a great first night to be out of Texas. Albuquerque sure is a cool city with some cool people living in it!!!

Here's Steph and my good friend Sam in Albuquerque

***

Day two was probably the most challenging part of our trip. Our final destination was Salt Lake City, UT. We stopped in Colorado for lunch, and it seemed as soon as we crossed the border into Utah, everything around us changed. It went from green pastures, trees and blue skies to desert and storm clouds. Even the roads changed! After almost running out of gas and having to drive 25 miles off our route to find gas in a teeny tiny little town called Emery (look it up!), we drove into Salt Lake with marble sized hail crashing down on us! It was stressful but exhilarating at the same time. 

Here's a video of most of our drive through Utah.

***

Day three was also equally stressful on our way to Pendleton, OR. The entirety of our trip into Oregon went by without a hitch, right until we got into Pendleton. Neither Steph nor I had any experience driving a moving truck or pulling a trailer, so we didn't really know what to do in certain situations. When we pulled into our hotel parking lot, only to see that there was no where we could turn the truck around (we had no idea how to reverse this thing), it seemed like there was absolutely no way to get the truck out of this driveway. After many tears and many failed ideas, we got a guy from roadside assistance to come out and reverse our truck for us. I can't say if I've ever been happier to see a hotel bed.

Crossing from Idaho into Oregon!

Unfortunately at this point we were so focused on getting to our new home that I didn't take many pictures worth posting in Oregon or Washington. I hope y'all enjoyed my first blog post, and be expecting more posts in the very near future! I love you all :)