Adventures - Day 6 on the Road--We Arrived!

An early morning for me, woke up (for the last time, anyway) at 5am. By 7:30am we said our "see-ya-later's" to Evan and got ourselves packed up and ready to go. But first Scott B. had to shave his head. We've included the shot of the mohawk before the big buzz. We had about a 6 hr drive ahead of us and we were eager to be done driving and living out of our duffle bags and the back of the Explorer. One can only eat so many lunchmeat sandwiches and trail mix.

The first leg was rather unpleasing to the eye. The best way to say it is that the eastern half of Washington is rather tan and somewhat ugly. Now we did start making our way through some more of those huge rolling hill-type areas of desolation...not sure what you want to classify that stuff as....

We did, however see some AWESOME cloud formations and a cool bridge (can't remember what that was though...). As we crossed the Oregon state line and began making our way on I-84 things started changing. Tree farm after tree farm! None of us had ever seen anything like it before. Then again, it doesn't take much for some of us to be amazed! As we made our way further, we could now see the Columbia River on our right. Again, hard to describe how beautiful things looked and how dramatic the landscape appeared the further we drove. We hope some of these pictures capture it. The view of Mt. Hood is breathtaking, it is so majestic looking!

We were about an hour to an hour & a half from Portland and we needed food! It was now that I suddenly began feeling VERY nervous about what would befall us in about 70 miles. It's not like we were gonna turn back around, but I was having that same feeling that I would get right before I would sing in front of a people, only a bit more intense. I actually thought I was going to lose what little I had in my belly. Funny how mint ANYTHING can really help in times like that. Oh, and it probably didn't help that it was about 90 degrees outside.

After a short while that feeling was passing and I was regaining focus. Scott & I had some great conversation as we approached Portland. This was it--we really were here!

It was 3:30pm and we pulled the truck down 87th street actually finding a place to park it, but nowhere near our door! The Housing Director met us at our front door and let us in. As she spilled out a bunch of details and handed me several keys, the guys were casing the joint (probably looking for a bathroom and an AIR CONDITIONER). I was rather overwhelmed, but was trying to track.

It was at least in the low to mid 90's and here in Portland, it reaches the hottest part of the day between the hours of 4-6pm. GREAT! We NEEDED to unload the truck so John could depart and get to his sister's house (she lives in Portland).

Scott & I sure have some AWESOME friends in John & Scott. Not only did they put up with us travelling 2731 miles, but loading, and unloading the trucks in high heat without ever complaining. We can't say enough thanks to both of them as well as their wives Danelle, and Tauni and the kids for letting them come with us. We would have put ourselves through some really crazy stress if we would have attempted this venture without them. THANKS GUYS!

In about 2.5 hrs and with water breaks every 15 mins, we had the Explorer and the Penske unloaded! Yea!!! Scott B took John to the Max Line station so he could get to his sister's while we cleaned up. There was no way we were going to try to cook anything, and since we were really hungry by now, we went out to eat some big hamburgers! Yumm-O!

That futon mattress on the floor was going to be my new best friend! Welcome home...