We left Coos Bay Saturday June 13th and stayed our first night in Bend, OR. If one has the opportunity to drive the McKenzie Hwy between Eugene and Bend (or Sisters), treat yourself to it. My kind of landscape. So much snow last winter the pass to Bend was still closed and we detoured through Sisters. We were treated to a thunder storm in Bend that night... despite just coming from the Oregon coast, I hadn't seen it rain like that in a while.
Day 2 was a drive across eastern Oregon to Boise. We did the same drive almost a year ago to the day on our way to Montana. We had a quick but good visit with Josh, Sheila and their girls (they fed us well and let us stow the tent trailer at their house).
Day 3 started with three job interviews for me in Boise. Actually only one was a formal interview with the other two informal "meetings", but they all went really well and hopefully laid the ground work for something promising this fall. We left Boise and made a quick stop in Twin Falls. If you haven't been there the canyon sneaks up on you and looks like a CGI rendered movie scene. That night we made it to Evanston, WY and stayed over. It's strange driving across grassy plains at 7500 feet above sea level.
Day 4 was spent a crossing the rest of southern WY and dropping down to Fort Collins, CO. We planned on meeting our friends Rob and Jenille from MT and stay for a couple of days but their little girl became sick and those plans were scratched. We decided despite really wanting to stay and explore the eastern Rockies, we should get a few more miles behind us. Colorado is someplace we will definitely go back to.
Day 5 we made it to Kearney, Nebraska. A strong smell of a cattle feedlot was in the air and the climate we enjoyed in the Rockies was gone. Hot and humid. We found a really good burrito place though that made great cilantro-lime mexican rice... balance in the universe it maintained. Kearney's other claim to fame is it boasts being the geographical center between west and east coasts... yeah, we've made it half way!!
Day 6 was spent largely in Iowa. Again, hot and humid but mostly without the acrid smell of methane and urine in the air. Iowa, I must say, has the best rest stops we have encountered. Lush, green and spatious, cold drinking water, an informative visitor center, the best vending machine brewed coffee west of the Mississipi and... are you ready... WiFi! Oh yeah, Iowa does have corn too; more than I remember from my childhood trip. Everyone keep eating high fructose corn syrup so the farmers here can keep on farming. I don't remember all the rolling hills and rivers though. Really a pretty place.
We are staying tonight in Clive, IA. Just outside Des Moines. Tomorrow it's off to the Windy City. We're planning a 2-3 day whirlwind siteseeing mission.
Em and Quinn are holding up well. We've kept the driving to about 300 miles/day thus far (I've tried to sqeak a few extra in here and there) and Quinn has begun sleeping pretty well in the car... Emerson, not a chance. We have kept the DVD's going though and that, for better or worse, has made all the difference. We will have to enter him into a detox program once we get to CT however. Our family trip across coutry is really going pretty smooth (I am knocking on wood right now) and tomorrow we'll actually begin being tourists in earnest...
Ballet Bryce
14 years ago
