GA here we come...

Packed in like sardines!

After a few crazy days on the road and at the urging of friends and family, I decided it was time to update everyone on our trip with a blog post. As most of you know, we are in the middle of a PCS (permanent change of station) move to Germany.  However, before we go, we are road-tripping to Georgia to see family and friends. 

Beautiful Oregon

Day 1 (May 30, 2014)- After an insane day of cleaning, attempting to get everything in the car, realizing it wouldn’t all fit, giving some more stuff away last minute and then conning our friends that we gave the freebies to into taking our trash, we left Steilacoom around 6 p.m. and headed out. As we were getting ready to pull out, we realized that we left food that was meant for the cooler in our fridge.  Unfortunately, we had already turned in our keys to the property company, so we had to call and leave them a message letting them know we left it.  Who knows how much they will charge us to “clean” the fridge for that one.  We ended up driving to The Dalles, OR which was approximately 212 miles. It was a beautiful drive through the Columbia River Gorge at sunset.  After a very tiring day, we settled in at the hotel and due to our lack of organizational skills, we had to haul pretty much EVERYTHING up to our room and then back down in the morning. Needless to say, we reorganized and got all we need for the trip to GA in one suitcase so we only have to unpack one every night instead of all of them. 

Snake River in Idaho

Day 2:  We headed out of The Dalles towards Idaho.  It was a pretty cool drive watching the constantly changing terrain…mountains, green valleys and then into the desert.  It was a gorgeous sunny day, but as we crossed over into Idaho we encountered this crazy weather.  All of a sudden it got really dark, cloudy and super windy, but never did rain.  I guess it was basically a huge wind storm.  Also, on a really cool note, we saw 4 different dust devils. As we got closer to Twin Falls, we realized there was a Chili’s.  As Cory hasn’t eaten at Chili’s since we moved to Washington, we decided to head there for dinner…and then, our Bimbo (GPS) made us miss the Exit as it had been moved.  Lesson learned:  If you miss an exit on the Interstate in rural Idaho, it may require you drive 16 miles out of the way to get back to said exit.  UGH!  On a good note, we still got our Chili’s and then settled in at the hotel.  Another funny story for the day – I ran into a store in the desert of Oregon while Cory walked Hobbs.  When I came out, Cory tells me, “Hobbs had his first run in with the desert.”  Cory walked him through a field and when they got back on the road, Hobbs was limping like he was dying.  Come to find out, he had picked up a few sand spurs.  When Cory first told me that, I was sure that he had seen a snake.  I was glad it was just sand spurs.  Ha ha!  Total mileage for the day:  Approx. 471 miles.   

Day 3: Today was pretty awesome.  We got up this morning and let the kids play in the pool at the hotel for a bit before heading out on the road and ended our day in Tropic, UT which is just a few miles from the entrance to Bryce Canyon National Park.  As we headed out this morning, we stopped at a gas station and to fill up. It was the first gas station we ever saw that sold growlers of beer, including Mac and Jacks.  Also, we crossed the Snake River up from Twin Falls which was pretty cool. The drive through Idaho farm country, once again made me want to buy a ranch one day.  Of course, that might be one of those dreams that would be more work than I can possibly imagine it. Once again, we saw a ton of different landscapes and terrain. The drive through northern Utah was alright, but nothing overly special to me.  However, as we got further south, it was gorgeous. Lots of open land and cattle/sheep ranches.  The boys were excited to see REAL cowboys.  We also ran into the group from goldRush Rally in Salinas, UT.  Lots of beautiful and exotic cars.  Once we hit southern Utah and the beginning of the canyons, I was blown away. It is truly amazing.  We came through as the sun was getting ready to set and the sunlight off the canyon walls in Red Canyon are indescribable.  We took a few pictures, but they don’t come close to doing justice to the natural beauty of this place.  As I often am, I find myself truly blown away by God’s awesome artistry.  I am definitely looking forward to exploring more tomorrow!  Today’s mileage: Approx.:  489 miles

Tomorrow is a day of exploring, so while I am sure we will rack up some driving miles, I am not sure we will make much distance towards home.  We are planning to get up early and go explore Bryce Canyon National Park, Grand Staircase-Escalante National Park and the Grand Canyon.  A lot of it will be just scenic drives, but we may try to get in a little hiking as well if any of the trails are dog friendly.

For anyone wondering what our plan is or why we can’t tell you when exactly we will make it to Georgia that is because we really don’t have a plan per se.  We just head out in the morning and drive.  When we feel like we are a few hours from a stopping point, I start Googling dog-friendly hotels in towns on the atlas that are about that far away.  Also, we haven’t completely mapped out what roads we are taking so our plans are just pretty fluid.  We hope to make it to Georgia by Thursday or Friday, but that all depends on what fun things we find on the way that change those plans!  All in all the trip is going well.  The kids are travelling pretty well and Hobbs has been great.  The only issue is that after all those hours on the road, the kids are pretty wild when we get to the hotel at night and it takes forever to get them down for the night.  Hoping that we can get them out of the car more tomorrow and they can get more exercise, so maybe they will be better at night.

Red Canyon in Utah

Miles travelled:  1,172

Mileage left to Georgia:   2,180 miles give or take, depending on how many times we get tempted from the path, which with us, tends to be fairly often.