moving days part 1- it's like oregon trail, only backwards

road trip crew: pilot- Me, co-pilot- Mom

start time: Monday, 8/11 @ 1030 a.m.(PST), that's 130 p.m.(EST)

starting location: Taylors Ferry house, Portland,

destination: Beacon St apartment, Boston, MA

basic route: I-84 E --> I-80 E --> I-90 E

          estimated mileage: 3093 miles

unlike the pioneers who traveled the original Oregon Trail, I set out with my mom to 

dominate the entire country- not just part of it...oh, and ours started in Oregon, instead of finishing there. however, i now feel a kinship to those who endured the hardships of a long journey- i can't imagine traveling through Wyoming in a wagon- the message clearly would have read, "You died of boredom".

Monday: 

We spent the last night in Portland at my Grandma Killian's house, and I got up early Monday morning (5a.m.-ish) to try to get ahold of the moving company that neither showed up or called all weekend, as scheduled.  5 hours later, when i was still waiting for a call back from the dispatcher, I decided it was time to leave (if we wer

e going to have any chance of making it to Boston by Friday morning)...so we stopped by the big yellow house one more time, then departed on our cross-country odyssey. 

this was one of my last views of the Rose City, and the beginning of Mom freaking out every time I took a picture while driving- it's called multi-tasking!

we were making good time, and much to my grandma's delight, switching drivers about every 2 hours. late in the afternoon, somewhere in northeastern oregon, Mom was driving, and i got accused of not telling her there wasn't much gas left. i wasn't worried, and thought we'd have plenty of gas to make it to Ontario, OR. 

 

she didn't feel like living on the

 edge, so she pulled off at some random (very) small town, and initally drove past the only gas station in town. in her defense, it was easy to miss. Oregon does have the one of the highest gas prices in the nation, but this was ridiculous- it was $4.35/gal! mom decided to put $10 in the tank (do the m

ath), and as we left, the girl who pumped our gas gave us the best directions back to the freeway. mom said, "she must have been able to tell we are out-of-towners," to which i replied, "that's because she knows all of the in-towners...and is probably related to at least 1/2 of them."

we finally made it to the sign that brings hope to the hopeless, "Welcome to Idaho". stopped for a quick dinner in boise, and headed for wyoming. dude, that state lasts forever! i think mom finally pulled over at 1:30 a.m., at somewhere called Fort Bridges. no motel for us- we slept in the car (and it won't be the last time)...

Tuesday:

no time to waste, Mom started driving again at 5 a.m., while i slept. i took over around 11ish, and she got some more rest. this is pretty much what she looked like when i was driving...

we stopped for one of our most common meals of the trip- the grilled asian chicken salad at mcdonald's- yumm...there just aren't that many options out there, in the middle of nowhere. mom showed off some of her navigational skills, as we prepared to hit nebraska. 

thus begins the 6 state tour of nothing but cornfields...seriously! who knew there could be so many states with nothing but corn and a dark green, leafy crop we later found out was soybean. nebraska, iowa, illinois, indiana, ohio, and new york (all except the city) are full of that stuff- it's crazy! i almost got lost in it...

one of my favorite stories from today (and possibly the whole trip) is what i now refer to as the FM2 story. out in the middle of nowhere, mom is scrolling through the stations looking for some olympics coverage. she is unsuccessful after scrolling through all of the AM and FM stations (which are few and far between in the middle of nowhere USA). not ready to give up, she asks, "do you have FM2?" i paused a minute, then said (trying not to laugh yet), "mom, do you know what FM2 is?" noting my are you serious?! tone, she sheepishly said, "umm, maybe not". at that point i lost it- i think i might have laughed continuously for 5 minutes before i could tell her that it's actually just another place to store pre-set FM stations, not a set of totally different stations. she said she thought maybe they had slightly different transmission signals on FM2. ...ah, mom- she's so cute- and great entertainment on a long road trip. 

we stopped at a diner called Penny's (like a real mid-america diner, maybe original from the 1950s), in Missouri Valley, Iowa, to have dinner with my cousins Kody & Jill. They rode the Harley to join us, and i had what is likely my first buffalo burger ever. it was pretty good, coming from a girl who prefers a good gardenburger to most other kinds of burgers. was fun to see some family along the way. btw, iowa is one of those other states that seems to go forever...we finally stopped around 10:30 ish just past Iowa City. no car sleeping for us that night- nope, we classed it up a bit with a room at the Days Inn. mom was thrilled to finally catch some Olympics action, and i was happy to have a real bed.