From Oregon to North Carolina

We started off in the Willamette Valley and worked our way down to Glide, Oregon, the small rural town where I grew up. Rivers run through the valley and make their way through the North Umpqua national forest before emptying in the Pacific. I absorbed the smells, sounds, and family that I would not see for a while. We continued south, headed to Trinidad, California. The temperature dropped to about 70F and the redwoods shot upwards, disappearing in the lingering fog. Our trip finally turned east, as we traveled over the Smith river national forest. Temperatures began to rise. We headed into Nevada, got my last fix of In n Out Burger, and drove on the loneliest highway to Ely, Nevada. A small, forgotten miners town. After Ely, we headed over the rugged landscape to Moab, Utah. We saw the arches and the red dirt. My short attention span soon became bored of it, despite the magnificence of it all. Found a good microbrewery, a great motel 6– we were traveling with a cat and dog–and left for Denver the next day. The Colorado Rockies were not as magnificent as the Canadian Rockies and clustered with ski resorts and mini malls. Stayed the night in Denver and ate at a Mexican restaurant with nearly every sort of animal hanging on the wall- horses, cows, deer. After Denver, the trip became a blur. Kansas City, Missouri, Evansville, Indiana, Knoxville, Tennessee, Raleigh. We drove nearly an hour out of our way to see monument rock in Kansas, probably because we were so desperate for anything but flat plains…A swarm of motorcyclists forced us into another hotel in Kansas City. Evansville, Indiana was a cute riverfront town, but surprised to see a casino as the main attraction. The temperatures just kept rising and rising. In Knoxville, I scarfed down some KFC for the first time in about 10 years. Next step was the great smoky mountains. I thought, “Finally, a little something to remind my self of the northwest!” Boy was I wrong, Dollywood and arcade land and laser tag and water parks everywhere. It took forever to even get into the park. The mountain air was nice once we got to about 6,000 ft, but I was disappointed to see the haze that impeded our view. I was really anxious to get to NC. We arrived in Raleigh the 5th, but couldn’t move into our house until the 6th. We stayed at yet another motel 6-and hopefully the last one ever- and got here just in time for the gigantic heat wave…

Autumn B