The Oregon Trail

We survived! Woke up at dawn, trudged through snow and rain and climbed steep mountains... and arrived at our new home around 6:30 last night.

We decided to take only one car up for now-- I am still recovering from surgery and would NOT be able to do the 11-hour drive by myself. Because I won't be working for another 2 months and we have an excellent transit system nearby (hooray, excellent Portland city planning!), we don't have much of a need for two cars right now anyway. One of our "resolutions" this year is to learn the transportation systems here in Portland. It will not only save us $$ (their fares are SO cheap compared to SF and we'd also be saving gas), but we can be a little greener, too ;).

My car was packed to the brim. As in, not a square foot of extra space anywhere!

Even the Tobster had to sacrifice some space:

But he had an excellent view of the passing scenery.

He pretended not to like it and pretty much ignored us for most of the drive...But I think he was pretty cozy.

I fell asleep about 30 minutes into our drive... and suddenly (a little over an hour into our drive) Nick woke me up because it was snowing! We did not expect any snow on our drive, (we had checked the weather forecast several times) and we definitely did not expect snow only an hour outside of Concord! It was so beautiful though, and got us very excited for the journey ahead of us.

The contrast of the snow on the dark trees and hills was just beautiful. It snowed just enough so that everything was covered in a white blanket, but not enough to create icy roads or dangerous driving conditions. It was such a pleasant surprise!

The following pic was taken at our first gas stop. Needless to say we were freezing our butts off when we hopped out of the heater-blasted car. Toby got his very first exposure to snow and Nick made a snowball (and promptly threw it at my windshield). When I paid for the gas, I asked the station/shop owner if they had bathrooms... and he responded with, "Nope, we just hold it here."

Funny man. They did have a bathroom... complete with a creepy graffiti-covered, handless mannequin sitting in a bathtub next to the toilet. Scared the daylights out of me, and I decided not to tell Nick about it before he entered so he'd share in the experience, too. He shrieked. ;) I'm really bummed I didn't get a picture of that frightening sight.

Anyway, the rest of the journey went very smoothly and took us an hour less than expected (woot!). Our new place is pretty great for the price, and Toby is in doggie-paradise with the enormous fenced-in backyard.

More to come soon!