hello, travel!
DID she make it? Did she ever even leave Washington?
YES! I did in fact make it to Arizona! It’s beautiful, and I love it here! The town, the people, the weather, the house, the food!
A quick re-cap of the trip down, for those who are curious:
The first trip down (yes that’s right, FIRST trip) we left December 18th, driving a Ford F150 with a cat and a fish in the cab, and a 5 foot U-Haul trailer attached. Yes, I do realize this was not the ideal time to make this drive, but due to a myriad of other circumstances, holidays, trailer delivery, friends/family travel plans (including my needing to travel internationally 6 days later), we had didn’t really have a choice.
Thanks to the snow in Snoqualmie pass, we were off to a slow start. Thanks to the fog in Idaho, we were off to an even slower night. So much for not driving in the dark (: stopped in Baker City for the night, where I was strongly reminded how much I dislike the cold (it was FOUR degrees..god rest the plant souls we lost that night). Monday’s much more enjoyable drive was through Boise into Salt Lake City (where we coincidentally met some friends from Seattle!), and then to a little town in Utah for the night.
Then things started to get a little rougher, starting with the loss of the pet fish ☹ even though he had his whole travel setup complete with heater it was too much for K2. Then an hour into driving, the dreaded check engine light comes on. Naturally in the middle of nowhere. Rolling hills of wheat, no towns or buildings in sight kind of things. After some quick DIY repairs and a cautious drive to the nearest garage it was determined that while important, the repair was not critical and could wait. But after already experiencing mild panic on the side of the road in broad daylight with cell service, I had no desire to repeat it. Needless to say, I found the next largest “town” (population 3k) where a garage whom I now suspect gets most of their business from people in the same situation as us from, was able to get us in almost right away. After touring every store in town (that’s the gun/pawn shop, pizza shop, gift/post office, auto part store, ice cream shop), it was repaired and we were back on the road! After somehow adding ~5 hours to every day of driving, the Zion trip was shorter than planned but still breathtaking beautiful. We laid our fishy pal to rest in the park and finished the drive down through AZ into the evening until we finally reached just outside Phoenix for the night.
December 21st. The unveiling. Was BEAUTIFUL. Naturally, having never seen the house in person, I was nervous that it wouldn’t live up to my expectations..but I was shocked at how it was even better than the pictures! The grass is even green! There is an ORANGE tree in the front yard (I’ve picked 30+ by now, mimosas to smoothies to snacks, they’re amazing!) for pete’s sake!
Thanks to a friend who had flown In from Seattle, and our new neighbors, we managed to (impressively, I think) not only unpack the 23’ trailer, u-haul, and truck within the first day of being there, but also organized and set up a real decent amount of it within a couple of days. Christmas decorations and tree included! And then, 5 days later, I flew to FIJI! I would write about it now, but I’m afraid I won’t post this tonight if I attempt that..so that will be the next post!
After 20 hours of travel on January 6th (time zones are weird, I left on the 6th at 10pm and arrived 20 hours later on the 6th at 4pm), I was home for a few hours before flying out the next day to Seattle to get my car and make the drive..for the second time! I will say, I feel like I’ve become quite the travel pro during the past few weeks. This time was much shorter, and just after the snow storms and floods in California had paused. A night in Sacremento, a night in Los Angeles, a short hello to Armon (!!) and then a straight shot back home! For the final time.
Hello, Armon!
And the home:
I am honestly just as infatuated with this house as I was the day I first saw it. Actually, that’s a lie, I love it more! To be able to eat breakfast in the morning, to go outside for a walk in the sun, makes ALL the difference. Suddenly, I actually want to make smoothies in the morning? I’ll be honest, I’m a little nervous about the summer but I think having pool will make all the difference (a BIG thank you to those who said to hold out for a pool!).
Oh, and for those of you who asked how Chad took the move..he was less than pleased 😅
Next up: FIJI! Also the farmers market (ENOURMOUS), the hikes (so close, so beautiful!), the sunrises (yes that’s right, I’ve seen the sunrise), the sunsets, & the food!
