3,723 Miles

in total to drive from Washington, DC to Portland, OR, via Hwy 40 the southern route. Whew!!

We left the California/Oregon border at 6:50 AM Friday, the earliest departure yet! Like barn sour horses we jumped out of bed, bathed and shoved animals and luggage into our faithful Crown Vic, cheap bad coffee in hand and headed North on I-5. It is raining and we hope not snowing in the Mountain Pass?

We hit Oregon at 7:20AM as we crested one of many mountain passes, it is pouring-not snowing thank goodness, but still makes for a white knuckle few hours as we pass semi's that toss up so much road spray it is next to impossible to see until safely around them. My feet are pressed into the floor, working invisible breaks - hands clenched on an invisible steering wheel as we motor on. The cats are now road worthy little beasties, they settle right in and take a quick meditation with the rain droplets streaming on the windows. This is something new, that keeps them occupied for hours.

Oregon is really pretty in this part of the state, green, green green. You can tell we are out of the California drought. The Oak trees are covered with magnificent green lichen - my sister would love these for her flower shop. Keith comments- "Can you tell how much rain they get here?" Yes, but it beats DC, hands down! Cows lazily graze in green fields - unlike the feed lots of California. Sheep out number cows here, I get a quick lesson in animal husbandry. Do you know why sheep are herded around constantly? Neither did I, well apparently they don't just bite grass like cows, they pull the grass up by the roots, ruining the grass lands. Which apparently was the reason for fences in the West. Not to keep the cows in but to keep the sheep out! Back to the road trip........

We parallel the Willamette River, pronounced Will-am it- like damn it as we begin to enter into the greater Portland area. The rolling green hills, farm animals, trees and lazy driving start to disapear and are replaced by strip malls and freeway interchanges with cars buzzing around. Well buzzing as they do here in OR, 55 miles per hour on the nose. We have been warned that "the man" is death on speeding so we attempt to change gears from the 70+ driving we had been driving at over the last 6 days - this is not easy and catch ourselves back at 70! Remember the barn sour thing? It is worse now, we just want to get there, maybe with a speeding ticket in hand?

Ug, I rather liked my country views. The black crows are still traveling with us. I have seen them from the 15th floor of the apartment. O yes, our digs.

We arrive to our new home about 12:30PM (no speeding ticket), Keith looked for a Portland City limits sign for a photo opp, he wanted a picture with him kissing the ground - sign in the background. Never got that opportunity-drats! It is sunny but the air is crisp, we make our way thr0ugh numerous road changes, in a screwy looking spaghetti bowl of sorts and over one of Portland's many bridges into the downtown area. The traffic is horrible, just like DC. We find our new home with very few missed turns and park in a gigantic parking garage and make our way back out onto the street. I am worried I will never find my animals again!

We have leased an apartment from The Louisa, we are one of two that arrive at the very same time and the guy ahead of us beats us in by 30 seconds - crap! We are ushered into the "social room" with a big screen TV on the second floor , sports blaring and where the deck is located, looks nice with what will surely be tall grasses and flowers come spring, complete with huge stainless steel BBQ's - we discuss how great it will be to grill fresh fish in the summer while sipping on a great glass in wine. It takes about 30 minutes for our turn to sign 20+ pages of this and that, words that make up the content of a lease. We are so rung out, we just sign, whatever it says, we are now committed to for 6 months. Ya, ya ya whatever just give us the damn keys. We have animals and "stuff" we need to bring in. Just as we finish, the 8 boxes of "stuff" arrive that I had shipped before leaving DC, perfect timing! For two people that have lost just about everything we own to a fire, we marvel at just how much "stuff" we have! More on the fire later, I have an update on this!

We live now in the heart of the Pearl District. http://www.explorethepearl.com/ . Our 15th floor view takes in all of the city, bridges and faces south/east - I think? The cats are just mesmerized by the views, as we all are.

Our bed arrived on time, earlier that morning and was waiting for us. At least we will have a bed to sleep in tonight.

Peace Out from Portland, OR

xo