Moving Phase 3: Part E – Portland to Seattle

This is it! The last leg of the trip and shortest by far. Only about 3 hours in the car and were in Seattle, but there is one stop to make on the way... Mount Rainier.

The day was a bit overcast thus masking the top of the mountain, but this didn't stop us from a hike. It was also surprisingly cold 55 degrees or less (thus the winter hat on my head). We hiked a trail along a river flowing down the mountain. The terrain was quite different from Multnomah falls on the previous day, but still unlike a forrest I had hiked through before.

Here is the river that we were hiking along. At one point, the path crossed the river presenting a great opportunity to see the landscape.

Here we are posed on the path about ready to cross the river on a log with a handrail attached.

As we continued to climb, the temperature continued to drop, as the temperature continued to drop, more patches of snow were around. We climbed until out path became completely covered by snow and turned around to head back down.

We quickly warmed up in the car and continued on our way to Seattle! My new roommates and unseen apartment were waiting for me!

Moving Phase 3: Part D – Boise to Portland

Prior to our stop at Multnomah Falls, the excursion down Highway 128 followed by Arches National Park was the best leg of the trip. But before we get to the falls, there is some driving to do. Fortunately, with each passing day, there was cumulative less time on the road per day. We started at 16 hours, then went down to 11 hours, then 9 hours, today we were looking at about 6 hours. Prior to departure, we once again took full advantage of the hotel breakfast (for breakfast and PB&J for lunch/dinner) and treadmill.

Honestly, the morning drive was rather uneventful. Large hills up and even larger hills down as we began our decent toward sea level. We then hit the Colombian River and things got a bit more interesting. I noticed a collection of the most large power transmission lines that I had ever seen. There was about 4 of the huge high voltage lines all running parallel to each other with several others lines forking off in different directions. As we continued down the river, I soon realized the source. There were several hydro electric damns built along the river along with seemingly hundreds of windmills along the sides of the gorge. I discovered a renewable energy Mecca and whispered to Laura “See those windmills… you’re looking at the future” as we plowed down the expressway in my gas guzzling carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide spewing American built SUV! I digress.

On to the falls!! We pulled up to the base of the falls to see a 600 foot free fall. Mist was in the air from the falls and clouds were in the sky, threatening to rain. We snapped a few pictures and quickly began our 6 mile loop hike up to the source of the falls (a natural spring) and then back down a different stream. All and all, there would be 7 water falls on the trip, but what we didn’t realize is that we were in for so much more.

First, a quick side note. I absolutely love “water features”. Water fountains, water falls, bubbling brooks, etc. There is something mesmerizing about water succumbing the force of gravity, much like staring into waning a campfire late into the night. As a child, I remember building a very crude water sculpture in the backyard using tin cans, stacked chairs, and the garden hose, mimicking a fountain I saw at a store in Nashville, Indiana. Water would spill down from one carefully trimmed and formed can to another. While the result was not quite as polished as I envisioned, I had a great time building it.

Anyways, back to the falls! We were in water feature heaven. I expected a trail to go through the woods, and occasion peak out to see a water fall. Instead we basically hiked along a creek flowing down a mountain! Waterfalls everywhere. To top it all off, the forest we were in was one like I had never seen before. Moss and ferns were everywhere giving it the most vibrant green landscape I had ever seen. Rain began to fall, but it felt right given the rainforest like atmosphere around us.

We reached the top where the source spring provided the water for all of the falling beauty. The sun began to shine through the trees, creating visible beams of light in the mist around us. As we walked around, the silence of the surrounding and the bubbling of the brook combined for a truly out of this world experience, one that I will never forget. The terrain created the most perfect atmosphere making me feel as though we were in a movie.

We then descended down a different path, which provided beautiful overlooks of the gorge. We reached the bottom and discovered that the sun and the mist from the falls created a rainbow! After watching the falls for one last session, we reluctantly climbed into the car, and headed the remaining 40 minute into Portland.

Moving Phase 3: Part C - Provo to Boise

We took our time in the morning, enjoying the amenities of the hotel including a hot breakfast and treadmill. We fully utilized the breakfast to make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for the day. We then jumped on the road headed due north for Craters of the Moon National Monument in Idaho. While heading to Glacier National Park in Montana crossed our minds, the additional driving hours combined with the enormity of the park (it would have taken several days to see) helped sway our decision.

Provo and Salt Lake City are beautifully nestled between two mountain ranges, providing the incredible feeling of being completely surrounded by mountains. North of Salt Lake, the space between two mountain ranges narrows, and then opens up into beautiful countryside. As we continued into Idaho, the mountains continued to spread until we felt like we were in Kansas again.

As we approached Craters of the Moon, we came across many national laboratories such as INL (Idaho National Labs). One particular lab to note is the EBR-1 (Experimental Boiling Reactor 1). It was the very first nuclear power plant in the world, and we were lucky enough to be driving through three days after it opened for the season.

While it is not a completely decommissioned nuclear plant, the structure was still there with plenty of interesting facts and displays. After learning so much about nuclear power plants at MIT, it was really cool to stand in the very first one.

We made that a quick stop and continued on to THE MOON! Upon arrival, we were very surprised by the landscape. The park is where lava bubbled through thin crust (the same thin section of crust that extends down the snake river into Yellowstone National. Park). The land was barren, covered in black rock or cinders with very interesting features all around. There were large hills of cinders and old under ground lava flows that now served nicely as caves for us to explore.

Here were are by the volcano... I'm looking "great" with my eyes closed, but it's the only picture I have of being inside the volcano.

Volcano Rocks!

Our first cave was incredibly dark. I was ready to turn around, but Laura pulled out here camera, took a pictures using the flash, and based on the picture navigated us through the dark to the other end! It was incredible to go spelunking with a camera flash for the light.

As the day grew long, we were once again headed down the road (are you sensing a theme here?). This time, we decided to stop in Boise. At this point, we had seen desert formations, canyons, hills, caves, and volcanoes. We decided that waterfalls would be a good addition to our list of terrain, and lucky enough, the 4^th best waterfall in North America (according to some waterfall enthusiast website that I don’t recall) was directly on our path to Seattle. Next stop, Multnomah Falls along the Columbian River about 30 miles east of Portland, but for now, it was time to sleep.

Moving Phase 3: Part B - Denver to Provo

After a great night in Denver, Laura and I woke up and went for a beautiful Colorado run. There was a local park path with a great stream running along the side. I wanted to go for 30min, but Laura talked me into an hour. We got a little lost on the way back, so it ended up being a bit more than an hour.

Upon return, we were treated to breakfast and sandwich fixin's to prepare more lunch supplies for the day's travel. We got on the road at a much more casual time of roughly noon, headed for Arches National Park. As we approached the park, Laura noted a road, highway 128, on the GPS that appeared to be more dir

ect. We very hesitatingly took the route, almost turning around.... thank God we didn't turn around. It turned out to be one of the most beautiful portions of the trip.

Our first official hike of the trip was on this memorable highway 128. Despite it's name, it was just a lightly traveled two lane road, not a 4 lane high speed highways as the name may imply. While driving we quickly noticed large solitary hills on either side of the road. I promptly pulled off the road and we went jogging to the base to climb. We learned our first lesson of the trip... things appear much taller once you are on top! Here's a view of the hill from the car...

and here's a view of the car, part of the way up the hill... It was a great energy release from the morning of driving.
As we continued down highway 128, it went from barren arid geography (as seen above), to a beautiful canyon drive with camping, canoeing, and rafting! By far one of the most scenic drives of the trip and a very stark contrast from the previous day's romp through Kansas.

At the other end of the highway was Arches Nation Park, where we pulled in to find no entry fee!!! We stopped for a pit stop before continuing on to Delicate Arch for sunset. During the pit stop, I had to take a picture of my Explorer where it had never been before! We're ready for the rocks!

After a short drive through the park, we stopped at the trailhead of the 1.5 mile trail to the arch. It was quite crowded so I parked on the street with everyone else (which upon my return I discovered a parking citation and then noticed the no parking sign even with my bumper, no harm, no foul, now I know for next time!). One the way to the arch, there were plenty of other rock hills to climb, which basically became the theme for the day.

We continued down the seemingly forever trail. The path changed from basically a large rock hill to a ledge on a cliff... much like a trail going down into the Grand Canyon. We continued on the ledge for a bit, noting the crowd density increasing, and the we rounded the corner to see this!
If you look in the background, you can see people standing at the base of the arch to give you an idea of how large it is! Sunset was a perfect time to visit as the orange light highlighted the red rocks! Very beautiful and enjoyable hike. We have plenty more pictures, but this one seemed best.

As darkness came, we hiked back to the car and headed on down the road. We stopped in Provo, Utah for the night, just south of Salt Lake City to rest for our next day of adventures.

Moving Phase 3: Part A - Indianapolis to Denver

My sister, Laura, and I departed Indianapolis at 4am on Friday morning, hoping to be in Denver by 8pm. We wanted to get through the flat part of the country as fast as possible, thus a bee-line effort was needed. After a short night sleep, we headed down the road without a hitch, continuing down I-70 for the next 16+ hours.

I was very serious about getting to Denver as fast as possible. We would be staying the night at our older brother's wive's parents house (did you follow that?), which was a HUGE treat to look forward to, thus the motivation to keep on trucking. My education and experience in standard work paid off nicely on the trip, 25 miles before each stop, Laura and I discussed our planned actions (refuel, windshield wash, bathroom, empty trash, etc) and load balanced our tasks. This stop planning in addition to packing plenty of PB&J for the trip allowed us to stop for a mere 36 minutes (including checking the roof rack several times) on the 16.5 hour total time drive to Denver. We arrived at roughly 6:30pm local time/8:30pm Indy time, 1.5 hours sooner than Google Maps predicted. I think I finally found something that Google is not good at... predicting long distance travel times. We maintained the speed limit the entire way, and in some states went slower than the speed limit (ie. the 75mph speed limit in Colorado).

While driving, I found this sight of the co-pilot's seat to be a very common occurrence.
Here was a motivating sight... next turn 411 miles.
We saw a ton of windmills along the way... and some very flat and barren land. I couldn't believe how far I could look without seeing a tree! It made Indiana look hilly and full of trees!
We finally arrived in at the Welch's in Denver and were greeted with smiles and hugs followed by a delicious taco dinner. Some of their other kids also dropped by for dinner and a visit making for a great evening! I hadn't spent time with the Welch's in Denver since my brother's wedding!

Moving Phase 2: Intermediate Preparation

During the 5 days in Indianapolis, much of my time (and money) was spent getting my Explorer, affectionately known as Eddie) ready for the biggest road trip of my life. But there was also some fun and great visits dispersed in there.

As I mentioned, I arrived around midnight on Saturday night. Sunday morning I promptly got into a car with Dad headed for the Grandparents house roughly 120 miles away (round trip that's roughly 240 miles... I'll round up to 250 miles). Dad was intending to put in a sink while I visited with the Grandparents, which seemed like a very fair division of labor if you asked me.

Fortunately, Dad and Grandpa got distracted by the piano and guitar while I worked in the kitchen cooking a meal for everyone. I'm no culinary artist, but I thought it would be fun to cook for the Grandparents. I decided on a few dishes that they probably haven't had before, curry chicken quinoa and chicken pad thai. Though the dishes didn't turn our quite perfect, I was pleased with my work as we sat down for a late lunch/early dinner.

Curry Chicken Quinoa

Chicken Pad Thai

On monday, I spent the day with Eddie (the explorer). The day started with a tire rotation and balance, followed by an oil change, then I decided that I should go ahead a buy new tires so I went back to the tire dealer for new tires. When I returned home, the afternoon heat had settled thus making it a good time for a wash and wax.

Tuesday, I headed up to Fort Wayne with my good buddy Ross to help him move some stuff from his lakehouse, thus making another day of many miles on the road.

Here is his lake house. We have had many fun memories at this place from New Year's celebrations to Labor Day or Memorial Day weekend and even painting the largest deck I have EVER painted.

The beautiful lake view.

Ross's Grandfather's truck and trailer!!!! It's HUGE! The trailer can handle 6 tons!

The rest of the week consisted of getting the AC coolant in the Explorer replaced as well as the front lower ball joints. By friday, Eddie was in as good of a condition as I can recall in years.

Thursday night I loaded up, ready for a very early departure friday morning. Next stop... Denver!

Moving Phase 1: Part B - Pittsburgh to Indianapolis

This part of the trip was rather uneventful. I basically drove straight on I-70 for 6 hours. One distinct moment of the monotony was somewhere in Ohio where the familiar sweet smell of midwest air permeated the rental car. I was getting close to home and I could not only see it but smell it.

I pulled into the driveway at roughly midnight with 940 miles under my belt. I quickly unloaded the van into the garage and with the help of my dad, returned it to the airport well before my 48hr deadline!

At that point, I had 5 days to get everything ready to head out to Seattle, especially my 1998 Ford Explorer that has 152,000+ miles on it. Your probably going to hear a lot about the Explorer in my coming posts for two reasons... 1.) I love the car! 2.) I'll be spending a LOT of time in the car. Just thought I'd warn you.

Moving Phase 1: Part A - Boston to Pittsburgh

The first of many phases of my cross country relocation started in Boston and ended in Pittsburgh where I was able to spend the evening before continuing to Indianapolis.

Here I am in Boston with my rental van that will take me to Indy where I pick up my Explorer from my parents house. On with the road trip!

Why Pittsburgh? I have college buddies and cousins who live there who I wanted to visit AND could give me a free place to stay! Due to the expense of my one way car, the visit was limited yet action packed! I pulled up to my buddies' (Mike and Kyle) place on Squirrel Hill, and as it turns out they are basically renting a 6 bedroom mansion for much cheaper than my 3 bedroom cambridge apartment.

After a quick driving tour of Pittsburgh we headed to the famous Hofbrauhaus to be joined by my cousins Andrea and Patrick (you may recognize Andrea from my post of her visit to Boston). Needless to say, my first visit to the Hofbrauhaus proved to be a great time! I must say, it is almost better than the Rathskellar in Indianapolis (almost).

The next morning we were treated to pancakes made by Andrea at their apartment. After a delicious breakfast, we waited out the rain, went up to their roof, and then headed into Pittsburgh for the day.

Here are the cousins on the roof!

Due to the weather, we decided that the University of Pittsburgh's Cathedral of Learning, a 42 story academic building with some of the most ornate and beautiful hallways classrooms I have ever seen.
Here I am on what I like to call, a throne of learning.
In the afternoon, the weather cleared up and we decided to head to the strip where I finally found my long lost book outlet. I had been wondering where it had gone!
Pittsburgh was a very surprising city. I was incredibly impressed with everything it had to offer and would HIGHLY encourage anyone to go there for a visit. It's not really on the way to anything, so take the few extra hours on the road and swing by!

Hello Seattle

I've made it to Seattle. I have a place to live. I have a TON of pictures to post from the last 12 days of cross country adventures, but I start work tomorrow at 6:30 am. Detail posts will have to wait.

For now, here's a picture I took as we pulled into Seattle. It was quite poetic with the cloudy sky and sputtering rain. Look close at the horizon to the left of downtown and you will see the Seattle Space Needle.