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Posted on Nov 25, 2014

The Hunts Head West … The Home Stretch

When I left off, we had stopped for the night in Montana. We awoke and took full advantage of the Belgian wafflemaker at the continental breakfast bar, walked/fed/walked the dogs, packed back up and hit the road. Beautiful blue skies greeted us and the fact that this was our last full day of travel fueled us onward.

We swung through Butte, hopped out quickly to see the Berkeley Pit, and then continued on, intent on covering a lot of ground and making good time.

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(Interesting factoid: this is Berkeley Pit. Once upon a time, it was an open pit copper mine. Now, it is one of the largest Superfund sites in the country – all that water you see is incredibly acidic due to heavy metals leaching into the water and is rising closer and closer to groundwater level every year.)

We crossed into Idaho and paid a quick visit to Coeur D’alene – such a pretty place!

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Before we knew it, we had crossed into Washington, and the miles continued to tick by.

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We stopped for the night in Richland, just shy of the Oregon border. Our accommodations (the Red Lion Hotel) were perfect for the dogs – we had a patio door that exited onto a huge lawn and offered easy access to a ton of green space along the river. The dogs enjoyed a really great walk before settling in for their peanut butter kongs while we settled in for some room service pizza and salad (which was surprisingly delicious!) The beds were super comfortable and I had the best night’s sleep of the entire trip which was much appreciated.

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Breakfast was included with our room and another pleasant surprise – it was a hot buffet with actual well-cooked food, served with a beautiful view of the river. The place was very dog-friendly – practically every other person I saw leaving in the morning had dogs (most of them quite big). If you ever find yoursefl in Richland, you should definitely consider this place (and this hotel doesn’t know me from Adam so rest assured I’m not a covert commercial).

We packed back up and hit the road, excited that we were on the very last leg of our journey!

I was all prepared to take a photo of ‘Welcome to Oregon’ but we actually crossed the border on the bridge going over the Columbia River. There was a teeny tiny green sign that I completely missed – I got this instead:

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Not quite the same, huh?

We made a quick pit stop at the Visitor’s Center and stocked up on every possible pamphlet and brochure on things to do in Oregon. I also saw this gem in the bathroom and it made me think of home (this exact same sentiment hangs in the ladies restroom at the animal shelter I worked at).

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We drove along the Columbia River, traversing from eastern Oregon to Portland and then heading south to Corvallis.

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It felt so good to finally pull into the driveway of our new home. All that driving was over!!

However, that meant that now we got to unpack. oh boy.

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Basically, we just took everything in this truck and shoved it into the garage so we could go through it at our leisure.

The dogs were not helpful at all – I tried to teach them to be little pack mules but they wouldn’t have any of it – something about how they were the ones who pay the bills and do all the work around here.

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Unpacking is not fun. We did manage to unload everything from the truck and start the slow process of bringing it inside and putting it away. Keep in mind that we sold most of our major furniture when we left NC so we had no couch, no dining room table and no washer/dryer. The house quickly descended into total messy chaos with cleaning, painting and the discovery that our adorable vintage oven did not work.

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The rest of the day was a blur but I do remember hitting up the grocery store and somehow a delicious carrot cake hitched a ride home with me. As tiring as the day was, it’s always a good day if it ends in cake.

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With our cross-country journey at an end, we now had a new chapter before us as we started life on the West Coast.

Up ahead on the blog: the epic washer/dryer fail of 2014, house projects (aka covering up puke green cabinets and hideous flesh-colored trim), adventures in furniture thrifting, checking out the coast, and hiking, hiking, hiking!

Hope you stick around for more!

 

Catch up on the journey: Day 1, Day 2, Day 3 & Day 4

1 Comment

  1. Whew! I’m tired all over again as I look at that truck that needs unloading! 🙂 Can’t wait to read your next installment!

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