The Oregon Trail, Day 6: Oregon, Ho!
We made it! Am finally in Eugene. We're staying at a hotel tonight because there is no furniture in my house, but the movers are set to come tomorrow afternoon, probably between 2 and 3. Yayz! I'm planning to stay in my house tomorrow night, but my dad seems weirdly set on staying in the hotel again. I'm working on dissuading him of that-- after all, there will be two available beds (in separate rooms, even!) and sheets galore.
Today was spent almost entirely driving in Oregon. I changed our planned route: Dad had planned on taking the interstate, which would have taken us up north, then along the WA/OR border to Portland, and then down from there, about 500 miles; I opted to take a more direct, shorter, and very scenic route straight across Oregon from Boise to Eugene, but it was a 2-lane highway and thus was slower in some parts. Also oh-my-fucking-god twisty in some parts, especially the very first mountain range. I'm still getting used to the height on the Rav4, and cornering with it makes me nervous. The high plains were amazing, though, and easy enough driving so I could take my head out of the road and look around a bit. We even saw antelope! And who knew Oregon had badlands? We did get a little bit of rain crossing through the Cascades, which made me slightly nervous, but it was well into the upper 40s so I didn't have any concern about ice. Going through the last high pass, it felt like we were driving at the top of the world, just the road and the evergreens and the snow on the slopes and the clouds. And then it felt like we were descending forever-- I think we spent at least 90 minutes descending. But then, we'd been hanging out at high elevations, even in the flat parts, since Wednesday night, and now we've come down much closer to sea level.
After we checked in, I wanted to go see the house. Dad didn't want to because it was dark and we didn't know where we were going, yadda yadda. To be fair, he hasn't been feeling well today and was not especially up for more adventure. But I insisted, and we made our way down there. My landlords had left the keys under the front mat, so I just collected those and we let ourselves in and poked around for a bit. The room above the garage is much shorter than I'd imagined, and the stairs to it are quite steep, almost ladder-like. But it's a cute house and omg there's a ton and a half of storage space!
So tomorrow things can go a little bit more relaxed, though I do need to make an epic trip to Costco (while Dad is here for me to use my parents' membership) to stock up on all the stuff I need to replace/restock.
Today was spent almost entirely driving in Oregon. I changed our planned route: Dad had planned on taking the interstate, which would have taken us up north, then along the WA/OR border to Portland, and then down from there, about 500 miles; I opted to take a more direct, shorter, and very scenic route straight across Oregon from Boise to Eugene, but it was a 2-lane highway and thus was slower in some parts. Also oh-my-fucking-god twisty in some parts, especially the very first mountain range. I'm still getting used to the height on the Rav4, and cornering with it makes me nervous. The high plains were amazing, though, and easy enough driving so I could take my head out of the road and look around a bit. We even saw antelope! And who knew Oregon had badlands? We did get a little bit of rain crossing through the Cascades, which made me slightly nervous, but it was well into the upper 40s so I didn't have any concern about ice. Going through the last high pass, it felt like we were driving at the top of the world, just the road and the evergreens and the snow on the slopes and the clouds. And then it felt like we were descending forever-- I think we spent at least 90 minutes descending. But then, we'd been hanging out at high elevations, even in the flat parts, since Wednesday night, and now we've come down much closer to sea level.
After we checked in, I wanted to go see the house. Dad didn't want to because it was dark and we didn't know where we were going, yadda yadda. To be fair, he hasn't been feeling well today and was not especially up for more adventure. But I insisted, and we made our way down there. My landlords had left the keys under the front mat, so I just collected those and we let ourselves in and poked around for a bit. The room above the garage is much shorter than I'd imagined, and the stairs to it are quite steep, almost ladder-like. But it's a cute house and omg there's a ton and a half of storage space!
So tomorrow things can go a little bit more relaxed, though I do need to make an epic trip to Costco (while Dad is here for me to use my parents' membership) to stock up on all the stuff I need to replace/restock.