We woke up in Rock Springs, WY at our lovely Homewood Suite.  Breakfast was another adventure as my kids got to try Apple Jacks.  Do we know how to live, or what?

And then we got in the van to begin our day’s journey of 916 miles.  We were happy to leave 30 minutes ahead of schedule.  Traffic was a non-issue.  The speed limit was pretty much 75 mph throughout our day.  We had no activities for today.  We hoped to be at our friends’ house by 11 P.M.

We saw the Continental Divide.  We saw the 45th parallel.  I want to say clever things about Wyoming, Utah, Idaho, and eastern Oregon.  But what I keep coming up with is “boring.”  Those mountains that were first so magnificent became so monotonous.  Wildlife was sparse, as were water and trees. 

Lunch was a quick trip through Wendy’s.  Leaving the parking lot, John decided to give us all a Good Story to tell as he went down a one way street – the wrong way.  Yeah – no one at that stop light missed our massive van with colorful windows as it slid down the left-turn lane.  As John quickly escaped collision by scooting into a parking lot, Nigel furtively scanned the horizon looking for the authorities the kids were sure were going to cart John off for questioning. 

We evaded arrest.

As mentioned above, trees and water were hard to come by.  I was surprised at how much I missed that on the landscape.  Initially the vast plains of Kansas and Colorado were intriguing, but soon we found the desolation discouraging.  We are used to rolling hills, greenery, and –oh my stars- WATER.  Where is the water out here?  As we moved through the northwest we gained hills, but not trees or water.

For sure, snaking around turns often revealed spectacular vistas; however, they often just revealed dull mountains. 

As we moved west in Oregon we FINALLY started seeing green, and eventually we were rewarded with the sight of the Columbia River.  Driving all this way we are tremendously impressed with the explorers of the 1700 & 1800s.  I’m hard pressed to think of too many places in today’s world where people invest themselves so heartily into, um, anything.  The effort to find a route to the Pacific Ocean was finally realized as Lewis and Clark sailed down this beautiful river. 

What was shocking to this family from east of the Mississippi is the lack of development along this waterway.  Mile after mile after mile of beautiful water and shoreline with nary a building.  Despite the lack of homesteads, commerce, or industry there was one thing prevalent on the mountaintops… windmills.  I am so not a windmill person.  But there they were.

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Photos were hard to come by.  When you are cruising at 80 mph it is hard to frame shots, and I think mountains are one of those things that photos can’t do justice.  You really need to swing your head around to take it all in.  A still shot only grabs a fragment.  I’m still trying to reconcile while I don’t feel that same way about the ocean.  But I don’t. 

Stopping sounded appealing to no one.  We were pushing hard to get to our friends’ house.  With every rotation of the tires we were inching closer to the purpose of our visit.  After 4 full days on the road trip, Marie (10) offered this most shocking nugget: “The last three days have been the best days of my life.”  And I thought NOTHING would displace her tremendous love for our Disney Cruise.  Turns out all we had to do to show her a good time was to trap her in a van for hours on end.

????

At 9:50 P.M. PST we were met at the end of their private driveway by Mr. Maxfield, Lauren, Andrew, and Ella, who were clearly running the risk of violating HOA noise ordinances if such rules are in place.  I wish I had fantastic, tear-jerking images of the reunion as it unfolded in the driveway.  But I don’t.  It was really dark, one kid had to hurry to the bathroom, another had a moment of shyness, and Katriel woke up discombobulated and sobbing.

To feel so comfortable in a house you’ve never been in before speaks volumes about the people welcoming you. 

Well over 3,000 miles ago we set out for our goal.

We made it.