Oh my...where do I begin? Well, I'll start out with something positive. WE MADE IT TO LOGAN! Yes, to all of you who were in such suspense over the past couple weeks, you can now rest assured that we are back. Now for the negative. According to the previous post, Cody had some car trouble a couple weeks back as he drove our little Contour back to Utah. Well this post is going to make his journey look like a walk in the park (Cody will probably argue this point). Anyway, here goes...
1) 6:30am- We are all packed up and the house is clean. One last walk through and we were off in our 17 foot UHAUL and 15 foot trailer. In our minds we were thinking "Sweet, we are right on schedule...this never happens!"
2) 6:50am- We make it to the Columbia Gorge and overhear an announcement on the radio, "Large tanker overturns and spills gasoline all over highway. Road will be closed for the rest of the day." Are you kidding me? Not even fifteen minutes into our drive and we are already following detour signs. As we start following the signs, we notice that we are headed right back into Portland. Huh??? I get on the phone and call ODOT. "Hi there, I was just calling to see where this detour is actually taking us? I see that we are headed back into Portland and we are in a large moving truck pulling a fifteen foot trailer.
Can you tell me the best way back to I-84?"
ODOT Lady: "Oh sure, you are just going to follow Highway 26. This will bring you back to where you need to be."
Luckily we had our trusty GPS and changed the routing to find Highway 26. Little did we know...this route took us through the freakin Cascade Mountains and up to the summit of Mount Hood. FOUR HOURS LATER...
11:00am: I-84 is in sight and we are in pretty good spirits despite the SLIGHTLY LARGE detour. Cody is at the wheel and I drift off into a much needed sleep. POP!! I jumped about five feet into the air. "What was that?" Oh it was just our tire...blown all over the highway. After safely pulling off the freeway, we call Roadside Assistance. "Yeah, we can be there in one hour." Oh great. We couldn't help but laugh. It was just our luck! We took advantage of the time and rested, threw the ball for Kusaba, and made some lunch from the little that we had. TWO HOURS LATER...
Yes, this made it through the Cascade mountains
The CULPRIT
Keeping Kusaba entertained while we waited...and waited
1:00pm: We were back on the road yet again. Mind you, we were probably only 45 minutes away from Portland. That stupid detour and now the blown tire threw us WAY behind schedule. Oh well...we were determined to continue. We drive for about two hours with no interruptions and make it to Pendleton, OR for some real lunch (at Wendy's)
4:00pm: Full and happy, we leave Pendleton and head into the Blue Mountains. About 30 miles into the canyon I discover that my lips are really chapped and I need some chapstick. I start feeling around for my purse...oh crap, where is it? I start FREAKING out. "Cody!!! My purse...it's not here! I think I may have left it in Pendleton!!!!"
5:00pm: Leaving Pendleton...once again. I still am thanking my lucky stars that someone at Wendy's turned my purse in. There was a lot of cash in it and I was really stupid to have left it there. Sigh. At this point, I just want to give up. Numerous times I tell Cody that I can't go another mile. He calms me down and says, "It's okay...you know you are going to be laughing about this tomorrow."
9:00pm: Yes, we should have been home long ago but we are still driving. We decide to stay in Boise, ID for the night. After sneaking Kusaba into the hotel room, we are fast asleep and ready to put that long and dreadful day behind us.
Luckily, there are no more incidents to report. The following day, our UHAUL works like a charm (a really SLOW charm) and we make it Logan. Oh and Cody was definitely right, I am now laughing about the purse situation. WE'RE BACK!!
My sister Amy and her family singing as they paddled.
