Cross Country Journey: Day 6

Day 6: We're almost there! Yay! Last night we spent the night in La Grande, OR since the roads were so icy. The hotel room was...interesting. Since it was a last minute decision to stop early, we had to cancel our original reservation and stay at the closest hotel we could find. It was a Best Western so I didn't think it would be bad, but it was pretty old and had some nasty dried stuff running down some of the walls and our bed literally had a hole in the middle of it - but other than that, we made it. ha! We had to wait it out a little this morning before we could hit the road so that the ice and snow could melt off a little. We were ALL so happy that we decided to stop early last  night because after seeing today what we would have had to drive through, there is no way we would have made it. We ended up leaving around 11:30 after having an early lunch and the roads turned out to be a LOT better than they were last night. The mountains that we went through today (that we were supposed to go through last night) were massive. The last one was called "Deadman's Pass" and we all now know why it was called that. Luckily we made it through safely today but last night there is no way we could have made it down the steep grades and sharp turns of that mountain. We looked it up tonight and it is the steepest, windiest, longest hill. Awesome. We did get some awesome pictures from it, though! It was a really great feeling crossing into Washington today, though and finally getting to see the state that will be our home! The land up here is gorgeous and the evergreen trees are everywhere! We had to drive right through Snoqualmie Pass and it has been the most breathtaking mountain views I think I have seen yet. It's hard to decide what my favorite thing that I have seen so far has been, but Snoqualmie is definitely at the top of all of our lists! It was covered with snow, maybe 12-14 inches with these tall evergreen trees everywhere, gorgeous rocky mountains...just gorgeous. We also came through the Cascade Mountains today and I'm probably going to get bashed to pieces, but I may just like the Cascade's better than the Rockies. Coming through those and being able to see Mount St. Helens and Mount Ranier in the background was just awesome. I have never seen a volcano before so being able to see 2 was incredible. I can't wait to actually visit them up close! Just hope they don't decide to erupt! They remind me much more of 'home' and what we have been raised around (the Appalachian's). I think I said that Colorado had been my favorite state so far, but I think Washington definitely has it beat now. Today was our last full day of driving. We are staying right outside of Seattle, WA tonight since we don't get our house until tomorrow. Seattle is HUGE! We came through right at 5:15pm - talk about excellent timing! All in all, our trip has been FLAWLESS! I have enjoyed being able to spend this time with my dad and experiencing all of this with him and Bradley. This cross country move (although it was very stressful) has been one of the most memorable trips and something that I know Bradley and I will continue to talk about for years and years. Tomorrow we will leave Seattle and officially be on Whidbey Island! I can't believe the trip has finally come to an end! In the beginning it looked so daunting but now that it's over, it's almost a little sad. I'm going to miss the adventure but I know there are MANY more adventures in store for us! We just can't wait to get settled so that we can embrace this wonderful state that we can now officially call "home".  :-)

Now I can tell you that:

• All gas stations in Oregon are full service! Not only did we get our gas pumped but also our windshields cleaned! And trust me, they needed it after all the salt/snow/crap all over them!
• We made it through Deadman's Pass! Wooo!
• Part of Oregon is very flat and dry.
• If you can see Mount St. Helens and Mount Ranier from 200 miles away - you know they're HUGE!
• There is no litter here!
• The United States is massive. I would love to see every single inch of this country. It's just awesome.
• I'm absolutely, positively sick of snow.
• When you're in the Rockies, the mountains honestly don't look that tall (highest point is about 14,000 ft above sea level) because the cities that you're in are already really high in elevation. However, in the Cascades, you can really see just how high the mountains are because the valleys aren't that tall. 
• We love our camera.
• I'm a Jedi with this camera. I can whoop it out and snap a picture in 2 seconds flat.
• Washington is gorgeous.
• Bring an extra gallon of windshield washer fluid because you're going to need it! If it's not for washing all the wet, salty, snowy spray off of it, it's for cleaning the windshield so you don't have dead bug splat in your pictures!
• The evergreen trees here are so tall.
• We made it! (Well, almost.) :-)
• I love my husband. 

States we have been to:

1. Florida
2. Alabama
3. Mississippi
4. Tennessee
5. Arkansas
6. Oklahoma
7. Kansas
8. Colorado 
9. Wyoming
10. Utah
11. Idaho
12. Oregon 
13. Washington!

 Although we haven't made it to Whidbey yet, this will be my last "day" post. We only have about an hour drive tomorrow and then we will be there! We won't have internet or anything for a while but I will try to start getting pictures ready soon!

From the bottom of our hearts, thank you to everyone that has prayed for our safety along this trip. And thank you to everyone that has kept up with us!

***Please continue to pray for my sister-in-law. She will be coming home from the hospital tomorrow but still has a long road of recovery ahead of her. She did get to go outside today and get a shower so she was really excited about that! ***

Cross Country Journey: Day 5

Day 5: This has probably been the most interesting day so far. We spent the night last night in Layton, Utah. We couldn't resist the opportunity to eat at Cracker Barrel ONE more time, so we went back for breakfast. :-) Just a few miles from out hotel there was a park called Antelope Island. Bradley has ALWAYS wanted to see a buffalo and since they are heavily populated on this island, we decided to take a little time and drive out there. You have to drive out a 7 mile causeway across the Great Salt Lake to get to it and the views were absolutely breathtaking. If you're from back home, it was basically a Cade's Cove of Utah! I can't wait to show the pictures from there. The Great Salt Lake it just an amazing body of water. It is more salty than any ocean and has huge salt blocks all in it and on the shore. It was just awesome. That has been my favorite thing to see so far this trip. We also got to see buffalo and one was right beside the car. It was awesome. Those things are massive! We had another long day ahead of us so we had to hit the road in order to make it to our destination for tonight. We drove through Utah, then crossed into Idaho and then into Oregon where we are staying tonight. Idaho has a lot more farm land than any of the other states I've seen so far. Yummy potatoes! :-) We stopped in Boise, Idaho for dinner then crossed over into Oregon. This is where our cross country got very, very interesting. We have checked the weather religiously since day 1 to make sure that we were going to be free of any winter weather seeing as how we are moving in February. There hasn't been anything on the radar - but apparently Oregon got surprised with a freezing rain storm. Coming through the mountains of Oregon trying to get to our hotel for the night was very scary. The roads started out fine when we first started climbing into the mountains and then it started snowing. The higher in elevation we got, the harder it snowed until it just started sticking. The roads were really bad - where we had to slow down to 20-30 MPH but then would clear up. Then we hit where the freezing rain had occurred and the roads got slick, FAST. I have never seen roads quite so icy as those were tonight. We were slipping and sliding and doing everything we could to just stay on the road. For those 30 miles, we were literally scared to death. Like I've said in past posts, towns are really hard to come by up here. It's not like a hotel on every exit like it is back in SC. You can seriously drive for 50-100 miles and never see a gas station, restaurant or hotel. After we hit the bad ice, we drove until we came to the closest town and then stopped for the night. We are about 50 miles short of our anticipated destination, but we just felt it was way safer this way. I honestly don't know if we would have made it over more mountains with the way the ice way. We probably would have just been sleeping in the car! But we are now in a hotel for the night and hope to make it Seattle tomorrow! I'm tired of these 10 hour driving days!!! I'm ready for my own bed! (or an air mattress until our stuff arrives!)

So far I can tell you that:

• Buffalo are huge and cool! The literally have 3 different kinds of hair on them.
• Cracker Barrel makes the best pancakes!
• The Great Salt Lake is gigantic and absolutely breath taking.
• The mountains are gorgeous from the Utah side - maybe prettier than the Denver side. 
• We could spend an entire day on Antelope Island. In the winter of course because in the summer they get 2 in spiders!!!
• Idaho stinks, really bad. Like the strongest nursing home urine smell ever. 
• People here don't care about icy roads - they are still going to drive 80 MPH. 
• Utah requires chains on your tires in the winter - who knew! (Clearly we don't have any...haha!)
• My butt is seriously going to be  flat by the time we get there.
• People look at us like aliens when we talk and wonder where the heck we're from...Oh SC accent!
• I really have no idea what time it is. We have been through so many time zones and every clock on everything we have has a different time. 
• WE ARE ALMOST THERE!!!!

States we have been to:

1. Florida
2. Alabama
3. Mississippi
4. Tennessee
5. Arkansas
6. Oklahoma
7. Kansas
8. Colorado 
9. Wyoming
10. Utah
11. Idaho
12. Oregon

 Tomorrow we should hit WASHINGTON!!!

***Please continue to pray for my sister-in-law. She had surgery on her leg today and is on the way to recovery! Hoping she gets to go home in the next day or two!***

Cross Country Journey: Day 4

Day 4: Whew! I'm exhausted. Last night we spent the night in Colorado Springs, CO. The good thing about Hampton Inn's is that they have the free breakfast so no extra $ spent there! We left the hotel around 9:15 and headed straight to walk around the Air Force Academy. It was really neat to see another service academy other than the Naval Academy, but Annapolis definitely has my heart! The scenery at the USAFA was BREATHTAKING! Nestled back into the Rockies really was just an awesome backdrop for it. The campus was also a lot more spread out than Annapolis. And the buildings were weird looking! Just the architecture wasn't my preference. It was much more modern. It was really cool to see their chapel, though. Very different, but very neat. We didn't get to spend too much time there because we had to hit the road for a loooong day of travel. We were on the road around 10:30 and headed straight to Denver, CO. After we passed through that, we hit Wyoming. Wyoming had a lot of snow and it was GORGEOUS but there was absolutely nothing there. I'm talking signs that say, "next exit 53 miles" then you get to that exit and it says, "no food, gas or lodging - next exit 55 miles". Ha! Although there wasn't anything there, it was the most beautiful landscape I've ever seen. Huge mountains but very flat ground between, tons of snow on the ground, no trees...it was beautiful. When we were climbing the mountains, our windshield was literally so frozen we couldn't see out of it. As quick as you got the windshield cleaned, it froze right back. It was weird! I really can't describe the landscape, and as many pictures as I take - it just doesn't do it justice. Seeing out here is just one of those things that everyone needs to experience! Then we headed into Utah! We couldn't see much of it since it was dark by the time we crossed over the border, but we're excited to see what it looks like in the morning! Coming in we could see the huge mountains outlined by the glow of Salt Lake City, though! We finally stopped driving for the day around 8 tonight. We ate dinner at Cracker Barrel since it will be our last time eating there until we are able to fly home! AH! I'm going to die without turnip greens.

So far I can tell you that:

• The Rocky Mountains are very rocky.
• I wish my mom had been able to come with us because I would love to experience this with her as well as my dad.
• Denver is HUGE!
• Colorado is more flat that I thought it would be. It really reminds me of what I expect Arizona to look like - just with snow.
• Wyoming can't decide if it wants to be mountainous or dessert like. Seriously, on one side of the road it has the Rockies and has a ton of mountains covered with shrubs, and the other side has big, huge red plateaus with nothing on them! So, so weird.
• Wyoming has these weird wooden fences along side the roads and we CANNOT figure out what they are! They aren't straight, kinda staggered. 
• Pack peanut butter and bread because you will for real starve out there.
• I have never seen our cars so dirty! 
• NO ONE lives in Wyoming. 
• We only have 2 days left. :-)

States we have been to:

1. Florida
2. Alabama
3. Mississippi
4. Tennessee
5. Arkansas
6. Oklahoma
7. Kansas
8. Colorado 
9. Wyoming
10. Utah

 ***Please say a special prayer for my sister-in-law. She was in a head on collision today. She has a broken left wrist and a broken right leg in 2 places. They are planning to do surgery tomorrow to put a rod in her leg. Please remember her and my brother during this scary time. I just really wish we could be there...***

Cross Country Journey: Day 3

Day 3: Today has been a great day! We spent the night last night at McConnell AFB in Witchita, KS and our room was SUPER nice. Sadly, I think the Air Force has Navy beat on that. We loaded up on a big breakfast at Ihop and hit the road! The only time we stopped all day was to get gas a couple times. The plains of Kansas are so interesting! Kansas overall is pretty boring seeing as how there isn't ANYTHING...but seeing the landscape was really awesome. The odd part is that the whole time you're driving, you think you're just driving along straight and flat, but you're actually climbing, A LOT! It's like a huge wedge. We crossed over into Colorado and were amazed at the fact that we were 6,000 ft above sea level! Also, the oil horses and wind turbines were amazing. Just to see the roots of where our resources come from really helps put a different perspective on things. We crossed over into Colorado just as the sun was setting so that made for some gorgeous pictures of the Rockies in the background. I was SO excited to finally see those!! I can't wait to wake up in the morning and see them in the daylight! This trip has been a lot of 'firsts' for me: being further west and higher in elevation that I have ever been...and I can't wait to see what other 'firsts' come out of it! Tonight, we stopped over in Colorado Springs and so far are amazed at how big this town is! We are having such a great time with my dad on this trip, and we are so excited to see what tomorrow brings!

So far I can tell you that:

• Kansas is VERY windy! Holy cow!
• A 21 degree day with 23 MPH winds is COLD!!!!!!!
• Wind turbines are some of the biggest things I have ever seen in my life.
• Blueberry pomegranate tea is awesome! :-)
• Colorado gets a lot of snow and even though a road isn't closed, doesn't mean that it isn't still icy!! (Don't ask!) :-)
• When you cross the Kansas plains, you will only get one radio station. Although it's R&B love making music - just embrace it. It will make for some pretty funny jokes with the husband. ;-)
• Apparently Kansas has the world's biggest prairie dog - who knew! I know because we literally saw 3,000 advertisements for it. 
• Mule deer are everywhere here! It was the first sighting for all of us.
• Don't move with a plant - it will freeze and die in the car overnight...
• Gas prices here are CHEAP! $2.99/gallon
• Colorado drivers have a speeding problem. As if 75 MPH speed limits aren't fast enough for them...on icy roads...at night...

States we have been to:

1. Florida
2. Alabama
3. Mississippi
4. Tennessee
5. Arkansas
6. Oklahoma
7. Kansas
8. Colorado

Cross Country Journey: Day 1 & Day 2

Clearly I haven't been doing a very good job at keeping up with blogging, but there literally has been NO time with as busy as we have been! I need to update on Christmas and Bradley's winging ceremony (!!!) but wanted to keep everyone up to date on our cross country move that we're doing right now!

Right before Bradley got his "Wings of Gold", we were told that we would be moving to Lemoore, CA. Our first choice was Oceana, VA since it was closest to home (South Carolina) and family. Since there weren't any available spots for Oceana, we were assigned to Lemoore. Bradley came home pretty bummed and the more he thought about it that night, the more he decided against California. Lemoore is pretty much a waste land. It's in the middle of the desert with very little 'life' to it. We're small town people so the idea of not having stuff doesn't bother us, but the crime rate is terrible there and you can't even drink the water! They were having a big Growler draft, so we prayed about it that night and really just felt led to request a change from Lemoore to Whidbey Island, WA. The plane that Bradley will fly in will be a little different, although it is still basically a tricked out F-18, and his mission will be different - but he is SO excited! We were really surprised at how accepting this change was since Bradley has only wanted to be in F-18's forever, but he keeps saying that he doesn't know why Growler's weren't always his #1 choice!

So then Bradley got those very treasured wings (a separate post coming soon!), and we began to prepare to move. When we moved from Annapolis, MD to Pensacola, we did a DITY move (do it yourself) and it was awesome! However, after living in FL for 1.5 years, stuff got accumulated. It's also hard to move yourself 3,000 miles and have to drive the U-Haul plus transport 2 vehicles. Plus, the Navy stopped reimbursing as much so it really isn't even worth the time anymore. So, we decided on a partial DITY. With a partial, the Navy hires packers to come and pack up everything you want them to. For us, this took an entire day for them to pack our home. Then, the loaders come (totally different people) to load the boxes and all furniture you have into an 18 wheeler. It definitely is a great service that the military offers but it is quite a hectic 2 days!

A problem that we ran into was that the Navy was REALLY slow in giving us our orders to Whidbey. Pretty usual with the military, but we didn't have much time to 'waste' because once Bradley decided to switch to Growlers, his winging got moved up a whole month and his report date got moved up. From the time we found out, we literally had 3 weeks to have family in town for his winging, pack up all our stuff and get on the road to have 1 week of that just in driving to WA. The Navy kept lagging on orders and we FINALLY got them this past Wednesday. The packers came on Thursday, the loaders came on Friday, got finished up around 3pm and we immediately hit the road! The ONLY hiccup that we had was that the day the loaders came, our neighbor backed into Bradley's truck. Some of ya'll know that we were rear-ended in his truck in November so it's definitely less stressful the second time around. Our neighbor felt horrible, but it was purely an accident. I felt so bad for him because he was really beating himself up about it but we just had to laugh it off. I guess we left with a bang. :-)There must be something up though because the people who rear-ended us in November's last name was Robertson and that is also the last name of our neighbor that hit us. Ha! I think we really must be on all Robertson's black lists or something! To say the least, we are EXHAUSTED!!!! We have exactly 6 days to drive cross country...and it will take all of those days. :-)

ANYWHO...

I want to update ya'll on our TRIP! Driving cross country has been awesome so far! I can't express enough how cool of an experience it is! PUT IT ON YOUR BUCKET LIST! For realz.

So far...

Day 1: Got a late start out of Pensacola due to the loaders. Left at 3pm and made it all the way to Southaven, MS (10 minutes south of Memphis, TN). We got there around 12:30 last night.

Day 2: Woke up and got out of the hotel around 10:30. We were a little slow moving due to getting in so late the night before. Drove until 2:30, stopped for lunch, got back on the road and drove to Wichita, KS where we currently are staying for the night!

WHEW!!

So far I can tell you that:

• Having the Navy move you is the greatest invention ever. I never could have packed my things as well as they did.
• Watch as least as possible while the packers pack your stuff. One guy literally sweated (literally DROPS) on everything he touched. The guy who packed the kitchen licked his fingers before he wrapped each dish. Everything will be bleached....twice...before it is used.
• It is very, very cold here. Maybe it's just because we got too used to Florida but it is freakin FREEZING outside!
• Kansas is very, very, very flat and straight. I seriously think you can just press the gas and not even turn the wheel for 50 miles. Also, do not get hungry or drive through Kansas at dinner time. You will starve. Hence why we didn't eat dinner until 9pm tonight. There isn't ANYTHING! No billboards, no lights along the interstate, nothing. Just miles and miles of being able to see miles and miles.
• Oklahoma has some of the prettiest sunsets I have seen in a while!
• It's cold. Oh wait, did I already say that?!
• It just doesn't get much better than driving cross country with your best friend and soul mate. 
• Having my dad come along to drive my car has been a BLESSING! An extra set of eyes has been awesome! It has also allowed me to spend my time in the car with Bradley! 
• Renting a small U-Haul trailer so you can take your washer and dryer with your is GREAT! I won't have to use a laundry mat when we get there AND it's weight!!! YAY!! :-)
• Driving cross country with your husband is the best thing in the world. Did I already say that, too?!

States we have been to:

1. Florida
2. Alabama
3. Mississippi
4. Tennessee
5. Arkansas
6. Oklahoma
7. Kansas

Can't wait to update tomorrow after day 3! We are hoping to make it to Denver, CO!