Keiffer Bean Rhodes

Greg and I have wanted a second dog for a long time. Several times, we came close to getting a friend for Lily, but circumstances didn't quite work out. It's a good thing for dogs to come in pairs. Lily struggles with separation anxiety each time her pack (Greg and I) leaves her, and now, she has a little brother who will remain with her.

Keiffer is a 4 1/2 month old whippet. Whippets are very similar to Greyhounds; they are fast, they love to sleep, and they love affection. Greg and I have been looking at Greyhound rescues near us, and we were planning on applying for a dog when we got back from our trip to Sacramento for Christmas. I was telling a girl I work with about our plans, and she informed me she knew a lady who had whippet puppies. Greg and I initially didn't think it was a good idea, but we spent several days discussing all the pros and cons. We made the trip to see Keiff last weekend. We asked a lot of questions. We took him home.

Keiffer follows Lily everywhere, and they have already wrestled several times. Right now, they are sharing a dog bed. Greg and I might just be stuck with sighthounds. They are fantastic dogs.

Doggy Profile: Boston Terrier

Since I work with dogs daily, I have a lot of experience with different breeds. Each dog does differ in personality, but there are some traits you can count on in certain breeds. Meet Greta, pictured above, the Boston Terrier. I walked her in San Diego, but I have two more of these little guys at daycare here in Syracuse. The three of them all have differences in their personalities, but I've noticed a string of similarities that I am listing below.

Boston Terriers are small with an abundance of energy. They are very intelligent, so training is easy. The Bostons I have been around do just fine around all people, kids included, but they are not the most cuddly creatures. They live for their toys. Bostons will happily spend all day chasing after balls. Toys are a higher priority than affection. When it comes to spending time around other canines, they do well, but they are prone to acting possessive over the toys they have declared as their own. Their short hair is a plus for dog owners who don't want lots of hairballs drifting around the house. So, if you want a dog who fits the following bullet points, a Boston might be a perfect pick.

• These guys do NOT shed bucketfuls
• They have plenty of energy, making good jogging buddies and excellent fetch players
• They would rather chase a ball then curl up on their owner's lap
• They are a highly intelligent breed
• Their small size makes them seem apartment-worthy, and this scenario will work if the owner is dedicated to exercising their Boston frequently (or sending him/her to doggy daycare!)

My Little Nephew, Baby Easton

Can't wait to meet you, little guy.

A Travel Story

Some people, when hearing the words "travel story," may immediately picture faraway locations such as Italy or the Bahamas. Some may consider closer closer locations, such as a beach or mountain spot a few hours from the hometown. I used to think travel stories required adventures that took a person away from their house and town; I thought the best stories would revolve around locations that were far and unknown to the traveler. My travel writing class this semester has shown me how wrong I have been. I've missed so much so close. Now, I have made it a habit to pay attention to my surroundings and the people within.

I noticed the farmers tucked under their fold-up tables at the market near our apartment on Fridays. One couple I assume to be a father and daughter dress in Amish attire. What is their story? I walked by an old man fishing at a nearby park. He sat in a chair perched near the water's edge. I don't know much about fishing. There is a travel story there. Destination? Park. Experience? Fisherman. Places provide a setting. People provide the beauty and depth of human difference and connection.

Anyways, I do have a travel story to share. Last weekend, Greg and Yangping, his friend from China, had their first soccer game. After leaving the field, Yangping and his roommate had us over for dinner. Stepping into their two-bedroom apartment located close to Syracuse University's campus provided a new travel adventure.

Yangping sat us down on their one piece of furniture, a small black couch leftover from the previous renters, and handed us his laptop. He told us to do whatever we wanted while he cooked. No matter how many times we asked if he needed help, he insisted we sit and relax. After awhile, Yangping and his roommate who is also from China (I don't to spell his name in case I get it wrong) had prepared a bowl of cut potatoes, beef and broccoli, chicken, and bowls of white rice. They gave us the only two bowls they had, and they used tupperware. The food was spicy and fantastic. Over and over, the two of them insisted we eat as much as we wanted. We talked about China. We talked about the States. We shared stories. We asked questions. We learned from each other. We shared in the beauty of those human differences and connections.

Hello World Series!

I was probably one of the few in Syracuse last night to sit down and watch game six of the Giants/Phillies game AND root for the Giants. Baseball is a great sport, despite what Greg thinks (though I did succeed in getting him to watch the last two innings last night)! Scoring doesn't happen quickly, and so mistakes are brutal/crucial when they are made. Each pitch is like a held breath. Even the waiting period for a fly ball soaring through the air heading for the ready outfielder is intense. Baseball gets me on the edge of my seat and keeps me there, and last night's game was extremely nerve-wracking. The Giants had lost the last game in San Fran, and I felt nervous about them flying back to Philadelphia. Yes, they only had to win one more, but still, the Phillies seemed pumped. After a struggling start (the Phillies lead the game by 2, pitcher Jonathan Sanchez got a little too heated, the game continued with a tied score), Juan Uribe hit a homer. I danced around the living room, and Lily joined me. Lily is clearly a Giants fan too! Then, after biting my nails through the last two innings, "Fear the Beard" pitcher Brian Wilson ended the game beautifully.

So, I can happily say, the SF Giants are heading to the World Series!

The photos are from sfgate.com and sanfrancisco.giants.mlb.com.

Autumn Love: A Photo Story

The Kitchen Experiments of Erin & Greg

A couple days ago, Greg and I flipped through our cookbooks to find a new recipe to make. We settled one I had received as a gift a few years back from my Dad and Karen. We typically stick with chicken, so we flipped to the poultry section. Greg said we should just start from the beginning; we actually decided to start with chicken recipe number two: Pollo Relleno.

Cooking Experience Gained:

• There are certain techniques for flattening chicken breasts.
• White asparagus are not as good as green (We picked those for our side).
• Never cut jalapeños without wearing gloves. Because of this lack of experience, I not only cut them, but I used my fingertips to help scoop out the veins and seeds. As a result, I spent the following 24 hours (minus the seven or so hours I slept) pushing my fingertips onto cold surfaces. This resulted in several trips to the fridge to swap the soy milk for the ice-cream container then for the half-gallon of apple cider.

The result was fantastic. The breading on the chicken (a mixture of taco seasoning and corn meal) was yummy, and the insides were perfectly spicy and wonderfully cheesy.

Would we make this again?

Definitely, gloves included.

Just Part of the Pack Part 2

Lily was successfully left alone in our extra bedroom for 45 minutes today. She had a Kong filled with peanut butter, her water bowl, and her beloved couch. Yippee!

Just Part of the Pack

Greg and I are going to attempt to start leaving Lily alone in our extra bedroom. Her couch, which she is laying on in this picture, is located in that room, and it's her favorite place to be. Two days ago, we left her in the room and went on a quick jog. My mom watched her from Skype, so she could call me if Lily did anything bad. We blocked her in the room with a big box (she's not the most intelligent dog out there) and left her for about fifteen minutes. She howled. She paced. She put her front legs up on the box. She didn't lay down once.

We're definitely going to keep trying for short periods of time. She still goes in her crate for the most part. I've read loads of material on separation anxiety, and I've tried just about all the methods mentioned. Tawny, my sister, suggested I place a timer under a few blankets when leaving. The sounds reminds them of their mother's heartbeat.

Victoria Stilwell, a dog trainer, gave some information to a couple on her show It's Me or the Dog. Since dogs are pack animals, they do not understand when part of their pack leaves them behind.

Poor Lily doesn't understand why her pack leaves her behind. Would a friend help? Then, Lily would at least have half her pack with her at all times.

Maybe, but in the meantime, we'll attempt to ease her into a crate-free life.

Lake Onondaga

Yesterday, Greg and I took our first trip to Lake Onondaga, which is a quick drive from our apartment. There are two main trails. One is for walking and jogging and the other is for anything with wheels. I saw several people on Rollerblades, and I haven't seen those in a long time. In the winter, the walking path closes, and the other path opens for all traffic- whether feet or wheels (or paws). We'll definitely be taking more trips to Lake O. Plus, they have a dog park!

Check out the fuzzy caterpillar!

What to See at the NY State Fair According to Erin & Greg

As a reminder, Greg's comments are blue.

A glimpse at the usual livestock critters. It's hard to believe those little, pink piglets will become big mamas (or papas) one day!

A trip through the furs and feathers! We watched part of a rooster crowing contest, and we just made it past the guinea pigs and rabbits, when Greg's allergies informed us we needed to get out of there ASAP! The winner of the crowing contest was just a little guy who crowed 28 times in 10 minutes I think. It was funny to watch. Oh, and there were tons of piggies (guinea pigs, that is), and only three chinchillas.

A quick viewing of a the butter sculpture. Apparently, they release a new one of these each year. It was pretty impressive. After a quick glimpse, I left Erin to take pictures from the crowd while I scoped out some cheap ice cream.

Some close encounters with some exotic mammals: a few tigers, a giraffe, some dancing elephants, and a duo of camels. All cool things.

A cute pink tractor. Check out the wheels. There was another girl taking a picture of this at the same time. They get so excited about pink things. Okay, it was a PINK tractor! It was a rare pink thing worthy of a photograph!

Loads of exhibits from dairy displays to an international food pavilion to NY police demonstrations, which included a funny bloodhound that got all the attention.

Of course, there were loads of rides and fried food options too, but we stayed away from all that. Not only did they have fried twinkies...they had fried pizza, fried oreos, fried pickles, and fried dough. Ugh! The food was ridiculously abundant. For every one thing to see, there were probably 50 places to eat.

MMMM, Peanut Butter

Inspired by Animal Planet...

In the Midst of Heat, a Taste of Autumn

This week, Greg and I both started classes. I already have a large list of assignments due Friday, and though Greg hasn't had an actual homework assignment yet, they're bound to start rolling in soon. Other than trying to get accustomed to once again having homework, we have been trying to survive this nasty heat wave! After surviving 100-degree heat waves in Sacramento, I didn't think I would have any problem with summers here; however, when you add humidity, it makes the heat a whole lot worse.

The heat is supposed to fade away by this weekend. To escape our hot apartment and avoid turning on the air conditioner, we sat outside on a blanket with Lily about an hour ago. I was staring at the trees when I noticed an exciting change in the leaves.

The leaves are starting to turn! I have been informed that East Coast autumns are beautiful. Apparently, no other place in the United States compares. From the pictures I've seen of streets lined with trees that are full and round with yellow, orange and red leaves, I believe it. I have been excited from the moment I knew we were moving to Syracuse to see autumn. It's not far off before the lush green is replaced by crisp red. Autumn also implies a relief from summer heat and humidity!

Now, I need to get back to reading my travel writing books, which I am finding fascinating. Greg is enjoying his homework-free night by watching The Office, and Lily is asleep next to her new, giant bone. That's all for now.

Official New Yorkers

We woke up this morning with a grand plan of checking out the zoo. The weather was sunny but not too hot. There was a nice breeze shuffling the leaves in the green forest outside our apartment. Greg was free for the day, as he had completed his orientation. We both start our fall classes Monday, the 30th, so it was a perfect day for the zoo. It's good to take advantage of our last homework-free days!

Those plans changed quickly when a chain of events happened. We discovered our Farmers Insurance bill had not been paid. In the past, the money had been taken directly from our bank account. The bill had been sent to our Rancho Cordova apartment, but we had already moved out and set up a forwarding address. It shuffled around for awhile in the post office before arriving at Stan and Janet's, where they then sent it to us. By the time we received the bill, our insurance had been cancelled. We drove across the United States without insurance. Whoops.

So, Greg called a local Farmers' agent, and he said we cannot receive insurance until we have NY licenses. The zoo was called off, and instead, we spent our day in the DMV (which is just as bad as the CA DMVs) and at the home of a little, old man.

That old man was the agent. We were a little surprised when our GPS led us through a residential neighborhood and directed us to stop before a quaint house. Greg called the agent, and he confirmed that he worked from his home, so he came out and led us inside and down the stairs to his office.

Greg and I then sat through a few hours of wasted time in that office. The agent, Owen Campbell, didn't seem to know what he was doing, and we spent the first hour and a half sitting there on hold while Owen tried to contact Farmers in California. I was in an old chair with faded, flower-patterned cushions. I stared at the lumpy green carpet an

d the wood, paneled walls as I twisted the ends of my hair and waited in boredom. At one point, Owen had to go find a folder with some information in it, and Greg took the opportunity to lean over and ask me, "How do we get out of this?"

To make a long story short, Greg ended up talking to a woman with Farmers, and he signed in on Owen's account. Greg had to find out Owen's account information from a different Farmers source. After quite a long process, we printed the information. Owen was whipping the pages off the printer and handing them to Greg, despite Greg's efforts to tell him to wait until all the pages had printed before picking them up. Greg ended up with a

messy pile of pages to sort through. We then had to show Owen where he needed to sign as our official Farmers agent. As we stood up to go (much to my relief), Owen said he was so grateful for smart people like us. He then started to tell us about his grandchildren, but his wife had been cooking dinner for the past hour or so while we sat in that old, carpeted room that was in desperate need of a makeover, so he headed upstairs. As we took our leave, I heard him tell his wife that we had pretty much done the whole thing for him.

Owen was a nice man. I'm glad we met Owen. But honestly, Owen should not be a Farmers agent. When we get in the car, Greg told me the woman

he worked with on the phone kept apologizing for this experience. We weren't mad though. We didn't make the zoo, but we met a good-hearted Owen who clearly loved having some company.

By the way, since we have our NY licenses, I think we can say we are officially New Yorkers :)

Next step: New license plates!

Fallingwater

Today, we had a wonderful break in our agenda as we took a trip to Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater. I copied this picture from the internet, so the trees were not in full autumn glory when we were there; however, I am excited to say that I will be experiencing those fall leaves soon!

We took a bus ride out to the house, and I was amazed by Wright's masterpiece. The house was built over a waterfall and on boulders. Parts of the boulder serve as furnishings in the house as well. In the kitchen, the boulder juts in and serves as a counter top. The majority of the furniture is also Wright's design.

The house is a work of art, and every piece is built to appreciate nature. A hatch takes you from the living room straight to a platform hovering over the river. There, the Kaufmanns were able to wade or dip their toes. Each bedroom has a wall of windows, so the Kaufmanns and their guests would never stray from nature's beauty while in this abode. The details were fascinating, and I am very glad my MFA group got to share this experience!

And the Residency Begins!

Chatham is beautiful. The picture above is Mellon Hall, a building where we had our first faculty reading tonight. This is just a small taste of the magnificent buildings located on Chatham's campus. So far, everything has been going wonderfully. My roommate is a high school literature teacher from Boise, Idaho, and she's great. I've met many other fantastic writers as well. All of it has been really encouraging me to spend time writing, which is the push I have been looking for these past months.

I have to say I am a little nervous about tomorrow. The head of the fiction genre sounds like she will be giving me touch critiques. I read two writing samples from two others in my fiction group, and the writing was outstanding. I'm feeling intimidated!

Greg covered the remainder of the trip well. It was neat to see Chicago, but it was not neat to wait in dead-stopped traffic! Ugh, it was a Saturday at 2PM! I can't even imagine what workdays are like in that city. The toll roads were a joke there. One wanted 60 cents. It made us laugh though :)

I spent part of this evening walking through the surrounding neighborhoods with Jana, my roommate, and we passed by brick mansions lined with trees and flowers. They have wooden porches with swings. It's exactly what I pictured the neighborhoods in the East to look like.

I also saw my first black squirrel. I took some pictures on my camera. And, tonight, when Jana and I walked back to our apartment, the fireflies were lighting up all around us. I love it here so far! Hopefully, I feel the same way after tomorrow.

I miss Greg.

Ketchup

Well, I have arrived in Syracuse. I picked up Kathy at the airport and we settled into the Days Inn. We'll start looking for a permanent place for Erin and me tomorrow. We were supposed to update the blog last night, but forgot, so I'll do it now, and maybe Erin can add to it later any parts that I probably will forget.

From Madison, we drove through Chicago, Gary, and Lafayette and then arrived in Dayton Ohio. Chicago was really cool to see. At first, I wanted to go around the city to avoid tolls and traffic, but Erin wanted to see the city, so I agreed to do it. If you ask her, she'll say it was my idea though. Anyway, it was a short trip through Illinois. We weren't huge fans of Indiana. The parts we drove through looked a little run down, but probably because everything's older here than in California. Dayton was a really nice city with tons of places to eat and shop and see. We didn't do anything though because of our pets. It'll be nice to do a road trip again someday without pets in the car.

Erin drove that entire day too. I guess her restless leg syndrome was feeling better. We got to sleep in again, and then we headed to Pittsburgh. It was only about a 4.5 hour drive. We drove through the Columbus, the capital of Ohio, and then the very northern tip of West Virginia. When we arrived to Pittsburgh, we were so excited. It's a very pretty city coming into downtown. There are a lot of bridges connecting the land separated by the three rivers. I'll let Erin tell more about the city and her school Chatham (pronounced chat-uhm we just found out) University since she is a resident for the next week and a half.

After I dropped Erin off in her apartment, I headed north for Erie, Pennsylvania. It's at the very tip almost to New York next to Lake Erie of course. The drive was uneventful, but I'm really liking all the trees. There are dense, green forests everywhere and green fields to fill in the holes. This morning, I got to sleep in a little because Kathy's plane was delayed in Detroit. I drove through Buffalo on my drive. The entire freeway was a toll road, so I guess I can't call it a freeway. It's a tollway. Luckily, it was only 20 cents to get from the airport to our hotel. Now, Lily is sleeping some more (I don't know how she can sleep so much) and Lulu is doing somersaults in her dust bath. Kathy and I will probably just get some food and relax tonight. Oh, and Kathy wants to watch the Bachelorette, or the Bachelor, or something like that. I'll text Erin to see if she can update the blog tonight too. I'm not sure who reads this, but if anyone has questions, you can leave a comment by clicking on the blog post title and scroll to the bottom of the page. Ok, that's all!

-Greg

(no picture today because my phone is being weird)

Two Yellowstone Videos

Sorry for the sideways one!

Driving through South Dakota, Minnesota, and Wisconsin

Hello everyone. This is Greg. Is this the same font color as the last post? I'm not sure it is, but oh well. So I'm going to tell you about today. It was the most driving of our entire trip. Google Maps and our GPS disagreed on the length of travel, but I'll tell you we left at about 11 AM (after a short detour drive to Mount Rushmore) and finished at 12:30 AM, and that's with very few stops.

Mount Rushmore was cool to see. There isn't much to do there once you see it though, so it didn't take very long. We had Lily waiting in the car and the other two pets waiting back at our hotel. We also learned that they are carving out a gigantic Crazy Horse that won't be done until 2050 and can fit an 5 bedroom house in the horse's nostril, so we'll want to come back someday to see that. After all this driving, the states and days are starting to all seem the same to me. That might also be because they look similar anyway. During the day, we run the A/C in the car to make it somewhat tolerable, but the Honda does this weird thing where it leaks water all over the passenger seat's floor when it's on.

There isn't much to say about the drive today. (For Little House on the Prairie Fans, we did pass by the Laura Ingalls Wilder home site in South Dakota! Oh, and we saw a very tiny town still intact from the 1800s. That's something to say about the drive!) We didn't set foot at all in Minnesota. We drove right on through at 80-85 mph in the 75 mph zone. We crossed over the Mississippi River, which would have been really cool if it wasn't pitch black outside. Street lights are so rare around here. Also, we noticed that drivers from Utah and Illinois are the worst. They are huge speedsters and will risk their lives to get in front of you. Seriously, seriously, seriously! Some of these drivers must have a death wish.

Let's see...oh! We're changing our route. Instead of another long drive to Buffalo tomorrow, we're doing a "short" 8 hour drive to Dayton, Ohio. Erin will be doing most of the driving, since I did most of it today (She was complaining about "restless leg syndrome" or something. I don't ask questions. I just go along with it.) My shins were hurting very badly!!! Greg was the one who told me it was probably restless leg syndrome! Then, we'll have an even shorter drive to Pittsburgh the following day. We figured we can see Niagara Falls anytime since we'll be living only a couple hours away.

Well, I guess that's all for today. We're in our hotel in Madison, Wisconsin. Now I have to wait for Erin to proofread and approve this blog before I can post it. Pictures will come later! Proofreading complete. Thoughts added. Time for bed!

Wyoming is Truly the Wild West: A Blog from Both of Us

Erin = black font

Greg = blue font

We began the day by leaving our wonderful little log cabin to explore Yellowstone National Park. We went ahead and did the Grand Loop through the park. We headed to Mammoth Hot Springs at the top of the loop, and we saw a few bison in the distance on our way. We took a hasty walk around the hot springs to see the views while not leaving the pets in the car for too long.

After viewing the white stone, we left and got back on the loop. Before long, we came across a crowd of people, and as we looked out the window, a little black bear was rummaging through the bushes on the side of the road. I was super excited!

Crowds of people were always the best way to spot animals. They might cause some traffic, but you know there’s something good to see. There was a bigger crowd later on the loop that had

spotted a big brown bear with some cubs, but they were so far away and laying in some grass that they were hard to see. Also, Lily was trying to climb out the window after we had left the car, so we made it a fast stop. Erin was always trying to get me to pull over because there was a bison or elk in the far distance, but I kept telling her we’d see better ones.

Just when she was about to give up hope, we drove past a couple bison hanging out by the road, one laying down just ten feet from the road, and one even crossing.

We were stoked. Later on, we pulled over to find two huge male elk just a little off the road. We went pretty close to take some pictures, but when one of them looked straight at the crowds, I made Greg go with me back to the car. They tell you to stay a good distance from the animals for a reason. Besides the animals, we saw mud volcanoes and of course, Old Faithful, which erupted about fifteen minutes after we arrived.

It was sooo crowded there and very hot. We had to take all three animals with us to the geyser so they wouldn’t melt in the car. It was a lot of work and a little embarrassing carrying a chinchilla and a fish around, but it was worth it to see the geyser.

When we left Old Faithful, we got stuck in a line of traffic that delayed us about 45 minutes. Worst case scenarios were running through my head. We had been warned upon entering the park that buffalo gore visitors who get too close, and I was thinking maybe an accident had occurred. By the time we reached the cause of the traffic, we discovered it was yet another elk hanging out by the road.

By the time we got out of the park, it was about two pm, and we still had a nine hour drive ahead of us. We were a little disappointed that we didn’t see any moose, but overall, we were satisfied with the trip. We had a long, boring drive through Wyoming for a while. Then, we got to some exciting parts with winding roads and plenty of animals.

We had to cross a mountain range, and the Honda had to accelerate and brake around tight hairpin turns. We had to stop for cows and deer crossing the road. There were “Open Range” signs alerting us that the road was just part of the sheep and cows’ domain. Little towns we crossed through had small populations, one reaching only ten. Later on in the day, we saw loads of deer on both sides of the highway, and as the sun started setting, we came across an SUV from Texas parked on the roadside. When we looked to the right, we saw what we had been waiting for: a male and female moose!

So that part of the drive was pretty exciting. Later on, it was late and dark and we still had a long way to drive. I had been driving for a while and let Erin sleep. I was starting to get sleepy too, even with a Monster energy drink (those have been coming in handy). So there I was, driving along and minding my own business. The lights on the little Honda are not as bright as I’d like, and the windshield was covered in splattered bugs, making it very hard to see. Suddenly, a dead deer appeared in the middle of my lane and I had a half second to decide what to do. Fortunately, that’s not enough time to process it and I just ran over it with no harm done except scaring Erin so much that she thought we were dying. It certainly woke us up and kept our hearts beating fast for the next ten minutes.

It scared me so much that I have been incredibly paranoid of deer leaping into the streets ever since. The constant deer crossing signs do not help my paranoia. When we arrived in Rapid City, which has a population around 59,000, I felt like I was in a huge city. That’s the effect driving in the wilderness for hours has on a traveler! When we pulled in to our hotel at 2 AM, we were looking so forward to sleeping, though we only got about four hours. I’m glad we did the Wyoming wilderness drive, but I can’t say I want to do it again anytime soon…or maybe ever.

Agreed.

P.S. We don't have the adapter for our camera, so when we get to Syracuse, we'll put a bunch of pictures in one album, so enjoy these few phone pictures for now.

Update to Come

We arrived in Rapid City, SD at 1:30 this morning. We really need some sleep, and we might be changing our route for the next two nights. We made it safely, and we saw some awesome wildlife and earth action in Yellowstone! More to come later.

California Cows, Oregon Waterfalls, Idaho Lightening Storms, & Montana Cabins

Happy cows come from California. Well, maybe, but still, it gets old passing by those happy Californian cows. Driving north from Sacramento does offer some better views than the trip to San Diego, but there are still plenty of plains of yellowed grass and plenty of grazing cows. Let’s just say that Greg and I were very happy to pass the “Welcome to Oregon” sign on the road.

Oregon offered loads of beautiful empty land, and Portland started to feel like a really long way off. We were planning on meeting up with Richard, Megan, and their new baby as soon as we reached our motel, but the time kept ticking onward without our arrival. We got excited when we drove through Portland and caught glimpses of the bridges and gondola over the city. Finally, at about 8:30 PM, we pulled in to the cheap Motel 6 located in close proximity to Rich and Megan’s apartment. We got to meet little Benjamin, who is just over a month old. We all went out to eat at a nice restaurant, and we caught up a little in the time we had together.

After another short night of sleep (also much interrupted due to the constant trains going by the motel), we headed off at 7:30 AM to make our journey to West Yellowstone in Montana. We left the Portland area to head east into Idaho and viewed Oregon’s beautiful cliffs, trees, and waterfalls. It was a good way to start the drive. Once we crossed into Idaho, the road quickly grew boring. We were already extremely anxious to be finished with the day’s driving, and our GPS informed us we wouldn’t make it until 8:30 PM. A little later, we realized we were now in a different time zone, so it would be an hour later than we expected when we arrived.

In Idaho, we drove (with a speed limit of 75) through massive lightening storms.

I have never seen so many bolts. They were occurring rapidly all around our car. For miles and miles, they surrounded us. The rain was intense too. When we reached the Montana border, we could barely see. It was dark, and there weren’t any street lights. We pulled up the Hibernation Station at about 10 PM.

After the Motel 6, I was expecting something similar, as we had booked the cheapest place we could find in West Yellowstone, which was a bit tricky, as it is the high season and most places don’t allow dogs. We pulled up to the location to find a bunch of individual cabins. Greg thought there was a separate motel in the back, but when he went to check in, he came out with a key to one of the cabins. So, tonight, we are resting in our own little cabin and wishing dreadfully we were staying here a week on vacation :)

P.S. Lily is such a good girl in the car!

The Dreaded Tub

A tub has been clogging up my little Honda's trunk for quite some time now. I'm sure it's been there for over a year, probably over two years. During these past years, I have wiggled and wedged all kinds of things around the tub, for I have dreaded to pull it out and clean out the contents. It's one of those objects that I knew would take time and effort to go through and clean, so I left it alone.

Well, tomorrow I am taking my car in get an inspection, as it must be declared to be in tip-top shape for the trek across the states. I decided it was time I really needed to clean out the tub. Within the next nine days, the trunk needs to be cleared in order to fit what we need for the move. A dog crate and chinchilla cage are just two large pieces of the puzzle that need to fit in my trunk. So, I pulled out the tub.

I found old papers from my sophomore year of college. I found loads of pictures from freshmen year, and they all brought back so many memories. I found magnets, one an "E" and one a "M" that Monica and I had bought to decorate our dorm room. I found old notes from Jenn. I found a picture Hannah had colored for me. All of it took me on a trip down memory lane, and if anything, it made me a little sad as I remembered distinct memories I've shared with my friends and family members.

These past few days have been madness. Moving out was harder than I imagined, and we only moved from an apartment we had lived in for nine months! I can't fathom moving out of a house we had lived in for years. I have a new appreciation for all those going through the moving process.

Greg and I were very happy to complete step one of the madness. We officially moved out of our apartment, and now we have nine days left. Those nine days are booked to the brim, and they will go by quickly. I have two weeks and one day before my classes start, which means in two weeks and one day, I will already be in Pittsburgh. That seems crazy! With all the stress going on, I haven't had much time to grow sad over leaving. I'm so excited about starting this new adventure, but I will be very sad to say goodbye to family and friends. Looking at old pictures and notes reminded me of all my friends, and I miss them deeply.

All in all, I am very glad I went through the dreaded tub :)

The Calm Before the Storm

This past week was a lazy one for me. As usual, the first couple days of freedom were wonderful, but by day three, I was ready to be busy again. I'm glad to have my temp job behind me, and Greg will soon be finished as well. I know the time we have remaining in our apartment is going to chip away rapidly, yet I can't quite shake the lack of urgency hovering within our small abode. We could start packing. We could book our movers. We could book the rest of our hotels for our trip across the States. But we haven't.

Once the pressure hits me, I'll realize I could have prepared for the cramped, stressed days by starting earlier. I won't feel as if I'm running to keep up through a whirlwind of packing, loading, and moving. To top it off, we will be going to San Francisco for a few days to attend Jenn's beautiful wedding and squeezing in a few days on Lake Shasta. Amidst the craze of business, we will have to give good-byes, which I hate. Therefore, I have created this blog, so I (and Greg) can maintain an easy communication thread to those we love.

38 days until our NY adventure begins!