Day 4, Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Jayden and Landon seemed to be the only ones that slept last night.

Today we are heading from Cheyenne to Omaha, NE...500 miles. This is our longest day of driving. My only salvation is that we are booked at the Hilton tonight. Jayden's only salvation is the DVD system.

Poor Tony, the man puts up with a lot. Throughout this trip Tony has been subjected to quite a bit. He usually starts the leg off in the front seat, holding whatever won't fit in the backseat. We usually set out just after feeding the Landon so he'll nap for the first few hours. We stop to refuel, the car and ourselves, and musical chairs begins. Jayden and Landon both like to have someone in the back with them so Tony moves everything from between their seats into the front seat and proceeds to wedge himself into the seat sideways. Jayden usually watches a DVD during this time and although Tony can watch along he can't use the headphones because he wouldn't hear Landon. His only break is at the rest stops to check the cat and feed Landon.

Day 3, Monday, September 29, 2008

We slept in a bit this morning. Who could blame us after the previous hotel stay. Everyone was in good spirits as we set out on our half way trek. After shipping one suitcase 'home' we were more comfortable in the car but it still took three rolling cart loads to load everything in.

Utah has some very beautiful landscape to look at. We drove by Parley's Summit which is the namesake of one friend's dog. We stopped in at Starbucks in Park City. And the rest is pretty much a blur as we passed by at 85 miles an hour. We are heading to Cheyenne, Wy just 440 miles.

At this point in the trip things are starting to become funnier and funnier. Tony laughes every time I get into a yelling match with the navigation hussy. She can't just let me take an exit for a fill-up or Starbucks with out quickly telling me "follow the current road until a safe u-turn can be made". Woman, I can see that damn freeway from the gas station...I think I can find my way back without guidance. I'm also noticing a very 'scary' trend as we progress east...the number of warning signs at rest stops and along the freeway about natural hazards, like weather, animals and more weather. Tony and I have had a disagreement regarding the difference between 'hearing loss' and 'damaged hearing'. Tony says there is no difference, I say there is.

In Cheyenne we were staying at the La Quinta Inn. Tony explained to me that in spanish it translates out to 'hotel conveniently located between well traveled railroad tracks'. Every 30 minutes like clockwork. Once we got into the hotel and unloaded (three rolling cart loads) we were hungry. My navigation said there was a Sonic nearby however when we pulled into the 'parking lot' we were staring at an empty lot and the the side of a brick building...apparently Sonic moved. We were able to find the new location and Tony sucked down his lime aid before we were out of the parking lot. We got back to the hotel, and the four of us climbed into the one King size bed...now I know what sardines feel like.

Day 2, Sunday, September 28, 2008

After a very restless night at the 'Bates', I was up at 5am. I showered, repacked everthing and got the boys up. Tony showered. Landon took a bottle. Jayden whined because he wanted pancakes. Once we were all up and dressed, Jayden and I made the three trips down to the car with the rolling luggage cart (yep, it took three trips). By 7:30am we were ready to check out of the hotel from hell and head down the road, way ahead of schedule.

Tony, Jayden and I had planned on grabbing something to eat at Starbucks but as I explained in the previous post, that plan went out the window. We settled for McDonalds and headed East toward Salt Lake City, 340 miles. My plan was to drive approximately 10 over the speed limit. With the standard speed limit 75, we did 85 for the remainder of the drive.

We were doing very well today. The cat realized that this rollercoaster ride was not going to end if she just continually threw up and she finally calmed down. She even enjoyed the stops with a little fresh air as she sat at the door of her krate with our hatch up. The kids seemed settled into our routine and were doing great.

We decided to stop at an Albertsons in Rock Springs (I think we were in Utah at this point). "Thelma" at the Deli counter must have lost her mind on the way to work that day because hes lipstick looked as if she had put it on while riding a freight train and she obviously never had someone order a half a sandwich. She made us a sandwich on half a loaf of bread?! I tried to correct her twice and she kept telling me she knew what I was asking for...apparently not. But, as Tony pointed out, it only cost us $2.49.

We pulled into Salt Lake City around 3pm. Thank the lord we were staying at a Hilton with clean rooms and room service. Tiger only tried to escape once. My bigger bit of business today was in finding an Office Depot so we could ship one suitcase with dirty clothes to ourselves in Illinois. Shipping one suitcase helped greatly with the spacial issues in the car. We returned to our room, ordered room service and watched Amazing Race. I love the Hiltons.

Day 1, Saturday, September 27th

We woke up early with the intention that we would be on the road out of the city by 10am. We still had to pick up the cat from boarding, stop by the house for a final goodbye and clean out the freezer. I forgot the freezer the day before. I can't remember everything.


As I cleaned out the freezer Tony and Jayden were gathering the baby gate hinges off the staircase. I was nearly done when I suddenly heard whailing from Jayden upstairs. I run up asking what happened and there in a heap are the Tony and Jayden with tears flowing. No one is talking they're just staring at me as if I spoke to them in some foreign monkey language. Finally, Tony gets out that Jayden was standing in his now empty room and just lost it. He didn't want to move and leave his room. He liked his Hillsboro, Oregon house. So we all sat at the top of the stairs crying...Landon was downstairs playing in his car seat. I dried Jayden's tears and took him outside for one last picture on the walk path to the front door. Within minutes he was fine.


By now the car was at it's capacity and we still had to get the cat. With the cat and all her medications, bags of food, litter pans, water bottle, food bowl, water bowl and comfy bedding thing, my car was about to burst. But, we were on the road and ahead of schedule...which allows for a quick stop at Starbucks.


Day one was one the job trainning. We had to stop about every 30-45 minutes to clean up cat puke. Then Landon was hungry. Now Jayden. Tony needed to stretch the legs. See, with all the extra stuff we ended up with in the car Tony had to actually hold stuff on his lap! Gas time and the last time someone else will pump it for me...wooohooo. Everyone but the cat was in high spirits and loving the car ride. We were traveling 440 miles today. It should have taken about 8 hours, instead it took a little over 10. We pulled into Boise, ID a little after 7pm. Tony wasn't done unloading the car until almost 8pm.


Let's talk about Boise. Don't go there unless you have to. They only have a few Starbucks, and the one we stopped at didn't serve breakfast foods, so we try McDonalds. The McDonalds didn't serve anything on biscuits, only the McMuffin versions. Our hotel was as scary as they come. I wouldn't let Jayden walk in the hotel room without shoes on, it was just a little scummy. Unfortunately only a few hotels take pets and in Boise, this was only one. To top it off, I had already reserved rooms in all our other stop points with the same chain of hotels but Tony was about to rescue us.


Tony had grabbed a brochure from the Lakespur, which showed it was a Hilton hotel. The night before I had noticed it was a pet friendly hotel! On the phone I was and within 15 minutes of checking into the 'Bates Motel' I had cancelled our other reservations and found Hiltons in all but one city.

Time to Go

Thursday and Friday, September 25th & 26th, 2008.

At 8am I took Jayden to Pre-K as usual and headed home to meet the men that were going to pack all our belongings into boxes. It wasn't until the ride home that I realized we had just spent the last night in our Oregon home. Over the next week would be living out of suitcases and hotel rooms.

When we moved from Seattle to Portland the moving company sent two men and mid way through the day we had five people feverishly packing so the job would be completed in one day. Imagine my surprise when I greeted only two men when I arrived back from dropping Jayden. I asked if they were it and they assured me they would be done and out by 2pm. Ha. By 11am they added another guy and while out picking up Jayden from Pre-K the fourth man arrived. Even with all that man power they still weren't out of our house until a little after 5pm. But, the packing was done and I did none of it.

The boys and I checked into our hotel room at Lakespur Inn, just north of the Nike plane hanger at the Hillsboro Airport. It had become our routine each morning on the way to school to try to peer into the windows as we passed to see if the Nike planes were "eating breakfast" before heading out to play in the sky. I figured this would score some points with my Jayden on his big adventure.

Friday morning was the usual. Up, shower and dress. Boys up. Jayden fed. Usually he gets pancakes however I didn't have those but I felt pretty good that I had gotten some of those sample packs of cereal, except that I forgot to get a little thing of milk and our hotel didn't have room service. At least he ate something and who doesn't love crunching on dry cereal. Landon fed. Wrestle both boys into some clothing. Pack a diaper bag for Landon and out the door. Today was Jayden's last day at Knowledge Beginnings, Hillsboro but he didn't seemed phased at all. Drop Jayden and meet the men that were loading our boxes onto the truck.

Landon and I sat on the floor of our house as the men loaded every one of our belongings onto the truck. We sat just watching and grabbing those little things I thought we might need on the trip. During the loading process I loaded our things into the car making sure everything would fit nicely...and it did! Until Tony got home.

Tony had left his suitcases in Oregon and had planned on getting a little duffle bag on the other side of security at the Chicago O'hare Airport. "Not so fast" said the security woman as she waved her finger in Tony's face. Apparently you can't go through security with CVS shopping bags as suitcases and she made Tony buy a suitcase before going through the security check. Tony also forgot to mention that he was bring his backpack too.

Tony arrived in Oregon as the men were finishing up and I was heading out to pick up Jayden from school. Jayden had to go say goodbye to all his favorite teachers, that would be everyone in the school. Then he was off to a final playdate with his best friend and future wife, Kira (Kira told Jayden they were getting married and he agreed). We grabbed Jay just after he had dinner with Kira and headed back to the hotel.

The next day would begin the big adventure, and Jayden would finally realize what it meant to move away.

Are we there yet?

My word, moving is stressful. We are still a few weeks away from loading the family in the car and driving 2100 miles across the country to our new home in Illinois, and all I want is to be done already. Jayden is a little excited about a new room. Landon is a little excited about his next bottle, it is Landon after all. Tony and I are excited it's almost over.

Our house in Hillsboro is still on the market. Boy did this move come at a wonderful time. Really it's a double edged sword...the selling market sucks but the buyers market is delightful. And, when you have a barracuda for a purchasing agent, it's even better.

Of course no housing purchase would be without chaos and nerves. Those Illinois lawmakers worked overtime in the realty department. There are so many laws, rules, hoops and bridges to cross just for one little home. Once we got through the inspection, big sigh of relief...and then the radon test came back...failed. The sellers have to put in a mitigation system. Fine. Then our mortgage broker was told she couldn't finance our house for us because she didn't have a special license for Illinois (she has helped us purchase every one of our homes thus far). Luckily, she was working with someone from Illinois and he took over the process and she's out her commission. Everything is moving smoothly and then Ike came ashore. Chicago was hit with the remnants and flooded...including our lending company offices! Good that our lender had sent our paperwork to the bank Friday. Big sigh of relief. Just let us get through this week and we should be the official owners of a home in Naperville and the real moving can begin.

If all that housing drama wasn't enough...we still have the cat. Remember our beloved Tiger. The 16 year old financial investment, I mean kitty. She's the reason we're driving to Illinois, all 2100 miles of driving. See, we can't fly with her because she's a nervous traveler (throwing up and excessive meowing the whole way). Most people would just mildly sedate their pet and fly em, but Tiger is Asthmatic, Diabetic and has a heart condition which restricts our ability to sedate. Moving is stressful for everyone, and apparently very stressful for a furry little creature that lays in sunny spots all day. She has come down with a stress induced upper respiratory infection that requires medication. In order to keep the infection from coming back she was also put on anti-anxiety medication! I swear if this cat dies within three weeks of arriving in Illinois I will resuscitate her just so I can murder her myself. (I'm kidding (mildly) so don't send animal activists after me because I don't need any more on the plate).

Honestly it has been a fun experience, however, I don't necessarily want to repeat it in the very near future. Jayden has been super great and really the man of house while Tony's away. Landon is just happy. Tony and I take everything as it comes and laugh. Soon it will all be over and we'll find ourselves saying things we never thought we would..."remember when we did this in Oregon, oh we miss it..."

Pulling Up the Tent Stakes

Well, as most know by now, we are moving again! This move will take us to parts unknown...the midwest, Chicago to be exact. It's parts unknown for me and the boys but for Tony it's like returning home. Our Portland house is currently on the market and we are frantically searching for a new house in the Chicago suburbs; a house with enough room to wait out the winters without killing one another.

The last few weeks have been spent in a paniced attempt to visit our favorite sights and sounds one last time...

We took a day trip to the Oregon Coast. Our favorite is Cannon Beach but the parking there was non existent so we settled for sand play and kite flying in Seaside instead.

We've visited the Oregon Zoo. A new baby elephant was born just 1.5 weeks ago so we headed out to view the little guy. We were there at the same time as the Roloffs (check out Little People Big World on TLC to find out about them). It's fitting since I see Amy around Hillsboro quite often but Tony had only seen them once.

And finally, we did a quick day trip to Seattle to take Jayden (and Landon) to his first MLB game; the Mariners v. Oakland A's. What made this even more special is that my first MLB game came when I was about 5 to see the Oakland A's in Oakland, it was almost like a full circle moment. (I need to lay off that Oprah.) Jayden loved every minute; seeing the mens on the field, the roar of the crowd, eating hotdogs and dip n' dots with Dad, and of course, the giant play structure in the Center Field stands. Landon, not so much to like about the whole experience. He especially hated the roar of the crowd.

While we never fully envisioned ourselves living in Oregon long, it is still a very hard transition. We will be truly leaving our Seattle friends behind now, no more day trips up to visit. We've made a few wonderful friends here in Portland too and they will be greatly missed. Jayden's best friend whom he has known since he was 3 months, she will be hard for him to let go of.

But hey, we have a lot to look forward to...like hot and humid summers and frigidly cold/snowy winters! As we see it, Tony will be miserable for the six cold winter months out of the year and Tony will be miserable while I am miserable for those six hot and humid months of the year. This will truly be one of the funnest and most educational experiences of our lives, we just have to remain optomistic. Stay tunned...