On the Road Again…

The stress of the last few weeks is starting to peel away slowly the farther from Portland we go and as the days pass.  It was such a whirlwind, crazy, exhausting few days leading up to our departure.

I had an amazing last few days at KEEN and it was hard to say “Until next time” to my teammates.  I had such a great journey over the last 4.5 years, and I am so thankful for the experience.  My team gave me a very heartfelt goodbye, and I felt overwhelmed with the recognition that I received.  My boss, Dan Tilden, even wrote me a limerick that he read during our 3rd floor Gutcheck meeting…

It was a letdown the following day, as all I had to look forward to was 3 days of hard work getting the house in rental shape and finishing off the packing.  Mike’s last day of school was Friday.  We celebrated “fun-employment” with a nice dinner and wine. 

On Saturday, we enjoyed summiting Nacho Mountain at Breakside Brewery with our friends, Sam and Lindsey.  We will greatly miss them over the next 14 months as they are always up for an adventure!  That evening, we made it out to drinks with our friends from Philadelphia, Trung and Francesca, who we will be visiting at some point on this trip. Several other friends were there, and it was fun to have a second last goodbye.

Finally, it was time to go, but not before waking up at 5 am to finish the last-minute chores and packing.  It was a huge sigh of relief when everything that we planned to take along fit into our van, The Craggin’ Wagon.  Maybe a little last minute on the final pack, but Craggin’ was loaded for 14 months of adventure. 

Our first stop…Pine State Biscuits, sat a whopping 2 miles from our house.  We had worked so hard, that I couldn’t resist a buttermilk biscuit sandwich before saying goodbye to Portland, and we all know about Mike’s love affair with gravy.

Finally, we were on the road and headed east!  This was really happening!!  We were both so amped and stressed that the first 1.5 hours to The Dalles flew by in a whirlwind of questions and worries…did I remember to pack this, did I do this to the house, we need to send an email to this person, etc. 

We paused in The Dalles for our second stop… groceries.  The shopping was easy; it was after the shopping that caused us problems.  I had to return an item, so I got stuck in the very long return line while Mike organized the Yeti with all the food we just bought.  Mike finished first, so came in to find me.  He mentioned that it was windy and that our sunshades flew out from the back of the van, but he was able to get them all back.  Well, about 5 hours down the road, I checked to make sure we had them all and realized we were missing one.  It only took 2 hours into our trip, for us to lose the one item that I didn’t have a backup plan for!  We’ll manage😊

A very long day of driving, but the stress did start to dissipate as we got settled into the drive.  We finally arrived at City of Rocks, Idaho at 9:30.  It was still light, and we were able to watch the last of the pink sunset atop a rock near our campsite.  We were “home” for the next 2 weeks!

Climbing at the City of Rocks was a perfect first location for our trip.  The camping is in the middle of nowhere, so no email, texts, or calls.  The approaches to the climb are very short, 5 – 20 minutes, and the climbing is moderate, so we can ease ourselves into shape!  It was perfect. 

We had 2 days on our own and then our friends Mac and Regan joined us for the remainder of the week.  The weather started off warm and pleasant but disintegrated as the week went on.  The wind gusts on Thursday evening were 40 mph.  I was so thankful to be sleeping in Craggin’!

Climbing highlights for the week included:  slab climbing at Lost World, sport climbing in Hostess Gully, climbing Intruding Dike, Mystery Achievement, and Twist and Crawl.  Almost getting blown off Scream Cheese and climbing a Colossus, a pumpy, reachy sport climb!

We lost our camping spot on Friday.  After a full day of climbing, we said our goodbyes to Regan and we joined Mac in his hotel in Burley for the night.  The shower felt marvelous!  It was fun to spend time with friends during our first week.

What an awesome first week of our 14 month journey.  Usually after a week of climbing, it is time to head home and go back to work.  Not this time, we get to do this for the next 14 months!  I can’t wait!!

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