Coast to Coast

Prior to the move, we made a pros and cons list.  

Okay, so here's the scoop on our cross-country adventure.  We packed all of our possessions in Scott's Jeep and a 5x8 U-Haul trailer and we shipped my car.  We left Beaverton, Oregon on Sunday, the 18th of April and began our journey to Saugus, Massachusetts.  We drove 303 miles and made it that night to Yreka, California.  Southern Oregon has many, many hills.  The Jeep had a hard time pulling the U-Haul.  It couldn't go more than 35 M.P.H.  The next morning we left Yreka.  Northern California is very beautiful with its mountains and large open fields.  Once we got past Northern California, it wasn't as nice and the air actually became stinky. We hit Sacramento at rush hour.  The California roads were the worst roads we have ever traveled on!    

Lake Shasta

The next day we drove 625 miles to Barstow, California and spent the night there. Barstow was still 85 degrees at 2 am.  We entered the Mojave desert at night.  The stars were magnificent!  The temperature at 2 am was 85 degrees, but there was a nice breeze blowing across the desert (Did I mention the Jeep didn't have air conditioning?!)    

We left from Barstow (in the desert), California at 10 am and it was already 97 degrees.  That day as we traveled through the desert we reached 100+ degrees with dry heat.  

Arizona Countryside

We left Barstow Tuesday morning at 10 A.M. and it was already 97 degrees out.  We easily hit 100+ degrees, but it was a dry heat.  We drove 495 miles and arrived late in the evening at Grandma and Grandpa Clay Barton's winter home in Tucson, Arizona at Saddlebrooke Estates by the 3rd night of our travels.  We spent the night with my grandparents.  Arizona was still very hot.  

   We enjoyed catching up with Uncle Danny, Aunt Christie, and Cousin Stefanie Fuller who were visiting from Seattle..  It was too hot to do much.  Arizona was very brown, the only green we saw was cactus's.  

Aunt Christie, Uncle Dan, and Cousin Stefanie

Grandma and Grandpa Clay Barton's home (Saddlebrooke Estates)

Grandma and Grandpa Clay

View of the mountains

Headed East Again

You can barely make out the New Mexico Sandstorm

We left Grandma and Grandpa Clay's  on Wednesday, April 21st and drove 552 miles into Texas.  But first we would cross through part of New Mexico.  New Mexico had lots of hills, and we saw several dust storms, but we managed to escape them.  We also started to see some green foliage.  New Mexico is also where we saw the most breathtaking sunset.  The whole sky was covered with pinks, oranges, and reds.             

Beautiful sunset in New Mexico

We crossed the border into Texas at El Paso.  From El Paso you could see the lights of Mexico.  In El Paso, the only radio stations were either Spanish or country.  We went through a border inspection station.  We listened to Delilah for four states (California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas).  The weather was much cooler, but still really hot!  We stopped in Fort Stockton and spent the night.  We could have not stopped, and it would have been no big loss.  There was nothing to write home about.  We finally started to see trees again in Texas!  Texas was also were we saw livestock (horses, cows, long horse cattle, and sheep).  The temperature was between 80-90 degrees.  The next day we drove 310 miles to Wimberly, Texas to see Scott's Uncle Larry and Aunt Mellie.  We arrived on Thursday evening.  We spent two nights at Rainbow Ranch visiting with Uncle Larry, Ant Mellie, Cousin Melanie, Cousin Dwight, Cousin Lianna, Cousin Meredith, Nana, Grandpop, Aunt Lorraine, and Cousin Penelope.

Melanie, Lianna, Dwight, Penelope, and Grandpop

Meredith, Angela, and Penelope

Long Horn Cattle

We left Texas Saturday afternoon.  Southern Texas is a dust bowl, and was still very hot in the 80-90's.  Once we reached Northern Texas (past Waco) it got much cooler (70's) and very green.  Everyone said Texas is flat--we're not convinced of that!  However, we are convinced that "Everything's bigger in Texas!" 

We drove 588 miles through Arkansas at night, all except for the last hour and we stopped in Wheatley.  We didn't miss much!  The temperatures were down into the 60's.  We couldn't listen to Delilah in Arkansas, but she was back in Tennessee!

The next day we drove 537 miles through Tennessee on a diagonal route (more on our adventures in TN down below) to the Virginia border.  We stopped in Bristol, Virginia at a rest stop and slept for two hours before leaving and heading 376 miles to College Park, Maryland.

Jackson, Tennessee is where we first had a problem with our trip.  We stopped here for lunch and when we went to pay the bill our debit card was rejected.  After calling the bank (from a payphone), we discovered the company who was shipping my car took the whole amount out of our account instead of half the amount like we had agreed upon with the balance of the bill getting paid when we picked up the car.  We managed to get it sorted out, but it took a few days for the money to show back up into our bank account.  

Tennessee was very green and flat with lots of trees.  We experienced our first rain storm since leaving Oregon.  It last about five minutes and then we got ahead of it.

We spent one night at Uncle Bob and Aunt Anne's home before leaving and driving 150 miles to Mt. Holly, New Jersey.  We spent the night with Ed and Janet Kozup (parents of Brian Kozup, Scott's best friend growing up.)  

The next morning we drove 69 miles to Dad Daniel's in Staten Island, New York.  After a nice dinner and a good night's sleep we awoke the next morning to find the lock on the back of the U-Haul had been cut.  We believe we had parked the Jeep and the U-Haul in front of a mob boss's house and they cut the lock to see what was inside.  When they saw it was normal household items, they left it alone.  Everything was still there.  We left Dad's and drove to pick up my Suzuki Esteem from the shipping company.  We then drove through Connecticut and Massachusetts and arrive on April 29th, at Grandma Duplisea's home after driving 260 miles that day and a grand total of 4, 265 miles on our cross country journey.  

Mileage Rundown (running total):

Beaverton, Oregon (Mile 0) to Yreka, California 303 miles (303)
Yreka to Barstow, California 625 miles (928)
Barstow to Grandma & Grandpa Barton's (Tucson, Arizona?) 495 miles (1423)
Grandma & Grandpa Barton's through New Mexico to Fort Stockton, Texas 552 miles (1975)
Fort Stockton, Texas to Larry & Mel Daniel's (Austin, Texas) 310 miles (2285)
Larry & Mel Daniel's to Wheatley, Arkansas 588 miles (2873)
Wheatley, Arkansas through Tennessee to Bristol, Virginia 537 miles (3410)
Bristol, Virginia to Bob & Anne Daniel's (College Park, Maryland) 376 miles (3786)
Bob & Anne Daniel's to Mt. Holly, New Jersey 150 miles (3936)
Mount Holly, New Jersey to Dad Daniel's (Staten Island, New York) 69 miles (4005)
Dad Daniel's through Connecticut to Grandma Duplisea's (Saugus, Massachusetts) 260 miles (4265)