best part of my year, part II

i was nervous as we drove down our street. we had an entire country to cross, and i had made all of the plans and routes myself. things were resting pretty squarely on my shoulders. not to mention that my dad had just been diagnosed with bronchitis.

this was a big undertaking, and we were also feeling the anxiety of having to navigate potentially treacherous roads as we wound our way up and over the snoqualmie pass.

highway 167 that runs through puyallup was packed, and almost immediately i was convinced i'd made a navigation error, but it turned out fine and we got on i-90 after waiting in plenty of afternoon traffic. beulah slept quietly in her bed that had been tucked in between boxes and bags.

almost immediately we started making our way up, up, up. within an hour and a half we saw feet of snow packed on the sides of the interstate. definitely the most snow i'd ever seen. the roads were surprisingly clear, and we made it through without a thought.

soon after we got past snoqualmie, the scenery changed. before i knew it, this is what we saw:

(not my picture)

i had no idea that eastern washington had so many rolling hills and farms. but i loved it, and as we drove through this, the sun started to set. we passed through spokane, and crossed the line into idaho, and stopped for our first night on the road.

[i am pretty sure it was during our afternoon drive down from the mountain that i realized i had left my purse in the new beginnings van. i called jessi, and could not believe i left my wallet in puyallup. i'm still kicking myself about that. nick or jess, not sure which, fedexed it to one of the hotels along our route. thanks friends.]

we stayed at this hotel in post falls, idaho that didn't have an elevator. if you could have seen how much stuff we hauled in and out of our hotels each night (we streamlined SO much by our last night)-- coolers of food, dog bed, dog food, our bags, computers, it was ridiculous. not even to mention a dog on a leash. getting our stuff up the stairs was a workout, and not funny after a very full day, that had started with a trip to doctor's care, and was now finally ending.

as soon as our room was quiet, and beu had been walked, we closed our eyes. phew, deep breath, settle in for a good night's rest. pretty quickly, i realized-- i had not thought at all about my dad's snoring. oh the snoring. my dad had stinking bronchitis, so i was just glad he was resting at all, so i didn't want to tell him or make him feel bad, there was nothing he could do. so of course, i took to my blog in the middle of the night to talk about just how horrible it was. ha. and twitter (see above). as you can see above, that first night, i laid there, and thought of anything i could do to make it go away. finally, i decided the most logical (?) choice would be to use my nail clippers, go in the bathroom, and shred the inside of a maxi pad and shove it in my ears. i was obviously dillusional. i had an iPod. that was suggested later, and i felt quite silly.

we woke up that next morning, made our 16 trips back and forth to load up the car, and kept going east. this leg of our trip was one of my favorites. we drove back up a very tall mountain and into deep snow.

there were several well preserved mining towns, so we stopped in wallace, idaho to check things out.

b girl loved the snow.

not too long after these photos, we crossed over into montana. my favorite state (maybe i love wyoming more? toss up). this day was the most oddly perfect one of our trip. we stopped at the university of montana and threw the ball around the university's practice field for beulah. ate taco bell (which became our go-to fast food), and got some coffee. after that break we drove on, and this afternoon was the most picturesque leg of the trip, in my opinion.

after several hours of driving after our break the university, i asked my dad to pull over on an exit* and let beulah use the bathroom, and maybe there'd be room to run her around a little bit to keep her tired for the rest of the day in the car.

*exits in montana are much different than i was used to. they all have cattle guards and are free range, meaning cattle just roam where they please.

it was late afternoon by now, and we drove up over a hill as we exited the highway and saw the prettiest scene..ever.

turns out we had stopped at a historical marker, and this was a campground for lewis and clark. as i walked beulah around, i looked down by the river bank beside me and saw a group of horses walking over to me. history, animals, farmland. i was in heaven. this is still my favorite memory of the trip.

more to come..[this is getting long:)]