The Drive - Day 1

The cross-country drive began at 12:30 on Monday, August 10. Considering that I had originally planned to leave just after 8, it was a good thing I left an extra day (Thursday) in the schedule. After frantically packing my car, returning my apartment key, and calling my electric company, I was stressed beyond belief. It was about quarter to twelve when I got that all done. Thanks to my great roommate, Natalie, who took care of my part of the cleaning and calmed me down, I left the apartment soon after. I drove into Walla Walla to drop off the last load of items for Goodwill, ordered my last iced nonfat white chocolate mint mocha from Dutch Bros, and got on Hwy 11 towards Milton-Freewater.

After a small breakdown on the phone to my mother (surprise, surprise), I was good to go. I got some lunch on the way out of Milton-Freewater and I was on my way. It was a fairly uneventful 4 hr drive to Boise, where Jessica sat waiting for me at the airport. Once I reached Boise, I was using the maps on my iphone, (hereafter referred to as George), to find the airport. Somehow, instead of arriving at the correct airport, I managed to find myself at the military airport. Realizing that this was definitely not the right place, I attempted to get better instructions from George, who chose that moment to run out of power. As he charged, I decided to head back the way I had come. I saw more airplanes, which led me thankfully in the right direction. Boise Airport is in desperate need of more signs because I found it simply by luck.

Upon finding Jessica and stuffing her belongings into the miniscule amount of space I had left available, we hit the road again. After playing with George for awhile, Jessica decided that we could make it to Ogden, UT before stopping. But first, we stopped in Wendell, ID for some food and a desperate search for aloe vera. (I got a nasty burn during Hannah & Patrick's wedding, having been terribly too busy to think of sunscreen.) We were not successful in our search for aloe, but we did stop at the coolest Subway ever. It had a great deal where you could get 1 of 8 six-inch subs plus chips and a drink for $5. On top of that, they had pizza and ice cream. I didn't partake of either, but it was still pretty nifty.

After the short dinner break, Jessica started to drive and I used George to find a hotel in Ogden. I chose a Super 8 and called to make the reservation. The guy I spoke to attempted to charge me more than the price on the website, but after I asked, he quickly lowered it. Rather odd, but I was definitely glad I'd had the internet. Yay, George! We arrived in Ogden around 11:30 pm and fell right to sleep.