June 13th - Day 1
A neighbor took this picture as we drove away.
We have talked about this day for a few years and have been planning for it for a year. It has finally come (and went). We departed this morning on our nearly 10 week trip across the country where we will see a number of national parks, historic sites, and many friends and family along the way.
We were sad to leave our good friends and community for such a long period of time. We are thankful that the feeling is mutual as good friends stopped by to say goodbye, neighbors saw us off, and others left surprise gifts like a flower on our windshield.
Highlights of the day:
We were aiming to leave home by 9:30am and ended up departing just prior to 10:00am. For being the first day, we deem this a success.
Halfway through our drive, we stopped for lunch with Becca’s sister Lydia, near Hermiston. Since we were going to be about 30 minutes later than planned, Elias asked if we need to change our lunch reservations. We had to inform him that the A&W at the local truck stop did not take reservations…
We already had our first stop at Wal-Mart for the odds and ends we forgot or realized we needed (headphones not working properly, allergy medicine, gum, etc.). I am sure we will have many stops like this along the way.
We ended the day at Fairwell Bend State Park along the Snake River, just north of Ontario, OR. It is a beautiful and peaceful location that we otherwise may have never visited. We leave here in the morning for the Grand Tetons in Wyoming.
We were thrown our first potential curve-ball today. Yellowstone has had a substantial amount of rain and some of the roads in the northern looped have washed out. Currently, all entrances to Yellowstone have been closed. Our plan was to arrive in Yellowstone on Thursday, so we’ll see what we end up doing.
A few pictures from the day:
