Hi all! A little wave from way up north in Corvallis. We've arrived and have somewhat settled in our temporary little apartment. The drive up was long, roughly 14 hours. We didn't get going until about 4:30 pm so we ended up in the thick of afternoon traffic through the Walnut Creek area. And boy did I get my comeuppance after all those years of darting in front of others! I drove the 26 footer and went at a crawl through the bumper-to-bumper traffic, and you better believe I gripped that steering wheel when those impatient whippersnappers darted right in front of me. I wouldn't even take a peek at the packed - and I mean packed - Penske truck before we left. I just didn't want that visual as I careened around mountain curves or braked in traffic. We made it to Yreka after midnight, then resumed our journey the next morning over the Siskiyous to arrive in Corvallis after 3. Sure is a long trek with a caravan of 4 vehicles and lots of bathroom, meal and gas stops. Oh, and did I mention that the truck had a faulty fuel gauge? The gauge didn't move even slightly for the first 80 miles, so I gradually began worrying that I was truckin' on fumes. Silly me, to worry about fuel when what I should have worried about was driving through the mountains, in the dark, with no shoulder for any turns taken too quickly. Those who know me will be shocked to discover I actually can drive slowly; in fact, so slowly (with the continuing caravan of three vehicles behind me) that semis actually passed us as we crept around curves. Hopefully they were laughing at the silly Penske gal and not shaking their fists at me!
So now we're here in beautiful Oregon, living in a teeny apartment. It's clean and mostly quiet, though our lovely non-smoking complex has one of its
designated smoking areas in the cul-de-sac right behind our unit. Plus there's no A/C, which isn't really necessary but a few days out of the year - but would have come in handy on our first day! The apartment's assistant manager let us in for the walk-through when we arrived, hot, grimy, and covered in road dust, and with a sheepish giggle she said, "Whoops! Guess we left the heater on since the carpets just got shampooed!" And of course, we silly Californians said, well, we'll just turn the air on... nope. Not even fans - just wall heaters that poured out a nice stream of heat that would have been lovely under different circumstances. :) Unloading the truck and all our cars took only a couple of hours, which was an amazing fraction of how long it took to load up. Of course, loading was from our 2 story condo, 2 flights up and a good walk from the parking lot. Our Corvallis place is downstairs and close to the parking lot. So we unloaded and Leif took my Mom and Scott over to the hotel to check them in so I could take a shower. Driving around in a big truck with a sticky steering wheel, then moving into a heated apartment and garage just begs for a rinse off. Sadly, it was not meant to be. After rummaging around for a towel, soap and clean clothes, I was all set to scrub when it dawned on me that the shower had no doors...and only a lovely bar awaiting a shower curtain, which, of course, we did not have. So we all took our stinky selves to a quiet dinner, then headed immediately for a shower curtain and some fans. Showered and exhausted, I think we fell onto our beds and passed out. I don't really remember. :)
Since then, we've unpacked, settled in, gotten some groceries, changed our auto insurance (half, I repeat HALF of what we were paying before) and signed up for accounts at the local credit union and library. Oh, and looked at houses. Just a few...dozen! More than that, actually. It's fun but daunting at the same time. And we've been to a Teddy Bear picnic at the park put on by the local library, and attended storytime too. We've been to coffee at our local favorite spot several times, and visited the farmers market. People ride their bikes everywhere - all kinds of people, all kinds of bikes. I saw an older man yesterday riding a three-wheeled bicycle with a large basket, and a much older woman riding a bicycle with her collapsable walker (with a tiny seat to rest on, no less!) strapped to her back as she pedaled along. Hours later we saw the same woman pedaling through the farmers market! We love this town. This weekend we'll probably take in some 4th of July fun at the festival downtown. The local baseball team, the Knights, will host fireworks on the 3rd, and the city hosts them at the riverfront on the 4th. We could easily become baseball fans at $5 general admission, and it seems like a popular team. It certainly hosts lots of family-friendly events.
At any rate, we're here, we're thrilled to be here, and excited for what's to come!
(note: this posting originally from an email dated July 2, 2010)
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