It’s done! I arrived back in Colorado a couple of days ago, and am just starting to feel human again after the aches and pains of packing and a very long ride in the car.

We set out from Portland at 6am Friday morning in an attempt to beat rush hour traffic. I’d like to say we were well rested, but we spent the night before in a sleeping bag on my basement floor, so it was a pretty bleary-eyed farewell. I was more emotional than I thought I’d be as we passed through downtown on I-5, and got a little misty-eyed looking at the bridges and downtown skyline for the last time. The Columbia River Gorge gave us a beautiful sunrise and many instances of me pointing at things and exclaiming “holy crap, look how pretty that is!”. Early morning in the Gorge is, to put it mildly, amazingly beautiful.

Our first stop was in Baker City, Oregon, where we refueled with chicken fried steak and let the pets out for a walk. Loudmouth didn’t mind wearing a harness, but walking on a leash was not a success and she almost escaped into a field of tall reeds. After we foiled that escape attempt, she burrowed under the towel in her cat carrier and didn’t move for the rest of the trip. 

After that the hours flew by really quickly. Ben introduced me to Hank the Cow Dog audiobooks (so great!), we ate cheese and crackers in the car because we are fancy road trippers, and we tried repeatedly to find local news updates but ended up having to listen to the Prince autopsy press conference about 500 different times (RIP). Neither one of us had seen the Great Salt Lake, so we stopped for a few minutes at Willard Bay State Park outside of Ogden, which it turns out is not technically part of the lake, but close enough. The park attendant warned us that the place was full of Boy Scouts and “Utah people”, and we were assaulted by a thick cloud of very aggressive midges. But it was really pretty.

Night fell as we entered Wyoming, and the rest of the trip was lit by the full moon. We planned to stop for gas (and maybe an ice cream cone) at Little America, but somehow we never passed it. I mean, we must have passed it, and we saw a bunch of signs for it, but we must have driven by during the part of the trip when I was sleep-driving, because I don’t see how else we could have missed all the lights and ridiculousness of it.

We only had to stop three times for gas, for a grand total of about $75! We decided to drive until we felt tired, which turned into us driving straight through without stopping at a hotel or for any roadside naps. We cruised into Fort Collins about 2am Saturday morning, after twenty hours on the road. Tired, sore, greasy, but happy, we piled into bed and slept. Then we woke up for a bit, I introduced Ben to Pizza Casbah and Odell Brewing Company, we slept for about 11 more hours, and the journey was over.

Last Portland sunrise, the day before we left.

Loudmouth was very sad when her cat flap disappeared and she was stuck inside.

They’re pretty sure we’re leaving them forever.

Truck stop breakfast is the best breakfast.

Seconds before the escape attempt.

Somewhere in Idaho, I think. I call these roadside factories “Midgars”, because they remind me of Final Fantasy VII.

Almost the Great Salt Lake.

Not pictured: one million midges.

Hiding behind a gas station in Peterson, Utah.

The full moon guided us through Wyoming.

Mission accomplished.