The Crossing

Day 1: Stuart and I finished packing up the Uhaul, picked up the car towing trailer and headed west. Crossing this great country of ours was an adventure all of it's own. We talked, listened to audio books, and enjoyed each other's company. We made it to Kansas City the first night having passed through St. Louis and seeing the St. Louis Arch, a new sight for me.


Day 2 brought us some challenges. First we encountered the mighty Missouri River flowing out of it's banks flooding over 11 miles of land to the east of the river proper. This made it a particularly hard river to find our way across. After a 2 hour detour, we crossed the Missouri on a little bridge. On the other side the water was really only about 1 foot below our road.


After getting across and being delayed we were excited to jump on the interstate and make some time. This was not in our cards quite yet. The check oil light came on forcing a 1/2 hour break to first find and then put in special "big truck" oil. Now we were ready to make some time crossing Nebraska ... but again no such luck, we ended up behind a wreck on the highway waiting 2 hours in hot sticky sun moving about 1/2 mile per hour. Finally just before we were slated to exit for the detour, the road up ahead opened giving us a much needed break in our luck. We made some good time for a while stopping for gas around 4 pm. Luck would have it that this proved to be another challenge. Bank of America in all it's wisdom is aware of all transactions on our credit and debit cards. Apparently they noticed some unusual activity on our card....i.e. driving across the country buying TONS of gas. I guess this could have been someone who stole our credit/debit card, so I am apprieciative of their service...BUT when we tried to pay for gas, our cards were blocked....So 1 hour later after talking the bank and disengaging the block and paying for gas...We were finally on our way again. This brought us out on to the Nebraska highway... headed west. And wow did we have a treat! This sunset was what our luck for the day brought us.
Our second night was spent in Ogalala, Nebraska. Still humid so no camping.

Day 3: We woke early so we could make it to City of Rocks in Idaho. A long drive through Nebraska, Wyoming, Utah, and finally Idaho. Pulling into the City of Rocks just before sunset, we set up camp and fell asleep under the beautiful moonlight.



Day 4 and 5: We had 2 days of amazing climbing at City of Rocks and took almost no pictures because we were either climbing or belaying. It was great!!


Day 6: We arrived in Walla Walla on Thursday night. Saw the house, met our landlords and neighbors had a wonderful dinner. More pictures of the house to follow in the next post.