After a glorious weekend of sunshine and 60 degree weather, the rain has returned, and I have to say that it makes me want to crawl into my bed, turn on the lamp, and read one of the three books I somehow thought I could pile through during a short two-week time period. Instead, I have been sorting through paperwork and trying to create some type of filing system for stuff like insurance, big purchases, warranties, and service bills, and in the midst of sorting and filing I decided I would like to do nothing more than blog. Funny how relative tasks are when on the sliding ruler of preferability. Sort through paperwork? Boring. Clean the kitchen (with a Pyrex dish of crusty burnt cheese- but in my defense our oven is buring almost 45 degrees hotter than it reads) instead of paperwork? Hmmm, suddenly paperwork doesn't sound too shabby. Blog? Trump card of diversion from productivity. Being "an adult" is beginning to look like an initiation via papers and important paper scraps that would stink to lose. Only now am I realizing Dereck probably threw away the tools and directions to the new furniture pieces we have bought in Washington, and to that end, I realize the next move should be interesting without the key parts. It makes me wonder how the heck people ever stay ahead with all the things you have to do in anticipation for something else. Just today I wanted to sign-up for an e-bill for our cable/internet provider, but then it wanted to send my bills to some Comcast email I don't use, so I am now trying to get gmail to forward my comcast emails to gmail. I wouldn't have cared if the bills wouldn't be sent to an email I never check, so here I am at a stalemate and with the best intentions at heart.
The ball on Friday night was Army-licious, if I can invent such a word. We almost didn't make the occasion when, ten minutes before we were supposed to leave, Dereck couldn't find his bow-tie or belt (therefore being out of uniform- a big no-no). Apparently somewhere in the mad rush of packing and unpacking those pieces went missing into the great beyond where all the socks that go missing from the dryer are also. Luckily, military sales was open, and we arrived just in time for the receiving line into the ballroom. What I liked most about the evening was meeting Dereck's friends and coworkers who I will be seeing a good deal of in the future. Our table included Dereck and me, Aaron (the guy Dereck is replacing) and several couples who have men in Dereck's platoon (women aren't allowed in combat engineers). At first the table was a little quiet and unsure, what with the mixed ranks and officers and enlisted people, but I decided I just couldn't handle that. So, being a good Army brat I looked at the guy next to me and told him that we had to think of some fun conversation since we would being sitting together the rest of the night. And that simple decision helped to make the evening relaxed and fun as people gradually entered into the conversations on those random topics that always seem the most interesting at parties, like dog breeds. That is one fantastic topic you can use with men or women of any age. Everyone has an opinion and something to say, or some childhood memory. The food wasn't even too shabby, and I helped myself to the yummy cordon blue. There was also the grog, a odd mix of alcohol added by soldiers in a particular order and with a particular saying or reason for its addition, but to me it tasted like kool-aid, so I only had a little.
Saturday, Dereck and I were feeling extra social and went to a party that one of his friends was throwing in Seattle. But first we went to look at curtains with our bevy of gift cards. Those are some of the best wedding presents to date that I can think of. We have bought exciting and needed items like food, cleaning supplies, curtains, and tools with them (Dereck needed some "essentials"). Before the party details though, I would like to warn you all of the costs of curtains. Maybe I am the last person on the planet to have missed this memo, but those suckers are expensive, especially when you have odd-shaped windows in an older house. Even though I am unpacked at the moment, I feel like the house is still a little naked without its window dressings. We only bought curtains for the living room in the end due to confusion, too many options, and lack of time- we had a party to get to! Adam, Dereck's friend from Ft. Leonard Wood, invited us to his parents' house in Seattle, and we had the best time. His parents live in an older, but decidedly college-feeling area near Wash-U (thus the whole college vibe), where the houses are cottages, and squeezed together on narrow streets. The whole time I was at the house I ate. Adam is apparently an amazing griller who made onion-stuffed chicken with savory rubs and ribs of amazingness. The best part was that I saw Dereck's friends from the night before again, and we got to have fun sitting and relaxing away from the cold stare of commanders. Again, we talked about the silliest topics and towards midnight everyone decided Rock Band should be played. We all took turns at the different instruments, but Dereck and I sang mostly on the mic along with the Beatles soundtrack. Nothing shows you the character of a person like Rock Band. At one point I tried to share drumming responsibility with a girl named Steph, and then got demoted to pushing the foot peddle due to lack of rhythm. What can a girl do? Finally we gave into exhaustion and headed back down I-5 to catch some sleep before church.
Sunday morning we went to Aaron's church (again, the guy Dereck is replacing) since he invited us, and then offered lunch also. The church was 129% not our style, but I loved seeing the different worship movement there, and they had great live music. After church Aaron fed us and then taught us a neat board game called Knights of Qatar or something like that. This game is the mack-daddy stuff for deployed soldiers who don't have much to do in-between missions out in the desert, and this is a welcome diversion away from poker. It took me a while to get the hang of it, but soon enough I was strategizing with those conniving boys and won! The best part of Sunday for me was going to a bible-study for military wives. The whole thing was very serendipitous since I randomly found an article about them in the local newspaper and decided I had nothing to lose. The women at the support group are mixed in ages, ethnicities, backgrounds, and military branches, but we all have the bond and unique challenges of military life. I got to hear stories about deployment struggles, babies with teething problems, and news of movements around to other posts and bases. They are reading a book called God + Military Spouse, and I am really looking forward to reading it. I left the group feeling a peace that I wasn't alone, something that has been a struggle in the last two weeks as I try to feel out the Army thing and meet people on my own. Dereck and I are the equivalents of high school freshman and all those feelings you had of trying to fit in, to figure out the social setting, and do well are real and present for me.
Today we got the chance to go to a Newcomers Orientation, and I have to give the MWR props on this one. They had tables of info from tons of military and civilian vendors and services. We even won a free snow shoeing trip from the MWR Outdoors Center for answering a question. Ironically my favorite presenter was from the Military Police. This guy was an old drill Sergeant and he was hilarious in describing illegal activities on post. He liked to call jail the monkey cage or can, depending on his mood, and threatened to throw us all in the monkey can if we didn't listen. I can't remember how many recycling posts are here, but I now know that someone always goes to jail in domestic violence reports in Washington, so I should probably stop beating Dereck up. And there you have it, the glorious reportings of Ft. Lewis to read at your leisure. Enjoy!
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Friday, February 19, 2010
Boxes, boxes eveywhere, and not an end in sight
I am currently sitting in a house that is full to the brim with boxes and piles of belongings. Since arriving now two weeks ago at Ft. Lewis, life has been surprisingly busy for the Kennedy family. We spent the first weekend here in a daze of trying to figure out all the roadways and wrong sides of the tracks (every town has them, and Army posts always seem to be around some seedy places). We are so lucky however to have gotten the post housing, and be able to live in the thick of the Army community. Our housing looks familiar to all the houses I grew up in that seemed to pop up after WWII and have very long lives. Even as I sit here now and look around, I have a hard time imagining how many other families have lived in this house, walked around these rooms, and touched these doors. There is never any trace of the family before since the Army likes to paint the walls and doors between each set, and I have a feeling that the secret notes I used to leave in closets for the next kid of the house always got thrown away by some cleaning crew. My favorite part of the house is that we have a great backyard with two huge trees that I could maybe close my arms around half of when hugging. Someone left a bird feeder nailed onto the trunk of the left tree, but looking at it now as I type, I come to the realization that it is going to stay there- maybe I should buy seed for the birds to eat. Then I can be like my grandma and watch birds while sipping the morning coffee.
Despite everything that we got for the wedding or inherited from our parents, we still had a need for furniture, and have spent bits of the last two weekends shopping for pieces. We are even lucky enough to have an Ikea nearby, but while we love the designs and think they look awesome, after two hours of wandering the showfloors, we began to realize that European minimal is not our style (we did snag a desk for Dereck and bed frame though- have you seen their prices?) We also started going to a church in the area that people from my church in Birmingham recommended, and feel like it might be a good fit for the duration of our Ft. Lewis stay.
The biggest blessing this week, without a doubt, has been the weather. The first full week we were here Dereck had to work on "in-processing" and filling out Army paperwork, which left me with an empty house, no internet, and constant rain, and that is one dangerous combo. Weekend 1 we bought a coffee table and used that as our everything table while sleeping on the guest bed, and by weekend 2 we bought a couch for simple desire to have something beside the bed to sit on. Of course I knew that Seattle is a rainy place, I just didn't realize it is more of a constant drizzle than falling rain like in Alabama. The gray skies and empty rooms the first week were enough to drive me batty, so the sunshine out my window at the moment is super welcome. Yesterday the good weather inspired me to walk to the hospital for my appointment, and the short 20 minutes each way was fantastic. I got a great view of Mt. Rainer my whole walk back, and lots of people looked at me like I was crazy as they sped by in the vehicles. Think what they may, they are the ones losing out! I like to look at the days and think what it would be like to have a dog for long walks and games of fetch. And on that topic, the Kennedys are looking for a dog. We have some breeds in mind, and entertained the whole pound puppy deal also, but have decided on a Vizsla, if we can get it! Vizsla are medium-sized hunting dogs with rusty red coats, and the more we learn about them the more we like them. My secret hope is that in a matter of time I will be able to blog about having my own in the house, and I even have a name picked out secretly.
The whole job deal unfortunately has nothing to report on at the moment. The waiting game doesn't feel like a fun one, but on the plus side I have more time for all the boxes. Our movers surprised us and came a week early, promptly telling us the night before. And, in true Army style, the moving day also happened to be Dereck's first work day, so I was all on my lonesome to handle it. Luckily between my mom and the understanding truck driver, the whole process went smoothly, and unloading only took two hours, making an unsuspecting new Army wife think that unpacking boxes can't possibly take too long, right? Oh gracious how wrong I was! The tough part about the whole ordeal was that I was doing more than the standard box unpacking I knew as a child, I also was unpacking new wedding gifts still in store boxes, and seeing items I didn't even know I owned. This added another layer of chaos as I tried to process what should go where and how. At this very moment we only have 6-9 boxes in the house, but the millions of items from other boxes lay strewn about in piles. The kitchen and our bedroom are done, and in those places I like to take my breaks since the small goals of unpacking by room can become daunting when combining two newlyweds' stuff. We have a ton of crap, and I never would have thought that before unpacking. I truly fail to understand how people who collect and hoard manage to move. My hope is that within the next week we can have all of the items melded together into one place that looks like a home. If that miracle is achieved, then pictures should be to follow.
At the moment I need to hope in the shower since Dereck found out on Tuesday, his first day as a Platoon Leader, that we have a Winter Ball tonight. Thank goodness household goods came a week early, otherwise I would have had to buy a dress and shoes, and no newlywed budget likes that. Being adults is one expensive undertaking!
Despite everything that we got for the wedding or inherited from our parents, we still had a need for furniture, and have spent bits of the last two weekends shopping for pieces. We are even lucky enough to have an Ikea nearby, but while we love the designs and think they look awesome, after two hours of wandering the showfloors, we began to realize that European minimal is not our style (we did snag a desk for Dereck and bed frame though- have you seen their prices?) We also started going to a church in the area that people from my church in Birmingham recommended, and feel like it might be a good fit for the duration of our Ft. Lewis stay.
The biggest blessing this week, without a doubt, has been the weather. The first full week we were here Dereck had to work on "in-processing" and filling out Army paperwork, which left me with an empty house, no internet, and constant rain, and that is one dangerous combo. Weekend 1 we bought a coffee table and used that as our everything table while sleeping on the guest bed, and by weekend 2 we bought a couch for simple desire to have something beside the bed to sit on. Of course I knew that Seattle is a rainy place, I just didn't realize it is more of a constant drizzle than falling rain like in Alabama. The gray skies and empty rooms the first week were enough to drive me batty, so the sunshine out my window at the moment is super welcome. Yesterday the good weather inspired me to walk to the hospital for my appointment, and the short 20 minutes each way was fantastic. I got a great view of Mt. Rainer my whole walk back, and lots of people looked at me like I was crazy as they sped by in the vehicles. Think what they may, they are the ones losing out! I like to look at the days and think what it would be like to have a dog for long walks and games of fetch. And on that topic, the Kennedys are looking for a dog. We have some breeds in mind, and entertained the whole pound puppy deal also, but have decided on a Vizsla, if we can get it! Vizsla are medium-sized hunting dogs with rusty red coats, and the more we learn about them the more we like them. My secret hope is that in a matter of time I will be able to blog about having my own in the house, and I even have a name picked out secretly.
The whole job deal unfortunately has nothing to report on at the moment. The waiting game doesn't feel like a fun one, but on the plus side I have more time for all the boxes. Our movers surprised us and came a week early, promptly telling us the night before. And, in true Army style, the moving day also happened to be Dereck's first work day, so I was all on my lonesome to handle it. Luckily between my mom and the understanding truck driver, the whole process went smoothly, and unloading only took two hours, making an unsuspecting new Army wife think that unpacking boxes can't possibly take too long, right? Oh gracious how wrong I was! The tough part about the whole ordeal was that I was doing more than the standard box unpacking I knew as a child, I also was unpacking new wedding gifts still in store boxes, and seeing items I didn't even know I owned. This added another layer of chaos as I tried to process what should go where and how. At this very moment we only have 6-9 boxes in the house, but the millions of items from other boxes lay strewn about in piles. The kitchen and our bedroom are done, and in those places I like to take my breaks since the small goals of unpacking by room can become daunting when combining two newlyweds' stuff. We have a ton of crap, and I never would have thought that before unpacking. I truly fail to understand how people who collect and hoard manage to move. My hope is that within the next week we can have all of the items melded together into one place that looks like a home. If that miracle is achieved, then pictures should be to follow.
At the moment I need to hope in the shower since Dereck found out on Tuesday, his first day as a Platoon Leader, that we have a Winter Ball tonight. Thank goodness household goods came a week early, otherwise I would have had to buy a dress and shoes, and no newlywed budget likes that. Being adults is one expensive undertaking!
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Welcome to Ft. Lewis
It feels like it has been forever since I wrote a blog, and so I have had tons of thoughts bouncing around my head that I haven't been able to record. The worst part of it though is that I will think of something funny or see a weird sign on the road, want to blog about it, and then promptly forget it when I see the next neat thing. This trend over the last two weeks roughly has led to a massive amount of ideas coming and going as they please, and to my disappointment, will most likely be gone forever to the great depths of nowhere. That said, since my last blog, I have been a busy, busy girl, which is quite a change of pace from the Ft. Leonard Wood days (or the lost days as I like to think of them). I really should quit joking on the lovely Missouri, especially since I know I will be back there in a short 2-3 years, but when you compare that to Lewis the comments just roll off the press.
I wrapped up my last full week in Ft. Leonard Wood by continuing to look for jobs, and continually being frustrated with the Catch-22 of "experienced required." Apparently in this job market employers can be picky and have plenty of laid-off and experienced workers to choose from, making me the novice not so very appealing. To be super honest at this point, I cannot even really remember what we did our last weekend in Missouri beyond eating a Sunday brunch at Cracker Barrell. I had driven by it everyday on the way on and off post and was determined to have one yummy breakfast there before leaving. Last Monday was our official last day, Dereck graduated his bomb school, and I went to the gym one last time and packed the Civic. I am proud to say that the little car has fantastic trunk space, and after accessing all those tetris skills I accrued on gameboy, I felt satisfied that the little car might make it across the US afterall. The crazy part of Monday was that I had to be ready to leave for Kansas City at any moment, but also be ready to leave the next morning according to what the Army told Dereck. We lucked out however, and made the four hour drive across small Missouri county roads to the glowing Kansas City. Most of this drive was in the dark of the evening, so I had little to look at besides billboards about Mizzou, and when we got to the hotel we barely had the energy to get our stuff into the room.
Early Tuesday morning we woke up and ate those oddly generic hotel breafasts before heading across Kansas City and into Kansas. Dereck had warned me that this would be the boring part of the ride, and when it takes eight hours to cross one state that has praries and farms as far as the eye can see, this is no exaggeration. The first bit was interesting enough, with Kansas City and then the outskirts of Ft. Leavenworth to entertain me. I had lived there when I was little, but my three year-old memomory failed me, and I remembered nothing of the area. At this part of NE Kansas, everything looks like the rolling hills of Missouri, and I thought that maybe Dereck had been exaggerating, and then we hit....prarie land. At first the praries were mezmerizing and I spent several hours looking across them for prarie dogs, log cabins, and cattle. I also should mention at this point that I took pictures while driving the 36 hour joy trip, so go to facebook and see what all I am writing about here. In the midst of prarie land I saw Ft. Riley, and this was another post that I put on the black list. The Army has a thing about vast, cheap land, and unfortunately that never seems to correspond with cool, metropolitan areas, except for Ft. Lewis! Most of Kansas was empty space and signs telling drivers that abortion was sinful and displeasing to God. This lines up with the trial that is currently being held for the guy that shot an abortion doctor during a church service, and helped me to understand how this fervor could build so easily in the middle of nowhere. Kansas really is wide, open, and spaced out. I could drive miles without seeing signs of human existence, and without Dereck behind me on the road, I believe I could have easily felt like I was in another world. For a while we followed a string of billboards about a farm that had the world's largest prarie dog, a five-legged steer, a three foot long donkey, and rattlesnakes. Every mile promised that the fun and splendor was just ahead, and soon I found myself sucked into the tourist trap and ready to drop big bucks for entry. I mean how often can you see that many crazy animals in one spot? I only started to doubt when I saw a sign that said the prarie dog weighed 3,000 pounds and began to realize it must be a statue, and this was only confirmed by the shanty building off the interstate where all the "wonders" were housed. Crazy how the dumbest things are appealing in the middle of nowhere on a lonely Kansas highway.
Insanity began to set in around hour seven on the road, and I lived for the Colorado border that meant Denver was nearby, and sleep would soon happen. Kansas had been dusty and windy, and we even later learned that our highway would often be closed across the state because strong winds could knock cars off the roads. Colorado however meant the end to the flat lands and the first glimpses of the Rockies. And they were spectacular when peaking up over the plains in the windshield. The thing that struck me most about the Rockies, particularly in Denver is how they seem to jut out of the ground abruptly, without any gentle hills or inclines to preceed them. That night we ate dinner with our friend Eric Tonn who we knew in high school, and we all sat in awe at the idea that we were now at the age where you live as adults, us moving to Ft. Lewis, and Eric living in Denver. The next morning, Dereck and I decided to push as far as we could for the day. As I saw it, the further we got on Wednesday, the less we had to drive on the Thursday trek into Lewis.
So, I set my iTunes on random playlists and artists I forgot I owned, and we hit the road from Colorado into Wyoming. What can I say about that beautiful spot? Nothing except it was one of the most desolate and isolated states I have ever seen (and I have lived in the California desert!) We started in the SE corner and drove toward Cheyenne and then hit a huge national forest that dumped us into a dry, cold valley where the landscape was crazy and looked like the moonscape. Huge plateaus loomed on both sides of the road, and Dereck and I hit a portion of the highway where we were the only ones for a couple of hours on the road. We did manage to find a small town for lunch, and as we sat there, we both agreed Wyoming was not the place for us. The better part did follow luckily as we went from Western Wyoming into Utah and drove towards Salt Lake City. Slowly the dry valleys and rocks gave way to beautiful and scenic snow-covered mountains. Now we were in Mormon country, and the whole time I drove through the state I thought about Mormons I knew, their theology, and their book, keeping me surprisingly entertained. I was also extatic to be around mountains and signs of life- Wyoming had felt lonely, and here I felt like I was part of the road community. I also listened to an audiobook, my first to be honest, and I actually liked it. The story line was simple enough to follow while driving, and it was also a great break from music. Seven hours into the drive even the best songs start to loose their shine. We pushed on through Utah and entered southern Idaho, and the landscape change was crazy. The steep skiing mountains gave way to old, sloping mountains, which then gradually flattened out to the rustic potato farmlands. This is also the time that the land got boring again, and it didn't take too much to imagine how easily tornadoes can rip across the plains. The audiobook kept me sane until we hit Boise, and there we camped for the night at a hotel and had Mexican for dinner. The best part of driving long hours is that we were wiped out by 9pm, and ready to hit the sack for the next early morning. I will forever prefer to rise early and drive than drive into the late night.
Hitting Boise meant that Thursday we could make it all the way into Ft. Lewis in only six hours. Six hours sounded so short at this point in the journey that I was giddy with excitement. Never again can anyone tease me for not being able to make long car trips after the end of these 30 something hours. The northern portion of Idaho wasn't much to write about, but Oregon was excedingly better. We cut the NE corner of the state before entering western Washington, going north and then cutting across the mountains to Seattle and Ft. Lewis. Here is something that I never knew before: the eastern portion of Washington is desert-like since all the rain is trapped by the mountains that bisect the state. So, the first few hours of the trip I was antsy and had little to look at until the mountains and the huge descent that precedes it in Oregon. Again, photo evidence can be found on facebook of the journey. The highlight of Thursday was talking to my friend Shelly who I haven't seen since high school in Texas. It is such a comfort to know in life that people who you knew and loved years ago are still the same lovable person. We obviously had a ton to catch up on, and the best irony of it is that we Army brats had both married boys we knew in high school, didn't date until college, and now are officers in the Army also. I am continually keeping my fingers crossed that my friends turned Army wives will someday get stationed at the same post. Life is too circular for it to not happen.
Thursday afternoon we rolled into Ft. Lewis and scrambled to get housing on post before the offices closed. We were then lucky enough to get the last one available for our rank on post. Talk about coming in the nick of time! Following the office for housing, we promptly ate dinner and fell asleep, and to be honest, it was probably 7 or 8pm, but we had made it! I am a living testament to God's grace covering you for anything. There is simply no way I could have ever done the 36 hours otherwise, and now we were at Ft. Lewis, the place we have been waiting for for over a year, and what feels like the official beginning of our adult life together.
I wrapped up my last full week in Ft. Leonard Wood by continuing to look for jobs, and continually being frustrated with the Catch-22 of "experienced required." Apparently in this job market employers can be picky and have plenty of laid-off and experienced workers to choose from, making me the novice not so very appealing. To be super honest at this point, I cannot even really remember what we did our last weekend in Missouri beyond eating a Sunday brunch at Cracker Barrell. I had driven by it everyday on the way on and off post and was determined to have one yummy breakfast there before leaving. Last Monday was our official last day, Dereck graduated his bomb school, and I went to the gym one last time and packed the Civic. I am proud to say that the little car has fantastic trunk space, and after accessing all those tetris skills I accrued on gameboy, I felt satisfied that the little car might make it across the US afterall. The crazy part of Monday was that I had to be ready to leave for Kansas City at any moment, but also be ready to leave the next morning according to what the Army told Dereck. We lucked out however, and made the four hour drive across small Missouri county roads to the glowing Kansas City. Most of this drive was in the dark of the evening, so I had little to look at besides billboards about Mizzou, and when we got to the hotel we barely had the energy to get our stuff into the room.
Early Tuesday morning we woke up and ate those oddly generic hotel breafasts before heading across Kansas City and into Kansas. Dereck had warned me that this would be the boring part of the ride, and when it takes eight hours to cross one state that has praries and farms as far as the eye can see, this is no exaggeration. The first bit was interesting enough, with Kansas City and then the outskirts of Ft. Leavenworth to entertain me. I had lived there when I was little, but my three year-old memomory failed me, and I remembered nothing of the area. At this part of NE Kansas, everything looks like the rolling hills of Missouri, and I thought that maybe Dereck had been exaggerating, and then we hit....prarie land. At first the praries were mezmerizing and I spent several hours looking across them for prarie dogs, log cabins, and cattle. I also should mention at this point that I took pictures while driving the 36 hour joy trip, so go to facebook and see what all I am writing about here. In the midst of prarie land I saw Ft. Riley, and this was another post that I put on the black list. The Army has a thing about vast, cheap land, and unfortunately that never seems to correspond with cool, metropolitan areas, except for Ft. Lewis! Most of Kansas was empty space and signs telling drivers that abortion was sinful and displeasing to God. This lines up with the trial that is currently being held for the guy that shot an abortion doctor during a church service, and helped me to understand how this fervor could build so easily in the middle of nowhere. Kansas really is wide, open, and spaced out. I could drive miles without seeing signs of human existence, and without Dereck behind me on the road, I believe I could have easily felt like I was in another world. For a while we followed a string of billboards about a farm that had the world's largest prarie dog, a five-legged steer, a three foot long donkey, and rattlesnakes. Every mile promised that the fun and splendor was just ahead, and soon I found myself sucked into the tourist trap and ready to drop big bucks for entry. I mean how often can you see that many crazy animals in one spot? I only started to doubt when I saw a sign that said the prarie dog weighed 3,000 pounds and began to realize it must be a statue, and this was only confirmed by the shanty building off the interstate where all the "wonders" were housed. Crazy how the dumbest things are appealing in the middle of nowhere on a lonely Kansas highway.
Insanity began to set in around hour seven on the road, and I lived for the Colorado border that meant Denver was nearby, and sleep would soon happen. Kansas had been dusty and windy, and we even later learned that our highway would often be closed across the state because strong winds could knock cars off the roads. Colorado however meant the end to the flat lands and the first glimpses of the Rockies. And they were spectacular when peaking up over the plains in the windshield. The thing that struck me most about the Rockies, particularly in Denver is how they seem to jut out of the ground abruptly, without any gentle hills or inclines to preceed them. That night we ate dinner with our friend Eric Tonn who we knew in high school, and we all sat in awe at the idea that we were now at the age where you live as adults, us moving to Ft. Lewis, and Eric living in Denver. The next morning, Dereck and I decided to push as far as we could for the day. As I saw it, the further we got on Wednesday, the less we had to drive on the Thursday trek into Lewis.
So, I set my iTunes on random playlists and artists I forgot I owned, and we hit the road from Colorado into Wyoming. What can I say about that beautiful spot? Nothing except it was one of the most desolate and isolated states I have ever seen (and I have lived in the California desert!) We started in the SE corner and drove toward Cheyenne and then hit a huge national forest that dumped us into a dry, cold valley where the landscape was crazy and looked like the moonscape. Huge plateaus loomed on both sides of the road, and Dereck and I hit a portion of the highway where we were the only ones for a couple of hours on the road. We did manage to find a small town for lunch, and as we sat there, we both agreed Wyoming was not the place for us. The better part did follow luckily as we went from Western Wyoming into Utah and drove towards Salt Lake City. Slowly the dry valleys and rocks gave way to beautiful and scenic snow-covered mountains. Now we were in Mormon country, and the whole time I drove through the state I thought about Mormons I knew, their theology, and their book, keeping me surprisingly entertained. I was also extatic to be around mountains and signs of life- Wyoming had felt lonely, and here I felt like I was part of the road community. I also listened to an audiobook, my first to be honest, and I actually liked it. The story line was simple enough to follow while driving, and it was also a great break from music. Seven hours into the drive even the best songs start to loose their shine. We pushed on through Utah and entered southern Idaho, and the landscape change was crazy. The steep skiing mountains gave way to old, sloping mountains, which then gradually flattened out to the rustic potato farmlands. This is also the time that the land got boring again, and it didn't take too much to imagine how easily tornadoes can rip across the plains. The audiobook kept me sane until we hit Boise, and there we camped for the night at a hotel and had Mexican for dinner. The best part of driving long hours is that we were wiped out by 9pm, and ready to hit the sack for the next early morning. I will forever prefer to rise early and drive than drive into the late night.
Hitting Boise meant that Thursday we could make it all the way into Ft. Lewis in only six hours. Six hours sounded so short at this point in the journey that I was giddy with excitement. Never again can anyone tease me for not being able to make long car trips after the end of these 30 something hours. The northern portion of Idaho wasn't much to write about, but Oregon was excedingly better. We cut the NE corner of the state before entering western Washington, going north and then cutting across the mountains to Seattle and Ft. Lewis. Here is something that I never knew before: the eastern portion of Washington is desert-like since all the rain is trapped by the mountains that bisect the state. So, the first few hours of the trip I was antsy and had little to look at until the mountains and the huge descent that precedes it in Oregon. Again, photo evidence can be found on facebook of the journey. The highlight of Thursday was talking to my friend Shelly who I haven't seen since high school in Texas. It is such a comfort to know in life that people who you knew and loved years ago are still the same lovable person. We obviously had a ton to catch up on, and the best irony of it is that we Army brats had both married boys we knew in high school, didn't date until college, and now are officers in the Army also. I am continually keeping my fingers crossed that my friends turned Army wives will someday get stationed at the same post. Life is too circular for it to not happen.
Thursday afternoon we rolled into Ft. Lewis and scrambled to get housing on post before the offices closed. We were then lucky enough to get the last one available for our rank on post. Talk about coming in the nick of time! Following the office for housing, we promptly ate dinner and fell asleep, and to be honest, it was probably 7 or 8pm, but we had made it! I am a living testament to God's grace covering you for anything. There is simply no way I could have ever done the 36 hours otherwise, and now we were at Ft. Lewis, the place we have been waiting for for over a year, and what feels like the official beginning of our adult life together.
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