Day One..

Well my friends, here I am at last!! I made a valiant effort last night to tell you all about our first daybut alas...it was not to be. Our hotels wi-fi did not cooperate with me.
Since I stopped working on Aug. 30, you may think "oh that lucky Jill. She is now a woman of leisure"-HA! I worked and worked up until the last week and thought I had it all down but on Sat. when it came time to go it became a last minute frenzy. The kids were over and Lynda came to help too. Ron and Bob were next to come assisst John in securing the rack to the top of the truck. In the end, I was throwing things in bags. I later realized the clothes out of the dryer I through in a bag somehow never made it...my favorite little white sweater was in there too!
Finally at 11:00 after lots of tears and hugs we waved goodbye and got on the freeway. That's when it really hit me- I won't see my kids for 9 months...Aisha's baby will be 9 months old before I meet her...Tyson will have finished first grade....a wave of sadness to my core swept over me. I reminded myself-e-mail, phone, visits.....right. I focused on what an exciting adventure we were embarking on and got out the atlas. John really was shooting for Winnemucca(?)Nevada as our first stop. We made it to The Dalles and turned off toward Maupin and Redmond. Winding around the back side of Mt. hood, I was again struck by what I was leaving behind. "I'm on the other side " I reminded myself. " I'm changing my focus, getting a different view. " So funny how much we resist change even if it's a move toward something extraordinary.
We rambled through Redmond, onto Bend and consulted the atlas on the likelihood of making it to Winnemucca. It was obvious we would not and decided to re-evaluate when we got to Burns. The road was straight and the scenery a bit hypnotic in it's dullness. The sun was beginning to set and my eyes were burning ( John was doing most of the driving). We gassed up in Burns and I was really ready to stop but John wanted to make it to the Nevada border so we headed off into the desert......and that's ALL that was out there besides jack rabbits and an incredible number of bugs. They were sort of small moth like creatures-swarms of them. Soon we noticed a light coming from behind the hill to our left "what is that? fire?" John asked. " I don't know....it's the moon!" we both realized at the same time. it was amazing- yellow, big and very bright. By now we were both really, really tired and realized we should have stopped but we had no other option at this point then to continue on. We turned on the radio to try to find some crazy talk shows and we did. Unfortunately we would lose them as they got juicy. The first was a call in show for lawyers to help advise people. The case was a gynocologist who had branded a womans name (Ingrid)into her uterus with a laser after he had removed it. He claimed it was a way of "tagging" it for the lab. The letters were an inch high....then the show faded out....we picked up another and came in as a man was discussing how there was an intruder in the bedroom where he and his wife were sleeping and he realized it was a six foot alian.....fade again......These stories kept us entertained for a while until there was nothing but static to be found. After gliding ahead like a ship on a blackened sea we began to see eyes glowing on the side of the road...then jack rabbits started shooting across the highway in front of us ( always left to right interestingly enough...). Talk about needing to keep your wits about you..and John was driving!!Just when you thought it couldn't get any scarier a cow appeared and shortly thereafter the flashing lights of police officers attempting to corral a marauding herd. A few minutes later there were finally the lights of a town of some sort.... Mcdermott!! Thank you jesus....we were there..Nevada. we checked into the lovely and fabulous Diamond A. The desk clerk appeared to be under the influence of....something.. and looked like Steve Buscemi playing the part of a Cuban gangster. At that point, I wouldn't have cared if Norman Bates was the desk clerk...just give me a bed (note: if you don't know who Norman Bates is, rent "Psycho"). So much for our first day.......all is well.

I will try to attach some photos to serve as visual aids but can't guarantee that will happen..