the usual suspects

Man. Yesterday and today were a long process of getting all of Blair's stuff here. The bad news is, it poured down rain halfway through transport, so everything she had in the back of her dad's truck got drenched. The good news is, it's all over now. We're completely moved, we have all our furniture set up the way we want it, and now we just. Settle in.

I didn't have time to mess with this before, but! Since our journey was the longest road trip I've ever been on, I decided I wanted to play the license plate game, and see how many states I could spot! Blair didn't want to play, but ended up excitedly pointing out states I hadn't spotted yet. It was so cute.

The final tally!

Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Arizona, California, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming.

41/50 states! In one road trip. Not bad!

And bonus, Canadian provinces! Alberta, British Columbia, Quebec.

Been several days since I've updated, it's just been A Lot.

Seattle was fine, no tsunami. Which was great, because we had planned to take the ferry from the harbor to Bainbridge Island, which we did. We saw lots of jellyfish floating in the water, and a couple of seals, but the island itself didn't really have much going on save for the wild huckleberries growing everywhere on the little trails that Blair delighted in picking and eating.

We had an amazing lunch downtown and some coffee, explored the Pike Place Market and some cute shops and whatnot. Found the gum wall, which is kinda cool but also absolutely disgusting. The place we got our coffee from was right there, and sold gum for fifty cents for the express purpose of adding your own to the wall (which we did, of course).

After dinner, we headed out, with the aim of getting about halfway to my parent's place for the light, and found a great little remodeled motel that we honestly regretted only getting one night in.

Had breakfast in a local mom and pop place (literally called Mom and Pop's Diner) in an old train car, endured mild homophobia from some of the other patrons, then stopped for Crumbl cookies and headed to Clarkston. It was lots and lots of flat farm land for most of the trip, and we drove through a lightning storm to get there.

I was a little nervous about seeing my parents for the first time in six years, and of introducing Blair to them, but they adored her. I was overjoyed to see the dogs and they were overjoyed to see me. We spent time with their horse, feeding her and brushing her. They took us to dinner.

The next day, my mom took us to an adorable cafe for drinks and pastries to wait for my car to get a little maintenance at a local mechanic, then we all went up into the mountains to forage mushrooms and pick berries and look for animals. We saw a bunch of deer and a whole herd of elk. Watched a movie together that night, then had to leave early the next morning.

Insanely long drive through endless mountain range. It rained a lot too, sometimes pouring so bad that visibility was nil and we had to pull over and wait for it to let up so we could keep driving. It was a little harrowing, but we made it through Idaho and into Montana, where we had a quick lunch in Missoula (Hi Hank Green!) and ended up somewhere in Butte for the night.

Back on the road again first thing in the morning, onto Yellowstone! What a drive that was, once we got into the park. We saw geysers and beautiful spring pools that were thermal vents. We saw tons of bison, often shocking y close and a little too much so for comfort. We saw some deer, an elk, some ravens and groundhogs and chipmunks. No wolves, even though we were in the park after dark, but we did hear them howling and that was exciting for me. The views were truly spectacular.

Because the bison kept blocking the road and holding up traffic, we were in the park much later than planned. We had to brave hours of mountain roads in the dark, late at night, often jumpscared by deer or loose cattle in or on the side of the road. It was awful.

But we saw a shooting star, or maybe a meteor, over one of the mountain passes that was pretty incredible.

We finally found somewhere to stay for the night, long after midnight, and Taco Bell saved the day as it was the only place with food open, and we hadn't eaten in way, way too many hours.

Now it's the final day and we have like twelve hours of driving to do in order to reach Blair's parent's place tonight, because we didn't get as far as we had planned yesterday. It's going to be rough and it's going to be long but we have to get there tonight because we sign paperwork for the apartment and get our keys at 8:30 tomorrow morning, and after that Blair actually had to go to work, and I have to handle the movers.