Driving South

After arriving in Seattle, we were very happy to note that the van started- yay!
But not so happy to note that it needed nearly 900$ of repairs, according to the place we took it to for an oil change- boo!

We called around a few places, and found someplace that could replace a cv boot for much cheaper, so after an evening camped out in a residential neighborhood, and 200$ for a couple of cv boots, we were out of there, out of the constant rain, and gloom that we had flown into. Unfortunately to go south, you had to go up. And when you go up, rain becomes snow. We ended up in a complete white out, and stopped about 20 miles out of Seattle.

At Least it was pretty in the morning

Driving through the snow during the day was a lot easier than at night. Although we did have a close call at Snoqualmie pass, where we decided to try to get gas- at a ski resort. What we didn't realize was as soon as we got of the exit the roads were covered in ice. The vanagon doesn't like ice. Especially when you have to go up hill and turn at the same time- we started sliding sideways, the car in the other lane kept getting closer- Luckily Mike was able to stop us in time, but we were now in the middle of the road, sideways. Some nice friendly snow plow guy, put some dirt under our tires and sent us on our way.

Snoqualmie Pass

One of the negatives of leaving the van in wet and rainy Washington for so long, was that everything was wet and rainy, so everything molded.

Our poor pop-top roof - on the inside

The next days were spent doing a lot of driving. We did a little bit of riding in Kennewick Washington, but it really wasn't very fun- wet and kind of boring. Somewhere along the way, to be honest right now I can't even remember the state, we passed over this great gorge, that was only like 50 feet wide. It was neat cause you didn't see it coming at all.

Big Gorge

Finally when we got into Utah, after Washington, Oregon, and Idaho, it started to warm up a bit.

Driving through Salt Lake City, no wonder they had the Olympics there, look at all those mountains

We decided if the weather was going to cooperate we might as well do a little climbing. We stopped in a little town called Helper UT. Although we were slightly fearful for our lives, some strange looking folks live in Helper, the climbing was pretty good.

and the scenery was fantastic

Next up- adventures in Moab...

Living in the Arctic

Mike and I spent Christmas up in Dubuque.

Merry Christmas

While we were there we figured we might as well tackle a couple of remodeling projects. First came the hallway

Before- we got a little anxious and started pulling wallpaper before we took the picture

After

Along with remodeling, we figured if we are in the Arctic, we might as well entertain ourselves with an Arctic sport.

So we picked up hockey. Mike was much better at it than I, but we had a really good time. Even in the 6 degree weather. We convinced Nyssa to come out and play with us a couple times

Unfortunately this is how it usually ended up

Not that I fared much better, if you notice the amount of snow that I'm wearing

Attempt 1: As part of playing hockey we decided we needed to master the hockey stop- notice Nyssa's jump

Attempt 2: Only slightly more successful, my mom joined in on this one

The final remodeling project was the music room

Before

After

We've decided to get back out on the road- the van was feeling lonely, so we flew out to Seattle on Feb 24th- details of the continuing adventure coming soon...

Working in St. Louis

We decided to make ourselves useful during our stay so we got to work. Emilie applied at several different places in the neighborhood and scored 2 jobs: Highway 66 Roadhouse & Kitchen and Mcdonalds. While I did some work around my parents house finishing 3 rooms: The garage, the downstairs hallway, and last but not least my room.
Only picture I could find before I started clearing the garage out. Hard to even walk in there. Before I cleared, washed, tuckpointed and finally painted.


Clearing out the hallway closet was scary.

Notice the beautiful tile floor.

Almost ready to get started.

Theres hardwood floor under there somewhere.

Ahhh done.

Nice and clean

Beautiful eh.

My room after patching all the cracks.

Before.

After

My new office.

Notice the new fan.

Yay all done.

Made that old floor nice and shiny.

Getting back into the working world was more difficult than I thought it would be. McDonalds and Roadhouse were the only places that would take me. I didn't want to go anywhere too serious since it was only going to be a month. Seeing how I never had worked in food service before it was a real eye opening experience. I never realized what a stressful place McDonalds is. That's one of the first things I learned, mainly because my manager was reminding me every chance she had.

And working at a restaurant really wasn't too bad. I certainly learned a lot more about alcoholic beverages, I had no idea there were that many kinds of...well everything. I also found out the key to a good tip night is working a buffet. If you happen to be in St. Louis I would recommend the pan fried chicken, and please tip kindly.

Climbing all over the place

While we were in Arkansas we figured we might as well take advantage of the good weather and do some climbing we went back to Jamestown crag, and rappelled down to give Mary some more practice.

All the way down there?

ummmmm....

Graceful as a pig in a blanket

Return of crouching Mary

Sun was setting, and we were climbing away

We ended up staying a little late, it was strange to climb at night, and even stranger to belay from the top.

The next day we came back and brought Baxter with us, we also met two very friendly walking sticks

Baxter keeping an eye on things

Mary way up there

Then we decided that we should go climb in southern Illinois at Jackson Falls, Mary and Baxter came along for some of it.

Baxter the super climbing dog

Mary showing her confidence and mad skills, doing her first lead climb!

No big deal for Mary

Another night climb, this time with lights- the weather was perfect, and it was so much fun.

Alright enough play time, it was time to start another project...