Road Trip to Mississippi: Day One

Day One: Portland, OR to Nampa, ID (basically Boise)

Moving Day dawned grey and drizzly (gee, what a surprise). We said good-bye to our friend Yak (aka Kyle) and headed out. I didn't cry too much, most of the tears were because I was worried about Lenny being cold and I don't want him to die, so we made a side trip to Fred Meyer to pick up some hand warmers for him. (On the cold days in the car, I'm putting a hand warmer in one of Matt's socks and keeping that in Lenny's carrier. It's not ideal, but it's better than nothing). We also picked up some Starbucks, which we were going to do anyway, so I guess walking into the Fred Meyer wasn't so much out of the way ;) And on we went.

The drive out on 1-84 through the Columbia Gorge is GORGEOUS. I didn't even do anything except look out the window. Once you get to The Dalles, though, it starts to get boring. And let's not even mention how expensive gas is out there. The Jeep is doing pretty good on gas mileage, though, at about 22 mpg. With an 18 gallon gas tank, we needed to fill up twice.

Matt has been complaining about the lack of classic rock stations. He finally had to settle for a country station. I'm not complaining too much ;) I am kicking myself in the pants that I did not pack my Bird Guide. I've been seeing a lot of birds, hawks especially, that I wish I could look at. However, I have found someway to entertain myself, since I'm not really good at reading with the radio on. Red-winged Blackbirds (RWBL) are one of my favorite birds, I love their song/call and they're just plain cool looking. I'm also really good at picking out possible RWBL habitat. They love cattails (that's where the females make their nests) and a few medium sized trees surrounding the cattails and water source where they can mark their territories and call out to the females. From The Dalles all the way to Nampa I was trying to see how many RWBL I could find in the habitats that I thought RWBL would like. As it turned out, I was usually able to find one. I know this is not what most of you would find really fun, but it was something to do.

Nampa isn't all that interesting, but they have a Best Buy, Target, Kohl's, a World Market (YAY!), and a Costco, so I guess that makes them somewhat classy ;) Kind of glad we're just staying here the night, I'm not so impressed. Especially since the Target only carried Boise State stuff and no Idaho stuff. BOOOOOOOOO! At least my car has a UI sticker.

Tomorrow's travels: Nampa, ID to Murray, UT (suburb of Salt Lake City)