Start of Road Trip

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3rd August, 2022

The alarm had been set for 7am. We took the box with all our clothes to the post office when it opened at 8am. Friends had told us a courier would be cheaper but after the frustration of last night we just went with the US postal service. AND it turned out to be about $50 cheaper.

Back to the hotel for a big breakfast and then check out. Got a Lyft down to the car rental place and it was packed. The guys there seemed to be extremely young and not really sure of what they were doing. Eventually though, we were given the keys to the car, a Subaru Forrester. Pretty good car to drive. Thank god the pick up place was on the edge of the city so drove out of there at around 10:30ish and only had to make 2 turns and I was on the freeway going over the bridge and leaving Portland.

Driving on the wrong side of the road is a little disconcerting at first and we tended to sway out of our lane a bit but after about 1/2 hour each, we got used to it and were sitting on the speed limit with everyone else. We kept hitting the wipers instead of the indicators as they are on the opposite side of the steering wheel.

There is so many wind turbines along the freeway. They go for at least 100 miles.

Got lost once when we took a wrong turn out of Arlington. What a lovely little town. It has a great park on the river. Some of the river has been permanently roped off as a swimming pool for the locals who seem to use it quite a bit. That wrong turn cost us 12 miles before we could turn around and go in the right direction.

The landscape across Oregon is quite different. Closer to the coast is a lot greener and forestry. Travelling east it becomes extremely dry and flat.

We got caught up in road works about 1/2 hour before La Grande and it was a little scary being squished between two huge road train trucks but we survived. Arrived in La Grande at around 4pm, got a cheapy hotel and walked across the road to Safeway and got provisions for dinner. Salad rolls which we have both been craving.

Each had showers, played some Yahtzee and hit the hay.

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