Go West Young Man

It has been a month since I started the big move from Chicago to Bellingham, WA. Thankfully I had a lot of help that made it go pretty smoothly. Jon, Chris, and Erica helped me pack the truck and clean up the apartment. Then we met up with Jenn and Robert at Giordano’s for a farewell pizza dinner. The next day Jon and I hit the road and met up with my parents and their friend Laurie outside of Chicago. From there we started our four-day, three-vehicle trek across the country.

Mom and her friend Laurie had a lot of fun together. One of the funnier stories of the trip involved me explaining the term “duckface” and how silly it looks. Later they showed me a picture they’d taken of themselves, with duckface of course. Unfortunately I do not have a copy of the photo to share. :]

A will-be-funny-someday story happened at Wall Drug. Wall Drug is a large, kitschy drug store/tourist attraction in South Dakota boasting an 80-foot dinosaur sculpture, among other things. Amanda had requested a group photo of us. The jackalope sculpture that's large enough to ride seemed like a great option (see below). Then Jon spotted a small version of Mount Rushmore and wanted his photo taken in front of it. I saw a sign that read “no running” and — smartass that I am — started to run. My phone was in my hoodie pocket and got bumped out as I ran. It landed flat and shattered the screen badly. It turned on, but would not recognize touch at all. OK, the irony was rather funny, even at the time. Obey signs when they tell you not to run, kids.

We stayed at Hampton Inns on the way out because my parents have had consistently good experiences there and they have a full, hot breakfast (the most important part of any hotel stay). They also had indoor, salt water pool and hot tub, which was very nice after each day of driving. I’m sold.

Other trip highlights include the Pandora station I made based on Wreckx-n-Effect's song “Rump Shaker” and the '90s hip-hop that resulted. I was also able to get together briefly with Sweeney in Missoula. It’s always fun to see Internet people in real life.

We arrived in Bellingham the evening of the fourth day. Jon and I were tired so I did not think we would unload more than a few things that night, but once we started unloading, Jon entered beast mode. I think we knocked it out in an hour and a half, thanks to him.

My parents and Laurie were only staying in Bellingham two nights, so the next day we went sightseeing. We took a scenic trip down Chuckanut Drive through Larrabee State Park and then to Deception Pass. I think they had been a bit traumatized by the Seattle traffic experience the previous day (it really is awful), but this was a relaxing day and a much better picture of the Pacific Northwest. We said our farewells that night since they were leaving early the next morning for Oregon and their drive back east.

Suddenly the long move was over and I’m living in Bellingham. It has been an interesting adjustment, but I am liking it here. It is weird being 2–3 hours behind most of my friends. Here are some photos of the new place.

P.S. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sj42Xh0Zaak