about us brian (country mouse) is from new hampshire. karel (city girl) is from the new york metro area. in summer 2008 they are driving across the US and moving to portland, oregon. here are their adventures, photos, and observations.
Currently Karel and I are "borrowing" wireless outside the coffee shop we have been so frequently visiting the last 3 days.
So it is done! I am internet. I bought my own domain today and will soon be able to post all my pictures on it. The name you ask? brianhinz.com
I am quite excited and Karel is of course thrilled to assist me in building the site since i'm a complete nothing in the subject of website making.
Today was more gathering and house organizing activities but we finally went and did something strictly for fun. We took Karel's new bike, that's right she has purchased a bike and she's so adorable on it with her pink helmet. I am excited for that and also my bike has been ridden in Oregon! YIP!!
We purchased some furniture the last couple of days for super cheap! First we obtained a coffee table of solid wood for $15 and 2 wood chairs for $4 each! BAM! what a deal from a local "Goodwill" store.
Second we purchased an even sweeter deal of a dining table from a Craigslist post. It's a solid cherry table that is in fantastic condition. It's still totally solid and just has some dings but nothing bad at all. And guess how much? $25. Yes, it's ok to feel shocked it's actual. I don't believe the girl knew what she was selling because the table is worth much more for what it is. YAY for us!
Tomorrow we are going to a blowout everything must go sale put on by a local school 8-12 am where we hope to get a desk and possibly something else.
As far as me and a job I have 2 companies that offered me a position and all I need to do is choose which one I want and tell them when I can start and I am in! I am leaning towards Rose Heating because I am more drawn to the type of work I would do with them compared to the other place, even though they offered me $1 more to start. It's possible I may be working as early as Monday but am still not sure right now.
The weather here has been very nice and we only got a short weak shower the other day. There are many bikers and a large variety of people types. Very different from little Keene,NH. No lack of food styles either and stores.
Karel brought me to IKEA and it's sweet. A very broad selection of mostly anything you could need to furnish your house. Nothing I've ever seen compares. Also they have incredible Swedish cinnamon buns (the entire store is Swedish design and such) for only $1. And also the Target here has an escalator because it's too big to fit on 1 floor.
Soon there will be pictures of the house. Why not now? Karel doesn't feel ok with the current messy condition so we'll get it done when it's neater. Don't worry, the paint scheme is worth waiting to see what it looks like.
In an attempt to keep you awake I shall end my jibber now and let you do whatever it is you were doing to make you bored enough to come here and read this. HA! Karel has a little something here for you and then that's it.
Hi there... just wanted to show you something kinda cool - these are fortunes that Brian and I have gotten out of fortune cookies lately that I thought were very relevant to our current situation and made me feel at ease:
Nice, right?
Okay, we must now leave our post in the coffee shop parking lot (heh) so we can go home and make delicious turkey burgers for dinner. YUM YUM aren't you jealous?
Today is the first day in over a week that we haven't been tied to a schedule, rushing through things like eating and going to the bathroom just to get back on the road. I had my interview at 9:00am and it went swimmingly - in fact, I was unofficially offered the position as soon as it ended! Seriously! I'll wait until it's official to disclose details, a little superstition there I suppose.
Since then, we've gone to the post office, found a discount grocery store (independently owned - Portland is all about that), and of course, visited our second home of the coffee shop with free wireless. On deck for this afternoon is lunch (I'm starving!! No groceries yet!), discount furniture hunting, groceries, unpacking the U-Haul trailer, and starting to tackle putting our things in the right places.
Brian has a smattering of job interviews/meetings lined up in the next week, so things are definitely falling into place - and we are actually going to have our first visitors next weekend! My longtime friend Lisa and her husband Derek are making a Northwestern US excursion (they're from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada) and stopping into town for a couple days. She and I met online when we were 16 and have been close friends ever since... and never met in person. So it'll definitely be a banner weekend for us both!
Well, we're off to get more things done. Brian called Comcast today and it looks like we won't have internet at our house for another week yet. So we will be frequenting our little coffee shop for a little while longer!
Miss you all and we love your heartfelt comments! For those of your non-Chinese readers, I will post translations soon! Haha. :)
Oh, I will now leave you with a lovely image sent to me by my friend Geddes the moment I sent everyone a text yesterday announcing that we had crossed the Oregon border:
We have arrived! We are tired and were hungry and need of internet so are now at a lovely little coffee shop that I actually discovered during our last visit here. Bellies full, we're off to IKEA, Target, and Safeway before crashing for the night. Did I mention that I have a job interview first thing tomorrow morning? Yeah.
More updates later in the week when we're more settled... promise!
July 27, 2008
Yellowstone Park, Craters of the Moon, and craziness
Again with the hello to all who read.
Lots happened the last 2 days and there is only a little to be shown here but not to worry!! I will be purchasing my own website after I post this and putting all my shots there to be seen. That way you're not left out of the awesomeness that we've captured on our picture boxes. I have added captions numbered in order from left to right and top to bottom (click pictures to enlarge):
1. We arrived in Yellowstone later than planned so it was already close to sunset when we entered but the Bison weren't shy. It seems they don't mind people at all. Look at how calm the creature is. I think Karel's more worried than the Bison is.
2. Luckily entering the park late didn't leave us with nothing. This sunset of a distant storm cloud reflecting the light spectrum was amazing.
3. The park had an incredible amount of geysers and geyser pools like this one here. We ended up passing many because of the time constraint and the fact that we already got a good look at a bunch.
4. Here is the most famous of all geysers, Brian the Great. Oh sorry I meant Old Faithful. It was neat but I was actually a bit sad because of it's advertised capabilities of 160 feet in height, it only gave us about a 50 foot blast this time.
5. We stumbled upon this unmarked greatness called Gibbon Falls. Unseen were the huge Ravens hovering looking for their next victim.
6. As seen on Discovery Channel here are mountain goats pointlessly climbing a very steep hill when they could just take the road. Silly Goats!
7. Elk! Elk! Holy cow there's an Elk!! And look at the size of those horns. Amazing they don't get them caught up in their sleeping bags at night.
8. This is the massive waterfall in the acclaimed "Grand Canyon of Yellowstone". It was certainly grand and canyon like.
9. Here is a good representation of the landscape at Craters of the Moon. It was created a long time ago by a large volcanic explosion and to this day still has lava flowing in parts.
10. This is Indian Tunnel. And here is us inside the underground cave structure standing on a rock pile. Very nice indeed.
11. This last one is of Snake River just south of our hotel in Idaho. No wonder Evel Knievel couldn't get across it. It's just too big.
Tomorrow is our last day of driving before we arrive at our final destination - Portland, Oregon!!! It will be most exciting.
Sorry for the recent dropoff in posts - true to our plans we did camp in Yellowstone last night, and then spent the day in the park until setting up camp for a second night at a KOA outside of the park in Montana. While there is internet here, it's getting dark and we need to start up the grill before we die of starvation. ;) I'm currently sitting in the truck with my laptop writing this to avoid the mosquitoes that inevitably flock to the lit screen. We don't have bug spray and after seeing the ridiculous $7.69 price tag on the bug spray at Yellowstone we decided to do without. I guess I'll just hide under my clothes and in the tent!
We have tons of pictures and stories to tell, but it will have to wait another day. Tomorrow is a short day of driving, and a brief stop at the Craters of the Moon Park in Idaho - so we'll have most of the evening to catch up, I hope.
Hope you're all doing well - and apologies to my friends and family, my phone has been pretty much out of commission between lack of battery power and service the past two days.
We'll be in Portland very soon and I can't wait to see our house in real life! Cross your fingers for me that it lives up to the pictures and more.
Pardon the brevity of this post, but today was so jam-packed with excitement in contrast with the first three days of our trip that we could hardly drag ourselves into our motel room. Motel? Yes that is right. Our camping plans were thwarted due to thunderstorms and pouring rain here in southwestern South Dakota.
I am going to have to summarize our day as such:
8:00am. We awake and leave Sioux Falls. During the first few hundred miles of our drive, we see countless billboards for a drugstore called 'Wall Drug.' Brian is convinced that it is fake and just a huge prank that the farmers of South Dakota collectively play on tourists. We fall for the bait and take pictures of every single one we can see. One day I'll make a collage of them but seeing as there are probably close to 100, I'll have to tease you with just one:
Later we follow the billboards to an enormous tourist strip that features the one and only, and 100% real, Wall Drug. It's real, folks. Who knew?
2:00pm. We reach the Badlands!! I buy Brian a strip of buffalo jerky and he tries at least three times to get me to try some but I refuse. Something about a gag reflex. Ack. Anyway... here's what we see:
4:30pm. It is pouring and hailing and yet the little pickup and U-Haul trailer that could makes it up to Mount Rushmore so we can each snap one photo...
6:00pm. RODEO TIME!! We make it to Deadwood, SD in time for the Days of '76 Twilight Rodeo. I am relieved to see other Asian faces in the crowd, although one of them is quite uncouth and spits on the wooden planks next to her bleacher seat. Oh well. It's a rodeo, what can I expect?
I'll tell you what I can expect...
11:55pm. I am tired and am going to bed. Tomorrow brings more driving and Yellowstone and hopefully, some camping for real. :)
Yes day 3 of the week long trip and we've seen enough fields of corn already.
After traveling for hours Karel needed a rest stop so I turned at the next exit which happened to be a hidden treasure cove of tourist craziness and it contained what is claimed to be Americas biggest adventure golf attraction, which may be true. There were 5 18 hole courses ranging in difficulty for a total of 90 holes if one wanted to do so.
Here is the sign for the mini-golf.
Once inside the pirate themed course we found this wonderful man made and pump driven waterfall that beckoned for a picture. So nice.
Here we see Brian staring down the solid barrel of a 4" death blaster and enjoying what may be contained inside.
After more corn field sweetness we were presented with a fantastic and beautiful sunset shining off an equally amazing cloud formation which happened to be the leading end of a thunderstorm in the distance.
So now we're going to sleep in the Super 8 after stuffing wings into our accepting mouths for stomach nourishment that was very needed. mmmmmmm buffalo :)
Goodnight and keep tuned for more and better events soon to happen.
Edit from Karel - just wanted to say thanks for all of your comments - it means so much that you're keeping up on our daily happenings! We'll be camping on our next night's stay so we may not have internet. Though these days, you never know...
Here we are on Day Three. We stayed at my friend Molly's place last night - she's moving next week, though, so has already cancelled her cable and internet, which meant that we were disconnected for the night! It was great to see Molly - we haven't seen each other since CTY summer of 2004. She and her boyfriend Dan were great hosts and we had some real Chicago pizza... yum. Then a little Princess Bride action and we were out for the count.
Yesterday's drive was far less eventful than Day One. Here is a representation of what we looked at all day:
Snore.
But we have our Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows audiobook to keep us entertained. The Battle at Hogwarts is on and Brian is on the edge of his seat to find out what happens next!!!!
We've just had breakfast at Panera Bread - specifically chosen for its free wireless as I had some business that needed to get done this morning, like blogging. Now Brian is telling me we have to leave, as we still need to find a bookstore so I can buy a Chinese-English dictionary for an interview I have in Portland next Tuesday morning. Ahh!
Hello friends, and welcome to our Portland blog. I'm writing this on the eve of our departure - the past few days have been full of good-byes and words of wisdom and very generous gifts and tokens of love from Brian's friends and family that have touched us considerably.
I've been a blogger for years, and felt that a great way for Brian and me to chronicle this journey is a blog that we have together - whether through writing or photos - to keep in touch with our friends and family on the east coast. Brian's not huge on writing, but I'm sure that he'll have plenty to report and will want to share things with you all from time to time! If not, I'll make him. :)
The U-Haul is parked in the driveway and all of our things are lined up in the garage - Brian has been working on loading it up for most of the day. We leave bright and early tomorrow morning, and the minutes from now until then are very bittersweet.
