Desert Living: one very long drive

Hello again :). There is not much do say about our road-trip other than it was very long, car-trouble filled, and that we probably took the most indirect (but gorgeous) route all the way from Portland, Oregon to Scottsdale, Arizona!

>The first day we left my dad's house at about four in the morning in North Plains, and fast tracked down I5 to highway 97 for a little detour to see my Aunt Gail, Uncle Fred, and Grandma Bobby in Klamath Falls! Even though we were only with them for one very short hour, it was so amazing to be able to see these three people who are incredibly special and precious to me (and who are obsessed with Paul)!! We had a little Southern Oregon welcome, courtesy of my Uncle Fred who is a true Southern Gent, and they had coffee and breakfast all ready for us! We got to fill them in on what we were actually moving for, and the route we were taking. I love you three so much and I'm so grateful to have you in my life!

>After that amazing pitstop, we hopped back in the car with Penny and got back on the road. We wandered through the northeast corner of California before entering into Nevada, and made it to Reno to spend the night. We had originally planned on driving further that day, but we [Paul] was sick of driving and we were both exhausted. Luckily my dad and GiGi, his girlfriend, were just a phone call away and found us a dog-friendly hotel in the heart of Reno in about two minutes. Thank you both, again, for doing that for us! We hunkered down for the night with one very happy pup and got a good nights sleep before hitting the road again in the morning.

>We got up and left Reno for the day around 6am, and started the longest day of driving. ever. There isn't much I can really say about Nevada except that it is very brown and much more hilly than we knew, and apparently is a bad-luck zone for car trouble! We had a few scares with my car because the Uhaul was way to heavy for it to pull, but fortunately they got sorted out before we were stranded for too long!

>We drove past Area 51 [which was verrrrry erie and awesome], tons of army bases, a lot of nothing, Vegas, and finally the Hoover Dam before crossing the border into Arizona around seven at night. Finally! We made it into Arizona! I think Paul and I both thought that once we made it into AZ we were home free, but we soon found out that Scottsdale is a lot further South than either of us knew. We rolled into town at around 2am, and decided to stay at my cousin Scot's instead of looking for a hotel that late at night.

>Early Early Early the next morning we drove over to our new house [finally!!!!], signed the lease, and were able to unpack the Uhaul in about 1/5 the time it took to pack it in the first place!