Our Long Journey

Our route drawn on a map (with a set of activities behind it) that I printed off for each of the children

Mountain Home, ID
 
We were at a truck stop - look at all that trash 😢

Utah
 
Learning how to pump gas

Wyoming
 

Nebraska
 

Iowa
Chicago Whole Foods

Illinois
 
Celebrating C's birthday in a shady motel on the outskirts of Chicago (eeek!) Her birthday fell towards the end of our road trip. We actually arrived at our house in Pennsylvania the next day. We really pushed it that last day so I didn't have the chance to snap any pics in Ohio or Pennsylvania.

Indiana 

I know I wrote bit and shared photos over on Instagram about our trip but I thought I would share some here, too. As you can see by the route drawn on the kids' map - we landed in Pennsylvania! Close to both of our families and beautiful farms. I am still waiting on the deposit check from our Oregon place (was told it should come sometime in June) so I still can not share the whys or how we came to the decision to move all the way back across the country but it will all come in due time. I'm sorry for being so cryptic about it all.

Our trip was relatively smooth and I actually enjoyed it. I say that with surprise because I honestly do not like driving, it makes me so anxious and nervous being behind the wheel while carrying such precious cargo. However I had to drive the van the whole trip while Kevin and K were in a small U-Haul. We kept in touch from vehicle to vehicle via walkie-talkies. I think I only had two mild panic attacks during some bad weather (one, of course, being in the Blue Mountains of Oregon at night as the rain pounded down on us). I survived and conquered road trip driving but am happy to have Kevin back behind the wheel while I knit and tend to the kids.

There were quite a few sanity savers and budget helpers I found to get the children through the trip. I will do a separate post about them very soon since I know road trip season is coming up and some of these things might be helpful to all of you as well.

I can not wait to share details about the house and land we are on! We are just renting for the moment (as we needed something to live in before we moved out here) but there are beautiful farmhouses on lots of land and very reasonably priced all over this area.We will begin house hunting soon but for now we are recuperating from all our troubles in Oregon and enjoying our simple farm life that we had always dreamed about.

Our Long Journey