First days on the road!

We've continued to refer to our adventure as the "ski odyssey" yet so far it's missing the "ski" portion! We sort of left last Thursday night. That is if you count the fact that once we had the jeep in tow mode we discovered that the turning and brake signals weren't working. The place that installed it all is in the wrong direction but we decided since the trip was just beginning it was best to go to the source. So we (seriously!) spent the night at the Walmart at I-5 and 164th in Lynnwood! For those of you new to our blog we found it funny how many people told us about how you can stay in Walmart parking lots for free. Not exactly being experienced Walmart shoppers, the irony of that was such that on our first outing back in Oct. we made a point of staying there our first night out. Since then, when we've been in "transit mode" we've made "Walmart West" our new home port. OK back to the part of finally getting on the road. We we're on the doorstep of Glen's Welding as they opened Friday morning and three hours later we were on the road with all systems "go" and headed in the direction of skiing.

Or so we thought...that was before monsoon season hit all areas of the NW. The plan for a Friday night clinic group at Mt. Hood Meadows changed to wine tasting then dinner at Brian's Pourhouse in Hood River. One thing you've gotta love about your ski friends is they're great fun on or off the slopes!

Again, since this post is the first one that lots of friends outside of the NW are reading for the first time...Hood River is an cool little town on the Columbia River and is a world class wind surfing/kite boarding destination. It's also half hour from Mt. Hood which is open almost year round for skiing.

We'd met John May at a summer ski clinic at Hood in '08 and he is now a BFF and was our weekend host.  Although the rain continued it's onslaught we had a great time shopping (ok that would have been Laurie shopping....thanks Holly Tencer!)), eating, talking, drinking, and laughing.

Turns out not ALL Walmarts let you stay in their lots and Hood River was one of them and all the campgrounds were either closed for the winter or full. Fortunately, the good folks at "Naked Winery" heard of our plight and offered a parking spot for the weekend.

On Sunday we hit the road again with the aim to get as close to Sun Valley as possible. The good news of the rain is that the sometimes treacherous passes through the Blue Mtns were just plain wet. We even got some clearing as this pic outside of Pendleton illustrates:

We got as far as Boise (yes of course we're in the Walmart lot) and with Starbucks across the street have a great wifi connection that allowed us both great coffee and a chance to finally put up this post. Next stop Sun Valley!