More photos

After spending hours at the asian market, Molly found all the ingredients for pad thai. It's not an easy dish to cook at home. Molly has mastered it.



The cutest dog on earth



The dress I wore for our Red Dress Rugby Match. It was a fundraiser for Red Dress PDX, a non-profit that raises money for AIDS/HIV. Yes I wore this in a game. Not pretty.

Photos

Taryn, Mol and Petra when we snowshoed at Mt Baker, WA.



Hiking in the Gorge



Mt on the drive to San Fran

Yes we are still alive

Hey there. Every time I get on here I feel like I'm apologizing for not posting more often. Well here is another "I'm sorry". I had sort of decided not to do the blog anymore because we were so far behind. Then when I was back east visiting, a few people said they still would love to read it. That was about 6 weeks ago. Soooo I'm finally getting around to it.

I realize words are less fun than photos, but just to catch everyone up, here is a quick list of things that has happened in the last couple months:

1. I started (and I'm nearly finished with) a pre-apprenticeship class for women in the trades. The class is intended to get women interested in and prepared for a career in any trade, including carpentry, electrical, road construction, sheet metal, hvac, plumbing etc. Women only make up 3% of the work force nationally in the trades. To make a long story short, women tend to work more jobs with lower pay, while men tend to work jobs with higher wages. Waitress pay vs $35/hour as a carpenter for example. In the class we learned math (again ugh), basic skills and the trades culture. We built gates, sheds, picnic tables, hand rails and a few other things. I'm mostly interested in carpentry but I'm also looking into weatherization. I'm not sure where this will lead, but hopefully the next couple weeks will narrow my life focus. Wishful thinking, I know.

2. Molly and I joined a rugby team. Yes full-contact, full-tackle rugby. We are part of the ORSU club. There are two men's teams and one women's team. We practice twice a week and compete on Saturday's. We traveled to San Francisco and Seattle recently to play. We beat the rival Portland team last weekend and we play another team out of Washington this weekend. Next weekend we travel to Missoula to take part in Maggotfest. Google it if you wish but we warned....we have been told it will be the greatest weekend of our lives. And we were told this by rugby players. I'm a little scared. You may be thinking "wow I thought Meg played field hockey, that's not like rugby". And you may also be thinking "I've seen Molly play soccer (or any other sport) and rugby is definitely the sport she should have been playing all along". Yes yes yes. Molly is amazing. Despite only playing one year of rugby in high school and one semester in college, she is by far the best rookie on our team. The rest of us look at her in awe. Rugby is a confusing game, maybe worse than field hockey. It goes against pretty much everything I've ever learned in sports. You can only pass backwards. You can stiff-arm people in the face. You can step on people with cleats. You cannot stop playing to see if your bleeding teammate is ok. You hate the other team while you're playing, then drink with them after the game. Confusing. I've never been so bruised (both physically and emotionally) but I think I'm hooked.

3. We moved in to our own apartment. Sandie and Donald were great hosts while we stayed with them. We got our own place about a month ago and it's been great. Great location and cheap rent. Everyone needs to come visit us!

So that's a quick update. I'll go through my phone and post some random pics soon.

Finally!!!!

We are house-sitting/dog-sitting up in the NW hills. We woke up this morning and it was snowing! It snowed for a couple of hours and we have a couple inches. We were supposed to do some yard work today. Not sure how well raking will go with the snow.


Chase misses all the snow in VT :(



Pacha in his jacket!

Seattle

We took a trip to Seattle this past weekend to see our good friend Taryn. We got there in time to see Taryn finish her 3v3 Ultimate Frisbee tournament. Then we went out to a vegan Thai restaurant (yum!), watched one of Taryn's housemates play some jazz at a little bar, then headed out for a couple drinks.

Sunday morning we had brunch with all her housemates, huevos rancheros (below). It was the best breakfast I've had in a long time.




Then we went for a short hike that overlooked the ocean. Seattle is pretty amazing. It's a lot like Portland only bigger and it's on the ocean. Gorgeous.

Sometimes we do stuff like this

Skateboarding with Chase. Only one near wipeout.





Molly, Chase and Pacha overlooking Portland from the Pittock Mansion. Mt Hood is in the background somewhere. And the sun is out!

WFR

WFR - Pronounced "woofer" is the acronym for Wilderness First Responder. If you're an outdoorsy person you may have heard of this certification. It's common and sometimes mandatory for people employed as guides, outdoor instructors etc to have their WFR cert. I have been putting off the class for about 5 years now with my excuses being that it's an expensive course and that I didn't have time to take it. The courses are offered all over the country (and world) at different places such as a college, outdoor center or NOLS (National Outdoor Leadership School) headquarters. Being unemployed, I do have a lot of free time these days, although it's not as much as you would think. Anyway, for Christmas I asked my family to help chip in for the cost of the course. Now that I'm living in a city, the class is offered more often and I can still sleep at home instead of in a dingy cabin with the additional cost of housing that is sometimes built in to the course cost.

So I took the class. It was offered across town at a place called TrackersPDX. We spent 10 days learning what to do in medical emergencies (or potential emergencies). We covered everything: wounds, fractures, dislocations, respiratory problems, neurological problems, heat problems, cold problems, drowning, CPR, lightning strikes, shock, cardiac arrest, splinters, sunburn and other issues that I can't think of right now. There were 30 of us in the class and we spent a lot of time in the classroom and a lot of time acting out scenarios. We switched off acting as the patient and as the rescuers. I can't give away all the secrets but as a patient I acted out asthma attacks, grand mal seizures (pouring my water bottle on my crotch before hand to portray my incontinence), unresponsiveness and having an amputated thumb. I will say that my acting skills are peaking.

After 9 days of class we had a day of testing, both written and a practical session. I passed but I think it was one of the most challenging tests I've ever taken. Being in charge of people in medical emergencies is stressful. I'll leave it at that.

Been a while

Hey so I know it's been a while since we posted last. I don't even know if people are reading this anymore. But I figured I would update it just in case.

We are adjusting pretty well to Portland. Mol and I are both still job searching (along with most people in Portland) but we have kept busy helping Donald with his gardening business. We have worked a few days with him and it's been fun learning how to do some landscaping stuff.

Some of you might be waiting for me to comment on the weather here. As everyone knows, it rains a lot in Portland, especially in the winter. As you can imagine this isn't easy to get used to. Molly has never been affected by the rain and I never understood it until now. Apparently no one in Portland is affected by rain. Everyone just carries on with whatever they are doing. I mean it rains nearly every day. Sometimes multiple times a day and sometimes it's just raining pretty hard all day. I do enjoy everything being so green, but seriously? I have only seen the sun 3 times since we moved here. We had two days this past week without rain and it was amazing. Today was nice and the next few days should be nice too. We'll see.

I'm taking a Wilderness First Responder (WFR) course for the next week or so. It's a medical course where you learn how to deal with emergencies in the wilderness. Should be interesting and helpful for job opportunities and the safety of ourselves and friends when we play in the woods. It's 8-12 hours a day for 10 days so I haven't had a good chance to take the course until now (yay unemployment). My brain is mush after one day. But I did get to use a stethoscope today.

Mol is taking a coaching certification course next weekend. So we are both doing our best to spruce up our resumes. We'll see how much it helps!

Skillz

There seems to be some question as to how Goldberg and I beat Gina and Mol in snow soccer last week. Please watch this video to see my dominating skills as a GK. Keep in mind this is Gina (pro soccer player) taking a PK from about 7 yards away and me fearlessly shutting her down.

Breckenridge

We headed to Breckenridge on the 4th. We rented a cabin outside of town and spent a few days relaxing in the mountains. Some of us are experienced skiers/snowboarders and a few of us aren't. I am in the inexperienced group. I was pretty nervous to board in Breck. I mean it's the Rockies. Plus Molly is pretty much a pro. Learning how to ski or snowboard as an adult is dumb for several reasons A) Adults don't bounce or bend like kids B) Hopefully the survival-instinct section of your brain is more developed, so moving at a high rate of speed down very slippery, steep terrain littered with trees, shouldn't seem like something smart to do C) I hate doing things I'm not good at.


Anyway, I sucked it up and went for a couple hours on the 5th. Molly and Goldberg had gone all day so by the time I got there in the afternoon, they had no problem staying on the easy trails with me. The 7 of us all went on the 6th....for the whole day. The combination of a couple stops at the bar and the lack of any major falls, made it a successful day on the slopes. We were sore but made it home in one piece.

Top of the slopes

Dani and Kaleen (beautiful!)

Mol and I on the lift. Notice the sick purple goggles that I borrowed from Molly's mom.



Note - Skiing all day at 9600 feet, then sitting in a hot tub and sipping one glass of wine = drunk for 10 minutes then instant hangover :(

New Year's

Early in the Fall we decided that we would spend New Year's in Colorado with Daniela. We got a good deal on flights to Denver and tried to get all of Molly's housemates from college to fly out and meet us. But we know that Colorado is a long way from the east coast so it ended up being Dani, Molly, Goldberg, Gina and I. We flew in on Thursday and braved some snowy roads to get to Boulder. The 5 of us stayed in Dani's tiny apartment that was featured in a recently posted video of us getting Chase into the loft. Yesterday Dani had to work some so she left the rest of us to play in the snow. We bundled up and headed to the park for some snow soccer. Molly's choice of teammate was Gina (yeah she plays pro soccer in Germany). So Goldberg and I had to put the two soccer players in their place by beating them at their own game. We then rescued Dani from the lab and went home to eat some salad rolls. We had dinner in town and then hung out a bar for a bit before coming back to Dani's apartment for a small dance party to welcome in the new year. Dani dropped Gina at the bus just before 7am for her flight home so she can get back to Germany in a couple days. Our plans now are to hang out in Boulder for a few more days before meeting a few other friends in Breckenridge. More updates to come.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Christmas Days

So I've decided to continue writing on the blog. I know it's called "TruckyGoesWest" but we can pretend it is now called "TruckyIsWest". I think it's an easy way for some of you to stay updated on our lives out here. And for anyone who doesn't feel like reading anymore, no hard feelings.

Here are some updates on the past few days. We went to see the Radio City Christmas Show on the 24th. The Rockettes were featured in the show (they are the women who stand in a line and do the high kicks among other things). The show was really good. It was kind of catering towards children as it had a storyline but the dancing was really good.


On Christmas morning we got up and I opened the presents that were sent out by my family (Thank you!) and Chase got one of his presents from Sandie as shown below:



We then visited a couple of Molly's friend's from childhood. Bob is the dachshund that is shown below and belongs to Johnny's family right now. I've been hoping to steal him since the day I met him 3 years ago.




Andrew (Mol's brother) and his gf flew in yesterday morning so we celebrated Xmas last night with them and a couple family friends. Lee and Burdean (Molly's aunt and uncle) came over and Sandie cooked steak, crab and scalloped potatoes. We did a book exchange and enjoyed each others' company.

As always Chase was a bit spoiled for the holiday. He got several new toys that quickly broke in by thrashing around the house and killing the squeaky spots immediately. He also got a new bed. We found it at a neat little pet store nearby. It is made by a nonprofit group employing at risk youth. It's constructed of recycled materials. Saving the planet.

The Rockettes

Walking in to this

PORTLAND!

We made it.

We got in around 5pm last night. We unloaded the truck and took Chase to the park before dinner. Sandie made delicious veggie enchiladas. Then Donald made a fire and we sat in the living room relaxing. We are happy to have finally reached our destination. Thanks so much to everyone that helped us pack, gave us care packages and music, and let us stay with them or just fed us. We will be in Portland through the 30th before we fly to Denver for New Year's. Merry Xmas!

The Final Day

We woke up and headed straight for the beach. We wanted to run Chase before we got on the road for our final 7 hours of driving. It was freezing and windy but we tried to be tough as our feet ached just standing on the sand. Molly's first attempt at throwing the frisbee was one of the funniest things I've ever seen. With Chase jumping around like a crazy man, she threw the frisbee as hard as she could into the wind. The toss was pretty high and it strong winds, that usually means the frisbee will land miles from where you thought it would. The 3 of us watched the wind catch frisbee and heave it into the waves. Chase ran into the water and was pummeled by a couple waves. Concerned that we might lose yet another $17 frisbee, Molly kicked off her shoes, tore off her sweatpants (don't worry she had shorts) and sprinted into the water. She saved the day. Frisbee was recovered. Back in our cabin, Molly soaked her feet in warm water for a few minutes before we packed up and left.

We decided to continue driving up the coast for most of the day before cutting inland to hit the highway. The weather wasn't as good as on Wednesday but it was still beautiful. We had read a review of a little seafood restaurant in Yachats and stopped there for lunch. Mol had fish and chips and I had scallops and chips. Yum.

We then decided to hit the highway as we were anxious to get to Portland.


The Rogue River meeting the Pacific in Gold Beach



Lunch



"I don't care anymore just let me out of the truck"

Avenue of the Giants and Southern Oregon

We spent Tuesday night in a small town outside of The Avenue of the Giants, the "giants" being the redwood trees. Wednesday morning we got up, ate some delicious hotel breakfast, and drove about 30 miles on winding roads through these amazing trees. I've never seen anything like them. Not only are the really big around, but they are soooooo tall.












We continued up the Northern California coast and stopped to have lunch in a cute little surf town called Trinidad. We took Chase down to the beach to run some energy out of him before heading north. Driving along the coast was really incredible. The roads weren't all that friendly to my stomach but the views were worth it. Following the advice of the cashier at the liquor store (we had to stock up as hard alcohol is much cheaper in Cali), we stopped at a little beach near Brookings to watch the sunset. We crossed into Oregon shortly there after and retired for the night in Gold Beach. We rented a small, "rustic cabin" thinking that would be more fun than getting a cheap hotel room. It was indeed rustic but had everything we needed. Heat was the only issue as it took about 4 hours for the cabin to be warm enough to want to spend time in. Molly was craving Mexican food so we walked down the main strip to find some dinner. Both the Mexican places were closed so we decided on pizza instead.

This commercial was on in the pizza restaurant. Don't worry guys, the Shake Weight now comes in a men's version. WOW.

San Francisco

We spent Monday night in San Francisco (Greenbrae to be exact) with a college friend and her family (including cute dogs as shown below). She lives on a giant hill outside the city. Seriously I've never been on roads so steep. The last 1/2 mile or so up to her house was crazy. The truck never made it out of 1st gear. Oh and the emergency brake doesn't work in Trucky. So we packed some old fire wood under the tires to act as chocks and prayed Trucky wouldn't fly off a cliff in the middle of the night. Tuesday morning we headed back into the city to explore. We walked around on Hayes St and then went over to the Castro for lunch. Molly had read reviews on a place called Ike's. They supposedly make the best sandwiches in the city and they have die-hard fans who will wait up to 3 hours for a sandwich. We figured on a Tuesday around 11:30 that it shouldn't be too busy. So Molly waited in a short line to order. Just the ordering took about 25 minutes. Chase and I kept walking around the same block (please... I'm not a city girl) and finally met back up with her. She said it would be 20 more minutes for the sandwich to be ready. We walked around some more then headed back. The sandwich wasn't ready. We waited and waited. It probably took about 45 minutes for the sandwich to come out. I was pretty annoyed by then and began ranting that no sandwich is worth waiting that long. Turns out it was pretty good. It had grilled eggplant, avacado, french dressing and brie all crammed into a huge roll of sorts. Here are a few photos from the day.

Calli




Bella




Golden Gate Bridge from lookout




Why don't all restaurants do this?




Hard to see, but that's a PBR can adorning the top of the Xmas tree in the Timbuk2 store.

Monterey Bay Aquarium

After leaving Pismo Beach we headed North on 101 and in Salinas headed West to Monterey Bay.  Meg had never been to an aquarium before and when I asked her what she was excited to see she responded, "polar bears".  To her dismay there were no polar bears to be seen at the aquarium but we did see tons of other cool stuff.  There was a special sea horse exhibit, and as always the sea otters are a highlight.

That's a sea horse, no joke.

Sunshine through the Rain

So on Saturday night at Molly's father's house, we were watching the weather on the nightly news. "It's going to be the worse storm to hit California in 10 years. Travel will be difficult if not impossible for the next several days" said the weather person. Most of the time we've spent in Cali has been rainy, but not all of it. We are learning to appreciate even the slightest bit of sunshine. Apparently we are training for living in Portland. So on Sunday we left San Diego to drive north. We stopped in LA to have brunch with Molly's brother Andrew and his girlfriend Sara Jane. We then continued on to see Sam in Ventura. And then we headed to Pismo Beach to stay with Mol's aunt and uncle. Monday morning we got up early and drove to Monterey to see the Aquarium. Here are some photos and a description of the best road trip food ever.






Bag of Heaven (or whatever Sam called it) consisting of Life cereal, M&Ms, almonds, Cheerios, and white chocolate. Mmmmm




In and Out Burger. Wow. Our neighbor in VT, Josh, is also a vegetarian, and he's from Cali. So he gave me specific directions on what to order at In and Out Burger. When you walk in, there is a menu on the wall that consists of just a few options - hamburger, cheese burger, fries, soda, shake. BUT they have a secret menu. Here's what to do - Grilled Cheese, animal style, extra everything, add raw onions. It was a good day to be a Veggie!

Location:Central California

Boo

Our apologies for being horrible blog-keepers. We've been pretty busy for the past couple days and haven't had good Internet service. Sooo we just got into San Fran and we will update soon!

Location:San Fran

Victory

Trucky couldn't be happier. 4 new tires and now a new radiator and thermostat. With the knowhow of Jon and the enthusiasm of Molly, the radiator installation went relatively smoothly. After a few broken bolts (thanks salty VT roads) and a couple trips to Napa, the new radiator is in and working!




Old radiator. If yours looks like this, do not drive across the country. Actually don't even drive across town.




Mol getting dirty




Meg pouring in the new coolant




Chase looking concerned




What a radiator should look like




Filthy