After a series of muddled and anxiety-filled property transactions we left Chillicothe (A) Tuesday night on schedule right after the moving van. Our first few overnights (A, B, C, D) went according to plan but we tried to get as much weather info as possible being somewhat anxious about snow in mountain passes out west.
We started out from Cheyenne, Wyoming(E) Saturday morning wondering whether we would encounter difficult driving conditions on the way to Ogden, Utah. The weather reports had sounded like we would be spared. We had found it frustrating though trying to get good information about road conditions, in spite of internet searches.
Driving west from Cheyenne, steadily increasing elevation produced steadily worsening weather and road conditions. Finally Don realized that this "white knuckle" driving could go on all day and the thought of another 6 or 7 hours of it was too intimidating.
So we turned back to Cheyenne and went back to the hotel to take advantage of the internet service. In the lobby there we quickly revised the plan for the rest of the trip to Sequim (K). We were pretty sure the moving van would not get there before November 25 and our new plan would get us there by then so it was deemed acceptable.
The blue (X) markers on the map show the places on the original plan that were deleted. The yellow markers show the places we actually overnighted. We call it "our thousand mile detour".
Besides the snowy exit from Cheyenne, the only unpleasantness was driving through Oregon. We had constant rain that day. It's one thing to drive for an hour in rainy weather and another to drive 8 hours in the rain and spray of the semi's on high speed, curving mountain roads.
Oregon also has an irritating regulation that one's gas tank must be filled by an "expert", who then demands a gratuity. And we spent a solid three hours in stop-and-go driving on I5 through Portland. Avoid Portland.
Here is our destination. The salt water is the Strait of Juan de Fuca - just "the strait" to locals. We are about 50 miles northwest of Seattle. The next biggest city nearby is Victoria, B.C. One takes the ferry from Port Angeles to get there.
We arrived on Thanksgiving Day. We had our turkey on the Indian reservation (at the casino).
Our new property is pretty well defined by trees planted around the perimeter.
Our front entry.
The front entry from the inside. We are considering moving the cartons.
We like the view.
One of our many friendly neighbors.
Making us feel like we have made the right choice, one of our new neighbors greeted us with "Welcome to paradise."