The second and last leg of our journey started at 6am leaving Brookings, Oregon heading for Portland. Moving in January meant that we had to alter our route due to weather, which meant we were kind of winging it as to how we were going to get from Highway 101 over to Portland. Some roads were closed, others were mountain passes covered in snow (I was driving my Explorer, but Matt was driving his Kia Forte). So we drove north on the 101 to Oregon Highway 38 to cut over to the 5 to get straight into Portland.
This picture is a bridge in North Bend, Oregon. I have to say, Highway 38 was another beautiful drive! Driving along the Umpqua River in the morning was serene, as we were driving through patches of fog on the forest highway. The most weather we saw our entire drive was just sub-freezing temperatures (which was a joy for me since the heater in my Explorer wasn’t working -_-).
As we got into Portland around 12pm, we noticed a lot of cars had snow on them (Portland had a pretty substantial snowfall earlier in the week), and then noticed patches of thick ice on the freeway. And when we got off at our exit to get to our apartment, we were driving on straight ice. Luckily our cars were weighed down with our belongings, and we made it the mile from the freeway to our apartment complex.
We got our keys and headed to the location of our specific unit, which was downhill. Along the way there were tons of cars stuck along the road, and plenty of people trying to leave but getting stuck going uphill on thick ice.
Our unit is completely adorable and quiet, a corner unit in a small building of about 10 units. And directly behind us is a beautiful wooded area, complete with tall trees covered in ivy and moss. So dreamy.
We unloaded all of our stuff, and decided to brave the snow and icy roads in my Explorer for some groceries and other necessities. That was about a four-hour ordeal, as my Explorer is not 4 wheel drive, and was no longer weighed down with our stuff. I had a hard time getting out of our driveway, and got stuck in the AutoZone parking lot while trying to get some tire chains (of course, they were sold out).
But besides the added stress of the icy roads, our move-in went well! 19 total hours of driving went seamlessly, and we were lucky that we made it safe and sound to our new place!
Words can’t describe how it feels for Matt and I to finally have our own place. We’ve been together for over 7 years, we’ve grown up together from immature 18 year olds to 25 year old members of society. We’ve been through so much of life together, and lived together the last two years at his house (it was closer to my work in Redondo, and my room at my parent’s went to my grandma after she had a stroke). But we finally had reached the next chapter of our life and the first part of building our life together. It was bittersweet that we were no longer surrounded by our wonderful family and friends. But this was our adventure together, and I am so lucky to have a wonderful partner to keep me balanced in what could be very stressful times.
