“On the road again. Just can’t wait to get on the road again…” My dad sings this song as we ease back into the car on long trips. My relatives, I’ve realized, are connoisseurs of the very long drive. Think Vermont to Chicago, Iowa and Denver; Cleveland to Florida, Maine and Memphis; Cincinnati to Colorado; and more.
When I decided to move to Portland, OR, the drive from Cincinnati loomed large. Could one human being contort herself into a stuffed-full car for that long? But my dad offered to join me, and an uncle waved away my concerns: five full days for just 35 hours?
The drive started out so-so. Indiana, Illinois and Iowa are not unlike Ohio. In Nebraska, grassy expanses begin to widen; the cattle multiply. In remote Wyoming, we imagined the occupants of desolate houses on graded dirt roads. Utah’s mountains tested our technical skills. The sleeper hit was Idaho, where beautiful Boise and cliffs above the Snake River stunned us. Curving around swathes of pine trees on the descent to Oregon’s Columbia River Gorge was an adrenaline-fueled final push as the state simmered in rare 100° heat.
Along the way, we took a few crazy turns as I jumped out of the car to snap sign shots on my iPhone. Enjoy!