The past few days have seen us go from a two story house in Phoenix, AZ to a one story (much smaller) house in Salem, OR. The process of un-boxing has commenced and the place is starting to look a little more like home.

Observations:

Love the neighborhood and the back yard, especially. We live right on a small creek (Glenn Creek to be precise) so walking around in the back yard is kind of like being in the deep woods. We have some big trees, some uneven elevation to make the yard a little more interesting, and of course, the creek which makes a great little ambient noise throughout the day and night.

Love the floor plan of the house. It is more in the 70′s style, but we have a nice kitchen and open view of what we call ‘the green room’ which may end up being our office. It has a fire place which is cool and a perfect place to hang a flat screen television, but its a little small to put our full couch which is why the green room may become an office instead.

The room (red room) which could be a candidate for our living room has a nice big window looking into the yard, with a comfortable window seat. It has more room for the couch, but might be a lesser entertainment room due to the fact the window lets in so much light.

Our bedroom is on the small side, along with both bathrooms. We may end up just splitting these and each of us taking a bathroom (which truth be told is just fine for me!)

Some of the negatives? The oven is really small. I’d be surprised if it could even fit a small turkey, but it is new and modern which is nice I guess. The kitchen floor seems to be at a slight slope so our fridge looks like it is leaning. The cabinets are spacious but they are old. The water pressure to the sink in the kitchen is almost non existent. Finally, our bedroom is painted pink

For my wife Kelly! We finally rented our place in Phoenix. It took about a month and a half, and she worked her ass off but finally we found some tenants we were comfortable enough to leave our place with while we pack up the truck and move to Oregon.

Obviously, i am super excited about the move. For one, I missed my wife and over the past month and a half have felt more like a vacationer up here in Salem than an actual resident. Then there are my dogs. With the passing of my cat, its been pretty lonely. You never really know how much pets enhance your life until you lose one, or are separated from them. I have often wondered if they would miss me, or forget who I was. I guess i’ll find out next Friday when I see them. Really, i can’t wait to just let them maul me when i walk into the door.

It is going to be a little strange seeing my house totally empty. When i left it, it was full of our crap!

Get to grab the keys to the new place tomorrow evening, and that should be cool. We’ll have electricity, gas, water and all the utilities minus internet there. Maybe i should get that set up now? Still have my work furnished apartment for another 2 weeks so there isn’t a huge hurry.

Once Kelly gets here and we start to explore Oregon I am going to make this site (or some other site, i haven’t decided) more visual with pics and stuff.

I am sure I got a automated traffic camera ticket on my way out of Phoenix. I literally got one a week living in Phoenix, it is ridiculous. I just remember being blinded by a flash in the wee hours of the morning as I left town – sure it wasn’t God trying to tell me something.

The drive to Palm Desert/Palm Springs wasn’t nearly as boring as it had been in past trips. I think this is mostly because it was done entirely in the dark. But, sunrise over the Coachella Valley sure was nice.

Rain from the mega storm hovering over California first hit me past Palm Desert, near the wind farms. That was pretty much the last time I saw blue skies until I reached Oregon.

LA wasn’t nearly as impressive (from a skyline perspective) as I thought it would be. In fact, the downtown area was downright puny. Stopped in Burbank to visit with my friend Gary.

Rolled into Westley, California sometime around 6pm on Friday. It was dark, I was tired and hungry, and had a cat who had peed on herself in her crate so it was time to call it a day. After washing her blanket I turned in.

Alarm was set for 5am, but i woke up instead to my cat bitchin at me. We got on the road and started the long drive to Redding, which I never thought i’d get to.

Somewhere around Willows I get framed for a ticket (yeah, I said it) by California Highway Patrol. I must be the only person in this WORLD who has gotten a speeding ticket from “behind” a cop. I followed this guy 5-10 car lengths for at least 30 miles. He slowed down and switched lanes after coming up on a semi, waited for me to go ahead, then immediately pulled me over. It was the most ridiculous thing I have ever witnessed.

Finally made it to Redding and got my snow chains. The weather looked bad there (very gloomy, rainy, icy). Fortunately, I didn’t need the chains and the mountain drive through Mount Shasta National Park took a few hours. Once I made it out I was in Oregon.

Beautiful drive through Southern Oregon made me realize how blessed I was to get this job and have this opportunity to move here. Arrived in Salem around 4pm in the afternoon on Saturday and got about half of my stuff moved in.

Now, time to get some sleep!