From The Ocean, To The Mountains, To The Desert
With the turning of the season, we find ourselves in our own transition. Amity’s contract in Anacortes has come to an end. It is time now for us to pack our things up and head out to the next spot; Buckeye, Arizona! First, we have some holiday celebrating and some much needed catching up with family and friends in Whitefish, Montana. Good thing is we learned from an old Travel PT friend, Amy Zurcher, that no matter where your next contract is, Whitefish is always on the way! Time to put the coast line in the rearview and head inland for a winter of sunshine and cacti!
Mile: 27,601
Quote of the Blog: “The desert tells a different story ever time you adventure out into it.” - Robert Edison Fulton Jr.
Song of the Blog: “Ocean Front Property” - George Strait
We have become really good at packing and moving. So much that in our first two contact locations, we have had to move during that contract. That was the case in Anacortes. A couple weeks ago our rental agreement ended at our first spot, so we had to find a new place and move into it. We found a nice basement apartment in a woman’s house. Overall it was very nice apartment with everything we could ask for. Though, we will always remember it for the spiders, the wood floor in the shower and the musky basement smell. Oh…. And we never actually had a doorknob, just a deadbolt with some plywood covering where a doorknob would be. Hahahaha! The things you find along the journey. The best part about this move was the fact that we had to pack a couple weeks ago for a quick move, so most of our things were already packed up. This made our final move out very easy. PRO TIP FOR MOVING: Vacuum Packing Clothing Bags! Reduces so much space!
After saying goodbye to the muffin shop and Island Hospital, it was time for us to push out down the road. It is surreal to think that we hit the coast mid-August, and we are now leaving. We are so happy we got this opportunity. We feel like we didn’t leave many stones unturned. Amity had to work the day we left, so our initial goal was to get as far as we could and find a hotel for the night. We ended up making it an extra hour and a half further than we initially planned, and got past Spokane. This left us with a short drive in the morning to Whitefish. Driving into Flathead Lake was extra special this time. It has always felt like the drive is over once you get there, and everything after that is a commute to Whitefish.
We stayed at our friend’s, Amy & Craig & Wally & Marley, at their house. We had a game plan to hang out with family during the day, and then establish communal places at night for our friends to come hang out and catch up. This made it much easier to see all of family and friends, without getting ourselves too stretched thin. We were only there for four days, and Thanksgiving was one of those days. Whitefish is always a beautiful place! We enjoy every moment we have there. Some of the highlights were bowling with Brady, Evie, Cadence and Tori, getting to see our favorite local musician, John Dunnigan, hiking in the snow dusted mountains, catching up with friends & burning skis at a pray for snow party and Amity got to do a 5k with half of Whitefish. Another rad highlight was going to a golf simulator with the entire sibling group and the kiddos. Got to get that swing ready for the next few months in AZ!
Just like that, we are on the road and pushing southbound towards Buckeye, Arizona. We spent the majority of our first driving day watching football, so we didn’t make it that far. Still, we made it further than we had planned to. We stopped the night in Dillon, Montana. It was super cold! We have not been in the cold often in the Pacific Northwest. Anacortes is truly a banana belt, so 15 degrees is quite brisk for us! The next day we had planned to make our biggest drive day of the journey. We needed to go 776 miles to Page, Arizona. This ended up taking us just under 12 hours.
Along the drive there were many beautiful things to see. Coming into the north end of Utah, the way the Wasatch Mountains jet up from nothing looks like a volcano coming up. The further south you get the more the topography starts to become more red rock and rough. I had found a route on the map that would take us across Southern Utah and into Northern Arizona. I had thought that it would take us around the southern border of Zion National Park. Whoops… it took us STRAIGHT THROUGH!! Good thing is that we had our All Parks National Park Pass, so we ended up scoring an amazing route through some of the craziest landscapes I have ever seen! I now understand why everyone has told me that I will want to spend weeks down there. There is so much to be seen. The moment you hop over a ridge line, everything can look completely different.
We were able to pull into Page, AZ for the night at a reasonable time in the evening. This allowed us to get some dinner at a local Mexican spot called, El Tapatio Restaurant. Everything was really good, and we are stoked to be getting quality/authentic Mexican food for the next few months! Just outside of Page is the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area. This canyon is just north of the Grand Canyon on the Colorado River. It is still equally as dramatic, and plays host to the famous Horseshoe Bend. We woke up bright and early to take a little bit to do the short hike down to the overlook. This was an amazing activity! We were able to stand as close to the edge as we wanted. Amity was a lot less ambitious than I was. She would write that sentence much differently. She would say something like, “Billy was being stupid and getting to close to the edge, while I was playing it safe and still getting great views!” Hahaha! We had a blast and can check that one off our list of places to go! First day in Arizona, and we are already crushing it!
Back into the car and off for the final push of our journey across the country. We had another 290 miles to go. It is amazing to see how diverse the climate is across Arizona. Up north in Page it is all red rock desert with some small trees. Then you get into the San Francisco Volcano Field and Flagstaff where you go way up in elevation (Flagstaff sits above 7000’ above sea level). This area is composed of over 600 volcanic features. As you move south of Flagstaff and drop in elevation, you start to get back into the red rock desert, but now you start to see the infamous Saguaro Cacti growing along the hill sides. By this point you blink your eyes and you are pulling into the northern suburbs of Phoenix. Buckeye, AZ is a suburb of Phoenix. It is on the far west end of the city along Interstate 10. We didn’t even come close to actual Phoenix on our drive into Buckeye. We were able to skirt the city along some great interstates and pull into our neighborhood, called Blue Horizons. Buckeye is a rural area of the greater Phoenix Valley. There is a lot of space and agriculture that is happening out here. We took some time to find out where Amity’s clinic is and get ourself situated.
As good as we are at packing, we can unpack even better. It takes a day or two for us to get everything out and situated into our new rental. We are very pleased with our new spot. We have a nice backyard, that even has its own pool! Never had my own pool before! I foresee some cannon balls in my future. What a crazy trip! Glad we got to spend some time with family and friends in Whitefish, and blown away with the things we have seen along the way down here. We are very excited to see where we will end up over the next couple months in Arizona!