And So the Adventure Begins

Trey Smith

If all goes as planned, at the time you're reading this, my wife and I (with both dogs in tow) should be somewhere between Longview and Vancouver headed toward 2 days in the Columbia Gorge. As so often happens in the Pacific Northwest, we are traveling during a period of high wind warnings. This alert caused us to change our route as we decided it would be better to get inland as quickly as possible -- the highest winds will be along the coast.

The first trip will center around two things: 1) Finding Della a place to live and 2) Setting up a bank account. We have appointments to look at house shares (people advertising for roommates) in 7 different locales: Stevenson, Carson, Lyle and White Salmon in Washington and Odell, Hood River and The Dalles in Oregon. Since Della will be living in an area where she knows no one and her dear husband -- yours truly -- won't be with her initially, we have decided that a house share arrangement would be best as it is both less expensive AND she won't be alone.

Mr. Organization -- that would be me (again) -- has this all worked out. I've printed out Google maps to all locations. I have created a grid of our itinerary which lists the address/town, contact person, phone number, rent price and a description of each home. All of this information will be housed in a loose leaf notebook with added space for notations.

We've put together a tight schedule, so there won't be a lot of time for sightseeing. I figure that, once Della arrives to begin her assignment, she can utilize her weekends to get a better feel for the area.