The Journey

This is a bridge we crossed on highway 24 coming into Buena Vista

The journey from Portland, OR to Buena Vista, CO was over 1,000 miles long, took approximately 27 hours, and spanned across four states. At almost the last minute I decided to rent a U-Haul trailer and enlisted the reinforcement of my dad to help me make the tremendous trek. You might be saying to yourself, “Pulling a trailer loaded with stuff with a four cylinder SUV through multiple mountain ranges in the heart of winter doesn't sound very fun or smart.” And you would be right. But we did it and it wasn't near as bad as it could have been.

On the first day, I picked my dad up at the Portland airport around noon after packing my car and trailer with a great friend who spent many hours helping plan out the trip. After some lunch we hit the road. Things were going smoothly until we hit the first of many mountain passes and winter weather. As the sun gave way to the night, we found ourselves going no more than 30 miles an hour up and down snowy roads through the mountains of Oregon. We finally got to La Grande, the town we were staying in for the night, with a huge sigh of relief. In the safety of the hotel room, I laid down on the bed, looking forward to a good night’s sleep, only to be disturbed by the women in the room next to us who was complaining to a relative about how her sister did not steal a photograph of her parents twenty years ago. On the road the next day we passed through Idaho with ease only to be greeted into Utah with snow and ice. What should have taken 9 hours took over 10 and we finally pulled into our second hotel room on the north side of Salt Lake City. When we woke the next morning snow was falling and covering the streets. This final day was by far the most treacherous. We drove through snow coming out of Salt Lake and then it was clear. Then we hit heavy snow and ice going through a mountain pass on the northern side of Colorado and then it was sunny and clear again. When we got to Glenwood Springs, a little over half way, we hit more snow and ice. We continued to have clear weather after Glenwood until we started making our way down to Buena Vista on a small road. It was getting dark at this point and the wind was blowing snow across the road so hard that there were moments when we could barely see the hood of the car, let alone the road. Once out of Leadville we were smooth sailing into Buena Vista which was a good thing because one gets very tired after driving 12 and a half hours.

The trip was rough and long but the time spent with my dad was great. While it was not fun driving through the winter weather, the Lord seemed to make things work. The beauty of this place is captivating. I am surrounded by mountains, I wake up to the sun shining rather than rain falling, and I can see a night sky full of stars once again. It was awesome to hear my dad talk about the stars he saw when he was up a Frontier Ranch one night. He said it was unlike anything he had ever seen before. And that is what I think this next chapter in life will be for me, unlike anything I have ever seen or known before. E.

(I have posted some new pictures of the road trip and my new home in Buena Vista. To access them, go to my blog at elizabethreeser.blogspot.com and click on the link on the right hand side that says Buena Vista).