4,705 miles.

And we ended up right back at the same spot where we started.

Naturally, I am referring to the trip Joan and I just took to visit family and hang out in the beautiful Pacific Northwest. 

We drove out, spent the month of July in a cute and cozy Air BnB house in Forest Grove, Oregon, and then returned to Fort Collins, arriving home yesterday. In between, we took a series of day trips to Astoria, Oregon, Cannon Beach, Oregon (where one of three rocks named “Haystack Rock” is located), McMinville, Oregon, and to Everett, Washington to visit and pay homage to my 100-year-old, still-sharp-as-a-tack stepmom.

We try to get out to the PNW every summer to connect with my siblings and their families, but this trip was an experiment in several different ways. For starters, we traveled by car instead of airplane. Second, we have never dropped anchor in one place for an entire month like that. And finally, we decided to take the two Wonderful Wheaten Terriers, Rosie and Patrick, with us.

 Since we only arrived home yesterday afternoon, the jury is still out on whether the experiment was a success or not. Heck, there are still squashed bugs to clean off the front of the car. Deep pondering is not scheduled until Thursday. 

I am pleased to present, however, these 11 valuable lessons from this trip in case you and yours should ever contemplate anything similar in the future: 

1. “Vacation hold” for your mail at USPS.com is quick, easy, and convenient.
   
2. Plunk yourself down in a good “hub and spoke” destination. Our house was in Forest Grove, Oregon which turned out to be a GREAT spot from which to launch out into a whole bunch of interesting one-day (max, two) road trips to many other attractions.
   
3. Make sure you have easy laundry facility access. Fewer clothes to pack!
   
4. Plan to do a lot of your own cooking. In case you haven’t tried it lately, eating out is quite PRICEY!!
   
5. Audio books are a MUST. Even if you and your traveling companion never seem to run out of things to talk about. (HINT: you will). 
   
6. Close to family, but not TOO close, was a great idea for us. We had frequent dinners and game nights together, but also didn’t feel the same need to be together 24/7 as we might on a shorter trip.
   
7. A month is long time to trust even the most trustworthy friend/neighbor to look after your house (water the plants, mow the lawn, collect your Amazon deliveries, etc.). Things might possibly go awry (like, for example, your plant watering person might leave the hose on for a couple of days, and you don’t find out until your city Water Department sends you an email asking about your abnormally high water use. As a total hypothetical for instance.)
   
8. Taking animals along is a bit of a crap shoot. If you have not already figured out that they like to/can travel for long stretches in a car, you might be in for a LONG trip indeed.
   
9. Spread the driving out over several leisurely days. Don’t try cram it all into the fewest road days possible. You want to stop and stretch and potty-break people AND animals regularly. It is also great when one of you can jump up and down, point out the window, and say, “Hey! Wouldja look at THAT? The WORLD’S LARGEST BALL OF TWINE, next exit!!” and spontaneously pull over and take a gander.
   
10. Recognize and accommodate different travel styles of your car mates. I, for example, love to call out the different license plates and the cool cars as we pass by on the interstate. Joan, on the other hand, could care less. I am convinced the dogs are with me on this one.
    
11. But most of all GET OUT THERE! Recognize that God’s plan for the world is to surround us with a rich DIVERSITY of sight and sound as a way of reminding us of both God’s creative majesty and of our smallness in its midst. 
    

Abundant blessings;