Spiders, spiders everywhere

The process of settling in is a slow one, involving an evolving understanding of what the space will allow and the limitations of our belongings to conform to those allowances. Matthew and I decided before the move to sell off most of our furniture, requiring us to find new furniture that better fits our style and needs. Right now that means we're sleeping on our futon (which eventually will land downstairs in the den) and keeping our folded clothes on top of wire racks in the closets. I'm hoping that some dilligent craigslisting, garage sale'ing and thrift shopping will allow us to outfit the new place on the cheap, but that starts to sound like a full-time job (which I need, but I think my talents probably extend beyond being my own personal shopper).

The biggest surprise of the move is that our house has some pretty stupid problems. The house was built very well in 1946 from what looks like old-growth cedar, and most of the upstairs has been lovingly maintained. The basement, however, was finished somewhat recently and evinces a lower budget than the job really required. There are holes directly to the outside ground level in a couple of places, and tons of shoddy work putting in sheet rock on the ceilings, creating a bunch of gaps into dark hidey-holes. The completely foreseeable result is a bit of a bug problem (though so far no rodents, thanks no doubt to the previous tenants owning 2 cats--which has caused endless allergy problems for Jessica).

Mostly we're seeing spiders. Tons of them. Everywhere. The former tenants (who now live across the street) set off bug bombs before we moved in, which I suspect killed off most of the smaller insects. Now the remaining spiders are the larger ones, some of which seem to have nervous system problems from the poison, and all of which are hungry and/or horny and consequently are on the move. Poor Matthew (who is arachnophobic due to a horrific childhood experience) nearly faints about a dozen times a day as big, meaty spiders run towards him or fall on his head. Yesterday we caught what may or may not be a hobo spider in the laundry room.

So in addition to unpacking boxes finding furniture, we now have a ton of holes to plug around the house. Hopefully before Matthew suffers a heart attack.

Day 8 - Butte, MT to Black Diamond, WA

The first hour or so of our drive through Montana was in the wildfire area. The landscape was choked with smoke that irritated our eyes and lungs when we stopped for gas. As we neared Idaho, the smoke cleared and we were again treated to some iconic Rocky Mountain vistas.

It wouldn't be a cross country trip without some sort of vehicular mishap. Ours was fortunately mild and entertaining. We had pulled off the freeway in Idaho to relieve ourselves in the bushes. Matthew and Jon were trying to turn the truck around by pulling into a driveway and backing out when the metal steps and hitch on the back of the truck got stuck on the road. They couldn't go forward or reverse. We started gathering large rocks to wedge in front of the tires when the local zinc miners came around to help. They got their fork lift in under the bumper and lifted the truck while Jon hit the gas and we were freed.

As we drove across the border into Washington, Jon got on the walkie-talkie yelled "Welcome to Washington!!!!" while Matthew shouted "Wooooooo Hoooooo!!!!" in the background. The next thing we heard over the walkie-talkies was:

"What the hell was that?..... Was that you Ed?"
"No, that wasn't me"
"Must be some trucker or something"
"Man, that was wierd...."

Then I got on and said "Crackwhore" which was our version of "Roger that"

"Alright Ed, I'm gonna switch to channel 17..."

Probably the biggest surprise of the trip for me was Eastern Washington State. When I think of Washington, I see green pine trees and mountainside lakes, but the eastern part of the state is essentially a desert. The Cascade Mountains block most of the moisture coming in from the ocean. As wet as Seattle can get, east of the mountains is even dryer. Flat, dry, hot, and lifeless with not even a cactus to look at. The three hours from Spokane to the Cascades were the most grueling part of the trip.

The part of the Cascades we drove through was gorgeous and to me, more difficult to navigate in the truck. The arid heat didn't help things either and most of the semis had to turn off their AC to keep from overheating. As we progressed through the Cascades, the landscape got progressively greener and more fit for, well, more fit for everything except maybe filming Westerns. We arrived in Black Diamond around sunset and were warmly greeted by Jon's family who had beer and grilled meat at the ready. After 3000 miles of mostly eating road food, it was heaven. We slept greedily in our un-hotel like comfortable beds with no pressing start time in the morning. Tomorrow we only have a 45 minute drive before finally reaching our new home.

Day 8 - Butte, MT to Black Diamond, WA