I left Portland, Oregon on the day after Thanksgiving (November 29th, 2002). I got up around 7:30 am and started to load up my car. My sister helped out some as well. I said goodbye to my Sister and Laura and hit the road around 10:00 am.
I got on 205 North and then got on 84 East. That took me past Multimnoma Falls and through the Columbia River Gorge.
Then I went past Deadmans Pass. I drove 741 and a half miles that day and stopped around 10:30 Mountain Time. That night I stayed at Best Western in Ogden, Utah. They had a hot tub there so I was able to soak a bit after the long drive and relax before retiring for the night.
The next day I hit the road around 8:00 am Mountain Time. I drove 690 miles that day and stopped around 7:30 pm Central Time. That night I stopped at North Platte, Nebraska and stayed at Days Inn. They had a swimming pool and hot tub there. So I made good use of them before heading off to bed.
The next morning I got an early start and hit the road at 3:50 am Central Time. That day I drove 836 miles and stopped around 8:00 pm Easter Standard Time. The traffic was very heavy near Chicago and I was in stand still traffic for a good hour or so. That night I stopped in Elkhart, Indiana and stayed at an Econo Lodge. I made sure they had a TV with A/V inputs so I could relax and play some Final Fantasy that evening. Also with the snow they were predicting I wanted to have something to do the next day if I was going to be stuck there. However the next morning was just overcast, but not snowing.
That day I drove 700 miles (That's right, exactly 700 miles) and stopped at my mom's house in Rockdale, NY (30 miles North of Binghamton) around 7:00 pm. It was snowing hard enough, and the roads were bad enough that I figured it would be easier to just drive the rest of the way to Ballston Spa in the morning when it would be a clear and sunny day.
I arrived in Ballston Spa around 9:30 am. I have unloaded most of the stuff in my car and have it stacked in a corner of Gwen's apartment. My apartment will be available for me to move into on December 15th. So until then I will stay with Gwen. My new apartment will be in the same building on the 2nd floor. So it won't be too hard to move my stuff down to my apartment. I won't even need to walk outside of the building to do it.
I will start work on Monday December 9th. Several people have asked me if me getting my job back here means that Gwen will loose her job since she was my replacement. The answer is no, they just added another position so no one is leaving in order for me to be able to go back to work there.
Also people have asked about the furniture I left with Gwen here in NY when I moved to Oregon. I will just gradually move my furniture down to my apartment as Gwen is able to get replacements for it.
The trip back across the country went very well. I did not encounter any rain or snow at all until I got to about 30 miles south of Binghamton, NY. The snow did not start sticking to the road until I got to Binghamton.
It cost $151.33 in gas and tolls to drive across the country.
It cost $155.32 for the three nights I stayed in motels.
It cost $51.92 for food on the trip.
So the grand total is: $358.57 to drive across the country.