Trail blazin'

We had planned on leaving Chicago on Thursday at 10am. We didn't actually leave until 3pm, which cut our first travel day in half.
We stopped an hour West of Omaha Nebraska on night one. Nothing special to report. Made it through Illinois and Iowa in one day and stayed in a nice hotel in Nebraska. Arlo got to ride in his first elevator (we stayed on the third floor). The room was nice and we were off to a good start.

Day two began in Nebraska and seemed to cover three or four days in Nebraska. I swear, Nebraska is the longest, most boring state in our nation. There is nothing in that state to keep anyone entertained. We did spot our first "Kum and Go" in Nebraska, so I guess that was something.
We finally got to Wyoming and found it to be one of the most beautiful states we visited. While it was still boring, it gave us much more to look at. Beautiful mountains, Wide open sky and hardly any corn fields. Thanks Wyoming.
I planned on getting into Utah Friday night, but we ended up staying about 40 miles outside of Utah in Evanston Wyoming at a pretty scummy hotel. It was pet friendly and Arlo hated it. As soon as we pulled into the hotel parking lot, Arlo began acting strange. We got our stuff into the room and Arlo looked and acted like a lame horse. His back was arched and he was dragging his head and drooling. He was in some sort of pain. We called an emergency vet and took him in.
We determined it had something to do with being in a car for 14 hours and not drinking a lot of water. He got a few pilled and his anal glands pressed (yikes) and we slept for almost 6 hours.
Saturday morning began our marathon drive from Evanston Wyoming to Portland Oregon. We stopped more often, but for less time - to give Arlo some good stretching/walking time. We ate at a Jack In The Box in Boise Idaho (it was terrible) and stacey and I discovered we both have a mutual appreciation for Taco Time... though we have yet to share a meal there.
It was another 14 hours in the car from Wyoming to Portland, but it was pretty enjoyable.
It started to rain as soon as we pulled into Portland and hasn't really stopped yet. It's not a hard, pouring rain... just a grey drizzle and from what I understand, it's unusual August weather for Portland.
I don't care. I'm just happy to be here. Time to get a good, interesting job.