Car!
We have wheels!
Although Portland is a great city for biking around and has great public transport options, there are times when you just need a car. Whether it's for a shopping trip, a party in the far reaches of south-east PDX or – most importantly for me – for getting the heck out of of town on weekends. Up until now, we've got by with using Zip/Flex cars for shorter trips and hiring cars/hitching rides for those longer journeys, but these do require some degree of planning and aren't exactly spontaneous methods of transport.
So we started looking around at options for a car of our own. By the strangest of coincidences (or not), Christine's mom was looking to get herself a new car and was more than willing to cut us a good deal on her old Subaru Forester. We just had to come up with the cash in a lump sum, as she rightly said that monthly payments to her would put an unnecessary strain of family friendships. We had around half of the money already, so set out to obtain a loan for the other half.
To cut a long story short, it was an adventure in itself. We found out that while I am on my "interim" 2-year Green Card, I actually don't exist in terms of a credit rating. My rating is ZERO and will not move until I qualify for my full 10-year Green Card. This meant that Christine had to qualify for and take on the responsibility for the loan all by herself - my income could not be added to hers as proof of ability to repay the loan! In the end, we had to take a secured loan where the car itself stands as equity and the interest rate is somewhat horrific. The good news is that Christine will have an awesome credit rating when we finish paying the loan off!
Once the money was secured, we just had to get ourselves to Idaho Falls to pick up our new car. Plane fares the day after Thanksgiving are possibly the cheapest fares of the holiday season, and the planes themselves amongst the emptiest I have travelled on in the US. We spent a couple of happy, lazy days with Keener and Karen (gotta love having a beer in the hot tub out on the deck!) before taking possession of our new wheels and driving back to Portland.
I had made sure to get an Instructional Driving Permit from the DMV before we left, meaning that I can drive so long as a licensed driver is sitting next to me. It's kind of embarrassing to be treated like an "L" driver when I've driven for over 10 years in Australia without a single accident, but them's the rules! This meant we could share the driving on the way home, some 760 miles (1,200km) away. We took two days to drive home, taking the (slightly longer) scenic route rather than racing home along the (very dull) Interstate. Along the way, we stopped off at two of the most amazing places I have ever seen – Craters of the Moon National Monument in Idaho and the Painted Hills in Central Oregon.
Craters of the Moon is a giant lava field spreading across the Snake River plain, a huge black scar that suddenly appears as you drive along the highway. Within the park, giant cinder cones rise up above the twisted black lava, while underneath your feet lie huge lava tubes – caves left behind as rivers of lava cooled over, forming long tubes. We spent a long time exploring the park, going down into one of the lava tubes, Indian Tunnel. This tube is the only one you can explore without a helmet and a light source, as regular roof collapses have left many "skylights" along the tunnel's 800 foot length. The tube is over 50 feet wide and 30 feet high and is an amazing sight. One day, we will return properly equipped and explore the other tubes, some of which have permanent ice on the cave floor!
The Painted Hills – which we saw on the second day – are part of the John Day Fossil Beds, one of the most important sources of prehistoric mammalian fossils (and their entire ecosystem) in the world. The hills themselves are an ancient riverbed, with layer upon layer of different coloured alluvial soils – and their attendant fossils – now compressed into beautiful folded hills. Much like Uluru in Australia, the hills can change colour completely depending on the light and the forms created by light and shadow are nothing short of amazing.
We were treated with more spectacular sights as we reached the home stretch – the Cascades mountain range spread out before us, high volcanic peaks dotting the horizon from north to south, with Mount Jefferson (below) and Mount Hood being particularly view-worthy as sunset approached.
Finally, we reached home and began our new life with our own transport. Now we just have to get enough cash together to register the car in Oregon, and I have to get around to getting a real driver's license!
Posted in: chaosboy, idaho falls, oregon, photography, travel on December 15, 2008 at at 8:57:00 AM
