Here is a quick pic of Josh in action. There will be many more of these to come in later posts ;)
Now, let me catch you up FROM THE BEGINNING of the season ending with our trip to modesto.
Josh drove from Arizona (spring training) to Los Angeles, picked me up, and we started driving north towards Tri-cities, WA. We had 3 whole days to get to Washington, so we decided to make the most of our time and make it an enjoyable road trip!
Our first stop was Sequoia National Park. We drove down the winding roads of the Giant Forest, hiked up Moro Rock, visited the General Sherman Tree, and drove through a fallen sequoia tree.
This is the Giant Forest...it was GRAND. It was also where a bug the size of a small dog dropped in through the sun roof and landed on the gear shift. I don't have an actual picture of this bug because I was too busy freaking out and jumping out of the car, but it looked something like this...
You can imagine now why I was freaking out. Anyways, now back to the Giant Forest....
Now, to give you an idea of their actual size, look at us compared to these trees!!
The General Sherman Tree is the largest living tree in the World (by volume)!! Here are some statistics:
Height: 275 ft
Diameter: 37.5 feet
Estimated trunk volume 52,508 Cubic feet
This is a BIG TREE...
Here is the Fallen Sequoia tree you could drive through!!
and here are some views from our hike up Moro Rock!
Sequoia National Park was absolutely gorgeous and no doubt worth the 3 hour detour!
The next morning, we decided to take the scenic route up the coast on HIGHWAY 1. This was the most beautiful drive we'd ever been on. Just look at the views!!!
Slider liked it too ;)
The drive was beautiful, but the roads were so winding that we had only gone about 60 miles in 3 hours. We still had 15 hours of driving left to do, so we decided to cut back over to the freeway and get going!
However, the views were still something to look at!
No, this isn't back in Sequoia, this is a different forest on the outskirts of where redwoods are abundant.
That night In Oregon, the roads got really remote. We saw an "ELK CROSSING" sign and laughed really hard about that....until we saw this:
Yep, EIGHT HUUUUGE Elk just hanging out on the side of the road. We must have done 10 U-Turns in the middle of the road looking at them. (Don't worry, it wasn't dangerous....we hadn't seen a car in over an hour. It was the middle of NOWHERE:)
We always would try to stop in smaller quaint towns that had some character (and cheap hotel rooms...we get reimbursed by the Rockies, but they don't pay for us to stay in 5 star hotels in the minor leagues lol)
There were so many cute small towns!
And when I say small, I mean small...
HAHAHA!! Notice the TWO "cars?!"
We had a bit of car trouble this day. So LUCKILY we came upon a 2 man fix it shop in the backwoods of oregon and pulled in. We sat on fold out chairs in a field, aka the "waiting room," borrowed the owner's jeep to run down to "Fred's Market" to get cash out of the ATM because they gave us a deal for paying cash money, ate some sub sandwiches, and 3 hours later we were fixed right up and on our way!
We then drove straight into Tri-cities Washington. For a grand total of about 1,282 miles. Pasco, WA is where the baseball field is located. Richland, WA is where we lived for our 5 week stay. Tri-Ciites is made up of Richland, Kennewick, and Pasco. It also has three rivers that flow through the cities as well -the Columbia, the Snake, and the Yakima.
Thanks to Jill for taking these pictures! (See "where it all began Part 1" to read about Jill)
Josh plays baseball 7 days a week, yes SEVEN! So, pretty much every day between 2:00 - 11:00 I fend for myself. That's when we are playing at home. The road trips last anywhere from 3-10 days, so I was worried about what I would do to stay busy! To stay busy and help pay the bills, I decided to get a job at a local bridal store!! I loved the job so much and was sad when I had to quit. It put the bug in me to start my own bridal store one day...I'll keep you updated on that ;)
Pasco is where we met two other married baseball couples. Jill and Emily were the other two wives in Pasco. I don't know what I would have done without these girls!!! We spent 90% of our time at their apartment, or as Jill calls it, their "Humble Abode." Jill wrote a great post on her blog about how you live and furnish an apartment when you live your life on the road. Their apartment was one of the most "homey" minor league living apartments I've seen in a while. To you it may seem bare, but to us it was PERFECT! This post is getting long, so I will quickly show you some of our time together...
We planned a 4th of July Birthday bash for Josh, Jill, and America's birthdays!
Jill and Aaron, Emily and Brad, me and Josh (I haven't talked much about Emily and Brad, but they are 2 of the most awesome people I know and I miss them SO much!)
Nothing helps the budget more than dollar store decorations!!
We had a mexican fiesta!
and I baked them a cake!
The dogs had fun too...I don't know if THEY would call it fun...
You can't have a 4th of July birthday celebration without Fireworks!!
We were having a contest, and Emily totally won...must be the fact the she is the most athletic girl I've ever met! She played soccer for Mississippi State ;)
The boys had fun too!
We couldn't resist the Sparklers...
Yes, we were having fun ;)
When the guys went on a 5 day road trip over a weekend, the 3 wives decided to stay home and enjoy what Pasco had to offer....
WINERIES!!!
The tri-cities is home to about 25 wineries. A couple of our favorites were Tagaris and Keyona Vinyards
It was a fun day of "Chic Food" and wine tastings
We stayed in the wine room at the Hedges Family Estate Winery for a long time, cooling off and taking fun pictures ;)
This is obviously what I want my wine cellar to look like... :)
It was such a fun day with the wives!!
Right after the wineries, I got word from Josh that the Rockies were MOVING him the very next day as soon as he got back from the road game! WOAHH!! Talk about quick changes! Jill and Emily left me no time to think and they were over at our house helping me pack. Within 2 hours we had all of Josh and I's belongings packed up, in the car and ready to go! I don't know what I would've done without their help and Emily's expert packing skills ;) Josh got home at 5:00 a.m, slept for 5 hours and we were on the road to Modesto by 11:00am!!
It was pretty sad leaving our new friends in Tri-Cities with less than 24 hours notice, but that's all apart of baseball, and you definitely get used to it! We always look to the future and hope we will be able to live in the same city as them in the years to come as we all try to "make it!"
We only had 1 day to get to California, so it was a pretty uneventful road trip but beautiful drive. We traveled 750 miles to get to Modesto and had 3 days to find a place to live! My dad Will had a family friend that was looking for a roomate in a wonderful ranch style 50's home in nearby Rippon, CA.
We are enjoying the small town of Rippon and I'm looking forward to telling you all about where we live now!
So, that's "Where it all Started!"
Next Post: "(Another) Home Sweet Home!"
