T-Minus 424 Days - Farewell to Portland

A year ago, give or take a day or two, John and I were headed home to Portland, OR from Grand Forks, ND. We’d made our way to the old college kicks to visit friends, meet their babies and cheer on the Sioux. We laughed about the things that had changed (babies for one), yet how much things had stayed the same (Red Pepper Grinders!) – we had no idea what the coming year would bring. Now, to sum it up, I’m lying in a Marriott hotel room in Hillsboro, OR a few miles from our home which we left bare this evening. My six week old baby girl is sleeping five feet away, John’s working beside me, suitcases are scattered throughout the room, and two completely packed cars are waiting outside for dawn, when we’ll take off on what is scheduled to be a six day drive to Del Rio, TX.

Where’s Del Rio? That’s a very good question. According to Google it’s 1,978 miles southeast of our current location on the Mexican border. Why Del Rio? Also a good question. The short answer is that in the past 12 months I’ve officially become an Air Force wife and mom, in addition to being a publicist addicted to work, and John is being sent to Del Rio for 13 months of pilot training. So, it’s off to Texas we go to figure out our newly acquired parenting gig, find out if good salsa gives babies colic, and to learn whether or not “y’all” is contagious…