Coeur D'Alene, Idaho.

Driving was easier than I'd expected. I'm towing a big-ass cargo trailer with a non-big-ass engine, so I worried about getting over the pass, but nope, it did fine.

God I'm tired. The last three days have been some of the most exhausting of my life. And I don't even own a lot of crap! I think the organizing and cleaning were worse than the packing--I took more stuff to Goodwill or the dump than I put in the trailer--so hopefully moving into the new place won't be quite as painful. (Also the new place does not have roommates to stick me with their messes that I only discover at 9 AM on the day I'm supposed to leave. Argh.)

I drove through a lot of climates today The western part of Washington looks like Washington, the central part looks like Arizona, and out east it's Kansas. Trees, desert, plains.

The guinea pigs are all right. They're not happy getting stuffed in a little carrier and subjected to horrible noises and bumping around, but they're eating and drinking and acting like guinea pigs. I think they're mostly just annoyed at me.

I made about 320 miles today. Which really isn't that much, but I got a late start and I'm dog-tired because I did about three hours of heavy lifting this morning. With eight hours' sleep, an early morning, and less painful muscles I oughta start doing 600 or so if the roads are good. I'm getting about 22 MPG which isn't TOO terrible considering the trailer.

It's both freeing and frightening to be pulling around literally everything I own. I have a route planned, but shit, I could go anywhere! If I don't mind losing a little money on the apartment I could take a turn somewhere and go make my new life in Kentucky instead and nothing would stop me.

This hotel room is really nice. Like REALLY nice, like I'm almost embarrassed that little ol' me is shmancying it up in a place far too rich for her blood. It still costs less than a shithole flophouse in SeaTac. Gotta love the boonies in off-season. (I am shmancying it up, because I could've stayed in a shithole flophouse here for like nothing, but I'm tired dammit and I can spare an extra $20 to be comfortable. I'll flop tomorrow, I swear.)

Man, America is beautiful. Well, that's not fair, the world is beautiful. The vast majority of it at least. (SeaTac not so much.) I drove past snowy mountains and rolling hills and endless fields today and they were all gorgeous. It's a cliche, but the skies really are big out here--clouds look so different when you can see every part of them. It's almost frightening to a forest dweller because every kind of weather looks kinda like those photos you see of giant thunderstorms out on the plains.

I wonder why there are so many horses out in the country. It seemed like I saw nearly equal numbers of cows and horses, even though cows make milk and meat and leather and horses make... horse poop. Well, and rides of course, but I've always thought of horse riding as a relatively uncommon luxury, one that would account for a few stables per town, not giant herds of horses all over. Are there a lot more horse-riders than I thought, or are there not that many horses and I'm just crazy, or what?

This hotel room has a free teapot with good tea! Truly this is the land of milk, honey, hope, and glory. I'm gonna take a bath and drink tea in the bath.