This is part 3 of  the our story about moving out west to find our dreams. Finding instead, no work and a lot of debt. Click here to start from the beginning.

Yes, we had made it. We were here and we didn't have jobs. As we unpacked, we also did enormous amounts of freelance. Cathy had work from her previous employer and I had work from a brand new client (also back east). Days were filled with getting up at 8am, leisurely drinking coffee and chatting with each other then working at the computers (back to back). Nights were filled with fabulous dinners that Cathy had time to make and TV. It was wonderful to find that, despite being with each other 24 hours a day in a 970 square foot apartment, we absolutely loved the time together!

It was Springtime in Oregon. Some rain here and there, but mostly cool sunshine. Coming from hot and humid North Carolina, it was a welcome change. Personally, I couldn't get over it- I thought there was perpetual rain in the Northwest. It certainly did when I lived in Seattle.

In between doing freelance, sending out resumes and talking to headhunters, we took some time to explore the area in the form of hiking and sightseeing. The awesome about hiking, it's fun and free! and, oh boy, did we hike! I the two years we were there we must've treked 200 miles! We hiked in spots along the Columbia River Gorge, we hiked two lava fields, we hiked in the coastal range and Mount Hood.We hiked and hiked and absolutely loved it!

Once a week, we took the Max (the local light-rail) downtown to Portland. We didn't have money, but we could afford a couple of coffees and baked goods form the Pearl Bakery. We could squeak in a meal at Mother's Bistro. The weekly trips to downtown were our splurge times to remind us of how it would be.

We connected with two people in Beaverton- David and Virginia. Great people! Though we loved being together, we were starting to miss having friends. We left all of them back in North Carolina. I had exchanged a few emails on the Pint of Portland listserv with David. He was a web designer/developer like myself and wanted to connect with us when we moved out. So at the next "Pint" we met up at Rogue Brewery. David said he "had to meet the guy with ego enough to have a picture of himself on his resume website!"

Cathy and Virginia hit it off as well. D and V were kinda quirky, but then so were we. David worked at a development company and Virginia at a translation services company (Since then Virginia started and runs her own awesome translation and localization services company and David runs the largest green web hosting company on the market. They were fun to hang out with and during those two years, indispensable).

Things were looking up! we had some interviews. I was developing freelance contacts! One morning, however, changed everything. We had just had our morning coffee together. Cathy went into the office to check her email. I was settling into the final chapter of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone when Cathy yelled from the other room, "Turn on the news!" 9am Pacific, September 11th, 2001 I turned on CNN. The world had changed, and so had the direction of our good fortune.

Next: Paradise Lost

This is part 2 of  the our story about moving out west to find our dreams. Finding instead, no work and a lot of debt. Click here to start from the beginning.

January, 2001

After s lot of "we don't pay for relocation" we agreed to move as planned and look for work when we get to Portland. Sure, it's putting a lot of faith that we will find jobs in the Portland area- but, judging from the job postings, they were there!

March, 2001

After working on my final website (drdrew.com), I gave notice to my current employer, Healant. For three weeks I sent resumes and scout apartments in the Portland area- all while ramping up a freelance business for the dry period we expected to have before we get jobs out there.

Near the end of the month, we got the shipping container dropped off and proceeded to fill it (u-haul style) with all of our furniture and belongings. We wrapped chairs and tables loosely in moving blankets, stacked boxes optimistically, and (more or less) threw odds and ends on top of all of that.

April, 2001

The moving company (Roadway) picked up the shipping container and took it off ahead of us.

Both of our moms asked if they could go along on the trip out to Portland and we're delighted. You see, I've made this road trip out to the Northwest twice in my life, when my family and I lived there between 1979 and 1984. I absolutely LOVED the trips. There is so much you can see driving across the U.S. and I was delighted that both of our moms would be there with us :)

April 12th

We went to the airport and sent our 11 year old kitty ahead of us, then returned to pack the 2-car caravan! During the next 5 days, we drove through Nashville, Saint Louis, Kansas City, Lincoln (NE), Laramie (WY)- spitting out of the Rockies at Salt Lake, then finish by heading north towards Oregon.

Throughout the trip, our little Nissan Sentra and Honda Civic drove through the beautiful plains (low and high), prairie land, mountains, crystal-clear lakes, sun, rain and snow while both of our moms switched out riding with the two of us. It was great having our moms along! Really! We had advice about our driving skills and the fact that we were leaving (both of them) to die (essentially) back east while we move (without jobs) to someplace where we'll:

1. Starve to death...
2. Be homeless, on the street...
3. Be robbed and murdered in our sleep... at a bus stop (because we'd be homeless, on the street) ...
4. Have some horrible accident that will leave us broke, because we won't have insurance... in a banana cart, because I'll be paraplegic (homeless, on the street)...
5. Abducted by aliens, because we would be the objects of curiosity for having moved out west without jobs (leaving our grieving mothers), probed and left for dead... homeless, on the street.

April 17th

We arrive at our new apartments in Beaverton, OR (a suburb or Portland). After calling the shipping company, the container arrives at our new apartment. Opening the doors, we notice that things had... shifted. Next to every piece of wood furniture, there lay the blanket we had, so very carefully (loosely) wrapped them in ...and a little pile of sawdust. One chair leg had shifted to where it was just touching the top-back of our brand new sofa and had (with just the persistent vibrations of the road) rubbed a hole in the fabric. In short, there was not a piece of furniture that was not marked by that journey.

Joy.

Our moms both loved the city and the area, even though it was the place that will ultimately kill their children. We took them around the places we saw when we flew out previously, and spent a couple of great days with them. Then we thanked our mothers, kissed them and took them to the airport. We really did have a good time with them on the trip but we also have a little spring in our step on our way back to the car (love you Mom!). We picked up the kitty at the kennel (he was very happy to see us) at went home... our new home!

We were there!

We had made it!

What's more, we were going to make it big with our own two hands (each-...because that would be weird if we... you know- between the two of us only had two hands)!

The American Dream (dot-com, version 1.0)!

Next: Excitement, Wonder and Delight

I was listening to NPR's Marketplace last night and an interview with a married couple caught my attention. The book "Made for You and Me: Going West, Going Broke, Finding Home" by Caitlin Shetterly chronicles the decision her and her husband made to move from East to West more-or-less on a whim and a promise to find opportunity.

The more I listened, (minus the pregnancy) the more it sounded exactly like what we did in 2001!

ok... flashback to 2000. It was pre-dot-com-bust. The euphoria of internet millions was everywhere! Not only did we not have any debt, we actually had $5k in savings! We were not anchored into home-ownership without any way getting out rented, had the complete freedom of movement and care-free life without kids had no kids and were looking for an adventure.

As a teen, I lived in the Northwest for 5 years with my family. I told Cathy how spectacular is was our there so we went on a scouting trip. It was a glorious 5 day trip in the sunny Northwest! I told Cathy not to be fooled by the weather, it's common to have spectacular weather when visiting there- "the better to fool you with, my dear." I had a job interview with the Seattle Times for the Art Directorship of their online edition so we decided to hit Portland, OR first, then move up to Seattle for the interview.

Everyone there was so nice and there were as many tech jobs as there were coffee shops (if you've never been in the NW, you just don't know)! We fell in love with the Northwest and decided that if I got the job with the Seattle Times, we'd move to Seattle- otherwise, we'd look in Portland!

Well, three weeks later, after a second phone interview, the Seattle Times position was filled by someone local. Apparently, their candidate pool was getting bigger out there - rumblings of things to come. So, we set our sights on Portland- the town we really wanted to move to anyway. Our target date- March 31st, 2001!

Next: Westward HO!