Flickr Photos - All our pictures

We have been uploading pictures from the past week onto out Flickr site. Check them all out HERE! It's easiest to click on the Sets on the right hand side to follow one adventure at a time.

Enjoy!

Sunday- The Drive Home

Exhausted from our adventures the few day before, we slept late into Sunday morning.  Brunch with Doug and Rachael and then began the remainder of the journey from the north end of Oregon to the Southern most. We were making very good time just south of  Portland when we saw a large sign that we had seen 100 other times on the I-5 corridor. 'Tulip Festival'  It was the last day of a month (or two) long festival.  Thinking this would be fun to drive to and  imagining the Fiesta amidst a colorful Tulip background we quickly exited the freeway. After what seemed like hours (about15 minutes) we finally made it to a 'ginormous' Tulip field.  The entrance fee was a bit high, so we cruised the road outside the field and 'temporarily' stopped on the side of the road to get some great pictures.  

Continuing our journey home, we decided to make several other stops.  Our first stop, the capitol of Oregon, Salem.  We stopped in Salem to introduce 'Fiesta' (insert name here...yes, we will name our Fiesta soon. We didn't have anything picked out for a Magenta Fiesta) to the Capitol building.  The rain began again, almost sensing that we wanted to take outdoor pictures and video.  (A very nice group from Oklahoma asked about our car and snapped a picture for us.)

We jumped back in the car and planned out the next few stops. Joes Sporting Goods (to see if any clearance prices were actually clearance yet) and Eugene, for dinner and coffee with friends. After refueling with some coffee, and gas for the Fiesta...the coffee was for us, not the Fiesta...we continued on to Southern Oregon. The trip that usually takes four hours, took us about nine. It was a very eventful weekend. Stay tuned for more of our Fiesta adventures at the Fiesta Movement Live Feed site!      

Saturday-The drive to Portland

After leaving training and receiving our brand new Fiesta, we made our way to the Space Needle, just to say that we saw it.  The rain that had visited us during our 'test drives' had now completely departed and the sky was amazing. The Space Needle looked almost like a painting against the fluffy white clouds and brilliant blue sky. We took some pictures of the Fiesta in front of the Space Needle and a few other shots around the area, bought a few souvenirs and then began our long ride home to Southern Oregon.

It took us about 20 minutes to finally find an on-ramp and get on the road to Portland. Forty minutes outside of Seattle, the weather suddenly changed and the freeway was now better used for boating.  Everyone slowed to about 30mph.  The Fiesta handled it great, even with the summer tires.  Our favorite feature had to be the windshield wipers (automatically) kicked into high speed and changed with the weather variation.  The monsoon like weather continued for about 10 minutes and then it was like it never stormed at all.

After driving for about three plus hours we decided to stop over in Portland to visit Brad's brother and show-off the car. He was pretty impressed, which is hard to do with him. He and his girlfriend, were both wary of all of the technology in the car. They much prefer the hand cranked windows and door locks that only work when you press them. 'Less that can go wrong,' they said. We tried to convert them to the 'modern day conveniences' and showed off the automatic windshield wipers which again was a big hit.

We ended up staying overnight in Portland, after enjoying a great meal and telling stories about our two days of adventure so far. Couldn't wait to get back on the road and see what else the  Fiesta could do!

Fiesta Training Day 2: The Magenta Miracle

We didn't have to be at training until 8:45 so we decided to get an extra adventure in before the Fiesta Fun started.  We walked back down to Pikes Place Market, where they were just setting up for the day, and got coffee from the 1st Starbucks... It burnt Brad's tongue! Training started a little after 9am and was mostly about the car and its features.  We packed our bags, checked out of the hotel, and then hit the road!

On the bus ride over to get our cars we discovered an interesting fact. Apparently, in the year 2011 Silver is a much brighter redder color! In fact, as the saying goes, Silver is this years Magenta! After trying to cope with losing the 'Silver Bullet/Vortex/Streak/Warrior' we tried to welcome in the Magical Magenta special changing Silver color edition. 

We arrived at the unveiling, after a few wrong turns by the shuttle driver, to two rows of sparkling Fiestas! We were allowed a short introduction to our cars and a few photos before we all sat down for a yummy boxed lunch.  After lunch, the manual transmission "pros" got to drive around a bit while the newbies got a refresher course.   After receiving some great driving lessons (like don't keep the car in 3rd when leaving from a stop sign on a hill)  we felt very comfortable with the 'peppy little beast.' When we were all done we were handed our second key and very cool sunglasses and sent on our way. 

Pulling away from the training in a shiny new Fiesta (without even stalling) we reflected on the overall experiences in meeting the fellow agents and Mission Control: This is going to be an exciting and adventuresome six months! 

First day of Fiesta training

Our Fiesta training weekend started with a 12pm flight out of Medford International Airport and our pilots becoming out newest followers. The landing into Seattle, at around 3pm, was a little bumpy due to high winds, but we had some great views of the bay and city. Trying to stay on a very tight schedule we headed straight to the baggage terminal to look for the other Fiesta Movement agents and the shuttle driver to take us all to the hotel. It was pretty easy to spot the other agents because we were all walking around with video cameras and other equipment but we couldn't find our driver anywhere. After wandering around for about 20 minutes Emma finally walked up to a man who had been standing off to the side the whole time holding a sign that said "Donaldson" and asked if he knew anything about the Fiesta Movement. It turned out he was our driver and "Donaldson" was the last name of one of the agents who showed up later. After stopping briefly at the hotel we all boarded the bus to go to dinner and our first training. That evening we were given Addidas shoes, Fiesta Movement shirts, and a Webbie pocket video camera. After our scheduled events we all went out for drinks. It was fun getting to know a little about 12 other teams and the people behind Mission Control We called it a night around midnight exhausted from a full day of travel and excitement, knowing that the best was still to come.

-emma