9072 Miles To Home Sweet Home

10/2/10 Madras, Oregon. This was the sunset picture of Mt. Adams from our campground. Lots of farmland in the foreground that housed some howling coyotes during the night! No, Mt. Adams isn't erupting that is a smudge on my camera lens!

Mark and I enjoyed watching the sunset while visiting with a neighboring camper from Columbia Falls, MT and her Corgi- Sadie. She had done a lot of traveling in her life and was an avid agate hunter so was excited to get over to the coast for some "jewels".

10/3/10 We broke camp and packed up our tent and sleeping bags for the last time this trip! As the clouds were rolling in we headed up Highway 97 until it ended at the Columbia River in Biggs, OR. Went through this funky little town of Shaniko, OR that had a permanent yard sale going on next to the store. As the town sign says, " A town where the west still lives!" We had gorgeous views of Mt. Adams, Mt. Hood and the Cascade Range as we traveled past horse pastures and cattle fields.

We followed the Columbia River to Umatilla and crossed over into Washington. Here is the rolling Palouse by Waitsburg, WA. We made it back to Washington! Albeit on the opposite side we live but time to see Ross and Corinna! We were in the Pasco area by 3 pm and decided that no need to spend the night since we could put more hours on our behinds at this point. We called Ross to see if we could come a day early and he welcomed us in that night. He was at home smoking pork shoulders, ribs and making homemade sausages with venison, bear and pork. That guy is a culinary wizard! And we got to benefit with a scrumptious dinner later.

10/4/10 Dad and youngest son, Ross. Out in the backyard waiting for one of the batches of sausages to finish smoking so we could sample them! Thanks Ross and Corinna for having us over and hosting us for 2 days! We got some good visiting in, some billiards played at Ross's place of employment and even got to have a quick visit with nephew, Brayton. It was mid-terms this week so those college students were busy studying!

10/4/10 Freyja the puppy, Ross and Mom. A fun day in Pullman- I walked Freyja around campus for an afternoon stroll and Mark washed the motorcycle and trailer. Corinna had midterms and crew practice so we went out to dinner after she got home.

10/5/10 We tried to keep to our plan of staying off the interstates and not traveling on one road twice so we came back to Mt. Vernon via Highways 26, 17, 28, 2, and 9! It was a 9 1/2 hr. trip across the state but beautiful weather. The fall color change was very evident here in Leavenworth where we stopped for a late lunch.

Nothing more spectacular than our own "backyard" here in Washington. Here we are going over Steven's Pass. You can see my famous photographing position in the shadow! My arm up in the air shooting pictures and hoping they turn out!

10/5/10 WE'RE HOME HONEY! It was a strange feeling to walk into the house after being gone so long. Everything was exactly the same (yeah!), Patrick the cat was waiting for us (thanks to Karen and Randy for taking care of him), and we didn't even unpack since it was late!

People have asked us what our favorite place or thing was that we saw or did. It's really hard to answer that one. We would say that "the people" were our most favorite thing- whether it was staying with them, talking to them, watching interactions or whatever but we can honestly say that everyone we encountered was nice. After we preview our thousands of pictures we may come up with certain things in "regions" that we liked best but each place had it's own uniqueness and that's what we enjoyed.

During our Big Adventure and Bucket List item:

We had travelled 9,072 miles (376 of them were on the "old bike")

The least miles travelled in one day was 5 (unless we had stayed in one spot), the most miles travelled in one day was just over 400.

Gone 2 months

We were in 20 states

Camped 50% of the time; hotels, friends, and family the other half.

Lost count of how many mountain passes and rivers we went over!

Used our National Parks Pass about 10 times

Made it home safe and still talking to each other!

As I walked into the backyard I was greeted by "Rocky the Raccoon". He obviously was well fed from eating the cat food and wasn't about to let our arrival stop his evening meal. As you can see from the foot tall back yard, Mark was busy the entire next day doing yard work. He was a happy guy to work around the house. We have spent the last 2 days just unpacking, doing laundry, opening 2 months worth of mail and even ventured out to the grocery store to stock up! We were feeling out of sorts and cooped up on the second night so we geared up and took the bike up to Bellingham for dinner!

Ah, to be back on 2 wheels with the wind in our face..... we are so happy!

So, where will the next trip take us?

As Bugs Bunny would say, "That's All Folks"!

Thanks for following while I recorded our travel journey.