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.

End Of The Coast & Exploring Oregon

9/28/10 If the helmet hurts your head then just fix it with Grandpa Wade's hammer. Mark pulled over on the California coast so I could take some pictures and I come back to the motorcycle and he's hammering away on his helmet. A little Styrofoam surgery and we were back on the road and no more red dents on his forehead after almost 8 weeks! The infamous hammer has been our tent stake smasher, helmet fixer and weapon of choice if needed in the campgrounds!

We had left Fort Bragg in the late morning and headed up the rest of Highway 1 on a beautiful day. The marine fog and mist started to set in the further north we got.

9/28/10 We had heard good reports about the Patrick's Point area of Trinidad, CA so after checking out 3 campgrounds settled in at Patrick's Point State Park. We figured we had picked a good place since it was named after our kitty cat! The park was vast in size and thick forested land. The marine air and fog just got thicker as the night wore on as you can tell by the picture I took from our spot. We had a wonderful campsite right across from the trail (200 ft in elevation) down to the beach. Thing was you couldn't see the ocean or hardly the trail! We took note of all the bear postings, the metal locked container at our campsite and I kind of wished I was in a trailer! No bear sightings but while I was heating up soup for dinner there was a mouse or gopher in his hole next to me eating grass and before bed one of the local raccoons sauntered past our picnic table. I don't think I slept real hard that night! When we got up in the morning the only bear I saw was in my dream BUT Rocky the Raccoon decided the motorcycle and trailer was his Winnebago for the night! There were muddy footprints everywhere!

9/29/10 After packing up a damp tent and gear from the marine mist we got to see some redwoods and great landscape on 101 into Oregon. Since the weather was getting more clear and I could see sunshine and the ocean we stopped early and set up camp in Brookings, Oregon. It is right across the CA/OR border. We had spent 13 nights in California with 8 of them in a tent! We stayed at Harris Beach State Campground. The campground area is surrounded by trees and we picked a forested area where we had a glimpse of the Pacific Ocean and had lots of privacy. We were down a hidden path and only one other camper next to us. He told us lots of stories about Smith River and gave us some dry pallet board kindling to help get our "wet" firewood started. You'd think at $1 per piece of wood they would sell you dry wood!

This picture shows the trail that lead down to an awesome sandy beach with hardly anyone there. It was a little bit of a hike and it was nice to have some energy since our colds are almost gone!

Mr. Larson celebrating being in Oregon! He feels like he's almost home now.... Road fatigue has started to set in a little more so some R & R in the sunshine was good therapy. I sat in my beach chair and caught up on my journal and Mark took a siesta.

Jonathan Livingston decided to join us on the surf! I didn't want the day to end but sunset and dinner called us back to the campsite.

9/30/10 We thought we would stay another night in Brookings since it was so beautiful yesterday but the marine fog set in here about 11 am! I called Stephanie to get a weather forecast off her computer since we didn't have internet access here. It sounded like it was nicer up north so we headed out. Well, the fog got thicker and the mist was like light rain but we ventured on to Umpqua Lighthouse State Park in Reedsport. It was another forested campground with Lake Marie close by and the sand dunes right next to us. Here is the master driver when it comes to backing up our little trailer. With a 900 lb. bike, 300 lbs of trailer and gear and the 2 of us, it can be quite the challenge depending on what site I pick! Mark is such a good sport and just makes it happen!

We took a little ride to explore before reheating up our leftover lunch pizza for dinner! This is the Umpqua Lighthouse-the first one in Oregon history. The ship captains would have needed it tonight with the thick marine fog.

Hiked down to the beach over the sand dunes. As you can see it was a little on the chilly side so the stocking hat and leathers came in handy. We saw a couple dune buggy's braving the weather and it looked like so much fun. Mark wouldn't agree with me when I ask him to take the Harley out on the sand. Go figure!

10/1/10 Getting ready to break down camp in the morning. We decided to leave the coast in search of warmer and drier weather inland after checking out the weather forecast in town. Off we went towards Florence after the "rare" McDonald's breakfast stop! We were tired of granola bars and instant coffee!

10/1/10 We cut across inland for the central area of Orgeon. It was supposed to be in the 70's for a couple more days and not too cold at night. That beat the 50's-60's for the coast! Highway 126 along the Suislaw River was gorgeous even through the fog. We saw more redwoods, cedars and huge pines. There were numerous fishermen out this morning, too.

We took the "scenic byway" McKenzie/Santiam Highway Pass. Another chance for the driver to test his skills at windy, steep graded roads. But the view was SO worth it. Well, at least for me. The leaves had changed colors and were falling, the mountain ranges were picturesque, and the air was warm! One side of the road had 3 Sisters Mountain and the foreground is a huge lava field from an eruption 15oo years ago. We climbed about 5,800 feet to the summit- so much for no more mountain passes!

We thought we were on the big island in Hawaii since there was so much lava rock. It was like being on the moon! Just needed Uncle Scott to bring the mango slushies!

On the other side of the road were views of Mt. Hood (here), Mt. Washington and 3 Fingered Jack. Little did we know that we would be treated to such amazing scenery when we started out the journey today.

10/2/10 We called it quits when we got to Madras, OR. After stopping in Redmond (north of Bend) and getting some groceries we got to this KOA camp. It was a really nice one-especially the owners. We have pastoral views one way and Mt. Hood in the other direction. We even got electricity to charge all the technical components and water right at our site! A luxury the past few days. The icing on the cake was the high 70's-80 degree forecast! After a candlelight dinner of salmon, fresh beets and wild rice we decided we may spend 2 nights and rest up! Hey Barney, the coffee pot also doubles for a vegetable steamer!

Here we are on our second day here and I'm sitting at the pool catching you up on the blog! We did 5 loads of laundry this morning which included washing the tent and rain tarp! After 19 states, over 8000 miles and lots of dirt, sand, smashed bugs, and campfire smoke the tent needed a once over. It's never smelled so good! We have used it twice as often as we first thought we would. Tonight may be the last camp out! Rain and colder weather are in the forecast in the direction we are heading.

Our plans at this moment are to head northeast tomorrow as far as Pendleton, OR and then to Pullman, WA and spent some time with Ross and Corinna.
Home sounds good but we really don't want our journey to end! Ah, back to reality soon!

To Napa Valley Then North on Highway 1

9/21/10 Here we are at Don Pedro Lake in California. We had just come down a huge grade of highway 120 through the hills. It was an unexpected treat for riding- at least for the passenger! The Lewiston grade in E. Wash. has nothing on this one! We are heading for the Napa Valley on Highway 12 - ask Mark about that experience if you are a motorcyclist!

9/22/10 Here we are at Bothe-Napa State Park. This is a gem of a find for serenity in the busy wine country. This "somewhat rustic" campground had huge sites nestled in the madrona and oak trees. We had our first night in a shaded area and then moved to a more open site for some sunshine. The squirrels, blue jays, woodpeckers and lizards shared the campsite with us. We were over washing dishes at the cleaning area one morning and came back to our pack of bagels busted into and I saw the squirrel culprit running with that huge bagel in his mouth!
We camped here for 4 nights. It was so nice to stay put and be able to ride into St. Helena or Calistoga for the afternoons. The State Park was in between the 2 towns. We enjoyed the ambiance of Calistoga and had a late lunch there 2 of the days. The weather got hotter as the week progressed. It was 80's-90's for the high and in the 40's at night.

9/24/10 Kyle came over on his motorcycle to join us for our last night of camping. We had such a wonderful visit and got caught up on their San Francisco life while giving him the highlights of our USA adventure. He slept on his sleeping pads on top of the picnic table!

9/25/10 Kyle has his 1979 BMW 650 loaded with his camp gear and ready to lead the way into Napa. It was delightful riding together through the wine country on Silverado Trail. We didn't do the "wine tasting" journey on this trip- different focus this time! (Sorry Vonda and Barb!)

9/25/10 Well, maybe not wine tasting but we did do some beer tasting! Mark and Kyle enjoying a 97 degree afternoon in the backyard of the Hobaugh's. This is Stephanie's grandparents home in Napa where Kyle and Stephanie hosted an Oktoberfest party this evening. They had about 25 (mainly family) at the big event. It was quite the German festivity completed with Kyle's homemade beer that he had made from hops he had grown over the past 16 months. Stephanie made apple tarts, apple strudel, & homemade pretzels to compliment all the German sausages, potato soup, salads, pork loin, sauerkraut and all the fixins'! It was a fun extravaganza and chance for us to visit with both sides of Stephanie's family that we hadn't seen since their wedding last year. We spent the night there and we were thrilled to have a "bed and shower"!

Thank you Sandy and Dave!

Herr Hans and Frau Heidi Larson AKA Kyle and Stephanie! They get the award for theme parties with their authentic Bavarian outfits. Kyle filled his Grandpa Larson's German stein with his homebrew Hefeweizen to add to the authenticity. We all laughed and visited well into the night.

9/26/10 Before we left town we went over to the other side of Napa to visit with Stephanie's Grandpa Ray Brown. Here he is with his 2 son's, Steve and Jim, and Stephanie and Kyle. We had to get back into the swing of socializing with people we know again! Other than seeing my cousin Barney we hadn't been around anyone we knew since visiting the Bulawa's in Wyoming over 6 weeks ago. We may need to slowly acclimate back into society when we get back!

9/26/10 The Pacific Ocean! We made it to the coast via Highway 12 then up Highway 1 from Bodega Bay. There was a huge fire along the roadway and up into residential area in Bodega yesterday and they were still cleaning up and reinstalling power to the area. We had an hour delay getting on the coast highway. We opted to come to the coast also because of the heat wave that was coming into the central area- temperatures of over 100 for a few days. We figured a little marine air would do us good and the view is unrivaled. Here we are at Carmet Beach. Our first "vista stop" on the coast. We feel like we are almost home! Well, about 900 miles away!

A view from the driver's perspective along Highway 1. Mark likes the road pictures so he can remember how many curves, grades, hills, and valley's he went through. It was a beautiful day and a 20 degree drop from where we had just come in through Santa Rosa.
Our "colds" are starting to get much better in the lower elevation, too!

9/26/10 We happened upon this Ocean Cove Campground in Fort Ross! What a great name! Mark wanted openness and the ocean and we got both right here. There were hardly any other tent campers and we staked our spot next to the few trees to block a little of the ocean breeze. We were facing the ocean and the smashing waves were as loud as traffic on I-5. We set up camp, made sandwiches with the tomatoes Kyle had grown, poured a glass of California wine, and sat on the ocean cliff to watch the sunset. This was one of the best 24 hours of the trip.

A million dollar view of the sunset right in front of our campground. We had this private sandy area where we could park our camp chairs for the sunset and sunrise! Location, location, location because there were no other amenities at the campground besides a picnic table and portapotty.

The love of my life silhouetted by the sunset.

Here I am about as happy as I can be. Salt water, crashing waves, warm weather, camping and with that special guy featured above!

9/27/10 Sunrise over our campground that you can see in the background. It was very spiritual watching the sun rays pour in through these trees over us as we watched from the waters edge.
We sat on the "private" cliff beach and watched waves crash for almost 3 hours in the morning before Mark had to drag me away at the noon "checkout" time!

We travelled north to the town of Elk and had lunch in the local cafe before weaving the coastline north. We checked out some other campgrounds but the driver opted for a motel in Fort Bragg.

9/27/10 We walked across the street from our motel to Glass Beach at Fort Bragg to watch the sunset. It's so mesmerizing to watch that huge hydrogen mass fall into the ocean! Glass Beach is a small sandy beach that is inundated with small pieces of polished (by the sea) colored glass. They are the only remnants of what is left of an old "dump" that was cleaned up 40 years ago. The sea continues to uncover more glass and keep it polished! Mother Nature at work again.

We will continue on our Highway 1 journey in the morning with no set plans on our next stop!

California Dreamin'

9/16/10 Leavin' Las Vegas! 12 hours in the Sin City and time to head out. Here I am with my cousin, Barney Robertson. We rode together until Barstow, CA and then he headed to the LA area and we travelled north. We had a great few days together in the Utah and Nevada area.

The world's largest thermometer close to the Nevada/Calif. border. Another one of the highlights of scenery pictures!

9/16/10 Some more of the scenery along the byways of the High Sierra's! As you can tell there isn't a lot of "living" things along the way. It was extremely HOT and not much of anything along Old Hiway 58. In fact someone stopped to help direct us when we were looking at maps to get us hooked up to Hiway 395. I told you lots of nice people on this adventure.

As I had mentioned before we made the next stop in Ridgecrest, California. This is China Lake where the Naval Weapons Testing is done. Because of my "cold bug" we holed up for 2 days to get the energy to get back on the road. Nice people at the Best Western here!

9/18/10 Stopped for lunch at this local joint close to Big Pine, California. We tried to dine at the local places when we weren't just wingin' it with grocery store supplies!

9/18/10 Mark, the happy camper! He was thrilled he had a hose at his campsite and could try and get the massive dirt and dust off the bike and trailer. We decided to camp when we could because the outside air worked better for breathing at night with our colds vs. the stale air conditioning in a hotel. This was Brown's Town Campground in Bishop, California. A great find with a lot of "fishermen" campers around us. Only downside was one of them found a baby rattlesnake on the path to the office. Luckily it was dead or I would be getting a trailer! We decided to move our boots and other items up off the ground as suggested..... No other sightings.
Tonight was be inventive night for dinner- Mark went to the office "deli" and bought a loaf of bread off them and we made PB and honey sandwiches! Sometimes you just have to do it.

9/19/10 To YOSEMITE! We decided to go over Hiway 120 AKA Tioga Pass from the east entrance. It was a nice day but cloud cover coming in with a possible prediction of a storm so we opted to reserve a room on the west side once we got out. We had a gourmet lunch at the "Mobil Station" which had a renowned chef. You'd never guess but again, a motorcycle rider in Ridgecrest had told us about this place and he was spot on. The fish taco's with mango salsa were superb! Luckily it gave the driver some energy for the pull up the pass. We didn't know how steep and graded the road was. This was probably the most strenuous pull we've had for the trailer and with the new intercom working again I heard the comments! Still, for the passenger it was beautiful and I got lots of priceless pictures. Good job on the driving, Mark!

Yes, the pass got up to almost 10,000 feet. We were up and down 7000 feet swings and temperature changes of 70 degrees from what it was in our Nevada adventure with Barney. No wonder our sinuses won't clear! Into Yosemite we go.

On top of the pass with the glacial views and gorgeous scenery. We had fun visiting with some tourists from Blythe, Ca here. They wanted to know if we had seen any bears yet! NO. The temperature was down to about 55-60 at this point.

They had these signs all over with the posted speed limit. We were thinking that lumbering bears could do a number on motorcyclists and that we wouldn't hurt them too much. But, no bear sightings on this trip. Did see a 4 point mule deer, lots of squirrels, birds and people!

This reminded me of a postcard view. It was awesome to see El Capitan and Half Dome in one shot. We got a lot closer but again, you'll have to see my "slide show" later!

The sheer granite sides of El Capitan in Yosemite. I was amazed at the variety of scenery in the Park. It is surely a natural wonder and testimony to why we wanted to see "what was in our back yard" in the USA.

The weather got warmer and the trees got thicker in the actual Yosemite Valley. The sequoia's dwarfed the pines. The little roadways weaved in and out of the trees, streams, rivers and sunshine streamed in between. Truly a marvel.
We came out on the west side about 6 pm and found our hotel- along with hundreds of other tourists! We visited in the parking lot with about 8 Harley riders from Germany. They had started in Las Vegas and were working their way to San Francisco over a couple days.

We were glad to rest our heads for the night and make another pass into Yosemite tomorrow.
Happy 1st Anniversary Kyle and Stephanie!

9/20/10 Mark was ready to go again since he didn't have to go over the Tioga again! We came back to Yosemite Valley and went into Bridalveil Falls for the picture opportunity. It was fun to watch the waterfall change as the wind did. The weather was perfect and we got some lunch goodies at the Yosemite Village and picnicked.

9/20/10 Powerade Ad Man! At Stanislaus National Park - this area known as the "Rim of the World". We are so glad we opted to come to Yosemite. It kind of makes up for not getting to Yellowstone on this trip! We came out on Hiway 120 to Groveland, California and got a campsite at Yellowstone Pines Campground. The weather has been perfect in the 70's-80 during the day and 40's at night. Since we heard there was rain at home we aren't in a hurry to get back!

We are going to work our way to the Napa Valley region next..... more later!

It was a year ago we were here for Kyle and Stephanie's wedding! Hard to believe that much time has passed. We are saying that about this trip, too.

We are in our 18th state and have about 7,200 miles logged in over the past 7 weeks! We say we need to pinch each other just to make sure this is real!

Hello to everyone and hope all is well.