Homeward Bound

After six weeks, it was time to return to San Diego. We've seen Crater Lake in the snow, discovered Bend, enjoyed Matt and Jackie's wedding, photographed more waterfalls than we can name, returned to Trillium Lake to camp and photograph Mt. Hood, and explored the central Oregon Coast from Cannon Beach to Bandon. We drove the Historic Columbia River, West Cascades, Silver Falls Tour, McKenzie Pass-Santiam Pass, Cascade Lakes, Volcanic Legacy, Rogue-Umpqua, and Pacific Coast Scenic Byways.

We had a very uneventful drive home. We left a little before 8:00 and beat the heat. It was supposed to be 96 in Ashland today. The first two hours seemed to be constantly climbing and crossing over mountain ridges. We dropped into Redding to fill up with fuel and then cruised south. We stopped for lunch right outside Sacramento about 1:00, and I took a nap. Unfortunately, Carol didn't know the generator had to be on to run the A/C and she baked. After I got up, we zipped through Sacramento with no delays and reached our stopping place by 2:00. I was wide awake, so we decided to keep driving. We took I-5 instead of our customary Highway 99 because we had never gone that way before. I-5 is a MUCH smoother highway, but there were very few options for camping. In the end, we just kept driving. We had a good Sue Grafton book on the CD player for entertainment, and I was still doing well. By 1:00 a.m., we were home.

We didn't want to disturb the neighbors at the top of the hill where we park the motorhome, so we grabbed a couple of things and walked down the hill to the house. We didn't even unhook the Explorer. That can wait until tomorrow. 17 hours is a long day driving, but now we have all day Sunday to unpack and start to get things back to normal.

Six weeks went incredibly fast.