Homeward Bound

Location: Home Sweet Home, Nevada City

What a fantastic trip! We called this trip "The Greatest Hits" revisiting a lot of our favorite places and throwing in some outrageous excursions like Dominican Republic and Disneyworld. We were blessed with good health, great weather and no car troubles. We traveled 9963 miles, were on the road 52 days, visited 21 States and 2 countries. We rode about 250 bike miles, swam day and night and did a fair amount of hiking. A personal goal for me was to run a 5k by the time I returned home. Using an app to coach me, I ran 6 days a week for 8 weeks. The plan was to run 5k by running 35 straight minutes. Alas I only made it to 30 min running and 5 min. walking. Fritzi, my running buddy, get me over the top now that I'm home!

On our way home we swung by Eugene, OR and picked up a couple of bags of cocoa beans, Peru and Ghana.

 

My plan is to hit the Yuba River on our return, looks like Ned will be making chocolate...(just kidding! I think he'll wait for a bit cooler weather).

 

 

 

Thanks everyone for traveling on this journey with us. Below are our list of "best ofs:"

Best View: Zion National Park

 

Best Bike Ride: Seminole Canyon State Park, Texas.

What a surprise to ride thru the desert and then all of a sudden come upon the Rio Grande.Good thing we did this in the morning and not at night!

 

Loudest Night of Natural Sounds: Lake Fausse, LA

The sounds of the insects, alligators, frogs, and God knows what else was deafening.

 

 

 

Best Spontaneous out of the way meal: Muffuletta in New Orleans.

What's a couple of hundred mile detour when you really really want it?

Most Overloaded Bike Ride: Grayton Beach, FL

Just how much stuff can one person carry? towel, bamboo mat, water bottles, umbrella, snorkel gear and lunch.

p.s. Ned had the same, plus a boogie board!

 

 

 

Best Boogie Board Ride:

Ned at Grayton Beach

 

 

Debi at St. George, Island

 

 

 

 

Favorite Manatee: Ned with Martha, don't ask.

Most Over-hyped State Park.

Camp in a parking lot, snorkel boat ride too long, no great swimming area. fuhgetaboutit.

 

 

 

Best Snorkeling: Bahia Honda State Park, Florida Keys

 

Silliest Dress-Code Incident:

Ned wearing borrowed bowling shoes in DR resort restaurant to comply with "closed toed shoe" requirement.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Best Traveling Buddies: Linda and Gary. What troopers! They not only met us in the DR, but also accompanied us to a cocoa farm. Gary also saved the day by loaning out his camera memory chip to me. Yeah...I forgot to put ours back in the camera.

Hey Linda & Gary can't wait til our next trip!

 

Best Enchanted Moment: Getting glittered on Main Street in Disneyworld.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Best Belly Laugh: Careening around the Disney Speedway with Debi driving.

Best double-fisted drinking: Monster Mango Margaritas at the Mexican Pavilliion in Epcot.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Best Meal: Low Country Boil, Tybee Island

This is a two time winner.

Best Hush Puppies: Hog Heaven, South Carolina

Best and Longest leisurely lake soak: Lake Strom Thurmond, South Carolinaa

Best Historic Fort: Fort Donelson National Battlefield, TN. We loved watching the huge barges go by on the Cumberland River.

The visitor's center was really well done. They had a great film about the shift in the Civil War and how this battle put Ulysees S. Grant in the spot light.

Best forests, streams and mills goes to the "Show Me State" of Missouri. We are definitely planning on spending more time here next year.

Honorable Mention Bike Ride goes to the Katy Trail in Missouri. Only reason we didn't give it #1 was cause there was no surprise element. However, the Lewis & Clark campspots, tunnel, Missouri River and wildlife on this trail almost made up for it!

Best Presidential LIbrary - hats off to "Give 'em Hell" Harry Truman Library. We've visited the Clinton Library and the Hoover Library, this one is the best! Really engaging and makes your think.

Best Citizen Award: Goes to Liz in Mound City, Missouri. She went above and beyond to help us locate any information on the Russell Family. Thanks Liz!!

Best Family History Sleuthing. Finding the water tower photo of 1928 from Granger, Wyoming.

Best nature wildlife sighting: Dog catching a rabbit, while tending sheep. Whaaat?!

Best State Capitol Building: Salt Lake City, Utah. Kinda puts Sacramento to shame. Cheyenne and Boise were beautiful, but dang does SLC know how to wow'em.

Most fun getting in trouble: Riding the slide at Willard Bay. We didn't know you had to pay to rent it out. Oopps. After a good half hour taking lots and lots of rides, we were yelled at to get off. Ahh, brings back summer memories of my childhood...haha.

 

 

 

 

 

Best Waterfalls: Shoshone Falls in Idaho.

 

Best Tour: Underground Tour of Pendleton, OR

Hottest Camping Site: Yakima Sportsman State Park.

It was 108, in the shade, with no place to swim. Yes, this man is still smiling, which is why I love him so much. Best ever traveling buddy. Me, I was having a melt-down...(for the record I still ran that day!)

 

Best Cup of Coffee: in Washington, of course! The Lodge at Snoqualmie Falls.

Whipped cream, regular cream, dark and white chocolate shavings and raw sugar crystals. It wasn't so much coffee as dessert.

 

 

 

Best Traveling Team: US!

Love you sweetie, when can we go again???

 

 

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Coasting thru Oregon

Jesse Honeyman State Park, OR

We pulled out of camp fairly early this morning and continued our journey down the Oregon Coast. I'm still not acclimated to the cool coastal breeze, especially after all the triple digit heat waves and humid days of the South. Ned bundled up, but I held fast to my shorts, tshirt and flip-flops. Driving down the coast we were treated to several pretty dramatic views so indicative of the Northern Oregon area.

 

 

 

Our first excursion this morning was a trip to the Tillamook Cheese Factory. We had visited here several years ago. We didn't notice a lot of big changes except for the cheese vats are now enclosed. We sampled the cheeses, but didn't get any ice cream. Hard to believe, I know, but eating ice cream before 9 is a little too early even for us!

 

Just down the road from Tillamook is the Blue Heron Cheese Company. We took a quick spin thru there as well. Personally, I don't think anything is as good as Cowgirl Creamery! We have high hopes for the new creamery opening up in Nevada City. We're definitely looking forward to sampling that as well.

After all that cheese what a better way to work it off than taking a hike. Ned spotted a waterfall sign for a State Park so we decided a hike to the falls was just the thing to do. As far as waterfalls go, this one was pretty good! I'm still trying to get my head around all the lush green in Oregon and all the rivers and waterfalls. I have an idea that we are going to be shocked when re-entering California with the "golden" hills.

 

Here's Ned with the falls behind him.

 

 

 

 

 

By early afternoon we reached Yachats and visited our friends Dean and Shelly. They treated us to a wonderful lunch made from lettuce grown from their own garden. Here's a pic of their community garden. So beautiful and tasty too!

 

 

Here we are in front of their garden.

 

After lunch Dean and Shelly took us on a walking tour of their community. They were the best tour guides ever! We took a walk along an ocean path...

visited a log house church/museum,

 

 

 

 

 

 

meandered through several of the shops and met the local merchants. I'm so impressed with the gardens in Yachats. It reminds me a lot of Mendocino and all the beautiful flowers and gardens through-out town.

 

Thanks Dean and Shelly for a wonderful afternoon and for your warm hospitality.

 

 

 

 

 

We were going to stay at William Tugman State Park this evening and even had reservations. However, we decided to go home via Eugene tomorrow so we settled on Jesse Honeyman State Park instead. It's a huge park, but so beautifully layed out. Every campsite is in the trees. This is our last night camping out, and I'm trying really hard not to be a little sad. Here's me raising a glass of wine to all my friends and family back home. Looking forward to getting together, swimming in the river and enjoying the heat once again!

On the way home tomorrow, Ned and I will compile our "best of" for the trip. We are also going to pick up some cocoa beans from one of our brokers. Stay tuned! One last blog to go...

 

 

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From Sea to Shining Sea

Location: Nehalem State Park, OR

I had the best time following along the Russell 1929 trip from Mound City, MO. to Puyallup, WA. Usually the "plain" states (Iowa & Nebraska) are well - a little plain. This trek made it fun to search for clues and imagine life on the road during the early days of the Lincoln Highway. I also thoroughy enjoyed reaching the coastal Pacific Northwest and finally geting a respite from the triple digit temperatures! Love this picture of one of the fishing villages.

For the first time in weeks we weren't held to a certain route or schedule. We took advantage of this and did a lot of meandering today! We hugged the Pacific Ocean driving down inlets and discovering bays until eventually coming upon Cape Disappointment. We had previously visited Lewis & Clark's starting point near St. Louis so thought it only fitting to take some time to visit their ending spot here. In some ways I've felt like Lewis and Clark, going from Sea to Shining Sea and discovering so many wonderful things. (One of my favorite books is called "From Sea to Shining Sea" and is about the Lewis & Clark expedition. I heartily recommend it).

The museum and interpretive center was so fun! It takes you through their entire journey with lots of displays and hands-on exhibits.

 

 

Here I am using a telescope to find our "dinner" for the evening, looking for turkeys, elk, rabbits, etc.

Patrick Gass was one of the men on the expedition. He died at age 99 and was the longest living member of the Corp of Discovery. His family donated many items to the museum. My favorite was the razor box carved by Sacajawea. How cool is that!

 

 

 

 

 

The top floor of the interpretive center concentrates more on the military and marine history of Cape Disappointment. It's beautiful to look out through an entire wall of glass over the ocean. We had a great view of the lighthouse too.

We've seen many lighthouses in our travels, including the fresnel lens up close. This is the first exhibit where we could actually play with the lenses and create interesting prisms and lighting.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What would a trip down the coast be without stopping to partake in some yummy seafood? We found this little fishing village and Ned enjoyed fish and chips and shrimp cocktail, while I ate clam chowder and crab cakes. Yum!

 

Ned enjoying one of the few rays of sun we had today.

 

 

 

 

We continued to explore more fishing villages until

eventually pulling into Nehalem State Park. It's definitely beach camping, but the campground has lots of cypress trees. We were going to jump on our bikes and go on one of the trails, but we decided to take a nap instead. I think enjoying the cooler weather and being on the road for 7 weeks finally caught up to us!

 

 

 

We did manage to rally for an evening ride and exploration of the park

and beach.

I can't help but reflect on all the beaches we've explored this trip, from the Gulf of Mexico to the tip of Florida and the Atlantic Ocean, not to mention the eastern point of the Dominican Republic in the Carribean. Unlike the other beaches we won't be doing any nighttime swimming here!

 

 

 

 

One of the paths from the beach has a beautiful view of the mountains. Stunning in the early evening.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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