one last driving marathon

8/4 Portland to Home

Up early, packed up, and in the car by 7am. Why is the last day of any road trip always a long long drive? We were suffering from serious travel fatigue in our last week on the road so I suppose doing the last leg in one go was inevitable. We had thoughts of trying to visit one more friend in Santa Cruz on our way south or possibly stopping for the Underground Gardens in Fresno, but the thought of one more night in a motel just filled us with dread. So... 14 hours of driving in one day? No sweat. The last three months had me well prepared for the task.
There is little to say about the drive. It was just long, and in fact I remember very little of it. With the end traveling in sight very little mattered other than staying awake all the way home. Shasta greeted us South of the California border and threw us into the Central Valley. I think lunch was had in the car while driving and other than stopping for gas and a few leg stretches our only pit stop was dinner at Denny's in Red Bluff.
We slogged our way through traffic West of the bay area and hopped on the 101 near San Jose. As night fell some low clouds and fog turned up on the road ahead. It made me think of all the unknowns coming for us at the end of the road; no jobs, no home, no real plan. Oh well, we had chosen to take this grand tour knowing what we would have to give up. Now we'd just have to dig in and get to work.

As the headlights came on we figured that if fatigue set in and threatened to send us into the ditch, a stop for the night would be OK, but that never happened. This marathon went very smoothly and we made it home by 11pm.
Here we are in the morning after our 16 hour day. Unloading Rodney and sorting the pile would just be the first step on the next journey.

portland a-go-gos

Oregon 8/2-8/3
well folks, this is truly the last leg of our crazy journey. we rolled into portland like mr.a-go-go wrote ready to see some favorite people yet so so so ready to be home. it was as if the travel fatigue fairy walloped up on our noggins, we were that eager to be home but first we would visit.sadly, as it was summer, these lovely people were on their very own road trip so we were unable to squeeze each other and make a mad dash for the booth. luckily for us though, we were mere moments away from visiting with these lovely people as they were getting ready to journey out themselves. phew! talk about timing! we may have had only a day and a half but it was oh-so-nice to hug and squeeze and chat, chat, chat away. it was so lovely to play catch up and see how the young miss had grown.there was crafty talk, catch up talk, errand running, taco truck snacking, home cooked meal enjoying and some major scone scarfing. susan and family eventually squeezed out the door for their own adventure leaving us another night in their lovely home (with our very own jar of home made jam).we took the day s l o w l y. laundry was finished, photos were uploaded, books were read and banh mi was sought out. we wondered if we would camp on the way down. would we take this route or that route. would we see friends here or there or would we take the plunge and drive straight through? this was the end of our trip...the end of our trip! it felt at once exciting, thrilling and completely without luster. darn that trip fatigue fairy. even as we slooped into the guest bed all made up with vintage bedding we still hadn't figured it out. the morning would see us through and so we slept.

an oregon beach day

Oregon Coast 8/1
we woke up bright eyed and ready for something. we need to explore for a few hours before Susan and family would be home for us to visit with back at their casa. we decided a beach day would be a good thing as last time we came to oregon we never got to see the coast so after loading up Rodney we were off!

we took the time for the scenic route and bypassed the big highway. while it may have added almost an hour to our drive it was worth as there were berries involved.and yes, we picked some. how could we not? we even picked up a few blackberries. i think blueberry picking may be one of our most favorite things on this trip. after all we are now old pros at it. mr. a-go-g is now looking at bushes to see if we can grow some at "home".we drove for what seemed like forever, past sleepy towns, a coastal train and the Tillamook Cheese Factory! eventually, hunger ruled and we pulled into a spot high above the sands below and trekked down for a seaside lunch and mayhaps even a nap.the weather was perfect. not too cold, not too hot and the beach was perfectly populated. we enjoyed ourselves immensely. eventually we packed up and made the wee trek back to the car to explore the rest of what the coast had to offer.we had hoped to make it to Astoria but found we lacked time in that department so instead we took a peek at the road food book to see if there was anything nearby. there was, so we turned onto a popular street that took us through the even more popular town of Seaside. the spot we were fixin' to find was gone but there was enough to see and a parking spot right in front of us.serendipity! we pulled in and wandered checking out the carousel and the candy store. eschewing the really, really good fudge, we settled for a scoop each and licked it all up before it melted. now, finally, it was time to head to our portland home.

big river, lots'a falls, and lots'a people

7/31 from the fossil beds to Beaverton, Oregon

Heading north from the John Day Fossil Beds area on highway 97 we passed through vast wheat fields with two white peaks of the Cascades on the horizon. We stopped for a few minutes to stretch and listen to the dry rush of wind through the heads of grain, then the road dropped into the Columbia Gorge. We met the river East of The Dalles where the gorge has been partly filled with a wide dam bound lake. It wasn't until we drove West some distance before the gorge turned into the green coated dripping wet valley that we remembered from our first visit to Portland.
We took some time to visit some of the fantastic waterfalls that drop from the basalt cliffs of the gorge. We hiked a bit of a trail passing close enough to a cascade to soak our clothes to the skin with a heavy blasts of mist. I can not recall the name of the one we visited but there are several to choose from along the Historic Columbia River Highway.
Our drive brought us to the gorge on a weekend in the summer and it's a very popular place. Don't let the photo above fool you, the trail was full of damp hikers. We waited for a rare opportunity to take this picture of the bridge in front of the falls. If you want to hike these popular trails in the summer do start out early as the parking gets a bit crazy particularly at Multnomah Falls. The loop trail that climbs the cliffs above Multnomah and some of the smaller falls is well worth braving the small parking lots.
Further along, the highway climbs high above the river to the Vista House. The web is littered with fine photos of the view from this place and it was a bit overcast by the time we were there, so I will stick with the pretty picture above. This was taken on the stairs to the upper floor. The colored glass was casting some swell light that day. From here we drove into Portland to seek out a room for the night. We were a little ahead of schedule and our hosts in Portland would not be expecting us yet. The best deal for the night turned up in Beaverton where we could flop down on the beds and take a break from the long day of driving.

where the fossils sleep

7/30 and 7/31 John Day Fossil Beds National Monument

Travel fatigue, hot weather, and the feeling that we were running out of time and money kept us from taking time to linger in the places we saw after Jefferson City, MO. Still, we managed to scope out several places where we would like to return on future trips. These places are closer to our end of the continent a more leisurely return trip won't be too difficult, and maybe by then we'll have our Transit Connect to make camping out a more simple proposition. One of the spots on the map that I really wanted to check out for future reference was the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument. There are three parts of this monument with short hiking trails and a visitor center but the area of the fossil beds them selves is enormous covering much of northern central Oregon and then some. The area has a long history of sedimentary geology interspersed with volcanic activity including basaltic lava flows and layers of ash fall. All this history and the erosion action of the John Day River (and a mess of tributaries) has created one of the richest and most continuous fossil records in the world. It presents a library of fossilised critters, plants, insects, and more spanning from 6 million to 54 million years ago. That makes it a nearly complete record of the Tertiary Period.
The visitor center is a must see for any aspiring fossilised bone sleuth. The displays will keep 'em busy for hours. The fine grain of the stone resulting from the ancient ash falls in the area has preserved some astonishing things, and the samples of leaves, seeds, and other plant materials preserved in a layer known as "the nut beds" (I just love that title) all look like they fell off the trees yesterday. The sound track playing inside the museum area is a little nutty. It is intended to offer the background noises of an ancient forest that once stood here. I was delighted, but the quantity of grunting and rustling of bushes makes the place sound like all 50 million years of critters had been herded into one little clearing in the forest.
The folks at the visitor center had a small map of campgrounds in the area so we decided to give it a go. I can't quite recommend any of the sites we visited, but they will do in a pinch. Unfortunately many of the camping facilities this part of Oregon to the north of the visitor center are not getting the maintenance they need. There were sites right along the river and some were popular and quite full even if they seemed barren. One of the pit toilet shacks we saw had the standard bullet holes in it. We did not visit it but the area to the south the John Day River might be a better bet. We did at last find one camp ground that was neither deserted nor full to over flowing. The tent sites were a bit too sloped and weedy but we were ready to take what we could get. The camp host visited in the morning and he was nice enough but the place is in need of some animal proof trash receptacles and even more in need of some pit toilet repair.

After an OK night (including an hour in the car while some thunder rolled through) and some hot chocolate in the morning, it was off to see the other parts of the fossil beds. On the way we couldn't help stop at a small hill top cemetery just outside the town of Fossil on highway 218.
Had to do some jumping.
The second part of the Fossil Beds Monument had more of the spectacular weathered rocks and some short hiking trails into the hills.
Exploring more of this layer cake of mineralized bones will have to wait for another trip with more time and another season when the days allow for some longer hikes. With a long way to go down the Columbia Gorge by the evening, it was time to head north into the wide wheat fields south of The Dalles. So long nut beds.