just the facts ma'am

The Big Trip is over but there will be more to come. If anything, seeing all these places and meeting all these new friends has produced an appetite for more. The list of places we missed is far longer that what we did see, and we have a growing list of places to visit again. It will be a while before we have the time and budget for another long trip, meanwhile lets see how we did. If you don't care for figures and budgets this post is not for you, but if you wish to know the dirty details, read on.
After checking over the map and all the notes in our log book here are the facts:

time on the road: 12 weeks and 3 three days, or 87 days total

Rodney's odometer: 11,673 miles, an average of about 134 miles/day

the dough: $6,156 total, $495/week average, $71/day average

the gas: $988 for approximately 330 gallons and an average of 34 mpg. (not bad for a 1999 Rav4 that is only supposed to get 28 mpg.)

two oil changes on the road: $123.78 (that was all Rodney needed on the trip, but we invested about $150 for parts pluss some sweat equity for preventative maintenance before starting down the road)

18 nights in motels: $1,262, average $70/night

13 nights camping out: $190, average $15/night

56 nights on the hospitality of friends (and family): $0, but this should be a negative number, because we received so much more than just places to sleep. This would have been a very different trip if not for the generosity of so many people.

How does all this compare to the original plan? Surprisingly well. After putting pins in our map for all the places we wanted to visit, and more importantly, for all the people we wanted to visit we made a rough itinerary and made a guess at what we would spend. We figured on a minimum of 10 weeks on the road, a budget between $5,000 and $7,000, and a distance of about 10,000 miles. Our actual average spending of $495/week miraculously hit the target dead center. Until we were home and I had added things up I had no idea that we had stayed so close to the plan.

We tried to plan our destinations so that the drive times were four hours or less per day. For most of the trip that was true but we did have some marathons. The first was the stretch from Marfa to Austin, Texas. That was about eight hours. There were others but none compared to our last stretch home when we had simply had enough and wanted to be home. That last day of 14.5 hours of driving in a 16 hour day took the cake.

I had imagined that we would spend more time camping out, but with threatening weather and the pain in the neck of breaking camp after one night (in most cases) we just didn't have the energy on too many evenings and we'd settle for a motel. Those of you who have been reading along since the beginning may remember our Transit Connect dream. It's a small commercial van from Ford that I thought would make a swell tiny camper. If that had come true we would have spent more time in camp sites. Having a ready made bed makes things much easier than setting up a tent for the night.

I have to say again that no such trip in this budget would ever have been possible without the generosity of our many hosts. We slept on couches, air mattresses and floors, we were well fed, and well entertained, and we managed several loads of laundry along the way. Our impressions of the many places we visited were richly flavored by the people who took us in and showed us their stomping grounds. We can not thank them enough. In addition, we were buoyed by the generous support and gifts of many others who helped us make our way down the road.
The pink line on the map has brought us back to California, but the rest of that open space is calling. Maybe we can get our hands on a Transit Connect some day soon and make the long loop of the Southwest. Heck, we could spend a year in New Mexico alone... Hmm, I need a job first, at least for a while.

Home At Last

California 8/5
we returned home from our trip to this lovely package from some favorite people. who could have asked for a better return. now what?

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.

leapin' lava tubes

7/29 Craters of the Moon

The night before was spent in a motel in Idaho Falls. The notion of camping out had been nixed by the threatening clouds and the severe thunder storm warnings on the radio, but staying in a motel makes getting out for the morning quick and easy. No ground cover to dry out, no tent to roll up, and that fresh showered feeling just can't be beat.

We passed through Arco, Idaho on the way to Craters of the Moon National Monument. The town offers some swell small town charm on the main drag and just out side of town we passed this achingly worn abandoned house. Arco's claim to fame is being the first town electrified with power from a nuclear reactor. The first experimental nuclear breeder reactor in the U.S. was activated here in 1951 but it was a second reactor a few years later that lit up the town. A bit further to the West out of town one can visit that reactor site and see all sorts of didactic exhibits. Apparently this reactor had the world's first partial melt down too. That's nothing to sniff at.

Another bit down the road (we happened to be traveling part of the historic Goodale Cuttoff of the Oregon Trail) we arrived at Craters of the Moon National Monument. A truly surreal place and sooo hard to photograph.
Folks on the Oregon Trail had to use the few land marks and cinder cones that stick up in this unearthly place to skirt these lava beds either to the north (that's the cutoff I mentioned) or to the south on the main trail. Trying to cross any of this black rumpled blanket with a wagon would be nuts'o. We explored what we could before the heat of the day could turn the black landscape into an inferno. There are paved paths provided to reduce the erosion caused by foot traffic and lots of signs discouraging folks from climbing on the rare splatter cones. All the Hawaiian terms for the forms of lava rock are used in the educational materials about the geology here. It made me think that the National Monument staff might benefit by invoking the protection of Pele and her curse to help out with protecting this special place. Mess with Pele's stuff and she will put something real bad on your plate.

There are big lava tubes here too. Some of them are quite easy to explore and have steel stairs at the entrance. Others require spelunking gear and some experience. The one tube we visited was a favorite of the local pigeons these days (not too many but enough to dabble plenty of guano here and there). The temperature down in the holes was pleasant too, even as the air outside heated up to the high nineties. It was easy to see why these places were once favored by the Shoshone (and maybe the pigeons of yore as well).
The visitor center featured a relief map of the broad Snake River valley designed to highlight the volcanic history of the area. The big valley is primarily the result of a long series of caldera eruptions that blasted out huge quantities of materials. The Craters of the Moon area is a less violent lava flow that released some of the left over heat and magma from one of these ancient explosions. In addition I learned that the Yellowstone area is the remnant of the most recent of these calderas. The geothermal activity there is just a faint hint of the energy released when the caldera blew it's top.

Once again the heat of the day had us beat and we spent the second half of the day driving to a motel just outside of Boise where we took a nap. The rest, a shower, and a bed for the night would at least make the next day's trek to the John Day Fossil Beds easier.

playing in our own private idaho

upon entering Idaho, we found ourselves surrounded by fields and fields of grassy and wheaty things. there were clouds all around (and we do LOVE us some clouds) and suddenly, the sun peeped through and i hollered pull over so mr. a-go-go did.there was something wonderful and quirky and magical about the light so i snapped away. i don't know if you can see it here but it was lovely. so lovely in fact that we pulled out our masks (the bunnies, not the bernies)...and then we jumped.and jumped.and jumped some more.

these are the moments in the trip that make me smile. well, make me smile just a little bit more.

early gysers and grand peeks

7/28 Yellowstone, Grand Tetons, and the Snake River

The morning went by in a slow manner and we packed up camp quite lazily. The day called for a drive to Cody in which we were to (hopefully) procure not-too-expensive lodgings before we hightailed it up to Yellowstone.

Hopeful, schmopeful, we got one of the last rooms in a swanky safari themed hotel complete with cuddly stuffed lion on the bed. Crazy. We simmered down on the crankiness and went to bed early so we could be up and out before the sun. It would take about two hours to get to the park and we wanted to see pretty not people.Even up as early as we are there were still all sorts of cars zipping here and there both TO and IN the park. We still took our time and moseyed about. We stopped for thermal vents, pretty flowers, a bison and a moose! We stood still and listened to bees and birds. I even used my pstyle on the side of the road and waved at a passing truck.Eventually we made our way to the visitor's center and the ever famous Old Faithful geyser. We lucked out and arrived about twenty minutes before the next "show". Old Faithful did not disappoint but we enjoyed the crowd's reaction a wee bit more than the geyser itself. Show over, we hitched up the cameras and adventure bag and took a walk along the path in search of other geysers and chromatic pools.While there were (was?) a good number of other people about, arriving when we did saved us from major traffic and people blues. While our fellow early risers camped out by Grand geyser, mr. a-go-go and I took a somewhat empty path and wandered for another mile or so. While traipsing across a wooden bridge, we stopped to watch the swallows and swifts. mr. a-go-go suddenly noticed the gaping open mouths of baby birdies peeking out from a knothole in one of the bridge's posts. I snuck in for a closer look and even caught a tiny bit on video. Like I mentioned before, we definitely lean towards being birding dorks.As luck would have it, we managed to hit Grotto not too long after it "erupted" and gazed upon it for about half an hour checking out its blurts and fizzes and shoots and steam. Grotto may be the oldest active geyser in the park, while Old Faithful can be quite showy and predictable, we think we enjoyed Grotto a bit more as it had a lot of character and grumbled about in a lackadaisical way. You can't really time it though but if you get it "just" right yer in for a treat! After we had our fill, we wandered back through passing Grand (which STILL had not blown), more people and the chromatic pools. Tired and weary we decided to pile back into Rodney to continue through the park.Upon seeing the number of cars all about, we decided to pass on exploring the rest of the park and continued on out to the south side of the park towards Shoshone. It was a good decision for us a-go-gos once we saw the long, long line of cars waiting to enter on our way out. We motored on out with a stop here and there to admire the Tetons, fuel up poor Rodney (and pick up more cheetos), and continue on to Idaho.