Tuesday, October 28, 2014

2014 Oregon/California - Day 32 and 33 - Headed Home



Day 32 and 33 (Monday and Tuesday) - Visalia to Sweet Home.
What we thought was a civit cat living under house #2 (niece Ayla is living there right now) turned out to be a striped skunk. Doug had set the trap for 3 nights with no success but the sardines finally proved too enticing. Mr. Skunk's "perfume" will no longer greet us at the front door.
Mom is soooo happy Doug took care of the skunk. 
Now we can hit the road. Thanks for everything Mom!!
That's a lot of cotton T-shirts!
Lots of green-ness (alfalfa)
And lots of dryness. This is Cross Creek. In Donna's youth it had many more trees and was a shady respite on hot summer days on horseback. Even then it didn't have water in the summer.


This completes the California bicycling part of our trip. This map shows our route from Anderson (Day 14) to Hanford.
If the first half of the trip was the Mountain Stage then this was the Sprint Stage!
Now it is Amtrak's turn. The bikes are boxed and the train is scheduled to arrive on time.
We mailed the camping gear home last week which makes carrying our "luggage" a lot easier.
A hazy sunset on our way to Martinez.
Still trying to catch up on the blog while we wait for the Coast Starlight. It was only a few minutes behind schedule but it was sleep time as soon as we boarded.
Central Oregon sunrise.
The aspen has turned color since we passed this way on our journey south. It is always a lovely hallmark of autumn.
That's a lot of clouds. California wishes they had some of them, especially the wet ones.
 The Willamette Valley has greened up a lot since we left.
We arrived in Albany about a half hour later than scheduled. This fact is a lot more important in October than it is in July. And Donna's front tire was flat so putting together the bikes was a little more work than usual. We left the station just before 3pm.
So far, so good, no rain, just a little bit of a headwind but no time to dilly dally either.
Home Sweet Home. Sunset 6:17, arrived 6:25!
1027 total miles; 26,300 feet of cumulative elevation gain; 4 flats (in the last 100 miles) and lots of great memories!!! Thanks for coming along for the ride. 

p.s. Doug had another flat tire the next morning.....darn bullheads anyway.

2 comments:

Aline said...

Just finished doing the whole trip with you two - used Google Maps alongside your description to envision your route. WOW! Over 1000 miles on a bike! NOT something that appeals to this couch potato!Loved all the pictures and personalized narration. Inspires me to consider how best to show off some of our own photos of Hawaii and camping trips.
Thanks for sharing! Until the next trip . . .

Unknown said...

Hi, my name is Marty and I met you while I was riding from Spokane to California. I was just outside of Madras, Oregon and you guys stopped your car and offered me water. I had just walked up a very steep hill and was tired beyond measure. Thx so much.