Goodbye USA

Hi All,
We've moved a little farther north. Now we're in Omak, Washington, about 45 miles from the Canadian border. Our plan is to cross the border tomorrow morning and then spend the night somewhere around Hope, BC.

We have no pictures from our drive up but most of it was either along the Wenatchee or Columbia rivers. Obviously the snow up high is melting because both rivers are over full and running fast.

One thing I forgot to mention in my previous post. Did you know there is a $500 fine for pumping your own gas at a gas station in Oregon? Can't remember the last time I had a gas station attendant pump fuel for me. No, they don't clean your windshield for you. They stood around and watched Susan do it. Oregon and New Jersey both have laws prohibiting John Q Public from pumping gas. New Jersey's law was enacted in 1948, Oregon's in 1951.

No pictures from our drive here but Susan took a few pictures of Duncan over the last week or so, I'll include them.

Where's my food?

This is one affectionate dog

Backup Navigator

Take care.
Brian

Northern Californa

Hi All,
Our last post was from Moro Bay, California. From there we continued north.  We're going to do a lot of that in the next month or so.

Here is the map of the route this post will cover...

Our first stop was Half Moon Bay to see Susan's niece Irene and her boyfriend Jeff. We had a nice visit and some great seafood.

The next day, Monday, we made multiple stops. First we went by HDS in Santa Clara to see some of the people I worked with for the last 35 years. It was great to see those that were able to join us. Sorry we missed some that were away from the office.

Even though we were full, I had talked about the garlic fries at Alice's Restaurant on Skyline Drive so much over the last several years Susan wasn't about to be in the neighborhood and not try them. What a gorgeous place and the garlic fries did not disappoint!

From there we went to Livermore to see our friends the Wilsons that moved from Texas to Livermore last year. A nice dinner Monday night and breakfast at Wente Vineyards on Tuesday morning. It was great to see Jim and Pam. Tuesday night we had dinner with my ex-boss-and-still-friend Steve and his wife Cindy. It was three days of being in very familiar territory and seeing lots of good friends for me. Susan finally got to meet some of the people she's heard about for the last three years.

Wednesday we made it to Windsor, CA after a couple of false starts trying to get up highway 1, the Pacific Coast Highway. Here are some pictures of the drive up highway 1.

Thursday we made it to Trinidad, California before calling it a day. Friday we drove by Crater Lake on our way to Terrabonne, Oregon. Here are a few pictures from that part of the trip. Crater Lake is breathtaking. It made us a bit late getting to our campground Friday night but it was well worth it.

Mt Hood from the highway

Crater Lake

Yes, that's snow

Part of the park road was still closed due to snow

Saturday we drove on to Sunnyside, Washington. As we crossed the Columbia River and into Washington we stopped for lunch along the road. The view did not suck.

The Columbia River gorge 

Mt Ranier off in the distance

 That's it for now. Tomorrow, Monday, we'll move farther north in Washington. Our plan is to cross into Canada on Tuesday or Wednesday.

Take care.
Brian

Pacific Ocean

Hi All,
When I last left you, we were in Quartzsite, Arizona. Here are a couple of pictures from our campsite.

Below is the route we took, which took us through the Mojave Desert and Joshua Tree National Park. Pay no attention to the numbered pins, we made the trip in two days and thankfully avoiding Los Angeles.

A picture from the Mojave Desert...

And a few from Joshua Tree National Park. I didn't know what a Joshua Tree looked like. Now I do.

A little color from Moro Bay...

We're at a campground in Moro Bay. Here is Moro Rock, which is in the middle of Moro Bay.

Moro Bay...

Duncan had his first exposure to the Pacific Ocean and a beach. Here's Susan and Duncan as he starts to check things out.

It didn't take long and Duncan had a new friend. He was wore out when they were through.

Another view of Moro Rock from down the beach.

And a beautiful sunset to end the day. Good night Soli...

Brian

On the road again!

Hi All,
In keeping with my promise to write more often and include pictures more often (always), here's what's been going on over the last five days or so.

Sunday, Mother's Day, we left Gun Barrel City and drove to Junction, where we spent a good portion of the winter. I've signed on to do IT work for them so we stayed in Junction for a couple of days while I dealt with some ransom ware that got on one of the campground's computers. Thanks to Dana for her help.

From Junction we drove I-10 to Las Cruces, New Mexico on Tuesday. It was VERY windy and Very dusty for most of that drive. Wednesday we drove to Quartzsite, Arizona, nearly to California. Here is our route, just over 1300 miles in this leg which makes the total from our start in Virginia of 2,800 miles.

A picture of the mountains off in the distance from just west of Las Cruces.

An Arizona rest stop...

Seems strange to write something this short. But that's it for now.

Brian

Back in Texas

Hi All,
With Good Morning Vietnam snug as a bug in a rug in Deltaville, Virginia, we headed back to Texas. Gun Barrel City to be exact. We didn't take the most direct route but didn't dilly dally much. Here is a look at our route.

The reason I show this map is because I consider it the start of the very long road trip we have planned for the summer. This piece was 1,495 miles. We've stayed in Texas for a couple of weeks catching up with family and friends. An interesting aside, as we crossed back into Texas from Arkansas, we turned 30,000 miles on the truck we bought 8 months ago. Both Susan and I like road trips but I never thought we'd do that many miles so quickly. And there is more to come. Much more.

In the next few days we'll leave Texas again, this time heading West. From here we will make our way to Northern California to visit some friends and family before turning North and driving to Alaska. Yes, we're driving to Alaska. Talk about a road trip! We'll likely put 7,000 or 8,000 more miles on the truck before we get back to Texas. The short story on our trip is to drive the AlCan highway through Canada to Alaska, visit Fairbanks, Denali Homer and the Kenai Peninsula. The route back will be on the ferry, visiting Juneau, Sitka, Ketchikan (spending a couple of days at each stop) and then getting off the ferry in Prince Rupert and making our way to Jasper and Banff before heading back to the US. Once back in the US we'll visit Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons before meeting up with friends in Montana for the total solar eclipse on August 21.

Here's a look at a portion of our route through Canada and Alaska.

That's it for now. I'm going to try and post more often and include lots of pictures as we get underway.

Take care.
Brian