Oct 1/08 - Home Sweet Home ...

Wednesday, October 1st/08

On this, the last day of our journey, we leave Portland and our sweet cousins with mixed feelings. Happy to be going home, seeing our precious dog Tobi and meeting back up with friends and… sad to be leaving the adventures of the road. I think there must be a little gypsy blood in both of us – we love to wander and wonder “what’s just over the next hill”, to ride I-5 home (not my favourite) I had my iPod all charged up and ready to “Rock ‘N Roll” or corner, valley or mountain pass or whatever. Had a few stops to make to pick up some last minute ‘tax free’ items and hit the highway at 11:00 a.m. Knowing that we were planning to help pass the miles. A squirrel is performing a ‘high-wire’ act on the telephone wire as we leave cousin Walt’s.

I’m following Rod and don’t give it a second thought until I see a sign that says “To Ocean & Beaches”. Huh ??? To Astoria ??? What the ??? I’m not sure if this is denial or we seriously need to look into buying a GPS unit.

We fuel in North Plains and pick up Cornelius Pass Road to Hwy 30 into St Helens and Rainier where we crossed the Columbia River into Longview, Washington. The maples are flaunting their coat of many colours now. Magnificent crimsons, luscious yellows and earthy ochres. The evergreens provide the matting and framework to help show off their splendour. One of the farms is burning leaves which immediately brings full imagery of autumn to mind. Pumpkin pies, Thanksgiving, jack ‘o lanterns, Halloween.

At the old steel arch bridge that drops into Longview we pull in behind a semi whose brakes were so hot and smoking it looked like he was on fire. Except for the odour his brakes are emitting I am glad we are behind him and not in front.










Rounding the turn that brings us down to the Port of Olympia, my nostrils flare and I catch the unmistakeable scent of the Pacific Ocean. I lick my lips imagining I can taste the salt on them. It is here we see the first Hwy sign that gives the mileage to Vancouver, BC. 189 miles left to go.

The familiar shape of the Tacoma Dome in Everett brings us another step closer and catching sight of the Space Needle in Seattle evokes a thrill of familiar territory.

We take the Express Lanes that run down below the city. You need to be on your toes here – traffic is moving fast but can come to an abrupt halt very quickly. The freeway here runs 5 lanes wide on each side with on-ramps, off-ramps, lanes merging left and right criss-crossing in all directions. On my iPod, Bobby Darin rasps out “Splish Splash I was taking a bath…” It’s a very catchy tune and Rod laughs as he sees me ‘dancing on my footpegs’.

After we fuel the bikes in Marysville we stop at Starbucks for a coffee to enjoy with the tuna sandwiches cousin Walt has lovingly prepared for us to ‘take with us on the road for nourishment’. The sun has burned off all the haze and we are able to sit on the outside patio. A number of young ‘hot dog’ sport bike riders are lounging at the next table swapping bike stories. We join their conversation and you can see the disbelief mixed with curiosity when Rod tells them I rode a sport bike for more than twenty years. They are probably barely 20 now and can’t conceive that this older ‘gal’ could possibly have ridden anything that would be considered ‘competition’. I just smile. Oh to be so young, infallible and indestructible. No thanks – I’m pretty happy where I’m at now – been there, done that, no need to try it out again.

We make our last fuel stop before the border in Blaine, Washington at 5:45 and literally breeze through the border at 6:00 p.m. I had my ID out – she didn’t give it a glance. Asked how long we’d been away, total value of goods being brought in – didn’t ask to look at receipts – just said “You’re on your way then”.









As we cruise up Hwy 99 towards Delta, the sun is setting over the Pacific Ocean. What a perfect end to an amazing adventure.

As we pull in the driveway, Henry opens the garage door and Tobi comes rushing out to greet us. Tail wagging furiously, bark, bark, bark - he seems to be beside himself with glee to see us, as we are him. Henry has done a fantastic job looking after everything – the flowers are still blooming profusely even though fall should be allowing them to dwindle. What a joy and a relief it has been to have him stay and look after Tobi and the house allowing us the freedom to be away so long. I think we all will have to put in some ‘diet’ time but that’s for Monday’s – isn’t it???

Now the work begins. Sorting through 5 ½ weeks of mail, bills, real life …

‘Paladin’ logged just under 5300 miles (8500 km) and Rod’s ‘Wing’ just shy of 6000 miles (9600 km). We were ‘on top of the world’ in Colorado at 12,300 ft and at the lowest depths in Death Valley at 282 feet below sea level. We travelled through eleven US States and two Canadian Provinces. We saw some amazing sights and experienced a lot of history. We grew tired of hearing (as no doubt our American neighbours are) of all of the political goings on before the presidential election coming in November.

Stay tuned and I will endeavour to put up a map of our trip in the next day or so. To everyone who came ‘along for the ride’ – thank you so much for your support, encouragement and emails. I do hope you enjoyed. It kept me going when I thought I might not. Thank you to all the relatives and friends old and new who put us up (and put up with us). It has been such a pleasure and honour to meet up with you and share your stories and lives. We feel enriched and very blessed. I will again close with the line from ‘Desiderata’ – “For all it’s sham, drudgery and broken dreams… it is still a beautiful world”.