Final Word.

I’m realizing that this will be my 12^th post since we left Victoria on February 2, 2011. Obviously I have too much to say! The posts help me to remember the highlights of our trips, or memorable things at least.

just west of Flagstaff at 7000 feet

We’re home now, as of yesterday, and our storm dodging strategy worked out pretty well. We drove directly west the first day while a strong storm passed north of us. We stopped again in the Napa Valley while another one blew through the northwest, including Victoria, and left a dump of snow in its wake. Then we had one long wet day from Ashland, Oregon to Marysville, Washington but only about 10 minutes of the wet was snow.  

I wish we could have captured the scale of the orchards - miles

The San Joachim Valley is huge and FLAT

beef cattle; ugly conditions and a terrible stench for miles

Mt Shasta revisited, and the end of blue skies

I5 somewhere in Oregon

and traffic

There are stories of course, like having $7.00 between us and suddenly landing at a $5.00 toll plaza. Jim is not-quite-yelling at me to be in the left lanes toward Sacramento, and I am not-quite-yelling at him to find some money. Then there was the wasted 15 minutes because I followed a bus onto a HOV (high occupancy vehicle) exit instead of a HOV lane which landed us in grid lock before we could get back to I5.

Aside from Jim, I have some favourite travelling companions:

My Merrill shoes, Nikon camera (one battery change, AA rechargeable, for thousands of photos) yellow Bolle sunglasses for poor visibility, the Garmin GPS that had a personality transplant in Sedona, and our Gateway netbook.
Today it is wildly windy here on the Island and various ferries have been cancelled, but we are tucked in catching up on exciting things like bills.  So there you have it: a great trip.