July 30 – Home at Last

We left Colorado on Monday, July 28. It was a bit hard to say goodbye to Boulder.

The drive through Colorado was beautiful. Here is a classic Colorado mountain scene. I noticed lots of pines that are reddish. I believe it is the pine beetle blight that has hit the forests hard.

We drove through Steamboat Springs, which has grown a lot since I last saw it. It is still a pretty town in a beautiful basin. Then we headed on to Dinosaur National Monument and the Green River.

Then on to the Flaming Gorge Recreation area. We stayed in a little cabin overnight. It was the nicest campground we had encountered all summer – complete with playmate for Theo.

 We headed through the southwestern corner of Wyoming, which appeared to all belong to several chemical companies. There were small storage tanks literally everywhere. I havn’t figured it out yet, but will be checking to find out what the heck it all was. Natural gas? Anyone know?

Back into Utah, we passed Bear Lake a huge, blue body of water,

then into the mountains outside Logan, UT  which were beautiful,

and finally across Idaho. No pictures from Idaho. I was getting very antsy about that time, so called my sister-in-law, Caitlin, (Hi Caitlin!) to catch up on the summer. 

Finally…..into Oregon. We drove through gorgeous Eastern Oregon

and spent our last night in Pendleton (this picture was taken just before Pendleton)

Yesterday morning we drove our last several hundred miles through the Columbia Gorge. It felt like home. The trees were huge, the sky bright and blue, a strong wind was blowing, the temperature was in the mid 60’s …. ah, Oregon! 

Have you ever seen Mt. Hood look prettier or more welcoming?

We arrived home happy to be back and grateful for our adventure. The dog was glad to see us, and we encountered both my mom (Hi Harriette!) and our friends and neighbors Suzie and Sam (Hi Lewises!) who both were leaving welcome home signs and food for us. Boy, are we lucky!

Today (July 31) I am feeling the let down. A piece of me is very happy to be here. We have our wonderful home, friends and family all around. And, I have a list of things-to-be-tended-to. 

There is something to be said for traveling light. Stepping outside the mundane gives one the room to let things settle. I feel like the spider webs that have been crowding my brain are gone. I didn’t even get two books read during our trip – I just was in present time, observing the world around me. That is truly a gift as I head into my 51st year. I hope I keep this “travelers mind” for a long time. If I forget, you all can remind me, OK?

I will wrap up with a few remaining posts – one by Theo, one of things-that-I-learned-on-the trip, and a post on Arkansas that I never finished.

As they say, there is no place like home.