24 States in 27 Days - Day 27:

November 5th, 2012, Monday: For some reason, we both woke about 4:15am and decided to just get up. I took a couple of photos of our “camp” site, then a quick self portrait which was a mistake since the flash totally blinded us! ha. Brad drove and we hit the road at 4:45. It was still dark out and at a rest area east of Bend I took sunrise photos while Brad washed up.

I took over driving from there into Bend where we stopped for gas. After Dutch Bros coffees we continued west on hwy. 20 watching the sun warm up the gorgeous mountains, making us really happy to be back in beautiful Oregon! 

The light was stunning so we had to stop in Black Butte to shoot a few morning pics. 

We stopped again at the top of the pass for a snack break, mixing salsa with cottage cheese then took off again, as I fed the driver and tried to capture the brilliant gold maples tucked between the dark Douglas firs. Oregon was really putting on an amazing light show to welcome us home! 

We arrived in Corvallis around 10:00 am and went to pick up paintings before pulling into our driveway at 10:15. Yay! Home sweet home! The aroma of cedar greeted us in our driveway, and everything looked so green, but the sun had disappeared as we'd descended into the Willamette Valley, replaced by fog.

7,344 miles later....

We opened windows and doors to the house to air it out since the temperature was the same inside and out, then unloaded our truck - our home away from home. 

It has been 21 months since our road trip in 2012, and I hope some people have been reading along as I’ve slowly recapped our adventures, and to reward those that have joined us on this story of our trip I’d love to give away a 5x7 unframed photograph of one of the images we took during our trek across America. Please leave a comment on this post telling me which photo or day was your favorite, and after one week I’ll put the names in a hat and draw one and that person can pick their favorite photograph and I’ll mail it to them. If there are lots of comments I might even draw more than one! 

24 States in 27 Days - Day 26:

November 4th, 2012, Sunday: There wasn’t any ice on our windows this morning --- a gorgeous sunny day, but it was still quite chilly out. We used the last of our water to make coffee, and discovered we were also out of cocoa and cream. It felt like we truly were reaching the end of our road trip! 

Our plan was to check out Moab some more as we left the campground, so I was surprised and pleased when Brad decided he was ready to just take off, and turned north onto 191. The road was calling! 

We spotted a hot air balloon as we cruised along, and pulled over a couple of times to get some pics.

After a short jaunt on I-70, we exited onto hwy. 6/191, for a pit stop in the little town of Helper where we filtered water, and ate the leftover cornbread muffins. 

Soon after leaving Helper we turned onto hwy. 6 towards Provo Utah. In Provo we pulled into a McDonald’s parking lot to tap into their internet so I could check email and see when I needed to be home to retrieve paintings from an art show. Our deadline was noon the next day. After a grocery stop, we took off on I-15 north, and I helped direct Brad through the freeway maze of Provo, Orem, and Salt Lake City. We stopped for gas in Kaysville, just south of Ogden which had a nice rural feel to it compared to the Salt Lake area. 

Then we veered from I-15 onto I-84, a few miles from the Idaho border, and stopped at a rest area just south of the intersection with I-86 to make a quick pb & j. Quick because it was a nasty one! We then continued through Idaho, staying on the freeway until we came to Bliss where we had to do a quick drive through just so we could say we’d reached Bliss! 

After getting gas, we hopped back onto I-84, driving into the sunset. 

It was dark as we approached the Oregon sign and we passed it so fast, I wasn’t able to shoot a photo, so since we stopped for gas at the next exit, we decided we had to go back and try again. Hilariously, we did, heading east, back into Idaho just so we could take this last state entrance sign. We needed proof we were finally in our home state! 

We then looked for the hwy. 20/26 exit and began our backroad trek home. After a flurry of texts to family letting them know we were now in Oregon, Brad drove us off into the dark, while I worked on my laptop. Eventually Brad tired of peering into blackness for animals and was ready for a break, so he found a wide spot to pull over, I tucked things away and took over driving and was soon zooming west on hwy. 20 east of Burns. We pulled off at a brightly lit gas station to study the map together and spotted a rest area west of Burns and thought we’d try sleeping there. Arriving around 9:45, we parked in a quiet corner, quickly moved things into the cab, set the alarm for 6:00 am, then curled up in bed and almost instantly fell asleep. We heard a couple of trucks come and go but otherwise it was a very quiet campground.