Thursday 9/6, Friday 9/7, Saturday 9/8
We’re now just chewing up the miles on Interstate 5. We pass the time talking about the trip and remembering the great times. Thursday is totally uneventful. Everett, Seattle, Tacoma, Olympia, Longview, Portland, Salem—notable only as waypoints. CJ and the Admiral are crusted with Alaskan and Canadian dust. As we pass or are passed by sister ships we wonder if they swell with pride from their wonderous adventure.
Thursday we overnight in a rest area near Talbot, Oregon.
Friday we climb out of the flat prairie into the mountains of southern Oregon and northern California. The mountains are beautiful and rekindle memories of more distant peaks. Late in the afternoon we stop for the night in a rest area with a clear view of distant Mount Shasta—thrusting up from the brown landscape, its gray pinnacles touched with snow--impressive and a nice view from the front window of the Admiral.
Saturday morning we are awakened to the blaring sound of Mariachi music. It seems that last night we parked near a Mexican coffee & breakfast place that abuts the highway. Ole.
We’ve spent the night near Weed, CA. Gotta love this state. A few miles south of Weed we pass the rest area where we spent our first night back on 6/27—talk about coming full circle. Most of the day we’re traveling familiar roads, amid familiar terrain, and through familiar urban environments. We arrive in Santa Cruz in the late afternoon and park the Admiral on the Santa Cruz Harbor. In front of us sail and power boats float on Pacific waters. We are home and happy to be home. We are home and wishing we were in the Yukon. We are home and already beginning to dream of the next adventure. We are home, and we are very happy.
