Homeward Bound

We spent last night in Phoenix, Oregon, just south of Medford. And silly you. I'll bet you've lived your whole life thinking Phoenix was in Arizona.

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, we spent the night before in Minden, Nevada, just south of Carson City. After our one day of bad weather, the weather everywhere else has been stunningly beautiful. Yesterday was no exception. The past two days of driving have put a severe dent in my 10k steps per day goal, but that hasn't stopped me from walking every chance I get. I took some time to walk around the park before we took off yesterday. We had a nice view of the mountains. You can see our rig off to the right in the image below, although it blends into the building in the background. We've stayed at this park several times. It's very nice with level spaces...always appreciated by the Resident Driver.

One of our fellow travelers last night was Bobby Freeman, whose website is Bobby Freeman's Musical Experience. You can see more about him at that link I've given you. Basically, he has the back half of a Cadillac with a grand piano attached. Now that's something you don't see every day.

There were some framed pictures attached to the trailer that will give you an idea how this thing works. Apparently, it rocks while it's being played.

This is what it said on the side of the car.

Yeah...so there was that. And we got our last look at the Sierra Nevada mountain range as we headed north.

We were traveling through Reno, Nevada, and I had a good idea I could find some quilt shops in Reno. There were half a dozen or so, and we chose the one that was farthest south and had easy access on and off the freeway.

It happened to be this one...and it was a good one. I'll tell you about it in a separate post.

It was a pretty drive yesterday, but we needed to get back to the west side of the mountains. Many of the best mountain passes were closed due to snow. The lower ones turned out to be winding and crappy roads. Nevertheless, it was very scenic, including the rest areas. I loved how these trees looked in contrast against the deep blue sky.

There were at least three bird houses attached to them, although there did not seem to be any birdie residents this time of year.

Apparently a former bird resident decided to peck his initials in this one.

Maggie has turned into a good little traveler. Her favorite part of traveling is stopping for treats at rest stops...it is the reason we stop, you know. She's turning into a formidable adversary for Smitty, and he's started giving her a wide berth. Even when he's paying no attention to her, she's sometimes aggressive. It's just possible we'll be turning the squirt bottle of doom on her in the not-too-distant future if she doesn't start cutting him some slack. It's going to take her a while to forgive him for his rudeness at their first meeting.

Nevertheless, she's become fairly comfortable and seems to be feeling like a member of the family these days.

From the rest stop there, we continued north through Quincy and Susanville, and eventually crossed the state line into Oregon. Like I said, the roads were crappy, and not conducive to a steady hand with the camera.

I took a few barn shots along the way. Most of them were too far away (or too broken down) to make for very good pictures.

For some reason, many of them came in pairs in this area.

This is a shot of the valley after driving through Susanville and starting our climb up the mountain there.

From there we traveled a lot of winding and bumpy roads, especially the road from Klamath Falls, Oregon to Medford. Oh. My. Goodness. There was a length limit for trucks, and with good reason. The road was one hairpin turn after another. After this trip, Mike and I are beginning to compile a list of roads never to travel in the trailer again. Among them: CA 99, CA 139, and OR 66. Yikes.

And so, from here, we'll be heading home. We have about 260 miles to travel, and so it will seem like a short day in contrast to the some 350 miles we've traveled each of the last two days...on bad roads...don't forget the bad roads. Today, it'll be smooth sailing up I-5 in Oregon. 

Don't look for me to blog for the next day or two while we get the trailer unloaded. Also, I need to head down and pick up Big Bertha from her spa treatment. Thanks to all who followed along on this trip. It's always more fun to travel with friends.