People often ask how long it takes us to drive across the country and it's hard to answer. We tend to wander and stop whenever we feel like it. This time, we covered 4,680 miles and the trip took us almost exactly a month. About one fourth of that mileage was "side-trips" when the trailer was unhooked and parked in an RV Park. But we didn't do as much of that as we used to. Almost all of our day-trip explorations were while we stayed in Colorado -- and we didn't use our car there one single time because our hosts drove everywhere.
We left our Oregon home the last week in September. The pictures in the mosaic below are from the week or two before we left. The top row pictures are from a walk we took along the middle fork of the Willamette River. That Juvenile Robin looks more like Spring than it does the end of September.
The weather was still like summer even though our favorite farm market was displaying the requisite Autumn pumpkins. And the blue sky was taken in back of our daughter's a few days before we left -- we were packing up the trailer getting ready to go. (Well, somebody was. I was taking pictures obviously). October's usually beautiful in our part of Oregon too and so part of me felt like it was kind of early to leave. But of course on the day we were actually ready to hook that trailer up and hit the road it began to rain, and it didn't stop all morning.
It was too wet to take pictures, but here's a quick one that encompasses both the sad and happy reasons to head South. Our daughter and her youngest grand-child (and our youngest great-grand) braved the rain to run out to the barn for one last good-bye. (Miss Harper was unimpressed with us, but apparently happy to be warm and dry inside Grandma's barn-coat.) Harper's older brother, who is two, cried when we said goodbye earlier. All summer, he had enjoyed watching his Great-Grandpa work whenever they happened to be at Cyndi and Jeff's house at the same time. We will miss everyone .. that is the downside to our love of travel.
But rain or shine and after all the goodbyes, we did finally get on the road again.
It's a long lonesome road to Burns in Eastern Oregon -- way out yonder pardner. Those signs are from the RV Park where we stayed . It took us a couple of days to get out of our home State -- we don't rush things.
More of the same on the next couple of days as we traveled through Nevada -- except not even any interesting RV Park pictures. We stayed in Winnemucca and Ely. But the scenery definitely improved soon after we crossed the Stateline into Utah.
On the first of October, we spent the night in Green River State Park . The picture above and in the collage below are from that day's drive. It was a stunning scenic tour of a day.
We were getting anxious to get to Colorado to see our family there and so we didn't spend as much time in the Green River area as it deserved. But there were quite a few quick photo-stops.
We already knew we'd have beautiful scenery in the next State too, plus good company! We were both so happy to get to Ridgway the next day. Below is a picture of our Colorado family (although it was taken days later, not the minute we arrived):
And another shot in (or near) their new "backyard":
Colorado wasn't actually halfway on our roadtrip -- it was only the end of the shorter half! But it was our first and only planned stop. As we'd hoped, we arrived at exactly the right time for its famous Autumn color. Beautiful Fall and no snow yet. That's perfection.
More beautiful Colorado scenery and the longer half of the roadtrip still to come along with some getting reaquainted with Florida shots.
Thankful for family and safe and scenic travels.
LINKING this week to the following, with thanks to all of the hosts:
MOSAIC MONDAY; NATURE NOTES; THROUGH MY LENS; TRAVEL PHOTO SOUVENIRS; OUR WORLD ON TUESDAY; MY CORNER OF THE WORLD; SIGNS SIGNS; THANKFUL THURSDAY; SKYWATCH FRIDAY; FRIDAY BLISS; and SATURDAY CRITTERS