The Long Way Home

We planned the first two stops on the trip home before leaving the Fiesta. We chose Sleeping Ute RV Park a few miles outside of Cortez, CO for its proximity to a network of mountain bike trails called Phil’s World that Rog had ridden two years ago when we did our year on the road. (Has it been that long?!). He had a great time revisiting the trail system while I caught up on a couple weeks’ worth of laundry.

On the trails in Phil's World. 

Ok, the bone art is just a little creepy. Lol.

  

My fondest memories of Cortez involved Moose and More, a gourmet ice cream and chocolate shop. Happily, we both got to revisit our favorite spots. Riley is a fan now too. 😊

We don't want to share, so Riley gets his own ice cream at Moose & More. 

Handmade chocolates and the cutest bear stool.
I was hoping he could follow me home, but no luck.

Our second stop was another mountain biking mecca that we hit on our big trip. We arrived on Tuesday, 10/15, for a two-night stay at Horsethief Campground near Moab, UT. Moab has become ridiculously popular with mountain bikers, the jeep crowd, and all manner of outdoor enthusiasts. We couldn’t believe how much the town has grown. Given all the crowds and new construction, it appears to be a victim of its own success. Rog opted to ride the trails near the campground rather than deal with the hordes closer to Moab. I took Riley on the hiking trail near the campground and we spent the evenings by the campfire.

The boys are relaxing at Horsethief BLM campground. 

Scenes from Rog's mountain bike ride.

View from the hiking trail.

Perfect evening for a campfire.

Rog had been minding the weather forecasts and we needed to choose our route home. Our original plan was just to beat feet north but there were winter storm warnings for some of the passes. Hmmmm. Then Rog made the mistake of saying we could go through Sacramento and then up I-5. The route was 400 miles longer and I-5 is mind numbingly boring, BUT we’d get to visit our youngest daughter, Rian. The downside, to get there by the weekend we’d have to put in some long driving days. We’ve learned the quickest way to burn out on the road is trying to go too far, too fast. So we try to plan for 150-mile days and no more than 2 consecutive travel days without a layover. Hmmmm… we needed to go 832 miles in three days. AND we had red flag warnings and a wind advisory across parts of Utah and Nevada. This is going to be fun (NOT).

Sunrise and we're ready to roll.

We opted for an early start and pulled out of Horsethief on Thursday, 10/17, while the sunrise was still painting the sky. We put in back-to-back 325-mile days to get across Nevada.  The section of I-70 that we traveled was gorgeous. Then we turned onto Hwy 50 – The Loneliest Road. I can assure you that there is a whole lot of nothing across most of Nevada. We stayed one night at the Sacramento Pass BLM campground near Ely, NV and loved it there. One of those tiny gems we wished we had more time to explore. We fought the winds our second day and made it to a RV park in Fernley, NV. From there, we pulled into the RV park at Cal Expo in Sacramento around lunchtime on Saturday. Wooohooo, we made it!

Merrimac and Monitor

This stretch of I-70 was beautiful.

At Sacramento Pass BLM campground.

View from the campground.

Loved the old-school insulators. 

Tiny fish pond at the campground.

Alien invaders shared our site.

Our plan was to stay three nights in Sacramento, visiting Rian on Saturday and Sunday and then driving to St. Helena to visit Grandma Ardys on Monday. Rian had already committed to participating in a 5K walk for Breast Cancer on Sunday morning, so we happily joined her. Riley did great and was quite the hit.

Everybody got a little pink bling. :) 

Our motley crew assembles.

Love to watch people's reaction to Riley.
He's such a good boy.

Crossing Tower Bridge.

Worth a 400 mile detour to see our girl?
Absolutely!

Rian and I had fun thrifting and shopping for accessories for her room. Then we started working on a little DIY project. She wanted to paint an accent wall in her room and put up shelves. We didn’t get as much done as we’d hoped, so after visiting Grandma Ardys on Monday we stayed an extra day to finish up the painting and install shelves. Rian chose a beautiful color and it looked great. She’s been renting her house for over four years now and loves the neighborhood. She really wants to buy her own place, but so far hasn’t found anything affordable in the area.

Grandma Ardys and Riley hanging out together.

Just so dang handsome. 

Shelves hung and accent wall painted.
It's a lovely warm color, good pick! 

On Wednesday, 10/23, we moved from Sacramento to Roger’s Mom’s house in Redding for two nights. It’s always fun to visit and we appreciate the ultimate moochdock with full hook-ups.

Mom has a hug for Rog and one for Riley. 

From there we hit our tried and true stops at Valley of the Rogue State Park just south of Grants Pass, OR. We took advantage of the good weather and walked the River Trail for a few miles. The fall colors were beautiful. We spent our last night on the road at the French Prairie Rest Stop in Aurora, OR. That got us through Portland on a Sunday morning. About the best you can hope for traffic-wise without sneaking through at 3am. Lol.

The leaves at Valley of the Rogue were stunning.

Check out this guy we met on the trail.

Walkies along the river.

And then we were home. It’s been another amazing adventure. Of course, the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta was the highlight, but we also added two national parks (Rocky Mountain and Great Sand Dunes) and two national monuments (Craters of the Moon and Dinosaur) to our list. During our 56 days on the road, we traveled 3820 miles and stayed at 22 places. Our house sitters had to leave early due to a medical emergency, so our friend Scott has been helping out with the house and kitties until we made it home. We’ll have lots of mail to sort and all the fall house and yardwork to catch up on. Not to mention maintenance and work on the RV.  Sigh…maybe we should just keep going. Lol.  

We're baaaack. And fall is here!

Actually, we have a few plans already for 2020. The most exciting is a 15-day river rafting trip on the Colorado through the Grand Canyon in June. We just made reservations for camping at Lake Easton, WA over the 4^th of July and who knows where we’ll go from there. Stay tuned! 😊