Attention:

If you have time to read only one posting, click the following link to read the entry for the last day of our journey.


http://ontheroad6.blogspot.com/2013/10/day-59-th-trip-so-far-805-pm-saturday.html






KYRA (posted December 4, 2013, 6:45 p.m.)


 
 
As readers of this blog know, the highlight of our trip was meeting a beautiful German shepherd named Kyra (above), and her guardian, Nicholas, on Vancouver Island, on day 45 of our journey.  Kyra was special because she, like Leben, and Sonntag before him, experienced life by the need for a wheelchair late in her life and the loving attention of her guardian.  Only those who have had a wheelchair bound dog know how difficult it is to manage such a dog, but also how joyous it is.  Even the dogs themselves don't know because they cannot distinguish the loving attention they are getting from what they got before.  Kyra was no exception, although she was an exceptional dog.
 
Although I was expecting this from the day I meet Kyra, Nicholas just told me that he just now had to set Kyra free.  Her medical condition had reached the point where she could no longer enjoy a pleasant life and had begun to suffer greatly. 

Over the 59 days I was on the road this year with Leben and Erde, we had many beautiful experiences.  But no experience brought me the joy I felt when we met Kyra, Nicholas, Rudy and Michelle in the grove of tall trees on that beautiful island.  How blessed by fate we were.    You can read my blog posting for that day here.

So long, Kyra.  It truly was a pleasure meeting you. And thank you for the lesson in living you taught all of us who had the honor to cross paths with you.

Ed (for Leben and Erde, too)

CLICK HERE TO RETURN TO DEDICATION PAGE FOR OTR #7 (2014).
 
Here's a picture of Kyra and Leben after they had just met.  It seems that paralyzed dogs are interested in the same smells.  That's Nicholas, Kyra's guardian, in the background.

 



 

Note: Post-Trip Reflections and Notes

Although this journey was originally supposed to be one trip, of necessity it took place over two, three, really. For this reason and so as not to bury the experience of the journey itself as recorded in this blog beneath a ton of random thoughts, I created a new blog for my post-trip reflections and notes which will cover all three trips.  You can access that new blog  by clicking here or from the top of the panel to the right, where you can also access all three trip blogs.  Please bear in mind that I am using this blog as a tool, so some (if not all) of the stuff on it may be of no interest to anyone or even appear mundane. And I may from time to time add a new posting here, if it warrants a place in this blog.

Day 59, The End of the road home, 8:05 p.m., Saturday, October 12, Washington DC, 13,605 miles (THE END)



Our long journey to the ends of the road in the northeast and northwest has just come to an end. We set out in 2011 to do the entire trip, but heading west after reaching the end of the road in Labrador, we had to return home at Thunder Bay (Ontario) because of problems that were best dealt with a home. After a late start in resuming the trip in 2012, we again had to return home at Thunder Bay after Leben became paralyzed.   Fortunately, on this trip, we made it far past Thunder Bay all the way to the Arctic in Alaska, our goal.  Over the three trips,* we were on the road camping out for 123 days and traveled 24,800 miles, just 101 miles less than the circumference of the earth.

Moving on just about every day, first we traveled to the Atlantic and from there to the end of the road in the northeast in Labrador. Then, after a respite, we traveled north-westward to the Alaskan Arctic towards the end of the road there, with the Pacific thrown in as a side trip. Every night we camped in tents, four in all, except where circumstances or whim prevented us from doing so, and then we slept on the open deck of a ship in a storm, in ferries, yurts, primitive cabins, in the Defender, and, once, in a fifth wheeler set in an ecological wonderland on Vancouver Island that might as well have been the Four Seasons. Where we tented, we were, with a few exceptions, the only tenters. (Where did all the tenters go?) We camped and slept amidst brown bears and black bears, wolves and lynx, cougars and coyotes, moose and caribou, and other creatures too numerous to mention and too elusive to see. Except for a band of raccoons in Ontario, they all did what they were supposed to do, and so did we, so we all stayed safe. For many nights, we were alone in the camps, alone, that is, among humans. We were often lulled to sleep by the plaintive cry of a loon, the howling of wolves, the strange, haunting voices of nocturnal creatures, the nearby streams, rivers and oceans, the wind whipping and the rain pelting the canopy of our tent.

We saw sunsets and sunrises from almost six score different settings: mountains, valleys, oceans, lakes, rivers, streams, and plains. We slept under skies almost white from the presence of millions, billions, of stars, amber from the full moons in cloudless nights, or green and red from the Northern Lights. We camped in rain, snow, fog, freezing cold and never once asked, Why am I doing this? I knew the answer.

Mostly, we traveled the long, wide open and often empty northern North American highways and byways; dirt roads and gravel roads that were more pothole than road, with some that would pass for rain-filled sinkholes or industrial washboards; and trails and other conveyances that defy any definition of what most people would dare drive on. To say that some of the roads were treacherous would by an understatement.

Except for the obvious daily chores, only twice did I leave Leben and Erde to do something on my own for a short while. After all, the joy for them on the trip was to be with me, or so I hope, and the joy for me was to be with them.

Every day, we started the day's long drive to the voice of Pete Seeger singing This Land is Your Land, and sang the local version along with him while actually seeing the words come alive before our very eyes. Each day began with a rendition of Reveille and ended with Taps, just to reinforce the discipline we needed for this trip, and, boy, it took discipline and much more.

We saw incredible flora and fauna most people will never see or even imagine except through my stories. The vistas we saw almost daily, changing every few minutes as we navigated the road, most often elicited from me a spontaneous "Oh My God." Denali, the crown jewel of North American mountains, was gracious enough to reveal herself for the days we were there to admire her. The landscape surrounding her was nothing short of a radiant blanket of autumn colors I had no idea existed.

Leben and Erde, who were treated to three or four new scene changes a day, discovered smells of other creatures they never imagined existed. Now, the creatures they imagine who left those smells will be forever in their dreams.

Leben showed me things during this journey I had no idea a wheel-chair bound dog could or would do;  Erde showed me things I wish no dog could or would do. Becasue of what she faces soon, I gave her more leeway than I should have, and she exploited every bit of it.


 Photo of Leben and Erde taken by Nicholas Solohub on Vancover Island that will represent this journey

We visited sites that we camped in on our previous journeys when Leben and Erde were just pups, but mostly we discovered new ones. We hiked to my old Boy Scout camp in New York, now a forest preserve devoid of all human activity, except for the few hardy souls like us who make the hike each summer. If there is one place where my bonding with nature fused, that camp was it.

Before and during the trip, I listed the possible reasons I am making it, as if it was possible to be precise about this. I put my pen down at number 35.  Three reasons in particular trump all the others on the list: because I can, because I made the decision to do it, and because I need to get out of my comfort zone for a while. 

Whatever the reasons or purposes for the trip were, we accomplished everything that I had set out to do, but we really only had one goal, to return home safely, and we accomplished that as of this very moment.

The demands of the day on the road left me little time to write or think (and virtually no time to read or plan beyond the next campsite), but I did have some time to think when driving. If I thought of one theme more than others it was this. Facilitated by the goldmine of music loaded onto my tablet, my mind skittered among many of  the significant people, places and events in my past that made me who I am today, and that was a rare but quite rewarding opportunity. And, of course, I thought of Leben and Erde's predecessors, Montag, Sonntag and Kessie, who added much value to my life and who were with us on this journey in my heart.

Not once on the trip did I feel bored, or, with one exception, tired. How could I with what I was experiencing? Instead of producing fatigue, the trip invigorated me. I lost about 25 pounds, but gained it back in soul. Leben and Erde took on a new vigor themselves, but I fear they will lose it when their lives become normal again.

The Defender proved for the sixth time that there is no better vehicle suited for this kind of trip. It had just one job for this journey, to get us safely home, and it accomplished it superbly. If it has a soul, I hope it can forgive me for what I just put it through, just as I forgave it long ago for its Sherman-tank like ride and, mostly recently, for its heater, which several times stopped working just when we needed it the most. As for its tires, which took the brunt of the punishment, I'd say, Even God cannot sink those industrial-strength Mud-Terrains, but I don't dare. Look what happened to the Titanic. (Ironically, it was 20 years ago this very weekend that I learned about the Defender, and bought mine shortly after that. Smart decision.)

Most important of all, we met many incredibly good, kind and interesting people, and lots of dogs, too, especially a 15-year old Greyhound named Frankie on a 4,000 bike journey with his guardians, Gigi and Adrian, and a beautiful 14-year old German shepherd named Kyra who, with her guardian, Nicholas, were the only ones I met who could truly relate to what Leben and I are going through.

Every day brought a new highlight for the trip. One, though, meeting Kyra and Nicholas, stands out among all the rest. How wonderful it was for us to meet kindred spirits on this journey, and in a place called Cathedral Grove at that.

By far, the highlight of this trip: KYRA

There were no low points on this journey, but it did turn out to be far more difficult and challenging than my previous trips, which  I expected.  However, I also knew, as I have learned many times, that the greater the challenge, the more rewarding the experience. And we certainly had our share of problems, but we were ready for all of them: we solved them, figured out how to avoid them again, and moved on.

I had no time on these trips to record my reflections of what I was experiencing, or what Leben and Erde experienced, except the day's events, miles and fabulous camps, but I will do so in the coming weeks as I tend to other urgent matters waiting for me here at home. What I have to say about this journey, quantitatively and qualitatively, could fill a book.

If I wrote here the names or my recollections of the people on the road, at home, or elsewhere who helped or offered to help me accomplish this surely-unprecedented trip, I would surely inadvertently omit many, so I will not even attempt to, thanking them all anonymously. Many know who they are, but some do not. I also must thank the hundreds of people we met along the way who made heartwarming comments about my managing Leben, comments about both Leben and Erde, and comments about my "rig." (The comment by Tommy Noriss stands out the most:  "This is better than Denali," he said, when he saw Leben in his wheel-chair on the Denali Park Road. Wow. That's saying a lot.) Of course, I have to thank here my two loyal dogs, Leben and Erde, for being such incredible travel companions and providing hours of entertainment and sheer joy on this our fifth road-camping trip together. For most of the time during all the months we were on the road, they were no more than two feet away from me, mostly sleeping, of course. How fortunate I am to have had these two loyal creatures for almost 13 years now. How fortunate I am to have had the opportunity and ability to make this journey with them or at all.

The first thing I did when I pulled into my driveway a few minutes ago was to hug Leben and Erde, say, "We made it, guys", thank them, and then give them each a Frosty Paws.  It made their day.

Ed

* Footnote
Part 1, in 2011, 7600 miles, 37 days.
Part 2, in 2012, 3600 miles, 27 days.
Part 3, in 2013, 13,600 miles 59 days.
Leben and Erde's prior trips:
2001 – To the Arctic in Canada and Alaska and then home, 45 days, 14,500 miles
2002 – To Newfoundland and Labrador and many points on the way, and then home, 50 days, 10,000 miles

Day 59, 3:00 p.m., october 12, As it is happening

Our last rest stop. The eastern states have a lot to learn from the more northern states about rest stops, among other more important things.

we stopped here one year ago tomorrow on our return home just days after Leben became paralyzed. What a difference a year makes.

We are 150 miles from reaching our one goal of the trip, to return home safe and sound.

day 58, Friday, October 11, Columbus Ohio KOA, 13,107 miles, 20,726 for parts 1 and 2

Got an early start on the road today from the Lieber State Park we stayed in last night. things turned out splendidly after all. What a pleasant night it was in that camp.

we took a detour 50 miles to the north to Fairmount Indiana to pay our respects to James Dean. i can think of no other actor whose personal legacy has been kept alive for so long. In town there are two museums keeping the flame burning, one run by two fellows, Lenny and Dave, that has more James Dean memorabilia than you can imagine. Anyone who ever was a fan of James Dean has to come here to this museum, the other one in town, and his grave site, which is covered with flowers. the edges of his pink granite gravestone have been chipped away (the gravestone has already had to be replaced) and the rock in front of the grave is covered with initials and messages. I have to admit that I have been taken in by the whole James Dean thing, for reasons only a shrink might be able to explain. He came onto the scene when I was 10, and so caught me at an impressionable time. But i have no doubt that the impact he had a generations in terms of his style has been enormous. and what an actor he was!

Tonight is our last night on the road. Tomorrow we head for DC. Needless to say, I feel sad that it is ending, but also feel quite satisfied that this trip has added value to my life, which is why i make them. When i arrive home, i will try to figure out what that value is.

Day 58, Friday, Oct 11, 2pm

Erde, who is a rebel without any cause to be one, insisted today on paying her respects to her hero.

day 57, the trip so far

day 57, Thursday, October 10, 12,827 miles (16,427 with part 1), Lieber State Park, Indiana

My idea to overnight in those cozy KOA cabins near the highways paid off again today as i get an early start on the road for the second day. We made good time on the road because the road is less interesting than everything we saw before. my plan was to do about 500 miles and then stay in the KOA beyond Indianapolis where we stayed on 9/11/01. when i realized at 5:00 p.m that we could make it, I called to reserve a cabin. Just as i asked the clerk who answered the phone if there were cabins available (there were), some unthinking person approached Leben and Erde who were a few feet away from me and they started to bark, as they are wont to do. The clerked herself then barked, Are those your dogs barking? I admitted they were and then she shouted, No dogs allowed in the cabins. Surprised at that since i stayed there with them in 2011 and only once before did i encounter that problem at a KOA, I asked the clerk to please make an exception. i did not bring along my camp guide book for this last leg of our journey since i intended to camp out in those KOA cabins to save time and so I had no idea where to go Sorry, no exceptions, she said.

knowing from the tone of her voice that i was not going to get anywhere with this person, i decided to see how rigid this person was, so i played some cards, not really concerned about whether i got a cabin from her at all. Look, I said, surely you can make an exception in my case because my one dog is paralyzed. No, no exceptions. I needed to use some other cards.

Look, I said, it us getting dark and I am tired after a long day's drive (I lied, I was not) and my car was smashed into the other day and the headlight is not working properly, which is true. No exceptions, she said.

OK, i said, I'll get the cabin for myself and leave the dogs in the car. Of course, i had no intention of doing that.

No, you can't do that, she said.

Can i tent there with the dogs, i asked. She said, You can tent here with the dogs and that's it.

Wanting to see the depths of this woman's inability to reason I asked, How about my getting
a tent site and a cabin, and I'll store my things in the cabin?

You can't do that either, she said.

I asked her to please call someone to get me an exception and she refused.

I then told her where I was and asked her for suggestions since i had no information on other camp sites and she gave me the number for another "nearby" KOA.

As it turns out, an hour later, after dark, when i got to the turnoff in the dark for that other KOA, it was not there. She had given me a camp 45 mikes to the north on I-74 when I was on I-70.

I then pulled into a gas station to ask about other nearby camps and the locals there were extremely helpful in directing me to the Lieber State Park just 4 miles up the nearby winding, dark, deer-populated back road. One young man named Taylor even told me to follow him and he would show me the way, which I did. As it turns out, we are now tenting in this splendid little park surrounded by a circle of tall trees with the open, clear sky lighted by the numerous stars and half moon, a far better deal than what we would have had in that stuffy cabin.

if any one of the three competent and equally delightful young women running Pruden Lake camp were at that KOA, we would all be settled in one of those cabins now. There are two kinds of people in life, those who can think and those who cannot. The Indianapolis KOA is staffed by the latter. And thank goodness it is because i am enjoying this new camp enormously.

What i am learning is that the KOAs are not whst they used to be.  you can find excellent ones like the Goodland Kansas KOA, but  you can no longer count on that for all of them, eg the Indianapolis KOA and the Minneapolis East KOA, and  it is more than being prt-friendly,  It is about helping people wuth their travel problems.  The clerk at Indianapolis is probsbly a descendant from that inkeeper in Bethlehem 2000 years ago.

tomorrow, eastward some more, but only after a ritual i must go through when i am in this area.

Photos include...
- Leben and Erde relaxing at last night's KO cabin
- our visit to the St Louis arch, at 70 miles an hour.
- Leben and Erde at a rest area finally obeying the rules

day 56, trip so far


See Trip Tracker for legend

day 56, Wednesday, October 9, 12,373 miles (93 days and 19,1982 miles with part 1)

Had a pleasant stay at the Goodland Kansas KOA last night. Stayed outdoors except for sleeping since it is difficult to stay indoors since we have been outside for almost 56 days. See photo of our quaint cabin. Our hosts, Richard and Alicja Tracz, were excellent and had the right idea when they moved from Chicago to take over this little oasis right off Interstate 70.

Made good time today on the road, 466 miles, or 2nd best, even losing an hour with time change. Stopped at a pleasant little town for a rest break and then realized it looked familar. We stopped there also in 2001 and discovered it was Senator Bob Dole's home town. Photo is of Leben and Erde in historic section of town. I could envision a young Dole riding in some convertible down this street during Memorial Day or July 4th parades, or opening his campaigns here. Leben and Erde were interested in the smells, and I the coffee at the great expresso bar in the background.

We made it to our goal,the Kansas City KOA by 8:30. we would have made it earlier except i got lost. but i also got lost the exact same way when i tried the find the place on September 11, 2001, on our way back from Alaska.

Been thinking about that auto accident in Cheyenne more. If i did not have the brush bar on the front, the impact would have taken out my radiator and headlight, among other thjngs. Also, before i even assessed the damage, I reviewed my contingency plan just in case the damage was trip-interrupting: go back to the camp, rent a car, and stay put until the Defender is functioning again. This was the same plan we had at the Yukon. Fortunately, the damage, while a lot, does not interfere with my driving, although the left headlight is aimed lower than it would be, impeding my driving at night.

When i return, i will continue tuis blog with my thoughts on a number of individual topics or themes from the trip. Maybe one a day for a few weeks. I can think of about 50 topics off the top of my head. Unfortunately, on the trip, i don't have time to work on them for this blog.

one of the topics i will talk about is my many sources of inspiration for these trips. One of those is clearly my own mother who at 21 set out with her 19-year old sister Evelyn on a cross-country road trip from New Mersey to California in 1935. Let me repeat, 1935. No interstate system, no paved roads all the way, no AAA, no Napa shops, no Walmart's, no gas stations every 20 miles, no Jiffy Lubes, no ATMs, no GPS system, no cell phones or iPads, no coffee machines at every gas station, no KOAs , no Defender 90s or even JEEPs, etc., etc., etc. See photo of my mother next to what she and her sister drove to California and back. Where is their gear?

Taps. long drive tomorrow.

day 55, tuesday, oct 8, the trip so far (11571 miles, 19180 for parts 1 and 2)

we are now in Kansas, heading east on I-70.

day 55, Tuesday, Oct. 9, Curt Gowdy State Park Wyoming to KOA in Kansas,

After the fender bender in Cheyenne, i had the Defender serviced at a local shop. Apparently, the Jiffy Lube I was looking for when the fender bender occurred doesn't exist.

we paralleled the Rocky Mountains until Denver and then got onto Interstate 70, the road that will take us home. before i started to KOA-cabin it home, i wanted to tent one more night. the only state park in Colorado off 70 and a decent travel from Cheyenne was Bonny Lake State Park. When i was about 2 hours away, i discovered that the park was closed except for primitive camping, which is what i have been doing for most if the trip anway. when i got to the exit for the park, i looked at the sun and realized that i would be arriving after dark, which would be no fun for any if us. also, i would have an extra hour's drive tomorrow,and would have to get up later, and lose an hour breaking camp, all on top of the time zone change loss of one hour. in the interest of time on the road, not to mention need if a shower and laundry, i drove on for an hour to a nice little KOA in Kansas, where we got a cabin for the night. i could live in one of these fir a year, they are so quaint. as soon as i lifted Leben from the Defender, he made a bee-line right away for the cabin, which is one of the reasons i stay in them, i.e., they are all alike and the dogs feel at home in them. although it was a tough decision for me to give up tenting on this trip, it was a wise devision.

the scenery after Denver changes dramatically, all plains, as far as the eye can see. but there is a certain beauty in all of this, especially at sunset, so the drive was not boring.

some photos...
-leaving Curt Gowdy park
- the park lake from the way out
- started to see more cattle in Wyoming and Colorado (but also saw lots of cattle trucks going you know where). these cattle have in good compared to most cattle, confined to those unethical and obscene CAFIs, combined animal feeding operations.
- more windmills here than cattle
- downtown Cheyenne. nest place. all brick buildings on the main street
- the ugly part of the return trip, the traffic near the cities,min this case, Denver. more cars than cattle and windmills.

day 55, Tuesday, October 8, 11:00 a little snag in Cheyenne

i was just pulling into an Auto Zone parking lot in cheyenne to find out where the local Jiffy Lube was. as i was making the turn into the lot, i saw another vehicle heading toward the exit and me from the left. i stopped and when i realized he didn't see me, i blew the horn but it was too late. the big chevy truck plowed right into me . the crash damaged my left fender, bumper and brush bar. Rob, the driver of the other vehicle, who readily admitted he got distracted for a moment, pulled the bumper away from my vehicle's tire so it would interfere with my driving home. these things do happen. it could have been a lot worse. I filed a police report and called my insurance company.  lost an hour, but things could have been a lot worse.  Both Rob and the officer were  very gentlemanly.

day 55, 9:45 am, Tuesday, October, 11,571 mikes (19,189 for parts 1 and 2)

photo is of our camp at sunrise a few hours ago at wonderful Curt Gowdy State Park in Wyoming. when i got out of the tent and saw the sky, i could nit believe my eyes. Just when i thought i saw a camp site that couldn't be beat, another shows up. wow, what a park! almost worth moving to Wyoming for this.

heavy winds last night starting at 2:00. got little sleep after that. it stopped just in time for Reveille at 7:00. otherwise, quiet night except for an owl. Sorry, no wolves. gone here, too. poor wolves. poor us.

off to Cheyenne to get Defender serviced fir 4th time. then off to Denver and onto Interstate 70, which is last highway we will take.

we have done 19,189 miles so for parts 1 and 2, with1700 miles to go. add the 3500 for last year's attempt, and we have circled the earth just about (24,901 miles).

Day 54, Monday, October 7, Rockport Stats Park in Utah to Curt Gowdy State Park in Wyoming

left the pleasant camp at Rockport State Park at 10. Hard to break camp earlier because usable daylight doesn't appear until 7am.  we were alone in the camp last night, so we had our choice of sites. nours was tge best, near a river, with lots of grass for the tent.  temperature was 32 when i got up and out at 7:00.  i was hoping to beat the cold south, but i guess nit.

Long drive today. fortunately, the whole drive was scenic and the road was very fast. i had no idea Utah, Wyoming etc. were so extraordinarily beautiful. views that are unknown in the east.

stocked up on food for the last time today at a small town.

my plan was to make it to at least Laramie and maybe Cheyenne today and start staying in those KOA cabins so i can have more time on the road. but i discovered a state park in Wyoming between the two so i targeted that. despite our running out of sun by 6pm, we pushed on, passing up a KOA and two National Forest Service camps. i was rewarded for my diligence. The 14-mile side road to the camp was perhaps one of the modt scenic i have been on, ever. and finally, some cattle in the fields . the park itself is breathtaking. our site is located on the crown of a hill overlooking a small valley and lake. photos tomorrow.  only problem was setting up the whoke camp in the dark, but i am a pro at that now, and know how to watch my step.  in fact, everything was done in 90 minutes from the time we arrived.  of course, i had to cut out something, and that was my dinner.  i ended up eating a teaspoon of the dogs' (formerly my) salmon, a small V8 juice, and an apple from the Srrachans's garden on Vancouver Island.

time to call it a night.

the photo with this posting is of the view after leaving the Rockport Camp.

ed

day 54, oct 7, 3pm, as it is happening, rest stop for the dogs in Wyoming

one of the big treats for the dogs on these trios are the rest stops....new smells never before experienced.

where are all the cattle i expected to see?

ed

day 54, 10:00 am, Monday, Oct 6, as it is happening, Utah

the Defender enjoying the Utah view as we all move on to Wyoming.

day 53, Sunday, October 6, Bruneau Dunes Camp, Idaho, to Rockport State Park, Utah, 11166 miles (19166 total parts 1 and 2)

up at dawn (7am) at this wonderful park surrounded by 500 foot high sand dunes about a mile away. the dunes were created in a flood 12,000 years ago and because of the balanced winds, have stayed the same since the.

i took Leben and Erde for a long walk toward the dunes in what i can only describe as desert-like. Boy, did the two of them gi crazy. they found smells they had never encountered before and couldn't get enough of them, badgers, coyotes, kangaroo rats, jack rabbits. (sorry, no wolves. they're all gone in Idaho since Obama lifted the restrictions on hunting them.). beyond these animals, the area is occupied by eagles, owls, and with a few scorpions to boot.

got off late (11:00) and so had to move along to make up time. but the haste did not spoil the drive on an easy, fast highway. Not a boring minute on the drive. wide open plains bordered by hills in the distance, and then once we hit Utah, mountains, snow-covered. Wow is the word I deployed most today.

we made it to our planned destination at 6:30, the Rockport State Park in Utah, not too far from the Wyoming border. and what a wonderful little park this is. we are not only the only tenters once again, but the only campers, so we got our choice of sites. at last, we are in a site that has grass on which we pitched the tent. we went through the whole evening routine in less than 2 hours, and by that time, before we went in-tent, i had a chance to take in the enormous sky that is more star than sky. the last time i saw such a sky was in 2001 on the way back from Alaska with Leben and Erde in Ely, Nevada. since then, we have learned that we are not alone, so gazing at the sky tonight meant something quite different than it did 12 years ago.

Tomorrow, we had east toward Cheyenne or maybe Laramie, Wyoming. the only public parks there are all national forest parks, which are closed now thanks to our dysfunctional politicians. but what we are experiencing now is nothing compared to what is to come because of this dysfunction.

Photis
- Leben and Erde walking near the sand dunes. the tracks are Leben's
- what in God's name did they find that was so good?
- the drive into Utah

day 52, Saturday, October 5, Bruneau Dunes State Park, Oregon, 10,700 miles (18,700 total)

what an absolutely fantastic drive it was through both Washington and Oregon. Mountains galore in Washington, and then in Oregon sand hills covered with grass clumps and brush, expansive plains, and valleys, train tracks running by the road, all reminiscent of scenes from those old Western movies, and then after a scary drive over a summit rosd, trees, trees and more trees.

Emigrant Hills Park was not something i expected. what a pleasant surprise. if all state parks we modeled after this one, cities would be empty on weekends. i checked out their $39/night cabins, which I would have stayed in if it had been raining, and what a deal. Thoreau would have killed to have stayed in one of these. why are all these great parks 3000 or more miles from my home?

i had just enough gas to make it to the next gas station 60 miles up the highway in a small town called Huntington, but one i got there the one station there had run out of gas. the next gas station 26 miles up the highway. I had emptied my spare can before i got on the ferry so had no extra fuel. Fortunately, i found some local who sold me 2 gallons from his private stash, and made it up the line. But for some inexplicable reason, the red Check Engine light on my dashboard has gone on. still another problem? i will ignore it as long as the Defender is running fine.

i hoped to stay in the Bruneau Dunes state park near Mountain Home but they did not take reservations for tonight and had few sites left when i called at 4pm because it is a weekend night, and a beautiful one at that, and all the National parks are shut down thanks to our incompetent politicians in Washington. Not one for discouraging easily, I took my chances and drive the 25 miles out of the way down this extraordinary back road to the camp. i expected to run into John Wayne, Randolph Scott and Audie Murphy riding out of the hills on the way down. As good luck would have jt, we arrived at 5:30 and got the last campsite. It is like an oasis in the desert, with huge dunes surrounding the camp in the distance. We have an enormous panorama of a clear sky tonight and there are more stars out now than i ever thought existed until Carl Sagan corrected me.

Tomorrow we head for Utah. who knows where after that?

photos in include:
- our Emigrant Hills site
- quaint cabins at Emigrant Hills
- just imagine 300 miles of scenes like this thru Oregon on a wonderful road
- the Defender, out of gas, in a small town waiting for me to find someone to sell me $10 worth.
- sunset over the dunes at Bruneau Dunes Camp. I have seen almost 50 different sunsets and sunrises in the last two months.
-

day 52, sat, Oct 5, Trip so far, 10,600 miles, 18,600 including part 1

current location, Oregon

Day 51, Friday, October 4, Emigrant Hill State Park, Oregon, 10,600 mikes (18,600 total)

What beautiful country Washington and Oregon are. I had no idea. that the drive would be so spectacular. i could not enjoy it much since i was driving, but what i did see left me mesmarized. Three dramatic scenery changes over 300 miles.

we ended up in a magnificent state park along highway 84. they had some near little cabins available but i decided to stick with my roots and tent it. the truth is, we all have the routine down cold, and i do mean cold, and i did not want to break stride this last week on the road. the cabins were $39 a night, the same price as that slum i stayed in last night at tge Seattle/Tacoma KOA. Here i am paying $14 for a fabulous tent site, and i have a sky filled with stars a planetarium would only hope for. the camp is right next to the highway, but the sound if the vehicles speeding by sounds like the ocean. i got here at dark (6:30) so i'll post some photos tomorrow

it seems that we can only get in about 350 miles on a good day, and so with 2400 miles left, it looks like we'll be on the road 8 more days. needless to say, it will be not be easy going back to my DC comfort zone, but if this after-trip is like the previous ones, i will try to simulate life on the road as a transition.

it is a nice crisp 40 degrees outside, nit much warmer in the tent. but i have the dogs, some Merlot, and some Rachmaninov to warm things up a bit.

i have no idea where we will end up tomorrow. Probably some state park in Idaho. i'll worry about that in the morning.

ed

photo taken on the road in Washington. that thing off to the left is my Air Snirkel.

day 51, 5:00 p.m. dinner break on the road in beautiful oregon

what beautiful country Oregon is. the road is fantistic. of course, Leben and Erde are more interested in their dinner than the view. weather is just heavenly...about 68, blue sky, sun....i found heaven.

ed

day 51, oct 4, as it is happening, 12:39

a rest break for the dogs, somewhere on 82 in Oregon. Cascades in background.

just decided to head to Boise instead of Spokane to try a route not taken before, heading to the Idaho border tonight, 300 miles away.

just noticed that all the bad roads broke my support frame for the exhaust pipe. did a temporary fix of wire to hold it in place. no big deal. these things happen.

beautiful day, sunny, few clouds, low 60s. tonight in the low 40's. at last, the weather suits me again. not time yet for those KOA cabins, where they exist, that is.

by the way, notice the Frosty Paws on the dogs's dining table. first time they had one since home. in fact, they got two each since i have no freezer to keep them. what more could a dog ask for?

Day 50, 9:30 p.m., Thursday, Oct 3, KOA Seattle/Tacoma, 10,216 miles

arrived in port angeles at 12:30.  decided to abandon option of touring Olympic. peninsula again, and moved on to Seattle/Tacoma.  decided to stay at KOA there when it came up to 5:00 and dogs hadbeen in  Defender since 6:00.  no cabins there but decided to dry tent out and do all laundry.  not a particularly nice KOA, but it'll have to do.

tomorrow i hope to make it to Boise, 500 miles.  that's pushing it.

this is the part of the trip i like least and not because the trip is ending.   stare parks and many KOAs are closing is one reason.  but the traffic jams and speeding traffic on the interstates are enough to make me lose all the benefits of the trip literally overnight.  we americans are always in a hurry to go nowhere fast.

Day 50, 10:11 a.m.,Thursday, Oct. 3, Victoria, 10,035 miles

5:00 Reveille. still dark out as usable daylight doesn't appear till after 7:00. First time i ever had to pack up and leave in the dark. it really wasn't that bad at all.

6:40 on the road to 8:20 ferry in Victoria ti Port Angeles

7:29 Arrived ferry terminal. web site was wrong. ferry leaves at 10:30 , not 8:20. but it is good i got here early as i am on standby and may not get on. if i had known the ferry left at 10:30 I would have bought a ticket and would not be on standby.

the ferry will take us to Port Angeles on the Olympic Peninsula. earlier, my plans were to tour the peninsula as we did in 2001, and then head home stopping at some parks along the way. however, since i spent almost two weeks on Vancouver Island when i planned to spend two days, i think it's time to bring this trip to an end. i have no idea where we will spend the night. i will set my goal for today when i get to the other side, my guess us that to save for driving, we will camp out in those cozy little KOA cabins that are so close to the interstates we will be taking home, 3000 miles away. i miss my tent already, rain, wind, or cold or no rain, wind, or cold.

photo
- leben and Erde in front of the famous bust of the respectable Juan Quadra in downtown
Vancouver.
- an unbelievable photo of Leben and Erde at play taken by Nicholas Soluhub.

Day 49, Wednesday, October 2, Rathtrevor Provincial Park to Golstream Provincial Park in Victoria, 10,000+ miles

My new ditty about the rain worked. no sooner did i post that when the rain stopped, until i got to my next camp, that is. more on that below.

Nicholas, along with his girls, Kyra and Rudy (the beagle), met me at my campsite and we spent the next four hours talking about our dogs, both wheel-chair bound dogs and others. what a treat that visit was for my last full day in Canada. and what a great setting to meet in. it was a rather surreal scene when we decided to take the dogs for a walk and the two of us then retreated to our dogs to saddle them up, in precisely the same way. that is a scene i probably will never experience again, nor will i forget it. seeing Nicholas manage his wonderful dog made me finally understand why people made the comments they did about Sonntag and do about Leben.

there were only a handful of others in the park today, some of whom walked past my site when Nicholas and his girls were there. needless to say, they had no idea at all what was going on, four dogs, two in wheel-chairs. what they saw today, they will never see again, ever.

after Nicholas and his girls left, i headed off the Victoria and Goldstream Provincial Park. no sooner did we arrive at Goldstream when the rains started again. so much for that new ditty of mine. I thought about staying in one of those cozy KOA cabins tonight so i do not miss the 8:20 ferry to the Seattle area, but decided i needed to stay in stride. if we miss the ferry, we will spend the morning in Victoria and the catch the 2:00 ferry and settle for a lesser goal tomorrow.

my current plan is to cross over by ferry to the states tomorrow and then head toward Spokane, Washington, tomorrow night and then plan each day's goal from where i end up each night, until i get home. we have done 10,000 mikes so far on this trip, with 3000 more left. I figure that with no side trips, the journey home will take 8 days. we'll see.

photos
- Kyra
- Rudy
- nicholas with leben, Kyra
- ed with kyra and leben and erde
- nicholas with kyra and keben

day 48, Tuesday, October 1, Rathtrevor Provincial, Vancouver Island, 9900

Rain, Rain go away, I have more important things to do than deal with you,

another rainy day. after four essentially rain-free weeks, it has rained every day for the last three weeks weeks, except for the days I was in Denali, so i guess i cannot complain. Before the rains started, i was a novice at dealing with the rain on road camping trips. now i am an expert, a wet expert, but nonetheless an expert. i have learned how to take the rain in stride, and spend half my time in the rain carrying out my daily chores thinking about how i can improve the way i am hand,ling things, so i guess that is is good sign. Fortunately, the rain has not spoiled my stay on Vancouver Island one bit. In fact, it has enhanced it, added to the drama, and made the trip more challenging, which is partially what these trips are all about. Leben and Erde couldn't care less about the rain, but i am the one who has to sleep in the tent next to them so i do. i give myself credit for tonight's performance after i arrived int Rathtrevor Provincial Park, and i think i have perfected my technique to about 90 of. perfect performace. Now i know why Gene Kelley was so happy.

I left charming Port Alberni after a one hour interview with a reported for the local paper. i fear i gave her way, way too much information, which the poor woman must now sort through to craft a story about a man and his two dogs traveling from coast to coast to coast, camping all the way. Maybe she'll write the book for me from the notes i gave her.

We had a short ride today, fewer than 50 miles, to this camp we are in now, Rathtrevor Provincial Park. i am staying here tonight so i can meet up with Nicholas and Kyra and Ruby tomorrow, a very special treat for me. The camp is one of the most elegant camps i have stayed in, right on the ocean, although i am not too sure that elegance is a requirement for a good camping experience for me. the problem I have with this camp is that the sites are are hard gravel, with no grass or sand to pitch a tent on. it's quite sad how many parks have done this, discouraging tenters, and encouraging more people to take the easy route to enjoy nature, in an RV. i have lost almost 25 pounds on this trip tenting it, which i did not need to lose. if i had travelled in an RV, I would have gained 25. let me correct that, I lost 20 poinds. i gained five back at dinner last night at the Strachans'. My hope is that when they open up their Back-to-Nature camp, Sue opens up a baked goods shop or restaurant. if she does, you will need to reserve a year in advance. What a chef she is! What pioneers the two of them are.

another topic. i have generally resisted discussing on this blog the details of managing a paralyzed dog on the road because most of my readers would tune out to the blog if I did. i am not bragging or complaining when I tell you that it is not easy. for instance, the other day at the Pacific while at the yurt camp, to get Leben off the beach we had to go up a steep slope with fallen logs on it that Erde herself had a hard time navigating. i literally had to lie down on my back and winch him up. not easy. i could have removed him from his wheelchair and slung him up, but i wanted him to feel some sense of accomplishment so i took the harder route. those who know me that know that that is my modus operandi. (At the top of the slope, he gave me a That-was-Easy look. If he only knew.)

i am running out if battery on my iPad. I also want to get in a few more pages in that book.

ED

P.S.
tomorrow, somewhere, i will hit 10,000 miles for this part of the trip. i will take a photo of that spot and post it as one of my popular As It Is Happening posts.

day 47, Monday, 9/30, Wya Yurt Camp to Strachans' Paradise, Port Alberni, Vancouver Island

as much as we hated to leave the yurt camp, the road beckoned, so we packed up and left. what a great respite this place was, albeit a little bit out of stride for us. After a few quality minutes in the nearby quaint little village of Ucluelet sampling the great coffee and even greater baked goods at The Bakery Coffee Shop, and then buying some wild blackberry wine, we drove the 20 miles or so along the Pacific Rim Park road, occasionally stopping despite the rain to take in the breathtaking shoreline views of the ocean. After a brief stop in Torfino, the little community at the other end of Long Beach, we headed back to Route 4 to head to Port Alberni, an hour or so away.

When i was at Cape Scott, there was another couple there, Les and Sue Strachan of Port Alberni. they kindly extended an open invitation to us to spend a night with them, but i was reluctant to take them up on their offer because only the kindest of souls would ever extend such an invitation to someone, and his two dogs, who had been camping out for three fortnights. But i accepted their offer after they offered their small, unheated cabin for the night. after driving through the paradise that they call their driveway, i discovered that they lived on what can only be described as a multi-acre ecological system that they had painstakingly and lovingly created themselves over almost 20 years, salmon-filled ponds, streams, trees, rocks, walks, and other settings i have no vocabulary to describe. I asked Les to send me something to describe their paradise as i cannot do it justice, and will post it on my blog when he does. their next plan includes building several low-budget cabins and to open a getaway for nature-loving, adventure-seeking souls who wish to escape the comfort of their urban lives and live with nature for a while. I will be the first to sign up when they do, once i figure out how to get there and back quickly.

Les showed me the sparse, basic cabin he had offered to me for the night, which was just fine for us, but then took me to his fifth-wheeler for the night. it wasn't the step up in luxury that bothered me, but the steep five steps into the mobile lodge that i had to get Leben into and out. We managed, though, albeit with some difficulty, and had a pleasant night's sleep after a wonderful dinner and story-telling in their wonderful home in this magnificent paradise they created themselves.

Tuesday, after i talk with a local reporter who wants to do a story about us, we head to a camp near Parksville back on the main highway so i can spend a few more hours on Wednesday with Nicholas and Kyra and Ruby and Michelle, I hope. then it's off to Victoria, then Port Angelis and the somehow home, 3000 mikes away.

Ed

photos
- Leben and Erde on the Pacific
- View from Pacific Rim Park
- the Defender in front of our home for the night. i was tempted to tow it away.
- the driveway to the Strachans' home
- their home. it and 10 acres are for sale for much less than i paid for me tent-size condo. city life destroys our minds, bodies, souls and wallets, too