The Hood....and...slidin' into home....after the fact

Not quite the mudpuddle encountered on Mt. Hood...but the Creature From the Black Lagoon did try to reach out and grab John and his Wing!

It seems oddly funny now and I admit to laughing - well, at least having a giggle or two our last day on the road. Cold, wet, raining...narry a sunny beam along the way from Lakeview to Battleground.  Miserable and dreary. Welcome back to the Northwest...

We are, by this time, pretty road weary. As we approached the rest area at Government Camp Hwy 26 - up over Mt. Hood, the weather is rotten...well, it is a mountain, afterall and our spring weather has been abysmal. Why did I think it was going to be different - just because we are on our last leg of the trip? Silly girl.

The mudpuddle what ate the Wing came up out of nowhere. Well, it was there...John just didn't see it for what it was:  HUGE.  I can still see it in my eyeballs:  John sitting in a mudpuddle with the Wing balancing on the safety gadgets to keep it from damaging the engine. Was .....oddly funny. After getting help picking up the Wing and dusting off pride....we headed down the mountain toward our garage.

Re-entry was....interesting. After over 5,000 miles of riding in the worst possible weather - I turned the my Good and Faithful Sportster into my garage, caught my rain pants on the brake pedal and skidded the bike on it's side the last 6 feet into the garage.

 As I laid there 1/2 under the bike (did not go down all the way because I have engine guards), I said outloud, "Oh, this is funny!"  I felt a little like the old TV show, Laugh In where Arte Johnson's tricycle falls over.  I'm not sure training wheels would have helped.  John and Tyler came running to pull me out and all I could do was laugh!  No harm - No foul - bike is fine and so am I.

Happy to be home, the first dog to greet me was my Queen:  Jazzy. She took a very long time greeting me - almost 15 minutes of licks, wiggles, yelps and snuggles. The next two:  Ira and Marley were hysterical in their greetings which lasted another 10 minutes of ear-piercing barks, snuggles and licks.

Tyler had dinner for us, a clean house, laundry done and good hugs. Good to be home.

West Wendover to Lakeview, OR....after the fact....

OK...I admit it.  I just didn't feel like blogging while wearing Cranky Pants.  John and I are home safe and that is all that really matters about the homeward bound adventure.

We had, as of the last posting on May 23, two more days on the road. They were to prove memorable.

After leaving West Wendover we headed to Winnemucca, NV to visit John's friends from his Corps days. It was a thuroughly enjoyable visit-brief, but enjoyable.  Then; the fun began....again...same...same, but different.

Same - Same But Different is a game I played with Lizzi and Eli. Example:  one day, we had to figure out why there were so many different car types on the road.  A simple way to explain was to say they were all cars...but different - hence: Same Same But Different.  We still use it and it always makes us laugh.  I only wish the Same Same But Different last two days of our trip would have made me laugh...well, in a way ...it did.

We took a wrong turn leaving Winnemucca and had to back track almost 40 miles which added 80 miles to a day that would prove to be very, very long. Sigh.  The gem of the day was not the extra 80 miles, but was finding a perfect little eating spot along the SR 140 route called: Denino Junction.  Looked like the Bates Motel from the outside, but surprisingly was clean, full of local flavor and the food was really good. And, the owner had a huge Navy Seal flag hanging from the ceiling. Right on!  We told the owner to thank his brother for his service and went on our way toward Lakeview. OR.

Denino Tree that welcomed two weary travelers!

SR 140 was boring and beautiful all at the same time.  Oh, yeah; don't forget:  scary.  From the moment we left Denino Junction there were signs : Free Range cattle and donkeys. We saw them all - including one very brave Roadrunner who ran between John's Goldwing and my Sportster at 75MPH. Beep! Beep!

We meandered our way to the top of a very high mountain pass and then had to literally snake our way to the valley floor and into Lakeview, OR This was not...NOT...my comfort zone on a bike. I didn't realize how high the pass was until we saw our first 8% downgrade sign.  UGH....hugging the wall side of the steep canyon...we slowly and cautiously wound our way down on a two lane road without guard rails. After 4 separate drops of 8%, 7% 8% and 6% we reached the valley floor where it began to rain and night darkness came down on us in the pouring rain like a thick dark cloud. Road visibility down to zero.

The ride into Adele looked like it was a pretty road...followed a river; but who could tell?  By the time we got into Lakeview....I was so done being on my bike. The hotel looked horrible, but the owner was sweet and the room was very clean.