Day 59- Jan. 2 Crossing Oregon

Good morning on my last day on the road.

I got to visit with so many friends and family that I hadn't seen in years. It was wonderful and felt just like old times!!!

As I drive down the street I grew up on, it made me feel like I have gone full circle. I started in my current life, went through my dream life, and have come here to the place I was raised and formed into the person I am today!!! Oooo... Such a great feeling!!!

It was off to my last breakfast with some more great friends...

Since I put in about 14-hour days this past week and stayed up til 3am last night, I was a little sleepy...

BUT my wonderful friend's conversation brought me to life and into the day. What great people!! I really enjoy their company!!!

After leaving breakfast, the intention was to get on I-84 and head east straight home.

BUT...

I have yet to drive straight to anyplace on this trip so why change now? I was raised on these lands and had been on the Historic US 30 when I was a kid, but it has been about 20 years and I hardly remember it.

I think a detour is in order!! I couldn't go through the last day without any u-turns or detours!!

This highway led me up a curvy road that lines the ridge towering above the Columbia George...

Where the wind blows so much that the tree branches grow on one side of the tree...

and the stone walls holding the land back are filled with moss... The feeling is historic and moist with large fir trees and stone arched walls lining the highway...

This path led me here...

Where my eyes and mind almost couldn't take in everything because the views are so expansive. Seeing this today was like seeing it for the first time. I don't remember these views, and while I drive I-84, that borders the Columbia River through the valley, several times a year, it is a whole new look from up on top of the ridge.

Crown Point jets out into The George giving you views from here in Oregon to across the river into Washington...

and west to Portland...

and east as far as the river flows...

But my favorite view was sitting down on the sidewalk and looking through the stone wall.

After Crown Point, the road dives down around sharp curves...

and through trees covered in florescent green moss...

and stone hills that are cut away to make way for the road.

The water flows out of every crevice in the ground and the landscape is formed by creeks...

and waterfalls...

The entire scenic path led to the most famous waterfall in this area, Multnomah Falls...

As I stood to take this picture the mist was so heavy, I had to squint my eyes and wipe the dripping moisture of my face frequently.

Here at the falls, there is a trail that leads to the top and has a lookout to the left of where the water comes out of the trees. As far as my memory goes, I have never been on this path so guess what I decided to do with the afternoon!?! I knew I had a 5-hour drive from here, but I can't come this far and skip it!!

Up the path I go. This led me through a forest of big ferns and little ferns...

and rock formations that I couldn't help but climb in...

and tree roots I had to hang from.

Now, I thought the path was only 1.5 miles, but let me assure you, it was only a reminder to get my tail back to the gym when I get home!

Huffing and puffing and counting each step were my methods. I did everything possible not to think of the distance left, but when I felt like I had climbed Mt. Everest, I was only at switchback 4 of 11. This called for drastic measures...

I whipped out my cell phone and called my aunt. She said, "Oh, why don't you call me when you are not hiking and are back in the car."

"OH NO!! I called you to get my mind off this hike straight up!!"

The next thing I knew, I was at switchback 8 of 11 and then when I got to the point I had decided the trail would never end, I spotted the approach to the viewpoint overlooking the falls.

YIPEE!!!!!!!!! I made it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is the view on the other side of the deck in front of the river just before it falls off the mountain.

It is a little hard to get the perspective of things in this next picture, but the falls are on the left and I am looking straight down to the bottom. You can see the parking lot and viewpoint at the bottom where I took the first two pictures.

The river leading to the falls was beautiful as it wove through the moss filled, dense forest.

The strange thing to me is I grew up here and I don't ever remember the moss. I guess when you are born and raised someplace, you look past things like moss and how incredibly moist it really is.

On the way down the hill, I couldn't resist a photo op like this...

After all this fun, I had to use every ounce of being in me to get back in my car and head home :(

Faster than I wanted, I crossed the Washington border...

and got onto 395 headed north.

But when I got home, I walked into a house filled with love and joy. My incredible mother had taken the time out of her busy schedule to turn all the lights on in my house, turn my heat back up to normal, decorate with balloons, and left me dinner and dessert!!! How nice was that!!!! Gosh, I have a great mom!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm really not ready for this trip to end. There's so many more people to meet and places to see and explore.

The purpose of me taking this trip was to get the travel bug out of my system.

WELL, it did the exact opposite!!! It made the travel bug blossom bigger than ever!! I have come up with bunches of other types of road trips to take...

1- A 4-wheeling tour of the states.

2- A tour of factories to learn how things are made and where they come from.

3- A kayaking tour of the lakes and rivers.

4- A treasure hunting tour searching for gems and stones.

5- A visit to the ranches and farms of the US and see how they are different and get to know the lifestyles at each.

6- A beaches tour!!

7- I have got to go down the east coast in the fall!!!

Oh, my goodness. My skin is jumping with excitement for another adventure!!! But for now, I am settled in my living room in denial that it is all over. Notice I said, "For now." I will get back out there!!!

It is like I never left and this whole thing was a dream.

I drove a total of 11,175 miles and covered 27 states.

Yes, I did almost all of it alone. My aunt was with me for one week and my dad was with me for 5 days but the rest of the time it was me and the open road.

I will be posting for about one more week with some fun stories and pictures that I never put on here during the trip, a page about costs and gas prices across the nation, and a questions and answers page.

If you have questions or things you are curious about, you can write me at dana@readysetsko.net and I will post answers on here at the end of the week. Since this program knows it is an email, it is putting an underline under the whole email address, so you can't see the underscore after "elpie" and before "ma." Make sure to put that underscore (_) in or it will never get to me. The underscore is located next to the = key. Just hold down shift and push the button and it will show up.

Good night!!