Burns to Home

Day 61 (April 10)

What an incredible adventure! We have filled this past 61 days with so many memories that we'll have to read the blog over several times just to remember what we saw where! We are so grateful for the prayers for us on our journey ... we had incredible weather, clear roads, and have added so many memories. Your comments (through the blog, emails, texts, etc) have helped us stay close to all our family and friends as we've traveled.

We left Burns, Oregon at 7:45 this morning and arrived home at 12:18 this afternoon. Roads were straight and clear with very little traffic until we got closer to Prineville, Oregon. We have seen some incredible scenery but there's something about seeing the Cascades in Central Oregon and Mount Hood that makes our hearts skip a beat and know we're so close to home.

Coming Home Pictures

Highway 20 out of Burns, Oregon

Three Sisters - Oregon Cascades Central Oregon

Highway 26 around Mount Hood ... Love the green of Oregon!

Mount Hood

Mount Hood 

Trip Statistics:

Miles Driven:   9,784.2

Average MPG: 30.3

Number of Countries: 4 (Cruise to Western Caribbean)

Number of States: 17 (4 of those we did twice)
Average Price Per Gallon: 1.856

Highest Price Per Gallon: $3.999

Lowest Price Per Gallon: $1.339

Number of Pictures Taken: 4,486 (before narrowing them down!)

Elko, NV to Burns, OR

Day 60 (April 9)

Today's journey took us onto I-80 for awhile before we started heading toward the Oregon border out of Winnemuca, Nevada to travel on a more scenic and "less traveled" road. Since towns were few and far between we just took in the scenery.

The fields and hillsides were covered in a beautiful purple hue from wildflowers and where there wasn't purple there was a beautiful springtime green. We came across more cattle on the open range but they decided to stay at the side of the road this time. We were, however, surprised at the number of jack rabbits running across the road ... longest ears on a rabbit either of us had ever seen. Sorry ... they were so quick we didn't get any pictures.

One of the reasons for our route heading home was to come through the Steens Mountain and Malheur County areas to scope it out for a future camping/exploring trip. We had planned to take a gravel loop road into the Steens Mountains but about 2-3 miles down the road there was a "road closed" sign ... evidently there's still plenty of snow up there.

A little ways down the road in Diamond, Oregon we saw a sign for Peter French Round Barn so we thought it would be a good time to stop and stretch our legs some before continuing our journey.  (Peter French)

We're staying in Burns, Oregon tonight in an older but clean motel ... perfectly suited for this area. We got into Burns earlier than anticipated so we walked over to the local historical museum. Having grown up in Southern California we learned California history in school; we're enjoying learning more about Oregon history where we've made our home these past 43 years.

There was something about crossing the border and seeing the "Welcome to Oregon" sign that felt like we're almost home. We're ready to be home and sleep in our own bed and get back into some kind of routine but it will also be hard to stop this great adventure.

Today's Pictures

This guy may not last long since he was on the road

 

This is what happens when a Marine gets a hold of the camera and there's an elk head on the wall

 Welcome (Back) to Oregon

Beaver UT to Elko NV

Day 59 (April 8)

We had expected today to be a driving day just taking in the scenery as we headed toward Elko, Nevada for the night. What we didn't expect to see was another National Park ... this time it was Great Basin National Park which included Lehman Caves and Rhodes Cabin. We didn't do the cave tour since they have restrictions on people who have been in caves recently. Since we had gone into Carlsbad Caverns early in our trip that included us. We did take a short hike on a trail at the Lehman Caves Visitors Center which gave us an incredible view of the valley below and the "road less traveled" that we had taken to get there. It was also a good time for a Building Memories photo op!

Back on the road, we continued on our scenic road. We found out something very interesting about "open range" ... cows really do cross at the sign! We waited for the cows to cross over including a mama and baby who were lagging behind.

Just when we thought we were out of open range animal crossings we had another large flock of sheep who decided to cross the road ... all except one who evidently had a bit of an itch on its backside and had found a great post that worked just great.

When we crossed from Utah to Nevada we also got back into Pacific Time Zone so we are now working on the same time as home ... with two more days of travel that should help us adjust back to reality time!

Arrival in Elko, Nevada in the early afternoon. Once we got checked into our room we decided to go on a walk to see the Visitors Center that is housed in the Sherman Station. Just down from the Visitors Center was the Northeastern Nevada Museum. We were beyond surprised at how nicely done this museum is done. There was a wildlife display that is the best one we've ever seen, as well as history of the area and a Western art display. Next to the Visitors Center was the original Ruby Valley Pony Express Station.

Today's Pictures

 

See the cow crossing sign?

Cow Rustling Boots (click here to read story)

What bear????

Nice kitty!!!!!