Days on cruise control: 6
Distance traveled: 589 miles
Travel time: 10 hours, 30 minutes
Total trip odometer: 3,425 statute miles
It’s not like anyone held a gun to our heads and forced us to do it this way, but once we left Fort Pierce, with the exception of our day in Denver with Adrienne and Justin, we were 100% focused on getting this road trip over with! No stops for National Parks, museums, scenic overlooks, nothing. We drove all day, every day for six days, only stopping to re-fuel or change drivers. As on Next To Me, we’re co-Captains on road trips, changing drivers every 2-3 hours. Bob is still the Navigator, figuring out our route and stopping points each night, and Cathryn is still Keeper-of-Contact-With-People-We-Love, making phone calls, writing emails and texting with lots of folks.
We pulled out of Mountain Home, ID at 7am and by 9am crossed into Oregon, state #12. The scenery turned greener, and the highway more winding with steep ups and downs.
We gained an hour as we crossed into the Pacific Time zone, and mid-day entered our home state, Washington, state #13 for this journey.
Heavy rain and an accident on the last mountain pass added considerable delay, then Friday afternoon traffic near Seattle slowed our travel further. Finally at 4:30 we pulled into our driveway, happy to have the road trip behind us.
Next To Me and the Great Loop feel a long way away. This weekend we’ll compile some “Loop By The Numbers” statistics for publication here, and finally our “Reflections on the Loop” thereafter. Text messages from crew on Blue Heron, Jackets II, Wind Song, Proud Lady, The Zone and Second Wind remind us there are lots of our Looper friends still out there enjoying this Grand Adventure, and we treasure our time with each of them and hope they continue to enjoy smooth sailing.
1 comment:
Welcome home! Are you sure that's where you want to be now that you once again have to deal with its corresponding weather and traffic; both of which you had to slog through within hours of home? But of course you do, because when it's nice in the Pacific NW, there's no better place to be!
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