The end of the line

We had a  couple of very long days, 480 miles one day and 550 the next, but we arrived back at Rainbow’s End Tuesday afternoon, hot tired and dirty!  Fall seems to have arrived here in East Texas, the temps are not to high and there is no humidity to speak of – which is a real pleasure!

So here’s a few photos from the drive home.

 

Ocotillo Cactus, which are really a member of the rose family and a Giant Saguaro

Can you see the Indian on the mountain?  From West Texas?

Sunset over the Colorado River.

Just the facts please!

We drove the truck in excess of 18,000 miles.  Towed the trailer over 14,000 miles.  We were gone a total of 168 days and took over 4300 still photos and 20 movies.  This was a truly amazing journey.  The sights we saw were awesome, the mountains majestic, rivers that defy description, and animals we never in our wildest imagination thought we would see.  We traveled with some wonderful people, laughed, cried and told stories, had breakdowns (vehicle) and helped each other along the way.  We ate out, cooked pot luck and ate in.  We samples beers we’d never heard of.  Rode trains to fantastic places, took boat rides to see glaciers calving and watched with mouth open  in wonder.  Took back roads to the top of mountains just to see the view, drove thru passes that left us thunderstruck.  Explored an old mine and watched some locals fish for salmon (they even gave us some which was wonderful).

I say to you, if you have the chance to go to Alaska, DON’T WAIT!  Do it by all means!  I hope you have enjoyed reading about our adventure, it was fun to write and a great way to remember what we did!

Until our next adventure, stay healthy and happy.

Sue & Jon Glick and our cat Jezebel.

Last leg of the Journey

This morning we began the last leg of this incredible summer journey.  We left my Uncle’s house about 8:30am.  Our route took us thru Pasadena, the San Gabriel Valley (smoggy – yuck!) and Palm Springs where we stopped for lunch.  Continuing on over the Chiriaco Summit then down to the Colorado River.  We decided to spend the night camped next to the river.  Tomorrow is another long day of driving, but with luck, we should reach Livingston by Wed afternoon.  I’ll post photos after we get home.

Good food, bad food and just hanging out

Staying with my Uncle, he insists on our trying his favorite places to eat.  We don’t go out since he has trouble getting around, but we do take out.  One of his favorite places that we had never been to before is Panda Express.  They have a variety of shrimp, beef and pork dishes along with rice and noodles.  One order for Uncle lasts 3 days!  Another place he told us to go to was “The Habit”, it’s a burger place and all I can say is WOW!  For pasta he really likes “L.A. Lasagna Co”.  The Spaghetti with Marinara is wonderful and they have a chicken parmesan that just melts in your mouth .  Another great place is Joseph's Deli, melt in your mouth pastrami!  YUM!

When my Dad was alive we all used to go for breakfast at least once a week.  One of Jon’s favorite places was Uncle Bernie’s Deli.  So Jon and I went, not at all what we remembered!  This time the food was so bad that Jon actually sent it back!  He doesn’t usually do that.  Won’t be going there again anytime soon.

To say it’s been hot here is an understatement.  The daytime temps have been from a low of 85 to a high of 106, but the overnight temps have been delightful, there is a 40 degree difference between day and night, so sleeping is good.  As I said before ( I think I said this), we are parked in my Uncle’s driveway.  We have power, enough to run the AC part of the day, but that’s all we have.  Any water is from the holding tank, there is no place to get rid of water we’ve used.  We do spend a lot of afternoons at the malls, walking around trying to keep cool.  Mornings are spent sitting in the shade of the RV watching the birds around here.  We did drive up to Ventura one day, looking for one of our favorite meat markets in Saticoy.  It’s long gone, but the strawberry fields are still there, in fact we were told that now berries grow year round.  We bought some and they were fabulous!

This is a Golden Eagle across the street and here are some of the other birds we have seen around the house.

Here’s some from our day trip to Ventura.

And yes, I did get my feet wet, all the way up to my knees!  The water felt wonderful.  Some day, I will go back and get all the way in.