As I sort through the photos chronologically, my memory of our time on the road is refreshed. I am considering starting a daily journal with a dose of retrospect. The trip to Oregon, encompassing four days, will be lumped together; as well as most of the days spent visiting with family and friends in the Willamette Valley. Most of that time was personal and who's interested in that anyway?
Each day will have a corresponding webpage with selected photos. Additional photos will also be loaded into the photo galleria corresponding to days. So stay tuned, the journal will begin in the next day or two.
A new Heinz 52-weeks variety of your favorite condiment. But it does not substitute as a vegetable.
I'm still trying to catch up on returning to life back here in Texas. My five acres is a jungle of grass which I can't even mow; it's too tall. Water has been restored to the house and all the 7+ gigs of photos are now downloaded and backed up. I even experimented in making a short video from a clip off the pocket-sized Zi8 Kodak. But now the daunting task of sorting and culling through all those photos and vids seems overwhelming. And it is now painfully clear that my MacBookPro hard drive is seriously inadequate for the task. One thing always leads to another.. and another... and.....
At least the temperature has cooled here; leaving the windows open at night is refreshing. It is a poor substitute for camping in the mountains, but it will do for now. My head keeps returning to various places and people that we experienced in Oregon. I'm caught in between.
A piece of paper near my desk reports the Countdown and serves as encouragement daily.
After two days of hard driving, we pulled into where we left off from nearly a month ago. My prairie grass is so high a herd of cows could munch side by side for weeks. After Ed drove off and everything was unpacked, I went to take a refreshing shower and found I have no water. Welcome home.
Today is back to the same old routine at work and trying to restore water at home. Then an hour or two downloading 6+ GB of photo from camera memory cards. I miss the cool mountains already.
We slid back into a reality that is in between what we left three weeks ago, and what we spent two weeks riding through on our little ponies. Arrived in Prineville earlier today.......... I've lost track of time and days Sun was about mid-point in the sky.
It took us 4.5 hours to ride 93 miles. Why? Because we rode up to 6K feet and down, through forests of trees with thick bark scales of which all the snakes would be jealous, sat on the bikes with engines off watching antelopes play, argued with a big black bull (brangusbuffalelk -cross between an Angus/buffalo/elk ), gazed longingly at the prairies on the summit, zigzagged playfully on the moist dust-free gravel and, well, wished we didn't have to go any further.
I have to say, however, that tonight's dinner in Prineville was scrumptious.
Met many people on the road and in campsites, many we hope to see again. Special thanks to Greg from High Desert Adventures for route suggestions and helping us safely harbor the truck and poop-up (not a typo) camper for the time we were gone.
I have over 4GB of photos and almost 12GB of video to download, sort and upload before I start a travelogue. So it will be awhile before anything appears online. Tomorrow we begin the journey back to TX, starting with the Painted Hills near Mitchell.
AND...... we'll be back next year. The kids postponed the wedding due to unforeseen circumstances. And if they wait until after Sept. 1 next year, we won't have a deadline to return to TX! (retirement!!!)
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