Driving...

I left Oregon on September 23rd, and it has been quite a journey since! It is going to wear me out just talking about it!

To start, the night before leaving one of my amazing co-workers, Liane, threw an awesome goodbye party for me. It was quite a turn out! She did a great job. There were tons of food, good company, and good conversation. I truly miss all the people I worked with and got to know in Oregon. It was a wonderful experience, something I will always remember! Thank you to all the amazing people for giving me great friendship and an unforgettable experience!

Izzy and I

Cute Diana and Scarlet, I am holding little Willie!

Liane and I

All of us. Missing some very important people though. Love ya and miss you all!

After packing up as quickly as possible and doing a quick cleaning, I left Thursday morning, destination the Redwood Forest in Northern California. This is day 1 of the long trek back to CO. This drive took me about 8 hours. It was a gorgeous drive, along the northern pacific coast. It looked the same most the way, views of beaches and coastal cliffs. It was cloudy and rainy most the time, what's new, lol! Just a little north of the Redwoods it cleared up and the temperature was perfect. I was so excited. The Redwoods are somewhere I have wanted to visit for a very long time. It was unfortunate I only had that evening pretty much to be in the area. I got to see some gorgeous trees and found this perfect trail to experience the gorgeous forest and not take too long. It was actually about a 3 mile trail that I ended up jogging since I was short on time, it was going to get dark soon. It was perfect, trail winding through the forests, leaves changing colors and falling on the trail, and even a waterfall! No pictures of the actual trail though since I was running.

Shots taken pulling over on the side of the road while driving through the Redwoods

Near the trail I saw a sign for a campground that was on the beach. It was about 8 miles down a dirt road, but sounded great. I got at the campground and was able to snag the last camp spot! I was so excited to camp on the beach. Didn't even camp on the beach the whole time I was in Oregon. It was a bit chilly, but it was gorgeous! Got my camp set up then took a walk on the beach. The sounds of the ocean were amazing and it was a full moon, perfect evening walk along the ocean! And sleeping next to the ocean was so cool! Having a natural sound machine to sleep to! haha. In the morning I had to leave really early because I had to make it to LA by 7 to pick Luke up from the airport. I was visiting him and Jackie for the weekend and he was flying back from a TDY. It was nice that I was able to pick him up from the airport, but man is California a LONG state! It took me at least 12 hours just to drive from the Redwoods to LA. Crazy. Then he was nice and drove from LA to his house near Edwards Air Force Base. It was funny because my car was packed of course because I was traveling home, not really ready to carry the driver plus a passenger, so I sat with a cooler and two bags in my lap, and Luke unable to see out the rearview mirror. I was so happy to get to his house that evening and have two days off with no driving!

Huge elk in the Redwoods

Beach at campsite

Gorgeous full moon night, perfect for beach camping!

Cliff and mountain on one side, beach and ocean on the other!

The drive to his house was interesting at first, then after San Francisco got very boring and redundant. Long time just driving south on I-5. Some interesting things I passed included going through Big Foot territory, saw the one log house (literally a house in one big, single log), saw tons of road bikers biking the pacific coast trail, saw one biker pushing his bike up a hill towing a decent size trailer (crazy), along with more interesting things. Too bad I was unable to blog until now because I am sure there was a lot more I could have written about that I saw, but unfortunately I have a horrible memory!

Footprints in the sand! This is in northern Cali

All pics from northern Cali, the last of the coastal scenic part of the drive

Saturday Luke, Jackie, and I relaxed in the morning and visited, then we decided to do something we have been wanting to do for a long time, Geocaching! Luke has a nice GPS perfect to do this. I have hiked up upon a geocache one or two times in the past, but never set out hiking purposely seeking a cache. We went to Devil's Punchbowl Park, southeast of where Luke lives. It was a cool area, outside of Los Angeles National Park. It was hot and in the desert, but pretty. It was interesting having to worry about snakes in the area. Luke and Jackie saw one of the deadliest snakes in their driveway not too long ago, the Mojave Green. Luckily their neighbor assisted them in killing this deadly creature! We set out to find four geocaches, found three of the intended ones and one that was unintended. The third one we found was a backcountry cache, more difficult to get to and discover, but totally worth it! It was tons of fun. We had to do a little bouldering to get to it. Got a little bit of my need for some rock climbing out of my system. Not enough though, still in great need to do some rock climbing!

Bouldering our way to the third cache

These are dead cacti that grow really tall before they die, they look so cool

Jackie and Luke climbing up the side of a rock

Luke working on his rock climbing skills!

Now he's working on his weight lifting!

Trying not to fall into the nasty water

3rd cache, do you see it? We didn't either, for a LONG time. Luke and Jackie both were standing right over the spot where it was hidden for quite some time. It was so difficult to see. We were going to be so bummed if we never found it, but we found it!

The treasures inside the cache, we took the travel bug and left the skull patch from the previous cache that we traded matches for the skull patch

Day 2 with Luke and Jackie we went to church, watched some football, had some good family time playing games, then went to the new frisbee golf course on base. It was brand new, so it was kind of cool to get to play on, had a few recommendations for them to improve on. It was fun. We always have a good time playing frisbee golf! I'm always very thankful for the time I get to spend with Luke and Jackie, I don't get to see them enough. I miss them both. Can't wait for the next visit.

Monday morning I left early for the next day of driving...to Salt Lake City to visit Brea and Tom! I definitely don't get to see these two often enough either. I love them both. Monday night I got to see some of Brea's family. She has so many nieces and nephews. I got to see one of my fav's, Dekker. He attaches himself to me when I get to see him, I love it. I think I have seen them the most because they live the closest to Brea.

So happy to see each other

Teaching Dekker how to do flips!

On Tuesday we set out on a hike. It was so gorgeous. The trees were amazing. It was a bit chilly in the morning, but then warmed up quickly. We hiked up to Dog Lake where the reflection from the mountains was spectacular! God's beauty is so amazing!

We hiked a little farther trying to find another lake we thought was in the area, but turned out we were wrong. That's ok though, we got some good bonding and hiking time. That afternoon Brea taught me the art of Slacklining. It was very weird feeling, didn't think there was any way possible I would be able to do it. But it was really fun. Cheap entertainment!

That evening it was nice we got to kind of celebrate Brea's birthday together, a bit early. Afterwards, Brea plays volleyball with a bunch of people that are decent players. I was stoked to get to play some competitive v-ball. This doesn't happen much. We played for like two hours, it was so fun. We were worn out, but it was worth it!

The next day I set off early for my next day of driving. This was the shortest day of driving however, only 8 hours! It was pretty in parts of Utah with the fall colors, and CO was gorgeous. I love seeing the changing colors in the Aspen trees. When I got a little ways outside of Leadville (30min. from home) I started smelling something weird from my car. I was thankful I was almost home, my car needed a break. It's been making a weird vibrating noise lately too, I'm wearing it out! Definitely time for a new car! I was thankful when I made it home, but it wasn't too relaxing. I had to unload all my stuff and then repack for leaving the next day to go to Pueblo and then Oklahoma for my annual camping trip with old college friends. This will be for an upcoming post!

It was a very long journey home, broken up with great visits with friends and family. I am so thankful for the time I was able to spend in Oregon, all the friends I made and adventures I partook in. Now time to create more memories...!