Headed Home - December 3, 2015 - The Final Day

It's the last day of our trip, so we got up early and left Lakeview at 7:30.  It's only 20 minutes to the Oregon-California border.  It's quite warm and it was great watching the sun rise, but it's windy as all get-out.  Grant had to really work at driving and trying to write neatly in my journal was a lost cause.

There were flocks and flocks of birds at one point, filling the sky and even swooping down close to the road.  As we neared Susanville, it looked like there was a wildfire, but we figured out that it was merely a major dust storm kicked up by the wind on the dry lake-bed of Honey Lake.  Tumbleweeds and debris were everywhere and even the street signs were shaking.

As we climb out of Susanville and over Fredonyer Pass, the sky is almost blue-black and the trees are blowing around like crazy.  It started to sprinkle rain around Westwood and only got worse.  Lake Almano had white caps and waves on it.  We heard later that people were actually surfing on Lake Tahoe, the winds were so strong!

About 3 miles from home, a truck kicked up a rock that put a ding in the windshield.  After an almost 2.000 mile journey, we had to get home to have damage?  Quincy is looking festive and it was good to pull into our driveway, get the truck unpacked, and relax with our heads full of good memories,

Shinn Peaks - 7,100 feet

The Sierras

We weren't sure what this red layer was in the rock

I managed to catch a picture of some of the many birds filling the sky

Dust storm over Honey Lake

Susanville

Lake Almanor white caps

A familiar sight as we approach Quincy and home

Headed Home - Day 10 - December 2, 2015

I woke up at 7 am and went out to have a smoke, only to find --- surprise!  It snowed about an inch overnight!  It's pretty icy stuff, so we'll have to drive carefully, but we've got a room reserved in Lakeview, OR for tonight, so we're not in any hurry.

I was very snowy on I-395 south of Canyon City.  Grant put the truck into 4wd.  We actually drove at about 40 mph for a while.  It was snowing over Starr Ridge Pass.  We saw an old Teepee Burner in Seneca.  The only color in the landscape is the red and gold of the shrubbery growing along the side of the river.

We got stuck behind an empty logging truck on the flat lands between Sylvie and Trout Creek, going 40 mph.  The fun thing was, we'd been following the same little black Toyota the whole way from John Day and continued to do so until he finally turned off in Burns, OR.  Even though we stopped briefly on Devine Ridge in the Malheur National Forest, and seemed to "own to road" for a time, we caught back up to him again.

We stopped in Burns because Grant wanted to hit a certain hardware store and I refreshed my coffee cup.  Back on the road, we were about 100 miles from :ale Abert when Grant decided to pull off to relieve himself.  There was no one on the road, so I suggested he just stop and put on his flashers since it was so icy, but he wanted to park off the road, and we got stuck.  He was about to put chains on, but a young couple in a red Ford 150 pickup stopped and offered to pull us out.  Our hero for the day!

At about 12:30, the sun started peeking through the clouds.  Just north of Lake Abert, we passed the Good Samaritan, who had pulled off the road, and shortly after that, we pulled off again, and he passed us.  We beeped and waved.  We stopped a few times at the Lake again to take photos.  The sun and clouds were spectacular.  We made it to Lakeview at about 2:30.

This sight met my eyes first thing in the morning.

The Squeeze In, which is not like the Squeeze Inn we all know and love, but still fun.

Headed out of John Day

This small black Toyota was ahead of all the way to Burns!

Equipment used in clean-up for the burned area south of Canyon City

This sign was puzzling as it is on top of the snow, so why is there smoke?

Grant's dashboard collection

The symbol of the high school in Burns

Our hero - aka The Good Samaratin

Getting closer to Lake Abert

This is where we pulled over and waved at our hero

First glimpse of Lake Abert ahead

This funny house is in Lakeview, Or.

When we got to Lakeview, Grant seemed to remember that Jeffery's Auntie Diana and her husband Bill, whom we saw last at the Wilson Clan gathering in Taylorsville last August, had said they lived on 4th street, so we drove around and tried to spot Bill's little white truck, to no avail, so when we checked into the motel, I sent Dorothy a message asking for Diana's phone number.  Dorothy wasn't online, so didn't get back to me, so I decided to take a walk and take a few photos since it was still a little early.

The Safeway wasn't far from out motel, and I went in to see about getting something for supper and who should I run into, but Diana!!  She said Bill was out of town, and she was disorganized, so we hugged and said "next time!'.  It was just so cool to happen upon her, I thought.  She caught up to me as I got back to our motel and handed me her phone number, and said to call her.  I fell asleep, but Grant joined them for dinner, and ended up pulling them both out of the snow (they'd come in different cars) when they got stuck.

I took this to show Dorothy

Water tower in Lakeview

The sign at Safeway

Not sure why I took this picture.  We're not taking either route.

Auntie Diana (Wilson) Kesser