Monday, July 9, 2012

Day 31 – July 9 – Federal Way, Washington (The journey home)



After a long nights journey into day we are home. Finally. The drive back from Oakland got off to a bit later start than what we had planned with the Mariners vs Oakland game going 13 innings. This trip just didn’t want to end. When we finished eating at Scott’s Seafood Bar & Grill we headed out. We thanked Corey for his Bay Area hospitality and headed out on I-80 working our way to Vacaville where we left I-80 and hit I-505. We went almost due north about 50 miles until we ran into the road we’ve been looking for, I-5, that we will be on for almost the entire trip home. Pat started the drive and pulled a decent shift until we got across into Oregon and to Medford. It was time to gas up and with the late start it was already about 1:30 AM. Steven took over with the plan to drive to Oregon’s capitol of Salem for his final turn behind the wheel. We got there about 5AM. Finally it was my turn to get behind the wheel and bring it home. We were getting into the Portland area around rush hour on a Monday morning so I wisely got on I-205 and took the bypass around the Portland/Vancouver area and avoiding most of the traffic and getting back on the freeway about 15 miles north of Portland. From there it was a good straight shot up I-5. We decided that it would be nice to take Mom out to breakfast to celebrate this great trip and the way it was looking we were going to get there around 9AM. We got off of I-5 just south of Tacoma and headed on Highway 512 toward Puyallup. We got to Mom’s place right after 9AM and she was very happy to see her boys and grandsons doing so well and returning to Washington safe and sound. We took her out to Denny’s for Breakfast and to have a good visit and a bit of reminiscing about the trip. But we still weren’t home so we got back into the van and headed up to Federal Way. When we got home it was a great relief. We dropped Shawn & Steven off and Pat drove the van and I drove my car so we could return the van and check the rental place to see if medics would be needed once they saw how many miles we put on it in a month. I saw the guy do a double take when he processed the paperwork, but he didn’t say a word. We wrapped up the transaction and then it was back to Federal Way to get this post out and to sleep most of the day away. Pat and Steven will be flying back to Austin tomorrow, Shawn will begin his summer vacation before his senior year of high school and I will be going back to work. Keep visiting the blog over the next few days. There are a lot of things to review regarding the trip, but I need to rest a bit before I put them out. We’ve kept some good notes during this trip and there are many good facts to look at. I’ve had some questions come in during the trip that we haven’t had time to answer due to all of the traveling that I will try to get to over the next few days. I’d like to thank everyone who has taken time to visit the blog and hope they have enjoyed our efforts at bringing this trip to you. It was most definitely a labor of love and something that was much more hard than I, or any of us, thought it could be. But, we survived the trip and look forward to talking about it.

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