Wednesday, November 6, 2019

Day 45, Wednesday, November 6, 3:15 p.m., “Donner, I get the feeling…

"Donner, I get the feeling that we are not on the road anymore."

I am making this final posting for OTR-10 as I pull into the driveway at my home in Washington DC. For the first time in 45 days, "home" is no longer where I pitch my tent.

Over the last two score and four days and nights, Donner and I traveled 8,900 miles, passing through, in and out of 29 states in this great land of ours, coming within a day's drive of more than 90% of the population of the USA, and pitching our tent in some of the most beautiful settings on this planet.

We first traveled from the District of Columbia to the Badlands of South Dakota, and then on to Yellowstone National Park, setting up camp at various state parks along the way.

We then drove on to the Grand Tetons, Craters of the Moon in Idaho, and Mount Rainier, before taking a well-deserved respite on a gorgeous bluff overlooking the Pacific Ocean in Washington State.

We then headed south along the West Coast Highway until we took a detour to experience the other-worldly Crater Lake in Oregon, after which we sojourned farther south to camp right on the beach at majestic Walker Lake in California before moving on to breathtaking Death Valley for five days.

We then pointed the Defender northeast and drove through stunning Zion National Park before setting up camp for several days in the forest and then at the north rim of the Grand Canyon. After that, we moved on to the high desert in Utah and put the Defender's reputable prowess to good use on the rugged dirt roads thru photogenic Monument Valley and the adjacent spectacular Valley of the Gods. Resisting the necessity to end the journey, i toyed with the idea of recreating the pleasant evening we spent in Arches last year, but my better judgment took over and i navigated the Defender out of that surreal place and onto I 70, the road that would take us home 2000 miles away, pitching our tent one final time in a movie-set setting in a deep canyon on the great Colorado River.

The weather cooperated beautifully with us the entire journey, although it did mete out challenges with temperatures ranging from the low twenties to 100° the day we entered Death Valley. We outsmarted two historic snowstorms by good planning, lots of experience, and simple old fashioned intuition, not to mention some good luck.

Marauding animals cooperated even more so and we were not harassed as we were in the past by grizzly and black bears or, worse, thieving raccoons.

We pitched our tent in mountains and forests; on lava flows; on lakes, rivers, and creeks; on a bluff overlooking the magnificent Pacific Ocean in Washington State; and in the high desert and in the low desert.

Lady Fortune followed us everywhere this entire trip and I made sure to give her credit where credit was due, and in places where it was not, lest she remember that some miles down the road. One does not cross Lady Fortune.

We met good people, lots of good people, all along the way, the kind of people you wish lived next door to you rather than 3000 miles away.

Donner, who celebrated his fourth year with me along the way, met more dogs than he imagined existed, easily fulfilling his quota of new dogs each day.

The Defender acted exactly as it was meant to the entire route, getting us to where we wanted to go, and then getting us home, or most of the way home. Along the way it celebrated its 238,855th mile, the distance to the moon, and we celebrated that milestone in a fitting fashion. There is a new speedometer waiting for it at home and a new transmission on order from England. And i finally gave it a name after 26 years: Grane, Brunhilde's faithful steed who took her wherever she wanted to go, too, and in the end got her home where she belonged, sort of.

We experienced more sunsets in different settings over these 45 days than most people experience in a lifetime.

We had one hiccup along the way, in Kansas, the day after I unofficially announced the (camping part of the) trip over, but with the help of good people and lots of planning, we resolved that quickly and expertly and got on our way in three days.

I kept this blog and took over 1200 photos and videos, in addition to keeping my journal, certainly so that others could ride along with us and share the adventure, but also so that one day when I or the Defender are no longer able to take these incredible journeys with my beloved dogs, through unbelievably beautiful nature, tenting on the road through this fantastic land of ours, i can repeat them over and over again, listening to This Land is Your Land, North to Alaska, Take Me Home Country Road, Red River Rock, The Lion Sleeps Tonight, Nessum Dorma, and all that other great music that kept me company over close to 150,000 miles over ten journeys on the road, from sea to shining sea to shining sea.

Although the trip has now officially ended, i will continue to post here from time to time until the Defender is repaired and back home, probably in a few weeks, and then open up OTR-11. In the meantime, although the excitement of my trials and tribulations on the road was not in evidence this trip as it was in the past, and my posts rarely rose above the mundane logistics of the day, and never to the profund musings i would have liked, i hope this blog inspired some readers to do some tenting on the road yourselves. 

There are too many people to thank here for making this 10th " incredible journey" (as the National Geographic" titled our first) possible and a success, including these whose friendship i shared along the way, so i thank each of  you and them here simply with a heartfelt "thank you." And Donner thanks you, too.

Ed and Donner, from home.

1 comment:

  1. This is a trip that most of us could only wish we had made -- with Donner, not sure about you! Anyway, welcome home!

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