We looked through her mission scrapbook, at photos of missionaries and members, investigators, villages, cathedrals, rivers, towns. It was a nice stroll down memory lane and the things I had forgotten she was quick to remind me of. Terina is as entertaining as ever, happy to point out the elders who were particularly unpleasant, her desire to strangle them seemingly as fresh as it had been 8+ years ago. Suffice to say, I laughed a lot.
I said goodbye to Terina and her two cute children and began the long, long, long drive back to Utah. At least there were forest and lakes and viewpoints for the first half. I grabbed a hotel at the border of Washington and Oregon and then drove the longer, uglier way through east Oregon and Idaho. I stopped at Shoshone Falls again and hiked along the canyon, eating fresh cherries, before the final stretch. Then a cop pulled me over for going 66 in a 55 zone. I had hoped to get through the trip without a ticket...and I did. Granted, I told him I was speeding because I had to use the restroom, which wasn't totally true. But dammit, it worked. He said, "this one's on me," and off I went.
It's good to be home. I know it'll only be a matter of days before I go stir-crazy again (the curse of unemployment) but for now I have scratched that itch. Despite all the beauty I saw in the PNW, when the Wasatch mountains came into view on the I-84, I felt strangely grateful. These are my mountains. I've hiked them, boated their lakes, and I see them filling the skyline every morning out my window. I gotta say, they're great.
Trip Stats:
• driving total - 2,200 miles (40+ hours)
• hiking total - at least 20 miles
• hostels endured - 3
• hostels that were haunted - 1
• waterfalls viewed - so many
• podcasts listened to - 30+
• hitchhikers - 1 picked up, 1 passed on account of large holes in his sweatpants
5 comments:
ooh, you picked a good pic of me. and you can still see you pushing the button on the remote.:) glad you made it home safe!!!
and i didn't know you picked up a hitchhiker!! where were they going? you need to blog about that.
I did on Day 5 -- scroll down :)
How fun that you got to see Terina. Tell her "hi" for me! (Can you do that retroactively?)
Jeremy - so TJ does remember EVERYTHING! As her friend of 26 years I have no idea about 1/2 the things she remembers. So yeah, I feel your pain.
Thanks for posting about your trip so I could lurk and read them :)
You got out of your annual ticket???? Nice work! LOL. That made me laugh so hard! And on the early Alzheimer's - mine has gotten so terrible. Sitting in the nursing home with you ought to be a blast! Hopefully you'll still have your vivid imagination and keep me laughing then too with all the stories you create. Except then, neither of us will know which are real or not ;-)
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