Made it Home!

Four days after leaving Desert Hot Springs, CA, we arrived home here in Langley, BC, Canada.  Total distance driven during the winter?  4,400 miles  ~ 6,100 kilometres.

Shasta Lakes Region of Northern California.

Weather predictors had forecast awful driving weather for our drive homeward.  A huge storm was moving in from the Pacific coast.  It would deliver high winds, snow, rain, sleet, and hail.  Well, we had little of that!

Our RV spot in Red Bluff, CA

RVers we spoke with in northern CA, were, like us, concerned about the Siskiyou Pass.  The weather girl had predicted heavy snow and wind.  It did not materialize for us!  Yeah for that.

Mount Shasta on Saturday morning.

After checking several weather sources, we were convinced that the passes into Oregon would be favourable.  Off we drove.  Our information proved correct.  The passes were clear and bare.

Snow was clearly seen at the higher elevations.

It was a nice drive through the passes and into Oregon.  We were making good time so we opted to drive up to Salem and overnight there.  From Salem, it's a six hour drive to the Canadian border.

Bare winter driving conditions.

We faced sun, clouds, brief rain storms, some light hail and a bit of wind, off and on, during our Saturday drive.

Nice roads.

Would you believe that we arrived at the RV park in Salem, Oregon, during a pounding rain storm?

That's right, we got to set up in a pounding rain storm.  As soon as we had completed all hook ups and fired up the furnace and heaters, the rain stopped, the wind died and the sun came out.

I-5 traffic blocked at the draw bridge over the Columbia River.

We left the RV park in Salem - 30 minutes south of Portland - near 10:00 am on Sunday morning - after cleaning out our tanks, emptying all water and sanitizing the fiver for storage. 

We were held up at the major bridge that crosses the Columbia River from Oregon into Washington State. The draw bridge had to be lifted for a ship that was heading east on the river.  That led to a 30 minute delay.  An accident a few miles earlier held us up for another 20 minutes.  That was on Sunday morning.  We could hardly believe the volume of traffic!  It was very heavy.

Rain and sleet

Once into Washington State, it was seamless driving till we arrived at the Canadian border crossing.  

Downtown Seattle seen under a heavy cloud cover - with sporadic rain showers.

Crossing @ the much smaller Aldergrove border crossing into Canada.

It was a 20 minute wait to get back into Canada.  A very nice and professional Canada Customs officer asked two questions then welcomed us back home.  No stopping, no checking, no inspections.  YEAH!  No delays....and within 6-8 minutes, we pulled up in front of our home.

Arrival!

Some have questioned our reason for heading back for home so early.  Well, there is a very good reason for that!  It will be explained in the next blog. 

Removing the motorcycle from the swivel wheel, shortly after we arrived.

Jeanette and I removed most of the items from our two refrigerators.

We spent a bit of time removing some items from the fiver and back into the house but we pretty well left the rest for yesterday (Monday).

Fiver is backed onto the driveway - opened up and waiting for me to vacuum, shampoo the rugs and complete a bit of required maintenance.  After we close it up, it will be pushed back,along the house, and locked in its rightful spot. 

OK!  That's enough work for one day.

Most of my day today (Tuesday) will be spent working on cleaning and maintenance.  We'll button it up till we move it out in late May for a trip into the Okanagan area of British Columbia.

We had a fabulous 2.5 months of winter travel in the US southwest.  We shared many, many laughs with so many like minded folks, shared some wonderful time on the golf links, hiked and motorcycled to new places and shared great food with really good folks.  So, what's not to like about that!  It was fun.  To everyone we met along the way, a special thank you!

We look forward to next winter's journey!

Thanks for dropping by.