WOW!!! Our first 10 days on this adventure have been nothing short of incredible. We left our house on the morning of July 3rd after waiting through a minor rain delay that kept us in our garage as the storm passed. No worries though, it gave us one last opportunity to enjoy time (and coffee) with Taryn. Thanks again for the coffee and bagels T! Now here we sit in Keystone, South Dakota on Emily's 30th birthday. Today we'll visit Mt. Rushmore, the Crazy Horse Memorial, and Wind Cave National Park before concluding our evening in Hot Springs, South Dakota. Life is good.
Here's a quick recap of our first 10 days on the road.
July 3rd: We left Ann Arbor down Dexter-Ann Arbor Road. From there we headed north to Pinckney and Owosso, along beautiful secondary roads. After picking up route 127 and I-75 north, we crossed the Mackinac Bridge around 7:00pm and spent the night at Castle Rock Campground in St. Ignace. We met some new friends (Mark and Betty - who were touring on their Harley; thanks again for the saw you two!) and enjoyed our first night on the road.
After 2 ½ weeks riding down the beautiful Pacific Coast we made it to Jay’s mom’s house in Sun City, California on September
23rd. The jaw dropping magnificence of this portion of our travels cannot be described in words, nor do the multitudes of pictures and videos we took do it justice, but hopefully
this gives you a little taste of our journey down the west coast.
In our last blog entry we talked about our five week hiatus spent celebrating several life events with family out east. We flew back west to Portland, Oregon on September 3rd with a heaviness in our hearts, sad to be leaving our families and unsure of the next time we would see them. The transition was made easier, however by the wonderful hospitality of Jay’s aunt and uncle and their families in Portland. His uncle Jon drove us around the Portland neighborhoods where Jay’s dad grew up, allowing a peek into a part of his past Jay was too young to be privy to. His aunt Fern and her partner Pat threw us a send off bbq at their house where Pat presented us with a “survival kit” complete with toilet paper, safety pins, a bungee cord, and maps. The support and encouragement was just what we needed as we prepared to take off the following day. We can’t thank you enough Portland Wilgi!!