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Our last hotel stay of this trip was in Burns, Oregon on Sunday night.....Bill is like a horse that can smell the home stable, and he decided not only to drive through from Burns to Seattle, but to pick up our beloved Betty, (thank you for such great care, Vicki and Geoff!) and then drive the rest of the way home. We got home around 10:00 pm, to a warm house (Thank you Diane, for turning on the heat!) and below freezing temperatures outside.

We started our return trip with a drive from Phoenix to Las Vegas, just ahead of the bad weather (snow in Flagstaff; rain in Phoenix). We stopped by the Hoover Dam on the way (I'd forgotten I'd already been there, but at least we got a view of the new bridge we had just crossed...Bill would have been happier if I had remembered before we paid for parking...!) In Vegas, we had a great evening at the newly remodeled Tropicana (nicely redone, and great bargain right now). Did some gambling, got comped a few drinks, had a good dinner, watched a free dance show...

The next day, we drove up through central Nevada and stayed overnight in the tiny town of Austin (about 150 people; 35 kids in the K-12) in a decent motel (The Pony Canyon) which was quite a contrast however to the Tropicana's luxury the night before! We ate at the International Hotel Cafe...built in the time of the silver mines (1870s, when there were 10,000 people living there!) and chatted with the locals...(if I ever end up alone, I am more than welcome at the bar there....) We walked up to the local attraction (The Castle), and around town.

The next day, we drove west from Austin on Route 50 (remember? The Loneliest Road in America), and then northwest to the California border. These roads had very few vehicles on them and and almost all were pickups. In the late morning, we spotted what seemed to be a coyote running across the road in front of a pickup heading towards us. We stopped to look at it, as it didn't go far, and it stood looking at us. I noticed the pickup had turned around and told Bill that the guys were probably going to shoot the coyote, so I decided to get out and take a photo, hoping they would go away...No such luck....They yelled at me: "Get away from that dog, lady!! It's got rabies and we have to kill it!" Now it was acting strange, in that it did not run away, but it sure looked like a coyote, not a dog. They jumped out of the truck with a rifle, as I jumped back into the car, and the shot went off as I closed the door....So, who knows? But it is hard to forget the the animal's eyes looking at me....This was the first (maybe) wild animal we had seen during two days of driving, and it was immediately killed....

The next animal we came across was a dead cow by the road....And there were hunters in nearly every truck we passed, along with bloodstains from road kill every few feet....I was glad to get to California, where there were herds of deer grazing everywhere and not a hunter in sight!

While still in Nevada, we stopped at a petroglyph site, for a short hike. Some of the stone markings were over 7000 years old.

We drove through the corner of California, along the very pretty Surprise Valley, and then into Oregon. We had to drive the last hour and half to Burns in the dark, on a deserted road with multiple warning signs about cattle and deer in the roadway. The roadkill cow we saw earlier in the day was a vivid reminder of could befall us out there on the range...We made it to Burns (not anywhere as nice as Austin) with Bill only having to dodge two jackrabbits...

The last day's daylight driving hours from Burns to Seattle were spent in on forested mountains alternating with wide open grassy hills and valleys. It was below freezing for most of the time. We arrived at the Gorge just before sunset and had great views of Mt. Adams and Mt. Hood. Traffic was easy going over Snoqualmie Pass and into Seattle....

We have many small branches down in the yard and the logs on the beach have been re-arranged, but we haven't seen any damage from the major windstorm that occured while we were gone.

Thanks for "traveling along" with us!

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