one of the more annoying aspects of living out of the car for so long is the constant packing. pack, unpack, reorganize. repeat. ugh. before being able to set off for home, just about everything had to come out of the car one last time. the canyon gear was laundered, separated, and repacked. this process took me an entire morning. all I wanted to do was throw it all into the car, and dump it all at home, but it simply wouldn't have fit, and the gross damp muddy canyon gear would have rotted in the days it would take to get home.
marlowe and i iced up the cooler, and checked out of the hotel at noon. one last stop at a brewery in town for lunch, made a plan for the journey, and we were on the road.... or so we thought. during lunch, we got a text from one of the group participants that she had ended up in the hospital that morning, so we delayed our departure to make sure all was ok and lend a hand. our delay ended up being another night and day in flag. once we were sure the girls were stable and set for their change in plans, we left once again, around 5pm the following evening.
pretty tired and worn out, an adventure home (via the north rim if the grand canton) was no longer quite as appealing as just getting there. that first night we made it 5 hours through fantastic lightning storms to Barstow, where we got a nights sleep, and looked at our route with fresh eyes in the am.
Gettin home was a priority, but driving up the 5 for the day would have sucked out my soul. we decided to take the scenic route up 395 on the eastern side of the sierras. it was a gorgeous day, answer both enjoyed seeing the landscape change to the dramatic mountains (hello mt Whitney!). after a prolonged stop in mammoth for lunch, and a tasting at the brewery, we continued on crossing west through Yosemite, where the golden cowboy got to say hello to half dome again! instead of rolling into SF super late at night, we took one last detour up to the river camp for the night to get the end of season download. boy am I glad I didn't go through angry August. ha.
slept next to the river (best sleep I got since the canyon!), and was refreshed in the am. we said our good byes. and made one last stop in the way down to the bay to meet marlowe's brand new niece Ava in Sacramento.
it was a long journey, but we made it to Berkeley to drop marlowe off mid afternoon, and enjoyed a beer with Allison while we told some stories, and relived a few highlights from the trip!
back in the car.... I was on my own for the final push into SF, my home. ;)
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