Final Day

We are home, safe and sound. We traveled from Carlisle, Arkansas to Asheville, North Carolina yesterday and stayed the night with Mark's cousins, the Tickle's. That left us only 200 miles today. The North Carolina Welcome sign was a welcome indeed and the Blue Ridge Mountains were a sight for sore eyes. They aren't the biggest we've seen, but they sure were pretty. Mark teased me in Burlington and said we were going to ride down to Carolina Beach to make it a coast to coast trip, but I knew he would not drive past Miss Emma.

We stopped and picked up a cheeseburger and milkshake for Miss Emma and I think she was as happy to see us as we were her. We are going to spend the rest of the day catching up on dog kisses and hugs.

Thanks to all for tagging along on our trip. We enjoyed all of the comments and emails while traveling and this blog turned out to be a wonderful way for everyone too keep up with us and know we were safe each evening.

We were blessed with good weather, a mechanically sound motorcycle, beautiful scenery, Mark's excellent motorcycling skills and the trip of a life time.

We have tons of pictures to share and we'll try to pick an evening when we can all get together and catch up.

A BIG THANKS goes out to Betsy, Patti, Bobby, Judy and Keith for taking care of Miss Emma, looking out after the house and keeping the yard mowed. We could not have taken this amount of time off without great friends and neighbors looking out for us.

Big Hugs from Mebane!!

Day 20

We made it another 580 miles today and are currently in Carlisle, Arkansas, which is about 100 miles west of Memphis. No detours or pictures, just still zipping our way back home, with only 810 miles left to go.

Mark loves Memphis, so we might find ourselves on Beale Street tomorrow for brunch.

Hopefully the mountains of Tennessee will be cooler as it has been hot today, but nowhere near as hot as Needles, CA.

Off to supper!!

Day 19

We booked through New Mexico and are currently about 50 miles east of Amarillo, TX, in a the little town of Groom, TX. As we were coming through Amarillo we saw Cadillac Ranch, it's 10 Cadillac's, buried nose down and is a public art sculpture. I had read about it in researching our travels, but we were busting across the country, so I pointed it out to Mark, but didn't get a picture. Here is a link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cadillac_Ranch. A few miles down the road I saw a huge building on the right that said "Boot Barn". We had stopped at several places during the last few weeks looking for me a new pair of boots so Mark whipped off the highway and took me there. Yippee!! Got me 2 new pair of boots!! One pair are cowboy boots and the other is a pair of funky galoshes (rain boots). Had to have them shipped home as we have no way of carrying anything bigger than a National Park pamphlet.

After the boot detour, we grabbed some supper and decided to ride another 50 miles before stopping for the night. As we got off of the highway, we came across a bunch on Volkswagen Beetles, buried nose down. Come to find out these are another public art sculpture.....it mentions them at the bottom of the link above.

We should be able to finish Texas and Oklahoma tomorrow and get into Arkansas. Finish Arkansas and part of Tennessee on Saturday and be home on Sunday at the latest. We may try to be home by Saturday, but we'll see!

Oh....I almost forgot. This morning I was tired and still half asleep when Mark snapped a picture of me. He thought it was SO funny. I am currently waiting on him to fall asleep with his mouth hanging open so I can get my revenge picture.

We're having so much fun. 456 hours together so far and we still like each other!!! LOL

We have currently gone 6,658 miles, with 1,386 left to accomplish, for a grand total of 8,044 miles in 21 days!

Big Hugs from a Tiny Town!

Day 18

We left Needles, CA this morning at 2:00 a.m. and it was still 86 degrees. Drove about 100 miles and it was so cold we had to stop and put our leathers on. The weather here is crazy. Took a slight detour to the Grand Canyon and it was amazing, but I don't think the pictures do it justice. We are currently in Gallup, New Mexico. Took a dip in the pool to cool off and will be headed to supper soon. Hope to accomplish another 500 miles tomorrow and continue east.

Just heard it start to thunder so I hope if it rains it gets it out of its system tonight and we'll have clear skies and cool weather for tomorrows travel.

Day 17

Left this morning at 6 thinking we could beat the heat and ride till around 2:30. By 12:30 it was 108 degrees, with an expected high of 112 degrees so we called it quits and got a hotel room and crashed. We are currently in Needles, Ca, just east of the Mojave Desert. We plan to leave in the morning around 3 a.m. and see how far we can get before the heat zaps our energy.

When you leave Wilmington, NC and get on I40 there is a sign that says "Barstow, CA 2554 miles", well today we saw the sign in Barstow that says "Wilmington, NC, 2554". That was pretty cool. Historic Route 66 parallels I40, but so far we have just stayed on 40 to make as many miles each day possible in this heat.

East bound and down, loaded up and truckin'

a'we gonna do what they say can't be done
We've got a long why to go and a short time to get there

I'm east bound just watch ol'Bandit run

Jerry Reed - Smokey and the Bandit

Day 16

We rode US1 down to Monterey Bay and had lunch at the Fisherman's Wharf. Then we walked out on the pier and saw Sea Lions. They have the sweetest faces. We did not continue down to Big Sur because it looked like we would have to go all the way to Los Angeles before we could turn back east. We stayed the night in Bakersfield, CA and plan to get up early and continue to head east.

Day 15 A.M.

It is currently 53 degrees here in San Francisco, with a expected high of 62. We slept in this morning. I thought Montana would be cold and Washington and Oregon would been wet......boy was I wrong. It was warmer in Montana than it is here and we didn't encounter any rain in Washington or Oregon, just fog.

Still having trouble posting pics, but I did get some loaded from Saturday......will try again tonight.