We made it to Eureka, CA last night at about 11 pm. Maggie and Mr. C were in the Jeep and I led the way in the Lexus. We only had rain for the first half hour. Maggie was quite intrigued with her first stay in a motel. She shared a bed with Steve and they both conked out right away.

This morning we started on our last leg of the trip to Portland. Since I was driving the whole trip, I couldn’t do any drive by photography. So here are some sightings from the trip:

• coming around a bend on Hwy 101 and seeing the majestic Pacific Ocean pounding the shore
• the Smith River was beautiful along Rt. 199 ?¢‚Ǩ‚Äù a raging river that was teal in color
• the tinge of yellow green in the deciduous trees
• an Australian sheep dog trying to herd traffic from the back of a truck
• a plethora of sheep, large with lambs and needing to be shorn
• a loan black lamb running to keep up with mom
• a field of mama llamas
• black and white goats romping in a pasture
• the deja vu of passing the same vehicles over and over
• snow capped mountains
• a scary rock slide
• Oregon vineyards!!!!

I like driving by myself because I can play whatever CD’s I want and sing along. Here is my play list for today, interspersed with NPR news updates:

1. Cold Play – A Rush of Blood to the Head. I know that I am 67, but I love these guys.
2. Genius Loves Company – Ray Charles and some greats sing duets
3. Annie Lenox – Bare – all time favorite CD
4. The Living Room Tour – Carole King
5. Moulon Rouge – movie sound track – one of my favorite movies

About two hours from Portland, I called Steph to let her know when we would be getting in. And then, I had a melt down. I had been totally unemotional up to this point ?¢‚Ǩ‚Äù saying good-byes without tears ?¢‚Ǩ‚Äù all of a sudden, hearing her voice, made me so happy about the move and so I cried my tears of joy.

We drove up to our new home at about 5:30. We unpacked the cooler and
took in some stuff from the Jeep. We parked my car in the garage. It
has my 3 sewing machines in the trunk and my Mac, Epson printer and the
Robert Motherwell print in the back seat. We gave Maggie a tour and
then headed for Steph and Jack’s house and were greeted by M & M and their beautiful smiles. We had delish chicken tetrazini and mint chocolate Girl Scout cookies, provided by me, much to Mia’s delight.

Here is the after dinner story time with all my fave people and fave dog:

I say this is proof positive that we have made a wonderful change. Stay tuned for the rest of the story.