Back home...What a trip!!!

This will be my last post for this trip.

I made it back to Seattle on Tuesday afternoon after driving four days with stops in Barstow, CA, Red Bluff, CA, Roseburg, OR for a total of 1560 miles. Good thing I made it back when I did, the next day the passes at Mt Shasta and Ashland, OR were getting snow. No fun driving a trailer over a pass with one good eye while it’s snowing.


As I mentioned, I arrived at the Grand Canyon South Rim, found a good spot at Mather Campground, right in the heart of the South Rim Village. I’m guessing in the summer there is no way I would be able to get a campsite at this location.

Grand Canyon from the South Rim Trail

We took a walk along the Rim Trail, what a difference between North and South Rims. First, the North Rim is much higher, second, and more important, the South Rim is way too commercialized. We could barely handle the people and the traffic in late October, could not imagine it in July or August. I spoke to one of the Rangers and she mentioned it’s a mad house in the summer time. As we talked, another Park Ranger came up with a box of food that people had left. Apparently, people will fly to the Grand Canyon, buy tents, sleeping bags, camping gear and leave it because they do want to bring it back on the plane. The Ranger said they have a whole storage area with camping stuff. As for the food, if it’s not open, the Rangers will take it home. Today it was three large bags of pasta, what a deal.

If you plan to go to the Grand Canyon, take the extra time and go to the North Rim, so much better experience.

As we hiked around the Rim Trial my vision in my “fixed” eye started to get worse, it was like seeing through a really think mosquito net. We went back to camp, thinking it may be dehydration, so I started to drink Gatorade, by about 4pm it did not get better so I drove to a spot in the Grand Canyon Village where I could get a mobile signal. I called and talked to Dr. Jones, he said it was likely the gel inside my eye had shaken up, and mentioned I should see a retina specialist, “could I wait until Seattle?” I asked. “Yes, but get home soon”, was the reply.

While getting a signal in the GC Village, I noticed I had several messages from Yvette and one from the car collision place. That sent up some flags. I called Yvette, she had had an accident and received a small cut on her ear from some debris coming through the windshield. She was OK, but later I found out the Subaru was totaled.

Inside of Yvette's car

So now I’m 1500 miles away, I’m concerned about what is going on at home with the accident and I can’t see out of one of my eyes and don’t know if driving home will make it worse and force me into a pirate life.

So off we left the next morning, driving through the Mohave Desert we stopped the night in Barstow, CA, this is the mid-point stop for people going from LA to Las Vegas, I can now understand why it a pass through point, because no one should stop there for the night, so we did. On the way we did a small detour and did a drive on Route 66, this was a popular drive in the 50’s and 60’s and has some pretty interesting tourist stops, so we stopped in Seligman, AZ for a couple of pictures and a new hat.

Stopping along Route 66

In Barstow, we camped at a KOA near a ghost town that was celebrating Halloween, so the camp was filled with kids coming to the festivities. There was also a Boy Scout Troop camping at the KOA. What were the Boy Scout leaders thinking, for our next Scout outing let’s go to Barstow and camp in a KOA?

The kids went to bed at about 10pm, the start of quiet time, but the parents, that was a different story. They were still up at 2:30am with the shrill laughs of drunken women. So the next morning I was up, or I should say Indie was up at about 6:30am, so we decided to start to get ready to go. I have to admit it was not my quietest camp tear down, I wanted to make sure I woke the kids up, that way those drunken parents would have to wake up to feed them, it worked! As I drove out of camp I saw some really tough looking people getting up with their kids, I laughed about it for at least 20 miles. On to Red Bluff California...

We put in a 540 mile day today, the longest of the whole trip. The car crash and my eye were playing a big part of the push home. Since we came in later we decided to rough it at a Red Bluff, CA Best Western Hotel for the night. Since Indie was a superstar today I let him sleep on the other bed for the night, he thought he was in heaven.

My eye was not getting better, during the day I was talking to Yvette, should she fly down to meet me and drive home? Should I stop in the bay area, where Yvette’s parents live, to get my eye looked at? I decided to stop in Redding, CA and see an eye doctor. Dr Lin, dilated my eyes and looked around, he mentioned I had blood in my eye and it was hard to see everything, but did not see any sign of detachment, he suggested I see a retina specialist, heard that before. Dr Lin felt that I would make it to Seattle, but I should get there quickly. So we sat on the sidewalk in front of the doctor’s office until the effects of the eye dilation wore off, it took about 1.5 hours, we took off for home.

So my vision in my left eye, the bad one is pretty much unusable, but my right eye is fine. So if I really needed to see a sign or something I would hold my hand over my left eye, it worked. Towing a trailer and depth perception were somewhat limited, so off we went over the Mt Shasta pass, the Siskiyou pass, with many times having to close my bad eye.

We arrived in Roseburg OR, it is just south of Eugene, since it had been raining pretty much all day and expected it to rain most of the night we opted for the Sleep Inn. I was not that thrilled with setting up, and camping in the rain tonight since it has been a tough few days of driving. I have also been having large bouts of nausea due to the difference in the vision in my left and right eyes. Indie did not get to sleep in the bed tonight, but the waitress gave me a piece of bacon for him, he was pretty happy.

So the next morning we left off for our final push back home, we got in about 2:30pm. We set up the trailer, unloaded some stuff and opened a the bottle of champagne that I had bought for the Grand Canyon but did not get a chance to drink. Yvette came home early and we both enjoyed the champagne.

The retina specialist said my eye is looking ok, but would like to see me in another week when the blood would naturally get less. Yvette’s car is totaled, we’ll be car hunting soon, but she is OK.

We got to see the Grand Canyon, from both the north and the south, our ultimate goal. I can no longer say “I haven’t seen the Grand Canyon”. We also got to see Bryce Canyon, Zion, City of Rocks, Lake Powell, Route 66, Colorado City, Lava Hot Springs, and many great places during our travel through 7 western states and 4000 miles. Indie got to go camping for nearly three weeks, swim in several lakes and rivers, go hiking, see, and “mark” many of the greatest parks and sights of in the western US.

If you can, I highly recommend you take some time off and see the US, there are some really cool things to see and people to meet. WHAT A GREAT TRIP!!!