Joei Carlton

Almost Home

With any luck I’ll be home in a couple of days.  Thanks to good weather and little traffic it has been a fairly good trip.  I almost wiped someone out but that would have been his own fault.  I passed a truck, looked in my side mirror to see the truck well back so I put on my blinker and started pulling back into the slow lane…..and a red van was pulling into the slow lane right along side me……needless to say he pulled onto the gravel and went around me. He was gone in a flash flying low……and good riddance.  Another van tried to pass a tractor trailer on the inside while the truck was pulling back into the slow lane…..the van backed off in a hurry.

First day on the road I drove about 350 miles.  I stopped in the Flying J in Lodi, had a salad for dinner and broke off a cap.  It wasn’t a back cap.  It was not a front tooth but close enough that I can’t smile without looking like the wicked witch of the west…..a black pointy thing and I whistle when I use “F” words…..any “F” words.  Not pretty and doesn’t sound good.

From Lodi I drove to Corning, California. It was only 145 miles but it felt endless and I was exhausted with a mild headache when I arrived.  I guess my 350 mile drive days are over.

The drive today was about 250 miles to Grants Pass, Oregon.  Delighted to have made it over Mt. Shasta and the Siskiyous with sunshine and, once again, little traffic.  I’m now in one of my favorite campgrounds and the only campground I stay in as I travel north and south on Highway 5.  I have cable television, wifi, clean showers, my heater if it gets cold. The only thing I’ll be missing is going to Fire Mountain Gems for beading material because tomorrow is Sunday and they’re closed.  Don’t want to stay over another night because I want to get my tooth looked at as soon as possible.

Tomorrow I’ll stay overnight at the Flying J in Tacoma.  I’ll do a little shopping in Marysville, Washington, pick up my mail and drop off the extra books that haven’t been sold at my storage unit in Blaine, Washington and then over the border and home.

Hope the rest of the trip is as easy.   Next update - from Surrey, BC.     Joei