Home, sweet home!

Hi Everybody!

I got home yesterday around 5pm when Mom came to pick me up.  Let me tell you, I'm glad the family had fun, but the Suburby-  Oh, what a dirty mess!   And they had a bull skull sitting on the car floor where I usually ride!  And yes, I'm over that flea issue that I don't like to talk about (I think Ethan gave them to me).  If you want more info about some of the places my pack visited, send me an e-mail or call me.  If the Alphas don't respond I'll nip them on the ankles until they do!

Lots of love and tail wags to you,
ALICE

Almost Made It...

Dear Alice,

We drove through the green fields of New Mexico (lots of antelope - must be enjoying the rains), and into Texas.  Remember our "one fun thing"-(we always had so much more than just ONE!)?  

What could be more fun than stopping in Amarillo at the Big Texan Steak Ranch, another cultural icon?

We didn't try to eat the 72oz steak in an hour, but we did enjoy some great TX beef!  Then we drove on...as we passed though Shawnee, OK we decided to give it up and stop.  Note:  there isn't anywhere to stop for 2 hours between Shawnee and Fort Smith, Arkansas.  Drove 700 miles - then enjoyed the hotel pool and a bottle of wine - a great last night of a great adventure!

The next morning we slept in, with only 285 miles to go.  Once on the road we still needed to do our "one fun thing", so we headed to the Weideker Winery, founded in 1880 in Altus, AR.

We are so craving a great German meal-  we have been searching for a German restuarant this entire trip, and struck out every time we were ready to stop for a bite!

So we finally had a delightful Swiss-German lunch with fresh homemade bread!   Mom enjoyed her last glass of wine on the trip.  After a tasting, I choose a Cabernet Sauvignon, made at this wonderful winery.

This place is like a hidden treasure in the Arkansas Ozarks.

After lunch we hit the road once again, filled up our gas tank-  once again,  (Bill added up our gas tickets-  (our "Suburby" drank up over 568 gallons!).   We are tired, but feel so enriched with our- dare say, "spiritual journey"but ready to come home.  

Every day of this wonderful trip has been amazing.  We were in 17 states of this amazing country of ours-  canoeing, camping, flyfishing, mountain biking, hiking, exploring, relaxing, laughing-  enjoying and celebrating life.   Because of this trip, we feel closer to each other and to God's creation.

We will enjoy and treasure these memories for years to come....

We will be by to pick you up soon from "Camp PaPa and MiMi's"!

We can't wait to see you!

Love,

Mom

(Look for our very last post-  soon to come...).

One Day in Colorado

Dear Alice,

After a fun day in Utah, we awoke all the way down in Montrose, Colorado.  Our one fun thing today was going to be driving through the old gold mining district between Ouray and Silverton, CO.  This road is almost as spectacular as The Road to the Sun in Glacier NP.  Ouray is the prettiest site of a town in the USA in my opinion.  What do you think?

By mid-afternoon we visited a mine, tried unsuccessfully to go on a trail ride, watched a blacksmith, and only driven 60 or so miles!  Time to drive - and it was apparently time to rain too.  It rained until 5 pm and broke as we were driving past the Great Sand Dunes National Park (it was only a monument until 2004) -- one of the most amazing sites I've experienced.  To turn in would certainly mean we wouldn't get home as scheduled...the schedule is too tight...but off the road we drove, another 20 mile detour!

Good thing we did too, because Ethan spotted some elk out in the sage brush plains - the first we'd seen this trip!  The sand dunes tower 750' high and spread out over 30 square miles.  I've seen them previously as a geology student, and unlike most "hands off" parks, this one allows running and jumping over the exhibits.

As we were leaving the park, it began to rain again--and all indications were for flash flooding.  We drove about 80 miles through an unrelenting downpour.  When we got to the interstate we decided we'd better check into the Best Western motel.  No vacancy!  The clerk told us that the flooding south (our direction of travel) had shut roads and every motel in 100 miles was booked!  But if we backtracked 5 miles....

In my opionion, the $107 for the room was a very steep price!  I wouldn't tell Mom how sleezy the night clerk was, and she was pleased the room was clean, but I'm sure the stained carpet could tell some tales....  The following morning the Pretsch gang was up, showered and back in the car by 7:40 am - an adventure record!  

We're 987 miles from home.  Look forward to seeing you soon!

Dad

P.S.  The motel sign isn't the "River Cockroach Inn" as some speculated, but "Spoon River Inn".

Utah

Dear Alice,

Many folks have been reading over your shoulder, so let me catch up a post or two.

I replaced Austin driving as we left Nevada and entered UT.  Then the real wind and rain hit us.  Driving 60 mph the raindrops were moving LEFT across our windshield!  Very stressful!  I checked the ropes securing the canoes b/c they were jumping all around.  Tight as a drum!  Was  I ever happy to finally reach a motel in Park City?!

The next morning Mom wasn't feeling well, so the boys and I rode a chair lift to the top of the mountain and rode our bikes down.  Fun, but exhausting too!

Mom had a bug, so we cancelled our plans to ride horses, and spent another night in Park City.  This meant we had to cancel our plans to go fishing and tent camping on the Currant River.  :-(  Instead we instituted a "one fun thing" each day to break up our driving.  The third day Mom was feeling better, so off we drove to Arches National Park and Moab, UT.

We had a lot of fun, then started driving toward Colorado as night fell.  Several baseball tournaments were going on and we ended up driving into the night until we found a room (it wasn't the worst of the trip).

Read on, 

Dad

Nevada

Hi Alice,

We left Tahoe at noon to drive the 580 miles across Nevada and into Utah.  After many miles of alkali flats, sage brush,  and a straight road through the desert, it was Austin's turn at the wheel.  As luck would have it, he was entering the foothills of the Humbolt Mountains.  As he gained altitude, passing the trucks at the 75 mph posted limit, the sky darkened ominously.  As he reached the summit it began to rain furiously--a rare local downburst in the desert.  As the twisting interstate descended, the rain worsened, then turned to dime sized hail.  The sound of hail hitting our two aluminum canoes was deafening.  Inside the two more experienced drivers added to the din, urging our new driver to "slow down!".  At the valley floor the area was white with accumulated hail, the rain stopped, and a large rainbow spread before us.  Of course, in all the chaos not a picture was taken!

Love,

Dad

 

Lake Tahoe

Dear Alice,

As we drove into the area, we stopped near Donner Lake for a picnic.  Fired up the Coleman stove and reheated a pot of chili.  Then we read the historical markers across the parking lot.  The Donner party were 86 pioneers that were trapped in the mountains by early winter snows.   We were finishing lunch when the irony hit us...most of the Donners starved to death...the others resorted to cannibalism...and we're at the Donner Memorial Picnic Area!

Here is the Truckee River, the only stream that flows out of Lake Tahoe.  It is beautiful, and has an awesome paved bike trail running along it.  We rode along it into Tahoe City, then north and south along the lake shore.  It was only 16 miles, but tiring at 7,000 feet.

We're going to put the canoes on the Lake this morning, then drive, drive, drive across Nevada.  We're hoping to spend our last couple days fishing the Green River in Utah or in south-central Colorado.  See you soon.

Love,

Dad

Northern California Pics

Dear Alice,

Here are some pictures from sunny California.  Mount Shasta is a beautiful mountain and it has a large National Forest.  Our first area was too busy, but 5 miles of dirt road lead to "No Name Lake", which we enjoyed by ourselves.  

Once we left there we drove through Lassen Volcanic National Park, which has 4 types of volcanoes, bubbling mud, and an ice cave.  The main attraction - Bumpus Hell was closed though - as there is still too much ice and snow on the trail.

Part way to Lake Tahoe we liked the scenery so much we stopped at a dive motel and the next day fished the legendary Feather River (home of Feather Lite canoe paddles).  There is one trout with a sore mouth, but we later learned that was good luck on a tough river.

Lake Tahoe

Lake Tahoe is the 2nd deepest lake in the country (remember Crater Lake is the 1st?).  The water is clear enough to see 74 feet to the bottom.  There were a lot of people here on Sunday afternoon, so after mountain biking along the shore we decided to head east.  Twenty miles along the shore we found Squaw Valley, which was so nice we stopped for the night.  So it goes!

Miss you!

xxxooo

MOM

California

Dear Blog Followers,
This could be the last post for the "Following Louis & Clark" blogsite, but not likely, due to some technical difficulties. If nothing else, we will have to post without pictures for the remainder of the trip. Austin's computer is having some "errors" so we may go visit an Apple retail store and see if we can resolve the problem.

In the mean time, we've spent 3 days at Mt. Shasta. We were camping by a beautiful lake all to ourselves, filled with thousands of tadpoles. Yesterday, we visited Lassen Volcanic National Park, where we saw bubbling mud and steaming sulfur. It was a lot like Yellowstone. Today and tomorrow we are staying at beautiful Lake Tahoe. Today we went biking, fishing, and exploring some beautiful beaches.
-Austin

Beautiful Crater Lake, California Coast & The Redwood Forest N.P.

Dear Alice,
Oh, my goodness!   I have so much to tell you about-  we have had some wonderful adventures the last few days!

Our house is in the country, sitting on 89 acres on the Rogue River-  lots of turkey, jack rabbits, deer, horses, cows and Ethan spotted a rattlesnake on his way down to the river one morning!   Yikes!
We are also in wine and cheese country.
We visited a bleu cheese factory and sampled the best I have ever tasted!  Yum!

We are surrounded by rolling hills of vineyards-  lots of wineries and micro breweries-  great local wine and beer-   Needless to say, we are enjoying our vacation!

We have really enjoyed our time on the Rogue River.  Dad, PaPa and Uncle Chip have had so much fun catching lots of trout, and we have enjoyed having fresh fish for dinner!   We have had a blast rafting the rapids-  especially MiMi!   She was having so much fun she did a back flip-  on the first rapids we encountered!  We all laughed long and hard-  during our run on the Rogue!
We made our way to Crater Lake NP in Central Oregon-  the most beautiful deep blue, cobalt blue lake,  the deepest lake in the US, and maybe the prettiest lake in the world!!

We also visited the scenic CA coast, and the beautiful giants in the Redwood Forest!  The tallest tree we saw was a whopping 370 feet tall!   Awesome!

I will write again soon.   Miss you!
Hugs and Kisses!
Love,
Mom

PS:  Check out our fun stop at  "Bears on Bikes"!

Rogue River, Oregon

Dear Alice,

We're in Trail, OR where the climate is desert-like--cool in the morning and evenings--but an oven hot 100 mid-day.  Our first day we stopped by the local fishing shop and set up a trip, and then opted to immediately go rafting.  

Each person was issued their own water cannon, which provided lots of fun.  Especially when an occasional stranger or fisherman would shoot you! 

The Rogue River is a famous fly-fishing river--except in July.  Then it's so hot you fish with worms on bottom, occasionally catching a sea-run rainbow trout or even a King Salmon.  Our guide was a western fishing bum with a few books to his credit--lots of fun & stories.  One can catch 50 trout per day per person - releasing almost all.  Chip caught a 20# King, but on 8# test line it broke off after a 40 min battle.

Hope you're keeping cool,

DAD

Coastal Oregon

Dear Alice,

 Adding to Austin's post...The Columbia River gorge was something I'd never heard of before.  Imagine massive waterfalls on both sides of an immense valley...

Chip & Becky have joined us for a week, with my nieces Kaki & Allie.

When the Columbia River meets the Pacific, we've completed the journey that Lewis and Clark did too.  Except they didn't have this cool fish & chips stand to visit like we did!

Astoria, OR

Oregon is big - very big - when driving from place to place.  We still have "travel days" that span 300 - 400 miles and up to 16 hours w/ a few stops. Once we headed down the coastal highway we couldn't stop stopping the car.

Sisters

We passed through Tillamook, but the cheese factory was too touristy.  A few miles south of town we came across an old WWII  blimp hangar - all wood construction, 197' tall, and full of vintage aircraft.

  

After a "travel day" we've come to enjoy two nights in a single place - camping or otherwise.  This week we've rented a small house in south-central OR from which to explore, so it will be a luxury to have the same bed, dishes, and not need coins for a laundromat.  

Looking forward to trading a tail-wag for a scratch behind your ears!

Dad