The Return Trip Home

Like all good things, the week spent out on the Oregon Coast with my girls this spring came to an end.  On Easter Monday I was up at 7:00AM, packing the last of my stuff and getting ready for the long drive back home.  Getting four girls up, packed and all their stuff loaded into the truck is quite an ordeal.  By 9:30AM we were on the road... with a brief fuel stop before we really got going.  We headed east to Corvallis, and then north to Portalnd.  From there we followed the Columbia River East, over the same route that we took heading out a week prior.  Like last time we cut across the southeastern corner of Washington State, from the Tri-Cities, to Spokane.  From there we continued east into the Idaho panhandle to Cour d'Alene.  By this time it was getting dark and we were tired of being on the road.  We found a cheap motel, but perhaps it was a little too cheap.  This one appealed mostly because it was on of those old school motels that had an individual door to each room.  I thought that this would make it a lot easier to offload all our gear and luggage for the night.  The cops were at the front desk dealing with a complaint when we pulled up and this should have been a sign.  But we checked in anyway.  Turns out that we were given one of the rooms that faced the center of the complex, and the swimming pool that was closed for the season.  This did not make unloading the simple chore that we had hoped.  We had a gourment meal from the nearby fast food restaurant and then settled down into our five star Motel 6 room.  I think it was a little smaller than the walk in closet back at the house in Newport.  There were two twin beds, and just enough space to change your mind without having to step outside.  At least it only cost 60 bucks...

When I woke up in the morning I could not decide if the sore spot on my leg was from a scrape, my eczema, or bedbugs.  I'm hoping it was not the latter, and no one else seems to have any issues, so hopefully all is well.  No one slept very well with the five of us crammed into those two small beds.  But we packed up, hit the road, and headed north for the 49th parellel.  We made a brief stop at the cool antique store in Bonners Ferry and gave Margarit another chance to look around while I fueled the truck.  Then we headed north and soon crossed back into the True North Strong and Free.  It felt great to be back in Canada, and the customs agents on the Canada side are always so much more personable.  

We headed north to Cranbrook before eventually turning east onto the Crowsnest Highway.  Me made a brief stop for lunch in Fernie and then continued on our way.  From there it was a tedious and uneventful drive back home.  He headed north on Highway 22, the Cowboy Trail, before we eventually took the shortcut over the Porcupine Hills to Nanton.  We were quite disappointed to see that the entire area was blanketed with nearly a foot of fresh snow.  As we continued north to Calgary, the snow eventually disappeared.  From there it was the usual monotonous drive up the QE2 back home to Edmonton.  Everything was so barren, brown and drab compared to what we had just left.  At least the optimism of spring is in the air and we can look forward to the arrival of summer.  We arrived back at the house shortly after 9:00. unloaded the truck, and our spring break came to an end.
The girls are all exhausted and went to bed shortly after we brought all of our stuff in.  I need some time to relax a little and unwind before trying to get some sleep, even though my rest last night was uncomfortable, interrupted, and short.  I unpacked all my camera gear and found that I shot 82 sheets of 4" x 5" black and white film.  This was mostly on Efke PL25M, Kodak Tri-X and Kodak High Speed Infrared, but it also included a handful of Readyload Film Packets, that included some Kodak 100 T-Max, and some Fuji Neopan Acros.  I also shot a handful of 4" x 5" color transparencies.  I also shot over 875 digital snapshots with my Nikon D810.  So, photographically speaking, I think it was a successful trip.  But I also had a lot of fun this week with girls and found it mostly relaxing.  I find that spring trips such as this really break up the season.  We leave the crappy spring snow melt in Edmonton and visit a location that is much warmer and much greener.  When we return, it is still dull and drab, but the snow is mostly gone, and the real spring will be upon is in short order.
I checked the odometer, and the hour meter on the truck when we arrived back home.  Over the 11 days of our vacation we drove for a total of 50 hours and 11 minutes, and a distance of 4163km...