Tuesday, August 2, 2016

Day 37: Home!

Today Hank and I made it home!  We were gone for 36 days and returned on the 37th.  We are both excited to be home, but we are so tired right now that we really just need to go to bed.  The train ride went through some really beautiful areas, but I wasn't able to sleep very well, so I'm going to post a few pictures I took and then go get some rest.  In a couple days after this whole thing has sunken into my brain I will write a blog talking about how I feel about what I  have accomplished.  I think somewhere along the way I promised Hank he could write another blog too, so stay tuned!





Monday, August 1, 2016

Day 36: Started the train ride home!

This morning Hank and I headed to the train station for our journey home.  We were both excited, but maybe not excited about what time we had to get out of bed, 4:15 AM! I don't think my sister was too excited about getting up that early to help us get to the train station either, but she did and we are so grateful.  We would have had a really hard time getting there without her.  Check this out...I had Hank in a box 6 feet long and 3 1/2 wide on a dolly, a 40 pound bag, and a 30 pound carry on bag!  No way I could have carried all of that AND rolled Hank down the street to the train station all by myself. Here's a couple pictures of me rolling Hank down the streets of downtown San Diego at 4:45 AM!




Once we got to the train station we were good to go!  Hank was in good hands with the Amtrak handlers and I was in my seat by 6:00 AM.  We had a 3 hour ride to Los Angeles where we switched trains to the one we would ride for 33 more hours to Vancouver Washington.  That 3 hours to Los Angeles I was pretty sleepy.  I closed my eyes for a few times but I stayed awake mostly because the train was following the route I rode Hank last week.  It was really cool to see our route from the train. This was the first time Hank and I had gone North toward home in 35 days!  We are actually getting closer to home rather than farther away.  That feels pretty good.  We are both very excited to get some rest, and then of course go on more rides with what is left of our summer.

You may remember a little over a week ago when we rode through the Big Sur forest.  Well today the train went along the east side of the Big Sur forest.  Since we rode through there a big forest fire has broken out.  Where we were today we could see the smoke.



It's almost time to try to get some sleep on the train.  I'm sure Hank is snuggled up in his box sleeping already.  I'm going to have to try to get some sleep too.  We'll see how that goes.  This time tomorrow we should be home!

Goodnight all!
Home tomorrow!