We've planned and booked a trip to the West Coast twice now. Once in July 2020, and then Covid happened. We planned it again for July 2023, and sadly my mom was diagnosed with terminal cancer we canceled the trip again to spend more precious moments with her.
At the beginning of 2026, Amy and Carey said they wanted to run a 50K in Oregon and invited us along. We were almost afraid to say yes. I felt like the trip was cursed and would never happen. But after much discussion, we started planning.
As departure day got closer, we held our breath in anticipation. Would it really happen this time....
I am happy to say it did!
Our first destination was Theodore Roosevelt National Park. When we arrived at our campsite, I teared up as I took in the view. My heart was full of joy and gratitude that I could take in such beauty.
We only had the evening to explore, so we took in a couple of hikes. I was so excited when we spotted wild horses in the park.
I am putting the park on my list of places I need to go back to.
After two more days of travel, we made it to Oregon. On the way, we stopped at the Columbia River Gorge. It was so pretty.
The race was at Silver Falls State Park. We had booked a campsite right in the park, and Amy, Carey, and Angie booked a cabin. It worked out great for the race; we walked to the start line.
This was my first 50K race. My excitement for the race overtook any nervousness I had.
We had all trained so hard and were ready. We made some fun matching shirts for the race.
The race was so hard; it was supposed to be 31.1 miles but ended up being 32.82 miles with 4662 feet of elevation. I LOVED every minute of it. The backcountry was so beautiful and peaceful. I truly felt I was in the middle of nowhere.
In the last 7 miles of the race, we ran past 10 waterfalls.
I had to push deep at the end, but I did it!
I am an Ultra Runner
As we ran, Rick biked 20 miles while chasing us down to cheer us on. It was so great to see him along the way. It helped us all get through the race.
I cannot wait to challenge myself again at a 50K.
With the race done, we moved on to the second part of our trip. We decided to go 2 hours out of our way and go to the Tillamook Ice Cream factory. It was so worth it. We signed up for the tasting experience. They gave us SO much ice cream to try. It was so interesting learning the history of the creamery and hearing how they make the ice cream and cheese. Tillamook is one of my favorite ice cream brands, so I was in heaven.
After leaving Tillamook, we made our way down the coast to
Cape Blanco State Park.
The next morning, we took our time getting up and going, and enjoyed the views.
We had less than 2 hours to reach our next destination, so we made many stops along the way.
One of our favorite things on the trip was stopping at one of the many pullouts on the highway for lunch. We just sat and looked out at the ocean. I think we all could have stayed there for hours.
After 6 hours, we made it to Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park.
The next morning we made our way to the Redwoods....
It is hard to describe just how big everything is. I don't think I have ever felt so small. To think of what these trees have seen in all the years they have been alive.
Even with people around us, it was so quiet. I closed my eyes and was at peace....
We had one final destination on the trip.
When my Mom was sick, Amy spent a lot of time with her. While talking with her about all the traveling she did, Amy asked her what her favorite place she had ever traveled to was. Mom responded Crater Lake. She said she could have stayed there all day just looking at the lake.
So when we were planning the trip, Amy and I both said it was a must-see.
As I looked out over the lake, all I could think about was Mom, and I burst out crying. I felt like she was standing there with me. I just wanted to tell her that we made it...
I can see why she called it her favorite place; even on the cold, rainy day we visited, it had a magical feel to it.
After 10 days, we had to start traveling home. We decided to take a southern route home, going through Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, South Dakota, and finally back to Minnesota.
While driving through Utah, we ran into some rain. But our reward for driving through the rain was the brightest, most beautiful rainbow I have ever seen. The pictures don't do it justice. The end of the rainbow was on the highway, and we drove right through it; it was a burst of colors. It was one of the coolest things I have ever seen.
While planning the trip, we had talked about stopping at Devils Tower National Park because Rick had never seen it, but we never made any real plans to do it. When we were traveling through Wyoming, I asked if anyone wanted to make a detour and go see it. Since it was only 40 minutes out of the way, we decided we should.
We got there around 5:00 in the evening. It is another one of those places everyone should go see. It is just so cool. We did the hike around the base of the tower and enjoyed the peacefulness.
It was a perfect way to end the trip.
After waiting so long for this trip to happen, it almost seems unreal. We saw and did so many unbelievable things. We laughed, and we cried. We ran, biked, hiked, ate a lot of great food, and enjoyed each other's company. We packed a lot into those 13 days. I could not have asked for better travel partners.
I believe that the Universe knew the time was not right for our trip to the coast in 2020 and 2023. She said 2026 is your year....
Thank you, Mom, for being with me along the way....
Sharon
No comments:
Post a Comment