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Saturday, October 25, 2008, Locsin's house, Morgan Hill, California: The end of the trip and the beginning of a new chapter in life.
We got up before the crack of dawn and drove into the Grand Canyon National Park. When it got light enough to see, we discovered we were next to a deep river gorge with painted cliff walls. What a sight. We hadn't even gotten to the real Grand Canyon yet and already it was breathtakingly beautiful. We stopped for a short while to take pictures then entered the main park. By then the sun was coming up. We were some of the first ones there, so there were no crowds; we enjoyed the unbelievable views and took lots of picture. There were dozens of places to park and view different vista points, so it took hours to tour and we saw less than half. The museum was great and we discovered that to canoe down the Colorado River on a selected date, you must make reservations two years in advance and it costs about $300 a day, too much for us. The trip to the Grand Canyon was well worth the extra miles. Next time I would like to hike down to the river. When we left, we were hoping to take another short detour and go through Las Vegas and see a couple of our favorite sites: Caesar's Palace and The Rio Hotel (for the buffet). Unfortuneately, it was too late. We wouldn't have made it all the way to Morgan Hill before Sunday late if we did, so we decided against it and made our way directly toward northern California. I took a nap at some point in the early evening, which helped a lot to make it through the night. All of us were eager to make it the rest of the way to California and begin our new, albeit uncertain, chapter of our lives. At least we would be with our good friends, the Locsins, who said we could stay with them until we found a place of our own. We knew we would be arriving late so we told them and they left the studio room open for us when we arrived, at 5:00 am, Saturday morning. They had already laid out blankets and pillows and arranged the room for us to sleep. How good it was to sleep horizontally, in a bed again. We all fell asleep quickly, I think. But the memory of the trip would be etched forever in our minds. I know it is in mine.

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Friday, October 24, 2008, near the Grand Canyon, Arizona
We got a pretty late start from the Reynolds' house because of cleaning and packing the van. We finally left at around 11:00 am. The weather was great, sunny and calm. We saw some buffalo in a field. There were a few downhill runs that taxed our brakes, so I had to stop and let them cool for a while. Later in the evening we ended up in Durango, Colorado, at a McDonald's. McCain had been in town for a presidential rally so there were many supporters there and some who were Obama fans. Some stupid girls who were Obama supporters wrote obscenities on their arms against McCain and were flaunting them in peoples faces as they walked past inside of McDonald's. So I told them what I thought of their appearance and intelligence, but didn't waste too much time with them. Like the old saying goes, " A bear can whup a skunk, but it ain't worth it." We ended up driving a lot that night. We stopped at Four Corners (where Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, and Arizona meet at one point) but couldn't go in because it was already closed. We ended up driving all the way to the edge of Grand Canyon National Park and spent the night sitting up in the van by a gift store parking lot at 3:00 am.

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Thursday, October 23, 2008, Reynolds' house, Thorton, Colorado
Today Gloria and I had a "date" because Susan wanted us to. She insisted. So we went to see Fireproof at the movies. It was the best movie I have seen in years, good morals, good story, happy ending. Afterwards we went to a sushi place, good but expensive and not filling. It was nice to go out together. The Reynolds asked us to stay the weekend, but we couldn't if we were going to make it to California in time for me to go to my prison psychological test in Fresno on Monday. But if we could, we would have; they're such nice, hospitable people.

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Wednesday, October 22, 2008, Reynolds' house, Thorton, Colorado
I had a very uncomfortable sleep last night because by the time I stopped to sleep, it was well past midnight and everyone had gone to sleep... on top of my sleeping bag, and I didn't want to wake them up, so I did what I could. We got an early start (We always get an early start in the car because there is nothing to pack up. I just wake up and drive. The others wake up after that, and we stop when we want to. The wind was howling the whole way against us from the side, gusts up to 55 mph. A blizzard warning was supposed to go in to effect that night near Colorado, so we kept going, not wanting to get caught in the snow before arriving at Emily's house in Thorton. Fortunately we made it around 9:00 pm. John had a dinner waiting for us. Emily arrived around midnight from the airport. I was sleepy, so I went to bed pretty early. Boy, the bed was comfortable.

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Tuesday, October 21, 2008,
We woke up and found breakfast waiting for us. We had a variety of cereals, tea, grapefruit, and juice, and Joanna had made homemade bread also. Delicious. We ate plenty then went outdoors to play. Tristan showed us how to launch coke bottles by pumping them full of air. They shot real high. Great science experiment. The kids played on the swing and we took pictures. Finally it was time to go. We will miss them. Hopefully, we will see them again before too long. Before we left we had to see Uncle Herman and Aunt Janet. He gave us apples and some money for the trip, which was helpful. Then we went to see Janet at the corner store where she works. We talked a good while before we had to leave. Everyone has been so good to us. I really hope we can return before too long. Oh, an Amish family was hitching up their wagon when we arrived and were dressed in their distinct garb, which was very amusing for the children. We managed to take some stealth photos before they left. After leaving Uncle Herman, we stopped at KD's Backroads, a restaurant in Salem where Uncle Herman's paintings are displayed on the walls for sale. He had about 30 pictures. Very nice. On the way toward Colorado, we heard Michael Savage for the first time in a long while. He was commenting on the upcoming election between McCain and Obama. It is always amusing and educational to hear him talk. He kept referring to Obama by his initials: B.O. "If we get B.O. in office, God help us." We stopped in Walmart to get a long overdue oil change, then went to Little Caesar's for pizza. I got that backwards. Pizza was first, then Walmart. It started raining in the evening, so we had to cover the trailer with one of the tarps to keep the panniers dry. It kept raining through the night until we stopped to sleep.

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Monday, October 20, 2008, The Allen's house, Indiana
We awoke to steamy wet windows as usual. There was a beautiful sunrise to start the day though and the drive was nice. Today we planned to see my cousin Isaac and his fiancee before heading to my cousin Joanna's house to spend the night with her family. We hadn't taken a shower or shaved in quite some time and I for one had been getting funny looks whenever I went to buy something at the gas station, like I just walked over from under the bridge. So I decided to try to take a shower before we arrived in Indiana. I called up a local YMCA in Cincinnati and explained the situation, and the director said we could come there and take showers, no problem. Great! So we found the place and I went in first to check it out. I met the director, a real nice lady, who came out and personally invited the rest of the reluctant family to take showers. She also gave me a card entitling us to use any YMCA in the country as guests while we were traveling. So nice. After showering and feeling 100% better, we all went to the biggest library I have ever been in, the Cincinnati Library, three stories high with one of the best genealogy research collections in the country. I updated the blog a little and we stayed a few hours before making our way to MacDonald's, against my will because we were scheduled to rendezvous with Isaac to eat a milkshake or something and then Joanna was expecting us to eat dinner a couple hours later. But I was overruled and the majority won and we ended up eating there first. Later we met up with Isaac in Clarksville, Indiana, at a Steak and Shake restaurant. We met Teneille (sp?), Isaac's fiance. It was great to see them and talk, even for only an hour or so. Then it was off to Joanna's. She had a big meal waiting for us, as usual. Delicious. Joanna is such a good hostess. Everyone enjoyed each other's company for awhile before going to bed.

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Sunday, October 19, 2008, a truck stop somewhere about 200 miles north of Cincinnati, Ohio
It was very cold last night. I'm glad we didn't have to try to sleep in the tent. There was frost on everything in the morning. We got an early start and made it to Niagra Falls around noon. The falls were magnificent, so beautiful and powerful. It was such a clear day. We took lots of pictures. I wish we could have stayed until evening because they put the colored lights on then and they illuminate the falls in a rainbow of color. I also wish we would have had our birth certificates because with a license and birth certificate, you can still cross the Canadian border into Ontario. From there you can see the face of the falls, the best vantage point. Everyone was real hungry when we left, so we went to the Friendly Chinese Buffet and filled our tanks. After that, I was too tired to drive, so we stopped at a rest stop and I took a snooze in the back of the van. After about an hour we continued driving and read the Bible and sang hymns. We drove late into the night again and ended up at a truck stop and tried again to sleep in a sitting position in the car. The two front seats don't recline at all so it was not a very restful sleep.

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Saturday, October 18, 2008, at a gas station somewhere in New York
I got up early and went to the store to buy breakfast food before everyone got up, then made breakfast: eggs, bacon, cereal and yogurt. We all ate and enjoyed; then we had to say our goodbyes. Such a nice family. We headed first to the U-Haul dealership to rent a trailer. We got a nine footer to fit the tandem. Everything fit well, not too overcrowded. Then we went to the Portland Headlight, the famous lighthouse. Then we found a place downtown that sold Maine Lobster and bought two, plus two clam chowders and shared them. Expensive, but good. We had to try Maine Lobster before we could leave. Well, now we could officially leave. So we went to get our trailer and said goodbye to Gwyneth and the kids and drove off to begin our return to California. We planned to stop at Niagra Falls in New York, The Allen's house in Indiana, The Reynolds house in Colorado, and The Grand Canyon in Arizona before arriving at the Locsin's house in Morgan Hill, California, where we would be staying until we got a place of our own. Before we could go, we had to eat, since the Lobster dinner didn't fill us up, so we went to Wendy's and filled up on the usual, hamburgers, french fries, and coke, not exactly the food of champions, or is it? The toll roads in New York were expensive. We spent over $30 just in tolls before we left the state. We listened to Karen Carpenter for miles. She's a great singer, but it was the only CD we had so it got a little old after awhile. The plan was to ride as far as possible every day then pull in to a place we could park the van for the night to sleep. We ended up driving until 2:30 am then we pulled in to a gas station to sleep.

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Friday, October 17, 2008, home of Jamie and Gwyneth Arrison, PORTLAND, MAINE!
Well, today we finally made it, all the way to the finish line, Portland, Maine. Last night was cold, our coldest so far, but we managed to sleep ok, at least I did. We started out well, eating the breakfast Pastor Humphreys gave us and saying our goodbyes to him and Marsha, a nice lady from the church. He gave us the names of two other pastors he knew in Portland who we should call when we got there. So from there we picked up our bikes at the fire station and rode off toward our final destination. The weather had cleared up by morning and it was a beautifully sunny ride. We passed through York, which was preparing for its annual Harvest Festival. Booths were being set up, food was cooking, all very festive. We stopped by a bike store and I bought a mirror to replace the one broken in yesterday's fall. It was great to see behind myself again while I rode. Next we headed to the Nubble Lighthouse, a picturesque tourist sight on the ocean, and it was beautiful. Everyone rode today, which is what I like best. During the ride I saw an apple tree laden with ripe apples alongside the road, so we loaded up the panniers with them, a nice refreshing, nutritious snack. As we approached Portland, I called Pastor Jamie and he said we could stay with him and his wife. He was even going to make a dinner for us! We were all excited about knowing we had a place to stay in Portland, dinner included. I decided to take the scenic route, knowing that, even though it was longer, it would be safer than the main road, which was already starting to get hectic as it approached rush hour. It turned out to be a lot longer because I took the advice of someone at a store for a more direct route. Oh well. It was ok. It was almost nightfall by the time we crossed the final bridge leading into the town of Portland. What a thrill to finally see the Portland sign! We had made it. We were so excited blowing our horns and celebrating that we didn't realize we had passed up the photo opportunity until a half mile past the signs. So we parked our bikes and ran back to the signs on the bridge for the historic photos. We were all smiles. Later we met up with Gloria, John, and Sarah for a family picture in front of the main welcome sign of Portland and took a nice family picture, capturing our thrill at finally realizing our dream. We rode with our lights on in the dark to Jamie and Gwyneth's house and met their children, Faith, Dena, and Alex and had a nice night talking and sharing with them. Later we went back to the store and bought 5 containers of ice-cream, including a new delicious flavor I had never tried before: New England Blueberry (or something like that). It was great. Unfortunately, I think they only sell it in New England, so we might never taste it again until we return to Maine. The whole evening, I wore a smile on my face, knowing we had arrived at our destination, finished our course, and accomplished our goal. We all were tired by the end of the evening and slept well on the warm floor. I lay on the floor reflecting on the trip before falling asleep.
68 Miles.