I can hardly believe that is time to register my little girl for her junior year in high school. Sure, I noticed that the days were getting a little shorter and the nights were getting a little cooler (most of them, at least). I have recognized the inevitable color change that has taken hold of the maples on the western side of the city and up and down Western Blvd. I have browsed through the local stores- isles filled with wares necessary for incoming OSU students. But it did not seem real until tonight.

This evening, Sami and I sat down and completed her back to school registration paperwork. We talked about attending fall varsity football games and sneaking in one more camping trip with family and friends before the rains arrive. Tonight, I did not open up the north and south doors and windows in my apartment. Later, I curled up on the sofa and was content to catch up on my TV viewing. A lot happened this evening.  Each of these things signifies the end of my favorite season. All together, they really solidify the fact in my mind and in my heart.

We’ve had a pretty good run this summer. I’m feeling hopeful about fall, too. Looking farther back, I can say that Sami and I have had a great 17 years together. I know that she’ll be all grown up soon. It happens.

I’m just in no hurry to get there.

I don’t think we’ve slowed down since we returned to Corvallis yesterday AM.  After a brief rest, we entertained visitors, sorted laundry, cleaned the refrigerator and straightened the house, dealt with other household issues, went grocery shopping (in multiple locations), accomplished a huge portion of the back to school clothes shopping task, and enjoyed a rather hurried, but very tasty dinner in a (new to us) hole-in-the-wall Chinese restaurant 20+ miles away from home.  After arriving home, we dealt with more household chores.  Later, S dyed her hair and I worked on sorting through and converting some of the 800+ photographs I shot during our journey (Most were from the wedding. :-)  )

For the first time in a long while, we are both finding that we really weren’t ready to come back home.  Sure, we missed our family and friends here.  We also missed the pets.   But the road trip was going so well, we really did not want it to end.    I suspect that much of this was due to the fact that our journey took us to places we’d never been, a serious departure from our usual adventures up and down the I-5 corridor and Hwy 395.  Don’t get me wrong- we love visiting our usual haunts, but seeing new places and experiencing new things was invigorating to both of us.

I still need to sit down and write a play by play of our journey.   I’ll be asking S for her help with this, as I would really value her insight.   But for now, I’ll simply post a quick image- shot through the windshield as we traveled through northern Nevada at 70 MPH.   My hope is that it will help you understand why it’s so bloody difficult for us to let this one go.

Just got home about an hour ago.  There are little ‘hairball bombs’ on the carpet, but I’m not going to look for them now.   I’ll clean up the ‘gifts’ that the kitties left for me when I awaken.   Right now, sleep.  Oh, and rehashing memories of our FABULOUS road trip.

Here’s a peek at our adventure:

Still to come:   tales of historic sites, creepy baby dolls, delightful visits with friends, refreshing walks along the Truckee River, the PERFECT wedding (complete with marshmallows, a FANTABULOUS meteor shower, and a shrew), lunch on a Shoshone-Paiute Indian Reservation, nearly acosting a boy-man security guard at the Idaho State Capitol (he was adorable, but looked like he was 16!), beautiful canyon views and deer in our campsite, three REALLY bad tires and a fourth that isn’t doing too well, either, sharing energy drinks and life stories with members of a notorious motorcycle gang, and trying to find a RedBox DVD rental kiosk in the middle of nowhere.