Hey, remember when I applied for my passport?

I got it in the mail today. I look bloated and shiny. Can’t wait to go to Mexico with it!

Tags: 51, 81, 82

It’s nice to be back…but also weird. Going from being completely alone in Nature for hours at a time to having constant noise and people around. Wowsa. The drive was long (duh). My wonderful car, Ginny (yes, as in Ginny Weasley) made the 2400 round-trip trek with nary a problem! I’m so proud of her. It’s the longest she’s driven. I gave her a fancy bath at the Car Wash today and she seems very pleased with herself now. She’s showing off in the parking lot now.

It’s been a bit of a challenge to wind down. I’m more tired today than yesterday (got back Wednesday night), but I’m taking it very easy. I want to be truly refreshed and relaxed when I go back to work on Monday (or, rather, as much as possible) and that, of course, meant not working or even doing work email in my two off days in town. I think I’m finally getting to the point where I can close my eyes and NOT feel like I’m still cruising down the freeway at 80 MPH.

I have, however, managed to upload all of my pictures on Flickr; just follow that link and look in the Columbia River Gorge and Sequoia National Park groups. There’s probably over 500 pictures, though, just so’s you knows.

 I’ll post some directly on here in the next few days along with some stories about them, but I haven’t decided which ones to use yet.

But just to tease you a little, here’s one shot of one of the stags I saw while in Sequoia. I have tons more, and I’m not sure if this is the best shot or not, but here it is anyway.

There were 3 of the stags together, so that was pretty neat. I also have pictures of the three bears (sans Goldilocks, dunno what that bitch was up to) who crossed our path on a hike. VERY SCARY…but neat. 2 cubs and a mama bear. Needless to say those pictures aren’t as clear cause I didn’t want to get too close.

I’ll be back soon with more pics and more stories!

La la la la la. I can’t wait to be back on the road again. (Except, yes, yes I can. I can wait a LONG TIME.)

 I’s tired. Driving is exhausting. We’re now in Sequoia National Park, and it’s absofrickinlutely gorgeous. I saw deer, DEER, walking from our room to the lodge for dinner. There’s no cell phone reception, but good God almighty, if there hasn’t been Wi-Fi in every place JS and I have stayed.  It’s pretty great, actually. I got to keep up with which of my stories won Emmy’s and which ones got shaft. Yay for Terry O’Quinn! Yay for Katherine Heigl! And Sally Field? Uh, whatever. No offense, of course, to those who love her and that show.

(Please excuse typos and misspellings. Am too tired and 2 glasses of wine into the night. Also, am dyslexic so is not my fault. Take that!)

It will take me at least a week to recover from all of the driving. And it will take poor JS months of therapy to get over my foul mood at the end of each driving day. Meh, what can ya do?

OK, well, we’re gonna aim for being back late tomorrow night…maybe Thursday morning. I’ll have tons of photos to post (I’ve taken about 350 so far, and I’ve taken none of the Sequoia’s yet!). But not right away. First I’ll need sleep and a bath and…I don’t know, a day or so to make the world stop moving at the same pace as I-5.

Peace out, yo!

We actually got in yesterday, around supper time. It’s the custest place in the world. Seriously. Look it up. Stevenson, WA. Adorable. The whole city has wi-fi (all 5 blocks of it). Today we went hiking to some of the waterfalls in the area, and man, was it gorgous! Here’s a shot of one of them:

Nice, eh? I can’t even begin to describe how beautiful it is here. Appearently we’re having wonderfully uncharacteristic weather…no rain or clouds…fog in the early morning, but the really pretty kind that hangs like a blanket over the river and then dissipates in the afternoon.

Loads of stories to tell, I won’t get to all of them until I’m back in SoCal, but here’s a sample. We got up this morning around 7 (JS wanted to have good morning light for his images and filming, plus, we went to bed at like 9:30, so it’s not like we were hurting for sleep). We pack all of our stuff up for the day, including our delectable pb&j sandwiches, and get into the car. Driving in the Gorge is a bit complicated as it’s in the middle of nowhere and even google maps doesn’t have any information on the area, so it’s a bit hit and miss with getting to our trail head. JS begins to get frusterated, and when I try to reassure him he puts it into words that I can undersand: “Imagine that it’s Christmas morning, and you’re at the top of the stairs…finally, you run down them, but there’s another surprise hallway to go through that wasn’t there before. You know the tree is there, but you just can’t get to it!”

Now that’s talking to a girl on her level.

But, needless to say, we found it. I’ll post more pictures later. It’s too hard to stay on the computer for too long when there’s so much amazing stuff to look at!!

…350 to go. I’m tired, y’all. And I have one little teensy leetle bar of wireless at this seaside hotel in the very farthest Northern corner of California. It’s been very pretty so far. Redwoods and coasts with huge-ass rocks in them, pterodactyls (they could have been hawks or eagles; I’m not a damn bird watcher, OK?!).  Also, the air seriously smelt like a Christmas candle. So piney and fresh!

I have no pictures to post yet, cause my camera’s got a fucking dust speck or water spot or some such shit on it that won’t come off. I’m making JS read all about it on dah interwebs now so’s we can fix it and I won’t have to throw the damn thing out the fucking window….phew. Deep breath (JS would also like me to note that I’m blogging without a bra on…I’m also very hawt with my PJ bottoms and oversized GAP T-shirt and crazy-ass car hair).

I’ve only had one minor tantrum (complete with whining and feet stamping) at the end of the day when we finally found a hotel with vacancies and no graffiti on the iron gates in the parking lot, but after a bath and dinner, I’m much better.

OK, well, hope everyone had a decent Monday, I’m going to bed.