Mon. Oct. 10     Going home to Petaluma

Bill and I were up very early this morning, eager to go home–we hoped!  We ate our last leftover trail breakfast of granola and powdered milk before heading out into a clear, fresh, nippy fall morning.  At the bus stop, it ws fun to peoplewatch–SOU students on bikes, commuters going to work, etc.  Pretty soon we were on our way to Medford’s transit plaza, transferred to our last bus, then came a short walk to Hertz to see what we could arrange about getting a car TODAY. 

We explained to the Hertz folks that we’d just finished a 5-month hike from Mexico to Canada, and that when Bill made the reservation we were fresh off the trail and got the date wrong.  The Hertz people were super-nice and said it was no problem at all–they had a car we could use, and there would be no extra fee for coming in early.  Whew! They said it would be a little while before the car was ready–and we said, “No problem!” to that, too, because we’d spotted a restaurant next door and were thinking, “REAL breakfast!”  That granola back in Ashland was just a snack!  We had hiker hunger, full-bore!

A scan of the restaurant menu showed a very promising possibility–the “Mega-Breakfast.”  It sounded great.  So we ordered one for each of us.  The waitress hesitated.  “That’s an awful lot of food,” she said.  “Are you sure youcan eat that much?”  We assured her that we could, and it wasn’t long before she was making trip after trip to our table, with many plates.  Basically, the Mega-Breakfast was some of EVERYTHING.  We ate pancakes, bacon, sausage, hashbrowns, eggs, biscuits & gravy, and coffee. Bill finished ALL of his, and I ate all but part of one biscuit.  We were stuffed, but boy it was good!  We figured it was our last time to pig out, since from now on, we’ll not be doing 20-something miles a day over hill and dale!  The waitress was absolutely amazed at us.

We strolled next door to Hertz again, climbed into the car, and at last, we were truly headed HOME.  It was a time of great joy for us both, and again, deep and profound gratefulness to God.  We whizzed along I-5, past the beautiful fall trees, white Mt. Shasta, the snow-dusted peaks of the Siskyous, and down into our own home state of California till we were cruising through the Sacramento Valley with its farms and orchards and towns.  Up and over the final hill and we could see the north end of San Francisco Bay in the distance, then through the salt marshes with all the egrets and herons and ducks, and then we were headed north up the Petaluma River valley for HOME.

It was an amazing feeling to pull up in the driveway of our house.  We just sat there for a moment and again told the Lord, “Thankyou, thankyou for all You have done!”  Our daughter who had been taking care of everything for us was off at school, but she had put up a “welcome home” sign on the front door, and we were were SO GLAD to walk thrugh our own door and know that we’d not have to be searching for water anymore or searching for a campsite, or trying to find the trail.  We were HOME!  We have truly enjoyed our PCT adventure, but are glad to be done. 

Thankyou, Lord!  And thankyou again!