Ian and Garret

Recovering from an apperetivo the travelers repaired to the restaurant from the bar.Surprisingly good food served by Lindsey a clinical psychologist . We mused on family connections and how relevant this training was for guests like us. Delicious salad.And then the second Oregon Pinot with a decidedly French twist!Finally walked home in the moon shadow , GAF getting sodden by the lawn sprinklers as he tried to perform a moondance.

More our part of the country as we head north through OregonHowever still lots of rural blight as we head towards Bend. Then into miles of forest filled with smoke, complete with extreme fire warnings and a blood red sun. A couple of tons on open road but generally driving cautioned by that terrible crash. At last the smoke clears and the sun assumes a normal color.

And then the trees part as we reach the destination. Blair poses with the door map and after singing along with Cat Stevens, Van the Man and Leonard we arrive with Dylan tangled up in blue.Amazingly we found our room and to mutual relief it had two beds and a stunning view from the verandah.Having drunk in the nature we headed sideways for Blair’s first glass of Pinot noir. Cindy the stunning waitress ( grandparents from RSA and Zimbabwe moved to Minneapolis) conspired to tell him the cheapo I’d ordered for him was the best on the list but he seemed satisfied.On to dinner – the first cut is the deepest.

Gathering steam. The browns give way to foliage as the Sacramento River twists in to view and the mountains rear up in front is us. The road turns to reveal the snot green sadly depleted Lake Shasta: Blair conducts an inspection. Brings to mind the dreadful Pruitt and his acolyte successor.

The boys press on and Mount Shasta appears in its triumph. FitzGerald tries to replicate the great Grand Canyon king of the world pic and looks instead like an escaped lunatic.Undeterred Blair wrestles him back into the car and pacifies him with some Beethoven piano concertos and the prospect of a right turn at Weed. However before that we grind to a halt and loose 40 minutes with road works but still marvel at the incredible skies.We resisted the predictable T shirts in Weed but followed the first sign for Bend and then Mt Shasta revealed itself – they say 25% odds of a major eruption in the next 30 years. How do they know?But who cares: drink in the beauty and compare to Fuji from a couple of weeks ago. The sound track has switched to Breakfast in America from Paris in 1979 – Supertramp.Meantime Ireland defeat Oz in the best of the rest final back at the 7s in SF!

Then we thought things had taken a turn for the worse….And then we saw the reason for the backup – a chilling memento mori.Doris, Butte Valley. In the words of Blair – breathtaking beauty and abject poverty. The bits of California the Democrats didn’t reach.

Final packup this morning. Nice contrast between the boys’ needs. FitzGerald’s in black from 6 months; Blair in red for the forthcoming journey….A quick latte in the usual haunt shared with a large dog and we are off across the Bay Bridge and a turn north at Vaccaville.Up through the brown empty country for a few hours with the Cowboy Junkies, John Prine ( great concert in SD with Angela) and Emmylou discussing the mysteries of America..Nice one of my chins!

Just heard from Nick that England in the 7s final! Crushed RSA who in turn had crushed us and Scotland☹️

Ireland against Oz in the final of the also rans.

A stop in Willows for table service in MacDonald’s. On we go , pushing north, singing ‘Love Hurts’ with Gram Parsons, followed by 200 miles from the Junkies.

Olive trees and orange groves as the Costal Range is on our left are flanked by the High Sierras one the right.

For us, 320 miles to Bend!

In the wake of the Rugby 7s the Englishmen, eventually exhausted from watching replays of their last ( admittedly uncharacteristically amazing) try turn their thoughts to food.An excursion to the Slanted Door gives us bonhomie enhanced by the presence of Kate, friend of Ian’s daughter Emma a refugee from NYC and before that Nashville. Alastair had dressed for dinner – we all admired his Barbarian Jersey. Adieu San Francisco !

Elvis is in the building: Blair is back in town.

The past 7 months have whipped by. Lots of wonderful experiences with old and new friends and a warm welcome at Calico.

I was really touched by the spread laid on by Gail and Natalia.

In preparation for the grand departure we joined Nick, my Calico mate and Alasdair at the world Rugby 7s . Ireland got crushed by the Boks last night but England beat the US in injury time , cheering up my traveling companion.I settled for watching Ireland edge out Kenya – who knew they played? However the stars of the day , as always in 7s was exuberant Fiji whose supporters were everywhere.All set for tomorrow then leaving a good bit of my heart in San Francisco

Slight publishing hiccup as I try to remember how to do this after 7 months! Heading from Philly to meet Garret for a day of world sevens rugby – men and women! This is followed by an dinner at the Slanted Door with my daughter Emma’s friend Kate (who I have not seen for 30-years) and her partner Francis. Lots to catch up on. The Northern route looks even more daunting than it did yesterday!

The trip to Bend tomorrow looks particularly challenging. A bad start as American Airlines managed to lose the plane captain but he seems to have materialized at last so I will be wending my way westwards shortly.

Farewell to Haverford College for a couple of weeks. Normal morning walks will be resumed in August!

For those of you who followed our blog and the culinary pleasures along the way, here is a summary of “The Trip.” Amazing to think that we covered 3,820 miles and that we are still speaking to each other!

It’s not that we are competitive but the boys were delighted to surpass 10,000 views of our blog. Thanks to all of you who followed us from 39-countries and the EU. Here are the final statistics so you can all return to your day jobs knowing that Garret is safely ensconced in his San Francisco abode all ready for his sabbatical at Calico – Adieu until August!

What started as an adventure in web-site design at 5 a.m. on the morning of our departure morphed into an hourly check on how many visitors has been to the site!  It was a stroke of genius for Garret to suggest establishing a blog, which (as he pointed out) allowed us to reconnect with all our friends around the world.  Each of us managed to compromise the normally grossly overestimated monthly data roaminig charges on our iPhones as we endeavored to outdo each other with contacts in unusual places.  We still do not know who was responsible for the Ghana and Bahrain views of the site.  We eventually stimulated views from 38 different countries.  The final count will be provided in our epilogue. Astonishingly, given our European roots, Japan is running second to the US in numbers of visitors to our blogs.

Fortunately, the heavy diet of U2 was ameliorated by Dire Straits, Van Morrison, Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan, and Sinead O’Conner.  Perhaps our defining moment was my four loudly spoken and well-chosen words “This lane is ending”, which brought Garret back from a U2-induced reverie and avoided us being crushed by a very large truck.

A truly memorable moment was when member of Moore’s campaign staff in Alabama reminded us about the 3,000-years of Christianity shortly after Garret played me “Jesus the missing years” by John Prine.  In an even greater display of ignorance the man from Alabama assured us that a Muslim could not enter the Congress because he would not be able to swear allegiance on the Bible.  I was further struck by this ability to hold such strong and incorrect convictions with the headline in Fox News today, which stated that “the media” are finally describing the positive effects of Donald Trump.  A sample of the “positive” headlines from today in the media:

1. Trump will personally save up to $15m under tax bill, analysis finds
2. America’s homeless population rises for the first time since the Great Recession
3. Trump is politicizing the courts – and our judiciary is under threat
4. UN votes resoundingly to reject Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as capital
5. Trump’s bullying and bluster on Jerusalem is bad news for the UN
6. Devastating climate change could lead to 1m migrants a year entering EU by 2100
7. Memphis citizens cheer overnight removal of two Confederate statues

Perhaps the media under discussion by Fox News is in fact Fox News itself.

So, it’s all over and I am going back to my day job of trying to cure Friedreichs’ ataxia and develop cancer biomarkers.  This brief sabbatical in a Panamera with Garret has reinvigorated my desire to bring these studies to fruition.  In addition, our lengthy political discussions will resonate for many years to come and might inspire a return “Trip” to Philadelphia by the Northern route in August.  Thanks Garret for this amazing experience. I hope my sweetie is as pleased at my return as she was with our departure!