Last stops- After Bay and Pine Creek

 After the Beale Drone Protests (last posting) we started toward home because it seemed the clutch was slipping more. We stayed at the Oroville "After Bay" and fell asleep to snapping dry cottonwood leaves and woke to the popping of duck hunters' guns. After it seemed safe to walk around I got these two shots. It's a wild place sandwiched between human highways... like most places you can't really tune out our species.

 Last night we went out to visit our friend Howard at Pine Creek and the shots below are from his beautiful land. He is fragile and his protected kingdom may not be secure when he passes but it was my first home in Butte County and I love it's dogwoods, sycamores and buckeyes as well as all the critters who make their homes here as well as our dear old friend.

 We are waiting to move back into our house this afternoon. I tallied up the places we've "camped" and lakes and river-sides win out but there's also been casinos, clear-cuts, trail-heads, pipelines, residential streets, gas stations and grocery lots.... 114 days on the road, 8000 miles driven (which doesn't count our ferry ride up the Inside Passage from Port Hardy, Vancouver Island to Prince Rupert.) We ran the truck on straight restaurant waste vegetable oil all but a stint on Vancouver Island. Michael processed veggie oil 16 times... working out to about every seven days. He's had his share of truck trouble-shooting and repairs and we've had three potentially serious truck "mishaps" which he handled with persevering competence.
The planet remains incredibly beautiful, complex and accessible. We are grateful we have been able to reach out and into it without adding much to its burden of polluting human activity. We picked up less garbage this trip but had some of the same disappointments about the lack of adequate recycling and care of our dear punished Madre Tierra.
Those of you who traveled with us- I'm grateful. I need to have a voice and to share what we have seen. Thank you for accompanying us.