How do you say good-bye to a trip of a lifetime? From Pittsburgh to Chicago – from Chicago to Santa Monica, CA on Route 66 – and finally from Santa Monica to Seattle up the Coast on Route 1/101. What a great and beautiful country we live in!! Thanks for allowing us to share our dream with all of you and thanks to those who have and are continuing to contribute to KidsVoice.

It is with great sadness that we end our blogging adventures – but who knows? –there are more roads and states to conquer in the future!!! Van and John are on their way back via plane and Jere and Sharon will be retuning via other bi-ways and highways in the Corvette. Gyngr met me here and we’ll be flying back on Thursday.

Here is the last pictures of the Gang saying a good-bye from Seattle:

John, Van, Carnie, Merle and Jere

The Sights in Seattle

The City

The Market Salmon

The First Starbucks!!

The Locks

May God bless all of you and may You live your dreams on the road.

Merle

P.S. Carnie says he is available if anyone wants to take him on another excursion. He’s just loves traveling and meeting new people.

Another extra special thanks to UPMC Health Plan for their generous support and gift to KidsVoice.

An extra special thanks to WESCO International, Inc. and the WESCO International Charitable Foundation for their generous support and gift to KidsVoice.

Special thanks to these Individual Contributors to KidsVoice for Kicks for the Kids:

• Anonymous
• James and Noel Browne
• Curtis Pickett
• Dana L. Rattenbury
• Laura R. King and Richard Charles King
• Stephen M. Plung Memorial Philanthropic Fund, Louis Plung and Don Plung of Louis Plung & Company
• L.Scott and Roberta Neely
• Carole Lyon-Orr
• Carol Ziss
• Linda and Alan Komm
• Richard and Susan Herchenroether
• Constance Mockenhaupt
• Maureen and Richard Ackerman
• Frederick H. Bentzel, Jr.
• J. Richard Lauver
• Richard and Susan Klixbull
• Denice Allan

Plus all of our State Sponsors:

• Dave Thomas - Missouri
• Scott Wolfe - Indiana
• Buck, Kathy, Valerie & Katie Colbert - Illinois
• Eric Cowden & Joe Boone - California
• Jon, Margot, & Tim Minor - Kansas
• Ann Myers - Arizona

And to all of our Corporate Sponsors!

Being from Western Pennsylvania, and avid football fans we were going through withdrawal because of the lack of sports viewing on the trip. So the natural thing for men to do was to take in a Friday Night High School football game. We landed in the town of Warrenton, Oregon to watch the Warrenton Warriors play Portland Christian Academy. What a nostalgic time it was as Portland seemed to have the upper hand in talent and size. You don’t believe me do you?? Well take a look:

The Scoreboard

The Stands

The Game

The Food - Sausage, onions, potatoes, carrots, and other? All boiled together to make garbage can stew. (Jere and Van ate some!!)

And The People!!

Meet Brandon Stallsworth, a senior at Warrenton H.S. and DeeJ Hardwick- who is home-schooled and will be off to college soon . What a delightful couple - Brandon’s dad is the Chief of Police and involved in various businesses. Brandon works for his dad between being a student.

We wish both of them the best of luck living the life in Warrenton, Oregon.

Oh Yeah, unfortunately Warrenton lost 35-7 but put up a great fight.

With our hunger for sports satisfied, we said good-bye to Warrenton and headed north toward Seattle.

Still traveling the coast - and seeing Oregon. The most exciting spectacle was the Sea Lion Caves near Florence, Oregon. The shaft to the cave extends 208 feet down into the world’s largest and most spectacular sea cave. Our trek only encountered one sea lion perched on a rock. The others were playing in the Pacific. Here is a scene before entering the cave:

Another scene that is probably the most taken lighthouse photo is that of the Heceta Head Lighthouse. Pictured on the horizon from the Sea Lion Cave.

Onward and outward we progressed to Warrenton High School for a FOOTBALL Game!!!l.

After the game we traveled on up the road and stayed the night at Astoria, Oregon - site of the filming of the movie "Goonies".

ALMOST there!
The Boys

Meet John and Pat Morris from Topok, Arizona. They climbed into their motor home and headed to the coast June 3rd and now are going South on the Coastal shore. John says they may not leave this spot for a few days because they enjoyed waking up in the mornings to spot whales and seals. The couple aren’t returning home until October.

And here’s why they want to stay.

Carnie tried to hide inside their trailer but we spied him going in the back and whisked him away. Bye John and Pat, hope you have a great trip loving retirement

Each day all I can say is WOW as we continue to go up the coast of California. Here is Carnie as he mimics a huge WOW overlooking the ocean in Northern California.

Here are some more spectacular scenes!

One of our favorite places was Tomales, CA. Tomales is located on Route 1 North of San Francisco. Population is 210 and the area looks similar to PA with dairy and sheep farms. Tomales itself has a general store, bakery, cafe, post office, hotel and a Catholic and Presbyterian Church. The General Store manager told us that the Baptists tried but failed to gain roots in the town (sounded like they either got tossed out or ignored - not sure which). We all decided that if we were to live in California that this would be the place.

By the way - Did you notice the manly man metallic red car besides ours? We found that the PT Cruiser is quite the fashion in sunny California!! Matter of fact we saw many more of these than Mustangs. We feel that we’re really part of the "in crowd" with our wheels.

If we thought the sea coast was awesome, the Redwoods were another wonderful treat!! It’s mind boggling that trees can exist this large and be hundreds of years old.

We took many pictures of them thar wonders.

The Manly Man car making it through the tree.

Below is Carnie in Myers Flats, CA meeting with the redwood residents.

Carnie’s greatest privilege was to meet the legendary Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox. They have always been big heroes to him. Here they are at Klamath, CA greeting visitors at the Redwood State Park and museum.

We continue up the coast to witness its splendor. Hope you enjoyed sharing this part of the trip with us!

Merle

Haven’t been able to get to an internet connection and trying to catch up on our blogging. Started Day 14 by heading toward San Francisco. Carnie was so tuckered-out from the Route 66 adventure that he called it a night early as we toured the city. Got great rooms at The Opal San Francisco in downtown. Yes, we did see all the typical tourist locations in the city. Hmmm… where do we start? Well how about the streets of the city. Here are some shots:

The Streets

Of course, no trip to San Francisco is complete without riding the Trolley!! Makes you want to sing "Rice-a-roni - the San Francisco Treat".

And there is Fisherman’s Wharf!!

With Shops and Eateries

The Boats

And of course the famous Alcatraz - I wouldn’t let the boys get too close for fear they would have a long stay!

And finally Chinatown with a great meal and indigestion.

I certainly can understand why people fall in love with this city. It has great sights, food, weather and a diversity of people and cultures.

All of us had a long day but Carnie is well rested and ready to hit the road tomorrow further up the coast.

Merle

Merle’s had a hard time finding a good internet connection (and we thought the whole world had gone wireless by now). He’ll be back to show some more pictures of the trip soon. He’s been photographing everything:

Rare behind the scenes!