Day 197, Part 2: Escape!

Heading through the pass

Roger made a comment at one point while we were riding through San Bernardino. We really hadn't had anything too much to deal with on this trip, so riding home through a pounding rain was just about par for the course. We had to have something to overcome!

The trip through the Cajon Pass was not quite as awful as I feared it would be. We had a lot of room on the shoulder, and it was not raining when we started down. Plus, trucks are supposed to go 45 miles an hour and they are in the lane adjacent to the shoulder. So we had a little bit of a buffer from the faster moving cars in the main line of traffic. Even so it was dicey, (probably the scariest 30 minutes of our entire trip) and I was extremely relieved when we were able to get off at Cleghorn and conclude our trip on the old portion of Route 66 that winds through the canyon. It's kind of amazing to realize that there's such a beautifully scenic portion of that old route right here in my own backyard!

Old Route 66 through the Cajon Pass

We got rained on a couple of times, but were mostly able to dry out in between the sprinkles until we approached the San Bernardino Airport. Then the sky just opened up on us! We were soaked! The clouds were incredible. We almost never see storms like this here in this part of the world.

Weather's coming

And then we arrived! We had lots of friends who came out to greet us and welcome us home. The newspaper was there to take some pictures and they've published a story in our local paper. It was fun, and wonderful to feel the accomplishment of reaching our town.

Soggy, but safe

But we were not yet home . . .