Thoughts of family and friends filled our minds when we awoke this morning.
We have 2 priorities today – to phone home to talk to our families, and to fulfill our promise to light a candle for John. Since the time in Ushuaia is 4 hours ahead of Alberta, we’ll light the candle before the phoning.
We headed out to the end of the road (Aqui Finaliza la Ruta Nac. No. 3) at km marker 3,063, in Tierra Del Fuego National Park at about 10:30 AM. On the way there, another bike pulled along side us and gave us the “thumbs up”. We rode together to the Park gate where several other bikers caught up to us. They were from all over – the first biker was from Reno Nevada, others were from Chile, Mexico City and Ushuaia.
We all rode together to our common destination, the end of the road, all of us very excited about our accomplishments.
At the sign marking the end of the road we shared congratulations and photo op’s. Some of the guys disappeared to a more private area to crack open the celebratory champagne.
Then it was time to get out the “pumpkin” candle (John’s Gold Wing was orange and referred to as the big pumpkin in Mazatlan). We were lucky enough to find a round orange candle several days earlier – fitting don’t you think?
The wind made it impossible to keep the candle lit for more than a second, but it was enough for us to feel that we brought John to the end of the world as promised. That felt good.
Heading back to town we stopped to take some pictures of the beautiful scenery.
We went for supper and took the candle with us to the restaurant and lit it for our “Christmas Dinner”. The candle stayed lit throughout the meal (no we didn’t find a restaurant serving turkey. Duane had fajitas and Corinne had peppered veal, both were excellent).
After supper we phoned home. Today we were, and felt, very, very far from home! But it was a satisfying day.
