BACK IN LAS VEGAS

Past due for a blog update.  Since our last post in Mountain Home, ID we traveled to Brigham City, Utah which is about 50 miles north of Salt Lake City.  Then on Saturday we traveled through Salt Lake City and south on I-15 to Beaver, Utah for our last night on the road.  Sunday morning we got and early start from Beaver and arrive back here at the resort at exactly noon which gave us plenty of time to take Arlyene's car out of mothballs and get the coach parked.  We spent the afternoon evaluating all there was to do to start getting the place cleaned up.  It gets very dirty in the summer months while we are away.  Little by little we chip away at the cleanup project but we keep reminding ourselves that we have no deadline so we don't have to beat ourselves up getting it done.  We took time yesterday for a trip to the pool.  Considering that both Sunday and Monday the high reached in excess of 100 degrees here we wipe out pretty quickly with the yard work.  Today, Tuesday, it is under 90 and we are also getting more acclimated which helps.  The forecast promises cooler temps in the days to come.

Overall our trip put 3,530 miles on the motor home and about another 1,000 on the Jeep.  We came home with a cracked windshield on the coach but it never caused us any problems and we already have started the process of getting it replaced.  Otherwise the coach ran great and treated us well -  at least once I got the toilet working correctly.....

We were gone just short of 4 months and had a great time.  We connected with lots of friends and saw some awesome scenery.  Our proximity to Seattle in July also made it possible for us both to attend my brother's memorial service for which I am thankful.  Nevertheless we are glad to be back "home" here in the resort where we can relax and not be thinking about the next day's drive.  This is a great place to spend the winter, especially with so much family here.

Most likely the blog will be quiet again for a while but we are already thinking about what our plans might be for next summer.  There is a solar eclipse in August that will pass over Oregon, Idaho and Wyoming.  We may plan our schedule around trying to get ourselves in the path of that.  Us and a whole bunch of other people with exactly the same idea....

BEWARE OF THE BOUNCING POTATO

We are done traveling for the day and are relaxing at our RV site in Mountain Home, Idaho.

One of the road hazards we are always mindful of is following a truck that might have loose gravel in it.  We stay well back and if we must pass one we do so quickly.  Today we were behind a big semi that appeared to be empty.  Not so.  It had apparently had been hauling potatoes (Famous Idaho Potatoes no doubt) and there must have been one or two left over.  I heard a loud impact sound from under the coach and Arlyene said it was a bouncing rock, no, wait, it was a potato out of that truck ahead of us. - a bouncing potato.  Nothing seemed amiss so I continued to our next planned stop where I could inspect the coach and the Jeep.  I half expected to find a potato wedged in the Jeep grill or windshield but we lucked out as far as I can tell.  So now we add potato trucks to the "do not follow" list.

Tomorrow we head for Brigham City, Utah.

CHANGE IN PLANS

We are currently in Prosser, WA where we are visiting a few of the many wine tasting rooms.  Many are very close to the RV park where we are staying which, coincidentally is named "Wine Country RV Park".  Only visited two yesterday as many are closed on Tuesdays.  One was Airfield Winery which, during WWI was actually a training airfield for bi-plane pilots before it was a vineyard.  Today we hope to visit a couple more.

Wine Barrel Biplane

Our original plans were to head back up to the Spokane area before starting the trek back to Las Vegas however we have decided to skip that part of the trip and begin the trek from here.  There are several reasons for that, one being that we now have a cracked windshield.  It does not appear to be a safety concern but I will feel better getting back and having it replaced.  If all goes according to plan we should be back in Vegas sometime on Sunday.  We are looking forward to getting back - just over 1,000 miles to go.

LEAVING SEATTLE

After a busy week wrapping things up we had a nice dinner with long time friends on Thursday evening.  Friday we finished up last minute stuff and find ourselves ready to roll a day early so instead of leaving tomorrow, as originally planned we are heading out early this afternoon for Ellensburg.  That will help insure that I will have the TV set up to receive the Seahawk game on Sunday.  Anything else would be unacceptable to the co-pilot.  So we have technically started our trip back to Las Vegas although we have a number of stops to make along the way.

Nice dinner with good friends.

CATCHING UP

Time to catch up the blog since our last post from Anacortes.  Since then we had a great dinner with special friends David and Colleen in Oak Harbor.  The next day we moved back to Lake Pleasant RV Park in Bothell where we are currently.  We will be here one more week, leaving on the 11th for Ellensburg, WA and points east and then south.  We will be starting our trek back using I-90 and I-15 with stops and side trips along the way.  We expect to arrive back in Las Vegas on October 1st.

Our time here in Bothell has been a mixture of reconnecting with friends and working on cleaning up our stuff stored here.  We have especially enjoyed the fellowship of reconnecting and regret we have not been able to do more of that while here.  It has been raining now, hard at times, for two days.  We were already getting restless so we know it is time to get back on the road soon.

Our  good Oak Harbor friends David and Colleen

Amanda and her kids with Grandparents For A Day.

The plan for the route back to Las Vegas, our winter quarters.