A CHANGE OF PLANS

After careful consideration we have decided to eliminate the Mesa Verde and Moab portion of our trip which will give us two more weeks here in Las Vegas to evaluate and decide what our best next steps will be with regards to Arlyene's mom.  Like I said in the prior post, (which turned out to be a little premature), sometime "Life Gets In The Way".

Luckily our air conditioners were fully serviced about a month ago and are doing an excellent job - BUT the webs between my Seattle Native toes are requiring lots of lotion to keep from drying out.

WAKE UP TIME!

With a yawn and a stretch it is time to wake up the old blog and brush off our blogging skills in anticipation of leaving Las Vegas on Friday June 2nd. This year the plan for the first part of our trip will take us someplace we have not been before in a state we have not been before now. Our goal for the first week of the trip is Mesa Verde National Park in Southwestern Colorado where we will spend about five days taking in the various sights in the area and enjoying somewhat cooler weather. (Might even need a blanket at night which has not been the case here for several days now.) Our next destination will be Moab, UT where we will visit Arches and Canyonlands National Parks. We have been to both before and are looking forward to going back. With new tires on the Jeep we just might get some views we did not get last time when we had the pickup truck. 

PART ONE - Click on Map to Enlarge

From the town of Moab we hope to travel to Heber City, UT and visit my sister Kris who lives nearby in Sundance. From there we hope to spend a couple days in Arco, ID which is near to "Craters Of The Moon" National Monument and then work our way north through Montana to Coeur d' Alene, ID for a few days were we will stock up and get some routine coach maintenance done in Spokane before moving on north to Sagle, ID where we will visit our friends Larry and Linda who have a wonderfully large driveway with everything we need for a nice, long visit to include the 4th of July. While there we will take make a Jeep trip to Seattle, which we will cover in more detail later.

PART TWO - Click On Map To Enlarge

After returning to Sagle we will buddy travel with Larry and Linda in their motorhome down to Sisters, OR where we will meet up with three other couples for a reunion like the one we had last year up in Blaine, WA.   After Sisters Larry and Linda will return to Sagle and we will work our way back to Las Vegas stopping to see friends or relatives along the I-5 corridor starting in Medford. More on that part of the trip later too.

They say that sometime Life Gets In The Way of our plans and right now we are kind of in that spot. Arlyene's 92 year old mom fell and broke her hip a couple of days ago. She has had surgery and is awaiting an evaluation of what kind of rehab will be needed, where and for how long. We are torn about whether to proceed with our travel plans or not and the next few days will make that decision more clear for us. So until we know otherwise, this is our plan.

In the meantime we are also excited to see progress on our new addition here on our lot at the resort.  We now have a foundation for our new 100 sq foot utility building that will be a combination of storage space and a guest bathroom.  It will also be capable of housing a washer and dryer.  We are really, really hoping that it gets all done by the time we get back but the ways of contractors are often mysterious and our definitions of things related to working hours and days do not seem to align quite right.  We (I) are not going to stress about it and just trust that it is going to get done and get done correctly - even without me here to supervise......😱

Click To Enlarge

BAD BOYS

One of the things we like about spending a lot of time in Las Vegas is that it is so easy for our friends to come and visit us.  This week we had a brief visit from my older-than-me high school buddy Jim Iverson.  We did a nice day trip to Red Rock Canyon that included a hike which we followed up with some time in the SPA back here at the resort.  After that we went to the Monday Night service at our church.

Had a great time and hope you can come back again soon Jim.

MY MOON SHOT

Not what you might be thinking.  Not mooning anyone.  Just could not resist posting a couple of the photos I was able to take of the "Super Moon" last night.  Pretty cool to get a shot like this with my own camera.  A clear and calm desert night helped a lot too.

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.