I’ve been remiss in not keeping everyone informed of our whereabouts which, I’m sure, has become a concern for many of you who use your valuable time to read this stuff. Rest easy. We’re home, now. Actually, we’ve been home since Tuesday or Wednesday. I can’t remember because immediately upon arrival in St. Helens my mind shifted from vacation to mode to not-vacation mode. If you don’t understand what I’m by that, make something up.

We spent Monday night in Armitage Park near Eugene. It was very peaceful there. The RV spaces are about 40-50 feet apart, in some areas, and there are lots of trees but none obscure a good view of the southern sky. So, the satellite worked great just sitting on a picnic table. Didn’t have to climb on the RV roof which is a huge win. I’m pretty certain that one of these days I’m going to tumble off the roof and break something important. That’s one reason I like spaces not cluttered with bushes and trees because it ensures I have a clear shot at the ground should I fall.

We got up Tuesday and got on the road home in record time. The plan was to leave around 0900 and we left about 1030, right on time. The drive to St. Helens, through Portland, was uneventful and we made it without any near mishaps for which I was thankful.

Once home, Max jumped out of the RV, looked around a bit, then took off. He can run about 50 mph, I’m sure, and there’s absolutely no way I’m going to catch him. He just as to run until he gets it all out of his system, then he comes back. His route seems to always take him across our neighbor’s back yard, sometimes around their house, then down along the creek, into our yard, around our house, then finally he returns and flops on the ground with his back feet sticking straight out behind him. It was pretty evident that he was happy to be home, as were we.

Wednesday and Thursday were spent doing stuff. Some of it I can remember, like our trip to Longview to get a new ceiling fixture for the laundry room. It was on the blink, literally, and was causing Diane to twitch a little while doing the laundry. Nothing worse than a twitch while folding clothes. Regarding laundry … I know Diane changed her clothes every day but I chose to make it easy on the environment by wearing the same clothes every day. I took about ten pairs of jeans on the trip but only wore two. I switched out my boxers and socks whenever Diane suggested that I do that, but only then. Doing that eliminated my need to bend over, open a couple of drawers to get replacements, open my tiny closet for a pair of jeans, pull my belt out of the possibly soiled jeans, thread my belt into the known clean jeans, then take Max for a walk to break in all those new clothes. Also, this is all done in the dark most of the time so I won’t wake Diane up. It’s really not easy.

So, we got the new light at Lowes and had lunch at Stuffy’s, one of our favorite places. One of these days I’m going to take Suffy’s challenge to eat one of their 10 1/2 pound cinnamon rolls. Seriously. The other challenge is the 7-pound 12-egg omelet with all the trimmings. Skipping the challenge for this visit, Diane just had a hamburger and I had fish and chips.

One of the things Diane did was go grocery shopping. After bringing all the food in from the RV she noticed that the fridge had a lot of empty space and they needed to be filled. So, she filled them.

Now it’s Friday morning and I’ve been up for a couple of hours. Had breakfast, escorted Max around the block letting him take all the time he wanted to sniff stuff, and had my two cups of coffee. Now I must get myself ready to flirt with danger and install Diane’s new light up so she can get to work.

Until next time I hope all remains well with everyone,

Yesterday we left Bullards State Park and drove to Honeyman State Park. Considering all the “State Park” entries you may sense a theme in our travels. We made the trip without incident and drove right into our designated space. Honeyman is a huge park with around 400 camping spaces so I was totally gratified that I was able to drive right to the one Diane reserved.

I backed into the space just right the first time, then nudged it back just a little further because it was a short space and we needed room for the truck. Doing the nudge resulted in the rear wheels dropping off the paved space and landing against the cement stop bumper that had apparently been pushed off the paved area. The rig was essentially stuck and I could not get it back on the paved area. But, there was room to park the truck crossways in front of the RV so, I guess, mission accomplished.

I got out the big blocks Jeff made me and placed them under the rear jacks hoping they wouldn’t get jammed into the soil too far before they got the rear wheels off the ground. I started the leveling process and then went back to watch the results and was gratified when the rear wheels left the ground. My plan was to get some pieces of wood to slide under the wheels to keep them elevated when the jacks were retracted. Not having wood, I rediscovered the plastic leveling pads that look like large legos and used them instead. I wouldn’t know how effective they would be until this morning when we broke camp. I’m happy to report that they worked great. There was a little hesitation getting the umph to regain the paved area, but it made it.

Once on solid ground, I proceeded to break camp. The only thing remaining by then was the power cord. Max didn’t care. He just wanted to leave. But first, he had to wander a bit and visit all the puddles caused by the overnight rain.

Then we pulled the plug and left. But we changed our destination from Devil’s Lake in Lincoln City to Armitage Park in Eugene. It was an easy drive and we have total TV access with Dish. Nothing in the way. Now we’re going to be home tomorrow instead of next Friday. We’ve been gone long enough.

In addition to excellent TV access, there’s a wonderful dog park here at Armitage, and Max spent a memorable 30 minutes racing and mowing down a number of regular attendees at the park. They will remember him. He really did mow them down. Ran right over them no matter how big. Once he started doing his zoomies, they all joined him but they couldn’t keep up. Sadly, I have no video evidence of his prowess so you’ll just have to take my word for it. He had a lot of fun.

I had to revert to simple journaling to get my thoughts out of my head because there is no internet where we are, so we’ve been using the personal hot spots on our phones. Turns out there’s a limit to how much we can do that. AT&T doesn’t terminate after a certain amount of time, they just turn the speed way down to a point where it’s basically useless.

So, I’m doing this using MS Word then I’ll transfer it to my blog thing when Wi-Fi is available. That won’t be until Sunday when we move to Honeyman State Park in Florence. I’m pretty sure that’s the plan.

… you can relax now because my hot spot is functional once again and I’ve transferred my efforts in Word. Thanks for your patience.

Let’s see … the day before yesterday we wandered around in Bandon just looking at stuff until we decided we were hungry. Sometimes we get lost in the moment and forget that food is required. When this need presented itself, we were on the pier downtown. We’ve eaten there before so after Diane parked us, I walked over to our favorite fish place just in time to be their first customer to show up after they closed. That was a bummer because we were both needing fish and chips. So, I took a short jaunt down the pier to Pete’s Crab Shack thinking we would get something good there.

It’s not a very big place but they were doing a lot of business and folks were eating outside even though it was cold and windy. I checked the menu and spied grilled cod which appealed so ordered two of them at $17.50 each. Not a bad price, I thought, until I got them and learned they were cod sandwiches.

Now, I’m not totally against fish sandwiches but as a rule, don’t normally order them knowingly. It’s my belief that fish shouldn’t be in either tacos or sandwiches. In my head, it’s just wrong but I did my best and gave it a shot. Turns out my beliefs were correct in this case because the sandwiches were soggy and didn’t have enough tartar sauce, making them very bland. We both took the fish out and ate it alone, which was good, but all the rest was a waste. In this case, Diane was totally on my side about how wrong it is to waste perfectly good bread by wrapping it around a piece of fish. I suppose I could have avoided that if I’d only read the menu. However, we were hungry, and it was late.

Yesterday we drove to Coos Bay for a hamburger which is what Diane was craving yesterday. It’s been on her mind for a few days now. When we got to town, we stopped at the first place that advertised Burgers. Its name was actually “Burgers and Shakes” so we were confident they had hamburgers.

They did and I got two with one side of fries. We drove into town thinking we’d eat on the waterfront picnic tables in Coos Bay, but it was still chilly. Instead, Diane parked in a bank lot between First and Broadway. They were tasty, and Max liked the fries. He got a few nibbles of hamburger, too but earlier he had subtly let us know he’d rather have seafood.

After lunch, we cruised by DQ and got dessert. I had my normal chocolate malt, and Diane had a peanut buster parfait. She planned to keep it until we got ‘home’ but decided to eat it while driving. She did an excellent job. Didn’t wreck the truck even one time. Made me proud.

It was a very nice afternoon when we got back to Bandon, so we went down to the docks and watched the pelicans dive for dinner. They were fishing close to the pier, so it was a lot of fun watching them dive. There’s an art show on display all around the railings, too. Must be a couple hundred paintings and drawings by people of all ages. Most are from schools in the area, but some are by adults – maybe teachers. We strolled along and looked at every one of them. Max looked, too.

With Max in tow, wherever we go, he’s the focal point and is serving us well as a conversation starter. We get to talk with a lot of folks we would normally just say “Hi” to then mosey on down the road. With Max, however, the Hi turns into a conversation that most times results in trading lots of information about each other with people we just met. Funny how many new friends we’ve made since this little dog entered our lives. It’s a lot of fun and we treasure each moment.

We met some folks near the end of our tour of the posted artwork who were from the Bay Area in California. You can assume, as did I, that they were from San Francisco. We learned that they are planning to move to Bandon. Nice people who would make good Oregon residents.

Now it’s the next day, probably Saturday. I lose track but it really doesn’t matter, does it?

It’s Saturday and we chose to spend the day scouting around Coos Bay instead of watching college football. It was a struggle for Diane to pass up the ball games, but she agreed to come with Max and me to see what was going on in town.

The first destination was the closest thrift shop we could find. Diane loves those places and finds some interesting stuff. Good thing we have a pickup. Max and I normally stay in the truck, talking, while she searches for treasures. Occasionally, we find a store where dogs are welcome. I put Max in a cart and do some shopping myself while he gets to know everyone we pass. It’s fun. I hardly ever buy anything. This time she found a Lions Thrift Store and we waited in the truck. He stared at the door the entire time she was in there.

Once the thrift store itch was scratched, we headed back to the Bandon docks to get fish and chips from our favorite place. I’m sure it has a name, but I have no idea what it is. We just know where it is which is the important part.

As usual, the place was packed, and orders were stacking up, so I braced myself for a lengthy wait to get our order. During a lull at the cash register, Nora greeted me as I rested against the front counter, out of the way of hungry patrons. I was wearing my Navy hat, like normal, and she asked me if I’d ever been to Japan. I had, so we had a friendly conversation about life overseas. She and her husband were stationed in Yokosuka, Japan for a couple of years and loved it. I countered that with 2 years in Okinawa with my new bride. We visited until she had to get back to work. It’s nice to encounter folks like that and make new friends.

When the order was ready, I made my way out of the small facility and passed their outside tables just as one was being vacated. I promptly plopped our order on it and went to get Diane and Max to join me.

I got Diane halibut fish and chips, and I got a crab salad. It’s a lot like a crab Louie without a boiled egg. Really good. Dungeness crab, of course. It was a great lunch and Max got to eat a few french fries.

Then we went home and Diane made chicken caciatore for supper while I just played couch potato with Max lying on me. It was a valid reason to just lay there and do nothing. So that’s what I did.

Tomorrow we break camp and head north to Florence where we have reservations at Honeyman State Park.

See you there.

Yesterday’s journey to Bullards Beach, near Bandon, Oregon, was mostly pleasant and just a little frustrating. Again, we drove separately in a continuing effort to find out if we are better off apart than we are together. I know, some of you are shaking your heads, wondering where that’s coming from, and I understand. Diane does, too. We’ve discussed this at great length over the years and we always come up with the same answer.

Now, back to the trip . . .

Diane led us on using the GPS in the pickup, confident that I’d follow behind without worrying about the GPS in the RV which she programmed just in case I got curious about our progress. Normally I’m not too curious about that because I spend most of my time just looking around as we sail down the road at 65 mph.

Then we got to Coos Bay when she pulled off Highway 101 into a dead-end road leading into a sawmill. Having paid more attention to my GPS than normal, I detected a problem when she went off Highway 42 just 7 miles before Coos Bay and took us on at least a 30-mile detour on backroads, taking right turns instead of the left turns directed by my GPS.

Not knowing the reason for these interesting changes, Max and I followed along to see what was going to happen, ignoring our left turns and quietly making her right turns. I’m sure Max was confused, too, just from the way he looked at me. You know, eyebrows raised, and head cocked a little to the left? He’s good at that.

After Diane pulled into the sawmill, we had a little chat about what to do. She was rightfully angry with her GPS and had, I later learned, turned it off. It was unanimous that I lead for a while and see where we wound up. Turns out my GPS knew exactly where to go so there we went without one wrong turn. In Diane’s defense, she programmed both units so the ultimate address was the same on both. One difference I think she missed is that the truck unit has a little check mark by “avoid highways”, or something similar. We both like back roads more than freeways and avoid them when possible. Anyway, we made it to the park and I drove right to our designated spot, B-36, and ended this leg of the trip.

After plugging everything in the next order of business was to connect the satellite dish. Since we’re pretty much surrounded by trees, I had little hope of making it work, but climbed on the roof, pulling the antenna after me, anyway. I knew the general direction of south even though my phone compass was pointing directly at the setting sun. I knew that wasn’t right. Plopping the antenna down in a likely spot I went into the RV to see what happened. Oddly enough, it worked, but it didn’t give us our local channels. That’s what we watch most, so I had to go on the roof again to rectify that situation. I did that 3 times before I gave up and called Dish to see what they could do. The problem was that I could only align with one of the two satellites and the one missing was where the locals were.

I did some searching on the internet looking for a satellite finder and finally found one that’s specific to Dish. There is only one tall tree in the way of both satellites and I have enough room on the RV roof to “see” one satellite either wide, but not both together. So, I set it for locals and called it a night. The problem is that I didn’t get it done in time for Diane to watch Dancing With The Stars. But, she forgave me because I really did try.

Now it’s the next day, we’ve had lunch (street tacos), Diane’s finishing the dishes, and Max is waiting at the door, tapping his foot while waiting to go to the beach.

Later . . .

The beach was a huge hit with Max. There were only a few people where we went, down by the Coquille River Light House, so I turned him loose to see what happened. He really stretched his legs, running for all he was worth like he does in our backyard. The difference at the beach was he could run a lot further. Like hundreds of of feet further. There were a couple of moments when I thought he was just going to keep on running when he got about 500 feet from us. But, he came back. He also liked running in the surf, too. At one point he went out and just laid down in the water, like he does in the creek at home. Of course, we were never ready with the camera during those moments. There are other photos but they are in limbo somewhere in the cloud. They’ll show up eventually.

In addition to the water, Max loves to chase birds. In this case, seagulls. He doesn’t care how high they are, either. He’s going to catch them. He also chases the shadows they make on the ground when they fly over. Fun to watch.

The weather couldn’t be nicer here in the park. The temp is about 62, still a little chilly for us, but still very nice. On the beach, it was probably the same temp, but the wind was blowing about a hundred mph. Very brisk. Had to cinch up my hoody to keep my hat from blowing away.

Winding down now in preparation for giving Max a bath. He’s a mess.

Until then, he’ll be on guard.

To start this off on a positive note I’m compelled to report that we didn’t leave Weed this morning without parting with a significant amount of cash for fuel. We chose to err on the side of caution and topped off the tank on the truck and the RV which came to a tidy $218. Thank goodness neither of the tanks were pushing empty. We did both because we chose to have Diane drive the truck over the Siskiyou Pass instead of forcing the old RV to pull it. It was a wise choice and made the day much easier on this old man. The RV chugged right along at 65 with no problems and hardly slowed down at all on the hills. Made me proud.

Our first stop was at the welcome center near Ashland. Diane discovered that it’s only 4 years old and it’s a beautiful sight for we who have been out of the state for a month. Diane walked out with an armload of brochures and books and was still collecting them when one of the ladies behind the desk brought her a large bag. Then she got some more. This was one of those moments where you get caught up with what you’re looking at and forget that you have a camera. Yup. Didn’t take even one photo. But, if you click the link above you can see one way better than I could have ever provided.

From there we drove straight through to our current domicile for the next two evenings at Valley of the Rogue State Park, space D-2. This is a beautiful part of our glorious state. As stated, we’ll be here for two nights then we’ll head to Bullards Beach State Park for a while.

This afternoon we took a short trip up I-5 to Grants Pass to do a little shopping. Mainly Diane wanted to get Max a winter coat because the weather, for us, is getting colder pretty fast. After spending nearly a month in 90+ weather, we find ourselves shivering in the 55 degrees we drove into. It’s really chilly here on the Rogue River. Next, we’re going to the beach for a while and it’s going to be chillier there I bet. After visiting a couple of thrift stores with no luck for dog apparel, we went to Petco which HAD to have what we’re looking for, right? They did, but it was all girly stuffs and nothing matched his fur. In addition, Diane had to take charge of Max for a bit and he turned in to a real butthead. So, even if there had been some clothing that fit him, we wouldn’t have got it for him. After the fact, we decided that he was having some sort of flashback to when he was given away, to us, at a Petco in Albany last May. Maybe not, but he was totally out of control. So, we left and drove to Gold Hill thinking they may have a grocery store where we could buy some milk. Actually, that was one of the items we were supposed to get in Grants Pass but forgot. Diane realized this on the way home which is why we decided to stop at Gold Hill.

Turns out Gold Hill doesn’t have a grocery store. They’ve got Napa and ACE, but they don’t sell groceries. We drove up and down most of the streets in Gold Hill and didn’t find anything. In their defense, we only looked on one side of the river. There may have been something suitable on the other side. Instead of looking, we went back to Grants Pass and Diane got what we needed at WinCo. We knew they have groceries. Max and I stayed in the truck and had a father son discussion about bad attitudes and how important it is to not tick off Mom. I’m not sure he’s convinced. We’ll see.

Somewhere in the middle of all that above, we decided to eat lunch because it was noonish. And we were hungry. KFC was the chosen venue, so Diane took us through the drive thru and ordered an 8-piece bucket and two large coleslaw sides. We ate it in a parking space nearby and I snuck bits and pieces to Max because he looked so pitiful at me. It was the right thing to do. We only ate half of it, so the rest turned in to dinner for later.

I didn’t take any photos today but have to share a couple from yesterday evening. The park we’re in has in ground sprinklers all over the place which is new in our experience. Apparently they do a nice job because all the available grass looks really nice. While sitting next to the RV, enjoying the evening, and Max apparently decided he needed to see what the sprinklers were all about.

I’m not sure he figured them out because I put a halt to his efforts, explaining to him that it’s not nice to dig holes in state parks. As a matter of fact, I think it’s illegal. When I explained that to him, sharing the possibility of jail time, he demonstrated a contrite attitude, hiding under the table on my chair, in hopes of avoiding an arrest on his record.

That’s about it.

See you tomorrow.

All the sudden is was time to vacate Fallon and be on our way to Susanville. It made Max very happy and he shivvered with anticipation of the pending journey. He was so happy he jumped on the dashboard, something he’s never done before.

I could understand his joy because leaving meant he wouldn’t have to work his way around the ant hills that litter his designated potty area, and we would be leaving the noisy fighter pilots in the dust with the promise of quieter days. Diane, however, will miss them. She still swoons a little bit every time they take off and streak across the sky like darts.

The RV park in Susanville was very nice. Almost all the RV spots are pull through cement landing pads bordered by grass and flowers. Very nice. We made one trip to town to visit the local Walmart to get some meds and various other things we needed. We always visit Walmarts wherever we land. Not a lot to show you about our overnight stay there.

We left Susanville around 1030-1100, or something like that, with the hope we could be tied up in Weed by the time the Oregon/Stanford football game was on. We would have made it had I not missed a detour sign when we exited Highway 89 onto I-5. Missing it meant we had to head south to Dunsmuir to turn around. Not very user friendly. Thankfully, we’d stopped not long before the detour to let Max look around a little.

We finally made it to the Friendly RV Park in Weed and managed to get connected to #14, their biggest space, by 1600, or thereabouts. The Duck game had been in progress for an hour but that was OK because it wasn’t broadcast on Dish anyway. So, we just logged into the local wifi and got updates on the game. Oregon won 42-6.

For dinner I cooked for the first time on this trip. I made breakfast with waffles, eggs, bacon, and sausage. It was good and Max was really disappointed that none of it fell on the floor for him.

Now were winding down for an early to bed so we can get up and leave early for Rogue River back in Oregon, our home territory.

Now we must plot a path that lets us escape the $6+/gallon ransom they charge for fuel in California. We don’t know if it’s any better in Oregon, but we’re going to find out.

Beatty is a small town about 120 miles north of Las Vegas with a population of about 800 folks. Diane made a reservation for us to spend the night at the Space Station RV Park. There are a lot of free range donkeys in the area but I didn’t see even one of them so I didn’t take any photos of them.

The drive getting here was up hill almost all the way making it tricky for me to keep the engine from overheating. I did well in the mountains by going real slow up the hills, much to the dismay of those behind us. There are many stretches of US-95 that run straight and true for many miles at a time which makes for a very boring trip. Boring except for the occasional gust of wind that blew us around a lot. It was pretty exciting at times. Thankfully, we made it without mishap, and I kept the “Check Engine” light off until the very last mile when we slowed down entering town.

I didn’t take any photos in Beatty because there isn’t much to see at the RV park. It’s pretty much a gravel lot along US-95 with defined spots for weary travelers, which we were.

Since I didn’t take any photos of the town, here’s one from the 90’s . . . I think.

Diane’s Pops heavenly birthday was September 28th (he’s been gone since 2002).

The children are Lydia and Cedric Walters.

Next stop is NAS Fallon, Nevada, home of all the Top Gun pilots.

Since returning to St. George from Surprise, it’s been nice just not doing much of anything except walk Max 2-6 times a day. And eat stuff. Thinking we should do something else, we decided to take a trip to Zion. We didn’t stop on the way past when getting to this neck of the woods although one of our goals was to see all of the national parks in Utah. Skipping Zion wasn’t in the plan because we really just didn’t want to do anything but sit around. And eat stuff.

Then the light clicked after a couple of idle days and Diane suggested we should go there and wondered what I thought. Not usually being the one who had an opportunity to direct the course of our day, I was at a loss for words. Silence prevailed as my mind whirled because of this uncommon event. I apparently blacked out right then and must have uttered a convincing “OK” because when my senses returned Diane was busy making sandwiches for the trip.

So, we went to Zion.

It was a good choice. The only negative aspect of the trip was a repeat of the first time we visited Zion back in the 70’s; there was absolutely no place to park at the visitor center and all the roads were lined on both sides with people parked illegally. Diane made a few passes through the parking lots we encountered but every spot was filled. So, we headed deeper into the park to see what we could from the car. OK. It’s a truck. We drive a truck. I’m not sure why we call it a car. Doesn’t make sense, does it?

As we climbed the walls of the canyon, headed for the only way out, Diane spied an empty spot where she could stop the truck on the edge of a very steep cliff that was totally out of the oncoming traffic lane. Max was happy about that.

I had the forethought to ensure we had foldable chairs in the truck so we were able to sit on the edge of this cliff while we ate our sandwiches. It was actually very nice there nibbling on our sandwiches, looking at the incredible scenery right in front of us. I took lots of photos and will stick them in here when I find them. I think I may have solved the mystery of how to extract photos from my iPhone and plant them somewhere in the memory of my new Windows computer.

It’s not really a Windows Computer. It’s a Hewlett Packard computer that runs Windows 11 and it’s a real challenge for me. For the past 13 years I’ve been using an Apple computer to do this stuff but, as previously reported, it failed me just because I accidentally spilled a little milk on the keyboard. OK, I spilled most of a cup of milk on the keyboard. It was a mess and the old laptop decided to punish me by disallowing random keys to work properly. It’s kinda hard to write coherent sentences when the “m”, “6”, and “7” keys won’t do anything. I realize that just those three keys shouldn’t have caused me so much grief but when I’m typing at a good clip and hit one of them, and they don’t work, I get frustrated and totally lose my train of thought. The only solution was to shun my Apple computer and replace it with a Windows unit about which I knew very little. It was a challenge I couldn’t refuse. It made sense at the time.

Anyway, I fiddled with Apple vs. Windows protocol until I coaxed a few photos to migrate from my phone to the -new computer. Seeing that happen made me happy so I went to other areas of my multitasking computer and just let the photos run. After a while I got curious about the photos progression and checked. The migration was up to over 20K photos and only 60K to go. Yes, I have over 80K photos on my iPhone. Makes me curious, too. Why in the world does anyone need to have that many photos on their phone? The only reason I can think of is it’s an obsession. I’m a sick puppy and need help figuring this out. Maybe it’s not an obsession because I spend time looking at old photos. It’s enjoyable to see what our kids looked like 40-50 years ago.

Sorry about that detour.

Zion was beautiful, even if it was seen from a moving car. We drove all the way to the top, through the 1+ mile long tunnel that was carved through the edge of a mountain. We drove it that first visit, too, but it was from the top down. Very creepy. When we got to the top, and computed how far we’d have to go to get back to the RV, Diane turned around and we got in the line to go back through the tunnel. We were second in line when the line started and learned that an ambulance was on its way to rescue an injured hiker.

When the ambulance arrived we were allowed to head on down so we could return ‘home’. We stopped in Hurricane so Max could run free in a nice dog park they have. It’s really nice and he had a great time. Only one other dog showed up to play with him and he ignored her. Spent pretty much all his time smelling every inch of fencing, every rock and tree, and bush instead. Making friends wasn’t on his itinerary.

Once back to St. George, we stopped at a pizza joint and got a pizza for dinner. Diane did a marvelous job of squeezing that truck into a small parking place, then unsqueezing it to get back on the road. Pretty tricky. Makes me proud.

Now it’s bedtime. We leave in the morning and plan to spend tomorrow night in Beatty, Nevada.

See you later.

Yesterday we spent a little over 6 hours driving to Surprise to visit Jack and his Arizona family. We took turns driving 2 hours stints and it went well. We arrived at our designated Hampton Inn on Grand Blvd late afternoon, a couple of miles from Jack’s home. We were tired so deferred first contact to this morning which worked for Jack.

After waking around 0700 I walked Max then grabbed a cup of coffee for Diane and headed back to the room. We got ourselves ready for the trip then stopped by the breakfast nook for sustenance before heading to Happy Trails. Jack met us at the gate and got us a pass so we could come and go at will which Diane did. Before she left we had lunch at the activity center; Diane had a patty melt, Jack had a quesadilla, and I had a few dead shrimp. It was all good. Then Diane went off to a nearby Dollar Store for some essentials and I stayed at the house working on a jigsaw puzzle with Jack. I think I found only about 3 pieces, but it was productive. We talked a lot.

Later in the afternoon we returned to the hotel so I could get my evening pills then stopped by Albertsons where Diane picked up some dead chicken and a salad for supper. When we got back to Jack’s, Brian, Annie, and Kelly had just arrived so we foolishly stayed outside for a while just talking, until the mosquitoes got busy and forced us to go inside. It was really great to visit with the family.

For a while we weren’t sure we’d be able to visit with Brian because he had a medical emergency the previous evening that made walking difficult. He spent the night in the hospital. But, he was able to come visit. We felt special that the whole family came to see us.

Alas, the visit had to end, and everyone went home. Well, everyone went home except Diane, Max and me. We went back to our hotel with a plan to return the next morning.

So, that’s what we did. After a restful night’s sleep, we went back to Jack’s around 0900 and loaded up a few things he wanted us to transport to St. Helens. That didn’t take long then we were on our way. It was a solemn goodbye because we’re both old and we’re never sure we’ll see each other again. That would be true, too, even if we were still young. Being old makes that possibility more likely.

At the time I’m writing this we are 48 miles from Flagstaff, going north on I-17. It’s been mostly a quick trip but we’re going the long way through Flagstaff. From Flagstaff we worked our way along the north side of the Grand Canyon heading mostly west. The scenery was really beautiful, when we could see it. For a majority of that portion of the trip it poured rain in astounding quantities. It was almost like being home in Oregon.

In case you were wondering, we skipped I-15 from the Phoenix because, as roads go, it really sucks. It’s horrible. I-17, on the other hand, is way better. It’s longer but a much better ride, and I wasn’t driving so it was OK.

Now, for some exciting news! On this trip Diane set a new record for non-stop long-distance driving. Our trip from Surprise to St. George going down was 6.5 hours long, or something like that. Taking I-17 moved us north through Flagstaff and past the eastern edge of the Grand Canyon which made it a little longer for the return. We left at 0950 and got to our RV just after sunset around 1930. Disregarding hours lost, or gained, due to time zone changes, that works out to almost 10 hours. We stopped for about an hour for lunch, so call it 9 hours. Diane’s record is that she drove every minute of it without running off the road even one time. She even managed to get the truck up to 103 mph once while passing a couple of cars that weren’t pleasing her in the way they couldn’t maintain a constant speed in the vicinity of posted speed limit that varied from 65 to 80 mph.

Now, we’re back in St. George and everything is still in place. The only thing I had to do was figure out why we didn’t have water pressure in the rig. I didn’t mention that before, did I? Well, Diane took a shower and said the water pressure was so pitiful that it was like getting wet and rinsed with a squirt gun. An old squirt gun. I fixed it by removing the pressure restrictor from the input line. Now we have great pressure and the water lines don’t seem to be in any danger of blowing out. If that proves to be untrue, I’ll publish a retraction. Now I can take a shower and be confident the pressure will be enough to get all the soap off. I might even wash my hair. Haven’t done that in a while.