July 24, 2020 HOME At Last

7/23  14 hours away from home, Covid continues to keep the traffic down and we finally have 2 uneventful days of driving.  

3 Months To Go

7/24 We are HOME!  Truck metrics say we drove 123 hours and 40 minutes this trip, covering 6,110 miles using 572 gallons of diesel.  Everyone is in quarantine for 2 weeks, so donning face masks and social distancing even inside the condo, we don't hug Jack and Michelle.  Emotions are all over the place, so happy to be off the road, happy to be home, while grieving this new norm which keeps us at arms length.  We are mentally and physically exhausted and Debra decides she is done with the RV lifestyle.  John says, yeah right, give you a couple months to recuperate and you'll have another trip planned.  I dunna know, have to go back and get it from Smith Center after repairs in September and we'll see.......

9/11 Heading back to Smith Center Kansas to pick up RV

July 17, 2020 Heading Home

Wyoming

 7/17 With Covid closing down so many summer entertainment venues, RVing has become an even bigger rage and after being on I-84 through Washington, Oregon and Idaho for 8 hours and calling almost a dozen campgrounds around Boise, we find nothing available.  At 97 degrees we need electricity for AC so dry camping on BLM land or a Walmart parking lot (few and far between in these parts) is an unacceptable option.  John remembers Mountain Home AFB in Idaho is about 90 minutes ahead.  It's after 6 p.m., the office is closed but we press on. Rolling in around 8 p.m the camp host greets us with one open overflow spot with electric - YEAHHHHHH.  The base is in the middle of nowhere and we enjoy the desert sage smell.  Around 2:30 a.m. Debra awakes to extremely loud sounds something like a massive plane trying to take off.  It lasts several seconds.  A few minutes later it comes again.  She looks outside and sees nothing.  After all we are on an Air Force Base but really.....they have to do this in the middle of the night.  She puts earplugs in after the third wave.  Of course John never even stirs!!!  On the road the next morning Deb looks up UFOs near Mountain Home and guess what....in February 2020 there were several sightings!!!  I KNEW IT........

7/18 An hour on the road we blow a tire on the RV, we slow down trying to find safe place to pull off but the tire starts smoking so we pull over the best we can to change it, then find a tire store for a replacement.  Continuing across Idaho, Utah and Wyoming along I84 is a beautiful and relatively flat drive through rocky outcrops, sage and pronghorn (deer like animal).     Its another 97 degree scorcher so we start looking earlier for a campground with electricity and get the last spot at a KOA in Lyman,Wyoming.

7/19 Sunday is another long hot day.  In Wyoming we cross the continental divide which actually splits in two here and in between forms the continental basin where there is no outflow of water to either coast, it only evaporates.  Few campgrounds on this stretch of Wyoming and Nebraska but we find a nice RV park at a  Cabela's store in Sidney, Wyoming.   For a while now every time we open the parlor slide it sticks, this time it really stuck and caused a loud bang when opened.   We are exhausted and this is the straw that broke the camels back, we've got to stop and get it repaired. John comes up with the brilliant idea of bringing the RV back to where it was build in Smith Center, Kansas only 4 1/2 hours away and 50 miles out of our way.  

Excel in Smith Center Kansas

 Heading to Smith Center, we are on the road for about an hour when we blew another RV tire.  John knows which one as soon as we hear the POP; it is the 3rd blow out of the three crappy tires we just put on last October while visiting Joan in Rapid City.  John is wayyyy to good at this tire changing process but it takes its toll physically and emotionally on both of us. We arrive at Smith Center at the end of yet another long day and camp in their parking lot.

7/21  After determining that the back of the RV dropping is just sheared off lag bolts and not a structural issue, we go over our extensive list of repairs and maintenance overhaul as it has close to 90,000 miles on it.  We leave at 11 a.m. with the truck loaded to the hilt and praying for the rest of the trip to be drama free.  A few miles from Smith Center we visit the geographic center of the continental United States.  So cool that on this trip we visit both the continental center and geographic center!  Decide to travel due East on Rt 36 which has little traffic and lovely small town views.  Stay at a Comfort Inn in Missouri and disinfect every surface and bring our own pillows.  

7/22  Okay, finally a normal day, no drama, just relax...wrong!!  Now on Rt 80 we get a DEF warning light saying in 50 miles our truck speed will be limited to 50 mph because we almost out of DEF (cleaning fluid for diesel system). Makes no sense, the tank is more than half full and adding more DEF didn't turn off the warning.  For 50 miles it counts down a warning every 5 miles.  Our nerves are shot.  About 2 miles before we get to the Ford dealer, our 50 miles count down is up and the warning light goes off.  What the hay!!!!! 

John at Fraternity Scene of the Crime

 In the middle of this little drama we pass through Champaign, Illinois where John lived at age 10 when his father was getting his PhD in Civil Engineering at University of Illinois and his mother was getting her Masters Degree in Library Science.  Ah, who was taking care of their 5 kids????  John and a buddy bought some water balloons with money from scavenging bottles from the bushes around the fraternity houses.  Some frat boys gave them 25 cents (a huge amount of money in those days) to throw balloons at another fraternity causing a 3 day campus wide water war resulting in John getting grounded for a week.

Get a text from cousin Kevin who is now in Attic, Illinois visiting his son and realize we will be within 45 minutes of there when we stop for the night tonight!!!  We have an enjoyable dinner with Kevin. 

Kevin and John

7/7/20 Extended Stay To Recuperate

After 10 days of pain and 3 visits to the ER in the middle of the move, Doctors find a hot dog size piece of strangulated fat adhered to her abdominal wall and small intestine near her appendix which is also enlarged so surgery removes both.  Her hospital room in Hood River, Oregon has a great view of the Columbia River and Mount Adams when it is not so cloudy.  Looking at Mount Adams to the right of the big pine tree you are also looking over Zoe's new house!  Nice to be staying with Zoe when this happened and not be in Alaska or British Columbia on our covid cancelled 62 day RV trip like we were suppose to be at this time! 

Will not be home to greet the newly weds Jack and Michelle who are moving from Hawaii  to Boston, so they will have a couple of weeks honey moon/quarantine at our place.  Sherrie will set them up with her good home cooked food.  They are still trying to find a place to rent in Boston before school starts for Jack at Tufts,  but since it will be online due to COVID, they have time to find what they want.  

Zoe Picking Sister Ball Momentos

The extra week at Zoe's was a wonderful opportunity to spend some quality time together.  It especially gave us time to  paint flowers on her "garden wall" next to the kitchen.  She plans to ask everyone who visits to paint a flower.  

We have been away from home for almost 6 weeks and at Zoe's for almost a month and with mixed emotions, it's time to head to Rhode Island.  Hate leaving when we don't know when we will see each other again as Covid cases are skyrocketing around the country worse than ever.  With dangerous leadership from the White House, and states choosing to ignore recommended safety guidelines, the  pandemic is exploding.... no surprise, 2 weeks after July 4 partying.  In US 4.6 million known cases with 154,000 deaths, more than any other country in the world by far.  In the world there are 18 million cases, with 689,000 deaths, averaging  6,000 deaths a day.  Clearly some Americans think they are too privileged to have to sacrifice for the health of others. With nerves already frayed, months of protest around the country for  human rights and against police brutality and racism continue to escalate.

7/4/20 Zoe and Gabe's New Home Cedar Flats Road

Mount Hood view from street of rental house

Zoe touching Pacific at Waikiki Beach near Astoria

Here we are in Washington state to help Zoe and Gabe pack and move to their new home about 10 miles north of their current home in White Salmon, a small town on the Columbia River gorge.  A short walk down the street reveals a wonderful view of Mount Hood.  At 8 pm every night you begin to hear wolf howling here and there and then the kids and the rest of us start howling, with brings more howling from nearby neighbors.  This goes on for several minutes as a sign of thanks and respect to the covid workers.    

We have a break between houses and go to Salem, Oregon with Zoe to visit cousin Meghan, John and Aunt Shirley.  On the way back we tour some Lewis and Clark venues near Astoria, Washington where the expedition finally met up with the Pacific Ocean.  Zoe sends Jack and Michelle greetings from one Waikiki beach to another.


They move into THEIR house, they own it, on Cedar Flats Road in Cook, Washington!  It is closer to Mount Adams (like Hood, another non-dormant volcano) in the spectacularly beautiful Monte Cristo Mountain Range surrounded by thousands of acres of timber lands and national forests.  The second night here we were sitting on the back porch and noticed a deer munching flowers in the yard.  She looked up at us then continued to munch.  A few nights later out from the forest comes a doe with two speckled fawns.  There are many trails cut into their 5 acre wooded lot, with a bridge across a creek and a barn with an unfinished attached apartment.  From their trails, they join up with other property owners trails for a short walk down to the White Salmon River.  There are only 3 houses on their dirt road so why 7 mailboxes at the entrance?  Because there are only 4 houses past theirs on the main road before it also turns into a dirt road through the forests and mountains.  Last stop for the mailman! 
Had a wonderful July 4th with sparklers and cooking in the heart shaped fire pit where Gabe built a wonderful fire and Zoe and the girls collected cedar and other local flowers to smudge and purify their new home and property.  The house is beautifully built and may have used local cedar beams throughout.  We had great fun planting the peony's that originally came from Great-Grammy Dot Smith ( Phyllis's mom) via Phyllis's yard, Debra's yard, Dee's and Sherrie's yards!!!  Also brought out the hope chest from my great-great auntie Ruth (Dot's Aunt) filled mostly with family treasures.

Zoe's office with an amazing view

HUGE BARN with Unfinished Apartment in Back

The "Solarium" 

Cedar Flats Road

Wildflower Fields surround the house