Saturday April 6 2013

Today is my great nephew's wedding day. I would have loved to attend but knew we would likely not make it home in time to go as he is getting married in Kentucky. I mailed a card and gift earlier but today I sent him a wedding wish on Facebook and I saw later where he actually went fishing this morning before the wedding. He is such a great guy and a real outdoorsman. We drove and drove today. I again took a turn and drove about 200 miles. The wind was horrible and I had a hard time keeping the motor home on the road at times. It really wears you out when driving in these terrible winds. We drove around 565 miles today. We had not planned to drive so far but had a hard time finding a campground that was open. The KOA in West Demoines and Council Bluffs were both closed until April 14th. We ended up calling the KOA in Newton, Iowa to make sure they were open. We have stayed here at least 2 or 3 times and it is a nice campground. They gave us a camp site to take as we told them we were going to arrive rather late. We finally arrived around 8:30pm. Larry was filling out information to drop in the night box when the owner came down on his golf cart to help us. He lives just up the hill from the campground and saw us pull in. He was really great about taking us to the site and helping us get pulled in. It was pitch dark as there are few lights in the camp area itself. Raven goes crazy when we stop and thinks he should be the first one out of the motor home. I usually put him on a leash and let him walk around a little but if we are in an area with a lot of traffic he is so afraid that his stomach drags the ground when he walks. I'm sure both of the cats are anxious to get home, however, each year when we arrive home, they both are afraid of being in the house for a couple of days. Raven goes into his anxiety attach and growls and foams at the mouth, which is exactly what he does each year when we put him in the motor home to leave. Tucker has become a recluse as he refuses to go outside. All he does is sleep and even in Yuma when we would put him outside on the leash, he could not wait to go back in. I would think as many trips as they have been on with us that they would become more comfortable with the traveling. Guess they are getting old and set in their ways! The wind is still bad even though the campground is in a pretty sheltered area. I hope tomorrow is better, however, it looks like the forecast is for rain. Actually I looked at the forecast for Peoria and they are predicting rain all the way through Wednesday! Should make it wonderful to get everything unpacked from the RV! I will be very happy to get home, as I feel I've been gone from the family for a very long time! Can't wait to see my girls and granddaughters! Will just be good to get settled and not be moving all the time. Hopefully we will make it home tomorrow as I think we are only about 165 miles from Peoria. It's been a good trip but I've had enough for awhile! There is no place like home for me!!!!

Friday April 5 2013

I got up and got my shower and dressed so I could call Dr Couri at 7:00. We are an hour behind home so the office opened at 8:00. When I talked to the receptionist, she already knew I need a new prescription and had called it in to the Peoria Walgreens. Wow that was easy, I assume the Walgreens here in Rock Springs must have sent a notification last night when I was there. We decided to go in to town and eat breakfast so I could stop at Walgreens and try getting my prescription refilled. I called them at 8:00 when the pharmacy opened and they had already received approval to refill and said it would be ready in about 15 minutes. We went to the Village Inn and had breakfast and stopped to get the prescription. I was able to get it refilled in record time. We went back to KOA and loaded the car on the dolly and left by about 9:15. We drove all day again. I took a turn at driving again and drove another 150 or so miles. We ended up at Sidney, Nebraska and found Cabela's had a very nice RV Park right next to their store. We set everything up and walked up to the store. They had a restaurant, which was more like a snack bar. We decided to just grab a hamburger there rather than unloading the car to go eat. The food was just barely palatal! I could have cooked a better hamburger in the RV but that's typical when eating out, the meals are either good or bad. After we finished dinner, I walked back to the RV and Larry stayed to shop. He is in Heaven as he has not been in a Cabala's since last spring when we were up at Taylor's. He must have enjoyed it as he was gone for almost 2 hours. When he came back to the motor home, the winds started picking up. We have driven in pretty bad wind for the past 2 days but by the time we went to bed, it was blowing so bad it was rocking the motor home so bad I was wondering if it was going to pick it up off the ground. It also started raining before we went to bed. Between the rain and the wind it was pretty rocky weather and I had a hard time going to sleep as I wasn't sure we would still be in this state by morning.

Thursday April 4 2013

We left West Windover around 8:00am. We traveled all day again and ended up in Rock Springs, WY. We are again staying at a KOA which is ok but the camp sites are nothing but dirt basically. We do have a pretty view out the back of camp ground as there is a small mountain range. I guess it is more like Mesa's as they are rather flat on the top. We went up to the KOA Office and talked to the two couples who are camp workers here. They were all giving us different ideas about where to go for dinner. They were very friendly and told us a bit about their families and how they enjoy doing the camp worker thing. Larry and I have talked about doing a few months as camp workers just to see how we enjoy it. We checked into some of the state parks but never made a decision about doing it. It seems our summers are packed with things going on so not sure when we would work it in. Possibly if we ever sell the house we would have more time to do a few of these things that we always talk of doing. We decided to go to Appleby's for dinner. Larry had a steak and I had chicken pasta--neither was very good but that's Appleby's. We never have the same experience at different restaurant locations around the US as they are all different. We had a very cute waitress and she talked to us a lot. She was from Turkey and was an exchange student here in Rock Springs. She ended up marrying a guy from the area and told us how much she hates living in Rock Springs. She told us how beautiful Turkey is and encouraged us to travel there sometime. We left Appleby's and went down to Walgreens. I have a prescription that I'm almost out of. When I went in to have it refilled, they told me I had no more refills left and would have to contact my doctor. Great--hopefully I can get in touch with Dr. Couri early tomorrow morning and can get the refill approved and filled so we can pick it up early before we leave town. We came back to the motor home and the temperature had really dropped and the winds had picked up. We have been wearing our shorts pretty much since leaving Yuma as the temperature has been in the mid 50's to 60's with sunny days. I'm thinking tomorrow may be a day to dig out long pants as it is very cool tonight.

Wednesday April 3, 2013

We left Reno this morning at 8:00am. Drove a short distance out of town on RT 80 and stopped for fuel. While we were there we had breakfast, which was a buffet and quite tasty. We drove all day and mostly through the mountains, which as always, was beautiful. Almost all the mountains are still snow capped. The weather was beautiful today and the temperature was around 69 degrees. We drove without a break for most of the day. Finally Larry pulled into a rest stop and I took over driving to give him a break. This is about the second time since leaving home that I have drove. He loves to drive and I love to read or just relax so it works well. I drove about 140 miles and we ended up stopping in West Windover, NV at the KOA. The one thing I find that anywhere you stop in Nevada, you can gamble. This town is not real large but has 4 very large casinos. The KOA where we are parked tonight is behind the Main Street with all of the casinos. It is quite pretty tonight as the casinos are all light up like it is Christmas. Also we have a very private site and there is only one other RV here tonight. After we got set up for the night we debated on going into one of the casinos to eat. The gal in the office here at the KOA said they have wonderful food and even have a shuttle we can call and they will pick us up and drop us at one of the casinos. While we were debating, Carole, Larry's sister called and they talked for awhile. We also realized that the time is an hour later than we thought. I decided since it was getting late, I would just go ahead and cook. We had a nice meal, the first I think I have cooked since leaving Yuma. We normally eat something for breakfast in the motor home before taking off for the day so actually we buy usually one meal a day. We eat a late lunch, early dinner and call it food for the day. Even though we eat only 2 meals a day, both of us have gained weight since leaving home in January. Could it be the BEER?????

Tuesday April 2 2013

We got showers and dressed and drove down to Carson City, which is about 30 miles south of Reno. Carson City is the capitol of Nevada and is a decent size city and sets between several mountain ranges. This entire area is beautiful as even in Reno, the mountains are all around and most of them are snow covered. We drove on to Lake Tahoe. The road we drove was nothing but hills and curves and I thought we would never arrive anywhere that was civilized. Mostly the terrain was mountains and open fields of rocky soil. We drove probably about 20 miles from Carson City before reaching the town of Lake Tahoe. The setting of the town is breath taking but it is so commercialized that it's hard to find an area to view the beautiful lake and mountains. There is basically nothing here except ski areas and shops selling ski apparel. Guess that should have been obvious but it reminds me of Jackson Hole, Wy, which at one time was my favorite area before it became so overridden with shops and people. The main difference in these two areas is that Jackson Hole is in the valley between the mountain ranges and Lake Tahoe is at the top of the mountains. We drove through the town and When we left we came out a different road that went back to Carson City. Once we got a short distance out of town, we could see the lake and mountains and it was absolutely beautiful beyond words. The mountains are all snow capped and the lake is such a beautiful blue it's hard to believe it's real. We stopped at a state park on the way out of town and walked on a path into the park so we could see the water and mountains and took a few pictures. I found a huge pinecone laying on the ground so I walked on down farther into the park to try to find at least one more to give to the granddaughters. Larry also looked with me and we ended up finding 5 huge pinecones so figured I would also give Leslie and Taylor one. They were so unusual as they had sharp sticker like things on the edges of the pinecone. Taylor and Kyle went to Alabama, Georgia or one of the Southern States when Morgan was young and brought back pinecones much like these. We drove back through Carson City and then took another mountain road that went to Virginia City, NV. Again we drove around and up and down until I felt car sick by the time we finally arrived. While driving through the mountain road, there were beautiful, huge homes built on every peak as we ascended the mountain. Larry brought up an interesting question about how these people get water since it is impossible to drill into the mountain and find water. I thought about that a lot and wondered just how expensive it must be to build here. When we got to Virginia City, it was perched on the mountain about 7000 ft up. It is an old mining town and looked like another tourist trap with many gift shops and old saloons. We were starved by the time we got there as it was about 3:00pm. We picked out a saloon and went in to check on the menu. We decided to have sandwiches, I had the french dip and Larry had a Rueben. They were both unbelievable delicious. We, of course, had a beer with our meal and waddled out of the Saloon as we were stuffed with food! We walked around the town and looked in the shops but everything was very expensive so bought nothing. We left around 5:00 to make our way back down the mountain side. Larry loves to take the curves at a break neck speed and I asked him several times to slow the pace. The road was good but pretty narrow with huge drop offs. We could see all the way to Reno from the top of the mountain road and the sights was pretty unreal! We got back to RV park and again I was exhausted as it was a very long day. The planes were coming in one after the other up until I passed out for the night. When we were downtown Reno yesterday, there were signs everywhere, welcoming the bowlers so I assume that is the reason for all the air traffic.

Monday April 1 2013

We got everything closed up and left by 10:00am. Not too bad since I still had about 3 loads of laundry to dry from yesterday. The guy and his wife that are parked next to us talked a long time to us this morning. They are from Central Utah. He is a retired dentist and she is a retired nurse. They have a son who lives in San Francisco and a daughter in Seattle. Bill the guy told me he still practices dentistry about one day a week but only when he is not traveling. Sounds like a great arrangement. They were very interesting people to talk with. The drive today was beautiful as it was mostly through the mountains and most of the mountains were snow covered. We actually drove in snow and sleet part of the day when we were driving in the higher elevations. When we ran out of the snow, we had rain and it was very cool. I think the highest elevation was about 7700 ft. There were many ski resorts we passed along the mountain passes. I think they must have sow here up into the very late spring and possibly longer. I tried calling Leslie and Taylor but no one wanted to talk to me as there was no answer. I sent them both a text message but again, no reply. I finally called Kyle to find out what was going on and when Leslie and Pete left their house for home. He told me they just left at 10:00am this morning. I called Beck's Florist in Peoria and order flowers for Leslie for her birthday after finding out they should be home this afternoon. Leslie finally called around 3:30 to thank us for the flowers. They had just gotten home when the florist delivered the flowers. So at least we were able to wish her a Happy BELATED Birthday! We drove RT 80 east and ended up in Reno where we stopped for the night. We actually parked the RV in Sparks, which is a sister city to Reno. We found a nice RV Park that sat next to the Truckee River. We were setting up the motor home when the first plane came into the airport. It was so close to the top of the motor home I felt I could reach up and touch it. We soon found that the planes come in about every 20-30 minutes and they all fly directly overhead. The airport is not too far from where we are parked. Guess we will get use to this but I'm not so sure the cats will. Raven runs to the bedroom and hides under the bed every time a plane comes in. Tucker has been so timid since we left home he won't even go outside most days. We may need to give Raven Prozac by the time we leave here. After we set everything up at the RV site, we drove the car into Reno. The car was so covered in white junk(possibly salt from the roads when we were driving in the snow), we found a car wash right away and ran the car through. At least now we can see out the windows. When we went into Reno, there were lots of Casinos and looked like a mini version of Las Vegas. They have many of the same Casinos, including Circus Circus, which I took a picture of the outside and also the Camel Races on the inside to send to Pete. Last year we all played the Camel Races while we were in Las Vegas and had a fun time. We walked around inside several of the Casinos trying to find a restaurant that looked like a good place to eat. We ended up finding a nice restaurant at the Eldorado Casino. I had Parmesan Crusted Chicken, which was wonderful. Larry had a pork chop meal, which was also good. We chased dinner with a Pacifico Beer, which is what we drank on our trips to Mexico. We left the casino and walked around downtown for awhile but decided to leave as it was very cool and windy. Larry still insists on wearing his shorts everywhere even though the weather is getting quite cool. We came back to the RV and I was pretty much ready for bed. I read for awhile but was very tired tonight. We had a very full day of driving and did a lot of walking in downtown Reno.

Sunday March 31 2013

Woke up this morning to rain. It was not a heavy downpour but enough that everything is wet. I started laundry and worked on it for about 2 hours then we both got showers and decided to drive to Muir Woods. Muir Woods is known for it's large redwood trees and is very scenic. We drove up and down and around curves for about 11 miles to get to the heart of the area. It was so terribly busy when we got there no parking spots were available. We decided we probably had seen the scenic part of the park just driving so we drove on out and took Hwy #1, which goes through the mountains and along the ocean. It was a beautiful drive but very slow as it also had many curves and the road went up and down the mountain constantly. We came out of the mountains to a small town where we stopped at a little restaurant where we had a late lunch. We shared a hamburger and had onion rings and an Anchor Steam beer. The place was very busy and looked like a country cabin inside. The food was passable but pretty pricy for what we had. One guy at the table behind us was upset with his hamburger and let them know that it was not even the size of a McDonald's. The waiter was quick to defend the food and explained that everything they serve comes from local farms and that the beef was top grade beef. Whatever--as I said it was just OK! Actually, the beer was the best part of the meal! We left and drove back to Vallejo to the Walmart to pick up a few items that we needed before leaving tomorrow. The day turned out to be pretty nice as the rain was just an off and on thing. The sun was out most of the day but the temperature was rather cool, especially along the ocean. San Francisco's weather is normally pretty cool I believe as it is surrounded by the ocean and mountains. Out of all the areas I've been, I think San Francisco was the most beautiful and for sure the most interesting. Hopefully next year we can come back when we leave Arizona for home. That is, of course, if we make it to Arizona next winter. Leslie and Pete are having their first Invetro implant done on April 25 so if she becomes pregnant, she will be delivering sometime the last of January or February next year. We told them they sure know how to screw up our winter vacation--of course jokingly! I will be floating on a cloud if she gets pregnant! Today was Leslie's 34th Birthday by the way. We have tried to call her at least 3 times with no answer. Pete and Leslie drove to Taylor's on Thursday afternoon and spent the weekend so I will have to try to reach her tomorrow. We came home around 6:00 and I started laundry again. Hopefully I can get most of it done by the time we leave tomorrow morning.