Home at last

Got home about 3:00 on Tuesday. We squeezed in a couple of hours at the outlet stores in Anderson on the way. By the time we relaxed that evening I had the trailer washed and put away and the truck wash and tucked in to it's own little garage. Now it's back to work with wedding preparations. Maybe my next blog will be some wedding pictures after the June 13 event. Bye for now.

Tom

Poor Planning

My idea was to detour on the way home and spend Monday night at Crater Lake and grab a few more good pictures before heading home. Not! How was I to know that the whole place would be buried in snow. I guess I should have called. We were able to drive up to the lake and and take a few snapshots but the campground was under snow and the there was no place to camp within 15 miles of the lake. We only stayed about a half hour and then on to find a place for the night. Monday wasn't a total loss though. Connie did get to spend a couple of hours at the Woodburn outlet stores right after we left Portland.

The Portland Connection

On the way to Portland there is some good scenery in the the Columbia River gorge but it's getting late and we don't do any stopping for pictures. We arrive at Hensley's around 7:30 and Jenifer has a delicious dinner prepared for us. Alice has her leg in a cast. She has injured it on the stairs by tearing a muscle and will be in a cast and doing therapy for several weeks. Ali models her dress for the the wedding and we get a peek at Sofia. One night there, a morning visit to Starbucks with Steve and Alice, then Alice is off to the doctor and we are off to points South.

The road home

Ok, it's time to head home now. Sunday morning gets started with a couple of trips to the airport to get Bernice then Jane and Anna on their flights back to California and then about lunch time it is our turn to head off towards Steve and Alices. No scenery to speak of this day but I have one last shot of Winston and Julie's house with our trailer in the vacant lot next door and Winston in the forground. Good bye Spokane, it has been fun.

White Water Rafting

Saturday Winston and I went white water rafting. Winston and Michael do some volunteer work with an organization called Peak 7. They take under privileged kids and others on rafting trips and camp outs in order to reach out to them. Sometimes they need some extra bodies to paddle the rafts and it worked that way on this day so we got to go along. It was great fun beautiful weather and a joy to be with such dedicated people. Unfortunately I had no safe way to take a camera in the raft so I only have some before and after pictures. They are going to be sending me some additional pictures of our trip later. For now this is all I have.

Catching up

There are 2 reasons why my posts stop or they are late. Either we have no Internet connection or we get to busy and run out of time to get it done. Both cases happened in the last few days. I'll try and catch up with several posts now. But just remember you can always check the Spot website and find out where we are because I'm never to busy to push the button now and then. http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0B6SHFngl1yEBJAeIAPtjflM0YgV3NZqN More to follow!

Happy Birthday

Friday was a day for Birthdays, sightseeing and eating. We had a wonderful lunch at the Davenport Hotel in Spokane followed by some of the sights of the City. We took in the falls, the sight of the 1974 Worlds Fair (which Connie and I had been to), some of the neighborhoods and a beautiful park. Later we had another gourmet dinner at Winston and Julie's followed by a birthday party with cake and games. I think it is safe to say a good time was had by all.

Lookout Spokane

We're here! We rolled in to Spokane about 3 o'clock after a short and beautiful drive through Lewiston and Washington's Palouse Country. This was just the perfect time of the year for beautiful weather and scenery. Palouse Country of eastern Washington is famous for some great rolling hill and farmland photos. We got a few but it was hard to stop with the trailer in many of the spots that I wanted to shoot. We got just a few and we might go home that way and get some more. Earlier we took in the view of the wild flowers above Joseph Canyon and traversed yet another curvy road. This has been an extremely enjoyable drive. Jane, Anna and Bernice have all arrived and Winston and Julie served us a scrumptious dinner. I'm not sure what tomorrow holds but if I come to a picture I'll take it and put here for all so see.

Hell's Canyon

Today we made the least distance but enjoyed the best scenery so far. We got off to an early start but only went 5 miles before stopping at the Oregon Trail Visitors Center. Connie checked out some of the RVs from way back and we decided we should just stick with ours! The exhibits were interesting. Then on down to the Snake River at Oxbow only to find out we had been steered wrong by our computer map and our navigation system. No worries. A short 5 mile backtrack and we were on our way to Joseph OR. It was a slow winding 62 miles to Joseph but a beautiful drive through the mountains beside streams and with a couple of overlooks to Hell's Canyon. Awesome! Now we're settled into a little RV park in Joseph, a nice little town with a beautiful lake and a beautiful snow covered mountain backdrop. Spring has just arrive on the countryside and I think this was the perfect time of the year for the route we took. Everything has been so green and the wild flowers are prolific. Tomorrow leaves us with a short jaunt to Winston and Julie's.

The Painted Hills

Well today I have some pictures for you. After a short round of shopping we got out of Sisters around 10:30 and headed for the Painted Hills. We took some pictures there and had lunch before heading over to Baker City Oregon where we are spending the night. Tomorrow it will be off to Hell's Canyon. There are a few more SPOT location now if you just use the same link as yesterday.

On the road again!

Well here we are traveling again. Not wanting to disappoint all of you that think that's all we do, we have started out for a week long trip to Spokane and back. We will be visiting Winston and Julie for Julie's birthday party, and a house warming get together. Sorry there are no good pictures so far but I'll try to do better today. Last night we stayed in Sisters Oregon and today we are headed for John Day Fossil Beds and the the Painted Hills. By tonight we should be some where near Hell's Canyon. Here is my SPOT satellite tracking link if you would like to keep track of our progress: http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0B6SHFngl1yEBJAeIAPtjflM0YgV3NZqN