I know that it has been a long time since I posted anything,
but when you hear about what has been going on, I bet you will understand. I’ll
be posting in several sections, be sure to check back to find out about our
current adventures!! ;- )
We spent the holidays in Washington with our family and
friends. It rained or was overcast almost every day we were on the west side of
the mountains. These were the strangest
holidays. My mom has been in a nursing
home since last April, losing her battle with cancer. I spent as much time as possible with her and
my dad. 
Andy and Patti
We saw our daughter only a few times. We had planned to stay with her, but due to my mom’s declining condition and my dad’s eye surgery that left him unable to drive, we decided to move in with him. Good thing he likes cats as we had our three with us. We stayed with him for about 7 weeks. When we got there in November, I thought we would lose my mom that week, but she rallied and made it through the holidays.
We did make a trip to see Wayne’s family at Christmas. They
at least had blue sky in eastern Washington. After New Year’s we had to make a
decision on whether to stay until my mom passed, or to say our goodbyes while
she was still able to understand who we were and head back to Arizona where the
coach was parked. We opted for option 2,
as I really wanted to remember my mom as she was. When we left, she was still having enough
good days that I wouldn’t have been surprised if she held on until our return
in the spring.
We headed south on January 7th, destination Trail
Tech HQ in Battle Ground WA. The cats were back in travel mode. The boys got
haircuts right before we left, so they aren’t as handsome as usual, but hey, it
beats dragging their fur through the cactus debris in Arizona and bringing into our bed.
Abby
Andy with his new haircut
Bailey helps navigate
At Trail Tech we caught up with our friends Kelly and
Geoff. They gave us a tour of the
facility, and a peek at the new products they are working on. Geoff really only wanted to show off the cool
equipment they use, and really it was very interesting to see how they build
all those cool meters they sell. Wayne had to have a couple of items fixed, as
he is really hard on equipment. We also
picked up some parts for my bike.
We spent the night with Kelly and Geoff and in the morning we crossed the Columbia River east of Portland and headed up the Columbia Gorge to our next stop, John and Michele’s place in Kennewick.
Along the Gorge
It has been a long time since I last went
through the Gorge. It was raining and
there was snow and ice on the surrounding hills, especially the water falls.
Burr......
John and Michele should have cats, but currently are without. However if Andy would have stayed with them,
I think Michele would have been ok with that! We had a great evening with them, as you can see Andy and Michele get along just fine!
We left Kennewick the next morning and after a brief visit
to Wayne’s dermatologist in Boise, we beat feet for Ogden, UT. It was a long day, but the Motel 6 in Ogden
takes cats, and with 3 of them it would be hard to sneak them in. And it was close to 0 degrees that night, so
they needed to be inside. We got up
early to head south because a major winter snow was on the way. The highway
warning signs said it would get to Ogden by 3 PM, so we wanted to be far south
by then. We did take a moment to drive
into our old cul-de-sac to see if the new owners had done anything to the
outside of our old house. They have!
They replaced the chain link fence along the canal with vinyl. It just occurred to me that although it looks
much better, it means they pulled up all my grape vines, the ones that had just
finally started to produce fruit. Oh
well, their loss.
I am always amazed that Wayne can spot and fix problems
before they can happen with our motorcycles, cars and motor home. This time it was the trailer. We knew the tires were about ready to be
replaced, so he was keeping an eye on them. When we stopped for gas at Cedar
City, he told me we needed to replace them, like RIGHT NOW. Sure enough, the steel belts were showing
through on one of them. Thank goodness
for smart phones. A Google search
brought up Big O Tires in Cedar City. I
called and they had tires that would fit, and could get to us that day. We drove there (very slowly) and they decided
that as we were traveling we would be next, ahead of the 3 people on the
list. In the time it took the pizza
joint across the street to cook our pizza, we had 4 new tires on the trailer and
were ready to roll. We made it to Henderson
NV when Wayne said he was toast, and needed to call it a day. Because we were now where the nights were
warmer, we got a room at one of the casinos, leaving the cats in the truck for
the night. We had dinner and drinks,
they had a very small confined space. Oh
well, that’s the way it goes.
The next day we rolled into Quartzsite. It was so nice to
see our motorhome in one piece, and to sleep in our own bed…
