Now that Christmas is behind us, and all the romance of those gorgeous snowy days is a bit dim, we decided it was time to head over the mountain for a break. We wanted to check on the MoHo, make sure that the space heater Mo set up was working properly, see the new fancy chain drive that was installed on the shed roll up door, and just hang out for a couple of days in a place where snow is a rarity. We also thought it might be fun to see just how much the hole in the kitchen ceiling had grown.
Most of the time when we drive over the snowy pass, we take our toad, the Tracker. It has studded tires and 4 wheel drive and could probably climb a tree if needed. But we wanted space and comfort and it was only a 2 hour drive, so we opted instead to take the Lexus. With something called ECT (a button!) and Overdrive OFF, she did just fine in spite of the dicey conditions on the pass. 
Our Oregon State DOT wrote something up in the newspaper last summer about coming up with a name for our pass. I sure hope they do it soon. It is definitely a real pass, with a summit and lots of snow. For now, we just call it Highway 140, and say we are going “over the pass”. Sure would be nice to have a name. I am voting for Sky Lakes Pass since it travels just south of the Sky Lakes Wilderness. Hey, Jeanne, maybe Brown Mountain Pass, or Mt McLoughlin Pass, or Pelican Butte pass? The road doesn’t go over a single one of those big mountains, but ‘passes’ right in between all of them.
It isn’t much distance from home to Medford. We are near milepost 44 and the highway starts in Medford at 0. Probably 25 miles this side of Medford is out of the snow zone, so the pass itself is really only about 15 miles of actually winter pass driving. Medford and Grants Pass are in zone 7 on the agricultural scale, the same as the foothills of California. There is occasional snow, and a cold enough winter that tulips and lilacs will bloom, but most of the time there isn’t anything to shovel and the daytime temperatures are almost always above freezing. Within half an hour of leaving home, we were out of the snow and into the rain and fog that is common this time of year in the Rogue Valley.
Once we arrived at the cottage, we were happy to see the MoHo shed looking shiny and the MoHo all safe and cozy inside. Mo had a big roll up door installed, and they hadn’t put in the chain drive when we were here last. Both of us got a big kick out of how incredibly easy it was to open the big door with that fancy drive. Sure beats trying to push the thing up with a pole. It is Heavy!
Once we knew that the MoHo was all safe and sound and that the little space heater had kept things just toasty in there, we went inside the chilly damp cottage to see how things were faring. Funny how something like the hole in the kitchen ceiling just seems interesting instead of devastating when the cottage isn’t a full time proposition. I sure would hate to have this happen in my real house. Mo found a roofer in the area who seemed reasonably experienced and made an appointment for him to come and give us an estimate for a new or repaired roof. 
This guy was interesting, to say the least, and he really likes to talk, especially in circles. Hopefully he knows what he is doing. He said there were at least 4 and maybe 5 layers on that old roof, and that he would take it down to the wood, replace anything that is rotted and start fresh. Mo decided on shingles instead of metal, since there isn’t any snow to slide off in Grants Pass to speak of anyway. He said that he would tarp the roof until he could get to it. Tarp??!! Blue Tarps??!! I have spent the last 40 years laughing at what my friends and I called “North Idaho Roofing Jobs”, blue tarps everywhere. Now I am going to have one? I hope maybe he uses something other than those awful blue tarps.
We spent the rest of our time enjoying the break from plowing and shoveling snow. The leaves from the oaks were wet and thick on the ground, but since we can’t seem to coordinate our visits with a legal burn day, Mo thought it was better to just let the leaves wait where they are instead of making a big wet pile of them somewhere else. I liked that idea a lot, since I am the major leaf raker, and while Mo did puttery house repairs (her favorite hobby), I sat in front of the big south facing window knitting.
We have a nice old fashioned and very good gas stove in the house that had it warmed up and cozy in no time. Dinner was leftover ham from Christmas on the first night but the second night after running some errands we decided it was time for real pizza. Living in Rocky Point most of the time, means it is a minimum 40 minutes on a dry good day from town to home. Hard to get a pizza back from the shop while still hot.
The cottage, however, is just 3 miles from town, and the Legendary Abby’s Pizza. I remember eating Abby’s pizzas when I lived in Medford back in 1969! The store was full but not overcrowded, with lots of happy folks eating pizza and enjoying the big fire in the center of the dining room. Our pizza was great, the half carafe of Burgundy wine was certainly not fancy, but obviously we had a good time.
Dang, that pizza was GOOD! Or was it the wine.
The best part was the ten minute drive back to the cottage! We really like this part about living near town. Grants Pass seems to have some nice stores and restaurants, and even though the population is technically smaller than Klamath Falls, the stores are all bigger, newer, and nicer for some reason. Home Depot is well stocked and probably 1/3 bigger than our shop in Klamath. Is it access to the interstate that makes the difference? 
This morning we woke again to a foggy day and deer in the yard. The mama looked familiar, with what is probably last year’s yearling and this year’s fawn. The doe and the yearling get over the fence, but the fawn always seems to end up wandering along outside the fence. I suppose he will eventually get big enough to actually jump with the other two.
Both of us are getting a bit antsy to get the MoHo out of her pretty shed and on the road. Before mid month January we will be heading south to the desert via the old favorite, I-5. I really miss that hot springs pool at Catalina Spa in Desert Hot Springs. I think we owe a nice Palm Springs dinner to Rick and Paulette as well, and I even miss those silly windmills spinning away.
I also showed Mo some of the reviews that Nina wrote about San Diego, so we are going to give it a try this season after our 7 day Passport America stay at Catalina Spa. Looking forward to something a bit different that we haven’t done before. I haven’t been to the San Diego Zoo since I was a kid. Yippee!!
Tag: planning
Finally!
When I first thought about retiring, I knew that traveling would be one of my priorities. Years ago, traveling with my kids meant making a big bed in the back of the Volkswagen van and driving all night while they slept, completely unrestrained of course. Later it involved car camping trips and sleeping in tents and sleeping bags on the ground. We managed a trip to Disneyland once, a bit of cross country car camping as migrant workers in the 70’s, and once my life settled down a bit I did manage to take a kid or two to San Francisco for a big city visit. We lived in rural Idaho at the time, and “the city” was an exciting destination.
As years passed and I managed to grow from eking out a meager living as a waitress to actually making a real living as a soil scientist, my travel time grew as well. However, by then, my kids were all grown and in the process of eking out their own modest livings and raising their kids. We managed a few local family reunions here and there, and in 2006 when Melody got married, we shared a family cruise to the Mexican Riviera.
My big goal was to manage at least one “big” trip for each of my children. I know that some folks do the big thing with the entire family, paying airfare and hotel for offspring and their spouses and kids and extended families. I don’t think I could even manage a second mortgage for that much money, so my dreams were a bit more modest. No spouses, no kids, just me and one child at a time going to the place of their choice, almost anywhere in the world that they would choose to go. Well, Australia was out since that was just beyond affordable to me, but most other destinations were up for grabs.
Almost two years ago my oldest daughter claimed her trip and we shared a charter Legendary Blues Cruise to the southern Caribbean. Which brings me to today. My youngest daughter was the one who chose to go next and eighteen months ago I paid for this trip to Eastern Europe, and Melody and I have been planning and dreaming about it ever since. It is Melody’s first trip off the continent. It is mother/daughter time at its best, with no distractions of friends, spouses, children, responsibilities. To say we are excited is an understatement.
My first trip to Europe was with Mo, a seasoned traveler who has been to more than 36 countries. I was as giddy and excited on that trip as I expect Melody will be on this one. I have traveled with Mo on several cruises, to Thailand, to Turkey, to Malta, across the US and Canada, and as tough and smart as I think I am, I know how much I depend on Mo’s travel skills and take-charge abilities. I realize that on this trip I will be the experienced one. I won’t have Mo to fall back on…Melody will expect to be able to fall back on me. After all, I am ‘Mom”. I managed a complex life for nearly 60 years before I met Mo so I am sure I should manage just fine!
I have followed Kevin and Ruth across eastern Europe lately, marveling at their resourcefulness, their willingness to search out destinations on their own, to couch-surf and use public transportation, seeing the countries in ways that aren’t limited to the views most tourists get. I, on the other hand, have chosen the tourist route, decidedly and willingly! After traveling with Mo using Grand Circle Tours and Go Ahead Tours, I learned my old ideas about tour travel were just plain silly. It is GREAT not having to worry about all the details. It is GREAT having my luggage show up at my hotel, getting a quickie tour of the city and then having a couple of days on my own to go back to the places I want to explore more deeply. 
I decided on GoAhead Tours, mainly because they seem to cater to a younger clientele. I would have loved to do an OAT “(Overseas Adventure Travel) tour, but they are a lot more expensive and I decided against it. Go Ahead does a great job for the price, not fancy, but not cut rate either.
I could easily go to Turkey or Thailand again on my own, once I have been there, but for a first time trip to just about anywhere, I really like having the luxury of a tour. Especially with limited time available, because of course my daughter is still working, I want no hassles. I want to give my daughter the opportunity to see a different part of the world, to expand her horizons, but to do it with just a bit more safety factor than I would feel out there loose on my own.
The photos on the right and below are of the hike to Vernal Falls in Yosemite that I made with my kids back in the 70’s. Melody was 4 and as you can see, most of the hike she was on my back. Hopefully on this trip she will be the one I can lean on instead of the other way around.
Today Melody and I both woke up at 3:30 am, at 4:00 am, all packed and ready with nowhere to go. We sent each other text messages and emails, and laughed about how silly it was. We are driving north to Albany today so that we have an easy commute to Portland tomorrow for our 1:30 departure from PDX for the ten hour flight to Amsterdam. From Amsterdam we will take a short flight to Budapest, spending three days there before traveling the 150 miles to Vienna. Three days in Vienna, with another day to drive to Prague for three more days and the quick 11 day trip will be over.
My knee is functioning rather well, and the brace and trekking poles should help with cobblestone streets and lots of stairs that I expect to climb in these beautiful old world cities. The trekking poles are in checked luggage, in spite of the encouragement of the doctor and the travel agent, too many websites said they could be a problem on the airlines. I decided not to take the chance and will simply lean on my daughter if i need to!
My little girl and I are off to see the world!
It’s all about Red
At the moment, however, everything seems black and white and shades of gray with a little bit of brown and green thrown in here and there. January is gone and February has returned, as it usually does every year. In spite of my usual feelings about dreary February, this year seems different somehow. Maybe because our winter has been so mild, or maybe because I seem to have surrounded myself with RED.
Mo was away for two weeks, doing her annual dog sitting for brother Dan near Portland and I kept myself busy with three weeks of soil survey work to make up for the last trip and filled in the spaces with knitting, sewing, quilting, and baking. Even with the lack of snow, the temperatures still call for keeping the fire going and an occasional shoveling project to keep the driveway clear. With Mo gone, I really hoped to be spared any big snowstorms since I don’t drive the tractor and wouldn’t have a clue how to plow our road. Abby stayed with me for company and that soft little feeling of safety at night that seems to go along with having a dog by your side. She was good company.
Back in December, we happened on a great sofa sale and the delivery happened while Mo was away. Our old sofa (not THAT old actually) was big and sloppy, perfect for the huge living room we had back in the California mobile, but here in our cozy house it was just too massive. Once again, Melody and Kevin were the happy recipients of our hand-me-downs and we filled the living room with a perfect brick red sofa and loveseat. Still comfortable, but scaled more to our style, our bodies, and our room. Kevin is thrilled to have the huge sofa with two recliners added to his living room, and now they have enough seating for all the dogs, cats, teenagers, and adults that hang out at their house. I love the color of the sofa, not really red, but a brick color that is almost impossible to capture in a photo, and believe me I tried!
On a Saturday weekend I drove the hour and fifteen minutes to the well known and fabulous quilt shop in Merrill, called the Tater Patch. What a delight for the senses! I picked up some red and pink and white fabric to go with what I already had and managed to find a heart quilt block on the internet. I filled more gray days with brilliant fabric, following internet tutorials, and dropped in to the small neighborhood quilt shop as well for instruction and encouragement. I even managed to hand quilt the hearts and just finished the binding yesterday after Mo returned home. When I tired of quilting, I picked up the sweater I am knitting for Deanna, making progress, but just bit slower since I discovered playing with fabric and cutting it all up and sewing it all back together. Nutty pastime!
More red.
On the previous Monday, daughter Melody had three days off in a row, an almost unheard of delight. She cleaned house like crazy for two days and on the third day she piled into the car with my granddaughter and a LOT of baking supplies and headed for Rocky Point. We spent the day making an incredibly decadent cake she had seen on the internet last year called, “Lincoln’s Red Velvet Cream Cheese Cake”. The cake is filled with an entire cheesecake between two layers of rich red velvet and frosted with cream cheese frosting decorated with white and milk chocolate. Sinful!! I cut a slice, cut another one for Jean the local quilting lady to thank her for her help, and sent the rest home to the previously mentioned houseful of big men, teenaged boys, and assorted others. Good thing! That cake could destroy a month of dieting in one day!
More red.
Speaking of teenagers, my youngest grandson turned 13 last week. Another day in town searching for just the right thing yielded a sporty athletic jacket that seemed to hit the spot. How in the world do you have a clue what to give a boy turning 13 that isn’t a video game or money! I was sure to include the gift receipt with the jacket, but it wasn’t needed.
I’m happy to have Mo back home. Somehow her way of having a regular routine keeps me happy in a way that I don’t manage myself. I wander aimlessly, doing things at all different hours of the day and night, eating strange things at the wrong time, and waking up at four am to sew with no one else to consider. Dogs and people like routine I think. Abby and I are both happy to get up like normal humans around 6am, and eat dinner in the evening, and go to the hot tub at the same time most nights.
I have been reading about folks traveling in Texas, at Quartzite, in the desert southwest, and down in Florida. Much as I love the desert, those Florida beaches and crystalline rivers are calling me hard for next winter. I really do hope we can be there. In the mean time, we are planning a coast trip again, this time traveling north as far as we feel like going, and fully expecting rain and storms. The Oregon Coast can be so gorgeous and dramatic during stormy whale season. Should be fun, and we will leave the first of March.
We are also planning the mid-summer trip to Colorado for Mo’s family reunion near her sister’s home in Denver and just got excited when we looked at the map and realized that we could leave via the northern route and finally get the MoHo to the Black Hills and fill in that South Dakota hole on our map. Should be a fun trip. Again, we don’t want to be gone for more than two weeks or so because this year for sure we are going to camp at some of the fabulous places right here in our own beautiful Oregon. I still remember Laurie talking about the beauty of Joseph Oregon, and that is on the summer list as well.
Alaska Bound 4 Days and Counting
Four days. 4 DAYS. How many lists do I have? Certainly a lot more than 4! I am blogging about this why? I have no clue, other than the fact that it helps me to write things down. It helps me to remember. I love to journal about times past, to write the stories as they happen, to sometimes summarize the stories years later, or summarize the year past. I also like to write about what I am planning, because it’s so much fun to go back after the planned event and read what I thought it might be like.
Alaska. We are embarking on the “epic journey”. Although as I follow along as other RV’rs travel this road I am thinking maybe it is no longer quite so epic. The highway has been tamed a bit, it seems, so I am not really expecting epic. I expect long, I expect a bit of monotony, I expect frost heaves and gravel.
I remember once about 40 years ago I saw the Canadian Rockies west of Calgary for the first time. Of course I had seen photos, but nothing really prepares you for the magnificent mass of those mountains. The closer we got to them, the less I could breathe, with their weight lying heavy in my chest. Truly breathtaking. I expect moments like that one to come in completely unexpected places.
Recently there was a blog discussion about places folks wanted to go in their RV, and Alaska was the subject of many comments, both pro and con. I don’t know why I want to go to Alaska, but I realize that it isn’t so much that I want to go to Alaska, as it is that I want to do the road. I want to know that I “did” the road. I know many people who did it in the days when it was a wild place, when gas was hard to come by, and the animals were everywhere. Now, as I read the blogs, I see the standard tourist destinations come up, the photos and stories, each with a different perspective, but still very similar. Has the road been completely tamed? Will we be one in a long line of RV’s plying the highway?
We haven’t made any reservations, wanting instead to stay flexible in our route and our timing. We have “plans”, though, thoughts about where we want to stay, and places we want to see. For me, big on the list are the lakes along the Cassiar Highway and a soak at Llaird Hot Springs, and I want to put my kayak in as many BC lakes as possible. Sure, I want to see “the mountain”, but I am not attached to it, and reading about the crowds in Denali makes it a bit less exciting.
For me, it is about the journey, about the feeling of the road opening up ahead to vistas I have never seen. Flat and boring spruce, or magnificent take-your-breath-away mountains and turquoise lakes. Either way, it’s new, and it’s far. I like the idea of “far”. I like actually being on the road, the driving part, the riding part, the moving part where your body is vibrating with the engine, where the unknown road opens up ahead of you, with the extra benefit of a bathroom ten feet away, and the dog and cat with us.
Mo has been the one checking and rechecking the MoHo, making sure all is well. All wasn’t well with the house batteries, they were five years old and heating up. Scary. Especially with all the photos of RV fires that have been in the blogs lately. Last minute trip to Klamath to buy new batteries. So many folks have talked about batteries, but I couldn’t remember where to find the discussions, so Mo just did her own research and came up with two 12 volt Trojans, for some reason not sealed, but supposedly the best. Once a year maintenance. Then, while installing the batteries, she blew the big 110 amp fuse on the inverter. No clue what was wrong, but after fiddling for a long time, she made an appointment at Central Point RV.
With the holiday weekend coming up, we were a bit concerned, but she drove down early yesterday morning and was back in less than 6 hours with a new fuse, the generator problem solved, and the MoHo is mechanically ready to go. The technician said that the linkage to the carburetor in the generator was stuck, and that it needs to be run every few weeks to keep it clear. Mo thought the problem might have been related to the battery/inverter issue, so was glad that she had checked the generator before she went to Medford. They charged Mo 80 bucks for labor and 45 bucks (ouch) for the fuse. Hope we don’t blow that one very often. It was great to call the night before, get an appointment for the next morning, and have all the problems solved so quickly.
The other funny story is about the Protect-a Tow. We wanted to do business locally, and RV Trailer Warehouse in Medford finally agreed to order some in and promised to save one for us. The folks there weren’t too good about returning calls, or giving us any idea of when they might actually get one in, so Mo finally ordered one on the internet directly from the Canadian manufacturer. It was actually cheaper even with shipping that the local guy quoted. It was supposed to arrive within 8 to 12 business 
days via expedited mail. According to the tracking number, it was only processed through Toronto, Canada, on June 29th. When Mo went to Medford, she picked up a Protect-a-Tow from the folks who had ordered one and saved it for us. He said the return policy was good if we didn’t use the one we bought. We will hopefully return the one that shows up in the mail after we are long gone. Apologies to the local store, but if he had been more on top of keeping us informed, he would have had the sale, even if it WAS more expensive.
Our trip looks to be somewhere in the vicinity of 7,300 miles, just a little bit more than our cross country trip to Niagara last summer. Streets and Trips has been tweaked and shoved and waits patiently on the laptop. Lists like this: laptop, plug, external drive, baby laptop for Mo, plug, phone, plug, charger, camera, plug, charger, baby camera, plug, charger. GPS, GPS cord, tripods, Mo’s phone, plug, charger….GEEZ when will someone come up with a wireless charger and wireless power for all these toys. Oh yes, Kindle, and plug.
Another list: passports, animal certificates, copies of important documents saved to an external,cancel the TV, cancel the paper, cancel the mail. Mow the lawn and spray the Liquid Fence once last time. Make sure the house sitters have all the relevant phone numbers. Dog food. Cat food. Dog leash. Cat leash. Clothes for rain, clothes for being cold, clothes for being hot while still traveling through Oregon and Washington and maybe the first part of BC. How many shoes and what kind of shoes for each situation. Walking sticks. Dry bags for the kayaks. Find a dry bag for the camera in the kayak!
I finally resorted to paper lists, on those 5 inch hot pink lined Post It notes. One for each of the next four days, lined up in a row along the counter with the piles of stuff to go to the motorhome. More lists. Mo install the Protect-a Tow, blow the pine needles off all the roofs today. Make cookies. Make spaghetti sauce for freezer. And yes, “go to July Fourth Celebration in Klamath”. That one is on Monday, and thank goodness the parade and festivities don’t actually start until 5pm, so we have all day Monday to do “stuff”. Then Tuesday more stuff, and then finally Wednesday morning we are off.
Memorial Day
Ahh well, the flag is a bit fuzzy in this photo, do you think when I get that new DSLR I will have no more fuzzy photos??
It felt good to put up the American Flag this weekend, for many reasons, not the least of which is to show support for our troops and especially for my two grandson’s who have both served in Iraq. Patriotism means many things to many people, and each of us has our own definition. Looking at this flag flying in the spring winds reminds me of being twelve years old in the school playground, crying with emotion when they played the Star Spangled Banner and I saw that flag waving against the blue sky. Unencumbered by political discussions and partisan arguments, I loved my country, and was proud to be living in the United States of America. I still love my country, with full knowledge that it isn’t perfect, I would not choose any other. If you want to read an excellent story about the origins of Memorial Day, go to E-Squared and Mui’s blog here. You will also get to see an amazing photo of the American Flag to help remember the reason for this holiday.
(Most of you blog readers know that you can click on the photo to zoom in and see more detail)
The Alaska planning is moving forward in earnest. My daughter and her husband have done the highway in their big rig several times in the last year, and her one bit of advice was, “Take extra headlights”. Mo is attempting to offset the broken headlight thing with a bit of ingenuity, and hopefully it will help a bit. This morning she was looking through her photos of her last trip on the highway and found a shot of her last attempt and they never had a broken headlight. I think there was a lot more gravel on the road in 1974 than we will encounter this summer, but all it takes is one good hit.
We also have ordered the Protect-a-Tow recommended by Linda to try to offset some of the damage from flying gravel between the rig and the Tracker. There are several options out there, but this seems to be the favorite of many folks doing the highway with a toad. Rain, of course, is a given, even if we have some good weather, it is just about certain that we will have rain. Living in the northwest mountains, we already have plenty of fleece, boots, rain gear and flannel, so the trip should feel just about like the past few months of cold, wet springtime at home. I am especially grateful that we will be in the cozy MoHo, unlike Mo’s first trip in the Scout, hiding out inside with mosquito coils burning while it rained.
We do plan to have campfires whenever possible, but will not be taking any firewood. The “Burn It Where You Buy It” rule is in effect in most places in the western forests, and while I haven’t read the full rules yet, I would bet we couldn’t take firewood into Canada anyway. Instead we are packing plenty of firestarter and Mo is taking her baby chain saw to take advantage of whatever may be found locally en route.
And yes. Rather than borrowing my daughter’s very expensive professional Nikon equipment, I ordered my own camera, the Nikon D5100 with a metal mount 55 to 300 lens, which Al says will probably pull my arms out of their sockets. The 18-55 will hopefully get those great wide angle views that I will need in the vast expanses of the north country. I read everything I could find comparing Nikon DSLR’s and appreciated Al’s link to Ken Rockwell’s site, a truly amazing resource.
Of course, the biggest job seems to be thinking about and planning our route. I have played and adjusted and researched and am still fiddling with the thing a bit, trying to get an idea of the time we will need to really do all that we want to do and yet still leave some loose, unscheduled time to take advantage of whatever amazing moments choose to present themselves to us. According to the “Streets and Trips” plan, we are now up to 39 days and approximately 6500 miles for the MoHo, with some possible side trips in the Tracker that aren’t included. Since I am still working part time, I can’t have a completely open-ended trip, and besides, Rocky Point in summer is one of the best places in the world and we don’t want to miss all of it.
I have been sitting with the hard copy maps, Mo’s favorite, the laptop, and the 2011 Milepost, trying to get an idea of where we might stay along the way, how many miles a day we can expect to drive, and what we don’t want to miss. I really do love the planning part, and hope that all the planning won’t interfere with the spontaneous, wild moments I hope to experience as well. I’m following along right now as several RV’rs travel through Alaska, and it’s really interesting to see the different perspective of people who are even traveling together on the same route. I’m sure our trip will have it’s own flavor as well.
In the midst of working my regular job and planning for the upcoming trip, I have been gardening, planting goodies in the greenhouse, and watching tiny seeds sprout. The days are still about 20 degrees below normal, and when I open the door to the greenhouse, my glasses fog up immediately with warmth and humidity. At night it stays above freezing, even though we have had frosts in the more open areas of the property. I planted a row of new roses along the driveway to replace the sad twigs that couldn’t handle the hard winter. The new roses are a hardy shrub variety that are grown on their own root stock and are reputed to bloom with as little as 4 hours of daily sunlight. With our big forest, sunlight is always an issue for blooming plants. I also bought a killer 4 gallon backpack sprayer so that I can saturate the property with nasty smelling “Liquid Fence” to thwart the deer and rabbits. I’ll let you know how it works when the summer is over and the dry fall brings in those ravenous critters to eat everything in sight.
With snow in the mountains, 4-wheelers in the forest, and traffic everywhere, I am grateful to be spending this holiday quietly at home after an overnight visit from my daughter and granddaughter. For a couple of girls often plugged in to electronic stuff, a game of dominoes last night on the dining table was a bit different, and I laughed so hard I couldn’t breathe with some of their antics. A bacon and waffle breakfast was just the send off for them to return home and enjoy a much deserved day off.
The sun does come out now and then, the grass is getting much greener, and I even spent most of the day outside yesterday enjoying the colors of spring.
The MoHo and Other Traveling Tales 