Day 71 ~ Home Sweet Home

Well we finally arrived home after a tense drive over the North Cascade range from Oroville on Hwy 20. We decided to leave a day early due to the snow fall which was increasing every day. We were fortunate that the roads were clear of snow but were still wet, and since the temperature was 28 degrees we had to watch for black ice. The scenery was beautiful, the fir trees were covered with snow and there was stillness in the air as we drove through the pass.

Once we made it to the West side of the Cascades, the fall foliage was amazing!  We were so pleasantly surprised as we drove into our property and saw our home for the first time in 72 days how nice things had been taken care of. Our wonderful neighbors kept our lawns mowed and our driveway clean from fallen leaves.

When we walked into the house, it was spotless!  Sarah had everything looking so wonderful!  We could not believe she even stayed in our house it was so clean!  This really meant a lot to John and I.  After our long journey, this was such a breath of fresh air, we couldn’t stop smiling!  Our beautiful home was more beautiful than we had remembered it!

This was a trip of a lifetime and we were so blessed to have gotten to see so many things and experience so much.

Just to sum up some of our highlights;  Our favorite things we will always remember from this journey:

 1)  Our surprise discovery of Clear Lake, Iowa where the Surf Ballroom is located.
 2)  Reuniting with the Family in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
 3)  Mark Twain's Hometown of Hannibal, Missouri.
 4)  Nashville, Tennessee
 5)  Gatlinburg, Tennessee & The Great Smokey Mountains
 6)  Reuniting with Family in Knoxville, Tennessee
 7)  A Great Boat ride up the Tennessee River with my cousin.
 8)  Graceland
 9)  Getting LOST at Loretta Lynn's Ranch!
10) Climbing cliffs at Arch's National Park

These are just some of our highlights, we can't list them all!  We had a great time and we know we will be doing more road trips like this in our future.  Between the GPS and our RV Apps, this trip was flawless as far as the routes we took and the RV Parks we stayed at. 

We drove 10,000 miles and visited over 17 states!  Now we are HOME SWEET HOME!

Day 70 ~ Oroville, WA

Well, we know our journey is coming to an end.  It feels good to be so close to home, but sad to know we have to hunker down for the winter months and wait until early next spring to hit the road again.  John and I have had such an amazing time and it's hard to put into words just how much fun we have had.  Today was such a heartfelt day spending time with mom (Madalyn).  We couldn't have asked for a better way to end our vacation.  We thought with her health condition she would not have been with us when we returned home from our vacation.  We feel so blessed to have spent some time with her these last two days.

Our time here in Oroville has been nice, a little on the "cold" side though!  We were going to stay until Wednesday, but have made a decision to leave tomorrow (Tuesday).  The passes are starting to accumulate snow and we don't want to take any chances.

The wind was blowing really hard this afternoon and the rain finally showed up this evening.  It makes it so hard to do things when the weather isn't participating!  So we are planning on leaving around 9:00 - 10:00 in the morning.  Should be another Adventure!!!

We Love this RV Park in Oroville, Wa.!!

Camping on the Okanagan River in Oroville

 Great Play area for the boys!

Spent the afternoon with mom

Day 69 ~ Richland, WA to Oroville, WA

We ended up leaving camp at 8:00am, heading to Oroville, Washington.  It was a 5 hour drive, with one rest stop at Banks Lake, we arrived the River Oaks RV Park at 12:30.

John and I got the fifth wheel all set up and then Doug and Lisa came by to pick us up to go see mom and take her out to dinner.  It was so nice to see family again!!!  We drove back to Riverside, WA., just North of Omak and picked up mom.  She looked GREAT!!  The one nurse at the home had her looking so pretty!  We visited with everyone at the home for a while then took Madalyn (mom) out to dinner.

We all had a really wonderful meal and enjoyed each others company.  When we got back to camp, the temperature had really dropped, so we turned on the heat and snuggled in for the evening.  We love this RV Park, it's super quiet and has a wonderful setting on the River.

Our favorite RV Park in Oroville, WA.

Caged Pumpkins!!

So Nie to see Mom!!!  (Madalyn)

Jackie loving on Mom (Madalyn)

Madalyn (Mom) and her boys!

Mom & John...She's 93 years old and as beautiful as ever!!!

Day 68 ~ Richland, WA

Another BIG day on the road!  We got up early "again" to make way to our next destination.  It's so much easier traveling early in the morning.  It seems the boys sleep better in the truck in the mornings verses the afternoon.  We get to basically drive straight through where as in the afternoon a lot of stops are necessary along the way.

We have noticed a big change in the skies.  A lot more clouds.  No rain yet, just big dark grey clouds with a few blue patches inbetween.  As we drove through Eastern Oregon it seemed we were going to be driving right into a wall of black clouds.  Well, we did and right under a rainbow !!!  We finally got rained on and then we hit snow!!  Amazing!

We made it to Richland, Wa. in good time, plus we gained an hour!!!    The Horn Rapids RV Resort is super nice!  John was tired so he took a break while I cleaned and did some more laundry.  The facilities here are beautiful and brand new!  They had an ironing board and iron so I was able to press out some clothes that were in dire need of it.

It's been a very relaxing day.  A trip to the grocery store and some wonderful afternoon walks around the park made for a really nice day. 

Early to Bed, Early to Rise, Drive like Heck and  make Good Time!

The Big Black Wall!!!

Somewhere Under the Rainbow!!!

If those Walls could Talk!

Beautiful RV Park in Richland, WA.

The Boy's all Resting after a long drive!!

Day 67 ~ Caldwell, Idaho

Another day on the road.  We've decided to just travel 3-4 hours.  So, we got up early because some little boy named Tanner "woofed" at 5:00 in the morning.  John got up and gave both boys a break, made coffee and we both got motivated to get on the road.

On our way out of town, we stopped at Shoshone Falls, just outside of Twin Falls, Idaho.  We took the windy road down to the falls area to see that there was hardly any water flowing over.  It was beautiful, but they do say in the spring is the best time to see it.  They claim it's the Niagara Falls of the West!

We enjoyed the park and the views it had to offer and then hit the road.  We stopped in Caldwell, Idaho at the Ambassador RV Park.  Really nice "super" clean park.  We took a couple of really nice long walks, made dinner and John went and got a hair cut.

Nothing to exciting happened today, we are anxious to get on the road again tomorrow and hopefully make it to Washington State.  Things are going very well and we are looking forward to seeing family.




Took a nice walk this morning before we left the park.  This is the Snake River



Shoshone Falls in Idaho.

Shoshone Falls.  They say in the Spring Time it looks like Niagara Falls.

So Pretty here

This freaked me out!!!

So "Pretty" in Idaho this time of year.

Ambassador RV Park, Caldwell Idaho (just north of Boise)

Day 66 ~ Moab Utah to Delco, Idaho

Not to much to blog about today.  Today was a "Travel" Day....We are on our way North and we need to make some good time as the weather continues to get colder and colder.  We left Moab around 8:00am, such a beautiful morning it was hard to leave and not stay to explore some more.  The sun was shining and the blue skies were so blue.  We drove and drove and drove.  We stopped at a Rest Area along the way which had some history to it.   It was a Rest Area that was built at the Williams and Powell Ranch Homestead of 1885.  The property consisted of 5000 acres and there was a small steam train that was used on the property during that time.  It made the stop original!!!  Not your typical Rest Area.  We gave the dogs a really good break then hit the road again.

Our stomaches were starting to growl and we decided we would enjoy our last lunch out at Cracker Barrel in Layton, Utah.  Oh boy was it good!  Kind of sad, we love the food at Cracker Barrel and this will be our last one we encounter on this trip.  Oh well!!!  The next trip is just around the corner.

After lunch we meandered over to Penney's to pick up some warm clothing then away we went...Heading North!

We made it as far as Delco, Idaho.  The dogs have become agitated, they need to get some exercise.  We found a wonderful RV Park!  The park is called "Village of Trees".  It's right on the Snake River.  Great Great Park!  The lawns are enormous and so well groomed.  We were able to give the boys a really good break and we have decided to stay later in the morning tomorrow so we can exercise them really good before we hit the road.  The long drive makes for a really long day so we have changed our plan to travel only 3-4 hour days on our way home.

John and I thank God everyday for our safe Journey.  The weather has been incredible and we feel so blessed to have seen what we have seen.  We are looking forward to our stay in Oroville, WA to see mom, Doug and Lisa.  Our plans are to be there by Sunday mid afternoon.



I had to rake the leaves before we left today!!!



On our way out of Moab, Utah



These are so Super Cool!!

 Williams & Powell Ranch had their own Steam Train  (Rest Area)

 Cracker Barrel, Layton Utah



Aaaah!!!  Finally made it to Village of Trees RV Park, Delco, Idaho

"Village of Tree's RV Park".....Delco, Idaho



Lot's of running in this park!!!  Tanner's already tired!

 Ridiculous!



Day 65 ~ Moab, Utah

It's incredible here in Moab, Utah!  The skies are so darn blue and the Canyon lands are such a beautiful sight to wake up to!  Both John and I thought we were going to wake up really sore this morning from our hikes yesterday, but fortunately we were just fine! 

We enjoyed the morning as the sunshine gazed in through the windows of the fifth wheel.  It was a little on the chilly side to have coffee outside this morning!  The boys are loving the weather here.  It seems the humidity of the South slowed them down a bit, but here it's done the opposite!  So, seeing that we all were re-energized, John and I showered up and then took the boys to the Moab Doggie Park.  Great park for them to play and chase the ball and also socialize with other dogs.

After the park, we took them back to camp and let them relax and watch soap operas while we went into the town of Moab to check it out and have a nice lunch out.  We enjoyed the shops and what they had to offer in Moab.  We had lunch on the patio at Zax's.  We would highly recommend this place!  I had a Barbecue Chicken Pizza that was to die for!!!  John had an All Meat & Cheese Pizza....Go figure!  Oh well, it was one of our splurges on this trip! 

The day was so beautiful, it was just very relaxing and quiet.  We went back to the RV and enjoyed visiting other people at the park.  We have made so many new friends on this trip and looks like some of them will be visiting us next year as they would like to spend some good time in the Great Pacific Northwest! 

We wrapped our day up at the park just relaxing.  So beautiful here!  We are definitely going to come back here to do some more exploring.  The hikes here are crazy good!  We are also planning to do a Rafting Trip down the Colorado.  A good friend of ours told us to not try and do everything in one trip....So True!  You need to take the time to just take it all in.

The sights here are amazing

Arches National Park

Great RV Park!



So much fun to visit the Dog Parks!!  Tanner & Frankie Love it!



They are the Best Boy's!!!  We Love Them Dearly!!!

Frankie's getting ready to just take off like a Jack Rabbit while Tanner is getting silly with his new friend at the park!

Come on dad....Throw the ball!!

Trying to capture the "beauty" of the blue skies & colorfull leaves...