Almost Home!!

April 28th

Well, our adventure is about to end. Now we have to get back to reality and get settled in again! We are in Bend, Oregon, tonight and will be home tomorrow night. I cannot find words to tell everyone what a great time we've had! We plan to go again this next winter and hopefully our renters will want our home again. That worked out well.

Since my last posting, we stayed one night in St. George, Utah and visited friends from Great Falls. Then we spent 8 days/nights in Las Vegas and stayed at Sam's Town RV Park. It's a very large park and well taken care of. I have a cousin living there so we visited him.  Donnie is from Great Falls but has lived most of his adult life in Gillette, Wyoming. He's quite the character but we sure enjoyed spending time with him! Buster has a college friend living in Vegas so met him one evening for dinner. Mostly we spent time with Buster's aunt and uncle. The 4 of us drove to Valley of Fire and also to Red Mountain. Both were very interesting places. Of course, we had to put a few dollars in the machines but we didn't win and the casinos didn't either. There sure are some beautiful casinos and always construction going on. Our 8 days went quickly and we had to leave for Reno. I have another cousin and hubby (Joanne and Marvin)  moving to Vegas so next year will be more family.

Our friend, Jane, and the 2 of us went to 8th grade and part of high school together in Cascade. We had not seen her in years and years and about 6 years ago she found me. We have kept in touch since. We had a great time staying at her place and seeing sights in/around Reno area. She lives in Minden, a few miles south of Carson City high on a hill with a gorgeous view of the Sierra Nevadas. One day we drove to Lake Tahoe. One day we went to Fallon and Fernley and one day spent in Reno. Buster went to the Harrah Car Museum in Reno and Jane and I -- can you guess???? We went to a wonderful quilt shop and spent hours there!

So here we are in Bend, Oregon tonight.  We went to Sisters, OR today as they have a wonderful quilt shop...."Stitching Post"...you quilters know all about Sisters! I also visited 3 shops  in Bend.  Bend and Redmond have both grown in leaps and bounds over the years. This is a very beautiful area. The mountains in the distance are still covered with snow but the flowers are blooming in town.

Tomorrow night we'll be home....and with a big sigh we can start getting our wits together! We have seen lots of beautiful country, some not so beautiful, visited with so many old and new friends, been to National Parks and stayed in nice State Parks. Many RV Parks are something to be desired but ok for a night. We've traveled almost 6,000 miles and been through 9 states!

The sad part of our trip is we both have to get back on our diets!! Oh well. We have enjoyed every minute, every mile, every bite of food!

FYI: Texas has great State Parks and with the State Park Pass there's many discounts. Worth the money. Texas has the cheapest gas. California has very rough riding interstates. We joined Passport America for more RV Park discounts and used Good Sam too. New Mexico had the worst directions to get anywhere. We finally found the State Capital in Santa Fe after 3 days!

I hope you've enjoyed reading this. I'm not the greatest at writing but tried to keep everyone in touch as to what we were up to. It's been a great ride!!

Susan