The Wandering Weathers

 

We left Congress the Wednesday before Memorial Day after a week of repacking the COUGAR.  Two days of cleaning it in Kingman and getting used to the 24 feet instead of the 33 feet of living space in our park model with a full kitchen and a full sized shower, a queen bed with room around it to a king that I have to literally CLIMB into using the TUFFET and the cover of the water pump.  I was amazed how quickly I became used to the smaller space!  LOL!!

In Las Vegas we were welcomed to the Oasis RV Park – 975 spaces – by Kerry Grenfell, Tammy’s husband.  Tammy being the mother of our grandchildren Amy Weathers, Tommy and Joey Poley.  They have California plates on their pickup and trailer;  we have South Dakota plates on our rig!!  It must have been a GOD THING!

Since AMY was a bridesmaid and Lane and Grace were ringbearer and flower girl respectively, it was an important stop on their summer loop as well as ours!  And it certainly made the farewells on Monday simple having us side by side.

It was a beautiful wedding, joining Cassidy, our granddaughter, and boyfriend Brandon as husband and wife.  It was a very hot afternoon in Las Vegas but the vision of a water course did add a cooling atmosphere to the occasion.   The venue was within walking distance of the condo that Brandon and Cassidy have been living in while he completed his BA in communications and she works as a cake designer at Las Vegas Custom Cakes where she has done several for Kathleen as well as her own wedding cake.   Lovely words were spoken and THAT LOOK on her Brandon’s face…I pray that 65 years from now she will be blessed with THAT LOOK as I am.  We were so glad that Uncle John and Aunt Diana could come as well as their family since they have been so important to Tom and Allan and now their kids and grandkids!!  They ran the service station the first summer that we owned the Strawberry Inn – they were newlyweds at the time!!  TIME MARCHES ON!

We didn’t exactly follow Tom and Allan on their nine hour trip to Moccasin – Amy and Wyatt’s house – to await the rescheduling of the back surgery which was put on HOLD pending the healing of the seven cracked ribs and the healing of the gash in Allan’s head – only ten staples - after his crash on the concrete decking at the pool behind the house son Tom had rented for the out of town wedding guests.  AND then just three hours later, collapsing into the shower, flattening the channel where the shower door is meant to slide.  Fortunately, son Tom had the tools to straighten it out so it was workable once the ambulance left with Allan and his son Tommy.  Too much excitement in one 24 hour period.  We did visit Allan several times during the two weeks we were there in Tuolumne County before we felt it was time to HIT THE ROAD AGAIN!

Next stop was Gridley where we spent three nights due to high winds before we headed toward Susanville going past Lake Almanore where they had a BIG FIRE several years ago.  Fortunately, Mabel and Arleigh’s family cabin was on the east side of the lake and that was spared.  So Sad to see all the burned trees still standing bleakly for miles, a sad legacy of the USForest Service’s transition to the USFire Service, thanks to the many law suits every time a portion of the overgrown forest is put up for bid!

We spent two nights in an amazing RV Park in Likely California, south of Alturas on 395.  HOW LIKELY IS A GOLF COURSE IN MODOC COUNTY CALIFORNIA?  NOT!!  Great Stop!  We will keep it in mind for our next trip toward Idaho.  Burns was our next stop with a side trip to see a ROUND BARN, a leftover from the cattle boom.  It was used in winter or bad weather to exercise and train horses!!  Lovely drive.  The trip from Burns to Boise on Hiway 20 through Vail and the Onion Capital of Oregon – Ontario – includes three small passes and it too was a lovely drive, lots of green since it has been a wet Spring, but next time we will cut down from Burns to Burns Junction on Highway 95 avoiding those passes and coming into The Treasure Valley/ Boise from the southwest.  The mileage is the same but pulling the COUGAR IS SLOWER WITH THE “STINKING Water” and “DRINKING Water” passes as well as the “5555 foot pass”

A week in Boise, visiting with Kathleen seeing her office on American Dr, gasing up at Costco and getting Tom’s new prescription glasses, which he had the exam for at the Modesto Costco before we left Tom’s.   It felt like we were “shoppers” having purchased the glasses in Prescott AZ before the eye doctor lasered his eyes so the glasses were never useful or correct.  None of the local optomologists in Sonora would even return our calls for local appointments, but the Modesto Costco DID.  They did say that they were not guaranteeing that a Costco in another state would accept the out of state prescription, but it was accepted at the Boise Costco and with no charge since the AZ glasses had not been used, the prescription was not correct.

Five days at the Arrowhead Campground in Cascade over the 4^th of July where Kathleen had slept in a YURT two years ago but was unable to shift her clients this year, as they had NO PLANS for the FOURTH and wanted to keep their existing appointments.  It was a rainy day for the Parade, but lots of people and a good parade with cars, floats by two churches, the 4 H Club, the Veterans, and lots of side by sides / Razors and Jeeps ending with the fire department and the HORSES.  That DAY, there was a landslide north of Cascade near Riggins, with no alternate routes available we knew we would be heading South back to Boise and then East and North to South Dakota to get Tom’s drivers license renewed prior to his birthday!!  We did make it to Buhl Idaho that night even stopping for a quick lunch and retrieving our SD mail from Kathleen between her appointments for that day!! 

We were rockin’ and rollin’ for two of the nights there at Buhl due to HIGH WINDS.  We even put the auxiliary stabelizers out on the corners as the winds were forecast for even higher the third night!!  The drive across Idaho to Swan Valley seemed TOO FAR,  so we found a place to park for just one night, we didn’t even unhitch!  The next day we found Highway 26 again and went past  the Palisade Reservoir on the border with Wyoming.  It is a BIG LAKE.  Beautiful drive, as is the road through Jackson Hole and the Grand Tetons!! They are STILL GRAND!  We might have been through Dubois (dew-boys according to the locals!!) at some time on our journies, but this time we stopped and stayed at Longhorn Ranch three miles beyond Dubois.  We attended worship at Mountain Grace Church.  We will add that to our memorable worship services - four speakers including a visiting missionary from Zimbabwe, the retired pastor who blessed the OPEN COMMUNION after explaining several aspects of its history, a retired pastor AND the existing pastor.  Very welcoming congregation and I had to stand on Tom’s windward side while he took the indoor covers off his sticks so he could USE the points of the ski poles to ground himself in the wind!!  We have learned that in the wind we only open ONE door of the GMC at a time.  A memorable stop on our summer tour – Dubois WY.

Having done the laundry, we headed to Riverton and on to the North Platte River Campground east of Casper WY again for just one night before going to Douglas where we caught Highway 59 up to Gillette WY on I-90 past all the coal mines, and on into Rapid City and Box Elder where we get our mail forwarded.  They have an RV Park that I would rate at a 3 but the price is right and we know our way around Rapid City after six years!!   Tom said that without an appointment we might have to wait awhile, but it is a very smooth and efficient Office of Public Safety and voila he had no problems giving them the two pieces of paperwork he was unable to input into the file he had started while we were at son Tom’s.  They gave him a license until 2030!!  We went out to lunch to celebrate;  a change of lifestyle will not be happening SOON,  LORD WILLING!

Next stop Cabela’s on I-80 in Sidney Nebraska, then leaving the rig, down to Yuma Colorado to deliver a metal creation that son Tom entrusted to us back in Las Vegas, not knowing when we would be in Colorado next…  FAITH IN ACTION  I would call it.  We had a nice lunch visit with Diana and John and even brother Byron that day, playing CATCH UP on our busy lives since we don’t exchange LETTERS anymore.  John’s sister had died, Byron and LaLani had a fascinating trip to England, and we had been doing what the Wandering Weathers do in the summer.

We hope you have enjoyed wandering with us as we catch up here in Colorado, seeing new babies, visiting with the rest of our relatives and relaxing here by the Big Thompson River near Loveland!!

Until we meet again, stay healthy and SMILE because GOD has already written the end of your story.

Love Tom and Martha – the Wandering Weathers