Getting home

Did I tell you that the Wienermobile was hanging out at the Strasburg KOA? There were games to win Oscar Mayer related items- Koen won a key chain for each of us- the rest of us had a difficult time making the bag go into the hole, but he was pretty consistent.

We left Denver at 8:20 something in the morning- pretty early by our usual standards! The kids seemed eager to get on the road, knowing that we were headed home. (Both of them were so happy to hear that I wasn't going to fly home and leave them. They didn't seem to mind that they wouldn't be getting to Mt. Rushmore, just excited to get home. Kira especially mentioned how much she wanted to go home, so she could just go to her room and do stuff, and how much she was missing the little dog.)

The drive out of Denver reminded me of the road trip that I took with Jennifer, many, MANY years ago. (For perspective, one of my other little dogs came along- at 11 months old. She died of cancer at 13, 5 years ago.)The roads hadn't changed much since then.

Colorado is a bit greener this year than it was then, though. Apparently, they had a rainy spring, too. Being Sunday, the traffic was relatively light, so we made good time. We hit Wyoming around 9:30 in the morning.

It was truly strange, crossing the border between Colorado and Wyoming, seeing camels and buffalo! The wind turbines, windmills, wind farms, whatever you want to call them, started getting more prevalent. Colorado had some- but not as many as Wyoming. They don't seem that large, but twice, 18 wheelers passed us with the propeller blades. They were longer than the trailer they were attached to by a considerable margin. They are HUGE!

There were lots of scenes that were gorgeous- and trying to capture them while Joe drove to get to our camp site (with speed limits of 75!) was interesting!

While we were on straight stretches, I did some knitting- especially when I knew we weren't close to any state lines. I ended up finishing the last sleeve, so all that remained was the sewing to make it a sweater. YAY! :o)

This is the Sinclair Oil Refinery- apparently there is oil being refined in the US!

There was some GORGEOUS scenery and such a huge blue sky!




Our campsite in Wyoming- near the border to Utah- was off the highway, so it was quieter. There weren't as many flys or as many mosquitoes, but there WERE horseflies!!! There were several that guarded the pool, which we discovered when we went in. They would buzz by, and if you weren't vigilant, they would land and bite. So, we made it our mission to #1 not get bit, and #2, to kill them! The kids dunked themselves into the pool every time they flies buzzing; I bailed to start the coals for dinner; Joe managed to both kill two and get bitten by at least one. It swelled up to the size of a quarter. Meanwhile, back at the camper, I was attempting to get the fire lit- and it wasn't working. It took over an hour to get the coals lit to a point that we could cook with them. Luckily, we were only cooking brats, so it didn't have to be that hot.

That night, a storm moved through- strong winds and rain- shaking the camper to a point that Kira woke up, freaked out by being in the top bunk in the wind. We didn't sleep that much- but at least we weren't in a tent, like some of the other campers! Again, we were on the road by just after 8:00- amazing!

We crossed the rest of Wyoming. There were fences everywhere. They weren't connected, they weren't complete, and they didn't seem to just be along ridges, so they didn't seem to be wind breaks. Turns out, they were snow fences.

Then, we drove into Utah. There were lots of signs indicating strong winds, which we did run into. There were oodles of trucks on the road with us, but most of them were pretty considerate of us. The scenery was beautiful, as well.

Being hit by the wind as they passed us was interesting- because there was nothing to do except try to correct the push across the lane of traffic as it was happening. We made it across Utah and into Idaho.

Then, we stopped in Meridian, ID, just west of Boise. Joe had wanted to push on for another hour or so, but the vote was split, so we stayed. It was a nice KOA- parking lot, but well cared for, with decent showers, an indoor pool, and no grill or fire rings. (There is apparently a no live fire rule.) So, we used the pancake griddle for hamburgers. It was a peaceful night. For the last several nights, we turned off the air and just did the windows. It was feeling so great to wake up and be a bit cold!

Tuesday morning, we were up and out of there by 8:30 or so, again. Being so close, we just crossed the border and stopped in Ontario for breakfast.

It was so nice to be in Oregon again.

Watching the scenery of desert and seeing the Blue Mountains.

Seeing Mt. Hood in the distance as we entered the Columbia Gorge.

We saw some interesting things on the highway, too.

Mt. Hood continued to get closer, and we continued to get close to home.

The Columbia Gorge was gorgeous- and traffic wasn't too bad.

We headed down I 205 and got home around 4:00. Whew- one day over 2 months on the road- 10,878 miles total. Amazingly enough, we had a good time, too! It has been a little weird to be home- like we are visiting someone else's house- but we are getting used to it! :o)