My Third Birthday Party

This is my third birthday party this year.  Well maybe the forth since Barry had gotten two for the party on the 17th.  He sent them with me when we left and I ate it all the way home, so I am getting lots of cake this year.  The family had a party for my 80th at Bob and Cathy's tonight.

Steve and Dianne provided the pizza for the party, Dianne even called me and asked what my favorite Papa Pete's pizza was.

Jordon didn't seem bothered by all the people and munched happily on his bread stick.

They put one candle for each decade or it would have really been a bonfire!  Any more and I probably would not have gotten them all blown out.

It was great that Pam came down!  It is not often that I get a picture with all my sisters.  If you look close there are cocoa mounds on the table, all my favorite people and foods were here tonight.

And of course here are three of my favorite people, Bev couldn't make it or she would be in the picture also.

Pellet Stove

We are still unloading the motor home, it is amazing how much stuff we had in it.  I finally got around to filling the shop pellet stove only to discover it would not light.  After much checking and research online it turned out the control board was bad.  Amazingly Amazon carried it and many other parts for the stove.  It isn't cheap, that little board was $303 but I needed it.  I am glad I installed the electric ceiling heater so I could do a little puttering out there.

Unloading the Motor Home

It sure felt good to sleep in our bed last night.  Most of today was spent unloading the motor home.  I made a trip over to Steve and Dianne's in the afternoon.  Ava and Harper were decorating cookies and had made these for Vera and I.  They are sure getting good at baking.

Day Thirty Three heading for home!

This picture is at 6:45 AM as I was warming up the motor home to leave the Shamrock RV Park for home.  I had originally planned on going back over Donner Pass but since 101 was closed because of the slide near Brookings I decided we would go on US-395 and make it home today.

We are coming down toward White Lake North of Reno.  It has been cold there because the lake was frozen over.  We crossed into California not long after we passed here.

Now we are in Oregon and still on 395.  Vera took this picture when she noticed the cliffs.

They sure stand out with the snow on them.

We stopped at this marker and found out the area was called the Abert Rim with a description of how they were formed.

Right after passing Abert Rim we turned onto OR-31 and it wasn't long before I noticed a field full of antelope.  There was no traffic so I stopped in the middle of the road and took a couple of pictures.

All along OR-31 we would see these signs that we were on the Oregon Outback scenic byway.  Just before we got to La Pine it ended so I turned around and came back so we could get this picture.

We were in the Warm Springs area as the sun started setting and Vera took a bunch of pictures.  Several turned out great and this is my favorite.

Things got ugly as we started up US-26 to Mt Hood.  It was snowing hard with compact snow and ice on the road.  The traffic was traveling about 35 mph and at times the wipers were having trouble keeping the windshield clear.  We filled up with gas in the Sandy area and then took 205 and I-5 to home.

This is our first view of home as we pulled into the yard at 9:30.  It sure felt good to get here, the 14 hour drive was worth it.

I took this picture as I walked around to unlock the door.  It was nice sleeping in our regular bed.  It was a great trip, we had lots of fun, saw lots of things and had great weather for traveling except for the last hundred miles.

Day Thirty Two

The first time I got up this morning it was 22 degrees so I got right back in bed.  This is what we woke up to at 7:30, it was snowing pretty hard.  At 9:30 we measured about 2 1/4 inches on the step, by 10 the sun was shining, there were snow showers all day but no accumulation.  James came over later, after visiting awhile we checked out his car.  He had texted me that there were a lot of warning lights on, we talked it over and decided it could wait until we got back up there.  I had bought a code reader and had it delivered to Barry's so I would have it when we got here.  Of course the lights were out now but it showed in the memory that one injector had been sticking.  I gave him the code reader so he can check things if it happens again.  I also told him I would send him some injector cleaner.  He took us to Les Schaub for a set of chains, then to Costco for a few things.  We picked up Arby's for dinner and went back to the motor home to eat.  After James left I drained the holding tanks, added antifreeze and filled the water tank so we would be ready to leave first thing in the morning.

Day Thirty One

This is the view from the exit of the Beatty RV Park, Vera took it while I was getting things ready to go.

This is the RV park from the exit just before we left at 6:40.  We stopped in Tonopah for gas and while I was pumping gas it started snowing.  We didn't waste any time getting out of there and down to a lower elevation.  The snow was coming down pretty good for a few miles but after about 10 or 15 miles it quit.

I saw this abandoned mill as we went through Luning Nevada on the way down but did not get a picture.  Vera was able to get some pictures today for me.

On one of these long straight stretches I commented to Vera you can sure see where you are going.  I looked at the odometer, checked the mileage and it was seventeen miles to the place I pointed out.

As we were coming into Hawthorne this hill is right in front of you and it looked cool with the snow on it.

As we were going by Walker Lake we ran into another patch of snow and high winds.  Luckily this one only lasted a couple of miles.

There are some pretty rugged rock formations along the side of the road in the Walker lake area.

These green rocks sure caught our eye, there must be some copper in them.

We got to Reno about 2:30 and stayed at the Shamrock RV Park again.  There was snow on the ground this time and it was still getting down into the twenties at night.  James was working so we settled in for the night reading and messing around on the computers.

Day Thirty

When we were getting ready to leave Quartzsite this morning Vera pointed out the moon setting and I got this picture.

We wanted a picture of the Parker Arizona sign for our nephew Parker.

We are driving around the east side to the Parker Dam Lake Havasu reservoir in what was called Parker Strip on the map.

There seemed to be a lot more development on the Arizona side of Lake Havasu.

This is just a hill we liked the looks of about half way between Parker Dam and Lake Havasu.  It is nice having a GPS enabled camera so I can figure out where we took some of these pictures.

We drove right beside it but I don't think we actually got onto Route 66.

Vera has been taking all the pictures when we are moving and got lots of pictures of interesting rock formations.

These two picture were taken on I-40 just before we got to Kingman Arizona.

This monster truck is at the Arizona Last Stop on US-93 according to the signs you can get rides in it.  They also had a shooting range where you can shoot fifty caliber machine guns.  I don't know how much that costs, but there was lots of shooting while we were stopped there.  We pulled in here because we were both craving some Lays potato chips, of course they didn't have any.

 We are going by Hoover Dam, we didn't take any pictures on the way through Las Vegas.  We just paid attention to the traffic as we took I-215 around Las Vegas to avoid the construction we went through on the way down.

This is North of Las Vegas on US-95, the hills sure look pretty with snow on them.  We ended up staying at the Beatty RV Park, a nice little place that was only twenty five dollars a night.

Day Twenty Nine

The sun rises on our last day in Casa Grande, it has been a great visit with Barry and Mona.

Barry made us an awesome breakfast before we left.

After dumping the holding tank in Casa Grande we took a route through Stanfield to I-8 that Barry said was a nice easy drive.

 We stopped for a break on I-10 at the Burnt Wells rest area and took a walk, it was a nice rest area.

 We got to Quartzsite about 2:30 and wandered around the vendors that were still open.

They had lots of RV stuff at this booth, but I didn't need anything and didn't really have room to pack much home.  We each bought a couple of small things for souvenirs of our stop.

We dry camped in an area West of the swap meet.

Day Twenty Eight

This is the Arizona sunrise for my birthday.

I did an early morning flight with the Tarot 250 and captured some more video of Barry and Mona's place.

They took us to the 347 Grill for my birthday meal.

Barry and I had their loaded baked potato and I really think it was the best one I have ever had.  It is a great place to eat, if you are ever down there be sure and try it.

Barry had gotten two cakes for my birthday party tonight, chocolate and carrot cake.  They were both great!

Our birthday tradition continues, I think we have been getting together for each other's birthday ever since I retired.