Journey’s End

After six weeks to the day, nine states traveled, close to 5,000 miles driven, and wealth of wonderful experiences, we arrived home in Idaho Falls about 11:00 am on Saturday, August 28th.  On this journey we spent time with all of our children and all of our grandchildren, five of Jim’s siblings, one aunt, two nephews and too many cousin’s to count.  We stayed in 17 campgrounds, most of them public State Parks, BLM Land and Federal Lands.  We camped on private property of friends and family and slept one night in a real house (Jim’s brother’s home in Eaton, CO).  We had weather from the low 40’s at night to over 100 during the day.  We experienced some heavy winds, but not much rain.  Both dogs had to visit vet’s during the trip; Sammy for a swollen leg and Annie for throwing up for several days.  We both managed to stay healthy for the entire trip.  The camper fared well with only one glitch when the refrigerator gave us some problems, but this was cured by a generous soul at an RV Repair Shop in Denver at no cost.  There are still a lot of good people in this world, despite what we see on the news.  Speaking of news, we had very little TV and very few newspapers to read.  A scan of the cable news networks on our return shows very little has changed during our travels.
My last post was from Roundup, Montana.  After I completed my work assignment on Thursday, we relaxed for the remainder of the day.  Friday morning we hitched up and traveled to Henry’s Lake in Idaho.  Every time we go to Henry’s Lake, we marvel at how beautiful this location is.  Rosie and the dogs enjoy the long trails starting at the campground.  I enjoy the lake and the opportunity to wet a fishing line.  We met a nice couple from Grand Junction, CO in the campground.  Jim and Carol Erickson are retired and travel often in their 5th wheel.  They were planning to go to Lake Louise, Banff and Jasper in Canada in a couple of years, so we shared our Canada/Alaska DVD with them.
It was a bit windy when we arrived, but Saturday morning there was only a slight breeze and the water was calm.  As dawn broke, about 10 boats showed up on the lake in view of the camper.  There were also ducks, pelicans and one muskrat in the lake.
 
The two hour ride home was with mixed emotions; the trip was over, but we were ready to come home.  Jim is rethinking how ready he would be for “full time” RVing.  Even though our new camper is spacious compared to our first camper, it can still be confining after long periods of time.  We found our house as we left it, except for the huge stack of mail on the kitchen counter.  The yard looked great, thanks to recent rains and the diligence of our good friend Kym Lewis who performed the lawn care, mail retrieval and house plant watering during our absence.  We should get the camper unpacked today and also get it cleaned up inside and out; then off to the storage lot for awhile.  We do not plan any more major trips this year; just some local Idaho trips during the when the camping population is less than the weekends.  We will update this blog on our next trip.  So long for now.