HOPE I REMEMBER HOW TO POST A BLOG !!

I haven't posted on my blog since we returned home from Alaska in August, and I am going to try a posting to see if I remember how.   If I am successful I need to write down the steps to posting a blog, so wish me luck.


      We hadn't been home but a few weeks and Kent started repairing the truck camper.   He tore off the skin of the underside to find some rotted wood that really needed to be replaced.   We were told by the previous owner that he had always covered the camper but he did not have an inside storage spot for it.   We suspect that the original owner had never stored it inside either.  We have from day one kept it in our barn, so to see the rotten wood was disappointing,  BUT not to worry Kent is up for the challenge.   He is not completely done but he has done a great job for never tackling a project like this.   I have tried to post some pictures but either the computer is way tooooooo slow or I do not remember the correct procedure to post a picture.  So we will leave that subject and try another.


     This fall we did go to Berlin, Ohio with our motorhome friends.   We always enjoy going to Berlin and as always had a good 4 days.    I will try posting pictures from that trip.


    Not having any success adding pictures, so I will wait to get to some better internet service.


Thanks for looking


Kent & Martha

HAD A WONDERFUL TIME BUT GOOD TO BE HOME

     With the fire coming close to Yosemite, we feel fortunate we got to see what we did.  Hopefully the fire will be contained soon.  When they talk of areas that are close to being burned, we were in a lot of the areas.  Ironically as we drove through the areas that were very dry, we commented that it would be quite easy for a fire to start.  
      I have a few more pictures of when we were at Dave & Maxines'.

                                                          

      Tuesday morning we went to breakfast & then Dave drove us up further in the mountains and we did a couple geocaches.  The terrain was a little more difficult than Maxine & I wanted to attempt, so Dave & Kent climbed on up into the rocks and disappeared for awhile but then they emerged with the find.  Good going guys !    Maxine then joined them for the second cache.  I was feeling a bit light headed (we were up to 8,000 ft. in elevation) so I stayed back & waited for them to return.  Again they emerged victorious !



                                                    Kent & Dave looking for the cache

                                                                      We found it !

           After  finding the cache's, Dave took us on around the loop in the mountain.  Lots of beautiful scenery, things you don't see in Indiana.  
            We got back to the campground and got things around and we left Dave & Maxines at about 12 noon on Tuesday.   Our time was short but we had a good time.   Certainly look forward seeing you in December.

             We had to stop and take a picture with a cactus before we left the west.  I have no idea what kind of cactus this is but it's all we had to choose from.   This is the desert and it was HOT, it was good to get out of it.  We made sure we had enough fuel as there was no fuel until we got to Barstow which was almost 2 hours away.  
                                               
                                             

Driving through New Mexico the rock color was beautiful.

             
      Driving through Oklahoma we saw a strange sight and there were a lot of cars parked and walking back to the phenomenon.  This was right along old route 66 and back in a farmers field.  They were old cars buried halfway into the ground and cans & cans of spray paint just thrown on the ground.  Story I hear is the farmer owned a junk yard and he wanted to give the kids a place to do their graffiti on the old cars instead of on buildings or anything else where it doesn't belong.
Someone told me that they had seen this on YouTube.   I really can't verify that but could be.
                                           
                                                   

   
           We left Tuesday at 12 noon and we were at Sheila & Darrens' Friday at 4:00. Sheila had made supper for us which was very much appreciated.  Thank you Sheila & Darren.
                         
                                                    

             From there we left and headed home.  HOME !  We got home & found a Welcome Home sign placed there by Von & Jenny.  Thanks guys!  Wasn't expecting that.

                                  

                                         

  We have had a wonderful retirement trip, something we will never forget.  We could have stayed out even longer but it was time to come home.  Nick & Shelly took care of mowing our yard & keeping an eye on our place and picking up our mail.  We Literally could not have done this trip without their help.  Thank you so so much, you are super.

   The states and other countries we traveled were:  Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, S. Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, Canada, British Columbia, Yukon, Alaska, Washington State, Oregon, California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri. 

  One statistic is we were out on the road for 66 days and we stayed in a RV park for 23 days and dry camped with no plug in services for 43 days.  I averaged out the cost of lodging & with all the dry camping we did lodging cost us an average of $11.57 per day.   Now if I could average the other costs down that low  our expenses would have been very good.     No matter what we had the trip of a lifetime.
Miles traveled:  11,937
Photos taken:  4100 (plus)   AND   lots & lots of video.

I guess I take a lot of pictures & videos so when we are not able to travel anymore we will have hours of entertainment of our traveling days. 


Thank you for following, I really enjoyed sharing our travels with you.
Check us out from time to time because since we are retired we do plan to travel as we can.

                                  


                                                          Until next time
                                                          Kent & Martha


                                                           

ALL REPAIRED /OFF TO VISIT FRIENDS

If we HAD to have a set back, it happened at a good place.  The Ford Dealership that took care of us was in  Chehalis, Washington.  They worked us in and had us out the door in a day and a half.  The young man that did the work on our truck was Trevor and a very good mechanic.  We took a walk downtown to the OLD part of town which was about a mile away and we found a place to eat breakfast, a historical museum, a sweet corn processing plant (very interesting, and we found a cache.  We were out the door that evening by 6:00pm.  Trevor assured us that with the bigger transmission cooler we would be good to drive up any mountain and not have a problem.  Trevor I sure hope your right!!!

                        Picture at the top is the old transmission cooler /lower bottom of picture where his
                          hands are        

                                           Bottom picture is the new transmission cooler

 

With Trevors assurance we decided to go ahead with the rest of our plans, so we headed to Yosemite and it is definitely mountain driving as was  Sequoia National Park, so we definitely gave it a workout and we are still navigating

 

We got to Yosemite late in the afternoon and we didn't want to start in and not be able to get clear through the park that day, so we went back out and stayed in a pull off spot in the National Forrest.  You can stay in a pull off in the National Forrest but not in the National Park.  So this was our spot for the night.

 

 

About a half hour after getting settled in I kept hearing bells.  It kept getting louder, and all of a sudden I looked out the door and there were cows with bells on.  Earlier we had seen a sign to watch out for range cows.  So evidently they have freedom to roam the woods, so we saw them first hand out our back door.

 

 

Some scenes of Yosemite

 

 

 

                               Look real close & you can see Kent inside in the picture below

 

When we finished in the Sequoias we headed on South to our friends

Dave & Maxine

Going to spend a day or two then start heading east.

 

 

                     Dave & Maxine are  campground hosts in Serrano National Forrest.  Very nice
                      campground except we had to climb the mountains again about 7,000 ft. up in
                      elevation.  The weather is perfect with no humidity.
                                                                          

                             This is how they parked us on their lot.  They have a double lot and they
                             are the campground hosts, but it was their superior that suggested how we
                               could park on their lot.  Kinda cozy but we fit in.  Could never have done
                              that with the motorhome!
                                                                         

                             

                                                This is Dave and Maxines new vehicle
                                                                      

 

 

 

 

Until next time

Kent & Martha