End of this chapter

So we are in Brandon, Vermont, soon to be heading home! It's been a great and eventful trip around the country. One decision has been made. At some point we will be moving to Colorado! We picked 4 communities where we will search for housing, all of them are within an hour plus north of the Denver airport...Berthoud, Windsor and quieter neighborhoods in Longmont and Fort Collins. They are all in a valley but near the mts; have basically sunny, moderate temperatures; are surrounded by open spaces and bike paths; and are close to so many activities. It is an easy non stop flight to San Diego and the communities are a perfect base for all our future camping adventures.

Now we will begin to deal with all the practicalities and timing:) thanks to all who have supported us on this journey.

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Made it to Nebraska!

 

 

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Final visit in Colorado

After two long days of driving through Montana and Wyoming, we are back in the Fort Collins area doing a final look before going home. Yesterday we fell in love with a cute small town nearby called Berthoud, and sat at a local outdoor Mexican restaurant sipping margaritas pondering next steps. ..

Today we were with an agent who showed us all around the Fort Collins area to neighborhoods that were quiet and close to all the bike paths in the area. Lots of thinking to do.

We head home on Tuesday!

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Loving Coeur D'Alene

Now we just love this little town in Idaho, with great housing available....too bad once again it is a little too far away from an inexpensive airport.

 

 

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Big Sky and wide open Spaces

As we drive through central Oregon, I think about living simply and the very basic lifestyle of people living here. We just went through a "living ghost town" called Shaniko which boasts 37 people living there. The few store fronts really looked like those in an old western movie. Before and after the town there is NOTHING but plains and some wheat fields for miles and miles and miles.

Their website says: " Living "far out" in Shaniko’s delivers an unusual, unique, and historic experience. A former shop owner once said, "Shaniko is a place to do nothing." Another good description for a visit here is "Relax, Retreat, and Remember".It used to be the biggest inland wool shipping center in the world in 1903 when there was a railroad here.

Now as I drive by I ponder what happened? What do the people do there now as nothing is nearby, meditate? Are they at peace? ..well the town of Grass Valley is the nearest I have found so far (pop.164) and that is about 30 miles away. They boast the tallest rye grass...there was even a report that the grass was once "over a mans head and he was on a horse"! No stores around , except abandoned ones for miles and miles. I would like to learn how they live their lives....

This is on the edge of these towns:

 

Hmmm, I just think I am truly ready for Coeur D'Alene:)

 

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Bend, OR

Don and I fell in love with Bend, OR: fantastic historic downtown area; scenic river runs through the town filled with kayakers and folks riding inner tubes; bikers were riding on the bike paths along the river while we sat at a cafe enjoying the mountains and beauty of the area.

My old friend from my VISTA days in the Virgin Islands (1968) and from our Boston times as roommates (1969-1971) , toured us all around. It was great to see Patti Nehl again after all those years and share memories.

Don and I loved the craftsman style housing too and would move here in a minute if it weren't for the fact that the Portland airport is 3.5 hours away. BUT I am sure we will be back to visit:)

 

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Car is fixed and on to Oregon!

We finally got our car back and had a great time driving up the coast of Northern California and Oregon. Last night we drove through the Avenue of the Giants. Incredible redwood trees...unfortunately there was a fire there too nearby so it was very hazy.

How can you help but be a tree hugger?

This am we drove up the coast to Bandon, Oregon. Next to Big Sur we couldn't have found prettier scenery. We topped the day off with the best fish and chips I have had in years, right off the dock.

 

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Back to town enjoying the wine!

Loved our time on the coast. If they weren't so far away from everything and everybody Mendocino and Fort Bragg would be awesome places to live!

N

 

Now we are back in the wine country...air has been clearer and cooler so we decided to go on 2 wine tastings in the little town of Kelseyville.....might as well enjoy the wait for the car!

 

 

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In Mendocino

Quick update to say we decided to go to the CA coast near Mendocino a couple of days to get away from the heat and worry about the fires and our car. The manufacturer of our tow device is sending us a free new one so we hope by the end of the week we can back on our plan to go to Oregon before heading home. ( we are sending back the old device and if they find it was due to their negligence they will pay for our bills..but somehow I doubt it...he thinks we did something wrong)

The coast is gorgeous and will post pictures when we can ...for now enjoying day by day...

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Fire is spreading now to the other side of the lake

I just went down to the lake dock to see the smoke of the expanding fire on the other side of the lake. So sad. ( smoke on right side of hill in background.)

 

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Not a bad way to spend the day

We woke up to cooler temperatures and clearer skies and my mood lifted immediately. After making a big breakfast of bacon and eggs I took a walk down our road along the lake. It was a beautiful morning and I made it to a lovely vineyard with an old Italian looking villa and felt like I was in Tuscany.

The rest of the day we spent reading and relaxing by the pool and lake. Not bad :)

 

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And it gets worse...

We had the car towed this morning and learned that the front brakes,axle, brake fluid hoses and more were all melted and burned from the faulty RV tow device. We did everything right but apparently from the time we had last checked yesterday, ( a 5 hour span of time), the device had been pressing on the brakes when we were driving up and down those 7% grades. Serious bad news as the car could have caught on fire. But we are safe in our campsite with the RV. Unfortunately we have to wait for up to a week to get the parts and get it fixed, estimated at $3,000!

Also the "Rocky Fire" in our Lake County, near Clearlake is spreading and evacuations not far from us have started. Several homes have been destroyed. Luckily the winds and fire are going away from us, but we see and feel the smoke. We also can see bits of ash floating around in the air. We have checked out other campsites near or on the ocean, but they are full tomorrow but we do have a site near Mendocino for Sunday and Monday! These are pictures of the sky at noon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The journey is never the same....

Our journey is always interesting...we decided to go to a campground in a town in Northern CA, Kelseyville, on a lake not far from Mendocino. It was somewhat a splurge but we wanted a pretty place. So we left the Sacramento area and headed west towards the ocean to get here, then we see fires...not a good sign. They are a way from us now but evacuations have started in this county.

But the real kicker is the road is very twisty and narrow with 6% grades up and down and the GPS gave us a wrong turn so we had to disconnect the car to turn around. When I started the car the brake light was on along with 2 other alerts on the dash panel. The brakes hardly worked at all..my foot went all the way to the floor to get anything to happen and it sneaked terribly.We had 7 miles to go to the site and Don convinced me that we could make it , so I drove it in second gear at 15 mph to get here and made it. The tow truck will come in the morning...and here we sit...at least it is at a beautiful spot on Clearlake and we have food and beer....and I now feel refreshed after a good swim in the pool.

 

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San Diego

It has been about a week since we have been in the San Diego area. We spent last Thursday through Monday at the San Elijo State Beach Campground in Cardiff, right near Becky's cute new condo she has with her boyfriend Tim. Heidi and Ryan also tented in our site and it was so fun to have everyone together again.The weather was great which we so appreciated as we were dry camping, with no air conditioning. All we did was talk, sit on the beach, watch the guys surf and relax. Perfect! And we got to have fresh fish and tacos which were at a small stand next to our site.

Views from our camper's window:

 

Here we are at the edge of the beach: PS our RV is now named Woof!

I then spent a day with Becky, Tim and Ellie at their condo:

 

 

Monday afternoon we drove in the traffic to Heidi and Ryan's new home which I just fell in love with..it is an old 1950s home , that has lots of tropical plants and trees around it and even a koi pond. The inside also feels so tropical and open with its colors and design...kinda want to just move right in...

We are blessed to have the girls so close to each other so we could go back and forth between homes and are already excited about returning for Christmas.

 

 

 

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Heat

I just don't do well in heat, what can I say?? We left San Diego today and to avoid the LA traffic we went inland into the high desert to get around the city. Problem is the heat. We found a good campsite north of LA on a lake, BUT they won't allow swimming... Really? But we did at least sneak in Sophie for a quick dunk! It was 106 in the shade and don registered 116 when the thermometer rested on the RV. Not good. Thank God our air conditioning is now working for "Woof" , our Rv.

Tomorrow we will head for the coast as soon as we can after SF. ...

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Grand Canyon

I always wanted to take Don to the Grand Canyon as I have wonderful memories of an old family rafting trip on the Colorado through the Canyon. It did not disappoint. I feared too many people and although there were many (few spoke English!), the GC staff have an incredibly organized system with busses and lots of facilities. We went to the north rim for a few hours from Kanab, then the next day drove a long distance to the south rim. We walked much of the rim trail, had drinks at the hotel El Tovar, and then the next day hiked down into the Bright Angel trail. In the evening and early am we were greeted by Elk at our campsite.

We are now in Yuma, Arizona, the last stop before San Diego, when we finally see the girls. I have to be truthful to say that this will be my last trip to Yuma...it is so hot, over 100 degrees and they say that is mild for this time of year. It is so ugly..loaded with "over 55" RV campgrounds and not much else.

But we had to go this route due to a bridge washout on rt.10. It will all be worth it though....

 

 

 

 

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