Monday, 4/11

"Holy Cow, what are those things???"

The cat meets our young grandchildren.

Loga, age 2 months, parked near our lawn chairs outside the uhaul.


Becky introduces Hanna to the water.

After a few minutes of uncertainty, Hanna gets into the idea of water!

I let Hanna play with my strainer basket with her toy shovel in the sand.

Night time.

After we picked up Becky and her kids from the airport yesterday in Las vegas we went to Wal-mart for some groceries, then back downtown to drive up the 'strip'. We got caught in a terrible traffic back-up and it took forever to creep up to where we could exit the freeway and go over the couple blocks to the strip. It was the first time I'd been on the strip after dark in nearly 30 years, and it was quite the show. Lights, lights, lights. We got to see the water fountain show in front of the Belarus, at least part of it, while we sat at a red stoplight. At the north end of the strip we got back on the freeway and headed north out of town. We cut through Valley of Fire state park and got to Stewart's Point around 1:00 in the morning.

We parked up on top of the hill behind "cell phone rock" and waited until morning to move the uhaul down to our camp site. In the morning Steven and I walked down to check on the rest of our stuff (the trailer, bicycles, kayaks, and motorcycle). Steven didn't want to move the uhaul back to that site because of the deep loose gravel. We walked around and looked at other potential sites, but nothing would have kept us as close to the water. We carried dozens of large, flat rocks and made a two-strip "road" for the tires to ride on. Then Steven moved the uhaul down there and drove it into the site on the rocks.

Then we had a late breakfast of pancakes and got settled back in to our site. Steven and I rode the motorcycle into Overton and went to the library. We also went to the grocery store and bought polish sausages and chips. When we got back to camp Steven made a campfire and we cooked dinner.

Back in Montana

I still have some updating to do on this blog, but I haven't sorted throught my pictures yet.

We're got back to our place in Montana Friday night, April 22. I can't say I'm happy to be here. It wasn't too bad over the weekend, but today the high was 34 and it was cloudy and drizzly all day. The first night when we left Nevada it was so warm we slept without blankets. The next night, near Dillon, Montana, it was 20.

There is still patches of snow on the ground here. The road is so muddy that Steven had to chain up the rear tires of the uhaul, and our son had to assist with a tow-strap and our Cherokee in 4-wheel drive, to get up the steeper, muddier places.

This doesn't feel like home. It feels strange, like some place we lived long ago. Like going back to my childhood home or something. Familiar, yet strange. Yet I've been gone this long before, such as when my Dad was dying and I went to take care of him, and last year on my bicycle trip I was gone almost this long.

Sometime soon I'll finish this blog and get the pictures posted.

Matchmaking

"Finally...someone my own size to pick on!"

The cat and Logan

"Yeah, I got one too!"

Odie and Hanna

It's been hard to sort pictures into folders for daily blog posts and otherwise keep my mind in order with a toddler and a baby visiting us this past week! Plus in whatever spare time we have when the grandkids are napping, our daughter and I have tried to fit in some hiking, kayaking, and swimming, so I've neglected getting things ready for visits to the library.

Plus, it's been a week since we've been to the library to catch up the blog and do other internet things. I guess it'll be the weekend before I get a chance to do some serious catch-up.

News from back home includes daily reports of snow and temperatures in the 30s. Joy, joy, joy. It's not very inspiring for thoughts of heading north and home. Ugh.

It's been in the 80s and 90s here (96 yesterday!) with overnight lows in the low 60s! Even if it's sunny and in the 50s when we get home, that's going to feel cold. But somehow, I don't expect to garner much sympathy from the folks up there!

Happy Birthday!

Oh, my goodness! Oh how fun!

Guess who just had birthday one!

April 4 (belated Happy birthday!)

Can't believe the cat was ever that little!

Other birthdays I missed:

March something (5th? 7th?): Kjj

April 1st: SuKaco

April 11: C.A.

Happy birthday! I did think of you!

The Theater

Made a few videos: 1) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nsj9tJ4Z7c (You have to click "back" in the upper left of your computer at the end of each video clip to get back to the blog so you can click on the next video). 2) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XuLCwU1Iitw&NR-1 3) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgrUXFOKrCQ&feature=related 4) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Va0PuyOXx2M 5) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0MgamvjBq8 (This last one was wrong for a while, so if you tried and it didn't work, try again).

Sunday, April 10, Airport

Steven set up his tent and then saw a "lump" under the floor. Thinking he'd somehow missed a rock when he cleared the site, he peered underneath, and guess who was under there!

You have to peer carefully into the smog, but there's the Las Vegas skyline in the middle of the picture.

Another picture of downtown Las Vegas.

Snow on Mt. Charleston and the Spring mountains, west of Las Vegas.

The reason for the trip. Daughter Becky and her two children flew down to see us!

This is on the shuttle bus to the "Economy Parking Lot", which is way, way, way out away from the airport terminal. No, we didn't all ride on the motorcyle back to camp! We left the motorcycle and everything ELSE at camp, and drove the uhaul into Vegas!

We drove up the strip and gawked at the billions of lights on the casinos. First time I'd seen it in the dark, and it was quite a spectacle! Amazing!

Saturday, April 9

We were going to ride the motorcycle to Overton and go to the library to update blogs and do emails, but thunderstorms moved in and we couldn't go.

Later toward evening the sun came out again. I love the lighting in this picture.

From the top of my "cell phone rock" (where I get good cell service, above our camper) I can see the palm trees by Blue Point Hot Spring on the skyline.