Heading Home - Day 2

We were on the road about an hour earlier than our first day and most of today's travel was on the interstate since there is no really good option to go through Wyoming on the southern route.

One thing we do see a lot of through Wyoming is sagebrush and antelope! A few quick stops along the way but mostly heading for the stopping destination for the night: Fort Bridger, Wyoming.

The RV park we're staying in is mostly people who live here but it's clean and comfortable and a great benefit is FULL hookups which means it's just a little more convenient! Since we've been traveling for two days without a lot of stops for walking around and stretching our legs we looked up a couple of geocaches in the area and went on a walk before dinner.

Time to kick back for the evening before starting tomorrow's leg of the journey home. We likely won't have internet until we get home so this will probably be the last blog entry until then.

Heading Home - Day 1

After a few tearful goodbyes, we hooked up the 5th wheel and headed west toward home. As a side note: we got out of Mahoney State Park just in time since the Mid-America Council of the Boy Scouts had booked most of the campground and the park for their 2014 Jubilee. Not sure we wanted to be there with over a thousand boy scouts!

One of our scheduled stops was the 20th Century Veterans' Memorial in North Platte, Nebraska. We've always said our favorite memorial is in Lewistown, Montana but there is now another favorite. If you're ever going through Nebraska and especially through North Platte, you'll want to stop to see this memorial. There was also a Union Pacific caboose at the adjacent park and a wonderful place to have lunch or a snack!

As we try to do, we stayed off the interstate as much as possible for our first day of travel. It was also one of our longer days but we pulled into Oliver Reservoir in time to get set up and see an incredible sunset, listen to the coyotes howl across the way and see some beautiful fall colors. This used to be a state recreation area for the state of Nebraska but has since been turned over to an advisory council at Kimball, Nebraska. It is now run by volunteers and the fee for camping is a "donation." This time of year there aren't a lot of people camping so it ended up being us and one other camper way across the campground from us. It was kind of like having our our private little campground!

Since we didn't have any hookups, Garey got our trusty generator going for a couple of hours before going to bed so we were able to make dinner before hunkering down for the night. One of our ccccoldest nights ... down to 34 degrees but thankfully we have plenty of blankets with us!

We woke up and were greeted by another beautiful sunrise and fog rising over the water. What a blessing our first day of travel toward home turned out to be.

Time Flies ...

Where has the time gone? I've been really bad about getting our blog updated (blame it on spotty internet accessibility and spending fun time with our Ashland, Nebraska family).

We've finished up our camp hosting duties at Louisville SRA and Eugene T. Mahoney State Park in Nebraska ... a fun adventure that we will probably look into again one day. This last few days will be spent spending as much time with Dan, Alaina, Dayna and Annie as we can while still getting the 5th wheel packed and ready to return home to Oregon.

It was nice to take the day off today and meet Monty & Katie in Nebraska City where we enjoyed a beautiful fall day together.

Here are a few pictures; now to go spend some time with our kiddos and grandkiddos!

(The "wildlife" by our campground)

Duplicates

So it seems that some of my posts are duplicates of earlier posts ... chalk it up to lack of instant access to internet and a forgetful mind from one post to the next! Of course, you may be in the same phase of memory loss as I am and they aren't duplicates at all!

A Day at Vala's

Vala's Pumpkin Patch

One of the reasons we love to come back to Nebraska this time of year is to go to Vala's Pumpkin Patch. One of our favorite things is the train ride and the incredibly great engineer who makes everything an adventure ...

He also has a very nice looking family ...

.... and sometimes he gets to be a passenger on the train!

But Engineer Dan had to go back to work so the rest of us went exploring, watched pig races and generally had a great time together

(Note to Drew ... Papa wants one of these)

Camp Hosting - Week Two

We've survived two weeks as camp hosts ... the campground is pretty quiet even on weekends and there really isn't a lot for us to do. The weather has varied from hot and humid to frosty nights ... we've used the air conditioner in the 5th wheel more on this trip than we've used it in the 14 years we've had it!

We're also doing a bit more geocaching in our free time and have enjoyed the "hunt" ... looking forward to going on a few geocaching adventures with Dan on his day off.

Yesterday when we were walking along one of the small lakes at the campground we saw a beaver pop it's head up and then dive down and swim away. Wish we had had the camera with us!! We've also seen a lot of people fishing here and surprisingly a number of women come out to fish.

Having fun with Family!

One of the great benefits of being in Nebraska for a longer visit is having more time to connect with Dayna and Annie. Telephone and Skype is fine but it doesn't replace face to face giggles and bonding with these two precious girls. We are also enjoying the time we're getting to spend with Dan and Alaina. ;)

Even though we have duties as camp hosts we have enough free time that we've been able to go to Grandparent's Day at Dayna's school, have Annie and Dayna both out at the campground with us, take Annie bowling, and a sleep over for Dayna so far. We've also roasted hot dogs and marshmallows over the campfire (Dan and Alaina were invited too).

The time is going so fast ... it's hard to believe we've been gone from home over a month and we have less than a month before we leave Nebraska and head back to Oregon. In the meantime, we'll keep building memories together and with our two precious Nebraska granddaughters and their parents!

Dayna Time

At Louisville State Recreation Area

Grandparents' Day

Annie Time

At Louisville State Recreation Area

Fun at the bowling alley

Family Time at Louisville State Recreation Area