Too Soon to Head North?

Our travel route this week

This week I was once again reminded of the reality that I am but just a bit character in this play called life. It all started with a 2 hour drive to the Phoenix airport where I dropped Barb off for her mid-winter vacation. She had enough of fun in the sun and flew to Minnesota for the week. Well at least I had the dogs to keep me company for the week.

When I returned home and opened the door, they jumped down the stairs, ran past me to the truck and stared at it jumping up and down waiting for Barb to get out. When it became apparent that she was not in there, they started looking off at each of the neighbors to see which one I had maybe dropped her off at. Then, realizing she was not here at all, they did their business and slowly walked back to the rig and up the stairs without even giving me a second look. It was apparent, painfully apparent, that I was just a bit player in this pack and every other time we came home in the past excited to see us it was not us they were excited to see it was Barb, the true leader of our pack they are always excited to see.  

The rest of the week dragged by as we waited for Friday and Barb’s return. Since we would be leaving on Sunday, I slowly started putting away tables, chairs, lights and accessories we had scattered around our camp. I also worked on a list of chores I was hoping to get done while she was gone. The first was the brakes on the truck. I had bought a new set of brakes over a year ago thinking that with over 100,000 miles on the truck they were due to be replaced. Last winter I pulled the wheels and calipers off only to find more than ½ of the original pads still intact so I did not replace them. I pulled everything off again last fall at the farm only to find the same. Now with almost 130,000 miles on them they would certainly need to be replaced right? It seemed in our working lives we were replacing brakes every 50,000 – 70,000 miles. But when I pulled them off this time they were still about ½ worn. Amazing! I guess in our working lives, driving always in a rush from stop light to stop light we really used them a lot. Now with all these highway miles and the assistance of the engine brake as well as the disc brakes on the trailer, they do not get used nearly as much. So I put the pads away to be used another day.

The next chore was to fix the caulking around the window we replaced last year in Tucson. When we replaced it I had used the white window caulk/tape that was provided and it oozes out of the frame as you tighten the window. I had wiped the excess off but you could see a white ring around the window seam. Didn’t bother me but by now you know I am not the boss around here and it bothered the boss so I set about trying to clean it up so no white was showing. Try as I may I could not get rid of the last of the white around the edges. Upon inspecting the other windows I noticed that they were painted after the window was installed so all the caulk was painted over. So I set about putting blue tape around the window so only the tiniest of surface was showing and sprayed it with black paint. Problem solved.

Before.....

After......

One final dump of the tanks and fresh water fill and we are all set for our departure....

Thanks Steve!

Between the chores and happy hours the week went fairly quick. Steve and Dianne invited me over for a fantastic lasagna dinner one night and the following night blog readers, Dale and Chloe invited our entire group over to their place for a delicious BBQ. Chloe keeps up on both ours and Steve and Dianne’s posts and is also originally from South Dakota and also has relatives in Garrison North Dakota and has even frequented the Douglas Bar! With a population of only 1,500 in Garrison and 61 in Douglas that is quite the coincidence! (Thanks to Dianne for the pictures!)

The gang over at Dale and Chloe's

Dale cutting up the BBQ!

Red and Pam also invited me over one night for an awesome pork chop dinner. Barb was gone 4 nights and I got invitations to dinner for 3 of those, that is what I call good friends!   
Four of us are set to leave tomorrow morning (Steve/Dianne, Vicki/Harry, Red/Pam and us) so the night before we left we had one more get together with our little desert community. Jim/Brenda, who returned after leaving us for more than a week and Dale/Ruth who arrived on the 19^th also joined the celebration in addition to Dale/Chloe and Les/Sue. One last hurray and toast to good times and good friends.

Steve, Dianne, Red and Pam

Dale, Daisy and Cody

Harry, Vicki, Ruth and Daisy

Les, Sue, Brenda and Jim (And Daisy again!)

Chloe and Dale

Now with the embers of the fire dying and the laughter only an echo, we are set to leave this desert oasis. We have mixed emotions, they are all such good friends and you hate to leave but exciting adventures await us down the road. Who knows when we will all be together again. We, for one, have east coast plans for next winter. I know we will see Jim and Brenda in South Dakota. Vicki and Harry will be in South Dakota as well this summer, only an hour away working at Prairie Berry Winery in Hill City. We hope to catch up with Red and Pam in Arkansas or Texas sometime and it looks like Dale and Ruth will be in South Dakota in April to renew their drivers licenses. Our travel path might cross with Steve and Dianne sometime this year as they make their way east through Canada but neither of us know where we will be when as of quite yet. As for Les/Sue and Dale/Chloe it is not looking good but one thing about this lifestyle is you just never know what the future brings!

Today we return this spot back to the desert leaving only tire tracks and some rocks painted by grandkids Kendall and Dylan as evidence of our presence.

Our truck pointed north towards Oregon, we hope to be in 4 days where more adventures await, but maybe a little too soon?

Klamath Falls Oregon 10 day forecast