Good to be Home

Our journey home from Oregon went just as we wanted it. Uneventful. Driving the new truck made time go faster as we learned the ins and outs of our new ride. At lot has changed since our last new truck in 2013, our first surprise was "Lane Assist" which helps you stay in your lane as you are watching herds of antelope or looking in the field to see a lone coyote crossing the prairie. Barb is used to the sound of rumble strips and has actually given up saying anything as I ride the shoulder gawking at something or another. But this lane assist actually steers your truck for you back to where you should be. Really a weird feeling as you feel a counter force on your steering wheel. 

What we were really curious about was what kind of fuel economy we were going to get. Well, I don't know if "economy" is the right word so we will go with "mileage". We know this is going to change over time, but our mileage varied from 9.5mpg to 12.0mpg depending on our terrain and how you measured it. Keep in mind we were pulling a trailer so that will definitely impact it. The first fill I measured it we had a head wind and were in some mountainous terrain. The MPG on display said we got 10.1mpg but our actual was only 9.5mpg so the display is not quite accurate. I reset the display and measured it again. This time we got an actual of 12.2  while the display read 12.0. Closer but still not accurate. Since we have been back and without the trailer it looks like we are getting anywhere from 15-17mpg. About the same as our old truck. Diesel prices along the way were anywhere from $4.09 - $4.35/gallon. A far cry from the $2.70/gallon at this time last year resulting in us paying $350 more in fuel on this one trip than we would have last year. I do not even want to think how much more we will be paying this summer!

Pulling into our driveway after 3 days of driving we felt a sense of nirvana flow throughout our bodies. It was so good to be home! It's that time of year that Mother Nature seems very, very confused as this week we saw temperatures as high as 62 and as low as the teens. Both the deer and turkeys were happy to have us home! These two pictures were taken a day apart....

 

The only thing amiss when we got home was a splatter mess on the side of the camper. What the heck did Kevin do now?

But upon closer inspection we were able to decipher what exactly happened. This picture tells the rest of the story....

Do you see it? If you live in the north, you know exactly what happened as you take a closer look at the pop cans on the wood pile. 

I would not want to have been standing in front of those when they exploded!

Our plan was to take a few days off and relax after hitting it so hard at Forrest's but we were right at it again the next day when Kevin came over and we went to work on  the dog wash. He had already been over two days while we were gone so he had a good start on it but was waiting until we were home until he finished the last few rows as Barb used Cheryl's diamond wheel to cut a few dog paws into some tiles.

We still have to grout it but love the way it turned out. Dakota and Zoey cannot wait to try it out!

We did take a few days off after that getting together with friends and going out. Thursday was Barb's birthday! I started out the day by making her breakfast. Something I have not done for a while as she has suffered through my breakfasts in the past. She wanted a breakfast sandwich; over-easy egg, sausage patty and cheese on a toasted English muffin." I can do this" I said as I headed to the kitchen.

I heat up the pan, grab the carton of eggs and carefully crack the first egg into the pan....but it did not fall into the pan..what the?!?! Hard boiled egg! So I grab the other carton of eggs and try again. Good thing I was making one for myself as well. Barb had a perfectly over-easy egg on a golden brown English muffin with melted cheese oozing over the sausage. It was beautiful! I had a slightly over-toasted English muffin with a broken egg and burnt sausage. Sadly, that is no lie. Oh, and I had a hard boiled egg too.

She wanted to celebrate by going bowling! I was not a very good picture taker but I can tell you that Dan won the first game and Kevin won the second. Barb, Cheryl, Bonnie and I did not win but we did have fun! At one point Kevin got 4 strikes in a row and I was able to take this one picture him has he did a celebration dance for us all!

One evening we got together with Jim and Carmen, our neighbors to the west, catching up on the latest goings on in the neighborhood. Another night, our old neighbors from the east, Jim and Brenda, arrived to pick the tractor we have been storing for them.

They recently bought a house and property in Kentucky and are ready were ready to reclaim their tractor. It was great seeing them again; we hope to stop by them in Kentucky sometime this year!

Lastly, I would not want to disappoint Dino and Harry by not including a video of Zoey. She has started to become really sassy when Barb ignores her every want and need. This is a short video of Zoey staring at Barb and what she does when Barb does not drop what she is doing to attend to her. Make sure you have the sound up!