Home from the north

Good evening,

We have just arrived at a little after 10.  We finally pulled away from Jerry and Donna's about 4 this afternoon.  With one difficult fuel stop at a Pilot station located above Woodland where there were just too many vehicles trying to make purchases the rest of the trip was uneventful.  While traffic was moderate when you spend your time in the slow lane at about 61 mph there is less stress involved.

About our stay.  We drove up on Wednesday and arrived in the evening.  We had a nice dinner with Jerry and Donna and family.  It was fun to just chat with family, enjoy the warmth from their various heat sources including a great wood stove in the kitchen area which puts out great heat.  Both Jerry and Donna know how to built a fire, they are very good at it.  I was encouraging my brother to have the daughters shoot a video for U Tube on the best way to built a fire, he really has a system that works every time and uses several different kinds of wood and sizes as well.  He is a fire master.

On Thursday Donna and Jerry were up early preparing the food for the day and Ruth and Darla helped out a lot as well.  I woke feeling awful and spent the entire day feeling just short of a trip to the ER.  It was so sad to feel so bad when there was so much love and joy in the air, outstanding food and football.  Jerry and Donna have a new Direct TV system with a remote that has been redesigned and works so much better than my remote.  Wow it is a great system and it kept us all entertained the whole time we were there.

We parked the motorhome behind the garage on a nice level space that was near enough to plug in the electrical system.  Using the leveling system we got the motorhome nearly perfect leveled.  The water would even run out of the tub!  The first night as I became more and more ill I was so cold in spite of having the furnace on, it was a lousy night so the next night Jerry provided a little space heater which was a powerhouse, I added a third blanket and I wore sweats, I slept better.  By Friday morning I woke feeling much better and during the day Jerry and I went for a moderate walk along a beautiful stream.  Last night we had dinner at a local café and I finally felt better.

I woke today feeling great and Jerry and I took a longer walk, perhaps 3 miles.  I have to be careful about having shortness of breath and he has to be careful about a bum knee but we had a beautiful day with great views of nearby Mt. Shasta that is only about 2 miles from their home.  We saw evidence of many different animals as we walked, bears, coyotes, deer, little mice, various birds and lots of different kinds of brush and trees.  Once we got back from our long walk Donna whipped out a great breakfast of pancakes and eggs, excellent peaches and Marilyn shared some cookies she had brought.  It was about 1:30 when we ate and we talked some more before preparing the motorhome for the trip back.  It was with great sadness that we drove out the driveway.  I just love visiting these very special people who are so gracious and welcoming, have such a cute well maintained home and do such a great job of welcoming us.

Tomorrow I'll have many photos to share but tonight I'm pretty tired, my right arm is still suffering from its tennis elbow which seems to be getting worse and I'm just tired after driving about 6 hours.

The motorhome did just great, it rode smoothly and handles hills easily, brakes well and is a huge pleasure to drive.  Now I just need to get it out more often and enjoy it.

Sending love to all,

Tim