Adjusting

Well, we've been home a couple of weeks now and Lou and Dawn are back at work and school respectively. Don is adjusting to retirement. Don's first adjustment was to setup a calendar. Every day of these past two weeks has been a Saturday. Some sort of schedule needs to be followed without eliminating the purpose of retirement. There are a lot of little tasks to be done around the house and to the RV that keep Don busy. Before the weather gets worse, a trip to Yosemite seems in order, now that the crowds are gone.

San Mateo Fair

We went to the San Mateo County Fair in San Mateo, Ca. This is a pretty good urban fair, still. Don was very interested in the glass blowers. Lou and Dawn love the pig races. There was a very good sand castle being built near the entrance gate.

Glass Blower, Pig Races

Sand Castle
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San Mateo Fair

About The Pictures Of Our Summer Trip

Most of the pictures in this blog are just thumbnails of the actual images. They fit the page better, convey the idea and allow for much faster page loading.
I Have uploaded all the pictures to PhotoWorks and added links on this blog. You can now click on the "See All The Pictures" link on a blog entry and see all the pictures and even order prints of the pictures. You can see the photos in three sizes, thumbnails, medium resolution, high resolution all by clicking on the images. You can also see a slide show of the album. Have fun!

Home

Had a swim and relaxed by the water before leaving.

We drove the rest of the way home in very heavy traffic from North of Vacaville.

It was sure nice to arrive home with the temperature highs in the 70's rather than the 100's we had been in. Lou and Dawn now have a couple of weeks before school starts, Don has to get to work on the house clean-up and repair.
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Home

On The Road Home

We're on the final leg home.
Here is what we look like on the road. Don as the captain of the ship. Dawn working at the PC.

Mr Milo decided it was his turn for the co-pilot seat. He was giving Dawn the "evil eye" for quite a while then when Dawn slipped out of the seat for a moment, he slipped in and defended his right to the seat. Dawn yielded it to him after Mr Milo made it very clear he was going to stay.

Mount Shasta as seen from Hwy 97 North of Weed, CA.

We're spending the night at Marina RV Park in Redding, California alongside the Sacramento River near down town.
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On The Road

John Day Fossil Beds, Oregon

We visited the John Day Fossil Beds and the Cant Ranch both operated by the National Park Service. The Fossil Beds Visitor Center is brand new and the museum isn't open yet, there are just a few displays setup, but they are very interesting. This is a working research center with windows into their lab. The Cant Ranch is the Park headquarters offices and has a little museum about the people who lived in the area. Most of the day was driving toward Bend. We stopped for the night at La Pine SP about 30 miles South of Bend off Hwy 97. This park is beside the Deschutes River in the forest.

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John Day Fossils

Mount Vernon, Oregon

On the road from Oakesdale, Washington. We took a wrong turn leaving Oakesdale on a dirt road. Kind of dustly for about 8 miles. Ruined the wash job from yesterday morning. We stopped in Walla Walla for a walk and lunch downtown at a deli. Then back on the road.

We stopped for dinner and a soak of the feet at a creek on US395 near Dale.

Stopped for the night in Mount Vernon, Oregon at Clyde Holliday State Park. There is a nice trail along the river by some ponds that are good for bird watching. The park is under development and eventually the trail will go to Mt Vernon.

Spokane, Wa

Up early. Washed the RV and the car. Evidently no water shortage here in Cour d’Alene. Looked around town and by the lake before heading for Spokane. Dropped by to see Dawn’s friend Andrea and her friends Gene and Susan. After dinner we hit the road about 1130 pm. We stopped for the night in Oakesdale about 60 miles south of Spokane.

Coeur d’Alene, Id

We went into Missoula and got gas and LP. Don got a couple of shirts at the same place we got LP. Headed out toward Coeur d'Alene. We stopped at a book store in a small town West of Missoula called Alberton that advertised 10,000 books. Dawn found a couple she needed. Now they need to change the signs to 9,998. We checked into an RV park next to the lake at Coeur d'Alene. Here in Coeur d'Alene, there is another of the paint the object like the San Jose Sharks, the Grant's Pass Bears and the Cheyenne Boots. Here they're using Moose. They're all over the downtown area. Tomorrow Spokane.

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Cour d'Alene

Butte, Montanna

We spent the night in Billings, Mt at Wal-Marts. Great location with lawns and picnic tables and a market. We stopped at Lewis and Clark Cave State Park. This is a very nice sandstone cave that, while smaller than either Jewel or Wind cave in South Dakota, has a very nice bunch of formations.


We went to the International Mining Museum in Butte. When leaving the parking lot I managed to get stuck in a dip in the dirt lot and couldn't move. A tow truck nicely winched us out and we hit the road. We're stopped in a rest stop about 40 miles east of Missula, Montanna for the night.


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International Mining MuseumLewis and Clark Cave

Sheridan Laundry

Even on the road, mundane things must be done, like the Laundry. Today was laundry day. While Lou and Dawn went out shopping, I worked on the Blog and got some pictures labeled and published. We hit the road about 2pm. We stopped at "Custer's Last Stand", at Little Big Horn Battlefield. Nothing exciting there though?

Stopped for the night in Billings.

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Little Big Horn

Sheridan, Wy

We arrived in Sheridan Wyoming. We took a trip out to Big Horn to look around. Looked over the cometary there. Some family members are there like my Grandfather (1847-1903). We went to the fair in Sheridan. The big feature is the Pig Wrestling Contest. They have small, free fairs here in Wyoming. No carnivals, no commercial booths.


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Sheridan

Gillette, Wy

We got up early to beat the heat and hiked the Red Bluffs Trail around the outskirts of Devils Tower.






We then headed toward Sheridan. We stopped in Gillette. We found a nice restaurant, Humphrey's (Known everywhere else in the region as Sanford's, but has the different name in Gillette). We went to the fair. An amazing fair complex and it was free. Not all that much there though. We hit the road again and stopped about 7:30pm for the night in a rest stop due to extremely high winds.

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Devils Tower
Gillette

Devils Tower, Wy

We dashed up to take a morning walk around the tower with the ranger. Our primary concern was to get the refrigerator working. It tripped the GFI when we tried to use it on electricity and the gas flame wouldn’t light. A little hairdryer use eventually cleared up both problems. The rain yesterday had been almost horizontal from the left, the side the refrigerator vent is on. We opted to move to the KOA campground just outside the park so we would have air conditioning since it will be about 95 this afternoon.

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Sturgis and Deadwood,SD

Toured Sturgis, SD. They’re preparing for the big biker rally. There are more vendor tents than brick stores. There are more bars than vendors.

We then went to Deadwood. It is now a little Reno but the village atmosphere remains. A nice place to visit but you wouldn’t want to live there.

We headed on to Devils Tower. We ran in to a deluge. It rained so hard we had to pull over when we found a wide spot in the road. Some water got through the windows. We spent a while drying out. We camped in the park for the night. We couldn’t get the refrigerator to stay on.

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Sturgis
Deadwood

Mt Rushmore, SD

We left Comanche Park campground in Custer headed for Mt Rushmore. Boy has Mt Rushmore changed! It’s really been developed and now has a crowd to match. We then headed for Rapid City to get an Oil change and look around.

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Mount Rushmore