A week later

Before lunch in Cottonwood we visited with friends that we used to teach with while at Prairie High School. Next stop was the liquor store for some White Christmas which is the best in Tom and Jerry's or egg nog and Washington doesn't carry it. We drove by the house and snapped a photo. It looks good all repainted and cared for. Seven joined us for lunch. It was great to see all of these friends once again.

We made a rather large cheese haul at Ferdinands Creamery on the WSU campus. Of course, you can't stop without getting ice cream too!

Don won the bet as we stayed in Moses Lake. There was a beautiful sunset lasting from Ritzville to ML. A fitting end to our trip. We got an early start Saturday morning and were home by 10. Home looked awfully good! Had to take a picture of the mail pile!!

We saw so many things and did so much that it will take awhile to process it all. Thank goodness that I have this blog to look at and an expense account that tells where we were each night. If you are going to do any traveling, write things down as you won't remember where you saw something.

We put 11,000 miles on the car which is about a years worth. While we enjoyed the trip and all that we did, it got a little long. I would go back to New England again, but maybe for shorter periods of time. There are parts of every state that we didn't see. For the most part, the large cities weren't explored.

We saw so many family and friends along the way that enriched the travel and gave us a break from motels. We thank you all for your hospitality.

For now, I will work on captioning the pictures and reliving the memories. Thank you for reading the blog. Knowing that people were waiting to see what we were doing, kept me writing.

And more visiting

While in SLC, Don and Rick went for a long hike. I spent the day with Rick's former wife. We had a great time visiting and going to quilt shops. Glad that it worked to reconnect.
On our way to Twin Falls, we stopped at Promotory Point where they drove the golden spike when the transcontinnetal railroad was complete. You can still see the grades that were made on the hillside.
Close to that is Thiakole where they make rocket fuel and the booster rockets. Out in front of the buildings is a good sized display of rocket and missles. They have the booster from the space shuttle. According to the info to read, when those boosters are recovered they come to this facility to be refurbished for the next launch. Quite interesting--I didn't know it was there.
We met Maggie for dinner then opted to stay at her house. Enjoyed catching up. She is one of those people that I can visit with and it as if no time has passed since the last visit.
Today we drove to Grangeville for the night. Don went for a run and I met with Susie who I worked with during our 4-H years. We chatted up a storm!!
Tomorrow we are having lunch with Prairie friends then on to Ferdinands for a large cheese order. I say we will go straight home; Don says we will go part way. Any bets?

Visiting along the way

We spent the weekend with our friends Keith and Arleen and their son, Kevin. We went to college with Keith and have enjoyed his pottery for many years. They moved to Cheyenne about 4 years ago. Arleen is a nurse and now doing the administrative side. They have purchased land just out of town, planted many, many trees and are planning to build. We got in on pumpkin carving and the excitment of young people trick or treating. It was a great visit and a welcome respite from travel. You can't have to many friends, wish these guys didn't live so far away.
Today we drove to Salt Lake City--now there is an expanse of mostly nothingness along Interstate 80. We are staying with Rick for two nights before we continue homeward.