Wednesday, August 3, 2022

Spokane!

Wow! We’ve been in Spokane a week today and time is flying by. We’re meeting friends for lunch, then another group for dinner. We’re taking boat rides and having breakfast at ZIPS, a local fast food place that serves amazing breakfasts on real tableware. We only have four days left and we’re cramming all we can into them. Every moment is full to the brim with laughter, love, and memories with good, good friends who are like family to us.  

I AM reading your blogs, but am still unable to comment. Please do know that I will be back visiting with you all as soon as I’m back home to my computer. Blogger has beat me again in the commenting game.😒

Last Wednesday we headed up to McDonald pass outside of Helena and then back down the other side. The next two pictures show you the beautiful vistas that we saw. The sky was gorgeous without a cloud in it. Sorry about the spots. Those bugs sure do seem to like our windshield!

Heading down the other side! We can’t even tell that the camper is behind the truck. We go up and down the passes with the cruise control set and the truck never shifts gears. It’s really amazing to me. I hope and pray that the trip home goes just as well.

Thursday night found us meeting with our Bible study group that has now met together for 29 years! We met at our house the entire time we lived in Spokane and now Dennis still leads this group over ZOOM! They just wouldn’t let him go! Thursday night, which is our normal meeting time, we had a potluck dinner and a time of love and laughter! It was so good to be together again after so long.



Friday night was pizza night with our lake friends. Every Friday night in the summer for the last 10 years Dennis has brought pizza to these three couples at the lake including us. He continued that this week and will do it again tomorrow night! Larry, Nita, Paul and Lori and us. The six musketeers!

Saturday morning found us at ZIPS for breakfast with the same people and off we went to “our lake” to go boating in Paul and Lori‘s boat. It was hot that day! I think it got up to 107°F. But we had a wonderful time reliving old memories and making new ones.

Here are Lori, Nita and Larry. Nita and Lori braved the water and were just getting back in the boat after a swim.

I almost didn’t get a picture of Paul, the boat captain. Here he’s in the water swimming and waving as I take the picture.

What a beautiful morning we had. We cruised the perimeter of the lake twice and even went past the place where we had our camper for almost 10 years. We sure miss this place. We couldn’t have asked for a better day or better company.

And this is the resort we’re staying at! Ha! Actually we have our camper parked in Paul and Lori’s driveway. This is known as mooch-docking in the RVing world. They are providing us water and electricity. So far Dennis has only had to pull the camper out once to dump the tanks and we’re hoping we won’t have to pull it out again until we leave. They have a beautiful deck and backyard with a saltwater pool.

Dennis looks like he’s having a serious discussion with Paul after a dip in the pool. The weather has been very, very hot, well over 100° every day since we’ve been here. Tomorrow is supposed to be only in the lower 80s which will be a very nice change. The chair he is sitting in is part of the set we had at the lake. We gave it to Paul and Lori when we moved because we had planned to be traveling and we wouldn’t need any patio furniture. It’s perfect for their deck and we’re glad they have it. The set is two chairs, a loveseat and a coffee table.

This is the view from the door of our camper. Isn’t it great? Lori says it’s just like being at the lake and so right to look out her door and see us parked in their driveway. She says the only difference is her camper is bigger!🏑 They keep saying they don’t want us to leave and I admit it’s going to be very hard.

Tonight we headed up the mountain, Mount Spokane, to Alicia and Jeremy‘s house to have dinner with them and the boys. It was wonderful to see them and the drive was absolutely perfect.

We had so much fun visiting that I completely forgot to take any pictures. I will regret that for a long time to come.

And here is a picture of Miss Piper that Mandy sent to me today. She has made the guestroom closet into her “living room.” This afternoon she was playing a game of Battleship with Lizzie. πŸ˜‚πŸ€£πŸ˜‚ Lizzie sure looks pretty comfortable to me and just look at that sweet smile on my Piper.

I hope all is well with each of you. There have been a few crisis’s at home since we left and it makes it difficult to be away, but we have some great people there taking care of Mom and our house. We appreciate them all. Thank goodness they’re there and willing to help! 

I’ll be back again soon and meanwhile I’ll keep reading your blogs.

Blessings and love,
Betsy

Wednesday, July 27, 2022

Leaving Helena

We left Helena this morning and have about 150 miles left before arriving “home” in Spokane. Here are a few photos that I took this morning as we are driving. Montana is gorgeous. 













Our home away from home. The lived in look!😍





Dennis and our son Jamie at dinner last night at “The Grubstake.” Great food, but an even better time. We miss this kid. He may be 40 with his next birthday but he’s still my baby. This Mama sure hung on tight to him with every hug. And he got several.

Zoey helps Dennis drive from her car seat but likes to nap on my lap.

We had a wonderful time visiting with our son and grandchildren while in Helena and are looking forward to seeing everyone in Spokane. Sorry I haven’t been commenting on blogs. I can’t use my phone or iPad for commenting so it has been difficult. I am reading your blogs though. I’ll be back soon.πŸ’œ

Blessings and hugs,
Betsy

Saturday, July 23, 2022

Black Hills of South Dakota

We’re on our way. Let the adventures begin! I don’t know how often, or if, I’ll have time to post for the next couple of weeks, but this is our first stop. We’re at Fort Welikit outside of Custer, SD.  We have a BIG spot that we love. In fact we have already made reservations to stop here again for a few nights on our way back home. The only issue is there has been no water all day in the campground because of a burst pipe. It’s supposed to be fixed in the next half hour!

Here are some photos of the Needles Hwy we drove this morning. Of course, pictures don’t begin to do justice to this beautiful area. I think it’s my favorite place on earth. Until we moved to Spokane, we vacationed here with our kids every year. First we tent camped and then had a pop-up camper. We took that camper all over the west!

You can barely see one of the driving tunnel entrances in the center of the photo below. We had just driven through it!

Another tunnel as we drove through. We had to put the mirrors in on the truck or we wouldn’t have fit. No RV’s allowed here. πŸ€ͺ

You can see forever!!!

Twisty, hairpin roads that are so much fun to drive. It’s where I learned mountain driving over 40 years ago. 



So gorgeous and perfect weather today with low, low humidity and 75F. Can you ask for anything better?

When I see stunning vistas like these I always think of this verse. It was my Mom’s favorite. 

It was 104F in Rapid City as we drove through yesterday. The truck and camper did great except for a few broken plates and bowls because the cabinet came open.🀷‍♀️
Tomorrow we leave for Helena where we’ll see our two oldest grandkids and our son. I’m SO excited.

Be good and stay well, we’re trying to as well.

Blessings and love,
Betsy