Home to St. George, UT

Tuesday, December 22 - Today we left home and drove to Pendleton, Oregon.  If you have been following my blog, you know that, when we head southeast, Mom and Dad like to spend the first night at the Wildhorse Casino in Pendleton.  It's a nice day's drive and we can park free in the Casino parking lot.  There aren't any hook-ups, but it's a safe, level place to park, which is all we need.

 Dad and I with the Christmas Decorations in front of the Casino.

Wednesday, December 23 - Today we drove from Pendleton, Oregon to Twin Falls, Idaho.  

In the mountain passes, there was snow along the side of the road, but the road itself was clear and dry.  A perfect day for winter travel.

 

Me hanging out at Mom's feet.  It's warm here in front of the heat vent.  It's kinda cold back on my couch.

People sometimes ask me how we keep warm.  The motor home has dash heat, just like a car.  It does a pretty good job of keeping the front of the motor home warm, where Mom and Dad sit when we are going down the road.  At night when we park, we have a propane furnace and electric space heaters.  Mom and Dad also have an electric blanket.  We can use some or all of them to be just as toasty warm as we want to be. 

Thursday, December 24 - Today our plan is to drive from Twin Falls, Idaho to Provo, UT.   Mom and Dad got everything ready to hit the road and then we went out for a walk, so I could "take care of business".  While we were out, Dad looked up at the side of the motor home and noticed a "small" problem.

For those of you who aren't familiar with motor homes, the arrows point to the "slide toppers".  They are canvas type material which keep leaves and dirt from accumulating on top of the slide and coming inside the motor home when the slides are closed.  They should automatically wind around a roller (kind of like a window shade) when the slide is retracted, so you shouldn't be able to see the one under the blue arrow and the one under the yellow arrow should be tight, not billowing like that.  When we went for our walk, this side of the motor home was facing north and still in the shade.  Both slides were hanging in a flap on the outside of the motor home, like the one below the blue arrow.  That's a big problem because the wind will catch them, if we drive down the road.

It was 17 degrees last night and Dad thinks that the roller has probably frozen and that is why it won't roll up.  Dad is hoping that turning around, the sun will warm it and they will rewind on their own.  In this photo, we are turned around and Dad is bringing the slide out to see if the awning will retract when the slide comes back in. 

It didn't!😨  Mom stopped taking pictures to help Dad and it was too cold and windy for me to go out, so I'll just have to tell you what happened next.  Dad got out the ladder and started fiddling with the front slide topper.  After some fiddling and jiggling, it broke loose and wound up like it should.  Then, Mom brought in the rear slide and it was already thawed, so it wound up, just like it was supposed to.  I think it would have been OK if we'd just sat there a little, but Dad felt better trying to fix it.  Anyway, it was only an hour delay.  No damage.  No expense.  That's a good day RVing!

Once we were on the road, it was smooth sailing into Provo.  

Mom taking a turn at driving

More good weather.  Pretty snow along the road, but the road itself is clear and dry.

Friday, December 25 - After a good night at the Provo Elks Lodge, we were back on I-15, headed south.

Christmas morning at the Provo Elks Lodge.

Our spot for the next few nights at the Elks Lodge in St. George, Utah.

After we got parked, Mom and Dad took a short hike in Pioneer Park, here in St. George.

After their hike, they went to the Red Hills Desert Garden in Pioneer Park.  They have a special Christmas Light display.  Here are some of their photos.

We are staying in St. George for four nights.  This is just Day 1.  I'll tell you about the rest next time.

Love,

Doolin

 

Merry Christmas

Mom and Dad asked me to write our Christmas letter this year.  

Last Christmas seems like a long time ago.  We drove the motor home to Texas and spent several weeks in New Mexico and Arizona on the way home.  If you haven't been following my blog, you can look in the history and read what I had to say about that trip.  We got home in February, about a week before Seattle became the first US place for a Covid diagnosis.  

Since I'm a dog, I don't have to be worried about catching Covid.  My only real concern is that Mom and Dad stay healthy, so they are around to feed me and pet me.  Lucky for me, having them home with me is the best way for them to stay healthy.  As far as I'm concerned, 2020 has been the best year ever! 

At first, Mom and Dad stayed home all the time.  We went for almost daily walks in the neighborhood, but that was about it.  After a few weeks, Mom and Dad went to the grocery store and used Mom's All Trails app to find some new places to go hike, where they wouldn't run into crowds.  They found a great area that they never knew about.  It's only about 30 minutes from our house, has miles and miles of trails, and isn't very popular, so most of the times they are alone in the woods.  They sometimes go 5-7 miles and my old bones can't do that anymore, so I stay home and take a nap. 

After a couple months, they decided that "staying home" was getting kind of boring, but then they realized - we have a second home and it has wheels!!  Seems like it should be OK to stay there!  So, we packed up and spent a long weekend near Tillamook, Oregon (on the Oregon coast).  We all enjoyed something different to look at, so they decided to take the house on wheels to Cle Elum, Washington (in the Cascade Mountains) in June.  That became a pattern - about once a month, we'd move into the house on wheels and drive it somewhere for a few days.  Mom and Dad would go for a hike or a drive.  It was fun.

So much fun that in mid-September, we took the house on wheels to Idaho and were gone for just over a month.  It was our first trip to Northern Idaho and we all enjoyed it.  I wrote about it in this blog, so you can go back to my older posts to read about it, if you missed it.   

Mom and Dad decided that they wouldn't go to Texas this Christmas.  Granddaddy's Assisted Living isn't allowing visitors.  Instead, we've decided to "stay home" in the house on wheels.  We left the stationary house on Tuesday, December 22.  We have a campsite reserved at Lost Dutchman State Park near Phoenix, starting on January 2 for two weeks.  Not sure what happens after that, but I'll tell you more next time.

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Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to All!

Love, 

Doolin