March

With the bathroom finally finished, we decided to get on the road. I had boxes in the garage that needed to be delivered. They were things that were set aside from Cyndi's house to give to Dennis, Emily and Lindy. With all the cold weather and snow here, it sounded like a great idea to travel south and find some warmth and sunshine. Well, we had a great time seeing everyone along the way, got the boxes all delivered, but warmth and sunshine was not on the schedule. It was unusually cold and rainy from California, Arizona, Texas and Colorado had its usual snowy weather.

Here are some photos from before we left.

First stop was Gabe and Daniel's place in California. I was late for Gabe's birthday and early for Daniel's birthday. But they didn't mind at all as we went for what they call the 'shopping spree'. We had a good time picking out their gifts and finished off with a stop at Baskin Robins.

They gave us a string concert. Gabe has been at violin and bass for a few years, Daniel took up the violin at semester and Dennis decided a couple of months ago that he wanted to learn the cello. He has been teaching himself, along with input from Gabe and Daniel. Abby printed up a program for the evening's concert. It was pretty impressive. I will try once again to add in video, but it just doesn't seem to work with my computer.

The next night Gabe had a string performance. It was between schools but not a competition.  His school did great!

While we were there, we celebrated Pi day with pies Abby made. Chicken pot pie and lemon meringue, so good!!

We had to head out the next morning. We drove to Lake Havasu to say hello to Carly, then went to Tucson to see Mark and Terri.

Terri had a cool cactus. It was done blooming, but left these awesome pineapples in their place.

It was a two day drive to get to Emily's, we spent the night in Fort Stockton. 

And here is the world's largest Roadrunner.

It was so unreal visiting Emily, Matthew and Beau! To see my little grand-daughter turned into a mother, wow!

Grandpa built them a firepit at their new house.

Beau was full of laughs and smiles!

We headed north to Colorado to see Lindy and the Sandys. We stopped along the way in Amarillo to see the Cadillac ranch. It is something I have seen on my photo sites and thought I had see it in person. Well, it wasn't at all what I had expected. I can check it off my list, but would never tell anyone they had to see it. I think it was a waste of time. 10 Cadillacs buried and covered in spray paint. Glad it was free and not out of our way.

It has been over a year since I have seen Lindy. It was really good to see her again. I didn't know how much I needed our time together!

We got to see all of the Sandys except Luke who was away at college.

We were treated to a beautiful snowy sunrise on Pike's Peak. Right from their living room!

And then we began the journey back to Oregon. We hoped to make it in two days. But winter weather held us up. We got to Rawlins and the hwy was closed down! Road reports said maybe 4 hour delay. We started thinking it over, took stock of the rations in the truck and figured we would wait it out. Next came the updated report that it might not open for hours longer. We decided that by then it would be dark and we would not want to risk high winds and ice in the dark, so John did a bit of 4-wheeling right through the patch of grass between the hwys and we headed back and found a hotel before the flood of people started doing the same thing. As we were driving back the semi-trucks and cars were lined up 4 deep for miles. We were so glad we left. The next morning, we woke up at 4 and I checked the road report. It said it was open, so we were on the road by 4:30! It was clear and easy going for miles and miles. Then just as it was starting to get light out, it began snowing, with wind. It was totally white out. We knew we should not stop and risk getting rear ended, so we kept our eyes on the tiny bit of pavement we could see.  Pretty soon, we came upon two snow plows. We got right behind then and slowly followed them out of the storm. After that we did hours and hours more of driving and still made it home in 2 days like we had planned.

Here are a few drive-by shots from our marathon drive home.

Bluebonnets along the freeway.

Cotton fields just after harvesting.

It was nice to see these grandkids again once we arrived! We made giant chocolate chip cookies to celebrate.

Josiah and his magic trick. :)

It was a great trip and we are home and ready for spring. But it just keeps on snowing here. Each morning we wake up to a dusting, it melts and repeats the next day. During the day, we have hail and snow and rain. It is super cold. It is April!  Come on Springtime!!!