Portland, OR

We've been in Portland for a week and are both working on catching up on all the "lists" of things we've saved until we were stopped for a while. Tom has washed both the truck and rig, cleaned the water heater, made a new holder for his extra sewer hose, got new shoes on Tug (tires) and other things I can't remember. Donna has done the "pink" jobs - laundry, defrosting the freezer, cleaning cabinets, etc. Fun, fun, fun!

We have also been able to see our friends, Ralph and Cheryl Schey. We have spent time with them on several different occasions around the country. They have just returned from two months in Alaska. Our other frequent and very welcome visitor is our daughter, Sarah. She and Donna have an on-going Phase 10 tournament - Sarah's ahead this year! She is one of the big reasons we come to Portland. Doctor visits are also on the "lists".

It's not as exciting as all of our travels, but it's great to have some time to kick back in one place for a month or so. By the way - the weather is fantastic here this time of year!!

Glacier National Park

Beautiful mountain relection near Many Glaciers

We loved the Glacier National Park! It's very different from Yellowstone. It's very grand, with large mountains, lots of green trees and winding roads. We took the free shuttle on the Going-To-The-Sun Road both over and back. It's a great way to take that road and be able to relax and take pictures. It stops several places so a person can explore as much as he wants. We also went to Many Glaciers which was a long but very beautiful drive. We would recommend Glacier to everyone. It's a hikers' paradise. Although we are not hikers, there were some very nice walks we took . The weather was just about perfect, too.

Now it's on to Portland, OR, where we'll be settling down for at least a month. We'll keep you posted about our time there too.

Yellowstone National Park

Grizzly....oh my!

Thermal basins.....oh the smell of sulfur....phew!

Yes, Tom saw a grizzly and managed to get a picture of it. Yellowstone is as beautiful as everyone who has been there says it is. We traveled around the loop for two days, saw Old Faithful, the thermal basins, moose, waterfalls, cascades, and mountains. We stayed at Yellowstone Grizzly RV Park and would highly recommend it. It's fairly expensive, but a great park and only four blocks from Yellowstone. It was a great experience for us to be in that area.

Now, we're on our way to Glacier National Park and we're looking forward to seeing it. We've heard great things about it. Some say it's even more beautiful than Yellowstone. We'll see. We love being back in the west again.

Soon we'll be seeing both of our daughters and our granddaughter. Julia will be four in September and she's just an amazing child. Of course, we're not at all prejudiced!

Medora, ND

Doe checking us out

Bison making their way across the road

This has been a fun week of exploring, enjoying and relaxing. We have driven both the north and south loops of the Theodore Roosevelt National Park seeing bison, deer, prairie dogs, prong antelope and wild horses (Donna's favorite). We saw the Medora Musical - very good. It's been going for 50 years! The entertainment was great. We went to the 4-M Revue - two very funny and talented guys and we just enjoyed the area. North Dakota has been a pleasant experience for us (other than our two "incidents" earlier in the week) and we're glad we took the time to see it. We'd both recommend a visit to Medora and the National Park here. Just make sure you have your groceries before you get here. There are NO grocery stores! Twenty-three miles is the closest one. Tom had withdrawal from Wal-Mart!

Monday we start our trek across Montana to Yellowstone. We're excited to see Old Faithful and the rest of the park.