Jan 5, 2008 HOME!!!! (Well, Kamloops, anyway)

Last night was spent across the freeway from the Seattle Temple. First we spent a couple of hours unwinding before we headed to Deseret Books. After denting the budget and beefing up our library, CD and DVD collections we headed off for dinner at Applebee's. Thanks to a gift card for Gary and Doris, much of the cost of dinner was covered. The internet at the hotel was excruciatingly slow, so I didn't get to any blogging.

After an early but restless night for me. . .my thermostat started acting up around 3am. . .Ron and I got up early and headed for the Temple. We got there to find that the maintenance dates posted online were erroneous (or we somehow misinterpreted them) and the Temple was actually closed.

We ended-up hitting the road a bit earlier than we had originally thought we would and I think our band of travellers were just ahead of a big wind storm once again. We had toyed with the idea of visiting Sean, Desiree and Alexis in the lower mainland on our way through, but they were busy today and we couldn't quite make it work this time. We will try to get down there in a few weeks when the weather is a bit more conducive for travel.

We had clear sailing at the border, I think it took us about 5 minutes total to clear it. . There appeared to be a bit of a back-up headed south, though.

I'm not sure the kids will be able to locate all of their "church gear" in the morning and we are supposed to be there for the morning session tomorrow. This place is total chaos (imagine that!) . . .the kids are so tired we have several long faces and short tempers flaring around here. The trailer is still hitched and mostly unloaded. We will finish that in slow motion in the the daylight tomorrow. I think Ron may be going by himself to church so the kids can get rested and organized for the upcoming week and I will stay here and try to keep the peace.

Jan 3, 2008 (On the road)

Today we got off to a late start in Redding. We didn't even rouse until 8:30. Then the morning was wet, white and wild. We hit sleet and snow around Dunsmuir, Ca. When we stopped for fuel in Weed, the wind was howling and we decided to stay on I-5 instead of taking 97 through Klamath Falls as we had originally intended. Just as we left town, we saw the CHP stopping everyone southbound for chain controls. The snow changed back to sleet, then rain until just about the Siskiyou summit where we were back into snow. I'm fairly sure we were just ahead of the chain controls once again.

We were blessed with fairly tame weather most of the drive and I'm certain we made the right choice in "following the Spirit" and changing our planned route in Weed. We are now just south of Portland for the night and we will be headed at least as far as Seattle tomorrow. It may be a short drive day, but this way Ron and I will be able to attend the Temple there. We thought about attending the Temple here in the morning, but this one is closed until Jan 15 for cleaning/maintenance. . .OH well.

Right now it looks as though we won't get home until some time late Saturday or even possibly not until Sunday.

Date??? What is the date??? Let's see, sometime early in 2008. . . the 2nd???

We are stopped at our favorite La Quinta in Redding, Ca on our trek back to the north. It has been a very hectic, eventful and fun but exhausting several weeks.

I will be filling everyone in on details of our trip and trying to get around to everyone`s blogs over the next week or two. I have been offline for so long, that tonight my unread emails numbered over 250. I certainly have missed visiting all my online buddies.

Fortunately we had nice weather today and maybe we will be blessed with a fairly uneventful trip home. I don`t know why, but the border crossing always makes me just a little anxious. We are hoping to get home and have the trailer (which is packed to the gunnels) basically unloaded, and get rested up before school on Monday.

Hope everyone is enjoying a nice start to 2008.