Sometimes It Feels Like a Long Lost Friend

Back home again...we made it with no more mishaps. Now we're going to spend the next couple of days getting back to what passes for normal here at the Three Cats Ranch. Today I'm just writing a quick post to show you a few of the things we saw on the way home.

Gorgeous Fall color:

We were still in Wyoming when we passed a sign warning us that we were driving on an open range. Around the next bend, we saw this real-life cowboy rounding up some strays that had wandered a little too close to the road.

Not too long after that, we rounded a bend and caught our first view of the Grand Teton Mountains. And a little further on, we drove right through the park. We visited the Tetons just two years ago, and so we stopped for a quick picture, then drove on. If you've never been there, you simply must go at some point in your life.

There were cattle and horses grazing just in front of them. A sign told us that there had at one time been a huge cattle ranching operation here. Now, the horses and cattle belong to the national park.

It is an incredible landscape.

We drove on through Idaho, stopping for a quick visit with my friend Marei who just recently moved to beautiful Swan Valley, Idaho. To call her new place a private piece of heaven would not be an exaggeration. Marei and her husband chose wisely indeed.

And then, on to Oregon, beautiful Oregon. Whenever we travel, we always consider whether we could live in this place or that. And when we get home, we are always incredibly grateful for our home in Oregon. I imagine everyone feels that way about their home. Here's the city of Portland. 

Another 45 minutes west, and we arrived at the Three Cats Ranch, where two cats were very happy to be liberated from the trailer.

Smitty has already had a couple of meals of mouse. I didn't take any pictures. You're welcome.

The potted annuals are pretty much done in after being neglected for a month. There were a few tomatoes, but the plants are looking pretty sad. The plums are gone, and the only ones I bit into before we left were so tart they made my jaw hurt. Thanks to the work of the squirrels this summer (those that survived Smitty's snapping jaws), there were blooming sunflowers.

We've brought in a few things from the trailer so far, but the major packing will begin in earnest this afternoon. First, I need to go to the grocery store since there is not a crumb of food left in the house...or in the trailer either, for that matter. There is cat food, however, so the world can continue turning on its axis.

Before I finish up today, I wanted to say a few words about RV travel and the dreaded mechanical problems that are inherent in this kind of a trip. If you've been following this blog and our travels over the past four years, then you know we've experienced tire tread separations, found our bed infested with carpenter ants, had our awning rip clean off the side of the trailer without making a sound, experienced a burned out jack motor and subsequent broken jack complete with trailer falling on that side. The jack is now broken for a second time. Mike will be replacing both jacks with hydraulic ones that are better up to the task. We've run into other cars, and been run into. We've had kitties escape from the trailer and go missing for hours. We've driven into flood zones of Biblical proportion (the weather man's words, not mine). Oh, and let's not forget leaking plumbing and leaky roofs (because some low-hanging limbs ripped a hole in the roofing material). Now I can say that we've had our largest slide get stuck in the out position. Yes, RV travel has its challenges.

But here's the thing: for our money, it's still the best way to travel. Travel is inconvenient...not just RV travel. Who hasn't experienced mechanical problems on the road? Tire problems? Who hasn't had a flight canceled or delayed, or dealt with surly ticket agents and security people? Who hasn't sat next to a crying baby on an airplane? Who hasn't eaten bad food in a restaurant, or experienced terrible service, or waited an impossibly long time for a bill just so that one could leave? Who hasn't slept on an uncomfortable motel/hotel room bed or used a too-flat or too-fluffy pillow? Oh yes, and bed bugs, anyone? Who hasn't heard noisy plumbing in the middle of the night or been awakened by loud voices in the hallway? Who hasn't experienced traveler's, um, toileting issues, including disgustingly unclean public restrooms, or empty toilet paper rolls? Who hasn't eaten or drunk something that made them sick?

When we travel by RV, we cook our own food, use our own toilet, sleep in our own bed--which, by the way, is the exact same sleep number mattress we use at home. When we want a snack, we get one from our own stock of food in our own cupboards and refrigerator, including ice cream. There are no suitcases involved because our clothes are hanging in our own closet and tucked away in our own drawers. Our RV includes a washer/dryer combo, and so we are not forced to us public laundromats, and those are only a few of the advantages we enjoy. Besides, we get to bring our kitties along, and so they aren't boarded with the problems inherent there.

I saw this on Facebook recently, and it seems a good way to think of problems while traveling in an RV.

RV travel isn't for everyone...and it certainly isn't for the mechanically disinclined. Mike happens to be an engineer and a good mechanic, and so he can usually fix anything that breaks. If he can't fix it himself, he knows how and where to get it fixed. Even on our worst trips (and this might be one of them), we still love traveling by RV. It's the best way to see the world, in our humble opinion, and if we could figure out some way to take an RV to Europe, Australia, or the Caribbean, we would do it in a heartbeat. When mechanical or weather problems happen, we just deal with them, gripe about them, and then brush them off when all is well again. And when we talk about the problems in the past-tense, there is always something to laugh about. It's all part of the journey.

As for me, I practically grew up RVing. My family traveled from West Coast to East Coast and all the way back again in the trailer you see here by the time I was seven. We visited national parks all along the way, and I never feel more at home than when I step out the door and find myself among the tall trees. It was a good life, and it still is. Our trailer then had an ice box...not a refrigerator...and we used pit toilets more often than not. There was no GPS, no cell phones, and yet, we loved it. 

So I didn't mean to get off on all of that, but there you go. And now, I really must get a move on and get to the grocery store. And don't be thinking that I'm not watching the calendar because the NewFO Challenge goes live on Tuesday. Are you ready?