I Love My Jeep

I have had a busy couple of days.

Turns out that I ended up NOT going to Moses Lake, because my friend from Spokane was sick and thus not able to come to the travel festival Saturday. Soooooooooo, I stayed home and got up at.....check it out.....2:30am. Left my house about 3:40am and arrived in Edmonds around 8:20am. It was a perfect drive over the pass with just a little rain. No big deal.

Without having Angie to help on the drive home, I decided to stay in western Washington Saturday night. Thank you to cousin Mary Ann & Zip for their great hospitality. We even went to church Sunday morning before I headed back over the hill. But first, the travel festival.

Sarah was running late, but arrived at the "Greece" seminar about 9:05am. Her mom & aunt dropped her off and headed to the mall for some shopping. So after the first seminar (which was absolutely great by the way) we went and checked out some of the luggage and other travel items at Rick Steves' travel store. Then we had lunch before heading off to our next seminar - "Packing Light". I've taken that class about 3 times, but I always pick up some little tidbit that keeps the luggage to under 20 pounds. The last class I had signed up for was "Paris & Outlying Day Trips". Sarah's mom stayed with me for that, while Sarah and her aunt went to one on "Spain & Portugal". And as long as I was staying overnight, I decided to stay with the group for the class on "Italy". It was very good, and actually presented by Rick Steves.

I got to my cousin's place about 8:30pm Saturday night. We stayed up and chatted until almost 11:00pm. You can better believe that I was tired, having not been able to take a nap ALL day. I was asleep almost immediately.

After church on Sunday as I was headed over the pass, there was a big flashing sign that said CHAINS REQUIRED OVER SNOQUALMIE PASS. As I went on, they modified the requirements to say "chains required on all vehicles unless your car has all wheel drive", which of course my Jeep does have. I got the BIGGEST smile on my face and thinking"bring on the snow. Let's do this". As we got to the chain up area, of course all of the trucks were pulled over, along with many cars. I just kept saying under my breath, "you guys need a jeep". It was great. No problem getting over the pass.

Sunday was a bad-weather day for Tri-Cities. Wind, wind, wind. I guess wind gusts exceeded 50 mph. I didn't think much of it until I got home and immediately thought. You know, there are good things and bad things that happen because of the wind. The good - all of the leaves in my front yard were gone, now clinging to the fence on the east side of the yard. The bad - the wind had knocked over my 55-gallon drums and threw them all over the pasture. Three have been picked up, but the 4th one is still tipped over and residing in the far-reaches of the pasture.

Today was a nice kick-back day. I went to the store this afternoon to pick up the remaining ingredients for the items I'm taking for Thanksgiving dinner. Also gassed up the jeep to be ready for an early morning drive tomorrow to Spokane - leaving the house before 7am.

I've got a doctor's appointment in the morning with my regular doc. I'm heading to my sister's after that visit. My dog will be my co-pilot. I'm not sure if she is ready to go back and visit with the corgis. I heard they weigh almost 35 pounds now. And Sassie - she weighs 14-1/2 pounds. But she's still the doggie matriarch and I don't think the other guys will mess with her.

I'm watching the finals of DWTS and then it is off to bed. G'nite to all of my blogger friends.