Final Day of our Grand Tour

Almost home!

We drove 614 miles on Thursday, and we decided that was a maximum day of travel, arriving in Nampa—near Boise. This gave us plenty of time to have dinner with our grandson, Tucker, who’s attending college here at Northwest Nazarene University on a baseball scholarship. It was good visiting with him, seeing the beautiful NWN campus and catching up.

The drive was beautiful as it has been every day we’ve traveled. The Rocky Mountains were right in front of us as we drove west through Wyoming, Utah, and Idaho. As each mile whizzed by, the terrain evolved from soft dark green sagebrush contrasting with bright green pasturelands. Sculpted red rocks that looked like castles.

Devil's Slide

We had a bit of a false start this morning. We spent the night in a Walmart parking lot—they give permission, and welcome RV-ers and trucks to park in their lots for free—but unfortunately, we left our headlights on and found a dead battery when it was time to start up and head home. No problem, we have AAA and soon our trusty SQ’s battery was re-charged and we were off.

Eastern Oregon

When we get home, we’ll have driven more than 5,140 miles—98 hours and 45 minutes at the wheel. We’ve traveled through Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Wyoming, Utah, and back through Idaho, Oregon, and finally, our home state, Washington!! It has been wonderful. We have a beautiful country, and we’re grateful to God for the wonderful opportunities He’s given us. 

This morning, we read our usual Love Language Minute Devotional. The verse the author, Gary Chapman, quoted from Ecclesiastes 4:9-10

“Two people are better off than one, for they can help each other succeed. If one person falls, the other can reach out and help. But someone who falls alone is in real trouble.”

Jim and I have found that to be so true. God has truly blessed us with each other. Often Jim tells people we have 84 years of married experience between the two of us. And we do. We’ve learned so many things really don’t matter and we both take the high road on who’s at fault. So, this morning, instead of becoming frustrated with one another over a dead battery, we simply called the AAA number on one phone, while the other looked up our location on the other phone and made some coffee while we waited for the jump. We also realize each day is precious for we don’t know how many days we have left together so we try to make the most of each and every day—with problems and without. 

Our kitty, Shiver, is waiting for us at home in Vancouver. Little does she know we have another adventure, straight ahead. More about that later.

Catcha later…