August 19 (Day 111) – August 20 (Day 112) – The Last Leg Home

My concern about wrestling with SLC traffic turned out to be unfounded and we soon were on I-15 to I-84 and main lining it for home.  We did our longest motorhome day ever at 680 miles before settling in to the last campsite at Deschutes River State Recreation Area about 100 miles from home.  A short hop and a skip from there to home found us unloading the coach just after noon in our very own driveway with 112 days and 11,077 miles on our trip odometer.  And what wonderful miles they were.  

It's been a great trip with wonderful memories we'll enjoy for years.  It's good to be home, and we appreciated the work Derrick and Tricia did to take care of our home.  They purchased their first home and moved a couple of weeks before we returned home, so we returned to an empty nest.  The summer at home was very hot, but fortunately it's been cooler since we returned home. 

We have enjoyed sharing our summer's travels with you through this blog, and especially liked the comments and shared experiences we heard from you along the way.  We'll be home until our annual winter trip south in January with a couple of short weekend getaways.  We're very excited for the upcoming birth of our 11th grandchild, Dawn Iris Abbey, due October 2nd to Tricia and Derrick.  It will be our first grandchild to live in the same community with us, and we're looking forward to pampering Dawn when she arrives.

Stay in touch and happy travels!

Denny and Michele

IL to home

August 7 (Day 99) – August 18 (Day 110) – Sterling to Englewood, CO to Salt Lake City, UT

We left a wonderful family visit in Sterling behind and within a few miles crossed the Mississippi River into Iowa and endless miles of corn and soy beans.  In fact, from Ohio to the Nebraska/Colorado line we saw corn miles deep and more miles long everywhere we looked.  It’s hard to believe we have world hunger when you drive through that tunnel of corn.  We began to see many motorcycles headed east on the Interstate and when we realized they were mostly Harley Davidsons it dawned on us that Sturgis was just breaking up.  Event organizers estimated over 1 million riders came Sturgis way this year – I think I’ll pass!  We boon docked in a Wal Mart near Ogallala, Nebraska along with many Sturgis escapees trailering their bikes and headed home.  It did tickle my bike spirit with a reminder of my fine BMW GT parked on the lift in my shop.

We got an early start from Ogallala and pulled into grandson Jordan’s place in Englewood just after noon.  Todd brought out an extension chord with a 3-way plug that turned out to be mis-wired for 220 VAC instead of to code at 120 VAC.  We fried our inverter/charger and our transfer switch and had to have both replaced in the driveway.  After our first glimpse of our new great grandson Zachary Tai we settled in for a nice family visit with son Todd and Kathy, grandson Jordan and Ruth, and granddaughter Nichole, James and our other three greats - Aiden, Emma and Jaxson.  Zachary is a wonderful new born and raised our family in the Denver area to ten in number. 

August 15 (Day 107) – August 18 (Day 110) – Englewood to Salt Lake City, UT

We planned a weekend escape from the greater Denver area and before long we were headed north to Cheyenne, WY and back on to I-80 west bound.  We found a wonderful RV park in Lyman, WY – a real sleeper and within striking distance of SLC the next day.  We arrived at nephew JR and Lori’s home where they slid us into their deep driveway and plugged us in.  We stayed with Michele’s mother while in SLC and toured brother/sister-in-law Brent and Magali’s new project at the foot of the Wasatch Mountains with magnificent views of the valley.  Twas time to have my CAT engine serviced and I spent several hours at the local truck stop.