August 19.

Today would be Grandma Juls 90th birthday and that made me sad when I woke up. It seems like we have had very full lives the last couple weeks getting ready to head east. We got some goodtimes in with Dan&Nat and I got to be with Alicia and Sherri and Ann enough to catch up again at least. We were fortunate enough to eat pollo en crema at Waylon&Beths with friends, and jalapeno poppers with good conversation at Gordon&Daphnes another evening. Probably my oldest and best friend Jerica came out the 8th and we spent a couple days along the coast. We spent an afternoon at Alcatraz which is like one of my favorite things to do in California, and drove the 1 down to Santa Cruz where we spent a day watching dolphins and surfers and talking about everything. We spent a low-key couple days around home before she left the 13th and it was so wonderful to have a girls weekend again!

Kandis and co. have been here this week so Kellie, Kandis, Mom, and Morgan and I have been spending a lot of time together! We went to the Turlock sale on Tuesday, swimming another day, had “supper spaghetti” for lunch at Grandpa Orville’s’ one day, and had good conversations in between playing with the nieces and nephews. It’s been so fun.

Meanwhile in the in-betweens, Levi redid some painting in the bus, Morgan has put in a new water filter and fixed some bus issues, and I’ve washed all the bedding and repacked our closet boxes. We gave the bus a good scrubbing and now I think we are finally ready to leave. I went to Fresno at noon and picked up Madison so that is exciting to have her here!

The family came for a quick supper this evening and we left around 7, us in the bus and Madison in the Jeep behind us. I’m pretty sure she made a Dutch Bros stop already because she disappeared ahead of us and now she’s back behind us. We had planned to take the south route on I40 but due to Hurricane Hilary, the once in a century storm making landfall by San Diego, everywhere along that route is supposed to be getting a lot of rain and flooding so we changed plans. Now we are headed up thru Sacramento and over the Donner Pass on I80 which is great because we love that drive. Since we have already road tripped there before, we know the coffee shops we like and want to stop at:) plus boondocking by ourselves in the desert wherever we want is so fun. We hope to be at Moms house in Gardenview by Tuesday evening the Lord willing.

August 20.

We got to just outside Reno last night around midnight and parked in a Cabelas lot for the night. This morning we saw the “No Overnight Parking” signs but luckily we were undisturbed. It rained lightly all night so it’s so beautiful and cool outside this morning. I actually had to get out my Pendleton blanket and cozy up on the couch because I was *almost* chilly. An anomaly for me as you all know. We made a stop in Fernley for maple lattes at Freedom Espresso before settling in to drive.

Apparently the storm system has grown because we have been driving in light rain most of the day. We stopped for lunch in Elko and Madison had got in touch with Carlynn&Brooke who happened to be driving I80 also so we had lunch with them which was so cool and way too short. I love happenstance meetings in random places with old friends.

We had a pretty boring day driving with Morgan and I in the bus and Madi in the jeep although we did go through pretty mountains and sunset desert. I drove the bus for awhile and admired the sunflowers and yucca and red hued rocks. We got a site at an RV park in Evanston, Wyoming and arrived there around 10. Yayy for showers that make you feel like a million bucks after grungy road traveling. 👋