New Mexico Jaunt
October 5-17, 2025
Sunday, Oct 5
High Country Lane to
Springville, UT
522 miles
We pull out of High
Country Lane shortly before 7am, Spur looking sad in the garage
entry. First stop is the church to drop off the Backpack bins in the
back of the car, letter mailed, then gas and coffee at the Maverick
station. NOW on the road south!!
Rick drives us
through Boise traffic (not as bad on a Sunday) and stops at the rest
area on the east side of town. I then take over the wheel for the
‘scenic’ stretch of southern Idaho, which in the fall is a little
bleak!
The day is perfect
driving temperature...hovering around the mid 50’s. (It was mid
30’s when we left Baker City!) But big clouds are forming in the
east!
Quick stop at a gas
station in Burley to get drinks and pull a few things out of the food
boxes/ ice chest for a snacking on the road lunch. I drive to the
second rest stop on 1-15 just north of the Utah border. That’s 200
miles and enough for my share of the day. I have more pieces of
Kai’s stable to finish in Needlepoint!
Rick runs into the
storm in northern Utah – heavy rain briefly while we can see blue
sky ahead! By the time we make the Wasatch Mountain run, the peaks
are covered in snow and they are beautiful!
We pull into our
Microtel in Springville around 4:30 MT. Have been upgraded to a
suite which is large and spacious!
Quiet evening –
Rick watching football. We eat the leftover quiche from the other
night. I walk around the floors for abit talking to Annalea who is
just getting to the house. We plan out a route on some roads we
haven’t taken before to get down to Rusty and Anne’s in Bluff
tomorrow.
A few pictures along the way...
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| Some flowers in bloom at the rest stop near Ontario |
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| Blue skies and a rain storm! |
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| Wasatch Mt beauty outside Provo...taken from motel window |
MONDAY, October 6
Springville to
Bluff, UT
388 miles
What a day for some
GORGEOUS scenery!
We arise, eat some
breakfast, and check out by 8am. Gas up at the Love’s (just
topping off, but the price was right!) and then on our way. Once we
checked the map again in the car, we altered our route to include a
road that Rick had seen earlier that cut off from Hwy 89 at the town
of Fairview, and cut UP UP UP to a 9500’ pass before dropping DOWN
DOWN DOWN to Huntington. Our road was lined with aspen trees,
cottonwood, lots of junipers. The colors were amazing! We thought
we were going to miss the fall colors by not going through Colorado,
but ….WOW! Between the aspens and the redrock, I probably took 100
pictures today!
We went through
Torrey and the upper part of Capital Reef National Park – red rock
walls and canyons everywhere. I thought they would end at
Hanksville, and the terrain did level out for abit, but then we wound
down through gulch and canyon and red rock past Natural Bridges and
over to Blanding. The rock formations just never ended! Plus we
actually saw water in the Colorado River.
Into Rusty and
Anne’s place in Bluff by 3:30pm. Visit and get the house tour
before meeting Rusty’s sister Janice at the local Smokehouse (the
only restaurant open in town tonight).
Left the restaurant
in time to see the full moon rise over the rock formations. Amazing.
I'll let the photos tell the rest of the story...
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| The top of the pass on Hwy 31 |
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| Leaving Capital Reef area |
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| Full moon rise from Bluff |
TUESDAY, October 7
Bluff, Utah
A rather lazy
morning as we enjoyed cinnamon rolls, sausage and blueberries before
finally leaving for a slickrock hike around 9:45! The moon was just
setting when I went to join Rusty and Anne around 7am.
Hike highlights….I
rode with Rusty’s sister Janice and her dog Caddy, while Rusty and
Rick drove with the other three dogs – the hiking area was only
about 10 minutes from their house. We didn’t go clear to the top
of the ridge because Belle was still recovering from her rattlesnake
bite a couple weeks ago. (Life in the southwest!) Love the potholes
in the rocks, some filled with water. Prickly pear and Mormon tea
that seems to exist in nonexistent soil.
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| Starting out on sliprock trail with Janice and Rusty and the dogs! |
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| Caddy and Pox enjoy a drink from the 'tanana' |
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| Looking east toward Ute mt and Cortez area |
Restful afternoon –
did some errands with Anne about town.
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| Had to stop again at the Twin Rocks Trading Post with Anne, so another chance to take a photo in daylight! |
Anne worked on
computer and emails/phone calls regarding the Bluff art festival 10
days from now. Rick and I relaxed reading or doing needlepoint while Rusty took a nap and then worked on his writing.
Dinner with bread,
mozzarella, tomato, basil appetizers and then a shrimp stir fry with
asian sauce – a bit spicy but good! After dinner – off to
Cottonwood Canyon to watch the full moon rise behind the rocks. Best
part was watching the light shadow move down the cliff behind us,
anticipating the moon to peak over the mountain. I was surprised to be able to get some pictures using the Night Vision setting on my phone. Early to bed!
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| Rick gazes at the moonlight on the rock |
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| Rusty and Anne...by moonlight |
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| Rick watches the moon come up |
WEDNESDAY, October
8
Bluff to Albuquerque
NM
301 miles
We are up and on the
road shortly after 9, having enjoyed a delicious Rusty breakfast in a
cup (perhaps one of his former guide service meals of egg, banana,
blueberries, and pancake type mix!) We take the main road having
heard from Rusty and Anne that the cutoff road directly out of Bluff
toward Shiprock is full of construction delays right now. So it is
down into the NE corner of Arizona and then cutting across to
Shiprock/Farmington/Bloomfield.
I began driving in
Bloomfield and took us through the high mesa country on US550 until a
little past Cuba. We were hoping to pick up a sandwich at the Subway
in Cuba, but apparently it has closed! So, I pull over a few miles
past and we pull whatever we have left in the ice chest and food box
for munching on down the road.
Near Bernalillo we
veer off the highway shortly before I25 to head through Rio Rancho
and a small little bookstore where Anne has asked us to drop off a
poster for the big artfest in Bluff next weekend. I didn’t pick
the best route, especially since the Walmart where I was hoping to
pick up some yarn turned out to be a neighborhood store with just
food and pharmacy. But they did have a much needed bathroom!
Into Luke’s around
3:30! He had a 5pm lesson, which ultimately got cancelled due to a
thunderstorm dumping a bunch of rain on the courts just prior! Rick
and I got just a few drops of water on a short walk up and around the
neighborhood park. Kady home from school and conferences and we
enjoyed a good dinner together.
A few games of
cribbage and Spite and Malice while watching the Dodgers blow their
game…
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| Shiprock! |
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| First view of the new house |
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| A type of sunflower we saw in the neighborhood! |
THURSDAY, October
9
House Closing
Day!!
Luke and Kady leave
around 7 to head up to HomeWise – a nonprofit lender located near
Grandma’s old apartments up on Wyoming. They have an 8am closing
time to sign papers for the new house. Exciting time! Rick and I
have a leisurely morning. Kady has taken the morning off (it’s
conference day) having scheduled many conferences for after school
earlier in the week. She has to be back to work by noon.
Luke returns around
9:30 and we put together a plan of attack for the day which includes
purchasing new keys, changing locks, and assessing the place. But
first, we have to wait for the phone call from the lender that all
papers have gone through on the seller’s end and he can pick up the
keys! In the meantime, I make some bread and leave it to
rise...slowly!
So we load up our
car and head back up to HomeWise, get the keys, and over to Lowe’s.
We didn’t find the desired locks, but did run into Ran, Patty,
Reg, and Kai! We will head out to their place on Sunday afternoon.
A stop at Home Depot nets the locks and we head to 1714 Anderson
Place!!
As soon as Luke
pulls into the driveway, a man crosses the street from across the
way, introduces himself asking if Luke is the new homeowner. They
visit for nearly a half hour! But he has a lot to share about fixes
that have been made and a little history from the previous owner.
Afternoon spent
tearing apart some pieces of the kitchen – determining the nature
of the pillar, removing the stove (too old), chunks of the floor. As
Rick puts it, ‘it is Discovery Demolition!’ We don't know what we'll find until we tear it apart!
I take measurements,
trim some hedges, rake the leaves, etc. Around 3 a guy from the
flooring company comes to
assess the damages in the master bedroom. Not good news there, but
he says the rest of the floors don’t need sanding – they’ll
clean and put new sealer on. That’s good news! Bedroom floor
needs to be replaced – the stains go all the way through.
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| Finding out what is under the kitchen floor |
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| Uncovering the pillar in the kitchen...is it load bearing? |
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| Arborvitae out front need trimming. I find some clippers in shed! |
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| Such a strange pillar! |
Kady comes by after
work – this is only the second time she has been inside the house!
There is a lot to be done!! But we brainstorm lots of ideas and
possibilities. They need to prioritize what is most important before
moving in and what can be done later.
Time for dinner! We
head to The Bosque Brewery...I enjoy my second glass (ever!) of beer from a
restaurant – Elephants on Parade again!! Rick and I share a
nachos. This was the brewery where I had my first beer several years ago!
More S&M tonight. I finally won a game! And...the Dodgers won to clinch the Division playoff. In a weird 11th inning finale that was more Philly mistake than Dodger victory which was sad for the Phillies. Oh...and the bread did eventually get baked!
FRIDAY October 10
Demolition, Tennis, and Professional Development!
Luke is off early for a
morning of tennis and Kady off a tad later for a day of professional
development. (Always an exciting day (?) for a teacher! Rick and I
enjoy a rather lazy start to the day and don’t head over to the
house until 9:30 to begin our work.
Rick’s goal for the day
was gutter and gate, but….we spent a great amount of time at Home
Depot and Lowe’s pricing gutter materials, purchasing a few gate
items, and driving all over Albuquerque. (The Lowe’s is a good 7
miles from Luke’s house, Depot more like 3 ½.) Waiting for the
rain to fall so we can assess the water issues in the carport and
patio before proceeding. We did get started on the gate. Rick
discovered the central pillar is well anchored in cement. It will
have to be cut off with a saws all! By the time Luke arrived around
3, Rick felt like he hadn’t accomplished much. I did finish
sweeping patio and carport, raking more leaves, and trimming the
arborvitae bushes out front.
Kady came over after work
and while we roamed the yard talking plants, etc. Rick and Luke went
up on the roof and cleared a lot of the debris off. Based on what
they threw off – there was a lot of tree branches and leaf debris.
While Luke and Kady left to
put some dinner in the oven (we have decided to forgo the Glow Night
at the Balloon Fiesta) Rick got one half of the gates toggled to pull
into square. This will make them open and close more smoothly.
Back to the house to find
L&K still there, but ready to leave for Lowe’s for supplies.
It is 5 when they leave and nearly 7 when they return. Rick and I
had given up at 6:45 and sat down to eat dinner!
Luke’s brain is in full
home mode and he sits down after dinner to put together a spread
sheet/list of what needs to be done and prioritize stuff. Rick has
the Mariners game on. We do manage to get in our required 3 games of
Spite and Malice! But as the Mariners game enters the 11th
inning, I go to bed!! (I read the next morning they won in the 15th
inning! I thought Rick and Luke might have stayed up to watch, but
Rick said he went to bed in the top of the 15th!)
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| I couldn't resist taking a picture skyward of the beautiful tree in the backyard. |
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| Luke clears debris from the roof |
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| Rick cleans out the gutters! |
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| Figuring out what to do with the center gate post - must be moved to get tent trailer into back. |
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| Look! They have pyracantha! |
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| Chaste plant or Vitex - front yard has this and a large sycamore |
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| Didn't take long to destroy the corner of the kitchen trying to determine if post is load bearing. |
SATURDAY
October 11
Butternut
Soup, Friends, and House!
Ah,
quite the day of activity!! Luke has an 8am lesson (he has to keep
some income coming in while we are here!) and Kady a cycling class at
9. I prep the butternut squash soup we are having for dinner, along
with the second loaf of bread I made. And then...time to head over
to the house and get to work!!
We
check to see where the rain is draining (and again later in the day
when it came down a little harder!) Luke is thrilled with the sound
of the water on the FOUR skylights in the sun room. And then it is
time to take down the paneling in the front bedroom. I spend a
little time removing electric plates from plugs and switches
(eventually do the whole house) and then go out front to remove or
pound down the nails from the trim boards and panels that Rick sends
out the window! We tried to keep the baseboard MDF trim intact, so I
remove all those nails very carefully! The rest of the room will be
dumpstered!
The
gate toggles are installed, curtains removed from most rooms, and the
sheer panels are tossed in the washer – both to remove odors and to
test out the washing machine functions! It and the dryer appear to
be fairly new and in good condition.
Kady
arrives with more cleaning supplies and I grab the smaller trash bag
to sweep up Rick’s mess in the bedroom (so much paint and plaster
came off the walls as well and we weren’t sure what might have lead
in it). Secured that bag and put it in the larger trash.
Friend
Jen arrived around 1 to see the house, bring some fun gifts, and give
advice as to kitchen remodel. She and Craig have remodeled one house
already. Good visit, back to work briefly, and then Russ and Rachel
and their two kids arrived – also bearing gifts! They also have
redone parts of a home so filled with more advice etc. The 4 year
old Sean and toddler Daphne played and entertained us from the
sunroom carpet! Kady had a table of snacks out all afternoon which
everyone enjoyed. I figured out a few more of the plants growing in
the backyard which is zeroscaped for the most part.
Done shortly after 5 and
head back to Girard to dine on soup and bread! Kady and I drop Luke
and Rick off at the Isotopes field where the New Mexico United soccer
game is held, and then head to Walmart where I am able to pick up
some needed yarn.
Quiet
night while the boys are at the game! Just glad the rain abated so
they could enjoy the evening. (Footnote: they got home around 10
having walked the 1.5 miles home after a 3-3 tie.)
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| Quick photo of the morning glories blooming in yard of old house - complete with raindrops! |
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| Debris pile from what Luke took off roof |
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| Taking off the trim in front bedroom |
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| Rick removes paneling...a messy job! |
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| Paneling removed! |
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| Working on gate toggles |
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| Inspecting the wire cutters? |
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| Sunroom |
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| Kady, Sean, and Daphne |
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| - this plant covers the gate to the back alley |
SUNDAY
October 12
Visit
with the Edgewood Rembolds!
A relatively quiet morning
as Luke leaves around 8 to roll the courts before his 9am lesson.
Kady cooks up a great breakfast of hashbrown patties, sausage, and
scrambled eggs (from our chickens!) I work to get the Christmas
package (stable) done so we can deliver it this afternoon. Work on
it while I accompany Kady on a shopping trip to Trader Joes and
Albertsons to pick up stuff for this afternoon and some much desired
flowers (Kady loves having fresh flowers in vases in the house)
Trader Joe’s is clear up at the north end of town so we take the
freeway up and then get off on Paseo del Norte.
I do get the stable finished
by the time Luke returns at 11:45 from his clinic, showers, and we
are on our way out to Edgewood, arriving just before 1.
Weston is fun to watch as he
excitedly run out to greet the car as we come through the gate into
Randy’s. Jaxon didn’t have shoes on so he waited on the cement
driveway! Kai is taking a nap, so we will see him a little later.
Boys barely give Luke time to breathe before they have him out on the
trampoline for a good wrestling/jumping match! I see the
improvements made in the basement for Rach and Kai, as we munch on
appetizers. After pulled pork sandwiches, macaroni or potato salads
and baked beans (our Albertsons offerings), and chips, I start the
process of mixing up the dyes for our tie dye fun. Kai has emerged
by then – what a cutie! We tie shirts out on the cement driveway,
then down to the pit to the rocked garden to dye on the racks. Jaxon
is meticulous in his two efforts, Weston a little more ‘free
lance’! Rach does a swirl for Kai, and then we do an ombre drip on
a light green onsie. By the time we are finishing, Reg shows up from
work, and a bit later, Chris. First time Rick and I have met Chris.
Nice guy.
Then it is game time!!
While Chris, Rick, and Randy watch football on the TV and at times
tend to Kai, the rest of us gather around the table for an aborted
game of Mad Gab (we were horrible at it!) and then Imagine If, which
Regan and Jaxon ultimately won! That was a fun one!
Chris left in the middle of
Imagine If, and then Reg and the boys after the game – they have
school tomorrow! Kady does not! It is Fall Break day for ABQ
schools. We hang around for a bit longer visiting, and then leave
around 6:45. A beautiful sunset spans the skies as we head west back
into ABQ.
A good day of family time!
MONDAY, October 13
WORK
DAY!
Whew, and work day it was!
Kady gets up early and brings back some breakfast burritos from
Golden Pride! Then she and Luke leave to pick up some supplies and
meet us at the house. Cleaning day. They had ‘ozoned’ a room
the night before to help rid the smells (I still can’t smell
anything weird in the house!) I get busy bagging all the yard debris
I have raked up, including the piles that were thrown over the edge
from the roof. Rick is beginning destruction of the master bedroom –
shelf unit from the wall and the decorative covering over the beam
that both Luke and Kady hate! Kady begins a deep clean of the middle
bedroom walls.
We entertain visits from
Russ and his dad who explore the various quirks of the house
including the kitchen pillar, as well as Craig and Jen later in the
afternoon. All render good advice!
After a lunch break, Luke
and I work on nails in the front bedroom, then test the sprinkler
system. Get the front to work on one side, but then it turns off and
won’t start again. There are detailed instructions for how to run
it! The back has leaks, but basically gets water to the individual
plants and trees.
Then we pull out the power
washer to see if it will help loosen the gate post. Not effective,
but it sure does clean the brick pavers! From there, Rick turns me
loose on the flagstone rocks in the backyard. What fun (and wet and
dirty!) But amazing to see black rocks turn to brown, yellow, and
red. I pretty much power wash ALL of the pavers, rocks, etc in the
back yard. Prune more bushes, etc.
At one point in the morning,
Luke sends me on a scavenger hunt to find the missing ‘eye’ of
something he discovered in the shed – a face that attaches to the
tree trunk! I haven’t found it yet, but….
Rick finishes the day in the
front bedroom pulling out the rest of the nails. That job has to be
done with mask on as we suspect the paint contains lead.
Rick and I leave around 4:30
while Luke and Kady stay to wash ceiling and walls in master to be
ready to prime paint tomorrow. They don’t get home until 6:45 for
a late dinner of leftover butternut soup!
Cribbage game with Luke in
evening while watching Dodgers hold on for a 2-1 victory in Game 1 of
league champion series. Good conversation with Annalee.
TUESDAY
October 14
Primer
Painting!
Kady has to go back to
school today...but the rest of us get to paint! We head over a little
before 9 and get started in the master/back bedroom – this will be
the hardest with the grooved ceiling panels and walls in some places.
While Rick and Luke do a little last minute demo, I tape off the
fireplace and windows. Luke has gathered paint supplies from Russ
plus what he had, but we discover only 1 decent brush, which I
quickly grab for the corners and trim work. Ultimately, Luke runs
back to his old house for another step ladder and a few more brushes!
While Luke and I trim, Rick putters around with a few other odd
jobs. He really doesn’t want to start rolling the walls until we
had a whole area done. And the edge of the ceiling takes abit as you
work into all the grooves!! We even brush down all the ceiling
grooves in the middle of the ceiling in the first section which did
help make the rolling cover better.
Luke leaves around 11:30 for
a quick visit to the Presby office, and then is back for the 1pm appt
with the asbestos inspector. I keep trimming and by then Rick is
rolling! Kady stops by during her prep period. I had panic calls
from Backpack concerning bin pickup from Jess plus a call from Jim K
about Sunday’s service.
Asbestos guy is pretty
thorough – the living room ceiling tiles do have asbestos in the
glue plugs as does the liner in the kitchen floor. The ceiling can
be covered with sheetrock, the floor sprayed with a product to
enclose any fibers and then new floor put down. Luke will get a bid
tomorrow for professional help and then make his decisions.
Boy does the white paint
brighten that room!
Rick and I leave around 4
and Luke works to finish rolling and use up the paint in the paint
tray.
Butternut squash ravioli
dinner, watch the Dodgers win game 2, and a round of Spite and Malice
before bedtime! I even won a game, before falling back into last
place! Alas.
WEDNESDAY
October 15
Painting
Middle Bedroom Plus!
Another full day of family
labor!! Kady off to school, Luke has lessons this morning and again
this evening. Wednesday is one of his ‘make some money’ days.
7Am lesson got cancelled, however, due to last nights rain storm.
Rick and I get over to the
house shortly after 8:30 and find the Trenching Crew already
unloading stuff and getting started. This job was part of the
closing cost settlement, as the sewer connection from the sidewalk to
the center of the street is not current code. The two men work until
after 1pm, but all goes well, they fix things up and do any amazing
job of clean up from the pile of dirt they had on the sidewalk! They
had to dig a LONG way down!
Luke stops by briefly and
then off to tennis club. I get started taping and laying down
covering on the floor in the bedroom – these are floors that AREN’T
being torn up so got to keep them nice! And then I spend the rest of
the morning trim painting all around and into the closet as well. Up
the step ladder and down, repeat, over and over! Then crawl on the
floor to do the bottom trim!
In the meantime, Rick fixes
the shed gate with turnbuckle so it will now close more easily, and
then begins removing the valance lighting from the living room. It
was very old fluorescent lights and rather tacky looking. He was
waiting for me to finish the trim painting before he started
rolling...last wall in the master and then into the middle bedroom.
After a snack, I spend the
afternoon doing odd jobs...Luke back at 11:30. I helped sand the
bathroom door so folks don’t get ‘locked’ in when it sticks and
have to yell to get out. Works nicely now! Cleaned up some more in
the back yard, freshened the paint on the shed in a couple places,
cleaned out the ‘drip holes’ in the windows, and removed more
electric panels from the hallway.
Luke back to the club at
3:30 for a full night, but sent a text an hour later that the
Asbestos report came back: NOTHING in the living room ceiling!!
Such great news and a big savings!
Kady comes over at 4:30ish
to clean the hallway walls so I can paint tomorrow morning. Rick and
I leave then to put part of dinner in the oven! Steaks, roasted
veggies, and leftover potato and macaroni salad from last Sunday!
Tasted great!
Rick and I are going to work
tomorrow morning and then take off for Durango, CO. So evening spent
gathering stuff together and semi packing to leave. My big
question...will I be able to get the stack of puzzles Luke has for me
to take home into the car!??
THURSDAY
October 16
Morning
Work
Albuquerque
to Durango 218 miles
We just have the morning
to finish up a few jobs. Goodbyes to Kady, Luke has a lesson until
8:15, and then we are off to Anderson Place! A few doors adjusted
and then Rick and Luke tackle the gate while I prep the hallway for
some corner and trim priming. A visit from Russ and Rachel’s mom,
Judy, set Rick and Luke back abit time wise, and they left
immediately after on a search at home improvement stores for the
metal post and closures needed.
In the meantime, I
painted...and painted. More up ladder, move ladder, paint some more!
But, but the time the guys got back around 12:45, the hallway looked
good, tape picked up from floor, brush clean, etc.
A quick turn around at
Luke’s to change clothes and load up the car and we are on our way
north by 1:20. We pull off in Bernalillo for the drive up Hwy 550
and find gas for $2.39 a gallon at the Speedway!! All time low for
quite some time! Next door is McDonald’s but it is a zoo of people
so we drive on and find a Twisters where we get two huge burritos.
Rick drives the whole way to
Durango – we enjoy the beautiful fall colors of golden cottonwoods
against the red rock mesas. I work on a NP donkey! Quick stop in
Bloomfield for a drink and then up through Aztec and into Colorado.
The drive along the Animas River is gorgeous, as we can see the snowy
mountains of the San Juans in the distance. Plus we pass a field of
sunflowers still in bloom.
We stop at a City Market to
pick up a few grocery snacks, and then to our Econolodge on the north
side of town. Quiet evening watching the Dodgers on TV (victory) and
the Steelers on my laptop (Rick)!
FRIDAY
October 17
Durango, CO to Ogden, UT
479 miles
Well, it was a quiet evening
UNTIL our neighbors returned around 10p (or had friends arrive) and
the noise next door was loud. Rick heard bottles popping! Toss in a
baby crying incessantly from 1 to 2am and Rick finally called the
front desk. At that point we hadn’t heard adults and were hoping
they hadn’t left or passed out! Baby calmed down and we slept the
rest of the night, until our 6am wakeup!
We are out of Durango
shortly after 7, up and over the pass into Cortez. The sun is rising
on Mesa Verde mountains as we pull into town. Rick continues to
drive us into Monticello, where we grab some gas (should remember to
buy in Colorado and not wait til Utah – we could have bought for
cheaper in Cortez!) and switch drivers. A pretty day with blue skies
and sunshine!
I drive to the rest area 20
miles south of Price where Rick takes over the rest of the trip.
Rick’s aversion to Salt
Lake City takes us 70 miles out of our way, but scenic as a little
fresh snow has fallen on the peaks! At Helper we turn off Hwy 6 and
taken 191 up over a 9,000+ pass into Duchesne. An oil truck turned
onto 191 just ahead of us and we followed said truck and 3 others all
the way up and over! In the meantime, I began counting and 50 tanker
trucks passed us heading the other direction!! Some gas/oil is being
moved! Snow up on top, mostly in shady areas/slopes. Pretty.
From Duchesne we take US 40
west into Heber City and then loop up and around the backside of the
Wasatch front range to hit I-15 and I-84. Our Sleep Inn is just off
the freeway at Exit 344.
And it lives up to its name!
We get a good night’s sleep and I watch an incredible moment in
baseball history as the Dodgers sweep to the NL Championship behind a
record breaking game for Ohtani. 3 home runs, 6 innings and 10 K’s.
No runs, 1 hit. Incredible!
We grabbed some Subway
sandwiches at the gas station next to the hotel.
SATURDAY,
October 18
Ogden, UT to Baker City and
HOME!!
438 miles
Homeward bound! We’re
glad that we’re HOME-WARD BOUND! (Sing it with me!) On the road
by 7:15 or so, gas up at $3.05 when we discover the Nine gas station
is affiliated with Pilot so a discount!
Rick takes us up to the rest
area just south of the I-84/I-86 junction – so I can drive my usual
trek across the boring sections of southern Idaho! Open fields,
distant mountains, and reasonable traffic!
A noon-time stop at the
Costco is NOT the time to find the store empty, but we manage to get
gas and pick up $100 worth of groceries and get out in an hour! Rick
takes us home, where we arrive at 2pm, having gained our hour passing
into Pacific time.
A good trip – family time
and some useful helping time on the house for Luke and Kady. Now
they can contact a contractor (friend of friends) and put their close
group of friends together to help finish things up. There is still a
lot to do, but he has met all his immediate neighbors, the sewer line
is repaired, floors assessed, and three rooms are primed with the
odor killing primer – ready for paint. The yard is cleaned up abit
and the gate is fixed and ready to put the tent trailer inside.
MAYBE they’ll be able to move in by December, but nice to now that
the dates if flexible with Micah. Their mortgage payments don’t
start until December.
