Last leg of our journey

This is the Snake River the northeastern corner of Oregon - and while not our last night out, we were close to home and feeling the pull. Those clouds, full of rain are - guess where - in the west toward Portland and even they looked inviting. Traveling through Nevada and Southern California, there becomes a point when your a tad bit desert weary and we could now enjoy the green.
From this point we headed northwest to Pendleton, where we spent Cinco de Mayo and finally headed home via Hwy 12. OMG, yet another mountain pass and this issue I have with heights has got to stop cause again I found myself hanging on the edge of the world, and not enjoying the view at all.
Now we are home and we were greeted by the most glorious weather that could be had in the northwest, mid 70ies, sunny, with that glorious view of Mt Rainier just out our window. The motor home needs a good scrubbing, the lawn is knee deep and at least two loads of wash await, but they can wait.
Now I need to think about going to Iraq again. The opportunity is there, and the money is good, but am I up to it.

Thanks for following our lastest adventure.

Carson City, Nevada

Unscheduled stop. We were very lucky and we found Carson Carburator and the great mechanic invited us to spend the night in his driveway so he could test the motor cold. We did, and the next morning he found nothing major wrong, but cleaned the injectors and we were on our way. Running like a champ.
But I was done with mountain driving, and so we changed our route and headed north on Hwy 95.

Convict Lake - Mammoth Lake, Calif

We left Red Rock Canyon early, continuing north on Hwy 395 past Bishop, Ca and found Convict Lake Campground. The lower picture was a picture of the creek that bubbled right past our campsite. It was wonderful. The weather was now cool as we were higher in the mountains but the sky was blue, blue and the sun sparkled on the water. The only problem was the wind came up and by nightfall it was really blowing hard and when we departed the next morning, it hadn't gotten any better.

The road also got worse. As we climbed into the Sierra Nevada's, the road twisted and turned, the wind bobbed us around like a cork on water, and big "Strong Wind" signs warned of what was to come. Also, when we started the RV at Convict, it started acting up again, so I was worried about that. We even hit 8000' elevation!!! This was not fun.

Red Rock Canyon - Cantil, Ca

This was a real find. Just off Hwy 14 in Calif was this amazing campground Red Rock Canyon. We spent the night and it took tons of pictures. At night, the sky was like a million tiny jewels the stars were so bright. Trails to hike, wildlife was awesome, it was just an amazing place and our last night in the desert.

Joshua Tree Natl Park

You know, Joshua Tree is like my spiritual home. I really love the area and we had a great time. I didn't know how much I missed the place until I went back and visited with MaryFran and Gary, and my old buddy Steve. I wish I could have seen Mara again and John, but now I know, I am going to return one of these days.
Starting to have car problems. I don't think the RV likes the heat. We broke down in Barstow and Cody at Barstow Automotive fixed us right up. You hear horror stories about getting ripped off, but we were so lucky, he really went out of his way to make sure the RV was running right.

Death Valley

This is about the best view of Death Valley. The weather was in the 90ies so it was hot, but it was beautiful. We stopped at Scotty's Castle and really enjoyed the tour. Unfortunately, the camera decided to go bad and so our picture taking was limited.

Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge, Nevada

I have given up on days, I haven't a clue.
We stayed two nights in Pahrump so we could drive over to Ash Meadows and Death Valley. Ash Meadows is a great place to visit, right in the middle of this arid desert we found this great little place, and we had it mostly to ourselves. The reason was because it was an 8 mile washboard dirt road into the place and then we found we could have come in from another direction and would have only been three miles of dirt. The wildlife was amazing. A kingfisher showed off for us and lizards darted around us, ducks were everywhere and when we came to the pool (above) I would have gladly gone skinny dipping in it. It was just that blue and they call it fossil water because they believe that it went underground about 1000 years ago.
I would love to volunteer out there but Roy turned up his nose at the thought of summer in Nevada.