17.11.27-30. Welcome to the UK

I arrived at dusk after a 9 hour flight from San Jose to London, then a reasonable 2.5 hour layover and 1 hour shuttle flight to Manchester.  I was hosted for three pleasant nights and two days by Sarah's mom Judy, and Dave.

  They live in Greenmount, a small village 30 miles north of the airport.  They were kind to let me sleep till noon the first morning, then I took a walk around the neighborhood in the beautiful but chilly afternoon sun.

Next day we had lunch and a pint at their local pub.  Then Dave and I went on a three mile  walk together in Redishire Woods

On another chilly but beautiful  day.

I very much enjoyed getting to know Dave and Judy better since the first time I was here, I was primarily caregiving for Mike in the early stages of his disease, so did not get around as much as I would have liked. 

Here we are with Judy and Sarah's dad at the wedding party in May 2015

Next stop.... Curt and Sarah's house in Sheffield,

 and I get to meet my new granddaughter!

Judy and Dave drove me from their house in Greenmount the 54 miles to Sarah and Curt's house in Sheffield on Friday morning.  They were happy to make the trip because they were anxious to see baby Brynne again.   It was an interesting drive for me - only a few miles of motorway ( freeway) and mostly two lane roads through villages, towns and beautiful English countryside. I enjoyed the ride despite my upset stomach - we decided it was probably because since I've been a bottled water girl for so many years, my stomach wasn't happy after two days of tap water ( which tasted good to me, and I had been drinking freely since my arrival).  We stopped for bottled water just before we got to the kids house in Sheffield.  This is NOT a third world country where it is not OK to drink the water, I'm just a water snob from years of living in California

17.11.12-26. Home base

I took my time driving the 580 miles from Newport to home base because driving alone is slower than driving with a navigator, and driving the motor home is slower than driving a car. Simply getting gas is an ordeal. First step is finding a gas station large enough to accommodate 32 feet of rig with the Jeep in tow. Second step is waiting for the 75 gallon tank to fill. Actually, I try not to let the tank go much below half full so it takes less time to fill.  Plus, the generator runs off the engine gas tank and will not pull gas if the tank is under 1/4 full.

The first night I took advantage of another benefit of being an Oregon State Park volunteer host - one free night camping while in transit to or from an assignment. Last year Mike and I drove down the coast and stayed at Harris Beach State Park near Brookings. This year I went directly down I-5 and stayed at Valley of the Rouge State Park just north of Medford. I got a pull-hrough site for easy in and out.  I arrived just before dark and had a nice riverside walk before going in for leftover dinner and a good night's sleep.

The second night was a special treat because I hooked up in Redding with Eric and Claudia

who were heading down from their summer home in the coastal mountains between Redding and Eureka. They spent the night and we had a short walk along the Sacramento River

with their dog, Jamie before parting ways again.

The third night I spent in the back lot of Thunder Valley in Roseville - a favorite layover spot of ours - especially in the cooler months!

The next six nights were spent spare room surfing at the homes of Yvonne, Marian, Connie, Kelly and Glenda, Laurie and Bob, Chris and John.  I also hooked up for meals with Dollie, Shirley and Diane.  It is always good to come back home to check in with family and friends.  This was a short visit, so I did not get to see everyone I wanted to - looking forward to next time!

I had some Jeep work done at Auburn Autohaus and some MT work done at B&B RV - both were important stops and conveniently coordinated with my short time frame.

And last but not least, I finally managed a few hours at my storage unit to reorganize and pull out some photos and baby items to take with me on my upcoming trip to see Curt and his new daughter, Brynne in England.

Next stop was the Elks Lodge in San Jose where I parked MT for six nights while in town to enjoy Thanksgiving with Kelly and her family. Eric and Clay came too, and we were hosted at Kelly's parents house for three nights. 

This was the first Thanksgiving in ten years we were not  all together with a large Dempsey/Brown/Tomczak/Scott extended family gathering. 

  Here we are in 2006 at our house in LOP

We've lost quite a few since then, 

but all are with us in our hearts and minds every day.