What a Summer!

Wow! What a great summer we've had! Different in some ways from what we had planned, but what is  it we say about plans in Jell-O?

The main events went exactly as planned. We attended daughter Kathie's graduation from University of Nevada, Reno, at the young age of 46. And we got to see her receive the remarkable Senior Scholar award for the College of Journalism (senior in GPA, not in age, although that too).

Kathie with husband Shawn -- two tired but proud and happy people!

The second big event was daughter Deb's 50th birthday celebration. She had rented a large home outside of Fiddletown, CA, for the event, and just about the whole family was there. That's only a dozen of us; we're a small family. GeeGee (that's Great Grandma Suzy) played the piano for a singalong, there were group meals. games on the lanai, and excellent wine.

Deb had a visit from Father Time

Deb baked some greaseless donuts

And we sang

Cousin Carol in a Minute to Win It minute

Along with all of that, we had several days visiting Yosemite National Park, with the greatest water display in 50 years.

We spent a day at the epitome of ghost towns, Bodie, CA.

We spent a few nights at the splendid Oh Ridge National Forest campground near Lee Vining, CA, including two nights in the snow!

We spent two nights boondocked at Harmony Wynelands Vineyard in the Harvest Hosts Program, meeting the winemaker and his mother, and ending up with two cases of wine to carry home (still have most of it, too!).

As kind of a surprise, we were invited to stay at daughter Deb's house for the July 4 holiday (which we enjoyed immensely).

Deb and her pal Albert with us at dinner.

And another surprise, daughter Kathie had back surgery which we stuck around for in Carson City, trying to offer help wherever we could (no pictures of that time!).

Of course, there was plenty of time spent with great grandson Darren!

Some folks like statistics, so here they are. We left Benson April 17, and arrived back in Benson September 30, a total of 166 nights out, 35 of which didn't cost us a penny.  We stayed in 17 places we've never stayed before, and overall spent an average of $13.87 per night (or $17.57 per night for the nights we paid for). How far did we drive? 2,663 miles in the motorhome, and however much more in the car. We bought 456 gallons of gas for the motorhome, at a total cost of $1,687.45, or $3.70 average per gallon. Highest priced gas was in Bishop, CA at the Von's Supermarket (after a 10 cents per gallon discount) at $4.17 per gallon, lowest prices at Travel America in Tonopah, AZ, at $3.41 / gallon. Miles per gallon overall? A measly 5.8. but we have to remember that we were towing a heavy car most of the time, did a lot of mountain driving, and part of the time had the generator running (for heat at Oh Ridge, for A/C going down the highway).

Now we are home. Now we get ready for Chapter 21 activities, and the Board of Directors has an executive meeting Monday, Now we hear Gene Autrey's theme "Back in the Saddle Again," as we resume the day to day part of ... Our Life on Wheels!