Home at last!

Well, I'm home in Oregon! It's all new to me, but it's home anyway. My family has been taking me for drives and showing me around. I didn't get to see much at Christmas time, and this place is really pretty. We may be moving to a place called Gold Hill. It's right on the Rogue River, and I found out there are salmon in that river! I can't wait for my hubby to go fishing!

We went for a walk today on the walking/bike path. It goes from Ashland all the way to Medford. Maybe even past Medford, but I'm not sure. Anyway, we walked from Talent to Phoenix to a little park there. We let the kids play while we rested, and then walked back. All together, about 5 miles. Wow! Was I tired! My legs are still tired, but my feet don't hurt. I got some new Shape-up shoes and they are really comfortable to walk in. My feet didn't hurt at all until I stopped. Then they started hurting. But as long as I was walking, they did great. My hips were another story. They are getting worse and worse, and sometimes I think I can't walk another step. I told Chuck it was Disneyland all over again, but there was no electric wheel chair! By the time we got home, I was pooped. We didn't eat before we left, either, so we were all starved by the time we got back at 11:30, so I fixed brunch. Pancakes, eggs, bacon......good stuff. And I think it tasted extra good today because of all the exercise before hand.

Tomorrow we go to Gold Hill to look at a house we're trying to get. We've only seen the outside because the renters were still living there. We may not even like it, but if we do we're going to try to get it. We've already filled out the application so keep your fingers crossed for us. We need to get a house, because 6 of us in this 27' motor home is rather crowded. We do OK but more room would be wonderful. And some privacy, too. If we don't get this one, then we'll spend the day looking for another one. At the right is a picture I took last time we went to Gold Hill. There are more VW buses here than anywhere I've ever seen! At least since the 60's. And a lot of them are painted like the 60's, too.

Well, it sounds like we're going to be joined by a daughter and her two boys. Amanda is just waiting for her tax refund and she'll fly her dad up to Montana to drive her and the boys down in the Budget truck. Which, by the way, is a lot less expensive than U-Haul. A LOT! She has some health problems and is tired of being so far away from her family, so she's going to come here. Now there will be three of us looking for work. Oy vey! But again, we'll make it work. I love having my family around.

An update on the book. The night before I flew home, we worked until 3 am to get it finished! But we did it! It is now at the printer in Phoenix, AZ. I left for the airport at 4:30 am and actually stayed awake on the flight! I finally crashed at about 8 pm and didn't get up until 8 am. Finally got the ISBN numbers and called them in to the printer, so now its a waiting game. We expect to have it back about the 15th of March if everything goes well. I keep saying book but its really books.....plural, as in 2. This volume was about 1300 pages, and that's just too big, so we split it into two. I never thought I would be involved in a project this big, but I'm proud of the finished product.

Well, gotta go. The battery is about to go and I need to plug in the laptop. Which means, it has to move to another place. I will be job hunting big time starting Monday, but I'll check in every once in a while. And I'll have some really nice photos of this beautiful country for you. Keep your head up and your socks matched! Gramma G.