Installment #16 - Last Retirement Trip Installment

4/28/06

Our outing at brother Dick and Cindy’s home included a trip to DuBois - 100 miles from Riverton along Wyoming’s back roads. We saw a lot of deer and antelope (picture). We stopped at one of the oil wells so Tony could get a closer look at the mechanics of the machine (picture). One of the "cabins" Dick went to appraise was quite an experience - high in the mountains, a winding road to get to it on snow packed roads - it probably will appraise for over a million dollars. No expense was spared when they built this "vacation home" (2 pictures). It had small antlers as cabinet door handles, all beds were made out of logs, fox skin rug on the floor, and on and on.

Although Cindy fed us very well, Dick & Cindy broke our tradition of "steak" for dinner. We did get acquainted with Larry & Patty (friends of Dick & Cindy). Larry & Patty promised us steak on Saturday if we would stay that long. Larry is owner of Wind River Honey (Tony liked this honey enough that we bought a jug of it). Conversations about honey bees were very interesting – 7 semi trucks go to California near Sacramento to pollinate the almonds and then to Royal City, Washington, to pollinate the apples. A 2-ton truck is used to offload bees and take them to the orchards.

On Day 81 (April 27th) we left Riverton heading home. It may appear that we were anxious to get home since we made the trip in two days. As we were driving, we began making lists of what needed to be done at home – the longer the list became, the longer we drove. We stopped for the night at the Butte, Montana, Wal-Mart. The only other time we drove this far was Day 1, when we were leaving Moscow on February 6th. Day 82 we drove another 400 miles to arrive in Moscow on Friday afternoon, April 28th.

According to our map calculations, we have travelled over 9700 miles with over 300 stops. This includes the motorhome, our car, and riding with others on various excursions (averaging 118 miles per day, 3.5 stops per day). We covered 11 states; spent two nights in rest stops, three in small towns, one in a Casino parking lot, 28 in RV parks, 33 with friends and relatives, and 14 nights in 14 different Wal-Mart parking lots.

Thank you once again for all your phone calls and emails during our trip. We have had a wonderful retirement trip and look forward to doing a similar excursion, seeing more of the USA, at another time. We’re now anxious to see family and friends in the Moscow area after our nearly twelve weeks away from home.