At an impasse

 We are stuck.

Colorado is out

 Spent more time in Colorado and left it wanting.  End of March and it snowed the night before we left.  Headed up the 24 to the 70 and the truck and RV did pretty good in the winds, going from 20-30 mph.  Got and app on my iphone called Drive Weather.  It tells the temperature, wind, and weather along your route, alternate routes and a timeline to look days in advance.  Nice app for $10a year.  Being that we're going to be in the midwest for a while, it will be very handy.  So we went through eastern Colorado and Kansas the last two days.  All flat and uninteresting.  The tress that aren't evergreen are still dormant.  Saw some green on plowed fields but that was about it.  Paying about $4.69 a gallon for diesel.  Tomorrow we head for the Branson area per she who must be obeyed.  We might meet up with James' wife Tabatha in Branson, she had to attend her uncles funeral and will be in the area.  

Out of the Noise and Waste

 Back on the road.  Much has transpired.  Elizabeth's father's passing out a pall on the holidays and created a lot of work for Elizabeth.  It takes a long time to grieve.  Then Elizabeth had to find accommodations for her mother who had to be out of her apartment of 20 years by the end of January.  Limited options but fortuitous circumstances got her a spot with a granddaughter but in Riverside.  Dealing with the government to get Elizabeth's mother resettled took an enormous amount of time and effort.  We were only able to get out of riverside in Early March.  Headed over to Phoenix to stay with Tim and Josie for a few nights.  Then headed to the canyon de Chelly in northwest Arizona.  Spent two days there and toured the canyon.  I hadn't been back for over 30 years.  Amazing place. Then headed to our current location just outside of West Pueblo Colorado.  We're taking a look at Colorado and in particular The general area of Colorado Springs because of what transpired over the holidays.  Elizabeth has an unsolvable problem:  She wants to be near her children and grandchildren and we both want to live in a nice place with a nice climate.  Socal, where her daughter and son currently live, is expensive and hellish.  Her son wants to move back to St. Louis area to be near Tabatha's family and start working on building a rental property empire.  I don't want to live in the Midwest and deal with the winters and the hot humid summers.  Elizabeth thinks Colorado might be a place where her children will see her most often.   It is officially Spring and it is snowing.  We're staying near Pueblo because most RV parks north of here are either closed or have issues with water due to the freezing overnight temperatures.  C'est la vie.

We picked a hell of a time to retire.  Housing prices keep going up and inventory keeps going down.  Gas has gone through the roof, which is a major expense considering towing and traveling thousands of miles.  I was hoping for a .5 increase from the fed last week but only got a .25.  But statements from the fed today indicate a .5 might come in May to help on the inflation front.  This works in our favor because we won't be getting much if any type of loan.  Maybe May will bring some relief to the housing market.  

Back in the noise and waste

 Elizabeth’s father passed last Tuesday.  She flew down the Friday before and I drove the Rv back to pechanga.  Cut our stay in Washington short by about a week.  We’ll be here for the holidays.

The Quest continues

 We have been looking at a lot of houses and exploring the possibility of building on property.  The problem with most home builders is that they have a 18-24 month lead time right now.  The problem with buying an existing house is that we haven't found something that is what we want at the price we can afford.  The search continues.  Nothing on the web looks as good as it does in person.  Looked at a home in a nice area and from the pictures it looked like a log home.  But it was pretend log siding and there was a pool with green water and someone is harvesting timber from the property.  Went to another place where the shop was obviously used to grow the herb.  The realtor pointed out a "water feature".  Translation:  A Home Depot small plastic pond filled with stagnant water.  Stayed near a golf course for a week and went to a State Park in Oregon on the Washington border. They've got a La Nina weather pattern going in the Pacific Northwest which is the opposite of SoCal meaning we get more rain than usual.  No problem though.  Took a day trip to Astoria, nice little town.  More houses to look at today.  I think the realtors we've been working with might be getting impatient with us but we're not here to please them.  New houses come up all the time.  Monday we will move down the Columbia toward Vancouver for the remainder of our time up here.  Plan to head back to SoCal on the 18th.  

Astoria Column

View from the top

Bridge over Columbia River and the Pacific

Bailey in a rare calm moment.  He's growing and a day doesn't go by that he makes us laugh with his antics.

Happiness is a playful puppie

 We're going to stay where we're at until the end of the month.  Have a few places we want to look at tomorrow and the weekend.

 Stopped outside of Boise for a few days then up the 84 to Hermiston for a few days.  Went to the Pendleton Mills factory in Pendleton.  I remember when that brand was good clothing at a reasonable price mad in the USA.  No more.  Still good quality but very expensive and every label I looked at was made in china or costa rica.  Now at Mt Hood, which is gorgeous and still showing fall colors.  Leaving tomorrow for a golf course with a RV park in Chehalis Washington and hope to stay there long term and look for what's available between Vancouver and Olympia.  The market predictions for housing still look bullish so I don't think we'll get that correction we were hoping for.  Maybe the winter selling season will get us a seller desperate to get out.  We'll see.  Bailey the puppy is getting use to her new home and is being a puppy:  Running around and biting everything, glad he has plenty of chew toys.  

Mt. Hood

Snake River in Oregon

Mt. Hood