Home 8/27/08

Hi all,it's me again.
I have a news update for everyone.
Ben was climbing a very large oak tree down the street from his house yesterday after noon. I guess the rope was tangled in a branch so he decided to climb the tree like Tarzan and make a jump for the rope.He had it all planned out.The problem was the rope was alittle further away then he thought.He missed the rope and fell several feet out of the tree.
He landed face first in the dirt. He tryed to break his fall with his hands and broke his wrist.He has to see a specialist in the next day or two.
I see a cast in his future.At least he doesn't live in our area,were it's to be 110 tomorrow,so the weather is cooler there 65.
Derek has been back in school for a week.He's doing ok.He worked yesterday and today ,with my neighbor.He's a contractor.Derek was glad for the work.He called me from the job site yesterday morning to let me know they were building a log cabin at the KOA campground in Mt. Shasta.
He should know how they go together after all the time we spent in KOA"S this summer.
Well,that's it for now.
Take care.
Jan

Home 8/23/08

Hi all,it's me again.

I'm finally done going through pictures.I thought I'd keep adding pics.so you can see some of the other stuff we saw.

The picts above are from Yosemite,and the road to Ely.The cows were a surprise.

I have sent the package of Bens stuff to him.He forgot alot of stuff.Of course I found a bunch of Dereks and my stuff too.About the same for all of us.

I'm also getting my kitchen table cleaned off. I hope Marion and I can sit down today or tomorrow and figure out how much every thing cost.Mostly gas and lodging.

Maybe I'll have some answeres by tomorrow.

I think that's it for today.

Take care.

Jan

Home 8/21/08

Hi all,

I've been really slacking off. I apologize.I've been going through the pictures and doing alot of deleting.We had several hundred picts. that were just too blurry,or taken through the screens on the windows. We also had many, many that were taken through bug guts on the windshield.Some of those pics. would have been great,but bug guts are gross no matter how much you crop them. My camera wasn't working and sometimes the pics were good sometimes they weren't.In the mohome they looked good ,but when I went through them at home,yuk.

So not all the bad picts.were taken by the boys.I did my fair share too.

We lost several things when we were in the mohome,things like all of our jackets.We were also missing a bunch of things we bought.Today we went to the mohome to see what it would give up.Guess what ,it puked up all of our jackets and the rest of our souvenirs.

Now I have too send a large package to Bens house.I'm taking them to the "I forgot it store".

Ben should have it next week.

I thought I'd let you see some more of our picts.

That's about all for now.

Take care.

Jan

Home 08/16/08

Hi all,it's me.

I guess I haven't done a complete job of reporting on our trip.

I just got a phone call from my mom.She didn't suggest she told me I had to tell you about the Flag Ceremony that Derek had at the reunion.

Here's a little history of the flag.It's really nothing special. It flew over my yard for a couple years.When I bought a new flag for the yard ,because that one was starting to look sort of ratty,Derek grabbed it because I was going to just throw it in the trash.He said you're not supposed to do that.An American flag should be burned in an open fire.He took my old flag and folded it and put it in the mohome to be burned over on the coast in a bon fire on the beach on the 4th. of July. That was 4 or 5 years ago.

While we were on the trip he found the flag in the cupboard and decided he wanted to have a flag ceremony at the reunion.

The last afternoon in the campground Derek told Brad he wished he had a trumpet player for the ceremony, a short time later he heard someone playing a trumpet,in the campground.He was able to find the boy that had been practicing.I don't know his name but he was only 14years old and only been playing the trumpet for about 6 months.But you would never guess that. He was great.

Derek and Brad unfurled the flag and put it in the fire while the trumpeter played taps.

There wasn't a dry eye in the group.

All the boys did a great job, and I'm very proud of all of them.

That's the story of the flag.I think I have a couple pics. I'm going to try to find them.

That's it for now.

Take care.

Jan

Home 8/15/08

Hi all,

I'm still trying to get stuff done at home.I've about got everything put away in the house and some of the stuff put back out in the mohome.

I've been trying to figure out which of my mishaps I'll turn in on my insurance.I think it's going to be the one in Virgina City. Between me getting stuck and the tow truck driver dropping the mohome ,it actually did quite alot of damage to the outside and inside of the mohome.

I have to take it to my mohome fixer to get some estimates,then get a hold of my insurance co.I hope they will pay for part of the repairs.If they don't it was still worth every penny I have to pay.

Linda [my house and animal sitter] did such a great job around here that there wasn't much for me to do when I got home.My animals like her so much ,that their just starting to come to me.They miss her cause she spoils them even more then me.

It was great to come home to a clean house.Of course we really messed it up,unloading the mohome,but at least it started out clean.

I've been trying to upload some of the picts. I didn't put in before.Sometimes it works some times it doesn't.But I do keep trying.

That's about all for now.

Take care.

Jan

Home 8/14/08

Hi everyone,it's me again.

I've been busy trying to figure out what comes next.

I don't have any thing to get ready to go,I don't have the boys to wake up in the morning so we can get on the road to our next stop.

It is getting easier though.Yesterday I was very busy taking care of the stuff that didn't work on or in the mohome.I took care of the Dish Network that didn't work on the whole trip.I went to Best Buy, with my camera that wasn't working right the last 3wks.I also contacted my motor home insurance com.about the damages and and I got ahold of the police department in Virgina City to get police report and the towing company so I can turn in my claims.

I think we did pretty good,for going as far as we did. I only had to be towed 1 time and we only had to loose5days on repairs.That's not bad for a trip that long and a 20yr.old motor home.

My bucket list included a couple things I wasn't able to complete on the trip.One being a zip line another white water rafting.I'll probably think of more later.

I'm sort of thinking about maybe finishing that up.I found a zip line in Oregon and I can white water raft up there too.This may be my next adventure.

In the mean time I may try something else to keep me busy.

Well that's about it for today.Talk to you later.

Take care.

Jan

Home 8/12/08

Hi all,

I'm home and still trying to put stuff away.I keep finding stuff that the boys collected and wanted to keep. I was amazed that Ben knew every thing he collected ,even back to the beginning of the trip.

Mike and Stella had to find room in their overstuffed van for an extra 400 or 500 hundred pounds of rocks, sticks and trinkets,and one little boy.

I will be figuring out gas mileage and how much it cost for all the different stuff on the trip.

We know we went 8,254.3 miles on the trip.From my house ,back to my house.

I don't care how much it cost ,it was worth every penny spent.

I am going back to my exercise class this morning so i have to go and get ready.

I'll talk to you later.

Take care.

Jan

Home 8/10/08

Hi all,it's me again.

These are my 2 aunts and my mom. They were able to identify most of the old family picts. that we had.They also are still full of life .They can joke with the best of them,they can cook ,they are active in church and one is still flirting with the guys.They are still great roll models for all of us. I hope when I reach their ages I can still be so active and sharp.

I left Cascade Locks yesterday morning for home.It was a pretty uneventful trip home. The boys went home with mom and dad.

For some reason I'm having trouble uploading the pictures.I'm still trying,so we'll see.

Cascade Locks,OR 8/09/08

Hi all,it's me again.
Well the reunion has been great.My mom and 2 aunts are just full of it.Knowledge,I mean. Their full of Fun and Love.They all are sharp as a tack.And aside from some physical,get around problems,Their all 3 doing great.We ,as the next generation,know so much more then we did before.They were able to identify many old family photos,and tell us stories of our grand and great grandparents.It was so cool.
Back to our trip.
The boys are headed home with their parents.We will all be leaving this morning for different parts of Calif.
I'm heading straight down I 5 cause I can hardly wait to get home to Anderson,and my cats and dog.
That's about all for now.
Take care.
Jan

Cascade Locks,OR. 8/09/08

Ben checking his flies. Mt Hood

Danny trying to wake Derek

Danny

Hi all,it's me again.
We made it to Cascade Locks,OR. for our Prentice Family reunion.
I think we have around 20 members of our family here.my mom and 2 of my aunts are here.They are the last of their generation.My aunt Marge knows all the birthdays and all the people that my generation never new.My cousin Jess and my daughter Stella have done alot of work putting together family photos that we have all had laying around.Jess put together a slide show of all the old photos and used the side of the mohome for a screen. That way we could all see them and identify some that we didn't have names or relationships for.Stella had alot too. She had hers all on discs. so we were able to do hers too.
Now back to the trip.We were able to get here on Thurs.afternoon,after going across the bridge into Washington.We went across the bridge and down the river gorge road and back into Oregon.SO WE HAVE COMPLETED OUR TRIP.We made it to 13 states.Saw just about everything we set out to see.And I have returned the boys to their parents.I hope alittle more understanding of our country and the beauty it gives us.I hope they have learned more about me and the family they come from.I know I've learned alot about each boy.They're both very loving and basically very good boys.They're both willing to help and do what they can for other people and I love them both even more then I did before.And I didn't think that was possible.
That's about all for now.
I can't find my camera right now so I'll add picts later.
Take care.
Jan

Smiling Lake Camp Ground,OR. 8/5/08-8/6/08

Hi all,

We moved the mohome and our camp site from Sisters to the Metoious River.It's beautiful there and we camped right on the river.Mike and the boys were able to fly fish right in front of the campsite.They didn't catch much ,but the boys were able to practice their casting.

This was much more like camping.No hook-ups and we had to have everything,or go without. There was a great store about 3miles from us so the guys could get what they needed to fly fish.

We were there 2 nights and it was great. Very relaxing.

We got on the road for Cascade Locks camp ground .

That's about it for now.

Talk to you later.

Take care.

Jan

Sisters/Bend 8/04/08

Downloading picts.

Danny on skateboard
Dinner time

Boys waiting for dinner

Hi all, We're still at Sisters/Bend.
It's a great campground and we have a great spot,clear in the back, were we can let the boys ride their skate boards or bikes. Danny loves to ride Bens skateboard.

We all went into Bend yesterday to look around. We found several fly shops for Mike and Derek and Ben to get some fishing stuff.Mike is going fishing this morning and the boys will go when we get to the reunion.

Around 6:30pm one of the guys that works here came by on his run,that the sprinklers might be coming on around midnight.They had been worked on earlier that day and he wasn't sure if they turned off back here.It was too late to check with the owner,so we decided to just move their tent and all their stuff to the campsite next to us.[The sprinklers didn't come on .That's ok. At least everyone stayed dry.
Stella and I were trying to down load all the pics from the trip on to one disc.Guess what? They won't fit on 10 discs.We're going to try to compress them to a zip drive or something.

Because of the tent move we had a very late dinner. It's ok because it was great. BBQ tri tip,corn on the cob and mac and cheese.GREAT MEAL.

We all sat around the campfire and made SMORES.LUV THE SMORES!!!

That's about it for today. We'll talk more tomorrow.

Take care.

Jan

Sisters/Bend,OR 08/03/08

Hi all.It's me again,

Well mom and dad got here yesterday afternoon.You should have seen the reunion between Ben and mom,dad and Danny.Danny was so sooo happy to see his big brother I thought they were going to cry.

Stella and I went to the grocery store cause I was out of food and they needed stuff too.When we got back they were all about each other.

Yesterday poor Ben watched for them all day. He was sure they were closer then they said.

We spent the day moving the mohome to our new site and getting set up.The boys finally went swimming just before dinner. I had 2 very soggy boys for their meal.

We are planning the last of the trip. We only have Washington to go. I think we're going to cross the Columbia River and follow it back to Cascade Locks for the reunion.Then we'll be heading back home to Anderson,CA.

That's it for now. I'll talk to you later.
Take care.

Jan

Derek and Ben spent most of the day ridding their skateboards or ridding their bikes.

Sisters/Bend KOA 8/02/08

Oh what a wonderful day.Hi everyone,
It has been such a great day. NO DRIVING!!!

Now that we're at Bend,OR. we're waiting for Bens mom ,dad and little brother Danny, to get here from Los Osos ,CA.They left Los Osos this after noon for my house in Anderson,CA. to spend the night and continue on to meet us up here.

Ben is getting soo excited. He said he's going to give his mom a huge hug and not let go.He'll also hug dad and Danny,but not as much.He missed them just as much,but the hugs can't be as big cause they're not mom.

Even Derek is excited about them getting here.Aunt Stella and Uncle Mike are pretty special people to both of the boys.

We'll meet up with Dereks mom and dad and brother on Thurs.at the reunion.Derek has said the same about Marion and Chris,but he really wants to give his brother ,Brad,a hard time,just because he missed him.Boys will be boys.

Today we spent almost all day cleaning the mohome.The boys have had such a mess back by my bed,that some nights I could hardly get to my bed.So that was their job.To clean everything off the floor around my bed. They also had to fold all their clean clothes and put them away.

MY GOSH,I can finally find my bed.
After they finished they could do what they wanted to. One was checking e-mail and the other was playing mini-golf.I did laundry in my spare time.At least that's done.

Derek and Ben tryed to fix the tv,but it didn't work out.So we still don't have tv. It's only been 8wks.So we won't miss it for another few days.

I guess that's it for a slow day.

Talk to you later.

Take care.

Jan

Bend,OR. 8/1/08

Hi all,

IT WORKS!!!!The mohome works.She's fixed.She's back to her old self again.We got her back this morning around 10am.and pulled out of Meridian around 10:30am.

I tryed everything I could to cause her to mess up. But guess what She never missed a lick.

I'm OOOHHHH SO HAPPY.She's back to my old mohome.

We had a very uneventful trip from Meridian to Bend.

We had a beautiful day to travel,lots of pretty clouds and open land.There were several rivers and creeks we went by.

We did get one more state on our map.We only have one more to go.I hope we get that one next week while we are at the reunion.

I think that's about all for today.Talk to you soon.

Take care

Jan