Next Trip ...South Africa

After the Huntsman Games we have to head home and get ready for our planned trip to South Africa ( SA) with a lauch date of 25 Oct which gives us 12 days to pack up the RV, find a RV storage are in Mesquite,NV and get home and start ( actual finish packing). Since we where knocked out of the Games on Thursday, that gave us an extra day to get home. So Friday, we packed the RV and headed 50 Miles south to Mesquite, NV where the winter temp is usually above freezing and we did not want to winterize the RV. Had we left our RV in St. Geo we would have had to Winterize it. By noon on Friday we had " Stored " the RV, had breakfast at the Virgin River Casino and allowed Carroll enough time to donate her last $20.00 to the Casino and then we headed home, knowing full well it would be 2000 KM of bordum on I-15: A Trip we have driven many many times.
Since we did not get away from Mesquite until noon, we decided that somewhere north of Salt Lake City would be far enough for the 1st day. As it turned our , we reached Layton, UT which is 35 Miles north on SLC hence we would not have to fight the morning Traffic the next day.
When we reached Layton, Ut our 1st move was to find a hotel room for the night. We have been collecting " Choice Hotel points " for a few years so we thought we would see if we could collect on a "FREE" room. Well!! you can only collect on the points by calling the 1- 800 reservation and we do not have a US cell but I do have a laptop and I do have Skype. ( Did I mention that we never Plan ahead ) Now, all I needed was WiFi signal and since a Choice hotel was within my sight I pulled into their parking area, open my Laptop, dialed in choice Hotel and I had a strong signal so i proceded to call the "Reservation " Line. Within 5 min we had a free room for the night. The rest of the evening was spent shopping as we were only a stone Throw from the Shopping Maul.
Saturday Morning: After a Free( as advertized ) Healthy Continential(where the hell did the get that word) breakfast we headed for Great Falls , Montana where we would spend Saturday night. ( There I go... Planning again ) However, we picked up a coupon book at rest stop which has "discount hotel rooms " and those words are music to the ears of all Seniors. The 9 hour trip was again boring so there no need to bore you anymore. But once we arrived at the " Discount " hotel , where we had stayed before , I ask if the had a room for the night and once the answer was "yes we have lots of rooms" I slapped down my coupon and said Can I get a room with this coupon. I think I may have startled the Clerk because she said that they did have any rooms at this price but since I had their discount coupon at $70.00 she would have to honour it. After moving in to our room we went to Applebees ( basically a excellent family resturaunt ) for supper.
If the USA is in a resession they forgot to tell the people in Great Falls, Montana. When we got to Applebees there was one parking spot left in the lot and we had to wait about 1/2 hour to get a table. Maybe resturaunts aren't the best place to judge a resession.

Sunday : After another Free, Healthy Continential breakfast we headed for home because we had a million things on our minds and other things to do before next Sunday. Our first concern was the line-up at the border and the attitude of the customs officer. When we got to the border there was "No One" ahead of us and the customs Officer was very jovial, so we were cleared in about one minute.

Now as we headed for home we started thinking about a list of project that had to be attended to before next Sunday. Christmas present for the younger G/kids and Christmas cards complete with a cheque for the Teenager G/Kids. It is amazing the number of things you to have remember; like the Insurance is due on the RV on 1Dec but we would not rec the notice until late Oct or early Nov. So we were glad, for some reason it popped into Carroll's head. And since we are not coming home after SA we would never have thought of it. Anyway, to this thought to bed, suffice to say, there are many things to think about before you vacate the "Homestead" for 6 months.
Well, tomorrow, Sunday we move to Todd's place and get ready to lauch to SA at 3 PM Tuseday. My next Blog will likely be from SA but not for a few days while I get my bearing. cheers. tom