East, West...Home is best!

We had a leisurely day of driving from Ritzville to home. As usual, we enjoyed the Eastern Washington scenery, the guys speculating on how soon some crops would be harvested; why they were still irrigating; what was going to happen with some of the taller alfalfa...

We crossed the Columbia at Vantage. I love Vantage...it's just so open, and wide...lonely, and so different from home. As a kid, I was always intrigued with the story of how the water from the dam covered the original town...Was it still there underneath the water? Did people get covered up too? (Heaven forbid!) What was it like to lose your whole town that way? And the bridge, with the whipping winds is just so big, and deliciously scary.

I also love the Wild Horse Monument on the hill just before you get there...horses running so free...

And then, finally our first glimpse of REAL mountains in the distance...People in the mid-west and further east just don't know what a REAL mountain is! I love seeing new country, but I don't think I could give up living surrounded by mountains...

Mid-westerners -- THIS is a mountain!

Soon it was raining -- now we knew we were almost home!

The last 2 hours of the drive are always the longest...familiar territory, so close -- and yet so far from the destination, traffic -- we hadn't seen traffic like that since a couple hours in Illinois! It was good to get back to Lynden and note the few things that had changed...Fall was more in evidence than when we left...But most things were wonderfully the same! We were home again!

The pillows go back in the house -- we're home!

It was a great trip...Dad and Mom held up well with all the hours in the car. We enjoyed each other's company...We got to be at Uncle Roger's home!...Every day we were reminded: "What a country!" and we came home still liking the place that God has put us, and understanding more why others like the places God has put them...

And with renewed thankfulness and perspective, we spent the next days thanking God for our own beds, : ) and homes, and pets, and community, and scenery...and family near and far. We have indeed been blessed!

"Boss -- is that really you?" Daisie jumped in the car and sat there while Randy unloaded it. She wasn't taking a chance on being left home again!