The journey there

So...
We have a home now. Phew!
The trip from Reno was pretty. And fun. And Exhausting... sigh, I'm not in my 20's and this trip proved that beyond any doubt!
The weird thing is, we saw DEER all the way up. The first set (a family of 3) was less than 20 minutes out of town. And we kept seeing more deer every few hours, for the entire drive!


We drove up HWY 395 and into Spokane, where we stayed with Kelly, an old friend from Jr. High. She has a nice mobile home on some forested property with an amazing garden. We spent some time sleeping, as we drove all night, then toured the old home town.

We even went by the home where I grew up. I knocked on the door and got to meet the guy who bought the house from my mom. We chatted a bit, and took a tour of the back yard. It was really sweet to see it again. My dad's flower garden is in great shape, and the rest of the back yard is pretty much the same, with some really nice decorative and maintenance type improvements. My old play house still stands! That almost made me cry, as did seeing the huge old evergreen in the front yard that we used to decorate each Christmas, with the help of a fire truck and extension ladder! It was funny in another way, as we were able to clear up a mystery for the new owner. He couldn't figure out why the basement had been split up into several "walk in closet/storage areas"... When I explained that there were 6 kids growing up in that TINY house (less than 1000 sq. feet including the basement, I'd guess) he realized they were all bedrooms. We had quite a chuckle over that.

We saw my old schools... Loma Vista elementary is now a neighborhood park. Salk Jr. High is the same, but the old fire station is a restaurant now. Shadle Park High is undergoing some renovations, but doesn't look any different from the outside.

Then we toured Kelly and my old haunts, as well as stopping by my parents' grave.

After a night of sleeping, we headed up to my old lake cabin on Bead Lake. It was AMAZING. The owners weren't home, but we wandered around the lots and went down to the dock and beach any way. (It was "mine" first!) They've kept the place up well, and the lake itself is unchanged. Its even still largely un-crowded. A precious jewel as yet undiscovered, and I hope it remains that way for ever. I found a rock to keep, and we drove north.

Bob had been hoping to find a place near Ainsworth Hot Springs... alas, nothing at all was available, so we decided to drive on, and stop at every town to check the rental ads in the local papers. Trusting the universe to find the right spot... whee! That was a bit unnerving, as we went through Kaslo, Nelson, Castlegar, Christina Lake and Grand Forks... nothing, nothing, and nothing... So we drove on... to Greenwood BC... and here we stayed.
That, is a story unto itself...