It has been quite awhile since we have talked to you.  A lot has happened in the last year.  Marty has become a great grandmother to Jackson, who just turned one, by the way.  He is the son of grand daughter Karissa and husband Derek.  And what a cutie he is.  Great granny is quite proud :)  Grand daughter Carley has announced her engagement to Trevor and they will be getting married sometime in Dec. of this year.  A cute couple.  

As for me it's about same-o same-o.  I have a new car and a new phone.  It seems I change them about as often as I change my socks, but orderly change is good, right?

So, the grannies will be on the move very shortly, starting about the 16th of May.  This will be our 4th across country trip.  Can you believe it?  What a marvelous opportunity.  Oh the sites we have seen!!!

Our first planned destination will be back to Yellowstone again.  Each time we have gone through it has been a different time of the year.  Hoping for more than buffalo this time but even they are pretty darn cool to watch.  After that your guess might be as good as ours, a surprise.  We defiantly need to keep our eye on the weather as we go.  Quite a few states are still or are flooding and terrific storms.  Hasn't the weather been a turmoil these last years?

Anyway, just to whet your whistle, a couple of weeks ago we went back up to Metaline Falls to see if we could find the moose we didn't find last time we were there.  No luck, sorry to say, but it was a grand couple days trip.

We went through a lot of farm land and rolling hills.  The hills and crops were green and velvety, absolutely beautiful.  And a couple of little towns that I had not heard of much less have seen.  Some were pretty cute and some left a bit to be desired.  They were thriving farming towns at one time I am fairly sure.  Some pretty sad today.

These pretty daisies were scattered in amongst the sagebrush.

Washington State prairies.  Aren't they lovely?  Not sure what mountain range that is.

This is the Axtel Rd. Homestead.  Way back on a dirt road with nothing but plowed field around it.  The house looks like it might have been a grand place in it's heyday.  

 Ribbon Fields.

 Oh look, there is wild life around here.

That is lake Roosevelt in the back ground just outside of Wilbur, WA.  We ate at a little restaurant called Doxie's Dinner.  A nice little place, very pleasant people and all sorts of ice cream.  After we left there the road took us down this mountain on a very crooked road, down and down to a ferry crossing.  Marty decided we were not doing that so we turned around and went back up the curvy, windy mountain and through lots and lots of farmland.  Went through Grand Coulee, Elmer City, Nespelium, Casch Creek Rd to Republic and low and behold came upon another ferry.  Well, it was either cross over or come back home since the road actually ended at the river and the only way to go forward was on the ferry.  And it wasn't that bad, took about 10 to cross the river to Rice.  Left on the Orin Rice Rd (it's 4:51 pm) and onto Ione.  We stayed at the Riverside Motel in Ione, our second time actually, we have been here before.  Nice place, clean and quiet.

Had pizza for dinner at the Plaza Pizza store and back to the motel for the night.  A nice day, saw lots of simple stuff.

                                  351 miles today.