Last Day of Spring

The Summer Solstice officially occurs at 4:28 am (Idaho Time) tomorrow--June 21.  As you know, it's also officially, the longest day of the year.  We've both always loved these sweet long days of late spring and early summer.  The sun kind of stalls out up here at its farthest north latitude.  Long days and late sunsets are the norm for a long time here in late June and early July.  It doesn't really even get dark enough for the July 4th fireworks until almost 10 pm!

Well, a chapter is closed.  We received our final check from RJ yesterday.  That payment brought our total net for the NVUM Saga to $1855.  We set forth on our first trip May 14 and returned from the final trip in the wee hours of June 7.  So, technically, that saga spanned 24 days.  It took us to some brand new Sweet Spots. It taught us a lot about camping in the rain.  It really helped take our camp rig to the next level.  And it sure gifted us with a decent kitty for gas money this summer.  Our Senior Citizen fixed income budget would have been sorely tested with numerous camping trips this summer.  Now, we can traipse off with nary a care about the impact on our monthly budget.  For those who missed the first post about NVUM when all this began, you may wish to review our thoughts on February 13, 2010 about how NUVM would play out.  Click here to see that post.

Today we're going to unlimber our bicycles and enjoy what was a great weekly tradition during the past couple of summers--The Sunday Morning Bicycle Ride.  We've both been missing that experience here in the city.  The streets are deserted on Sunday mornings.  The faithful are in church and the heathens are hung over and still groggy from their Saturday night excesses.

LBR Maggie J. alerted us to a fire that blew up about 1:30 pm yesterday very near the Little America Hotel in Flagstaff.  You can Google the "Hardy Fire" in Arizona to read all about it.  Maggie sent some photos.  From the online stories and her photos, it sure looked serious.  Most likely, the fire crews got a handle on it overnight.  Close call for Flagstaff!

Looks like medium decent weather for our road trip.  Thunderstorms are likely Monday and maybe Tuesday.  The weather should be pretty good Wednesday through Friday when we plan to return.  Not much hurry to get outta River City tomorrow.  Really not sure of our actual travel schedule but we obviously have plenty of time to mess around and not be too Type A about this trip.  It's an "exploratory" trip so we might as well kick back and explore.  Use of the Dubois page at top left sure has helped us focus our thoughts on this particular trip.  The page is functioning as a sort of online file folder for stuff we find in our research.  It's working well, check it out.

Have a great Sunday and Cheers!  jp

PS added about 10 am:  Believe it or not, we got the front part of the truck packed by 9:30 am!