I tried charging my camera battery up all day today, but it’s dead.  I don’t know if it’s the battery or the cord or the place I plugged it in, but I wasn’t able to get pictures with my camera today.

I did, however, get a couple with my phone camera.

Mountains in the distance

Mountains kind of close up and personal

We left Pendleton this morning.  (By the way, for those of you who don’t know about Pendleton, that’s where Pendleton Wool comes from.)  Mark had unhooked the truck and had me follow him so that the RV wouldn’t have to work so hard to get over Cabbage Hill.  It doesn’t seem like a hill should be such a big deal, but this was no ordinary hill.  Mark told me later that when we’ve gone over it before with the truck attached, he has only been able to get up to 35 miles per hour, but without the truck, he was doing somewhere between 45 and 55 miles per hour.  At the top of Cabbage Hill, which is also rather high, there is a rest area.  We stopped there and he attached the truck to the RV again.  That’s when I finally had my hands free to take the above photos.

It probably took us about two and a half hours to get to the border between Oregon and Idaho.  We spent the better part of the day in Idaho.  I had bought a book for Mark for Christmas called Christmas in Tucson.  It’s a western, one of his favorite genres, so it seemed like the perfect book to read to him on our way to Tucson right after Christmas!

We made several stops along the way.  My cousin, Dave, told me about a plant-based diet he’s been on since June that has greatly improved his health and helped him lose weight.  Mark and I are going to try it for the month of January and see how we do by the end of the month.  Today, we ate fruits, vegetables, nuts, and whole-grain chips with salsa as we rode along.  We both drank plenty of water which is why we made as many stops as we did.

It was a long day today.  We drove along the southern part of Idaho and it was dark by the time we crossed into Utah.  North Ogden is north of Salt Lake City.  When we pulled into the Walmart parking lot, there were snowdrifts around the edges of the parking lot.  We had seen some snow on the sides of the highways in the dark, but the roads were completely clear.  After we got parked, Mark took Tucson out to do her business, and she loved the snow!  For a dog that was born in Tucson, she sure does love the cold white stuff.

Then we walked into Walmart to get permission from the manager to stay here.  This is the first time in ages that a store manager hasn’t even asked us how long we’re staying or told us where to park.  She just said, “Sure!”  What a pleasant surprise!

The only trouble we had today had to do with the cable that goes between the RV and the pickup truck to operate the pickup’s rear lights.  Mark, handyman that he is, fixed it.

I’ve tried to get hold of my mother a couple of times today to find out how Fred is doing, but I haven’t heard back from her.  I’ll let you know as soon as I hear…