Four Hundred Twenty MIles Today

We left Leavenworth this morning after my dentist appointment at 8:00 AM...not my favorite way to start my day. I found an excellent dentist, Dr. O'Brien, recommended by my brother Charlie's fiancee. I was overdue on cleaning, and reluctant to go as I knew they would tell me I needed more than just a cleaning in the way of gum scraping, and root cleaning...and don't you just love those probing tools they use as they call off the numbers--"Four, four (not good), five (that's bad), three, two, two, five" and you wince when you hear the fours and fives....I had more fives than I did my last visit to my town dentist in Indiana, but I swear this gal dug deeper to get those fives! What was great about this dentist office is their hygienists are trained to do the deep tooth scrapings and tartar removal under the gums. Back in Indiana, you'd have to go to a periodontist to get that done, and I'll bet it's much more expensive than what this hygienist was going to charge....(200.00 per quadrant)....Unfortunately, or fortunately, however you choose to look at it, we had to leave, or I would have been back in the dentist chair a lot sooner than I'm going to be now. I swear I floss and brush every single day! That's one of the difficulties of being on the road...having to find a dentist....Some people look for dental schools in the area, go online to just pick one, ask the locals or get referrals from family or friends in the areas they are visiting.....I think I don't want to think about it any more today, what I'd do if a tooth broke or something....my teeth are aching from the zealous cleaning the gal did!

sign says "snow zone"

We're on our way to our first stop for our journey to Arizona. We stopped in Caldwell, Idaho for the night at a great campground, 26.00 a night, full hookup at the Country Corners Campground and RV park in Caldwell, Idaho...We covered about 420 miles today. We were sad to see the trees and forests disappear as we headed over the high desert of Washington, around Yakima and down towards Caldwell. Our route was 97 South, 82 East, then 84 east out of Washington. We crossed the mighty Columbia River, and the trip was pretty uneventful....It's pretty amazing to be writing this blog while Eldy is driving down the road. I'm looking out the window and seeing this highway curve around and around mountains with about four different tiers of highway below us, cars just winding around and around, a tier high above us and three tiers below us. We are climbing one of the longest climbs we've had in the motorhome, but it's gradual. All I can tell about the climb is that we just went through Deadman's Pass area, and we passed a state truck going the other way with a snowplow still attached!  We've seen signs that say "snow zone", so guess snow can still be present late in the year in this area. (Haven't seen any, don't wanna see any either! At least not while I'm driving, thank you very much! exclaims E.)

The terrain really changed as we made our way through the east side of Oregon towards Idaho...much more foothills, sparse foliage and trees...but it was still pretty with the sun playing hide and seek all day on our drive...we had a brief rain as we neared Caldwell and this beautiful double rainbow popped out and then quickly faded at the park we stopped at.....

Tomorrow is another driving day...we hope to cover a lot of distance and Sparky might even drive! (WHAT?????  Sparky is going to drive? Hold on, I think I'm having THE BIG ONE! says E, about to pass out.)  We'll see, says Sparky....I think it's time I learned how to drive a big rig! With Eldy pulling these long driving days, it's the least I can do. He wants to cover a lot of ground so we can get closer to Sedona and the national parks on the way to have a little extra time to sightsee before joining the Baughman family commotion and hubbub at the reunion. Sounds like a plan! On the road again......