We left Bend after the huge storm that struck the west coast of Washington and Oregon. We headed north to The Dalles to visit Dean & Wendy. Dean and Robert were sent on a mission to the airplane hangar to get the Christmas ornaments stored there. Wondering why the boys were gone so long, the sound of a small plane buzzing the house alerted Wendy and me that they decided to take the plane for a ride. With help from Dean, Robert took the controls to practice takeoff and landing! Our next stop in our travels was with Buster & Judy in Grande Ronde. While there we were able to help them with some cleanup of one of the several trees that were downed from high water in the creek behind them during the recent storm. Their house, thankfully, came through the storm fine.

We couldn’t leave town without a few more parties. I joined several friends at a downtown restaurant to eat and enjoy the bellydancing show by my past coworker Tracy “Rasha”. Sorry, I didn’t take any pictures, but you can see her site and the activities of the bellydancing community in Bend if you click on her name. We also had a great seafood party with friends, consuming clams, crab legs, oysters and shrimp! It was messy, but delicious! The first course of the multi course seafood fest;

Before we left for our winter-warm-weather-wandering we had a delicious Thanksgiving dinner with almost all our neighbors from our gravel section of Shoshone Road. Linda, the chef of the block, whipped up a traditional dinner with some not so traditional courses – a spicy caribbean soup to start for example. Rod and Linda laid out a table groaning with food, drink, party favors and good neighbors! All things to Give Thanks for!

We finished off with little chocolate bottles of liquer!

Today Mary Jo and I start another winter on the road.