Satueday, Oct. 3 --- Arriving home!

I tore myself away from Carol & Don's house at 2:30. I went over to my sister Lorraine's house to say hi and pick up something from her for our Aunt Helen. After a brief visit, I drove her over to Van Nuys Airport where she and husband Dan keep their plane. They had recently gotten back from a quick trip (via commercial plane) to Alton, Illinois, to see their son and grandson (Joel & Benjamin) perform in a local theater production of "Annie." You might remember that when I was visiting Joel & family back in July (see post of July 29), I watched them in an early rehearsal of the musical. I hope I get to see a video of the final performance some day; Lorraine said it was very good.

This is my 91-year-old Aunt Helen and her 7/24 caregiver, Fe. She lives in Leisure World in Laguna Woods, half-way between Los Angeles and San Diego. Visiting with them was the very last stop on my trip before I arrived home. We went out to dinner at Polly's restaurant, which was where I took them to dinner just before leaving on my trip, two-and-a-half months and 8600 miles ago.

It was a short one-hour drive home from there.

We're home! (well, not really. Carol took this picture this morning just before I left her house. But it looked like a great picture to end the blog with.)

About 30 minutes after I got home and Dave was helping me unload the Roadtrek, the dogs ran into the house through the doggie door from their first inspection of the back yard --- and the whole house started smelling like skunk! I guess the little critters had been enjoying 3 months of our backyard without the dogs being there and were expressing their displeasure at our return. Well, at least Dave was glad we were home!

This is dog #1 (Juliet) getting her de-skunking bath...

....and dog #2. Actually, now that I look at these pictures, I think they are both of Juliet --- but Maggie got a bath too.

Aaahhhh, it's good to be home!

[Note: there will be one more post of tomorrow, even though my trip is officially over.]