Taking the "Dirt Nap"

I shut my laptop down the other night, and it was working fine.  I tried to start it up yesterday and it's done.  Hard drive is dead.  Second time in eight months.  HP laptops are "crappola".  Coton's is also dead right now.  If we hadn't bought them at Costco with their two year warranty, none of our three HPs would have lasted 6 months.  Never again will I buy an HP product.  Anyways, I need to come up with some spare cash to recover this summer's photos, which I had not yet backed up.  So no more posts for a bit...

Daroga State Park

I know...  I had never heard of it either.  Very nice campground on the Columbia River, just south of Chelan.  A little windy in the evenings, but otherwise nice.  It made a nice base camp in June when we sent the kids to their Aunt & Uncle's place in Colorado.  Janae and I took a week and went RVing.  We went to Chelan, Grand Coulee, and Stehekin.  We had a really poor, long, wet winter and spring around Buckley, and this was a really nice change.  Mid 80's all week.  Well, the first day, was tough, but we got used to it by the second or third day.  I spent a great deal of time shirtless.  Oddly enough, and Janae tells me it was a coincidence, the number of bigfoot sightings in the area tripled that week... 
We spent one day traveling Lake Chelan to the small town of Stehekin.  Very nice place in the North Cascades, very close to the National Park.  Had a great time there seeing the sights and having lunch.  On the trip back downlake, we saw deer, mountain goats, and a bear.  A day later, we drove east toward the coulees.  We drove through several state parks including Steamboat Rock, Sun Lakes, and Bridgeport.  I envied the people fishing on Banks Lake.  And of course we made the customary trip to the Grand Coulee Dam.  What a great time we had without the kids (sorry guys).  I had been raised on camping trips to Alta Lake State Park on the eastside.  To be honest, it's a hell-hole.  One hundred degree temperatures.  Sand at the beach so hot you can't walk on it, rattlesnakes...  How we survived as kids I don't know.  In the last few years I've finally discovered some of the other parks east of the Cascades, finding them very nice.  We will be hitting more of them in the future.  But, our summer was only beginning, and I was still to face my final emasculation...  Stay tuned.

Bad Tom!

Have I been bad, or what?  All summer without a post...  I'm soooooo sorry.  Working nights again has messed me up.  Typically, I get home at 3am or so, and grab some Z-time.  I get up after not nearly enough sleep and finish loading the motorhome, and off we go.  To make it a long enough trip, we don't come home until my monday.  Typically this summer, we've arrived home in time for me to unload critical items, park the motorhome, shower, change, and head off to work until 3am.  As is normal during the summer, my work days are 14 to 15 hours, not leaving much time for this blog!  Will work on it the next couple of days, when I'll be home without working.