Champoeg (Sham Poo Ee) The Departure

Trying not to sound like one of those old time travelogues I watched as a kid (yes, television had been invented back then), we do bid a fond farewell to the Champoeg Visitor Center and the new friends we've made while here. We'll be heading east for the annual family reunion and then a bit further yet to end up back where we started at our first hosting gig – Flaming Gorge.

There is a whole gamut of emotions we've run through this past week. First are the obvious ones of sadness as we part company with a whole bunch of new friends. Special mention goes to the Rangers we worked with: Dan, Janet, Kim and Kevin; a more dedicated group of folks would be hard to find. We learned a great deal from them even though I still failed the walk and chew gum course. Our fellow hosts are awesome people and we sincerly hope we meet up again sometime in the future on our travels.

Overriding the sadness though is the excitement of heading back to where we started the hosting adventure – Flaming Gorge. After a short stay at the annual family reunion (also pretty durn exciting) we'll be heading up into the back country to host once again at the Red Canyon Visitor Center and at the Green River boat launch.

Putting icing on the cake is absolute joy finally being houseless! After a whole year, countless teases and a couple of earnest offers and final change out of realtors we actually closed on our house. This has been a tremendous weight lifted from us and without the anchor of a house holding us back we are now free to really cast off and explore in our land yacht.

So, we're east bound and down, loaded up and RV'ing. Stay with us, its sure to be a fun ride.