Here I am at age 20

Twenty year old

Here is a photo of me from when I was about 20 years old.

We were itchy for the road again. So we headed south for a couple of days. First we stopped to visit my cousin David Irvine and wife Barbara in Vancouver, WA. Then we visited Ann's step-father, Andrew Flanders in Cornelius, OR. That's him on the couch with us. We stayed in Clackamas, OR overnight and then visited Bob's Red Mill the next day. That is Bob Moore himself speaking to us. Pretty cool huh? RM

So here we are back in our driveway after 194 days on the road and 29,341 miles on our venerable old 1983 M-B diesel. We had a blast and saw 48 states and two provinces. There was not a place that I saw that I did not like and saw incredible beauty. It was truly a Trip of a Lifetime. Would we do it again? YES! In fact, we are already starting to plan our next adventures. Some have asked, “What has been your favorite place to visit?” My typical response is, “Where ever I am that day.” That is me, and, for those of you who know me well, that is how I think all of the time. Every day is “my best day ever.” That said, the very, very best part of the trip was being with Ann 99.997% of the time for such an extended period of time. The only times that we were separated was when I had to go and get something for the car – which did not happen very often; but did happen a couple of times. Otherwise we were together. Richard

Ps. The adventures of Richard and Ann did not begin with this trip and will not end today. Check back on this BLOG (weB  LOG) from time to time to see what else we have up our sleeves – and there will be plenty.

 -Richard

It has been a wonderful adventure these past 6 months.  Before we started I could not imagine being gone from home that long.  Also, the car issue concerned me, but Richard told me it's a well built car and he was quite aware of how things work on it.  So we did have a few incidents where we needed a small repair but he was able to take care of the repairs we needed, for the most part, and we only took the car into a shop 2 times.  The past 4 months the car was incredible, we only had one small problem and Richard was able to remedy that within 2 days.  So I feel very blessed that we were safe and that we got to the places we were headed without incident.  We saw lots of amazing things, places we had heard about and read about, and it was so exciting to actually be there to see them.  We have some great memories of this time and I also loved being with Richard all of the time.  -Ann 

We drove across the upper part of Washington State on the North Cascade Highway and was it ever beautiful! Then we stayed at Naval Air Station (NAS) Whidbey Island, WA and visited my brother, George. I did not see anything across America that I didn't think was beautiful. But, we were amazed at just how gorgeous Washington State really is. Richard

We visited the Riverfront Park in Spokane, WA this morning. Ann wanted to go on the Skyride over the Spokane Falls - it was too cool - as you can plainly see. Then we drove to Colville, WA in the northeast part of the state. -Richard

My best day ever - but then, I say that every day don't I?
We drove from Kalispell, MT through the mountains and saw the most excellent panoramas everywhere we looked. Ann is getting to be a most excellent photographer wouldn't you say. On the way, we saw this very interesting road sign in Paradise Valley. I had wondered about this for several weeks. And I know that Major Percival M.J. Wallace, soldier, philosopher and naturalist had speculated and postulated various theories on the mating habits of unusual animal life. Perhaps we, today, found the elusive mating grounds of the rare Wyoming Jackalope. This may be the reason there has been, to date, no credible evidence of mating of the species in the vastness of Wyoming. Alas we may have stumbled on the destination and purpose of the mysterious nighttime disappearance and reappearance of this interesting species. Indeed we may have found the real Montana "vortex." A scientific paper may be in the offing.
We then stopped to visit my cousin, Richard Budvarson in Coeur D'Alene, ID. I was named, I am told, after the famous original voice of "Music and the Spoken Word" with the Tabernacle Choir in Salt Lake City - the weekly radio program, Richard L.(Louis) Evans. But since my cousin, Richard, was 19 when I was born, I am quite sure that my mother, Irene, leaned toward the name Richard because Richard Budvarson was such a cool guy. So, I am pretty sure I am also named after him. He is one of the most fun people I know - lots of life - someone to emulate. We had a grand time. And we found out that he has, at age 85, got his old camera from his Army days out and is now pursuing photography again. I just love people with vision and sparkle and ambition. He is one of my heroes.
Oh yes, he calls me Richard #2. And he is, of course, Richard #1.
Pretty cool huh? Richard