In Vegas

The main reason for the trip was to finish clearing out Dot & George's house so Richard could finish painting and putting in new floors.

Over the course of ten days, Dave, Shera and I took rooms like this:

and turned them into rooms like this:

Since Mom has anything she really wanted to keep in her apartment at Atria, it was mostly stuff to throw away - old papers, empty envelopes, empty boxes and decades of magazines - and stuff for Salvation Army. 

Shera kept an eye out for anything family might want and we filled bins with photos and important-looking paperwork for Dave to sort. There was so much trash!  We ended up getting one of these:

That is a 16-footer! And we filled it...

and, trust me when I say, none of this could have happened without Shera!

She really really worked hard!  Especially since I can't pick up anything of weight because of my back and Dave managed to crack a rib (he fell in the hotel parking lot), so he couldn't lift anything either!

After getting keep-able stuff back to the hotel (I rescued some of Mom's craft items - knitting needles, crochet hooks, some fabric; Dave had genealogy books/paperwork and photos), Dave sorted the books into boxes to ship to Texas and photos into plastic bins to bring back in the van. There were a lot of books - it took 9 boxes.  I'm not sure where they are going when we get them back to our house!

We also uncovered three quilts! (we don't think Mom made any of them - she and George were big on estate sales and auctions) - I'm going to have them cleaned and then I'll photograph them (and show them off at Guild) before shipping them to Shera to divide them between her and her sisters.

Of course, Dave managed to visit his Mom every day, so that made the trip really worthwhile!

and Mom was really happy to meet her "grandpuppy", as she called him.

As for Mr. R - he was far better behaved than expected and managed to keep himself comfortable while we were in the hotel.

Day 2 - Part 6 - Nevada

You cross into Nevada at the river at Hoover Dam - the new road means you miss the tourist traffic across the dam, but the view isn't all that great anymore, just electrical lines. Then it's a short trip through the desert and there it is...Vegas.  Not so spectacular during the day...

Day 2 - Part 5 - Arizona cont.

Day 2 - Part 4 - Arizona cont.