Monday, June 30, 2008

A whole lot of nothing


Today we said "Goodbye" to Mike, Kallie & Jack. It was hard, and sad, to leave. Now we really know what it feels like to be Grandparents. It "is" grand! We love Jack so much. We both cried before we left. It was hard!

We also said "good bye" to Spring Canyon. It is a unique place and ministry, and we are so proud of Mike & Kallie for their contribution and service there. They are truly Godly parents, spouses and leaders.

Then we spent the next 8 hours looking at mostly -- NOTHING. It was pretty, but way desolate! Once we crossed the continental divide (our 3rd time in a week), the western side was a whole lot of nothing. The good news is: no travel delays today. Just long and boring. With the same tomorrow.

We arrived in Green River, Utah about 6 pm and it was still almost 100 degrees and a bit muggy.


But we were treated to a light show tonight, so that was nice.

On to Twin Falls, Idaho tomorrow.

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Way Out Back With Jack

Today was a leisurely vacation day, starting off with sleeping, reading, and just being lazy.

Then we packed Jack for a trip out back, to St. Elmo, and old ghost town from the 1880s.












First we stopped at famous K's in BV for burgers, ice cream, and a picnic in the park.














At St. Elmo we saw hummingbirds, chipmunks, and lots of old buildings.








































Tonight Grandma and Grandpa got to stay home with Jack. Grandpa made up a song for him called, "Way Out Back With Jack." He'll probably even sing it for you if you ask. :)

Jack At Last!!

We finally made it to see Jack! Yay!

















On Monday morning we went back to Cortez, Colorado to get four new tires for the trailer.










That took some time in the morning, so we had just a short time to visit the Anasazi ruins at Mesa Verde National Park.











The trip to Mike & Kallie's took us over the continental divide at Wolf Creek Pass. It was a beautiful drive, and even had some rain. Then Colorado on the east side of the divide was quite a different place.









We arrived in time to go out for a steak dinner. And, of course, spend a lot of time watching, and taking pictures of, Jack.











Most of Tuesday was spent repairing the plumbing damage on the trailer. Like Thomas Edison said, I didn't fail a bunch of times, I discovered a bunch of ways that didn't work. Finally about dark we had water in the trailer, and only a few drips on the ground.













We are enjoying our visit with Mike, Kallie & Jack at Spring Canyon!

Sunday, June 22, 2008

Day 2 -- "Vacation?"

So one thing I wanted to say yesterday, and didn't: A lot of the places we were yesterday were along the old Route 66, route. I could swear I saw Radiator Springs off in the distance one time. I asked Carolyn if we could go visit Mater & Sally.

We started the day in Flagstaff, and got away much later than we wanted to. I really wanted to get to an RV parts store, but the only one in town wasn't open on Sundays. So we took off. The sway I felt yesterday was worse today. We stopped a couple of times to make adjustments in the hitch hoping it would help. We thought it helped a little.






This is what most of the day looked like. It looked nicer in person, and for the first half hour.











Then: "Houston, we have a problem." We blew a tire, that did some damage to the trailer. We limped into a little town. With no tire stores or real service stations. My tire iron didn't fit the trailer wheels. But a Navajo guy came along and helped.

Then I found a hardware store to buy a tire iron, and some parts to fix the water hoses that were torn up by the tire. That put us 2 hours behind.




We spent the rest of the afternoon driving near Monument Valley, and seeing Four Corners, but never got to see Mesa Verde in Colorado. We hope to tomorrow, but we have to buy a tire first.

Saturday, June 21, 2008

On the Road Again




We started off today on a 4-week adventure to see alot of our family.









But the start didn't go smoothly. I forgot to raise one of the stabilizer supports, and bent it before ever getting out of the driveway. That's after we were over 3 hours later than our planned time to leave. I tried to fix it by pushing it back with my feet. But ended up having to take it off.










Oh well. We stopped at In-N-Out in Barstow, knowing it would be several weeks before we tasted that again. Carolyn heard a guy in In-n-Out saying, "We have something just like this in Pennsylvania, except it's called Chic-Fil-A. We hope he had a pleasant surprise!

We had more trouble with trailer sway today than we've noticed before. Not quite sure why, but since I have to find a new stabilizer jack in the morning, I'm hoping I can learn some more about the sway problem.


Tonight we are at a KOA in Flagstaff.

Sunday, June 15, 2008

Father's Day

It's a blessing to be the father of three great kids


Tim lives next door, teaches in our school district, and helps with sound and music at our church. Also does a mean BBQ.

Mike leads wilderness programs at Spring Canyon camp in Colorado.


Holly called from Iraq today. She's there for two weeks for briefing and training, and is on the return leg of her journey.


Tim and Stef had us over for BBQ lunch, kabobs. It was great!

So it was a good day at our home in Hesperia

Saturday, June 14, 2008

June 14


June 14 if Flag Day, hope you put out your flag.


June 14 is also our anniversary. Today is our 39th. Seems like a big number.




So what do you get on your 39th anniversary? How 'bout a pink fishing pole, and a new camera to take a picture of it. Just in time for our vacation.


We also got a soft top tonneau cover for our pick up.

We also celebrated with steak & lobster at Red Lobster -- I know, almost fancy!

So that's the news from . . . . here

Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Just in case

Just in case someone is actually reading this, here's a quick update.

We spent a lot of family time together November through January. Since then Carolyn and I went to a NASCAR race, and went camping at Big Bear in April.



Holly was with us for Christmas, and her boyfriend Dan joined us for New Years



NASCAR Truck & Nationwide race at Fontana. The Nationwide race was rained out, but we had a good time with church friends anyway.


Jack was born on Easter, and the next Sunday we had a rose on the Communion Table at our church.






Big Bear Lake in April


Jack's first smile for the camera


Other than that it is just housework, yardwork, and school work. On June 20 we will leave for 3 weeks to visit Mike, Kallie & Jack in Colorado. Jack made us grandparents, so we can't wait for that.