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.

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.

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

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

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.

Summer Update

It's been a while -- since May -- since our last update. So it's about time -- don't you think?

Holly came for Memorial Day weekend. It was a great visit. We mostly hung around the pool, and made a stop at In-n-Out.

In June I led a small group of students to London, Paris, and the Alps. We enjoyed the regular tourist things, saw Wicked!, and I enjoyed the Starbucks.

We bought some kayaks on my birthday, and when we got home the place was full of people for a surprise pool party and BBQ. It was a total -- and happy -- surprise! The next week we went camping at Big Bear Lake with our new kayaks. Carolyn's is red and mine is yellow.

Holly came again for 4th of July and we went back to Big Bear with the Kayaks. We also went to see Wicked! in Hollywood at the Pantages Theater.

Kallie came later in the month, so the kayaks got a work out again.

We took a friend to the Hollywood Bowl for a production of South Pacific. It was great!

This weekend my brother, David, came down from Sacramento, and we went to two NASCAR races in Fontana. We got to see our favorite drivers and cars. We had a great time, even though it was (100 degrees +) HOT.

So that catches us up to a lazy Labor Day. Carolyn starts teaching again this week. My school started last month. Now I already have papers to grade which I successfully avoided all day!

Senior Prom

That's "senior" as in high school seniors. We chaperoned the prom last month, and the pictures just came in. I don't know why they make us pose in these stiff poses. I look fat, but it's just because my jacket was too big, and I'm turned sideways. Oh well, we did take our camera, and took pictures with the kids, but not with each other. The girl in the top right is Tiffany Han. She was Carolyn's student when she (Tiffany) was in the 2nd grade. The girl in the bottom picture is Caitlin Endlsey. She has been one of Rod's students all 4 of her years at Hesperia High School. She was on the first group to go to Europe.

The prom was downtown LA at the Science Center. Everyone had to ride in charter buses. It wasn't really as bad as people feared. Well, the music was. We couldn't get far enough away from it. That's where these two "seniors" were different from the high school type.

It has been windy here, and a bit chilly on the weekends. So we haven't done as much outside as we would like. Of course, we never get enough done inside, either.

I (Rod) will take a small group of students to Europe on June 5, for about 10 days. London, Paris & the Alps. More on that later. Carolyn's school year is over about June 20.