As promised in our Christmas letter, I'm going to try and update out blog throughout the year. Christmas at our house was a load of fun and surprises. Levi received a RipStik (like a skateboard), Brandon received an indoor single person trampoline, Seth received an electric guitar, and Bailey received a doll house. Grandma and Grandpa gave them a Wii and Granny and PaPa gave them them some cool legos, a rocket car, a tea set, and a flag football set. I'm really trying to teach the kids not to be materialistic, but it is a struggle at Christmas. Our neighbors decided to take the money they would have spent on Christmas and give it to a charity (except for one small gift per person). That may be a good lesson for our kids in the coming years.....
I must admit, I was surprised at how much fun the Wii has become for adults. We recently had our Bible Study group over for a potluck dinner and the adults had more fun using the Wii than the kids.
If you haven't had a chance to review our trip, you can still check the links at the bottom of the blog or the pictures. You can still read about my struggle changing the toilet on the RV (if you are really interested) or our amazing trips to some of the beautiful places throughout Canada and the US.
We sure hope everyone had a blessed Christmas and we all took time away from the distractions of Christmas to ponder the greatest gift to all mankind: Christ the Savior.
Saturday, December 29, 2007
Monday, October 29, 2007
Home for Good!!
Sunday, October 28
After 15,850 miles and 112 days on the road, we have finally arrived home. It feels good to be home, but that means returning to work is just around the corner. Oh well, you can’t be on vacation forever…….or maybe that is called retirement. We averaged 142 miles per day and spent approximately 288 hours in the car (12 of the 112 day trip). In hindsight, that is probably more than we should have. We did feel a little pushed for some of the trip. On the other hand we sure covered a lot of ground. The next sabbatical will have to be on a beach in Fiji for 4 months straight! We probably won’t be posting to this for some time. We may turn it into the family blog….Thanks for everyone who followed our trip, we hope you got to vicariously enjoy it with us!
After 15,850 miles and 112 days on the road, we have finally arrived home. It feels good to be home, but that means returning to work is just around the corner. Oh well, you can’t be on vacation forever…….or maybe that is called retirement. We averaged 142 miles per day and spent approximately 288 hours in the car (12 of the 112 day trip). In hindsight, that is probably more than we should have. We did feel a little pushed for some of the trip. On the other hand we sure covered a lot of ground. The next sabbatical will have to be on a beach in Fiji for 4 months straight! We probably won’t be posting to this for some time. We may turn it into the family blog….Thanks for everyone who followed our trip, we hope you got to vicariously enjoy it with us!
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Shuttle Launch
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Blast off!!! Today we got to see the space shuttle launch at 11:38 am as planned. We arrived 4 hours early just to get a spot and it’s a good thing we got one since the lady nearby was frustrated that the folks in the front weren’t sitting down at the time of the launch. The shuttle packs a powerful punch, and from where we were (about 11 miles away), the sound was pretty incredible. It was delayed about 50 seconds because of the distance, but still pretty neat. Levi took a pretty neat picture that I have placed to the right. In fact, he actually snapped a picture when the booster rockets came off, which was totally unplanned. We met with a family from our church in Winchester so it was nice to share the experience with someone we knew. After the launch we just chilled out at the campground and spent some time in the pool.
Blast off!!! Today we got to see the space shuttle launch at 11:38 am as planned. We arrived 4 hours early just to get a spot and it’s a good thing we got one since the lady nearby was frustrated that the folks in the front weren’t sitting down at the time of the launch. The shuttle packs a powerful punch, and from where we were (about 11 miles away), the sound was pretty incredible. It was delayed about 50 seconds because of the distance, but still pretty neat. Levi took a pretty neat picture that I have placed to the right. In fact, he actually snapped a picture when the booster rockets came off, which was totally unplanned. We met with a family from our church in Winchester so it was nice to share the experience with someone we knew. After the launch we just chilled out at the campground and spent some time in the pool.
Monday, October 22, 2007
On the road again!
Sunday, October 21
After 14,022 miles and 106 days on the road we spend the last 6 days at our house in Berryville. We caught up on weeding our flowerbeds, doing laundry, cleaning the RV, and having fun. However, today brought a new direction. We headed out once again on our adventure, so I’ll call today day 107. Today was a long driving day as we covered about 450 miles and made it to southern South Carolina. For our 106 day trip, I can’t think of one significant item we forgot. However, for this 7 day trip, we have managed to forget some important items. First and foremost is baby wipes. Nobody should go on any roadtrip without babywipes regardless of whether or not you have someone in diapers. Just think of the hassle years ago when people had to carry water and papertowels and make their own wipes on an as needed basis. The second item we forgot was towels. We discovered this as the kids were going to the pool tonight at the campground. It might make showering interesting tomorrow…… I told Bailey that she may not want to go to the pool because she wouldn’t have a towel. Her comment was, "I’ll just dry off in the sun". That was only made funny by the fact that it was 8 pm at night and the sun had gone down over an hour earlier. The third item we forgot is Bailey’s baby doll. You see, we carried that baby doll with us all across the US and it provided needed comfort each night. However, Bailey was sad tonight to learn that her favorite baby doll is sleeping at our yellow house (Bailey’s term for our fixed home-the one on the concrete pad). Tomorrow we’ll travel to Titusville, Florida, which is our home base for the Space Shuttle launch. By the way, at least one family took us up on joining us down for the shuttle launch and possibly a second family that resides in Florida that we meant in Maine. Oh, I almost forgot. One noteworthy event for the day was listening to a Bill Cosby cd that we picked up from Sheri’s Dad’s collection. I almost had to pull over I was laughing so much. The whole family was laughing like crazy at his comedy sketches.
After 14,022 miles and 106 days on the road we spend the last 6 days at our house in Berryville. We caught up on weeding our flowerbeds, doing laundry, cleaning the RV, and having fun. However, today brought a new direction. We headed out once again on our adventure, so I’ll call today day 107. Today was a long driving day as we covered about 450 miles and made it to southern South Carolina. For our 106 day trip, I can’t think of one significant item we forgot. However, for this 7 day trip, we have managed to forget some important items. First and foremost is baby wipes. Nobody should go on any roadtrip without babywipes regardless of whether or not you have someone in diapers. Just think of the hassle years ago when people had to carry water and papertowels and make their own wipes on an as needed basis. The second item we forgot was towels. We discovered this as the kids were going to the pool tonight at the campground. It might make showering interesting tomorrow…… I told Bailey that she may not want to go to the pool because she wouldn’t have a towel. Her comment was, "I’ll just dry off in the sun". That was only made funny by the fact that it was 8 pm at night and the sun had gone down over an hour earlier. The third item we forgot is Bailey’s baby doll. You see, we carried that baby doll with us all across the US and it provided needed comfort each night. However, Bailey was sad tonight to learn that her favorite baby doll is sleeping at our yellow house (Bailey’s term for our fixed home-the one on the concrete pad). Tomorrow we’ll travel to Titusville, Florida, which is our home base for the Space Shuttle launch. By the way, at least one family took us up on joining us down for the shuttle launch and possibly a second family that resides in Florida that we meant in Maine. Oh, I almost forgot. One noteworthy event for the day was listening to a Bill Cosby cd that we picked up from Sheri’s Dad’s collection. I almost had to pull over I was laughing so much. The whole family was laughing like crazy at his comedy sketches.
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
HOME! ........for a week
Sunday, October 14
After over 14,000 miles we docked at the home base today. We decided to make a stop near Christiansburg to see the McClennahans, who used to live in Berryville. After a 3 hour visit with them we headed home and arrived at 10 pm. To the kids, it was like Christmas morning. They were so excited to see their rooms and toys they had forgotten they had. Bailey was the cutest as her room was like a new place to her. The kids were so hyped up, we couldn’t get them to bed until 11:30. Brandon and Seth were the two kids that couldn’t wait to get their own bed. However, when they realized how far away from Mom and Dad they would be they both asked if they could sleep together. Bailey also had trouble. For 4 months she went to bed seeing Mom and Dad and having a brother by her side. To sleep by herself was scary. However, everyone did just fine. This week we are taking it easy and getting some chores done around the house. Next Sunday we leave for Cape Canaveral to see the shuttle launch!
After over 14,000 miles we docked at the home base today. We decided to make a stop near Christiansburg to see the McClennahans, who used to live in Berryville. After a 3 hour visit with them we headed home and arrived at 10 pm. To the kids, it was like Christmas morning. They were so excited to see their rooms and toys they had forgotten they had. Bailey was the cutest as her room was like a new place to her. The kids were so hyped up, we couldn’t get them to bed until 11:30. Brandon and Seth were the two kids that couldn’t wait to get their own bed. However, when they realized how far away from Mom and Dad they would be they both asked if they could sleep together. Bailey also had trouble. For 4 months she went to bed seeing Mom and Dad and having a brother by her side. To sleep by herself was scary. However, everyone did just fine. This week we are taking it easy and getting some chores done around the house. Next Sunday we leave for Cape Canaveral to see the shuttle launch!
Saturday, October 13, 2007
Visting Family and Friends as We Return
Saturday, October 13, 2007
Today was a day for visiting my Aunt and Uncle. My Uncle Dan (my Dad’s brother) played football in college so we took the opportunity to play football with kids. Seth and my Uncle played against me and Levi. Brandon was on whichever team had the ball. Unfortunately Levi and I lost. But we did have a ton of fun playing. All three kids made plays, but Brandon surprised me as he caught and threw the ball several times. We also made a visit to my Aunt’s father (no direct relation to me) who lives four houses away. He tells a great story of escaping Hungary during the 1950s when the Russians were invading the country. The day before they were going to cross the bridge into Austria, it was blown up. In order to cross the river he gathered some wood and made a makeshift raft, which allowed he, his wife, and his 2-year old daughter to pass into Austria. Eventually, they made it to the US, where my aunt was born. As any surrogate grandparent would do, he gave the kids plenty of candy. Seth also enjoyed a chess match with "PaPa". Tonight is our last night in the RV as we will be back home tomorrow…….until we take off for Florida to see the space shuttle launch in one week!
Friday, October 12, 2007
Day 104. Today was the longest driving day so far on our trip at 7 hours. We drove from Prattville to Charlotte. We are so close to home that we decided to push a little more to get there by Sunday. However, we reserved Saturday for meeting with my Aunt and Uncle and tonight we met up with Sheri’s best friend from Elementary school, both of whom live in the Charlotte area.
Thursday, October 11
We made our way from the beaches of Florida to Prattville, Alabama today. My first two years of employment after college were for International Paper in Selma, Alabama. We lived in Prattville and I commuted each day. Levi spent the first two years of his life down here and Seth was born in a hospital in Montgomery, which is only 15 minutes from Prattville. We drove by our old house and church and then spent the evening with some friends that we have stayed in touch with. They have two boys that are the same age as our kids, so much fun was had.
Wednesday, October 10
Today was nice because it was a shark-free day. We spent about 2 hours at the beach this morning and despite yesterday’s scare, Levi wasn’t afraid to go in the water. I, on the other hand, did nothing but scan the water the entire time. It really takes the fun out of the ocean.
After playing at the beach we spent the afternoon/evening with a family that had lived in Winchester, Virginia in 2000-2002. They moved down to Fort Walton Beach because the husband re-joined the Air Force. Unfortunately, he went to Iraq and died in a plane crash. We had a great visit with fhe family (wife, 2 boys and a girl). The kids played well together. I think it was best summed up by their 10 year old son who stated, "I’m having fun playing with friends I didn’t even know I had".
Today was a day for visiting my Aunt and Uncle. My Uncle Dan (my Dad’s brother) played football in college so we took the opportunity to play football with kids. Seth and my Uncle played against me and Levi. Brandon was on whichever team had the ball. Unfortunately Levi and I lost. But we did have a ton of fun playing. All three kids made plays, but Brandon surprised me as he caught and threw the ball several times. We also made a visit to my Aunt’s father (no direct relation to me) who lives four houses away. He tells a great story of escaping Hungary during the 1950s when the Russians were invading the country. The day before they were going to cross the bridge into Austria, it was blown up. In order to cross the river he gathered some wood and made a makeshift raft, which allowed he, his wife, and his 2-year old daughter to pass into Austria. Eventually, they made it to the US, where my aunt was born. As any surrogate grandparent would do, he gave the kids plenty of candy. Seth also enjoyed a chess match with "PaPa". Tonight is our last night in the RV as we will be back home tomorrow…….until we take off for Florida to see the space shuttle launch in one week!
Friday, October 12, 2007
Day 104. Today was the longest driving day so far on our trip at 7 hours. We drove from Prattville to Charlotte. We are so close to home that we decided to push a little more to get there by Sunday. However, we reserved Saturday for meeting with my Aunt and Uncle and tonight we met up with Sheri’s best friend from Elementary school, both of whom live in the Charlotte area.
Thursday, October 11
We made our way from the beaches of Florida to Prattville, Alabama today. My first two years of employment after college were for International Paper in Selma, Alabama. We lived in Prattville and I commuted each day. Levi spent the first two years of his life down here and Seth was born in a hospital in Montgomery, which is only 15 minutes from Prattville. We drove by our old house and church and then spent the evening with some friends that we have stayed in touch with. They have two boys that are the same age as our kids, so much fun was had.
Wednesday, October 10
Today was nice because it was a shark-free day. We spent about 2 hours at the beach this morning and despite yesterday’s scare, Levi wasn’t afraid to go in the water. I, on the other hand, did nothing but scan the water the entire time. It really takes the fun out of the ocean.
After playing at the beach we spent the afternoon/evening with a family that had lived in Winchester, Virginia in 2000-2002. They moved down to Fort Walton Beach because the husband re-joined the Air Force. Unfortunately, he went to Iraq and died in a plane crash. We had a great visit with fhe family (wife, 2 boys and a girl). The kids played well together. I think it was best summed up by their 10 year old son who stated, "I’m having fun playing with friends I didn’t even know I had".
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
Shark Bait in Destin Florida
Tuesday, October 09, 2007
2:30 am I awaken. An unusual event. The entire trip I typically wake up around 5 am but fall asleep again quickly and wake up with the rest of the family around 7 am or so. Not today. I tossed and turned for an hour before finally deciding that enough is enough. If I was up, I might as well do something. So I unhooked the RV and got on the road at 4 am (leaving New Orleans). I had only done this once before and I think it was more like 6 am. Waking up early turned out to be really beneficial because we were able to arrive at Destin, Florida by 10 am. Casting aside some problems finding an RV place (really the first time that has happened), we were at the beach by 12:30 pm. Destin beach is beautiful and the water is clear and of an aqua blue color. I’d almost say it is the perfect beach….except for the sharks. As we arrived onto the beach today folks promptly told us to be very cautious as 9 sharks had been sighted. After talking to some locals I discovered that bull sharks have been pretty aggressive in the last several years in the fall months. I watched the water like a hawk as the kids played around me for 3 hours. We didn’t enter the water more than 15 feet from the shore and I could see the bottom the entire time. After 2-3 hours of fun, I decided to leave and take Seth, Brandon, and Bailey to the pool and Sheri and Levi decided to stay back and play in the ocean some more. I had told Levi before leaving that I kind of wanted to see a shark from a distance. Sheri and Levi were out in about knee depth water and a shark (about 6 feet long) swam within 10 feet of them in water about waist deep. Thankfully, he wasn’t hunting them, or they probably would have been struck. Within minutes (after all the folks around had exited the beach) another one came in the same location. I never would have thought sharks would have swam in such shallow water, but a local gentleman had told me they are frequently spotted in 3 feet of water. For that reason, today goes down in the Mayo family history as one of the most frightening day of Sheri’s and Levi’s lives. I’m not sure we will enter the water tomorrow, but sand castle building is in order…….Oh, I’ve got to update some mileage. We entered Louisiana at 12,425 on Sunday. Today we entered Mississippi at 12,700, Alabama at 12,775, and Florida at 12,839.
2:30 am I awaken. An unusual event. The entire trip I typically wake up around 5 am but fall asleep again quickly and wake up with the rest of the family around 7 am or so. Not today. I tossed and turned for an hour before finally deciding that enough is enough. If I was up, I might as well do something. So I unhooked the RV and got on the road at 4 am (leaving New Orleans). I had only done this once before and I think it was more like 6 am. Waking up early turned out to be really beneficial because we were able to arrive at Destin, Florida by 10 am. Casting aside some problems finding an RV place (really the first time that has happened), we were at the beach by 12:30 pm. Destin beach is beautiful and the water is clear and of an aqua blue color. I’d almost say it is the perfect beach….except for the sharks. As we arrived onto the beach today folks promptly told us to be very cautious as 9 sharks had been sighted. After talking to some locals I discovered that bull sharks have been pretty aggressive in the last several years in the fall months. I watched the water like a hawk as the kids played around me for 3 hours. We didn’t enter the water more than 15 feet from the shore and I could see the bottom the entire time. After 2-3 hours of fun, I decided to leave and take Seth, Brandon, and Bailey to the pool and Sheri and Levi decided to stay back and play in the ocean some more. I had told Levi before leaving that I kind of wanted to see a shark from a distance. Sheri and Levi were out in about knee depth water and a shark (about 6 feet long) swam within 10 feet of them in water about waist deep. Thankfully, he wasn’t hunting them, or they probably would have been struck. Within minutes (after all the folks around had exited the beach) another one came in the same location. I never would have thought sharks would have swam in such shallow water, but a local gentleman had told me they are frequently spotted in 3 feet of water. For that reason, today goes down in the Mayo family history as one of the most frightening day of Sheri’s and Levi’s lives. I’m not sure we will enter the water tomorrow, but sand castle building is in order…….Oh, I’ve got to update some mileage. We entered Louisiana at 12,425 on Sunday. Today we entered Mississippi at 12,700, Alabama at 12,775, and Florida at 12,839.
Monday, October 8, 2007
New Orleans
Monday, October 08, 2007
Day 100!! Today we traveled to New Orleans from our campground. The campground offers a free shuttle service to Jackson Square. Even better, the shuttle driver (a KOA employee) has trained as a tour guide and gave us a great tour both coming and going (he took different routes). He even stated that it would be useless to do the Grayline City Tour because he was taking us on most of the route. Today marked the first day of our entire trip where rain actually got in the way of our activities. The locals tell us that the rain this time of year is typically a brief shower, but today was a soaker. We were somewhat fortunate because we took a 3 hour Grayline tour of the Hurricane affected area during the heaviest rains so we were in a bus for most of the soaker. We saw some pretty depressing sights. The driver was a New Orleans native who lost her house in the floods and gave us some first hand stories of what happened during Hurricane Katrina. We drove through neighborhoods where every house was still unoccupied. Spray paint still marked the house from the first responders who searched each one. Most news clips showed the lower income neighborhoods that were destroyed, but we even saw some wealthy neighborhoods that are still unoccupied.
There are still trailers in lots throughout the town and many of the homes had trailers parked in front of them. Even the KOA we are staying at, which was not in the flooded area and about 15 miles from downtown, has about half of its sites occupied with FEMA trailers. The sight that I will remember the most is the view from the bus as we went from the neighborhoods over the canals. You have to drive up over the water level. You look back and clearly see the neighborhood significantly lower than the water level in the channels. Living in a bowl below the surrounding water level seems risky to me. On the other hand, it worked for many years.
Sunday, October 7
Today we traveled from Houston to New Orleans. We arrived at the campground early enough to enjoy swimming in the heat of the day. Poor Seth has been a little bummed out today. We purchased him a new pair of shoes at Wal-Mart a week ago because his shoes were simply worn out. However, while playing at the indoor Martian play area at the space center some kid mistakenly took his new shoes and left him some pretty poor replacement shoes. To make matters worse we had placed Seth’s second pair of shoes (not the worn out ones) outside overnight to dry. The rain soaked them. Another reminder that we aren’t in the desert anymore.
Day 100!! Today we traveled to New Orleans from our campground. The campground offers a free shuttle service to Jackson Square. Even better, the shuttle driver (a KOA employee) has trained as a tour guide and gave us a great tour both coming and going (he took different routes). He even stated that it would be useless to do the Grayline City Tour because he was taking us on most of the route. Today marked the first day of our entire trip where rain actually got in the way of our activities. The locals tell us that the rain this time of year is typically a brief shower, but today was a soaker. We were somewhat fortunate because we took a 3 hour Grayline tour of the Hurricane affected area during the heaviest rains so we were in a bus for most of the soaker. We saw some pretty depressing sights. The driver was a New Orleans native who lost her house in the floods and gave us some first hand stories of what happened during Hurricane Katrina. We drove through neighborhoods where every house was still unoccupied. Spray paint still marked the house from the first responders who searched each one. Most news clips showed the lower income neighborhoods that were destroyed, but we even saw some wealthy neighborhoods that are still unoccupied.
There are still trailers in lots throughout the town and many of the homes had trailers parked in front of them. Even the KOA we are staying at, which was not in the flooded area and about 15 miles from downtown, has about half of its sites occupied with FEMA trailers. The sight that I will remember the most is the view from the bus as we went from the neighborhoods over the canals. You have to drive up over the water level. You look back and clearly see the neighborhood significantly lower than the water level in the channels. Living in a bowl below the surrounding water level seems risky to me. On the other hand, it worked for many years.
Sunday, October 7
Today we traveled from Houston to New Orleans. We arrived at the campground early enough to enjoy swimming in the heat of the day. Poor Seth has been a little bummed out today. We purchased him a new pair of shoes at Wal-Mart a week ago because his shoes were simply worn out. However, while playing at the indoor Martian play area at the space center some kid mistakenly took his new shoes and left him some pretty poor replacement shoes. To make matters worse we had placed Seth’s second pair of shoes (not the worn out ones) outside overnight to dry. The rain soaked them. Another reminder that we aren’t in the desert anymore.
Saturday, October 6, 2007
Houston Space Center
Saturday, October 6, 2007
While I travel to Houston quite a bit for work, I don’t take the time to see the sights. The Houston Space Center is one that I’ve always thought would be fun to see. Today, that desire was fulfilled. The Johnson Space Center is quite large with many different buildings. They have a tour that allows access to the control center for the shuttle missions and a spaceship mock-up building where they have life size models that the astronauts use for training. Did you know that NASA plans to send more folks to the moon by 2020? They plan on putting a space station there to explore long term life studies in preparation for putting astronauts on mars by 2030. They mentioned on the tour that kids ages 3-20 are the age group that will likely be setting foot on mars. Scary to think that our kids will be the ones with that responsibility!
We learned something neat today….The Space Shuttle is launching on October 23 at Kennedy Space Center. I saw the shuttle launch when I was a kid and it is something unforgettable. I have told Sheri that one of my goals for the family was to let the kids see a launch before the shuttle retires in 2010. With the sabbatical, brings spontaneous opportunities. Sheri and I are seriously considering returning to Berryville for a week and then taking a trip to Florida for the launch. If any of you are interested in joining us, we think a caravan road trip is order. I know most of you have to work, but for those who aren’t, feel free to join us.
Friday, October 5
Day 97 – We drove from San Antonio to Houston today. Not really much to say about the trip. The Houston KOA will be remembered by the significant precipitation they received while we were there. I travel enough to Houston to know that they can get some good rain showers and this was nothing out of the ordinary. However, we had become acclimated to the desert climate….. Sheri and I think that the last time we saw rain was in California. People keep asking us if we are excited or looking forward to coming home. Sheri and I have discussed this. On one hand, we enjoy being on the road and seeing places that we never have. On the other hand, it will be nice to have space again. The kids are looking forward to being in their own beds. I won’t have to connect to electricity, water, and sewer every day, so that’ll be nice. Going home signifies one more thing… returning to work. I personally have enjoyed the time with the family. One cannot possibly live life as we have, except perhaps in retirement. I’ve got many years before that can happen, so I must return to work. While I enjoy my job, there is certainly much less stress living the life we have lived for the last 3 months. So returning home has less to look forward to than one might think.
While I travel to Houston quite a bit for work, I don’t take the time to see the sights. The Houston Space Center is one that I’ve always thought would be fun to see. Today, that desire was fulfilled. The Johnson Space Center is quite large with many different buildings. They have a tour that allows access to the control center for the shuttle missions and a spaceship mock-up building where they have life size models that the astronauts use for training. Did you know that NASA plans to send more folks to the moon by 2020? They plan on putting a space station there to explore long term life studies in preparation for putting astronauts on mars by 2030. They mentioned on the tour that kids ages 3-20 are the age group that will likely be setting foot on mars. Scary to think that our kids will be the ones with that responsibility!
We learned something neat today….The Space Shuttle is launching on October 23 at Kennedy Space Center. I saw the shuttle launch when I was a kid and it is something unforgettable. I have told Sheri that one of my goals for the family was to let the kids see a launch before the shuttle retires in 2010. With the sabbatical, brings spontaneous opportunities. Sheri and I are seriously considering returning to Berryville for a week and then taking a trip to Florida for the launch. If any of you are interested in joining us, we think a caravan road trip is order. I know most of you have to work, but for those who aren’t, feel free to join us.
Friday, October 5
Day 97 – We drove from San Antonio to Houston today. Not really much to say about the trip. The Houston KOA will be remembered by the significant precipitation they received while we were there. I travel enough to Houston to know that they can get some good rain showers and this was nothing out of the ordinary. However, we had become acclimated to the desert climate….. Sheri and I think that the last time we saw rain was in California. People keep asking us if we are excited or looking forward to coming home. Sheri and I have discussed this. On one hand, we enjoy being on the road and seeing places that we never have. On the other hand, it will be nice to have space again. The kids are looking forward to being in their own beds. I won’t have to connect to electricity, water, and sewer every day, so that’ll be nice. Going home signifies one more thing… returning to work. I personally have enjoyed the time with the family. One cannot possibly live life as we have, except perhaps in retirement. I’ve got many years before that can happen, so I must return to work. While I enjoy my job, there is certainly much less stress living the life we have lived for the last 3 months. So returning home has less to look forward to than one might think.
Thursday, October 4, 2007
San Antonio, Texas : Days 94 - 96
Thursday, October 04, 2007
Day 96 - We had a fun day in San Antonio today. Good old RV got a rest as we used the public bus system accessible at the KOA campground. Our first stop was the Alamo, an impressive landmark and historical story. Although the 200 Texas fighters lost the battle and every man was killed in battle or killed as a captive, the story serves as a reminder of courage and sacrifice for freedom. Ultimately, the Mexican army was defeated in another battle (or I might be in a northern province of Mexico at this time). From the Alamo we went to an IMAX presentation of the story. Then we went to San Antonio’s "El Mercado", which is supposed to be the largest Mexican market outside of Mexico. I’ve been to the Mexican markets in Mexico and this one doesn’t really rival them. The Mexican markets operate on a barter system. These shops all had prices marked and haggling wasn’t accepted. After the marketplace, we went to the riverwalk and took a little boat tour down the river. If you are ever in downtown San Antonio, you should see the riverwalk, although it would be okay if you missed the river tour. Today marks the first day we have forgotten to take our camera. We did purchase a disposable so we will have a lasting imprint of our face in front of the Alamo, but I won’t be able to post them for a while.
Wednesday, October 3
Today we drove to San Antonio. Not much to write about since the trip was about 5.5 hours. We did arrive with enough time to play in the pool upon our arrival. I must say that this trip has afforded more hours in the pool in a 4 month period than in any other time in the kids' lives. Brandon and Bailey have showed remarkable improvement in the water, particularly Brandon.
Tuesday, October 2
Today we decided to get the RV’s antifreeze leak fixed. It turned out to be a pleasant experience. The Ford dealer drove me back to the campground and we spent the day swimming in the pool. After the repair was made (around 3:30), we drove to Fort Stockton, about 2.5 hours away. West Texas was another reminder of the vast open desert. There is so little traffic out here they post a 80 mile per hour speed limit. No worries, I don’t take the RV that fast. At about 78 mph, the RV starts to rattle and I think that is a precursor to the rear axle dislodging itself. The loss of the rear axle is not worth the extra speed.
Day 96 - We had a fun day in San Antonio today. Good old RV got a rest as we used the public bus system accessible at the KOA campground. Our first stop was the Alamo, an impressive landmark and historical story. Although the 200 Texas fighters lost the battle and every man was killed in battle or killed as a captive, the story serves as a reminder of courage and sacrifice for freedom. Ultimately, the Mexican army was defeated in another battle (or I might be in a northern province of Mexico at this time). From the Alamo we went to an IMAX presentation of the story. Then we went to San Antonio’s "El Mercado", which is supposed to be the largest Mexican market outside of Mexico. I’ve been to the Mexican markets in Mexico and this one doesn’t really rival them. The Mexican markets operate on a barter system. These shops all had prices marked and haggling wasn’t accepted. After the marketplace, we went to the riverwalk and took a little boat tour down the river. If you are ever in downtown San Antonio, you should see the riverwalk, although it would be okay if you missed the river tour. Today marks the first day we have forgotten to take our camera. We did purchase a disposable so we will have a lasting imprint of our face in front of the Alamo, but I won’t be able to post them for a while.
Wednesday, October 3
Today we drove to San Antonio. Not much to write about since the trip was about 5.5 hours. We did arrive with enough time to play in the pool upon our arrival. I must say that this trip has afforded more hours in the pool in a 4 month period than in any other time in the kids' lives. Brandon and Bailey have showed remarkable improvement in the water, particularly Brandon.
Tuesday, October 2
Today we decided to get the RV’s antifreeze leak fixed. It turned out to be a pleasant experience. The Ford dealer drove me back to the campground and we spent the day swimming in the pool. After the repair was made (around 3:30), we drove to Fort Stockton, about 2.5 hours away. West Texas was another reminder of the vast open desert. There is so little traffic out here they post a 80 mile per hour speed limit. No worries, I don’t take the RV that fast. At about 78 mph, the RV starts to rattle and I think that is a precursor to the rear axle dislodging itself. The loss of the rear axle is not worth the extra speed.
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
Carlsbad Caverns, New Mexico
Monday, October 01, 2007
Today was dedicated to visiting Carlsbad Caverns National Park. However, prior to reaching that location, I stopped by the Carlsbad Ford dealership to get their opinion of my leaking antifreeze problem. They agreed that it looked like the water pump was leaking. I scheduled it to get fixed on Tuesday because they didn’t have the part on-site. It had to be shipped in from Albuquerque. So tomorrow will be a day of getting the engine fixed. Carlsbad Caverns was a great experience. For all of you Virginians, if you have been to Luray Caverns it has some similarities but some major differences. The cave is huge and deep. If you enter the natural entrance, you walk about 1 mile down a twisty trail that descends 880 feet. The bottom has something they call the "Big Room", which is the largest cave room in the western hemisphere. People don’t come to Carlsbad for just the cave, they come for the bats. The cave is home to a colony of 300,000+ mexican free tail bats. These bats exit the cave each evening and it looks like a cloud of black dots rising into the sky. We couldn’t take pictures because the camera equipment messes with them, but trust me, it is a sight to see. The bats exit at about 5,000 per minute and they don’t stop for over an hour. If you do decide to see the bats be sure to find out if they are around. The bats migrate to Mexico in the winter (mid-October), we almost missed them ourselves. I hear that the real treat is watching the bats descend back into the cave in the early morning hours. Neat fact for the day: in the 1920s folks made good money hauling bat poop (guano) out of the cave for fertilizer. They estimated that they recovered 100,000 tons of it. Personally, I don’t know how the bats could stand it. You’d think the pile would reach the ceiling eventually.
Sunday, September 30
Today we migrated to Carlsbad. Once again, we traveled over some very uninhabited areas of New Mexico. The kids were excited to arrive at the KOA and enjoy the pool. Bailey has really improved her swimming with the assistance of her flotation device. Today had a roadrunner sighting which was our wildlife encounter for the day. We wrapped up the day with marshmallow roasting.
Saturday, September 29, 2007
Today was really a travel day and not much more. We went to WalMart to stock up on some things, particularly antifreeze. The old RV has still got a small leak. However, in the 4 hours of driving today, it only lost about 1 quart of antifreeze. Since tomorrow is Sunday, we are planning to drive to Carlsbad and get it fixed there. I think I have observed it leaking from the water pump, Sheri’s brother suspects a seal has cracked. We drove from Durango, Colorado to Albequerque. Along the way we hit some of the worst winds we have seen. It was so bad it unrolled our awning while we were driving and without the awning coming out. Thankfully a local gentleman and his wife stopped and helped us. I’m not sure we could have fixed it without his help. We entered NM at mile 11,029.
Today was dedicated to visiting Carlsbad Caverns National Park. However, prior to reaching that location, I stopped by the Carlsbad Ford dealership to get their opinion of my leaking antifreeze problem. They agreed that it looked like the water pump was leaking. I scheduled it to get fixed on Tuesday because they didn’t have the part on-site. It had to be shipped in from Albuquerque. So tomorrow will be a day of getting the engine fixed. Carlsbad Caverns was a great experience. For all of you Virginians, if you have been to Luray Caverns it has some similarities but some major differences. The cave is huge and deep. If you enter the natural entrance, you walk about 1 mile down a twisty trail that descends 880 feet. The bottom has something they call the "Big Room", which is the largest cave room in the western hemisphere. People don’t come to Carlsbad for just the cave, they come for the bats. The cave is home to a colony of 300,000+ mexican free tail bats. These bats exit the cave each evening and it looks like a cloud of black dots rising into the sky. We couldn’t take pictures because the camera equipment messes with them, but trust me, it is a sight to see. The bats exit at about 5,000 per minute and they don’t stop for over an hour. If you do decide to see the bats be sure to find out if they are around. The bats migrate to Mexico in the winter (mid-October), we almost missed them ourselves. I hear that the real treat is watching the bats descend back into the cave in the early morning hours. Neat fact for the day: in the 1920s folks made good money hauling bat poop (guano) out of the cave for fertilizer. They estimated that they recovered 100,000 tons of it. Personally, I don’t know how the bats could stand it. You’d think the pile would reach the ceiling eventually.
Sunday, September 30
Today we migrated to Carlsbad. Once again, we traveled over some very uninhabited areas of New Mexico. The kids were excited to arrive at the KOA and enjoy the pool. Bailey has really improved her swimming with the assistance of her flotation device. Today had a roadrunner sighting which was our wildlife encounter for the day. We wrapped up the day with marshmallow roasting.
Saturday, September 29, 2007
Today was really a travel day and not much more. We went to WalMart to stock up on some things, particularly antifreeze. The old RV has still got a small leak. However, in the 4 hours of driving today, it only lost about 1 quart of antifreeze. Since tomorrow is Sunday, we are planning to drive to Carlsbad and get it fixed there. I think I have observed it leaking from the water pump, Sheri’s brother suspects a seal has cracked. We drove from Durango, Colorado to Albequerque. Along the way we hit some of the worst winds we have seen. It was so bad it unrolled our awning while we were driving and without the awning coming out. Thankfully a local gentleman and his wife stopped and helped us. I’m not sure we could have fixed it without his help. We entered NM at mile 11,029.
Saturday, September 29, 2007
Mesa Verde, Colorado
NOTE: I have uploaded 63 more picture from the last 10 days. Be sure to click on the link on the right to view them.
Friday, September 28
We awoke to the pitter-patter of raindrops in the RV…… and Bailey screaming that her stomach hurt. For some odd reason Bailey’s stomach was upset throughout the night but she was feeling much better at 11 am after a morning nap. This was a real blessing because her health was going to determine if Sheri or I would stay back and miss the guided tours of the cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde National Park. The park is nothing like the other parks. It has a historical feature because of the cliff dwellings which were built 800 years ago. It is amazing how well preserved the dwellings are. In fact, they have wooden logs imbedded in the walls which are still entirely intact after 800 years. The boys really enjoyed the tours because access to the dwellings requires climbing some long ladders and crawling through tunnels. Sheri, on the other hand, was more scared today than I have ever seen her. One particular exit requires climbing on a near vertical wall with foot notches cut out of it. Sheri has gained a fear for heights as she has had children and she was trembling up there. The height and dangerousness of the climb was scary, but the three children just casually climbing up the rock and the 4th child hanging off of my back made the fear unbearable. The ancient Pueblo people used little notches they cut out of the rock to rockclimb in and out of their dwellings. We had a small scare today in the RV. The temperature rose fairly rapidly so I pulled over to check out the situation. The coolant was low so we added some water and traveled to Durango, which is about 35 miles from Mesa Verde. Another blessing from above….the RV didn’t have any temperature problems after that. Something really neat happened today. As we exited one of our tours we saw a car that had Virginia plates "BORN X2". Sheri and I know we had seen this plate before and suspected we had seen it at our church in Winchester, Virginia. Sure enough, the city decal on the windshield was Winchester. We wrote them a note and waited for about 45 minutes, but didn’t see them. What a small world to see someone familiar about 2500 miles from home.
Thursday, September 27
This morning the kids gave us a problem so we sent each one to their own state. That’s right, one in Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and Colorado. We didn’t have their rooms to send them to, but we did have 4 states to send them to. Casting the joke aside, the kids didn’t give us a problem today (other than the standard problems), but we were able to have each one of our kids in four states. Have you ever wanted to be in two places at once. Today, we were in four places at once. However, I must say that if you are ever in the Grand Canyon, don’t think you need to go to four corners. It’s really only worth the visit if you are in the area. The reason that four corners exists is because there is desert wasteland for miles. I don’t think anyone wanted to fight for the land. Actually, they had given all of this land over for Indian Reservations. It’s not good for cattle grazing, crop farming or anything else. It’s a real shame they forced the Native Americans into land that is useless. It makes you appreciate why folks like Crazy Horse refused to go and died for their stance against the US government. I think that is why states like Colorado allow casinos on the reservations. It’s a good source of income for the reservations and it provides jobs.
After 4 corners we traveled to Wal-Mart in Cortez, Colorado and then onto Mesa Verde National Park. The kids are really looking forward to the tours of the cliff dwellings tomorrow. In order to tour them you have to climb up a 32 foot ladder and then crawl through a tunnel. We are staying the night in the park at the campground. It sure is nice to be close to everything. All of you non-campers are in luck, they have a lodge here too. Don’t let camping be the reason you don’t visit the national parks, most of the good ones have lodges, many of which have fantastic views.
Friday, September 28
We awoke to the pitter-patter of raindrops in the RV…… and Bailey screaming that her stomach hurt. For some odd reason Bailey’s stomach was upset throughout the night but she was feeling much better at 11 am after a morning nap. This was a real blessing because her health was going to determine if Sheri or I would stay back and miss the guided tours of the cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde National Park. The park is nothing like the other parks. It has a historical feature because of the cliff dwellings which were built 800 years ago. It is amazing how well preserved the dwellings are. In fact, they have wooden logs imbedded in the walls which are still entirely intact after 800 years. The boys really enjoyed the tours because access to the dwellings requires climbing some long ladders and crawling through tunnels. Sheri, on the other hand, was more scared today than I have ever seen her. One particular exit requires climbing on a near vertical wall with foot notches cut out of it. Sheri has gained a fear for heights as she has had children and she was trembling up there. The height and dangerousness of the climb was scary, but the three children just casually climbing up the rock and the 4th child hanging off of my back made the fear unbearable. The ancient Pueblo people used little notches they cut out of the rock to rockclimb in and out of their dwellings. We had a small scare today in the RV. The temperature rose fairly rapidly so I pulled over to check out the situation. The coolant was low so we added some water and traveled to Durango, which is about 35 miles from Mesa Verde. Another blessing from above….the RV didn’t have any temperature problems after that. Something really neat happened today. As we exited one of our tours we saw a car that had Virginia plates "BORN X2". Sheri and I know we had seen this plate before and suspected we had seen it at our church in Winchester, Virginia. Sure enough, the city decal on the windshield was Winchester. We wrote them a note and waited for about 45 minutes, but didn’t see them. What a small world to see someone familiar about 2500 miles from home.
Thursday, September 27
This morning the kids gave us a problem so we sent each one to their own state. That’s right, one in Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and Colorado. We didn’t have their rooms to send them to, but we did have 4 states to send them to. Casting the joke aside, the kids didn’t give us a problem today (other than the standard problems), but we were able to have each one of our kids in four states. Have you ever wanted to be in two places at once. Today, we were in four places at once. However, I must say that if you are ever in the Grand Canyon, don’t think you need to go to four corners. It’s really only worth the visit if you are in the area. The reason that four corners exists is because there is desert wasteland for miles. I don’t think anyone wanted to fight for the land. Actually, they had given all of this land over for Indian Reservations. It’s not good for cattle grazing, crop farming or anything else. It’s a real shame they forced the Native Americans into land that is useless. It makes you appreciate why folks like Crazy Horse refused to go and died for their stance against the US government. I think that is why states like Colorado allow casinos on the reservations. It’s a good source of income for the reservations and it provides jobs.
After 4 corners we traveled to Wal-Mart in Cortez, Colorado and then onto Mesa Verde National Park. The kids are really looking forward to the tours of the cliff dwellings tomorrow. In order to tour them you have to climb up a 32 foot ladder and then crawl through a tunnel. We are staying the night in the park at the campground. It sure is nice to be close to everything. All of you non-campers are in luck, they have a lodge here too. Don’t let camping be the reason you don’t visit the national parks, most of the good ones have lodges, many of which have fantastic views.
Thursday, September 27, 2007
Grand Canyon
Wednesday, September 26
Today we viewed the east side viewpoints on our way out of the park. Each viewpoint has some new feature that makes it worth the trip. They are all accessible by their free bus shuttle or by driving. We didn’t lose anyone kids over the cliffs, so we considered it a successful day. Once we exited the park I had set my sights on the only RV park between the Grand Canyon and Colorado (a 4 hour stretch of road). However, for the first time, the RV park was full (prior to our reservations). We had been at full RV parks, but we had always grabbed a spot a few days or hours in advance of the park filling up. The next closest park in our direction was about 3 hours away, so we didn’t arrive tonight until 8 pm (we had stayed at the canyon until mid afternoon). The neatest experience we had was on our drive at sunset. Just as the sun was setting in the west, the full moon was rising in the east. It made for magnificent views in all directions. We happened to be driving through a vast empty area, so there were no city lights or any other distractions just a flat landscape with a few buttes to add to the scenery. We entered Colorado at mile 10,776 after a brief 1 mile passage through New Mexico. Tomorrow we will back track to see four corners (Utah, New Mexico, Arizona, and Colorado) and then go to Mesa Verde National Park. For those of you who haven’t heard of Mesa Verde, it has some of the best preserved cliff dwellings of Pueblos from 600 AD to 1400 AD.
Tuesday, September 25
Today we entered the Grand Canyon and we actually spent the night at the RV park right in the Grand Canyon village. The canyon is indescribable. You can see documentaries on it and other films, but there is something missing until you stand at the rim and peer down 5,000 feet to the floor. It is simply a phenomenal geological creation. We really wanted to take the mule ride down to the canyon, but the kids have to be a minimum height for that, so in about 8 years we will do that. For those of you who may not know, you can ride a mule down into the canyon, stay the night at a ranch down there and then ride the mule back up. It’s an all inclusive trip. If you ever consider it, be sure to reserve your trip about 23 months in advance, that is when they fill up! Or if you want to go in 8 years, you can join us!
We attended two ranger programs today, one on the california condor and another on the mountain lion. The california condor is an interesting story, there were 22 left in 1982 and they brought them all into captivity to increase the population. They are up to about 306 now and most are in captivity because very few chicks are surviving in the wild. There are about 60 that frequent the Grand Canyon. We think we saw one, but only for a moment.
The funny story of the day had to do with the mountain lion ranger talk. One of the bus drivers was really talking up the program and said that the ranger was fantastic and a real firecracker. She only presents once a month and he really wanted us to make sure we didn’t miss it. As an aside, it was a fantastic program because the ranger was practically a stand up comedian. Anyway, later that afternoon Brandon asked me if we were going to the firecracker show in the evening. It took me about 5 minutes to figure out why he thought there was a firecracker show. In Brandon’s mind, the bus driver had talked him into a fireworks show!
Monday, September 24
Day 86. Before I forget, I must update the mileage report. We entered Nevada at mile 10,226 and we entered Arizona at mile 10,299. California gets the most mileage award at 1,589 miles and the most days at 15. We have averaged about 121 miles a day, which is about 2 hours per day in the car. However, when we actually do drive we typically average 3-4 hours in the car, so we are driving about every other day if you round things out.
Today we left Vegas early so we could tour Hoover Dam. The dam is quite an engineering marvel, particularly since it was constructed in the1930s. It has many firsts for dam construction such as cooling pipes inserted into the concrete to help the concrete harden. There were several other firsts that I can’t remember. The real reason for construction was to manage water flow because the Colorado would flood parts of California each year as the snow melted and then have very low flow during fall and winter. Lake Mead, which is the largest man-made lake in the US acts as enormous reservoir. Its level is actually quite low this year and the area is in a drought condition. Lake Mead still has plenty of water, but they would prefer higher lake levels. The drought was emphasized even more when we arrived at our campground in Williams, Arizona. We learned that they have to truck all of their water in because their wells are dry. In fact, the campground showers have a button you push that gives you about 5 seconds of water for each push. You can’t just let the water flow unending, you are forced to conserve. This part of Arizona and Nevada is just miles of nothingness. The drive from Las Vegas to Williams was mile after mile of desert wasteland. It’s a real shame when you realize that this is the kind of land the US government dedicated for Indian Reservations.
Today we viewed the east side viewpoints on our way out of the park. Each viewpoint has some new feature that makes it worth the trip. They are all accessible by their free bus shuttle or by driving. We didn’t lose anyone kids over the cliffs, so we considered it a successful day. Once we exited the park I had set my sights on the only RV park between the Grand Canyon and Colorado (a 4 hour stretch of road). However, for the first time, the RV park was full (prior to our reservations). We had been at full RV parks, but we had always grabbed a spot a few days or hours in advance of the park filling up. The next closest park in our direction was about 3 hours away, so we didn’t arrive tonight until 8 pm (we had stayed at the canyon until mid afternoon). The neatest experience we had was on our drive at sunset. Just as the sun was setting in the west, the full moon was rising in the east. It made for magnificent views in all directions. We happened to be driving through a vast empty area, so there were no city lights or any other distractions just a flat landscape with a few buttes to add to the scenery. We entered Colorado at mile 10,776 after a brief 1 mile passage through New Mexico. Tomorrow we will back track to see four corners (Utah, New Mexico, Arizona, and Colorado) and then go to Mesa Verde National Park. For those of you who haven’t heard of Mesa Verde, it has some of the best preserved cliff dwellings of Pueblos from 600 AD to 1400 AD.
Tuesday, September 25
Today we entered the Grand Canyon and we actually spent the night at the RV park right in the Grand Canyon village. The canyon is indescribable. You can see documentaries on it and other films, but there is something missing until you stand at the rim and peer down 5,000 feet to the floor. It is simply a phenomenal geological creation. We really wanted to take the mule ride down to the canyon, but the kids have to be a minimum height for that, so in about 8 years we will do that. For those of you who may not know, you can ride a mule down into the canyon, stay the night at a ranch down there and then ride the mule back up. It’s an all inclusive trip. If you ever consider it, be sure to reserve your trip about 23 months in advance, that is when they fill up! Or if you want to go in 8 years, you can join us!
We attended two ranger programs today, one on the california condor and another on the mountain lion. The california condor is an interesting story, there were 22 left in 1982 and they brought them all into captivity to increase the population. They are up to about 306 now and most are in captivity because very few chicks are surviving in the wild. There are about 60 that frequent the Grand Canyon. We think we saw one, but only for a moment.
The funny story of the day had to do with the mountain lion ranger talk. One of the bus drivers was really talking up the program and said that the ranger was fantastic and a real firecracker. She only presents once a month and he really wanted us to make sure we didn’t miss it. As an aside, it was a fantastic program because the ranger was practically a stand up comedian. Anyway, later that afternoon Brandon asked me if we were going to the firecracker show in the evening. It took me about 5 minutes to figure out why he thought there was a firecracker show. In Brandon’s mind, the bus driver had talked him into a fireworks show!
Monday, September 24
Day 86. Before I forget, I must update the mileage report. We entered Nevada at mile 10,226 and we entered Arizona at mile 10,299. California gets the most mileage award at 1,589 miles and the most days at 15. We have averaged about 121 miles a day, which is about 2 hours per day in the car. However, when we actually do drive we typically average 3-4 hours in the car, so we are driving about every other day if you round things out.
Today we left Vegas early so we could tour Hoover Dam. The dam is quite an engineering marvel, particularly since it was constructed in the1930s. It has many firsts for dam construction such as cooling pipes inserted into the concrete to help the concrete harden. There were several other firsts that I can’t remember. The real reason for construction was to manage water flow because the Colorado would flood parts of California each year as the snow melted and then have very low flow during fall and winter. Lake Mead, which is the largest man-made lake in the US acts as enormous reservoir. Its level is actually quite low this year and the area is in a drought condition. Lake Mead still has plenty of water, but they would prefer higher lake levels. The drought was emphasized even more when we arrived at our campground in Williams, Arizona. We learned that they have to truck all of their water in because their wells are dry. In fact, the campground showers have a button you push that gives you about 5 seconds of water for each push. You can’t just let the water flow unending, you are forced to conserve. This part of Arizona and Nevada is just miles of nothingness. The drive from Las Vegas to Williams was mile after mile of desert wasteland. It’s a real shame when you realize that this is the kind of land the US government dedicated for Indian Reservations.
Monday, September 24, 2007
Las Vegas
Sunday, September 23
We went to the Vegas strip again today and ended the day with a surprise dinner show for the kids. The one dinner show that is probably suitable for families is the Knights Tournament, which is a medieval tournament. The kids really enjoyed the show with the exception of Bailey, who was scared out of her wits at the beginning and then calmed down shortly into the show. Tomorrow we drive to Hoover dam and then on to the Grand Canyon.
Saturday, September 22
We got an early start today so we arrived at Las Vegas about 1:30. We chose to stay in a hotel to allow for easy access to the main highlights. Thankfully, there are several non-casino hotels just off the strip. This afternoon we walked to the strip and saw some of the sights. Unfortunately, the casino hotels force you to walk through the casinos to get anywhere. The kids were pretty exhausted after walking 3 miles.
We went to the Vegas strip again today and ended the day with a surprise dinner show for the kids. The one dinner show that is probably suitable for families is the Knights Tournament, which is a medieval tournament. The kids really enjoyed the show with the exception of Bailey, who was scared out of her wits at the beginning and then calmed down shortly into the show. Tomorrow we drive to Hoover dam and then on to the Grand Canyon.
Saturday, September 22
We got an early start today so we arrived at Las Vegas about 1:30. We chose to stay in a hotel to allow for easy access to the main highlights. Thankfully, there are several non-casino hotels just off the strip. This afternoon we walked to the strip and saw some of the sights. Unfortunately, the casino hotels force you to walk through the casinos to get anywhere. The kids were pretty exhausted after walking 3 miles.
Saturday, September 22, 2007
San Diego Attractions
Friday, September 21
Today we went to the San Diego Zoo’s Wild Animal Park, which is an extension of the zoo. I have to say that if you do both, you’ll find a lot of redundancy. I’d recommend the zoo over the wild animal park. However, both are very good and we still enjoyed the park. The most interesting sight to see was a baby elephant only 2 days old. Even though he was 2 days old, he was about 220 lbs. They have 2 of only 8 northern white rhinos left in the world. They expect to become extinct in the next couple of decades because only one is able to reproduce. The Southern White Rhino was down to 100 left, but they bred them back up to 14,000 over the last 35 years. We drive to Las Vegas tomorrow.
Thursday, September 20
Today we went to Legoland. The park is quite unique as it is designed for kids between the ages of 5 and 10, which is exactly in our age range. Bailey was just a tad too short for many of the rides, but the three boys really enjoyed the park. Legoland really only had one ride that was an adult ride. It was something I had never seen before. It looked like a robotic arm with two seats attached at the end. The robot arm would swing all over the place and spin around. They had 5 different programs you could chose from. 1 (the easiest) was good for Brandon. 5 (the most difficult) gave me a severe headache as I was spun and around probably 15 times or more. Seth was brave enough to try number 5, so I got the lucky privilege of getting a headache twice. Brandon is sitting with me at the computer as I write, and his favorite ride was a roller coaster that was a green dragon. He went on that ride twice, once with Dad and once with Mom. His second favorite ride was another roller coaster that had quite a big hill. He is really getting brave at riding roller coasters. They had an area called miniland that had replicas of cities like Washington DC, New York, and Las Vegas. The park had a total of 40 million lego pieces used to make tons of models throughout the parks. Seth’s favorite was the ventriloquist, which kept him laughing pretty good. Levi’s favorite was a computer lab they had set up for programming a lego robot.
Today we went to the San Diego Zoo’s Wild Animal Park, which is an extension of the zoo. I have to say that if you do both, you’ll find a lot of redundancy. I’d recommend the zoo over the wild animal park. However, both are very good and we still enjoyed the park. The most interesting sight to see was a baby elephant only 2 days old. Even though he was 2 days old, he was about 220 lbs. They have 2 of only 8 northern white rhinos left in the world. They expect to become extinct in the next couple of decades because only one is able to reproduce. The Southern White Rhino was down to 100 left, but they bred them back up to 14,000 over the last 35 years. We drive to Las Vegas tomorrow.
Thursday, September 20
Today we went to Legoland. The park is quite unique as it is designed for kids between the ages of 5 and 10, which is exactly in our age range. Bailey was just a tad too short for many of the rides, but the three boys really enjoyed the park. Legoland really only had one ride that was an adult ride. It was something I had never seen before. It looked like a robotic arm with two seats attached at the end. The robot arm would swing all over the place and spin around. They had 5 different programs you could chose from. 1 (the easiest) was good for Brandon. 5 (the most difficult) gave me a severe headache as I was spun and around probably 15 times or more. Seth was brave enough to try number 5, so I got the lucky privilege of getting a headache twice. Brandon is sitting with me at the computer as I write, and his favorite ride was a roller coaster that was a green dragon. He went on that ride twice, once with Dad and once with Mom. His second favorite ride was another roller coaster that had quite a big hill. He is really getting brave at riding roller coasters. They had an area called miniland that had replicas of cities like Washington DC, New York, and Las Vegas. The park had a total of 40 million lego pieces used to make tons of models throughout the parks. Seth’s favorite was the ventriloquist, which kept him laughing pretty good. Levi’s favorite was a computer lab they had set up for programming a lego robot.
Thursday, September 20, 2007
Days 80 & 81 -San Diego
Wednesday, September 19
San Diego is home to one of the most highly rated zoos in the world. Today we found out why. They do a fantastic job keeping the exhibits well maintained and they have a very wide variety of animals. I saw several animals I had never heard of and some of which the San Diego Zoo is the only western hemisphere zoo to house them. They have the largest Koala group outside of Australia and they lay claim to 4 of the 6 US panda births that have survived. The zoo was fantastic, you really need 2 days to take it all in. We saw just about every animal, but we cruised through many of the exhibits to cover ground quickly. The two most impressive sightings of the day were seeing two polar bears wrestling in the water right next to the viewing glass and seeing two hippos walking under water. Hippos have so much fat that when they walk on the bottom of the water they look like they float between steps. We also got a kick out of watching a baby monkey try to play with his mother who didn’t want to play at all. Tomorrow we will go to Legoland and then on Friday we will see the outdoor wildlife park, which is set like a safari.
Tuesday, September 18
We began the day with another trip to the beach. We figured that we ought to take advantage of the ocean as it was within walking distance. The sky was overcast, so the air temperature was fairly cold for swimming, but that didn’t seem to phase Levi and Seth. They both got pretty good at body surfing and experienced the reason that most people don’t do it for very long. Those of you who have bodysurfed probably know that you can get slammed into the sand if the right conditions occur. Both boys experienced that and decided that body surfing was not something to continue. We headed south from Huntington Beach to San Diego. We got to the campground pretty early so I took care of an oil change while the kids played at the playground. They rented a four person bike-like vehicle, which provided a good wearing out for the kids and Sheri.
San Diego is home to one of the most highly rated zoos in the world. Today we found out why. They do a fantastic job keeping the exhibits well maintained and they have a very wide variety of animals. I saw several animals I had never heard of and some of which the San Diego Zoo is the only western hemisphere zoo to house them. They have the largest Koala group outside of Australia and they lay claim to 4 of the 6 US panda births that have survived. The zoo was fantastic, you really need 2 days to take it all in. We saw just about every animal, but we cruised through many of the exhibits to cover ground quickly. The two most impressive sightings of the day were seeing two polar bears wrestling in the water right next to the viewing glass and seeing two hippos walking under water. Hippos have so much fat that when they walk on the bottom of the water they look like they float between steps. We also got a kick out of watching a baby monkey try to play with his mother who didn’t want to play at all. Tomorrow we will go to Legoland and then on Friday we will see the outdoor wildlife park, which is set like a safari.
Tuesday, September 18
We began the day with another trip to the beach. We figured that we ought to take advantage of the ocean as it was within walking distance. The sky was overcast, so the air temperature was fairly cold for swimming, but that didn’t seem to phase Levi and Seth. They both got pretty good at body surfing and experienced the reason that most people don’t do it for very long. Those of you who have bodysurfed probably know that you can get slammed into the sand if the right conditions occur. Both boys experienced that and decided that body surfing was not something to continue. We headed south from Huntington Beach to San Diego. We got to the campground pretty early so I took care of an oil change while the kids played at the playground. They rented a four person bike-like vehicle, which provided a good wearing out for the kids and Sheri.
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Visalia to Los Angeles
Monday, September 17
The day started with a beard trimming. After 79 days of facial hair growth, the beard just had to be trimmed. My original mountain man philosophy was getting annoying as food was finding its way into the hairy nest around my mouth. No worries, I’ve kept the facial hair, just gave it a trim.
We made our way to Los Angeles today. The trip was a success and mild failure. A failure because we didn’t pick the right road to see the Hollywood sign on the mountain, but a success because we avoided most of the LA traffic and the RV park we picked was within walking distance of a nice stretch of beach in the Huntington Beach area. The laugh of the day was brought about by my misfortune. The pacific water happens to be somewhat cold so I thought I would sit it out. However, the boys insisted that I go in with them. After coaxing and Levi chasing me around in the sand, I decided to make a bee line for the water. I thought it would be appropriate to run in to waist high level. However, at about shin high depth, I stepped into a divot and went falling face first into the water. So much for keeping the top half of me dry!
I’ve finally uploaded 60 pictures of the last 10 days (click on link to the right). I was disappointed with our Redwood and Sequoia pictures. We have some pictures that show the diameter of the trunks in perspective, but no pictures that show just how unique the entire forest looks as you walk through it.
The day started with a beard trimming. After 79 days of facial hair growth, the beard just had to be trimmed. My original mountain man philosophy was getting annoying as food was finding its way into the hairy nest around my mouth. No worries, I’ve kept the facial hair, just gave it a trim.
We made our way to Los Angeles today. The trip was a success and mild failure. A failure because we didn’t pick the right road to see the Hollywood sign on the mountain, but a success because we avoided most of the LA traffic and the RV park we picked was within walking distance of a nice stretch of beach in the Huntington Beach area. The laugh of the day was brought about by my misfortune. The pacific water happens to be somewhat cold so I thought I would sit it out. However, the boys insisted that I go in with them. After coaxing and Levi chasing me around in the sand, I decided to make a bee line for the water. I thought it would be appropriate to run in to waist high level. However, at about shin high depth, I stepped into a divot and went falling face first into the water. So much for keeping the top half of me dry!
I’ve finally uploaded 60 pictures of the last 10 days (click on link to the right). I was disappointed with our Redwood and Sequoia pictures. We have some pictures that show the diameter of the trunks in perspective, but no pictures that show just how unique the entire forest looks as you walk through it.
Monday, September 17, 2007
Days 77 & 78 - Kings Canyon National Park
Sunday, September 16
In life, sometimes you really need to go with your gut (or initial) instinct. I had looked at the map on my computer last night and decided that the best way to get to Visalia, California was to take a certain highway and then take a rural route. However, there was an alternative route that took a rural route first prior to a highway, which looked okay on the map, but I wasn’t sure how much elevation change would occur on the rural route. The GPS routed me on the second route and today for some strange reason I figured I’d take the second option – a bad choice. Instead of dropping 3000 feet on a highway with shoulders, we dropped 3000 feet on a narrow road with no shoulders. I’ve never in my life driven on such a twisty road. It took us well over an hour to go 30 miles. Sheri, of course, tried to remind me that the rural route didn’t look like the best option as I was making the turn, but I assured here that the rural route would be okay. After less than 10 miles I was apologizing to all of the passengers and handing out Dramamine. Prior to the roller coaster road, we did have fun in Kings Canyon park today hiking to a waterfall and hiking in a Sequoia grove. We saw the 3rd largest tree in the world (by volume), which happens to have the largest base circumference of 107 feet. Seth had the worst day today after an ankle twisting on a bike this morning he then re-injured the same ankle trying to jump from one rock to another at the waterfall. I personally wouldn’t have tried the leap he tried. He later agreed that he is sometimes too gutsy. Because of it, he stayed back in the RV when we went hiking in the Sequoia grove. Hopefully, he will be walking well by the time we get to San Diego. Tomorrow we travel to Los Angeles, but not into the city proper. We’re just passing through a suburb on our way to San Diego.
Saturday, September 15
We drove across the dry desert of Eastern California’s Sierra Nevada today to get from Yosemite down to Kings Canyon/Sequoia National Parks. As usual, it takes longer to drive the distance than you think because of the elevation changes so the drive was about 3 hours instead of 2. We made a decision to stay inside the park at a campground and forgo the modern luxuries of water and electric hook-ups. This allows us to be right where we want to be tomorrow morning and it allowed us the ability to attend an 8 pm ranger program within walking distance. Kings Canyon is somewhat like Yosemite with respect to the glacier valley they are preserving, but it is still unique in its own way. After talking to the ranger about Sequoia National Park and discovering that we couldn’t traverse some of the roads due to our size, we decided to skip that park. It’s known for its Sequoia groves, but there are also comparable groves in Kings Canyon and Yosemite.
In life, sometimes you really need to go with your gut (or initial) instinct. I had looked at the map on my computer last night and decided that the best way to get to Visalia, California was to take a certain highway and then take a rural route. However, there was an alternative route that took a rural route first prior to a highway, which looked okay on the map, but I wasn’t sure how much elevation change would occur on the rural route. The GPS routed me on the second route and today for some strange reason I figured I’d take the second option – a bad choice. Instead of dropping 3000 feet on a highway with shoulders, we dropped 3000 feet on a narrow road with no shoulders. I’ve never in my life driven on such a twisty road. It took us well over an hour to go 30 miles. Sheri, of course, tried to remind me that the rural route didn’t look like the best option as I was making the turn, but I assured here that the rural route would be okay. After less than 10 miles I was apologizing to all of the passengers and handing out Dramamine. Prior to the roller coaster road, we did have fun in Kings Canyon park today hiking to a waterfall and hiking in a Sequoia grove. We saw the 3rd largest tree in the world (by volume), which happens to have the largest base circumference of 107 feet. Seth had the worst day today after an ankle twisting on a bike this morning he then re-injured the same ankle trying to jump from one rock to another at the waterfall. I personally wouldn’t have tried the leap he tried. He later agreed that he is sometimes too gutsy. Because of it, he stayed back in the RV when we went hiking in the Sequoia grove. Hopefully, he will be walking well by the time we get to San Diego. Tomorrow we travel to Los Angeles, but not into the city proper. We’re just passing through a suburb on our way to San Diego.
Saturday, September 15
We drove across the dry desert of Eastern California’s Sierra Nevada today to get from Yosemite down to Kings Canyon/Sequoia National Parks. As usual, it takes longer to drive the distance than you think because of the elevation changes so the drive was about 3 hours instead of 2. We made a decision to stay inside the park at a campground and forgo the modern luxuries of water and electric hook-ups. This allows us to be right where we want to be tomorrow morning and it allowed us the ability to attend an 8 pm ranger program within walking distance. Kings Canyon is somewhat like Yosemite with respect to the glacier valley they are preserving, but it is still unique in its own way. After talking to the ranger about Sequoia National Park and discovering that we couldn’t traverse some of the roads due to our size, we decided to skip that park. It’s known for its Sequoia groves, but there are also comparable groves in Kings Canyon and Yosemite.
Saturday, September 15, 2007
Yosemite National Park
Friday, September 14
We started today with some excitement, a mother bear had run across the main road and the cub got stuck on the wrong side having not made it across. The cub was scared because of the traffic and actually cried out to its mother, who had climbed a tree on the opposite side. We left the scene and went to an Indian museum that informed us of the Ahawanee/Miyok Indians and their living customs. Then we went on an open-air tram tour led by a ranger. This was quite informative. Wouldn’t you know, that when the tram tour passed the spot where we saw the bears, now two hours later, they were still there. This time they were both in the tree – a neat sight to see. We completed the day with a visit to a Sequoia grove, where they have trees about 1,000 years old. The sequoias are impressive but in a different way than the redwoods. They aren’t as tall as the redwoods but they have a larger circumference, sometimes as much as 100 feet in circumference. I personally liked the redwood groves better because you were surrounded by huge trees, whereas the sequoias are spotty with other tree varieties mixed in. I understand why George Lucas chose the redwood forests for the Ewok planet because it feels like a foreign place. The sequoia groves feel like a regular forest with huge trees implanted in certain spots. Nonetheless, both are majestic and unbelievable. I can't post pictures because this connection is about as fast as dial-up. Hopefully, I'll be able to post in a couple of days.
Thursday, September 13
It turns out that the RV park we stayed at was sitting on top of the site of a town 150 years ago. The town was constructed to support a gold mine, which was within walking distance of the RV park. We decided that we couldn’t turn down the opportunity to go inside a gold mine so we took it upon ourselves to go digging for gold. The experience was nice, but we didn’t find any gold. The RV workers said that you can still find gold in the dried up creek bed that runs through the RV park and the gold panning is for real gold. The boys tried both locations but again no gold. I guess I’ll still have to work for a living. After our gold adventure we traveled to Yosemite National Park. All the national parks have something unique, Yosemite has the 2nd highest waterfall in the world (Yosemite Falls) and the highest in the US. It is also home to Yosemite valley, which is like driving into a canyon about 1-3 miles wide that is surrounded by majestic cliffs. It’s home to El Capitan (a completely granite rock), which is a climbers paradise, requiring 3-7 days to climb the 3000 foot face. We had hoped to take the short hike to the base of Yosemite Falls, but when we found out that the waterfall has dried up for the fall, we changed our minds. Yosemite had only 40% of their typical snowfall this winter, so many of the waterfalls and lakes are dried up, but that is typical for low moisture years. We stayed at a campground in Yosemite, which allowed us to attend a ranger program in the campground. Once again, the program was fantastic. We had one wildlife sighting today with two large bucks.
We started today with some excitement, a mother bear had run across the main road and the cub got stuck on the wrong side having not made it across. The cub was scared because of the traffic and actually cried out to its mother, who had climbed a tree on the opposite side. We left the scene and went to an Indian museum that informed us of the Ahawanee/Miyok Indians and their living customs. Then we went on an open-air tram tour led by a ranger. This was quite informative. Wouldn’t you know, that when the tram tour passed the spot where we saw the bears, now two hours later, they were still there. This time they were both in the tree – a neat sight to see. We completed the day with a visit to a Sequoia grove, where they have trees about 1,000 years old. The sequoias are impressive but in a different way than the redwoods. They aren’t as tall as the redwoods but they have a larger circumference, sometimes as much as 100 feet in circumference. I personally liked the redwood groves better because you were surrounded by huge trees, whereas the sequoias are spotty with other tree varieties mixed in. I understand why George Lucas chose the redwood forests for the Ewok planet because it feels like a foreign place. The sequoia groves feel like a regular forest with huge trees implanted in certain spots. Nonetheless, both are majestic and unbelievable. I can't post pictures because this connection is about as fast as dial-up. Hopefully, I'll be able to post in a couple of days.
Thursday, September 13
It turns out that the RV park we stayed at was sitting on top of the site of a town 150 years ago. The town was constructed to support a gold mine, which was within walking distance of the RV park. We decided that we couldn’t turn down the opportunity to go inside a gold mine so we took it upon ourselves to go digging for gold. The experience was nice, but we didn’t find any gold. The RV workers said that you can still find gold in the dried up creek bed that runs through the RV park and the gold panning is for real gold. The boys tried both locations but again no gold. I guess I’ll still have to work for a living. After our gold adventure we traveled to Yosemite National Park. All the national parks have something unique, Yosemite has the 2nd highest waterfall in the world (Yosemite Falls) and the highest in the US. It is also home to Yosemite valley, which is like driving into a canyon about 1-3 miles wide that is surrounded by majestic cliffs. It’s home to El Capitan (a completely granite rock), which is a climbers paradise, requiring 3-7 days to climb the 3000 foot face. We had hoped to take the short hike to the base of Yosemite Falls, but when we found out that the waterfall has dried up for the fall, we changed our minds. Yosemite had only 40% of their typical snowfall this winter, so many of the waterfalls and lakes are dried up, but that is typical for low moisture years. We stayed at a campground in Yosemite, which allowed us to attend a ranger program in the campground. Once again, the program was fantastic. We had one wildlife sighting today with two large bucks.
Thursday, September 13, 2007
San Francisco - Days 72 and 73
Wednesday, September 12
We began today by driving into San Francisco so we could claim that we drove across the famous Golden Gate Bridge. Our other two days we had taken a ferry into the city and only seen the bridge from a distance. After the Bridge (which included a brief stop to walk a portion of the Bridge), we drove through the city and then across the bay bridge to Oakland and onto an RV park just outside of Yosemite National Park. Driving in San Francisco reminded me why we had taken subways and public transportation into other major cities. City driving with an RV is just a little more than my heart can handle. After leaving the bay area, you get into a desert. Temperatures are much hotter during the day and there is lots of wind, which is why they have a huge wind mill power generation field in the hills west of the bay area. I found it odd that there were tons of fruit crops in this area. Obviously irrigation makes it possible. I have noticed back in Virginia that some of the produce we buy is from Califronia, after today I understand why. The RV place here outside of Yosemite is on the site of an abandoned gold mine. They have a trough where kids can pan for gold. Levi and Seth were mighty disappointed they didn’t find any after 40 minutes of panning. Seth wanted to hike to the gold mine but the combination of a large sign at the RV park entrance stating that this was mountain lion area and the setting sun made me hesitate. I’ve heard one too many mountain lion attacks on this trip. The kids set a record for showers today needing three. The standard morning shower, one after playing in the sand pit before dinner and a third after playing in the sand pit after dinner. I keep forgetting to mention our evening entertainment during dinner. We have found that each time we eat outside, we are greeted with yellowjackets. I get a kick out of trying to trap them in tupperware that has food we have finished. I leave the lid off and shut them in once they go inside. Then I shake the tupperware like crazy and the bee dies. This provides dinner entertainment. Well, tonight I almost paid the price. I was using a box we had received from one of the meals in San Francisco. The box didn’t quite have a tight seal. I shook that box as hard as I could, but in shaking it, I flung a bee right on my upper lip. Thankfully, I’ve got plenty of hair there since I haven’t shaved in 70 days. I’m also thankful I didn’t have my mouth wide open or I’d have a stinger in my tongue. The bee quickly flew off and we all promptly went inside for the rest of dinner. Oh well, I’m signing off for the night. We will be out of internet coverage for a few days so check back in about 4 days for more updates.
Tuesday, September 11
Today was our second day in San Francisco. We began by touring the Boudin bakery. They had some pretty high-tech machines that did a lot of the tasks we used to do by hand in my high school days when I worked at the Bagel Bakery making dough and baking bagels. We finished the day by touring Alcatraz, which is a highly recommended tour if you are in San Francisco. They give you an audio tour which plays for about 45 minutes and tells you stories of escapes and other interesting facts about the prison. There were several escape attempts, but only one worked. 3 guys actually escaped during the night. No one ever figured out what happened to them. Some (fellow prisoners) believe they fled to South America, others (the government) think they drowned in the frigid bay waters.
We began today by driving into San Francisco so we could claim that we drove across the famous Golden Gate Bridge. Our other two days we had taken a ferry into the city and only seen the bridge from a distance. After the Bridge (which included a brief stop to walk a portion of the Bridge), we drove through the city and then across the bay bridge to Oakland and onto an RV park just outside of Yosemite National Park. Driving in San Francisco reminded me why we had taken subways and public transportation into other major cities. City driving with an RV is just a little more than my heart can handle. After leaving the bay area, you get into a desert. Temperatures are much hotter during the day and there is lots of wind, which is why they have a huge wind mill power generation field in the hills west of the bay area. I found it odd that there were tons of fruit crops in this area. Obviously irrigation makes it possible. I have noticed back in Virginia that some of the produce we buy is from Califronia, after today I understand why. The RV place here outside of Yosemite is on the site of an abandoned gold mine. They have a trough where kids can pan for gold. Levi and Seth were mighty disappointed they didn’t find any after 40 minutes of panning. Seth wanted to hike to the gold mine but the combination of a large sign at the RV park entrance stating that this was mountain lion area and the setting sun made me hesitate. I’ve heard one too many mountain lion attacks on this trip. The kids set a record for showers today needing three. The standard morning shower, one after playing in the sand pit before dinner and a third after playing in the sand pit after dinner. I keep forgetting to mention our evening entertainment during dinner. We have found that each time we eat outside, we are greeted with yellowjackets. I get a kick out of trying to trap them in tupperware that has food we have finished. I leave the lid off and shut them in once they go inside. Then I shake the tupperware like crazy and the bee dies. This provides dinner entertainment. Well, tonight I almost paid the price. I was using a box we had received from one of the meals in San Francisco. The box didn’t quite have a tight seal. I shook that box as hard as I could, but in shaking it, I flung a bee right on my upper lip. Thankfully, I’ve got plenty of hair there since I haven’t shaved in 70 days. I’m also thankful I didn’t have my mouth wide open or I’d have a stinger in my tongue. The bee quickly flew off and we all promptly went inside for the rest of dinner. Oh well, I’m signing off for the night. We will be out of internet coverage for a few days so check back in about 4 days for more updates.
Tuesday, September 11
Today was our second day in San Francisco. We began by touring the Boudin bakery. They had some pretty high-tech machines that did a lot of the tasks we used to do by hand in my high school days when I worked at the Bagel Bakery making dough and baking bagels. We finished the day by touring Alcatraz, which is a highly recommended tour if you are in San Francisco. They give you an audio tour which plays for about 45 minutes and tells you stories of escapes and other interesting facts about the prison. There were several escape attempts, but only one worked. 3 guys actually escaped during the night. No one ever figured out what happened to them. Some (fellow prisoners) believe they fled to South America, others (the government) think they drowned in the frigid bay waters.
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Redwoods and San Francisco
Monday, September 10
We started the day with a trip to Muir Woods, which is a redwood forest near San Francisco. They had a great scavenger hunt for the kids that we all enjoyed together. We were fortunate to find an RV park within walking distance to a high speed catamaran ferry that took us right to downtown San Francisco (Pier 1). It’s a perfect system for RVers. We walked up to pier 39 and saw the sea lions. That is definitely a sight to see. There were about 200-300 sea lions sunning themselves and fighting over sunning spots. We also toured an old submarine. Did you know that the world war 2 submarines ran off batteries when submerged. They had to surface every night and run their diesel engines to recharge their batteries. Today’s nuclear submarines can stay submerged for months I think. We wrapped up the day having dinner with Talitha Green, Sheri’s childhood friend. We had a good first day in San Francisco and plan on spending tomorrow touring more of the city and Alcatraz.
Sunday, September 9
Today was started with a trip to the grocery store to restock. While we were doing that Sheri’s cousin went in to the hospital to be induced for labor. By the time we got to the hospital, she was only about 30 minutes away from having the baby. So Sheri hung out in the hospital awaiting the arrival of the baby, while the boys and I played card games in the RV. After seeing the newborn babe, we drove 4 hours to Petaluma, which is only one hour north of San Francisco. On our drive to Petaluma we saw more grapes than we could probably eat in a lifetime. Napa Valley is surprisingly dry. I guess grapes don’t need much water, or maybe they rely on irrigation.
Saturday, September 8
We had a nice visit through Redwood National/State Park today. The Redwoods are simply amazing. If you have ever watched Return of the Jedi, the Ewok scenes are filmed in Jedidiah Smith State Park, which is part of the Redwood park system. These parks look just like the movie. You feel like you are in the land of dinosaurs with ferns and massive trees. Although to really experience the redwoods your best bet is to see it in the Redwood National Park. Muir Woods National Park, which boasts the closest "old growth" redwood grove to San Francisco has some redwoods, but nothing near the diameter of the trees 4 hours north. After visiting the park we went to Eureka and saw two of Sheri’s cousins, one of whom was due to have a baby anyday. Couple of noteworthy things in California, there are a lot hitchhikers along 101. Sheri’s cousin says it is because there is quite a gathering of hippies in that area. Let’s just say we saw more peace symbols on stores and cars than an average drive in the east. We also observed our first wild harbor seal while we were on the beach seeing the pacific for the first time. The harbor seal was right near fishermen who were using nets to catch little surf fish. We actually took two home (given to us by one of the fisherman), but accidentally left them at Sheri’s cousin’s house.
We started the day with a trip to Muir Woods, which is a redwood forest near San Francisco. They had a great scavenger hunt for the kids that we all enjoyed together. We were fortunate to find an RV park within walking distance to a high speed catamaran ferry that took us right to downtown San Francisco (Pier 1). It’s a perfect system for RVers. We walked up to pier 39 and saw the sea lions. That is definitely a sight to see. There were about 200-300 sea lions sunning themselves and fighting over sunning spots. We also toured an old submarine. Did you know that the world war 2 submarines ran off batteries when submerged. They had to surface every night and run their diesel engines to recharge their batteries. Today’s nuclear submarines can stay submerged for months I think. We wrapped up the day having dinner with Talitha Green, Sheri’s childhood friend. We had a good first day in San Francisco and plan on spending tomorrow touring more of the city and Alcatraz.
Sunday, September 9
Today was started with a trip to the grocery store to restock. While we were doing that Sheri’s cousin went in to the hospital to be induced for labor. By the time we got to the hospital, she was only about 30 minutes away from having the baby. So Sheri hung out in the hospital awaiting the arrival of the baby, while the boys and I played card games in the RV. After seeing the newborn babe, we drove 4 hours to Petaluma, which is only one hour north of San Francisco. On our drive to Petaluma we saw more grapes than we could probably eat in a lifetime. Napa Valley is surprisingly dry. I guess grapes don’t need much water, or maybe they rely on irrigation.
Saturday, September 8
We had a nice visit through Redwood National/State Park today. The Redwoods are simply amazing. If you have ever watched Return of the Jedi, the Ewok scenes are filmed in Jedidiah Smith State Park, which is part of the Redwood park system. These parks look just like the movie. You feel like you are in the land of dinosaurs with ferns and massive trees. Although to really experience the redwoods your best bet is to see it in the Redwood National Park. Muir Woods National Park, which boasts the closest "old growth" redwood grove to San Francisco has some redwoods, but nothing near the diameter of the trees 4 hours north. After visiting the park we went to Eureka and saw two of Sheri’s cousins, one of whom was due to have a baby anyday. Couple of noteworthy things in California, there are a lot hitchhikers along 101. Sheri’s cousin says it is because there is quite a gathering of hippies in that area. Let’s just say we saw more peace symbols on stores and cars than an average drive in the east. We also observed our first wild harbor seal while we were on the beach seeing the pacific for the first time. The harbor seal was right near fishermen who were using nets to catch little surf fish. We actually took two home (given to us by one of the fisherman), but accidentally left them at Sheri’s cousin’s house.
Friday, September 7, 2007
September 7 - Crater Lake to Redwood Forests
Friday, September 7
Sheri got the raw end of the deal this morning…. She got the 4 loads of laundry, while I got to take the kids on a bike ride around part of Diamond Lake. From there we drove to a cheese factory near Medford, Oregon. The pamphlet made it sound like a great place to visit, but it wasn’t as impressive as advertised. They still had fantastic cheese to sample and a viewing window into the cheese factory, but that was about the extent of it. So after a brief visit we trotted over to Crescent City which is the north end of the Redwood forest in California. We reached California today at mile 8636 and were greeted with an agricultural inspector who went didn’t make us throw away our Oregon produce. I’ve finally uploaded some pictures from Seattle and the Olympic Peninsula so be sure to click the picture link to the right. Tomorrow is a visit to Redwood National Park.
Sheri got the raw end of the deal this morning…. She got the 4 loads of laundry, while I got to take the kids on a bike ride around part of Diamond Lake. From there we drove to a cheese factory near Medford, Oregon. The pamphlet made it sound like a great place to visit, but it wasn’t as impressive as advertised. They still had fantastic cheese to sample and a viewing window into the cheese factory, but that was about the extent of it. So after a brief visit we trotted over to Crescent City which is the north end of the Redwood forest in California. We reached California today at mile 8636 and were greeted with an agricultural inspector who went didn’t make us throw away our Oregon produce. I’ve finally uploaded some pictures from Seattle and the Olympic Peninsula so be sure to click the picture link to the right. Tomorrow is a visit to Redwood National Park.
September 5 & 6 - Crater Lake National Park
Thursday, September 6
Today started with some exciting outdoorsmanship. After putting the fire out with water last night, the boys were able to dig up some embers this morning and blow some life into the fire. I was surprised they could do it given the amount of water we used to put it out the night before. Before I knew it, they had a blazing fire going. This was pure excitement for the older boys, almost like being an Indian. After a relaxing morning we headed to Crater Lake National Park. The lake is by far the most pristine lake I have ever seen. The water clarity is better than any lake in the world – meaning that you can see down to a depth of 140 feet when the sun is at the right angle. No other lake can achieve that level of clarity. In fact moss has been observed to grow at depths of 500 feet. The total depth is 1,950 feet making it the 7th deepest lake in the world (the deepest in the US). They say that the lake water is very pure. It is only fed by rainwater and snow melt. There are no rivers running into it and no rivers that drain it. It is literally a deep bowl full of water at a very high elevation. Thanks to a volcano that caved in, the lake is isolated from everything else. It wasn’t even discovered until 1853 by the white man. The Indians had avoided telling us about it and kept it a secret. Indians used to come to the lake to drink the water and they claimed it had some special healing properties. Probably because it was cleaner than their normal drinking water. After taking in the views from some of the overlooks we went to listen to a ranger talk. The boys completed their Junior Ranger books and received their badges. We closed the evening by taking a short 2 mile bike ride to some rock formations caused by the volcano. They literally looked like pillars of ash-something I hadn’t seen before. The only thing we didn’t do is hike down to the lake surface. Because the lake is in a bowl, the only access to the water is by hiking down about 1 mile worth of trails. The elevation change is pretty tough so the mile hike back would have been more than the kids could have done. I’m certainly glad we didn’t leave this park out, it is well worth the visit. For those of you seeking comforts, they have a lodge here inside the park and other lodges here at Diamond lake. A vacation of these parts could include a visit to Olympic National Park, Crater Lake NP, Mt. Rainer NP, Mt. Hood, Mt. St. Helens, and various other state parks that capture the beauty of the northwest.
Wednesday, September 5
After looking at our calendar and our new desire to get back home by October 20, we streamlined our trip a bit and cut out a short trek into Colorado to see Mesa Verde and a trek to see Big Bend National Park in Texas. This meant that we needed to stay in Portland only 1 night and get moving. So today we drove 4.5 hours to Diamond Lake, just outside of Crater Lake. We decided to break up the trip in two legs and took a 1 hour break at a park in Eugene. Of course I tried to let the GPS pick the closest park but they were doing road work which prevented our ability to get to that park. However, the second closest park was easy to get to and perfect for the kids. Tonight the kids enjoyed making a fire and seeing a movie. Every two or three weeks we splurge and rent a kids movie from the RV park
Today started with some exciting outdoorsmanship. After putting the fire out with water last night, the boys were able to dig up some embers this morning and blow some life into the fire. I was surprised they could do it given the amount of water we used to put it out the night before. Before I knew it, they had a blazing fire going. This was pure excitement for the older boys, almost like being an Indian. After a relaxing morning we headed to Crater Lake National Park. The lake is by far the most pristine lake I have ever seen. The water clarity is better than any lake in the world – meaning that you can see down to a depth of 140 feet when the sun is at the right angle. No other lake can achieve that level of clarity. In fact moss has been observed to grow at depths of 500 feet. The total depth is 1,950 feet making it the 7th deepest lake in the world (the deepest in the US). They say that the lake water is very pure. It is only fed by rainwater and snow melt. There are no rivers running into it and no rivers that drain it. It is literally a deep bowl full of water at a very high elevation. Thanks to a volcano that caved in, the lake is isolated from everything else. It wasn’t even discovered until 1853 by the white man. The Indians had avoided telling us about it and kept it a secret. Indians used to come to the lake to drink the water and they claimed it had some special healing properties. Probably because it was cleaner than their normal drinking water. After taking in the views from some of the overlooks we went to listen to a ranger talk. The boys completed their Junior Ranger books and received their badges. We closed the evening by taking a short 2 mile bike ride to some rock formations caused by the volcano. They literally looked like pillars of ash-something I hadn’t seen before. The only thing we didn’t do is hike down to the lake surface. Because the lake is in a bowl, the only access to the water is by hiking down about 1 mile worth of trails. The elevation change is pretty tough so the mile hike back would have been more than the kids could have done. I’m certainly glad we didn’t leave this park out, it is well worth the visit. For those of you seeking comforts, they have a lodge here inside the park and other lodges here at Diamond lake. A vacation of these parts could include a visit to Olympic National Park, Crater Lake NP, Mt. Rainer NP, Mt. Hood, Mt. St. Helens, and various other state parks that capture the beauty of the northwest.
Wednesday, September 5
After looking at our calendar and our new desire to get back home by October 20, we streamlined our trip a bit and cut out a short trek into Colorado to see Mesa Verde and a trek to see Big Bend National Park in Texas. This meant that we needed to stay in Portland only 1 night and get moving. So today we drove 4.5 hours to Diamond Lake, just outside of Crater Lake. We decided to break up the trip in two legs and took a 1 hour break at a park in Eugene. Of course I tried to let the GPS pick the closest park but they were doing road work which prevented our ability to get to that park. However, the second closest park was easy to get to and perfect for the kids. Tonight the kids enjoyed making a fire and seeing a movie. Every two or three weeks we splurge and rent a kids movie from the RV park
Wednesday, September 5, 2007
September 4 and 5 - Olympic Pennisula to Portland
Tuesday, September 4
Today we drove to Portland, which took about 4 hours. We met up Laura Mayo (my brother’s wife) and went to an outdoor park that had biking trails. We let the older kids bike with Laura and we let Bailey run around on foot. My brother is on a temporary assignment to Singapore so we missed seeing him. Tomorrow we will drive to Crater Lake National Park and spend a couple of days there. We reached Oregon today at mile 8142.
Monday, September 3
I had told the kids that it would be really fun if we found a place that rented kayaks we could kayak on puget sound. Unfortunately, Port Angeles does not have as many attractions as some of the other coastal citites on the pennisula. However, there was a place that rented row boats on Lake Crescent. The only problem was that they would only allow 5 people in the boat. Bailey wasn’t really excited about getting in a boat so Sheri and Bailey sat out and watched. The kids did fairly well at rowing, but Brandon was bored with it after 15 minutes. After the row boat experience we decided to go on a hike to a waterfall. Somehow Levi got an upset stomach so he and Sheri stayed in the car while I took the other 3 to the falls. On the hike I saw a gentleman approaching the large trees and wrapping his arms around them. I thought this was some exercise to measure the circumference of the tree. However, his wife commented that he likes to hug "his" trees because they don’t get enough attention. I had heard of "treehuggers" as slang for environmentalists, but this guy was a real tree hugger.
Today we drove to Portland, which took about 4 hours. We met up Laura Mayo (my brother’s wife) and went to an outdoor park that had biking trails. We let the older kids bike with Laura and we let Bailey run around on foot. My brother is on a temporary assignment to Singapore so we missed seeing him. Tomorrow we will drive to Crater Lake National Park and spend a couple of days there. We reached Oregon today at mile 8142.
Monday, September 3
I had told the kids that it would be really fun if we found a place that rented kayaks we could kayak on puget sound. Unfortunately, Port Angeles does not have as many attractions as some of the other coastal citites on the pennisula. However, there was a place that rented row boats on Lake Crescent. The only problem was that they would only allow 5 people in the boat. Bailey wasn’t really excited about getting in a boat so Sheri and Bailey sat out and watched. The kids did fairly well at rowing, but Brandon was bored with it after 15 minutes. After the row boat experience we decided to go on a hike to a waterfall. Somehow Levi got an upset stomach so he and Sheri stayed in the car while I took the other 3 to the falls. On the hike I saw a gentleman approaching the large trees and wrapping his arms around them. I thought this was some exercise to measure the circumference of the tree. However, his wife commented that he likes to hug "his" trees because they don’t get enough attention. I had heard of "treehuggers" as slang for environmentalists, but this guy was a real tree hugger.
Monday, September 3, 2007
Olympic National Park - Days 63 and 64
Sunday, September 2
Olympic National Park has several different ecosystems, perhaps the most diverse of any park in the US. It has mountain terrain, glaciers, sea coast, lakes, and it is home to the only rainforest in the 48 states (Alaska and Hawaii each have one too). To be called a rainforest, there must be more than 200 inches of rain per year and the western side of the mountain range qualifies. This kind of precipitation creates some fantastic phenomenon: moss like you’ve never seen, trees that grow on top of downed trees because the forest floor is too covered to grow there, and creeks with green plants growing in the bottom. The 2.5 hour drive (one way) from our campground was worth the trip. We saw 200 foot tall trees where the base of the tree was on a tree that had fallen 100 years ago. The roots wrap around the fallen tree and when it finally rots it leaves a gap between the base of the tree and the ground. Some were so large you could crawl through the gap. If you are ever in Seattle, the rainforest is something to see, but it’s a 5 hour drive from the Seattle area. On our drive back we stopped at a lodge area to attend a ranger talk(one of the national parks with a lodge inside it for all you non-campers) . Once again, we were impressed with the ranger’s speaking skills and the facts. This talk was on birds and he had stuffed specimens for us to hold included the great horned owl and a red-tailed hawk. Two funny things happened today. As we were pulling up to the ranger check point at the rainforest there was a very long line of cars and the checkpoint was barely visible in the distance. Seth asked, "what are all the cars stopped for". I said "check-in". He said, "why are people stopping for a chicken, they have all seen that before". Then I restated that the line was for check-in not chicken, but it was worth a good laugh. The second came this evening. We picked up Bailey’s baby doll and noticed the mouth had food shoved in it. We asked Bailey if she had fed the baby doll and she stated she had fed her a banana. Then we said, "you can’t feed the baby bananas". Her reply was priceless, "I didn’t know bananas had milk in them". You see, Bailey is allergic to milk so we can’t give her anything with milk in it. Apparently, Bailey keeps the baby doll on a milk free diet also.
Saturday, September 1
After a brief morning swim at the hotel to work out some energy, we drove from Seattle to Port Angeles today – about 3 hours. Port Angeles is on the Olympic Peninsula which is very different than the city life of Seattle. Upon arrival we went to the Olympic National Park visitor center and they recommended we make the 17 mile drive up to the 5400 foot peak at Hurricane Ridge. Weather for the rest of the weekend was supposed to cloud the view. We made the drive and took a hike at the top. The views were pretty neat and we got close to a buck who didn’t seem to mind if we approached him.
Olympic National Park has several different ecosystems, perhaps the most diverse of any park in the US. It has mountain terrain, glaciers, sea coast, lakes, and it is home to the only rainforest in the 48 states (Alaska and Hawaii each have one too). To be called a rainforest, there must be more than 200 inches of rain per year and the western side of the mountain range qualifies. This kind of precipitation creates some fantastic phenomenon: moss like you’ve never seen, trees that grow on top of downed trees because the forest floor is too covered to grow there, and creeks with green plants growing in the bottom. The 2.5 hour drive (one way) from our campground was worth the trip. We saw 200 foot tall trees where the base of the tree was on a tree that had fallen 100 years ago. The roots wrap around the fallen tree and when it finally rots it leaves a gap between the base of the tree and the ground. Some were so large you could crawl through the gap. If you are ever in Seattle, the rainforest is something to see, but it’s a 5 hour drive from the Seattle area. On our drive back we stopped at a lodge area to attend a ranger talk(one of the national parks with a lodge inside it for all you non-campers) . Once again, we were impressed with the ranger’s speaking skills and the facts. This talk was on birds and he had stuffed specimens for us to hold included the great horned owl and a red-tailed hawk. Two funny things happened today. As we were pulling up to the ranger check point at the rainforest there was a very long line of cars and the checkpoint was barely visible in the distance. Seth asked, "what are all the cars stopped for". I said "check-in". He said, "why are people stopping for a chicken, they have all seen that before". Then I restated that the line was for check-in not chicken, but it was worth a good laugh. The second came this evening. We picked up Bailey’s baby doll and noticed the mouth had food shoved in it. We asked Bailey if she had fed the baby doll and she stated she had fed her a banana. Then we said, "you can’t feed the baby bananas". Her reply was priceless, "I didn’t know bananas had milk in them". You see, Bailey is allergic to milk so we can’t give her anything with milk in it. Apparently, Bailey keeps the baby doll on a milk free diet also.
Saturday, September 1
After a brief morning swim at the hotel to work out some energy, we drove from Seattle to Port Angeles today – about 3 hours. Port Angeles is on the Olympic Peninsula which is very different than the city life of Seattle. Upon arrival we went to the Olympic National Park visitor center and they recommended we make the 17 mile drive up to the 5400 foot peak at Hurricane Ridge. Weather for the rest of the weekend was supposed to cloud the view. We made the drive and took a hike at the top. The views were pretty neat and we got close to a buck who didn’t seem to mind if we approached him.
Saturday, September 1, 2007
August 30-31 - More Seattle Highlights
Friday, August 31
We took it easy today by spending the morning relaxing in the pool. Then Sheri, Levi, Seth, and I went up to the Boeing plant for a factory tour. It is amazing what Boeing manages to do with airplane assembly in the world’s largest building (by volume). Boeing is kind enough to let you see the 777 line, but it’s hard to really see the details because the viewing balcony is so far away from most of the action. Nonetheless, the tour is well worth the trip. Boeing is turning out an airplane every 3 days, and the 787 assembly will be even more impressive when it gets up and running next year. Tomorrow we leave Seattle and go to Port Angeles, which allows access to Olympic National Park. We had a funny GPS experience tonight. After deciding to do Mexican, we used the GPS to locate the closest Mexican restaurant. We turned left onto the designated street and the GPS proudly announced "arriving at destination on right". The only thing on the right (or left) were single family homes. Unless somebody was running El Charro Mexican Restaurant in their basement, the address in the GPS was totally wrong. So we promptly selected the next closest Mexican restaurant. This time, there were stores at the address, but again no Mexican Restaurant. Lucky for us, there was a Chilis in the same strip mall, so we could eat. The good old GPS seems to be best suited for directions, you can’t always trust its imbedded list of restaurants.
Thursday, August 30
If you didn’t know your history, you may not know that Seattle was put on the map in 1897 when 70,000 people came through the city to buy supplies for the Klondike Gold Rush in the Yukon Territory. Of the 100,000 people that rushed up to find gold, only about 300 made it rich. Bad news for many gold rushers, but great news for the Seattle economy. Without the Klondike Gold rush, Seattle might not be the same city it is today. This was all news to me, but we learned it all at the Klondike Gold Rush National Park in Seattle, which is well worth the visit. And of course, the kids completed another junior ranger program there. After our visit to the museum, we rode the Seattle monorail (built in 1962 for the world’s fair) back up to the Pacific Science Center, which is a nice museum. They had all sorts of great exhibits for the kids including a Virtual Reality soccer goalie game that the kids loved.
We took it easy today by spending the morning relaxing in the pool. Then Sheri, Levi, Seth, and I went up to the Boeing plant for a factory tour. It is amazing what Boeing manages to do with airplane assembly in the world’s largest building (by volume). Boeing is kind enough to let you see the 777 line, but it’s hard to really see the details because the viewing balcony is so far away from most of the action. Nonetheless, the tour is well worth the trip. Boeing is turning out an airplane every 3 days, and the 787 assembly will be even more impressive when it gets up and running next year. Tomorrow we leave Seattle and go to Port Angeles, which allows access to Olympic National Park. We had a funny GPS experience tonight. After deciding to do Mexican, we used the GPS to locate the closest Mexican restaurant. We turned left onto the designated street and the GPS proudly announced "arriving at destination on right". The only thing on the right (or left) were single family homes. Unless somebody was running El Charro Mexican Restaurant in their basement, the address in the GPS was totally wrong. So we promptly selected the next closest Mexican restaurant. This time, there were stores at the address, but again no Mexican Restaurant. Lucky for us, there was a Chilis in the same strip mall, so we could eat. The good old GPS seems to be best suited for directions, you can’t always trust its imbedded list of restaurants.
Thursday, August 30
If you didn’t know your history, you may not know that Seattle was put on the map in 1897 when 70,000 people came through the city to buy supplies for the Klondike Gold Rush in the Yukon Territory. Of the 100,000 people that rushed up to find gold, only about 300 made it rich. Bad news for many gold rushers, but great news for the Seattle economy. Without the Klondike Gold rush, Seattle might not be the same city it is today. This was all news to me, but we learned it all at the Klondike Gold Rush National Park in Seattle, which is well worth the visit. And of course, the kids completed another junior ranger program there. After our visit to the museum, we rode the Seattle monorail (built in 1962 for the world’s fair) back up to the Pacific Science Center, which is a nice museum. They had all sorts of great exhibits for the kids including a Virtual Reality soccer goalie game that the kids loved.
Thursday, August 30, 2007
August 28-29 - Aquarium, Space Needle, Duck Tour, Pikes Place Market
Wednesday, August 29
Many of you who have been to Boston, DC, or other waterfront cities have probably seen the duck vehicle tours you can take. The vehicles are military land/water vessels from the 1940s that have been converted to touring vehicles. Sheri’s Dad went on one of these tours in Boston and really liked it so we gave it a try in Seattle. The drivers are trained to be comedians and keep you laughing for much of the trip. We enjoyed the 90 minute tour and learned some good things about Seattle. The tour actually gives you good spots to see in the following days. After our tour we went to the space needle for lunch. Since we were blessed with clear skies again, we had a great view of Mt. Rainer, Mt. Baker and the Seattle coastline. We allowed for an easy afternoon of swimming for the kids.
Tuesday, August 28
Today we went to the famous Pikes Place Market. It is best described as a cross between a farmer’s market and a flea market, but in a permanent setting. Some people who go to Pike’s place go there because they heard about the fish throwing that the Pike’s Fish Market. We didn’t really go there to shop, just to look. The market is just a short walk from the aquarium, which was next on the agenda. The Seattle Aquarium is pretty neat, but I guess you get spoiled if you’ve been to the Baltimore aquarium, which is huge. My favorite activity at the aquarium was seeing a wild sea lion swim up to the aquarium building. The aquarium building is built over the water so they have a boardwalk that looks onto the bay. Even the aquarium staff was surprised to see the sea lion. Today marked the day that I finally lost the battle with the stomach virus that was going around our family. I was the last to get it so now I get to enjoy its invasion in my body.
Many of you who have been to Boston, DC, or other waterfront cities have probably seen the duck vehicle tours you can take. The vehicles are military land/water vessels from the 1940s that have been converted to touring vehicles. Sheri’s Dad went on one of these tours in Boston and really liked it so we gave it a try in Seattle. The drivers are trained to be comedians and keep you laughing for much of the trip. We enjoyed the 90 minute tour and learned some good things about Seattle. The tour actually gives you good spots to see in the following days. After our tour we went to the space needle for lunch. Since we were blessed with clear skies again, we had a great view of Mt. Rainer, Mt. Baker and the Seattle coastline. We allowed for an easy afternoon of swimming for the kids.
Tuesday, August 28
Today we went to the famous Pikes Place Market. It is best described as a cross between a farmer’s market and a flea market, but in a permanent setting. Some people who go to Pike’s place go there because they heard about the fish throwing that the Pike’s Fish Market. We didn’t really go there to shop, just to look. The market is just a short walk from the aquarium, which was next on the agenda. The Seattle Aquarium is pretty neat, but I guess you get spoiled if you’ve been to the Baltimore aquarium, which is huge. My favorite activity at the aquarium was seeing a wild sea lion swim up to the aquarium building. The aquarium building is built over the water so they have a boardwalk that looks onto the bay. Even the aquarium staff was surprised to see the sea lion. Today marked the day that I finally lost the battle with the stomach virus that was going around our family. I was the last to get it so now I get to enjoy its invasion in my body.
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Monday, August 27 - Seattle - Chittenden Locks
For all of you, like myself, that picture Seattle as a rainy, cloudy town, today was contrary to all expectations. The sun was out and the temperature was in the mid 70s. For all of our eastern friends, I’m sure that sounds a lot better than the heat and humidity of August. We met up with Sheri’s parents at the hotel in the morning and went out to Chittenden Locks. I had heard that the locks were built with a fish ladder so you can see salmon jumping up the ladder. In my mind I pictured a dozen or so salmon jumping up every few seconds. The reality is that the fish ladder has tunnels through each step that the salmon prefer. We only saw about 4 fish that actually jumped out of the water to climb the ladder. Nonetheless, it was impressive and worth the trip. Particularly because they constructed a viewing area, which allows visitors to see the underwater ladder tunnels like an aquarium. Some of the salmon were about three feet long! I should mention that our fish ladder experience was part of a nice tour that the US Army Corps of Engineers offers. In fact, for all of you botanical folks, they also have a botanical gardens at the locks. The kids don’t quite appreciate variety in plant life, so we skipped that part. Some neat facts about the locks include their sea lion deterrent system. They use underwater speakers to project killer whale sounds that try to foil the sea lions. It works for the most part, but some sea lions have figured out the system. They even tried a robotic killer whale, but it didn’t take long for the sea lions to figure out that it wasn’t real.
Monday, August 27, 2007
Sunday, August 26 - Relaxing In Tacoma, Washington
No miles logged today. Looking back at my logs, this is the first day we haven’t logged any miles on the RV since July 26! That day we didn’t log any miles because we could walk to a bus. You’d have to go back to July 14 for the last time we actually stayed put at the campground. Sounds crazy, but we haven’t really stopped to take much of a break. We took it easy today and used the break to get some needed chores done. I vacuumed out the RV while Sheri attended to the 5 loads of laundry. After chores, we took a bike ride. Many of you from the northwest probably know that they have quite a few bike trails. One trail happens to come right next to our campground. This trail was unique because it was lined with blackberry bushes. Miles and miles of blackberries, just ripening. We couldn’t help but enjoy the treat! Tomorrow we meet up with Sheri’s parents. They decided to tour Seattle with us since they hadn’t been there. I think they were also missing the grandkids a wee bit. We will stay in a hotel while in Seattle to allow for quick access to the sites. I’ve uploaded some photos from Glacier and Mt. Rainier, be sure to check them out by clicking on the link to the right. Unfortunately, both parks had some cloudy, rainy weather so we didn’t get as many scenic pictures as we had at the other parks.
Saturday, August 25, 2007
Mt. Rainier to Tacoma, Washington
Today we spent more time in Mt. Rainier National Park. One of the most interesting things about the park is a flood that occurred last year. They said that it was a 400 year flood: 18 inches of rain in 36 hours. The devastation it caused was quite dramatic. One creek has a different route than it used to have. Trees were thrown around like matchsticks. Parts of the park will be totally altered from it. We were thankful we saw the peak of Mt. Rainier yesterday since the cloud cover today prevented us from seeing it. We went on a short hike through their wildflower trails and stopped off for a very short hike to a 168 foot waterfall. The boys and Sheri hiked behind the waterfall while I stayed with Bailey. We were somewhat hindered by the boys’ stomachs. Somehow they all have the same stomach bug, which requires maintaining close distance to facilities. By the way, I should mention that Mt. Rainier (being a volcano) has a totally different appeal than the parks of the Rockies. In fact, they say that Mt. Rainier stands more majestic than Mt. Everest. It certainly isn’t higher than Mt. Everest, but it is higher than its surroundings in a way that Mt. Everest is not. If you're into glaciers, we learned that Mt. Rainier has more glaciers than any other area in the lower 48 states.
Friday, August 24, 2007
August 24 - Yakima to Mt. Rainer, Washington
Sometimes in life you witness God's sprinkle of blessings. Today was one of those days. Over the last week the RV has been having trouble starting. I'd turn the key to the start position and sometimes the engine would turn over, other times nothing would happen. I had noticed this getting worse this morning after it took 8 tries to start-but the car always started. I figured I'd have it looked at in Seattle on Monday after the weekend. After attending a talk by a Mt. Rainer National Park Ranger and going on a 1 mile hike we started toward our destination - Packwood, Washington. The car took more times than ever to start after the hike so I told the family we really needed an auto parts store in Parkwood to see if there was a battery. On the main strip of Parkwood was an auto parts store. I purchased the battery and they installed it, but the engine wouldn't start. The parts store also doubled as a repair shop, which was exactly what I needed. Keep in mind that I pulled up to this store at 5:02 as they were closing. However, the two gentlemen were kind enough to stay after and diagnose that my starter solenoid was the problem. The solenoid was coming apart and there was literally one thread of copper holding it together. It really should have broken a long time ago, one more bump and it would have gone. Praise God, they had the part and they installed it. I expressed my sincere appreciation for the owner and the other mechanic's time on a Friday night after hours. Although I was appreciative of God's blessing to me, the owner was a hero and that story is even more amazing. About one year ago a gentlemen had gone 4-wheeling in the forest area of these mountains and was caught in a snowstorm. The official search for him ended after two weeks with nothing found, the lost man being presumed dead. The lost man's uncle called the auto parts store owner (who is an avid snowmobiler) and they rounded up three snowmobiliers. Within a half a day they found the man, who was still alive. Not every day you meet a true hero.
August 23 - Spokane to Yakima
Nothing really exciting to report on today's leg. I was surprised how desolate Washington state is. You hear about rainy Seattle, but apparently that rain stops and desert takes over as you move east. We saw many crops, particularly grapes and apples, but they were all irrigated. East Washington reminds me of South Dakota, rolling hills, sagebrush and brown grass. The funny moment for today is Bailey's request for her princess hat. The kids received an umbrella hat as a gift and Bailey kept asking for her princess hat. It took us a while to figure out that the umbrella hat was the "princess hat".
Today we drive to Mt. Rainer for a two day visit then on to Seattle.
Today we drive to Mt. Rainer for a two day visit then on to Seattle.
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
August 22 - Montana to Spokane, Washington
In my last blog I discussed the jewel of the northwest, the huckleberry. Well tonight, the KOA had ice cream for a buck. Wouldn't you know they had huckleberry. If you ever get the chance, you must try this delicious flavor. I think I might like huckleberry better than blackberry or black raspberry, which are typically my favorite ice cream choices. We are now on a mission to find some huckleberries so that we can taste the raw fruit. Up until now we have had huckleberry cream soda, milkshake, ice cream, and preserves. The locals tell me the berry can only be purchased at fruit stands not at grocery stores. We'll see if we can find some. Spokane, Washington is a nice place. The weather is pleasant and the scenery is nice. Tomorrow we will venture to Yakima, Washington and then on to Mt. Rainer National Park before we get to Seattle. Today we entered Idaho at mile 6978 and Washington at mile 7050. In 53 days we have travelled about 7070 miles, which is an average of 133 miles per day. Not to bad.....although Bailey might disagree with that statement. She is the only one who is regularly disappointed with the travel time.
Day 52 - Tuesday, August 21
We started yesterdey (8/21) thinking we would go for a hike at the top of the Going to the Sun Road. However, the day before it had hailed on us at that location. When we considered the brisk winds and the approaching rain clouds, we decided to forgo the hike and get on the road. We drove about 3.5 hours to Polson, Montana, which is a beautiful location. It's on the edge of flathead lake and has a nice view of the rockies. We will travel to Spokane, Washington today after the kids play mini golf and swim in the pool this morning. One unique aspect of this area of Montana is their affinity for huckleberries. I must admit, I had heard of huckleberries before, but hadn't eaten any. Glacier National Park is known for them and the bears fatten up on them before hibernation. We went to a huckleberry novelty store and tried a huckleberry milkshake (very good) and purchased some huckleberry preserves. Our lunch menu is typically peanutbutter and jelly and/or lunch meat. So we go through jam pretty quick. I'd bring some back, but I don't think they would make the trip back. I don't think I could look at them without eating them.
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Day 51 - Glacier National Park - Windy and Cold
Today was our big day for Glacier National Park. But before I discuss today, I must discuss last night. The east side of Glacier National Park gets some very high winds. I’m not sure if the valley channels the wind or if it is just the weather, but the RV was rocking back and forth all night long. It kept Sheri and I up quite a bit because the howling of the wind was pretty loud and the movement was enough to make you a little uneasy. Thankfully, the kids slept through it with no problem. I asked the locals if this was normal and they said it is fairly common to have high winds.
Today we started the day by boarding the free shuttle bus and taking it to the other side of the park (about a 2 hour drive). We then took a scenic lake cruise (via a 70 year old boat) on Lake McDonald (the left over water from a melted glacier). After a lunch stop we boarded the bus again and took it to a short hike. Much to our surprise, Bailey and Brandon did the 0.7 miles without whining a bit. Just goes to show you their legs are stronger than they sometimes lead us to believe. This evening we went to a ranger talk on Bears. Not as impressive as the talks in Yellowstone or Grand Teton, but informational and still worth going to. I had two encounters with animals today. A black bear was sitting beside the road as I was driving to the 7:30 ranger talk. Coming home from the talk a bull elk (or a very large buck) ran in front of the car. It happened so fast it was hard to tell what it was. Thankfully, I didn’t hit it, but it was the closest I’d come to hitting one in a while. Glacier National Park is much different than the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone. The road that cuts through the park allows for breathtaking views. The road is cut right into the side of the mountain so it almost feels like you are flying at certain points because there is no shoulder and you look straight down. The views are as stunning as Grand Teton, but from above not from below. Since Glaciers cut the valleys they are shaped differently and not as jagged as other parts of the Rockys. The weather is quite different here. We were getting hail at the top of the mountain (6600 feet). Some folks reported snow today in some elevations. For the ranger talk tonight we were all in our winter coats (elevation 3300 feet). San Diego sounds good right about now! But we’ll have to wait a month before we get there.
Today we started the day by boarding the free shuttle bus and taking it to the other side of the park (about a 2 hour drive). We then took a scenic lake cruise (via a 70 year old boat) on Lake McDonald (the left over water from a melted glacier). After a lunch stop we boarded the bus again and took it to a short hike. Much to our surprise, Bailey and Brandon did the 0.7 miles without whining a bit. Just goes to show you their legs are stronger than they sometimes lead us to believe. This evening we went to a ranger talk on Bears. Not as impressive as the talks in Yellowstone or Grand Teton, but informational and still worth going to. I had two encounters with animals today. A black bear was sitting beside the road as I was driving to the 7:30 ranger talk. Coming home from the talk a bull elk (or a very large buck) ran in front of the car. It happened so fast it was hard to tell what it was. Thankfully, I didn’t hit it, but it was the closest I’d come to hitting one in a while. Glacier National Park is much different than the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone. The road that cuts through the park allows for breathtaking views. The road is cut right into the side of the mountain so it almost feels like you are flying at certain points because there is no shoulder and you look straight down. The views are as stunning as Grand Teton, but from above not from below. Since Glaciers cut the valleys they are shaped differently and not as jagged as other parts of the Rockys. The weather is quite different here. We were getting hail at the top of the mountain (6600 feet). Some folks reported snow today in some elevations. For the ranger talk tonight we were all in our winter coats (elevation 3300 feet). San Diego sounds good right about now! But we’ll have to wait a month before we get there.
Sunday, August 19, 2007
Day 50 - Great Falls Montana to Glacier National Park
We started today by going to a church service here in Great Falls. We ran into a local person at the KOA who recommended their church. Then it was a short mile drive over to the Home Depot for the final toilet fix. Praise God, the toilet was easily fixed and we are now back in business. Wouldn’t you know that the one night we had to walk to use the toilet in the middle of the night Brandon had an upset stomach and had to make several trips. Thankfully, we were pretty close to the restrooms. The drive to Glacier National Park was interesting. We drove through tons of fields of wheat, not exactly what I would have guessed for Northern Montana. As we got closer to the mountains it was pretty clear there were fires as you could see the thick smoke surrounding everything, it almost appeared slightly foggy. The main road through Glacier is pretty hard driving so they limit vehicles to 21 feet or shorter. I’m about 25 feet with all our bikes hanging off the front and back. But, they just started a free bus service through the park this year. We’ll take advantage of that tomorrow. Just before the sun went down tonight the wind shifted and we actually got to see the tops of the mountains, another beautiful view.
Saturday, August 18, 2007
August 18 - Day 49
I know just about everyone out there has probably tried to repair something at one time or another just to find out that the "easy" fix was about three times more difficult than you thought.
We’ll that happened to me today. The toilet in the RV lost its ability to add water two days ago. We could still add water via a milkjug and flush it, but the water valve had broken closed. The milk jug method was getting old, so I thought I’d just get a new toilet. I was fortunate that an RV dealer was 1 mile from our campsite and we arrived at the campsite one hour before they closed. "Piece of cake" the lady at the RV store told me, "two bolts and the water supply connection". After removing the old toilet I noticed the new toilet was a tad bit higher than the old, but it appeared that I had enough slack in the water supply line to handle it…..Not true. No big deal, I thought I would just put on the old toilet and use the milk jug method until I could get a short section of hose to bridge the gap. When I put back the old toilet, the valve was now stuck open so water was gushing out. This now meant that all water pressure had to be removed from the RV, a much larger problem. Again, I was fortunate that a Home Depot was still open and was very blessed that the guy in the plumbing section could rig me up a short extension (I wouldn’t have found the right section or the snap connectors on my own). However, since I didn’t have exact measurements he gave me some extra. I knew I had plenty of slack and I didn’t have a measuring device so I didn’t worry about trimming it. Well, once again, bonehead move. Now I have too much. So tomorrow after church we head back to Home Depot. All I need is the quick disconnect ring and their cutters to make a clean cut (steak knife wouldn’t work). By lunch time, we should be open for business. Next time, I’ll settle on the milk jug method and save the hassle, the flooding, the cost, the frustration, and the time. Oh, by the way, we are in Great Falls, Montana and we will be at Glacier National Park tomorrow (Sunday) and stay through Tuesday.
We’ll that happened to me today. The toilet in the RV lost its ability to add water two days ago. We could still add water via a milkjug and flush it, but the water valve had broken closed. The milk jug method was getting old, so I thought I’d just get a new toilet. I was fortunate that an RV dealer was 1 mile from our campsite and we arrived at the campsite one hour before they closed. "Piece of cake" the lady at the RV store told me, "two bolts and the water supply connection". After removing the old toilet I noticed the new toilet was a tad bit higher than the old, but it appeared that I had enough slack in the water supply line to handle it…..Not true. No big deal, I thought I would just put on the old toilet and use the milk jug method until I could get a short section of hose to bridge the gap. When I put back the old toilet, the valve was now stuck open so water was gushing out. This now meant that all water pressure had to be removed from the RV, a much larger problem. Again, I was fortunate that a Home Depot was still open and was very blessed that the guy in the plumbing section could rig me up a short extension (I wouldn’t have found the right section or the snap connectors on my own). However, since I didn’t have exact measurements he gave me some extra. I knew I had plenty of slack and I didn’t have a measuring device so I didn’t worry about trimming it. Well, once again, bonehead move. Now I have too much. So tomorrow after church we head back to Home Depot. All I need is the quick disconnect ring and their cutters to make a clean cut (steak knife wouldn’t work). By lunch time, we should be open for business. Next time, I’ll settle on the milk jug method and save the hassle, the flooding, the cost, the frustration, and the time. Oh, by the way, we are in Great Falls, Montana and we will be at Glacier National Park tomorrow (Sunday) and stay through Tuesday.
Friday, August 17, 2007
August 17, 2007 - Day 48
Today was a big travel day-about 6 hours with stops. The boys are swimming in the pool, excited that they are out of the car. We backtracked our way through Jackson Hole, Grand Tetons, and Yellowstone to make our way to Livingston, Montana. We entered Montana at mile 6199. Just as proven true in the past, the days we travel most seem to be the rainy days. However, Elk like to move when it rains so we saw two large bull elk near the road and a herd of female elk at another spot while we were driving through Yellowstone. One of the bull elk had velvet hanging from his antlers. Once again, we saw another Bison in the road walking right down the middle of the lane. In fact, when I finally got to him he started walking on the yellow line, which made it near impossible for both lanes to move. I’ve updated the blog with pictures so be sure to click the link. It’s fun interacting with the poll as well, so be sure to vote. We read all of the comments too. Thanks to those who take the time to tell us what you think.
Grand Tetons
August 16, 2007
Today we finished up our day in Grand Teton National Park and crossed the 6000 mile mark (we have been mile heavy the last few days). The highlight in the category of animal sightings was a pair of bull moose. The only bummer is that I couldn’t pull over and park. One guy had already gotten stuck in the loose dirt on the shoulder. He buried himself pretty good. I dropped off Sheri, who took some pictures and then walked to where we could park. The highlight in the category of activities was a hike we took. The neat thing about this hike is that you rode a boat to the trailhead and then hiked up to waterfalls and a 500 foot overlook (that is 500 foot above the lake, elevation was 7200). Brandon, Bailey, and I stopped at the waterfall and waited for Sheri and the older boys to complete the overlook portion of the hike. The highlight in the category of entertainment was an evening outdoor gunfight/show that takes place each evening in Jackson Hole, Wyoming right in the middle of the town (they shutdown an intersection for it). When I had first heard about this, I envisioned an old western shootout between the good guys and the bad guys. I set the expectation a little too high. It was put on by the local theatre so it appealed to the musical folks. It was more like guys and gals singing and dancing with a few gunshots mixed in. Still entertaining, but not quite the "shoot em up" I expected. Our next stop is Glacier National Park. However, it will take us 2 days to get there. We actually have to back track through Grand Teton and Yellowstone Parks to get back up to Montana.
August 15, 2007
Today we left Yellowstone and drove down to Grand Teton National Park. There are only 7 miles between the parks, so essentially they are connected. Most people cover both parks. However, they are very different. Grand Teton does not have any thermal features, but has more magnificent views and landscape. The towering Teton range spurts up and the views with the lake in front are beautiful. We didn’t see any wildlife today other than a bald eagle, but we are told they have similar wildlife to Yellowstone. The highlight of today was the evening ranger talks at 7 and 9 pm. The 7 pm talk was on the pronghorn antelope, which is quite a strange creature. The thing I found the most interesting is that it runs 70 mph but it won’t jump fences like mule deer or elk. Another really good talk was at 9pm on the Raven. These creatures are incredibly intelligent. They actually have a symbiotic relationship with wolves. Wolf scientists have proven time and time again that ravens will show a wolf pack where an injured animal, or other available kill is so that they can kill it. Then the ravens will dine with the wolves. Coyotes, on the other hand, will kill the raven if it tires to share in their kill. Our ranger had many fascinating stories that proved how smart the raven really is. My favorite was that Ravens will kill a squirrel but without a sharp beak they cannot puncture its hide. So they have developed a good mechanism for getting it open. They drop it in the road and wait for a car to run over it! I must admit that when I heard the talk was on ravens, I was thinking I’d be bored. However, the presenter, the amazing raven behavior, and the stories she told were well worth attending.
August 14, 2007
Today was our last full day in Yellowstone and a full day it was. We left our site around 10 and arrived at the Old Faithful geyser area around 11 am. The boys received their junior ranger badges and then signed up for a young scientist program. The program is a pilot program they just started this year in the Geyser area. Its similar to the junior ranger program where they have a workbook with questions and activities that require you to go and find answers in the geological features. The boys really liked the scientist program because they had a tool backpack that you borrowed for the program. In it they included an infared thermometer. The kids really liked that fun gadget. Old Faithful is actually one of 50 or so geysers. It’s the most predictable and one of the largest, but not the highest. However, they are all similar, so seeing Old Faithful covers about 80 percent of the experience. The upper geyser basin in Yellowstone is one of four areas in the world. The other three areas are in Iceland, New Zealand, and somewhere in Siberia. We finally left the old faithful area around 6 or so and went to another mud hole area. There a small volcano erupted in 1870 so you can view what remains. On the way we saw a huge bull elk, but we didn’t get a picture before he bedded down in some tall grass. We also saw a badger at the gas station, but once again I missed the photo. Another missed photo was an osprey with a fish in its talons. That one would have been a great photo because he flew right by an erupting geyser. But sometimes the eye is faster than the finger. We also saw another bison walking down the middle of the road. They must prefer to travel by road. We finally arrived back at the site around 8:30. Tomorrow we will go to the Grand Teton National Park and Jackson Hole. Then we will work our way up to Glacier National Park in Montana.
Today we finished up our day in Grand Teton National Park and crossed the 6000 mile mark (we have been mile heavy the last few days). The highlight in the category of animal sightings was a pair of bull moose. The only bummer is that I couldn’t pull over and park. One guy had already gotten stuck in the loose dirt on the shoulder. He buried himself pretty good. I dropped off Sheri, who took some pictures and then walked to where we could park. The highlight in the category of activities was a hike we took. The neat thing about this hike is that you rode a boat to the trailhead and then hiked up to waterfalls and a 500 foot overlook (that is 500 foot above the lake, elevation was 7200). Brandon, Bailey, and I stopped at the waterfall and waited for Sheri and the older boys to complete the overlook portion of the hike. The highlight in the category of entertainment was an evening outdoor gunfight/show that takes place each evening in Jackson Hole, Wyoming right in the middle of the town (they shutdown an intersection for it). When I had first heard about this, I envisioned an old western shootout between the good guys and the bad guys. I set the expectation a little too high. It was put on by the local theatre so it appealed to the musical folks. It was more like guys and gals singing and dancing with a few gunshots mixed in. Still entertaining, but not quite the "shoot em up" I expected. Our next stop is Glacier National Park. However, it will take us 2 days to get there. We actually have to back track through Grand Teton and Yellowstone Parks to get back up to Montana.
August 15, 2007
Today we left Yellowstone and drove down to Grand Teton National Park. There are only 7 miles between the parks, so essentially they are connected. Most people cover both parks. However, they are very different. Grand Teton does not have any thermal features, but has more magnificent views and landscape. The towering Teton range spurts up and the views with the lake in front are beautiful. We didn’t see any wildlife today other than a bald eagle, but we are told they have similar wildlife to Yellowstone. The highlight of today was the evening ranger talks at 7 and 9 pm. The 7 pm talk was on the pronghorn antelope, which is quite a strange creature. The thing I found the most interesting is that it runs 70 mph but it won’t jump fences like mule deer or elk. Another really good talk was at 9pm on the Raven. These creatures are incredibly intelligent. They actually have a symbiotic relationship with wolves. Wolf scientists have proven time and time again that ravens will show a wolf pack where an injured animal, or other available kill is so that they can kill it. Then the ravens will dine with the wolves. Coyotes, on the other hand, will kill the raven if it tires to share in their kill. Our ranger had many fascinating stories that proved how smart the raven really is. My favorite was that Ravens will kill a squirrel but without a sharp beak they cannot puncture its hide. So they have developed a good mechanism for getting it open. They drop it in the road and wait for a car to run over it! I must admit that when I heard the talk was on ravens, I was thinking I’d be bored. However, the presenter, the amazing raven behavior, and the stories she told were well worth attending.
August 14, 2007
Today was our last full day in Yellowstone and a full day it was. We left our site around 10 and arrived at the Old Faithful geyser area around 11 am. The boys received their junior ranger badges and then signed up for a young scientist program. The program is a pilot program they just started this year in the Geyser area. Its similar to the junior ranger program where they have a workbook with questions and activities that require you to go and find answers in the geological features. The boys really liked the scientist program because they had a tool backpack that you borrowed for the program. In it they included an infared thermometer. The kids really liked that fun gadget. Old Faithful is actually one of 50 or so geysers. It’s the most predictable and one of the largest, but not the highest. However, they are all similar, so seeing Old Faithful covers about 80 percent of the experience. The upper geyser basin in Yellowstone is one of four areas in the world. The other three areas are in Iceland, New Zealand, and somewhere in Siberia. We finally left the old faithful area around 6 or so and went to another mud hole area. There a small volcano erupted in 1870 so you can view what remains. On the way we saw a huge bull elk, but we didn’t get a picture before he bedded down in some tall grass. We also saw a badger at the gas station, but once again I missed the photo. Another missed photo was an osprey with a fish in its talons. That one would have been a great photo because he flew right by an erupting geyser. But sometimes the eye is faster than the finger. We also saw another bison walking down the middle of the road. They must prefer to travel by road. We finally arrived back at the site around 8:30. Tomorrow we will go to the Grand Teton National Park and Jackson Hole. Then we will work our way up to Glacier National Park in Montana.
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Yellowstone
August 13
We took a boat cruise this morning on the yellowstone lake. It's the second highest lake in the world, and it has more thermal features than all but one lake in the world. We saw another bald eagle today, but that was the extent of our wildlife sightings. They tell a neat story about one of the islands in the middle of the lake. One summer they had two bison on the island in the middle of the lake. They got there during the winter by travelling on the ice and they didn't make it back before the ice breakup in May. Would have been strange to see two bison on a small island in the middle of the lake. After the boat cruise we went to an area of the park where there are 50 or so bubbling springs and mud holes. Some of them have bright orange and yellow parts. The temperature of the springs range from 100 - 200 degrees.
Levi, Seth, and Sheri took a ranger hike that was supposed to cover a mile, but it was much shorter than that. I knew Brandon couldn't do the mile so I stayed back in the RV with he and Bailey. The hike explored identification of wildlife using paw prints and scat (that is scientific for animal dung). After dinner we sat through a National Park Ranger talk about the early explorers between 1800-1810. He demonstrated a flint striking rifle and he demonstrated how to make a fire with flint and steel. The ranger talks are excellent. They have ranger led hikes, evening talks, talks at the geological features, and they manage to keep the boys attention which is always good.
Levi, Seth, and Sheri took a ranger hike that was supposed to cover a mile, but it was much shorter than that. I knew Brandon couldn't do the mile so I stayed back in the RV with he and Bailey. The hike explored identification of wildlife using paw prints and scat (that is scientific for animal dung). After dinner we sat through a National Park Ranger talk about the early explorers between 1800-1810. He demonstrated a flint striking rifle and he demonstrated how to make a fire with flint and steel. The ranger talks are excellent. They have ranger led hikes, evening talks, talks at the geological features, and they manage to keep the boys attention which is always good.
August 12, 2007
Today was a great day. We saw: an Osprey, a Bald Eagle, a thousand or so Bison, elk, deer, and a black bear with two baby cubs. The wildlife here is everything people talk about. One major blessing of the day is in regards to the fire I talked about. The fire has now spread to an area which has caused road closure of the east gate. If we would have tried to enter the park today instead of yesterday, we would have had to take a major 5 hour detour. Once again, another blessing from above. We took a stagecoach ride, which was a short 1 mile jaunt in a stagecoach. Just like in the 1880s and 1890s when they first started using stagecoaches for tourism. We actually saw a large hawk while on that ride. All in all Yellowstone is great. Someone reported a bear eating a bison visible from the road, but we weren't able to drive to that location in time. We did see a bison walking down the road exactly as a car would travel. It was in the other direction and holding up about 30 cars. I don't know how long he walked until he decided to stop following the road. The kids got quite a kick out of the bison walking in the middle of the road. Even Bailey said her high was seeing the silly buffalo in the middle of the road.
Today was a great day. We saw: an Osprey, a Bald Eagle, a thousand or so Bison, elk, deer, and a black bear with two baby cubs. The wildlife here is everything people talk about. One major blessing of the day is in regards to the fire I talked about. The fire has now spread to an area which has caused road closure of the east gate. If we would have tried to enter the park today instead of yesterday, we would have had to take a major 5 hour detour. Once again, another blessing from above. We took a stagecoach ride, which was a short 1 mile jaunt in a stagecoach. Just like in the 1880s and 1890s when they first started using stagecoaches for tourism. We actually saw a large hawk while on that ride. All in all Yellowstone is great. Someone reported a bear eating a bison visible from the road, but we weren't able to drive to that location in time. We did see a bison walking down the road exactly as a car would travel. It was in the other direction and holding up about 30 cars. I don't know how long he walked until he decided to stop following the road. The kids got quite a kick out of the bison walking in the middle of the road. Even Bailey said her high was seeing the silly buffalo in the middle of the road.
August 11, 2007-Cody to Yellowstone.
The drive to Yellowstone was only an hour and a half so we decided to see something in Cody. We picked the Old Trail Town museum, which is supposed to replicate an old western town. Inside each building were artifacts and displays. It was pretty neat, but once again, Bailey and Brandon just aren't into that stuff. After a quick Wal-Mart trip to restock, we went to the Buffalo Bill Dam, which was built from 1905 to 1910. At the time it was built it was the world's largest dam. They created it for irrigation but added power generation about 20 years later. God really blessed us at the dam. On the walk back to the RV, Brandon thought he lost his knife. So Sheri went back to the visitor center and asked around. The folks at the visitor center said, we haven't found your knife, but we have your credit card (we had made a purchase at the gift shop). As soon as Sheri returned to the RV, we found Brandon's knife in the RV. If Sheri wouldn't have walked back to the visitor center, we would have left the credit card. We felt truly blessed by God's hand at work. As we approached Yellowstone we were overwhelmed by a burning smell. It just so happened that there was a fire right near the east entrance. The Ranger said that they have about 200 fires each year in Yellowstone. Most of them started by the 10,000+ lightning strikes they get. Another cool thing: the ranger at the entrance gate grew up about 2 miles from where I grew up. It was neat to bump into someone in Wyoming that knew all about West Springfield, Va. Yellowstone is a really cool place. Just in the time we have been here (one afternoon), we have seen a herd of Bison about 10 yards from the road (including two baby Bison), a coyote running through the parking lot, and we didn't see a bear, but they told us to get all the kids in our RVs this evening because a bear had been spotted about 100 yards from our section of the RV park. Don't worry grandparents, we haven't let Bailey walk outside alone since that incident.
The drive to Yellowstone was only an hour and a half so we decided to see something in Cody. We picked the Old Trail Town museum, which is supposed to replicate an old western town. Inside each building were artifacts and displays. It was pretty neat, but once again, Bailey and Brandon just aren't into that stuff. After a quick Wal-Mart trip to restock, we went to the Buffalo Bill Dam, which was built from 1905 to 1910. At the time it was built it was the world's largest dam. They created it for irrigation but added power generation about 20 years later. God really blessed us at the dam. On the walk back to the RV, Brandon thought he lost his knife. So Sheri went back to the visitor center and asked around. The folks at the visitor center said, we haven't found your knife, but we have your credit card (we had made a purchase at the gift shop). As soon as Sheri returned to the RV, we found Brandon's knife in the RV. If Sheri wouldn't have walked back to the visitor center, we would have left the credit card. We felt truly blessed by God's hand at work. As we approached Yellowstone we were overwhelmed by a burning smell. It just so happened that there was a fire right near the east entrance. The Ranger said that they have about 200 fires each year in Yellowstone. Most of them started by the 10,000+ lightning strikes they get. Another cool thing: the ranger at the entrance gate grew up about 2 miles from where I grew up. It was neat to bump into someone in Wyoming that knew all about West Springfield, Va. Yellowstone is a really cool place. Just in the time we have been here (one afternoon), we have seen a herd of Bison about 10 yards from the road (including two baby Bison), a coyote running through the parking lot, and we didn't see a bear, but they told us to get all the kids in our RVs this evening because a bear had been spotted about 100 yards from our section of the RV park. Don't worry grandparents, we haven't let Bailey walk outside alone since that incident.
August 10, 2007 - Buffalo to Cody
Today we drove from Buffalo to Cody. The trip was only supposed to take 3 hours. However, the route went from 3000 feet to 8000 feet and back to 3000 feet. Sometimes, the RV will only go about 25 mph with the pedal to the floor up those mountains so our trip stretched out about an hour or so. I was concerned the RV would overheat, but all was well. The only problem I had was two pieces of weather stripping that came off as a result of the heavy crosswinds, an easy fix. We took a stretch break about halfway in Big Horn National Forest. We viewed a nice waterfall there and the kids were excited because the ranger gave them some Smokey the Bear water bottles. We arrived at our campground just in time for the kids to join in the craft time they had at the KOA campground. After dinner we went to the world famous Cody Rodeo, which is held each night throughout the summer. I think they had just about every Rodeo event. Seth entered the calf scramble along with 100 other kids. The goal was to pull the red ribbon off of a calf's tail. Unfortunately, the other kids beat him to it. In Wyoming, the kids don't play soccer. They ride bulls. We saw an 11 year old boy being bucked by a small bull and a 5 year old girl barrel racing. You just don't see that back in Virginia.
Today we drove from Buffalo to Cody. The trip was only supposed to take 3 hours. However, the route went from 3000 feet to 8000 feet and back to 3000 feet. Sometimes, the RV will only go about 25 mph with the pedal to the floor up those mountains so our trip stretched out about an hour or so. I was concerned the RV would overheat, but all was well. The only problem I had was two pieces of weather stripping that came off as a result of the heavy crosswinds, an easy fix. We took a stretch break about halfway in Big Horn National Forest. We viewed a nice waterfall there and the kids were excited because the ranger gave them some Smokey the Bear water bottles. We arrived at our campground just in time for the kids to join in the craft time they had at the KOA campground. After dinner we went to the world famous Cody Rodeo, which is held each night throughout the summer. I think they had just about every Rodeo event. Seth entered the calf scramble along with 100 other kids. The goal was to pull the red ribbon off of a calf's tail. Unfortunately, the other kids beat him to it. In Wyoming, the kids don't play soccer. They ride bulls. We saw an 11 year old boy being bucked by a small bull and a 5 year old girl barrel racing. You just don't see that back in Virginia.
Monday, August 13, 2007
Friday, August 10, 2007
August 9 - Hil City, SD to Buffalo, Wyoming
Yesterday was pretty laid back. We spent a couple hours at the KOA doing the scavenger hunt and playing mini golf. Then we drove the 3.5 hours to Buffalo. We entered Wyoming at mile 5242. In Buffalo, we just enjoyed the pool and played a family card game. Today we travel to Cody, Wyoming. Then on to Yellowstone. With all of the pool time we have had, Brandon and Bailey have become better and better in the water. Brandon has learned how to swim the dog paddle and can make it from one side of the pool to the other (short ways). Just yesterday, Bailey started swimming with her floatation suit. Up until now she had been unwilling to let go of us, but yesterday she realized the suit made her float and she could swim with it. Before we ever got to the poool, she threw a royal fit when we told her she had to wear it because she wanted to wear the other one. But eventually she put it on and I think she was happy she did.
Thursday, August 9, 2007
August 9 - Relaxing and Crazy Horse
Today was definitely a day needed by all. We spent from morning until about 3:30 hanging out at the KOA. This KOA is rather large with about 500 sites so they have other attractions like a water slide, putt-putt golf, a scavenger hunt, and other cool stuff for kids. Then we drove the short 20 minute ride to Crazy Horse and spent time there through the laser show at sundown. The Crazy Horse monument is absolutely huge - much bigger than Mt. Rushmore. They started it in 1948 and aren't even 25% complete. Of course the project is entirely privately funded so they have a very small team working on it. I truly wonder if they will ever fully complete it. The laser show was pretty cool as well. The drive home tonight was the most breath taking drive yet. Not because of the scenery, but because of the deer that I almost hit. This deer was right on the white line but practically invisible because of oncoming lights. Thankfully, he chose to run away from me instead of towards me. That was the closest I have ever come to hitting a deer. Tomorrow we are driving to Buffalo, Wyoming where I hope not to hit a Buffalo. We had planned to stop at Jewel Cave on the way, but I think we will just make it a direct shot. The kids really enjoyed the relaxing time today. Sometimes I think I forget to plan more of that in the schedule. As I have said before, once we get beyond Yellowstone, we are going to take it a little easier and probably stretch out the West Coast a little.
Tuesday, August 7, 2007
August 7 - Badlands to Mt. Rushmore
Today was perhaps one of the most interesting days for me personally. We got the chance to view a control center that controlled 10 of the 1000 minuteman II nuclear warheads that were deployed in the great plains. The door on the control center was approximately 3 feet thick. Prior to today, I didn't really know just how many of these warheads we had ready to launch from 1963 to 1991. Even today we have 500 active warheads that can be deployed on short notice. With the nuclear warheads on our soil and Russia's soil in the 70s and 80s, we could have easily wiped both nations out in a short time period. After touring the control center, the boys got another junior ranger badge at the missle visitor center. We then drove about 2 hours to Mt. Rushmore. Once again, God blessed us with a great weather day. Despite the looming clouds, the rain never fell on us. Mt. Rushmore was impressive, but it was us and about 1000 bikers. Not really a problem except for a few choice t-shirts. I asked one biker just how big this Sturgis rally is. He told me that there will be about 1/2 to 3/4 million bikes there. I got a small feel for that today as I was surrounded by bikes on the way to Mt. Rushmore. Everyone is still holding up well. The two hardest parts of our day are bedtime and wakeup time. At bedtime, we've crammed all four kids in a row, and they sometimes struggle with having their personal space and sharing covers. In the morning, Brandon seems to wake up first and has a hard time not waking others up. Unfortunately, being woken up usually results in grumpiness for some of his siblings. During the day, Brandon and Bailey often get run down, but so far we've all coped quite well. Couple of milestones: Yesterday we crossed 5000 miles and the day before that we entered South Dakota at mile 4828. We are thinking about spending tomorrow chilling out at the campground and taking a short trip to Crazy Horse in the evening. We'll be at the same place tomorrow night and then on to Buffalo, Wyoming. We'll be in Yellowstone by Saturday, where we will spend 5 nights.
Monday, August 6, 2007
August 6 - Badlands
Today we kicked off the day spending an hour with a Ranger who discussed the black footed ferret. These little guys were thought to be extinct in 1979 until a dog brought one home to a rancher in Wyoming. Now there are about a 1000 or so in the wild. We drove the Badlands park loop and stopped to: hike short trails, view a bison crossing the road, look at the prairie dogs, and visit a fossil excavation site where 2 days ago they unearthed a skull from an extinct warthog like creature. The Badlands is the one of the most densely populated fossil areas in the US so digs are usually in some part of the park. This particular one was started because a hiker found the bone sticking out of the ground in 1993. We wrapped up the day visiting Wall Drug. We were surrounded by about 200 bikers because this is bike week in Sturgis, which is a sort drive north of the Badands area. I've never seen so many motorcycles in one place in my life. This morning I just barely made it through the sea of bikes to get gas at the gas station. Tomorrow we will drive to the Mt. Rushmore area for two nights. Oh, and by the way, if you are curious about the poll, we are thinking about 2 weeks for transition. We'll see how the family is holding up by the end of September.
August 5 - Gothernburg, Nebraska to Badlands, South Dakota
From seas of corn to rolling hills of brown grasslands simply describes our journey today. Then out of no where pop up these amazing buttes known as the Badlands. Our trip today was 6 hours, our first trip that long. The kids did really well, and Bailey slept off a few hours, which made us all a little happier. Tomorrow we will be exploring Badlands National Park and the kids will be attending a ranger session. We hope to check out an old minuteman missle silo as well.
Saturday, August 4, 2007
August 3 and 4 - Nebraska Corn Country
August 4, 2007 – Grand Island to Eustis to Gothenburg, Nebraska
Today was like reliving Sheri’s family history from 100 years ago. We drove from Grand Island to Eustis, which is the town that Sheri’s great grandparents (The Heaters) lived in from around 1900 to their death. (Note that more distant relatives were in the area earlier, we simply reference the great grandparents because we have a written diary from Sheri’s great grandmother Heater). We met Uncle Truman who lived in a house constructed right on top of the old Heater house, which would have cost too much to remodel. The house still has the fireplace from the Heater house and some other family antiques. Uncle Truman will turn 100 this year!. Sheri’s grandmother lived to be 101 and her great grandmother to 102. I think the Nebraska water must have something really good for longevity. Surprisingly, Uncle Truman still lives in his house alone. In fact, last winter he was by himself when they were without power for 4 days. He still gets around okay and his long term memory is quite good so he told us about some things of the past. His son, Bruce Barret (now 70), was quite a character and joked with the boys about all sorts of stuff. The kids (and Sheri) got a real treat by getting to ride on his Honda Goldwing Trike (3-wheeled motorcycle). While in Eustis we also visited the cemetery where the Heaters were buried and we ate lunch at a restaurant over 100 years old that great grandma and grandpa Heater would have visited. We then ventured to Gothenburg, where we visited the Pony Express office (original 1860 cabin). In 1861 hey had to pay 5 dollars per ounce to ship mail across the country from Missouri to California. The pony express only lasted 18 months because the telegraph and the railroad replaced them. To top the day off, we ate dinner at a RUNZA, which is a Nebraska sandwich with meat, onions, and cabbage. My coworker, Lisa Runge (a Nebraskan) is probably licking her lips as she reads this because she misses her runza sandwiches in Virginia. I enjoy eating food from the area. In fact, I almost ordered Bull Frys at the 100 year-old restaurant in Eustis. I told the boys they needed to try some since we were experiencing the west. If you don’t know what Bull Frys are, you may not want to Google that one. Some things are best left undefined. Instead, try some when you’re out west and find out for yourself how tasty this fine delicacy is!
August 3, 2007 – Lincoln to Grand Island, Nebraska
Today we drove about 1.5 hours to Grand Island. The town has a Pioneer Living History museum that is somewhat like Colonial Williamsburg but on a much smaller scale. They have a town called Railroad Town, which has buildings that were of the 1890s (they actually moved them there from their original location). We really enjoyed talking to the tinsmith, who explained all of the tools he would have used and let the boys use some. We purchased a Virginia shaped cookie cutter the tinsmith had made. We also enjoyed watching the blacksmith, where Seth purchased an "S" hook. The boys got a kick out of hiding in the coal car of the train when other folks walked into the locomotive and never knew the boys were hiding right next to them. My highpoint of the day was being able to get the whole family ice cream and drinks for $10. I was surprised how affordable they had priced the food there. Levi tried Butter Brickle, which is vanilla with some crunchy butter brickle stuff.
Today was like reliving Sheri’s family history from 100 years ago. We drove from Grand Island to Eustis, which is the town that Sheri’s great grandparents (The Heaters) lived in from around 1900 to their death. (Note that more distant relatives were in the area earlier, we simply reference the great grandparents because we have a written diary from Sheri’s great grandmother Heater). We met Uncle Truman who lived in a house constructed right on top of the old Heater house, which would have cost too much to remodel. The house still has the fireplace from the Heater house and some other family antiques. Uncle Truman will turn 100 this year!. Sheri’s grandmother lived to be 101 and her great grandmother to 102. I think the Nebraska water must have something really good for longevity. Surprisingly, Uncle Truman still lives in his house alone. In fact, last winter he was by himself when they were without power for 4 days. He still gets around okay and his long term memory is quite good so he told us about some things of the past. His son, Bruce Barret (now 70), was quite a character and joked with the boys about all sorts of stuff. The kids (and Sheri) got a real treat by getting to ride on his Honda Goldwing Trike (3-wheeled motorcycle). While in Eustis we also visited the cemetery where the Heaters were buried and we ate lunch at a restaurant over 100 years old that great grandma and grandpa Heater would have visited. We then ventured to Gothenburg, where we visited the Pony Express office (original 1860 cabin). In 1861 hey had to pay 5 dollars per ounce to ship mail across the country from Missouri to California. The pony express only lasted 18 months because the telegraph and the railroad replaced them. To top the day off, we ate dinner at a RUNZA, which is a Nebraska sandwich with meat, onions, and cabbage. My coworker, Lisa Runge (a Nebraskan) is probably licking her lips as she reads this because she misses her runza sandwiches in Virginia. I enjoy eating food from the area. In fact, I almost ordered Bull Frys at the 100 year-old restaurant in Eustis. I told the boys they needed to try some since we were experiencing the west. If you don’t know what Bull Frys are, you may not want to Google that one. Some things are best left undefined. Instead, try some when you’re out west and find out for yourself how tasty this fine delicacy is!
August 3, 2007 – Lincoln to Grand Island, Nebraska
Today we drove about 1.5 hours to Grand Island. The town has a Pioneer Living History museum that is somewhat like Colonial Williamsburg but on a much smaller scale. They have a town called Railroad Town, which has buildings that were of the 1890s (they actually moved them there from their original location). We really enjoyed talking to the tinsmith, who explained all of the tools he would have used and let the boys use some. We purchased a Virginia shaped cookie cutter the tinsmith had made. We also enjoyed watching the blacksmith, where Seth purchased an "S" hook. The boys got a kick out of hiding in the coal car of the train when other folks walked into the locomotive and never knew the boys were hiding right next to them. My highpoint of the day was being able to get the whole family ice cream and drinks for $10. I was surprised how affordable they had priced the food there. Levi tried Butter Brickle, which is vanilla with some crunchy butter brickle stuff.
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