Just conversation

We have got the coach as we want it, although, the kitchen cabinets need some tweaking. But it is quite livable.

We are moving the coach over to Rayford Crossing on Wednesday, the same day Becky, Fred and Lindsay come here for Christmas. We are really looking forward to seeing them. They will be here for 11 days.

Val has had a lot of trouble with her right shoulder over the last few years and it has gotten progressively worse in the last few months.
Many years ago, she fell and broke her right arm and as I recall, dislocated her right elbow. That all healed nicely with what appeared as no ill affects. But as time went on she developed more pain and restricted movement in her right shoulder.
Tuesday she had surgery on that arm. The doctor said the damage to her Rotator cuff and tendon, which holds her biceps, were much worse than he had anticipated. She is in an immobilizing sling and she said her doctor expects the recovery time to be about 6 months.
We are really happy that she went with the surgery, now she is moving toward recovery.
Val and Tony have graciously offered their house to celebrate Christmas as they have the largest home. She will have to just kickback this Christmas season and let the others do. It will be very hard for her, as she likes to be in the middle of all of the preparations. But, she won't be physically able to.

We are meeting Ted and Donna tonight for dinner and a show at the Texas Opry. We really enjoy the shows there. They are so much fun. This is the last of 3 Christmas shows.
Donna had her last cataract surgery done on Thursday. I hope she does as well as I did with my cataract surgery.
They are spending Christmas in Florida with their children. They are leaving on Monday, after Donna's follow-up appt. with her eye doctor.

I probably will not post again until after Christmas.
Brenda and I want to wish all of those that follow our blog, a very Merry Christmas and a happy and prosperous New Year.

Ta ta for now

Possibili-team

POSSIBILI-TEAM!

If you know anything about us, you know about CARE, SHARE AND BE AWARE. Five years ago we joined this wonderful group of people that give you support while you make your journey to overcome breast cancer. The leader of the group is Tosha Morton. Rick knew her many years ago. She used to be the manager of the CT department. She is now the manager of the Breast Center at Houston Northwest Medical Center. She is also a breast cancer survivor. A truly wonderful soft spoken person. The second in command is Esther Valdez. She has a warm and bubbly personality. Under her care, you will not take your journey alone. She calls her team "the posse". We call them the " possibili-team.' With her team, anything is possible.We also need to mention Cynthia Sauls.

Cynthia is patient and listens to her patients with compassion and a willingness to set them at ease with any procedure.There are many other players on the field that belong to this team. They are too numerous to count. If ever you find yourself taking a journey to be a breast cancer survivor, please be sure to contact this wonderful group of people.

Last Tuesday was the annual Christmas party. A good time was had by all. Stealing presents and drooling over what someone has opened up. I ended up with a pink robe. Rick even checked it out for warmth. No pictures of that, though. All survivors were given poinsettia plants to take home. I chose to put mine in the office of the RV park we are managing. Every time I look at it I get a warm and fuzzy feeling that someone cares for me.

Time for me to say goodbye for the moment and will see you down the road.


Ta ta for now

Settling in

We have now been in our new home a week now and getting settled in very nicely.
We are getting things organized. It appears that we have more storage in the new coach.
Yesterday, Brenda worked at getting things organized in the kitchen area, while I worked on the basement. We have empty or nearly empty cabinets in the kitchen and living area.
I haven't finished putting things back in the basement, but things are not so crowded as before.
We have removed a lot of things that we haven't used in a long time, so that helps.We don't have an area to store large items like the cat food or litter inside, so I put them in the first bay just outside the door. It is very convenient.
We don't want to use the shower as a storage area in this rig as we did before. We hope that we are able to continue that practice.

We spent all day Sunday with Val and Tony. Christmas is at their house again this year, so Val asked if we could help get the decorations out of the attic.
Chris, Linda and 2 of their grandchildren came over as well as Michelle and Danielle.
We did get the tree up and Linda and the kids put on the ornaments. The tree is prelighted and Chris, being the master electrician, made sure that all of lights were working.
We did a lot more visiting than we did decorating, but Val is fussy about how things look so she said she and Tony will finish decorating. She really goes all out.

Here are some pictures of the new rig. I finally got around to getting some pictures.
I had a hard time finding the camera as we have new places to put things and I am having trouble finding them.

Ta ta for now

Our New Home

We left yesterday morning about 8:25 and headed for PPL to exchange homes.
Ted joined us and rode down with us to do the move.
The drive was easier than when I took the Southwind down for appraisal. It took just over an hour to get there.

We went through the predelivery inspection and we were satisfied that everything that they inspected worked. Then we went to sign all of the paperwork. That went off without a hitch.
Ted used our camcorder and recorded the PDI so that we can refer to it if we need further instructions.

Then the fun began!!!! You just don't know how much stuff you collect until you try to move it.
We parked the RV's door to door and transferring the 'stuff' was pretty easy. Ted and I got way ahead of Brenda as she put the things where she thought they might go. A rush job at best, but serviceable enough for us to leave for home.
We have a lot of work to find places for all of this, and this is a good opportunity to rid ourselves of things we have used rarely or not at all since we started full timing. It will all work out over time.

We got back to the park after dark, which is something that I really don't like to do, and set up with the help of Ted. He is a wonderful friend. He went home after that. I know he was tired, because I was bushed.
Ted helped me put the coach in our spot. I could not see the edge of the pad as it was so dark. We got it right at the edge of the pad.

The new to us coach came with a Sleep Number bed, but both bladders had small leaks in them so we had to exchange the bladders from our old bed. Not something that I wanted to do as tired as I was.

The coach drove wonderfully on the way home, but so much differently than the Southwind. There is a large learning curve in the driving of a diesel engine and air brakes. Ted noted that I did well with the brakes ( no tossing my passengers all over the coach).

Today, we begin organizing both the inside and the basement. This is not going to be a quick process, but we will make it happen. Brenda and I will determine where things go then we will move it to a more convenient place. Trial and error. That will be interrupted as we have the Care, Share and Be Aware Breast cancer Christmas party this evening. And we just don't miss that celebration if we are in town.

There seems to be more storage in the new rig, but in different places. Much more drawer space in the bedroom, but, less space in the Bath area. And the kitchen area is a challenge. We will have to use different strategies in the arrangement.

I will take some better pictures and post them when I find the camera.

Ta ta for now

New Rig

Last Monday, Brenda and I decided to take a ride down to PPL and look at MH and 5th wheels.
Brenda is not really interested in 5th wheels as she likes to get up and move around while we are travelling.
We had looked at many (20-25) MH and 5 or 6 5th wheels. We had been there about 2 hours and we couldn't find anything that we really liked.
We were both getting tired and wanted to leave before the traffic got too bad.
There was a rig on the very back row of MH (they have about 300 rv's on site there) that I wanted to look at. As we approached it the sign in the windshield said "way too much for your budget", so we skipped it. 2 rigs to the right was a clean looking 37' rig with 4 slides that had a price that we might be able to live with.

It is 2006 Holiday Rambler Neptune XL with a 5.9L Cummins diesel and Allison transmission.
After looking through it, Brenda suggested that I might like to drive it.
We contacted a salesman, and took it for a drive. It was a dream to drive and a much different ride than our present coach. It has an air ride suspension, so it is much smoother than the spring and shocks on the Southwind.
The floor plan is nice and it looks comfortable. The bedroom can be closed off if needed, but that door has to be closed if you want to use the sink. A small problem that we can easily live with.
Brenda has to have a 4 door refrigerator and this one has one. I may be funny, but I don't want it in a slide and it is not, so both of us are happy.

Wednesday, I took the Southwind down for them to evaluate the condition, and after about 6 hours it was determined that we had reached an amicable price difference in our coach an the new one. We are planning to close on it on Nov. 30.

We are looking forward to our new home, and we hope it is a reliable home for many years.

Ta ta for now

Our Second week

Last Saturday, one of the owners came over to look at the Kubota Tractor. The engine will not even turn over, and it will have to be taken to a repair shop, if he decides that he wants to spend more money on it. He had taken it to the local Kubota dealer, and they did not do a complete job of repairing it.
It is old and some one has messed with the electrical system. There are a lot of disconnected wires. The tail lights are missing. The head lights don't work, it is quite a mess.

He and his brother had brought over the old family Ford tractor. It runs pretty well and I am using it as transportation and other chores around the park.
He plans to bring some gravel in for the roads and a couple of the sites, and he wants me to spread out the gravel and level some of the sites.

I am slowly putting the last of the picnic tables together, but, I have run out of sites that need them. I am putting together an area where people can gather for barbecue and have an area for a fairly large gathering. Some of the guests want to have a park barbecue.

Brenda's week went well. No major problems in the office or in the park.
She has gotten most of her doctors visits completed. When you are away from your doctors as much as we are, there is a lot of catching up when we do return. If we stay away as much as we plan to, we are going to have to find some other doctors in other parts of the country.
We are planning to start to 'summer' in the Monroe, Wa. area this next year. We may look for doctors there. We really missed our kids and granddaughter last year, so we plan to spend our summers up there, if we can find jobs. The best would be at the park we stayed in this year. We will check about jobs after the 1st of the year.

After church yesterday, we went out to breakfast with Val and Tony, Michelle and her girls, and Chris and Linda and their grandchildren. We had a good visit (no politics), and the meals were planned for Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Val has the largest house, so the holidays will be there.

The weather has been hot and muggy, but a cold front is passing through here this morning. The temperatures are supposed to get cooler with hopefully less humidity. That would be great.
We have a dehumidifier, and I empty it 2 times a day. It hold 2 1/2 gallons, so 5 gallons a day in our 350 square foot home.

We are looking forward to a productive week so:

Ta ta for now.

Our first week at work

Today is our last day of the first week at work in Timber Ridge.
We started our week on Tuesday, and all went smoothly with Krystal here to help Brenda refresh her knowledge of the paperwork. She fell right back into it.

I emptied the coins out of the laundry machines and coke machine, then rolled them in wrappers for deposit. I then swept and mopped the laundry floor. It looked much better.
The driveway in front of the laundry is asphalt and it slopes slightly towards the building. The soil in the park is mostly sand and gravel, so when it rains the sandy soil accumulates in front of the door and is easily tracked into the laundry.
It is no big thing as long as the floor is swept on a regular basis.

The park is full with monthly guests, so it is really easier this year. Nobody is coming and going. These people plan to stay for months and we don't expect much turnover while we are here.
The people here are very nice and follow the rules pretty well. There are a few spots that need attention and Brenda and I will take care of that as time goes on.

There are 12 picnic tables to be assembled. I started on them yesterday. The Kubota tractor and trailer that I used last year is not running, so I will have to wait for the owner to come look and see what needs to be done to repair it and if he wants to put any more money into it. It has not been used since we were here in February. I can't move those picnic tables around the park until I get some sort of transportation.

The park looks good on the whole, although there are a lot of limbs and various debris around the park that needs to be picked up. Again, I need the wagon. It will all work out eventually.

We saw Neil last week and we are going to The Texas Opry tonight for dinner and a show with him and His friend, Margaret. We went last year with Ted and Donna and really had a great time.

We had breakfast with Val, Tony, Chris, Linda and their grandchildren last Sunday after church. We hadn't seen Chris and Linda since last February and it was good to see them again.
I really wanted a breakfast burrito that Forest Cafe serves, so I was very happy when Val chose it. She chose it for the convenience for all parties and it was a great choice.

Ta Ta for now

Back At Timber Ridge

We drove back to Magnolia on Monday in the pouring rain. We left Glen Rose before 8am and drove almost non-stop back to Timber Ridge. We decided with the weather so bad that we would head for the Houston area. We were advised that the ROD park at Lake Whitney becomes a mud bog when it rains, so we canceled our reservations there and headed south. We arrived about 1pm.
It was a miserable drive, but I'm glad that we are so far above the road surface that the mist from the traffic was not as bad as it is for those that are closer to the road surface.

We arrived at the park only to find our spot was still occupied. It seems that the occupants of the site decided a late check-out would be ok as we were not due in until Wednesday. We had called Gwen on Sunday to find out if we could come straight to Timber Ridge, or have to go to Rayford for 1 or 2 days. She said to come here as the people in our site were leaving that day. She had not contacted them to tell them we were coming 2 days early.

As we waited for our site to become available, we went over to Rayford Crossing to visit with Gwen and the girls.
It was nice to see them again and we had a nice visit.
Tommy Hathcock came into the office and invited us over for coffee. It was delicious. Tommy and Susan are such nice people.

We then went over to Jay and Stella's trailer and visited with them for a while. We had a nice visit. The last time we saw them was in June, when they were on their way back to Dickinson to work on the sale of their house, while we, Ted and Donna were headed on our summer adventure.

Tuesday we went to my sisters house for coffee, then we headed out to have some breakfast. We had a nice visit and caught up on a lot of things happening within our family.
Val and I talk almost every Saturday, no matter where we are. It is so nice to chat with her every week.

Tuesday afternoon we went to see Ted and Donna. They had just returned from a 19 day European river cruise on Saturday. They were excited about it and told us about there trip in more detail than in the blog.
This is the first time we had seen them since the 2nd of August. They seemed tired but relaxed.

We worked around here yesterday. Brenda washed clothes. It cost over $20 dollars to wash as we had both sets of sheets, the towels and all of the rugs to wash, as well as a bunch of dirty clothing. She was pooped when she finished.
I washed the rig and the car. After our drives in the snow and rain both were quite dirty. It took about 3 hours to wash both, but they looked great when I was finished.
Of course, it rained last night, but at least the dirt is off of the rig.

Brenda has tests and a doctors appt. today and tomorrow, so we will be quite busy.

We start work on Tuesday and I see a lot to keep me busy for a while here around the park.

Ta ta for now.

Back In Texas

I have been waiting to get a better wifi connection to post the latest in our journey.
We left Williams on Saturday for Gallup, NM. It is a much larger place than I thought with a strong Hispanic influence.
We went to church there at the cathedral. The mass was in English, by an Indian priest. The songs were all in Spanish. Although the congregation was largely Hispanic there was surprisingly very little singing in the congregation. It was very interesting.

We went to Tijeras, NM on Sunday after church. It is on the east side of Albuquerque. We stayed in a ROD park. The sites were close, very close, and the little bit of grass between the sites had not been cut in a very long time. The sites were terraced and gravel.
There is great potential for this park, but very little effort is put in the grounds keeping. The infrastructure appeared to work well, at least at our site.
We would have to think twice before staying here again.

We did get into Old Town Albuquerque on Monday and Tuesday. It is very much like Old Town Spring with lots of shops and restaurants, only pueblo style buildings. There was entertainment in the plaza in the form of an Indian dancer in full costume, and a beautiful fountain.Across from the plaza is is an old Catholic mission church that was built in 1793. It is still active and is used daily. It is called San Felipe de Neri church. It is simple but beautiful.
It definitely shows the Spanish influence in this area.
Before going back to old town we went to the Pueblo Indian Cultural Center. It is a museum, art center and learning center for the various Pueblo Indian tribes still living and working in the area.The museum is a series of displays the feature the different tribes in differing settings.
There is also a history of the Spanish invasion and conversion to Catholicism of the Pueblo People.
There was no written history, only verbal history passed from generation to generation in oral tradition.
Surprisingly, there was very little difference in the various stories by the individuals from each tribe as they told the stories from their recollection.
Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take pictures within the indoor complex.
The murals in the courtyard were quite spectacular.
Brenda was especially impressed with the rabbits painted on the sidewalks.
We left Tijeras Wednesday morning in the cold rain. A cold front had come in on Tuesday night and it rained all night.
We had to climb over a mountain range, (Rockies after all) and we ran into three different episodes of sleet and snow at the higher altitudes. At the highest peak the snow was actually sticking to the ground. Fortunately, it was not sticking to the road surface.
I like snow, if I don't have to drive in it.

We spent the night in Amarillo and got to Wichita Falls yesterday. The weather here is cool, and damp which is much different than the desert where we have been for the last 4 weeks.

We are headed for Glen Rose, TX for 3 days then to Lake Whitney for 2 days before heading to Timber Ridge.
Both Glen Rose and Lake Whitney are ROD parks so no cost to stay there. I just hope that they are nicer than the Tijeras park.
Brenda has planned this whole trip back to Timber Ridge. I am so proud of her.

Ta ta for now.

Grand Canyon

2 years ago we went to the Grand Canyon and we were, to say the least, underwhelmed.
We decided to go back today and try again. This experience was so much better. I can't tell you why we were not impressed with the "Big Ditch", maybe the weather, or the time of day we were there, ot maybe the unruly crowds.We are here in Williams, AZ. It is the gateway to the Grand Canyon. We are staying in the park where the IRV2 national rally will be held in July 2010.
We met the Wagon master of the rally, Jim & Cherri Krylowicz, and Jim told us to take the free shuttle around the south rim.
It was so much more relaxing than trying to drive and we went to areas that we couldn't drive to. A really great experience.
We are so glad we tried the GC again.

Ta ta for now

Lake Havasu City

Tuesday we left Pahrump and headed to Lake Havasu City.
We had the rig washed and waxed, but the guy didn't finish on Monday as he thought he might. So, we had a late start on Tuesday. The rig looks great. He did a good job.

We are here to look for possible places to winter in the future. This is a nice place and less expensive than most of the places we have been in over the last several weeks.
We went looking at campgrounds yesterday, and we found a nice resort on the island in the lake. It was a peninsula until the London Bridge was bought and erected here. A canal was dug and the island was made.

The lake was built by the Corps of Engineers back in the 1930's and is a reservoir for the lower Colorado river. It is a beautiful lake surrounded by desert.
The Colorado River divides Arizona from California. We are on the Arizona side.
The campground where we are staying now is nice, but not for long term. It is an industrial area of town and very close to the lake. The facilities are new, but the view lacks somewhat.
We are headed for Williams, AZ today with a severe change in climate.
It will be 95 here today and only 70 in Williams. In the 30's tonight.
We will only overnight there. We are staying at the Railside RV Ranch, where the 2010 IRV2 national rally will be held. We thought that we would check it out. We are thinking of going to the rally next year.

Ta ta for now

Pahrump, NV

We arrived in Pahrump, NV to investigate if this is a place that we might want to winter in the future. There is not much in tourism here. We have asked several people if there is any site seeing, but they said nothing but desert. The big attraction is the weather in winter and the casinos.
We have decided that this is nice for some it is not our cup of tea. We don't particularly like the desert, although we are surrounded by mountains. Brenda just loves the mountains, but she doesn't understand why.
There are many expensive homes here, but they are landscaped with gravel, sand and rocks. Not too much vegetation. We have always been around lawns, trees and bushes, so we don't really like it here.

We are headed to Lake Havasu City from here for a couple of days to see about wintering there.
We have heard that there is a lot to do there and the RV vendors come in droves there in December, January and February. There is all kinds of RV repair there, too. But, we will be there early, so we will see what is there.

This is a nice park here. Level sites, nice clubhouse, but, this is the desert after all, so little or no trees. Fortunately, the temperatures have been in the high 70's during the day so it has been pleasant. We have good wifi and good satellite reception.

I, now have setup the HD satellite dish 3 times now with good luck. It has taken just a few minutes to align the dish. It takes more time to assemble the sled, so I am looking to get a tripod when we get to Timber Ridge.

We have been to the casinos here. They are nice, but although we are only 65 miles from Vegas,
the casinos here lack the glitter of Vegas. They are small and don't have the entertainment of the casinos in Vegas.
Brenda has had a good time, but we have spent all that we plan to gambling.

Ta ta for now.

Hurricane, UT & Zion National Park

We arrived in Hurricane on Monday after an uneventful trip south on I15.
We are definitely in the desert as the temperature upon arrival was 97 degrees with the humidity about 10%.

As we were setting up a very nice lady came and knocked on our door. She handed us two slices of watermelon and told us that since we wouldn't come to them she would come to us. There was a watermelon bust going on and I explained that we had just arrived and we were not completely set up yet.
We went down to the club house and played games for an hour or so, but we left early as I was tired from the drive.
Tuesday we went over to Zion (less than 20 miles) and took the free shuttle into the park. No vehicles other than park vehicles are allowed on the scenic route from May to November. It cuts down on traffic and pollution from the cars and trucks.

There were 7 stops along the route and you could get off at any stop and take as long as you wished as the shuttles were 5-7 minutes apart. There are many photo ops available and the scenery is absolutely gorgeous. ( Internet is so slow here that I can't post pictures).

The park here is nice. The infrastructure is a little old and the sites are close, but on the whole it is a nice park.
Evie and her husband Bill, (she is the very nice lady with the watermelon) go up to the clubhouse every night to play games and socialize. She has not been too successful in getting people to come. The park has been near capacity for the last 2 nights and everyone is given an activity sheet upon arrival. We don't understand the lack of participation.
We play pegs and jokers every night.
She teaches a game called Pickle Ball and is played on a tennis court. I'm not sure as to how the game is played, but she asked me to help extend the tennis court with paving stones.
That is what we did Wednesday.

Wednesday night while we were playing pegs & jokers, Evie suddenly screamed. There was a 2-21/2 inch tarantula crawling across the floor.
We got a large Styrofoam cup and trapped it. (Bill, a practical joker, wanted to leave it on the floor in the cup for the people who opened the clubhouse in the morning to find it. It was decided that it would not be good for the spider or the morning people, so I got a piece of paper, slid it between the bottom of the cup and the floor, took the whole thing outside and released it back to its home. Evie and Brenda were very alert for the rest of the evening, to the point of distraction to the game.

Thursday, Brenda and I went up to Kolob Canyon for the drive through that part of Zion. (Zion is a large park but there are not roads that connect all sides of the park). That drive is a 5 mile road that has a turn around point at the end. It is a beautiful drive with many turnouts for picture taking.The National Park Senior Pass paid for itself again.

This afternoon we are going down to St. George for a 5 mile bike ride with Evie and Bill. They come to this area often and know some biking trails in the area.

Ta ta for now

Our trip to SLC

We left Tuesday for the return to Houston.
We finally got on the road about 9:45 am without incident.
We drove to Hermiston, Or and the return to the mountains was really ambiguous. It was beautiful and thrilling and at the same time very tiring climbing those grades and then coming down on the other side. The trip was 321 miles and I was very tired when we arrived at Hermiston.
We stayed there 2 days, and we had planned to go to Walla Walla Nursery to check out there irrigation system. They are one of Mike's suppliers and they were very helpful with our problem. I explained to the owner that our watering was very labor intensive and not very affective. I took a few pictures of their greenhouses and irrigation system and I e-mailed them to Mike. The nursery is on the Washington/Oregon border. One half of the nursery is in WA. and the other is in OR. I'm not sure how he handles the finances of 2 states, but I am sure he has figured it out.We then proceeded to Glenns Ferry, ID. where we stayed in a Passport America Park. It was only 50 feet from an active railroad line. It was very busy and we heard trains all night.
The next leg was a short drive, 225 miles, but still mountainous. I wasn't nearly as tired when we arrived in Brigham City, UT.
This is a quaint small town and the park is nice, too. The sites are close, but small green lawn and picnic table at each site. The sites are also shaded.

We are only 50+ miles from SLC and not too difficult drive.
We went down today and visited the Mormon Temple Square.We were greeted at the gate by 2 young ladies who offered and proceeded to give us a tour of the grounds. We got a good and informative tour. They led us to two of the buildings and gave us a history of LDS. They were on a volunteer program for 18 months at the temple and were very enthusiastic about their faith.
We found out that not only do boys go out to evangelize but so do the girls. They really look forward to their time out as they are so involved in their church.
After to the tour there was an organ recital in the tabernacle. This is a huge domed building in which the Mormon Tabernacle Choir perform. There is a huge pipe organ and it is beautiful and sounds so good.

Becky called us yesterday and told us that our granddaughter has joined the snaggletooth club.
She lost a tooth in school. She has had a loose tooth for several weeks and it finally came out.We plan to go to church here in the morning here, and stay one more night here. We will do some site seeing here and move on down to Kanarraville, UT and see Brice Canyon and Zion National Park.
The park that we are staying in is close to both of them. So it should be convenient to both.

More when we visit those places.

Ta ta for now

Fixin' to hit the road (to rib Becky)

Our time here in Monroe is soon coming to an end. We are leaving on Tuesday heading into eastern Oregon. I told Mike that we would try to stop at one of his suppliers in Walla Walla, to checkout there irrigation system.
Brenda is planning the trip home. She has us to Salt Lake City, Utah so far and she will continue as we move southward.
I want to check out Lake Havasu, AZ as a possible place to winter. So we will head southwest to Nevada after we see Brice Canyon in UT., then onto western AZ.
She hasn't decided if we are going to Vegas or Pahrump. She is researching Pahrump, so I will just have wait and see.

The coach is ready for the road. I changed the oil in both vehicles and lubed the coach. The weather here has been spectacular, so I was able to climb under the coach without laying in mud. It is raining now, but it is supposed to be over in a few hours.

Fred and I are planning to try our hand at salmon fishing on Sunday after church. The Snohomish River runs right by the campground and we have seen lots of fisherman in or near the water. The report is that this is the largest salmon run in the Snohomish River in many years. Maybe, just maybe, we can catch a few.
Becky, Heather and Lindsay are coming to the house for games and dinner, and we will catch up to them when we finish fishing. Fred and Lurlene were invited on Sunday, but we didn't give them enough notice as they already have plans for that day.

Becky is keeping us busy and will keep on doing so until Monday night.
She wants to go to the driving range to hit a few balls and wants me to teach her. Ha Ha, the blind leading the blind. I really don't want to teach her my bad habits. I enjoy playing for the camaraderie of my fellow players.

Heather is working almost every day so we don't get to see her much. She is also a house sitter and is tending a house for a coworker next week. Pretty good pay and all she has to do is live there.

Lindsay is still enjoying school and looks forward to going everyday.
Her homework assignment this last week has been to read every night. Becky has bought her some early readers with lots of repetition. She reads to one of us every night and seems to enjoy it. She is getting pretty good.

Fred is less busy now with only one class. The quarter is only 5 weeks, but it is 7 days a week and homework everyday. As he rides the train to and from work every day, he has time to get most of his homework done then.
The 2 classes at one time, were very difficult for him, but he aced both. We are very proud of him.

We'll see the Houston folks in November.

Ta Ta for now.

Mt St. Helens and the circus

Saturday morning we went over to Becky's house for the trip down to Mt. St. Helens.
Brenda has been wanting to go see it for several years now.
It is a 2 1/2 hr trip down I5 to Kelso and another 50 or 60 miles east of I5. It is a long way but well worth the trip.There are three visitor centers for the mountain. The first is close to the exit off of I5.
The next is a learning center about 1/2 way to the mountain. and the 3rd is on Johnston Ridge, which is about 5 miles from the crater. Alex and his friend, Jia, met us at the 1st visitor center.The monument is run by the US Forest Service, so Brenda, Alex, Heather and I got in on my Golden Pass. That saved $32 on entrance fees. Lindsay was free because of her age. The rest, unfortunately, had to pay. I can only get in 3 other people on my Golden Pass. 90% of the fees go to maintain all of the facilities there.Mt. St. Helens was active from early 1980 until 2008 when she went dormant again.
We had a short film and a talk from one of the rangers, that explained what happened up until the eruption until it went back to sleep.The lava of Mt. St. Helens is what they call peanut butter lava. It is different from the lava on the Hawaiian Islands. That lava is called honey lava. The difference is in the way it flows. Hawaiian lava flows like honey poured from a jar, while pb lava flows like pb and looks like a cow pie when it comes into the caldera.
After the initial explosion, the volcano was very active, rebuilding a lava dome in the crater.
It erupted many times, without the devastation of the 1st one.
There is even a small glacier in the caldera and it is moving ever so slowly. It was formed initially by the snow and ice on the south side of the crater and the subsequent snow falls in the winters that followed.
There is a paved path that leads to a point that you can see on both sides of the ridge.
At the top is an observation point, with a plaque that looks like a compass and shows different areas and types of destruction. It is very interesting and so much more detailed than anything that we had heard or read about of Mt. St. Helens.
The area around the crater and down the north side is sterile and no vegetation has grown back. In the areas where there was no rock slide and the trees were either blown down or burnt and no lava, the trees have returned in the subsequent 29 years since the destruction.
This area was heavily logged before the eruption, and most of the new growth was replanted after the explosion.

We stayed until almost dark then went looking for some place to eat.
Alex found a small family owned restaurant close to the freeway. The place was kind of small but the food and service were excellent.
The only trouble is that there was too much food too late in the day and it was sooo good.

We stayed in a motel overnight as the drive back that late was just too much for us.
If we hadn't had tickets to the circus on Sunday, we would have stayed for part of the day and gone back to the mountain.
We drove back to Monroe in good time and went to meet 'the birthing class' at the Comcast Center in Everett for the Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey Circus.
We got there early enough to see the animals and spend some time on the floor of the arena with the clowns and some of the animals. The kids really enjoyed it.I have not been to a circus since I was a kid. As I remember I didn't particularly like it, so I never went back. If it weren't for Lindsay, I probably would not have gone yet.
The ringmaster was a magician, and the show was based around his magic acts, The clowns were very involved in his acts.
There is so much going on on the floor of the arena that it was very difficult to keep track of all the activity.
For instance, there were 2 dog acts going on at the same time. I tried to split my attention between the acts, but was not successful, as I missed something in both acts.
The show is very high energy. I now know what people mean when they say that the confusion in a certain place is like a 3 ring circus.
Everything is very colorful and fast moving so the kids had a great time, but, it was just too fast for my brain. Lindsay stayed wound up at least until we left to go home. That child is so full of energy.
Ta ta for now