Back in the West

Tonight we're in Carlsbad, New Mexico and it's good to be back in the West where there are mountains and open country. We're on our way to Albuquerque to spend Thanksgiving with Arnie Lerner and his family. Thanks Arnie!

We spent two nights and one day in the New Orleans area. Made a quick visit to the French Quarter but didn't even get out of the car as we felt a little bit old to watch the sex shows. We did take a walking tour of the oldest cemetery in NO, and we made a point of driving through the lower 9th ward, the part of the city hardest hit by hurricane Katrina. It's really sad to see how much damage remains unrepaired. Reminded us a little of our brief visit to Bulgaria 10 years ago. There it was crumbling infrastructure due to 50 years of Soviet rule. In NO I don't know who to blame - maybe the Bush administration?

While in NO we also tried to drive to the mouth of the Mississippi but gave up because it wasn't really very interesting country. We did stop and buy some wonderful citrus (oranges and grapefruit) from a local grower. Didn't know that southern LA was citrus country.

When we left NO it was raining hard (our first day of rain in 3 weeks) and we ran into many miles of nasty road construction as we traveled west across Louisiana and the very easterly portion of Texas. We were exhausted and wanted to watch a little college football (it was Saturday) so we stayed in a motel for only the second night since we left Tygh Valley.

Yesterday (Sunday) we spent an uneventful and unmemorable day working our way westward across Texas. Texas is big. Last night we stayed at a Texas state park outside of Abilene. It was nice and reasonably priced. By the way, on this trip we have paid as little as $8 per night (state park in Louisiana) and as much as $35 per night at some privately run RV parks. I guess the days of the $15 RV stay are over.

Tonight we're in Carlsbad, New Mexico. We came here because we thought we'd take a trip to Carlsbad Caverns National Park. We never got there. Too much inertia and too many miles driven.

Tomorrow we'll probably be in Ruidoso, NM and then in Albuquerque for two nights. After that we'll head for home but will still spend a couple of nights in the Death Valley area.

Alabama and Gulf Coast observations

This afternoon we arrived at a Louisiana State Park outside of New Orleans (Nawluns) after traveling from Gulf Shores, Alabama which is south of Mobile.

We avoided I-10 and drove along US90 so that we could stick close to the gulf coast line. We were amazed at the obliteration of the coast line from Biloxi to Pass Christian, Mississippi - a distance of about 40 to 50 miles.

These communities are located RIGHT on the coast line. The highway is approximately 200 feet from the water for miles and miles. Across the road from the highway there used to be many, many (probably thousands) of beautiful old southern homes. You know the kind, where the rich people lived and vacationed. Now, with a few exceptions, they're all gone. Nothing left but vacant lots and foundations. Commercial buildings too. Great tracts of empty weed filled lots. The only businesses and hotels look as if they've been built in the last 5 years. Truly amazing.

We liked southern Alabama a lot (Mississippi not so much). Beautiful country with wonderful farms and hardwood forests. Lots of water and, of course, many beautiful old homes.

Here are a couple of other observations that we made: Rural Alabama has gorgeous public schools. Every one looks new and some could pass for country clubs. I've always thought that Alabama has one of the worst school systems in the country but, if that's true, you can't tell from looking at the facilities.

There are way too many check cashing and title loan businesses in the south. Let's all thank the Oregon legislature for basically outlawing such businesses.

All of the south could use a basic course in land use planning. From Mobile to New Orleans it is basically one long strip of retail commercial. You've never seen so many McDonalds and Waffle Houses.

We're going to stay in New Orleans for two nights so that we can tour the French Quarter and get a look at the areas that were hardest hit by Katrina. We're also hoping to drive south as far as we can so that we can see where the Mississippi River empties into the Gulf of Mexico.

Headed for Loosana

We've been in Gulf Shores, Alabama for the last two nights. A very nice place. We're thinking we'll come back here for a week or two the next time we come to Kentucky to visit the McQueens.

We're heading west this morning. We'll probably end up tonight in Louisiana, somewhere north and east of Norlins. We're hoping to stay off of the interstate and hug the coast so that we can visit some of the communities affected by hurricane Katrina.

We've decided to slow down and add a few days to the trip because my friend Arnie Lerner, who lives in Albuquerque has invited us to spend Thanksgiving with his family. Originally we would have arrived there next Monday and now we don't want to show up until Wednesday. So, we'll spend a little more time in Louisiana and Texas. Now it looks like we'll be back in Oregon on the 2nd or 3rd of December.

I'm having a really hard time placing photos where I want them in this blog so I'll just plunk them all down here and let them decide where they end up. These are some of the photos of Kai and her kids that we took while we were in Hopkinsville.

On the road again, just can't wait to get on the road again.....

We left Hopkinsivlle Monday morning after spending 15 days with Kai and Chris and their three girls, Olivia - age 4, Anna - age 2, and Mary age 1.

Needless to say, the girls kept us busy. Lots of hours spent reading books, pretending that we were dragons, going to McDonalds (and Chuck-E-Cheese).

When we arrived in Kentucky we were thrilled to find that Chris White and Bea Sunderland-White were there too. Bea and Chris had recently competed a work assignment in North Carolina and had accepted a new assignment in Florida. Hopkinsville is not exactly located on the route from North Carolina to Florida, but Bea and Kai hadn't seen each other for a long while so Bea talked (her) Chris into detouring to Kentucky. We were fortunate to arrive while Bea and Chris were in town. We hadn't seen them for almost a year.

While in Hopkinsville, Bill helped Chris demolish and rebuild a concrete block retaining wall that runs along one side of the McQueen's driveway. The old wall was failing and tipping over into the driveway. The project went well, we saved the McQueens a fair amount of money, and it kept Bill out of trouble for quite a few days.

We didn't keep our trailer at Kai and Chris' house. A couple of friends of theirs, Rocky and Brenda Waymon, were kind enough to let us park our trailer at their rural 7 acre property. We were about 10 miles out of town and we really enjoyed our nightly peace and quiet at the Waymons.

Originally, when we left Hopkinsville we intended to head to Memphis and then Arkansas, Oklahoma, etc. But, since Demi hasn't ever visited the Gulf of Mexico, we changed our minds and decided to head straight south to Mobile, Alabama, then head west along the gulf coast line of Mississippi and Louisiana before angling northwest across Texax towards Albuquerque.
Tonight we're staying in a very nice city park in Greenville, Alabama. Not much to report about the drive down here. Lots of interstate highway and pretty views of rolling hills and hardwood forests. We ate lunch today at a "Waffle House", a fast-food institution in the south. We walked in with some trepidation but left pleasantly surprised. Pretty decent food, lots of it, and very reasonable prices.

Pictures from our time in Hopkinsville will follow later

Here's some McQueens

For those of you who were hoping for some pictures of the McQueens.

Busy, busy, busy in Kentucky

We've been here 72 hours and literally haven't had a moment to post. We've been focused on the three McQueen kids, a visit to Hopkinsville by Bea Sunderland and Chris White, and Chris McQueen's desire to demolish a failing retaining wall next to his driveway (this involved jackhammers, a tractor, and a hydraulic dump trailer). So, this is the first free moment we've had.

Here's an interesting story: We had to return the dump trailer to Clarksville this morning, some 35 miles south of here. Somehow, the youth pastor at Chris' church heard we were headed to Clarksville so he called Chris and asked if we could deliver the deer that he had shot last night to the deer processing facility there.

Chris, Demi and I went by this gents work place. Chris called him on the cell phone but he reported that he was in a meeting and his boss wouldn't let him leave. So, the three of us located his pickup truck where we found a deceased deer with it's tongue hanging out and a bag of ice shoved into it's intestinal cavity. Chris and I loaded it into the trailer and hauled to to the designated spot. Not the way I anticipated spending the morning.

At least we're going to get a little venison sausage out of the deal. And I've got a youth pastor who I've never met who will be indebted to me for life.

Things are good here. The weather is beautiful. Chris and Kai arranged for us to park the trailer at their friends Rocky and Brenda's acreage about 20 minute north of town.

We're having a great time with the kids (but we're tired) and will post some pictures of the little munchkins soon

A few days in Lawrence with family and friends

We arrived in Lawrence, Kansas on schedule and parked the Airstream in the driveway of our friends, Rob and Nancy Marshall.

We plan to stay here for three nights and two days while Bill re-connects with sister Barbara and a few old friends.

Our first night here (Wednesday) we had a nice quiet dinner with Rob and Nancy. Later we watched the first game of the world series.

Thursday morning we accompanied the Marshalls as they ran errands around town and then took a little time to buy a few gifts for the McQueen kids. We don't want to show up in Kentucky empty handed!

Thursday evening Bill's sister Barbara, who lives in Lawrence, came over and the five of us had a nice dinner at a local Lawrence pub.

Friday morning Rob and Nancy's granddaughter Naomi, who is 3, came by to show us her Halloween costume - a very cute pink fairly outfit.

After Naomi and her mom left we took a drive out to Rob and Nancy's farm, which lies about 20 miles southwest of of Lawrence. It was a cold and windy afternoon but that didn't stop us from having a picnic lunch alongside their pond.

Rob and Nancy were kind enough to host a make-it-yourself pizza party for us. They invited Barbara and several of Bill's old friends from high school and college. Here's a picture of Nancy Marshall flipping a pizza up in the air.

We had a wonderful evening, it was great to see several folks that Bill hadn't seen in as much as 25 years, and our gratitude goes out to Rob and Nancy for being such gracious hosts.

Here's a group photo from our evening:

Top row: Bob and Barb McLaughlin, George Paley, Barbara Brackman, Rob Marshall, Mike Brewer, Bev Timmons
Bottom row: Judy Paley, Demi, Bill, Rick Gould
(Nancy Marshall took the picture)

Tomorrow morning (Saturday) we'll leave for Hopkinsville, Kentucky and a reunion with Kai and her family!

Day 8 - Not much happened

We continued heading towards our scheduled break in Lawrence, Kansas. Bill went to college in Lawrence at Kansas University and has a sister and several friends who still live there. If things go according to plan we should be there tomorrow.

Not much to report about today's drive. More boring South Dakota landscape then subtle, welcome, changes in terrain and vegetation as we headed south from Sioux Falls, SD to Sioux City, Iowa.

The wind was relentless today. Not a head wind but a cross wind. Made driving a little more stressful and reduced our gas mileage by a third. By the way, the Chevy diesel truck is getting an average of 16 mpg while towing the Airstream. We're pleasantly surprised as we had assumed that it would get 14 to 15 mpg. That may not sound like much of a difference but when you're on a 6,000 mile trip it will result in about $110 in fuel savings.

We spent the night in a KOA campground in Sioux City.

Day 7 - The South Dakota Badlands and boredom

We left Sundance, Wyoming and were soon in South Dakota. Took a side trip up Spearfish canyon and visited Deadwood in the Black Hills of South Dakota. Very pretty place. Once again we were fighting snow.

After leaving Spearfish we drove about 50 miles east and did a loop through the South Dakota badlands. Interesting country that reminded us of the Painted Hills in Oregon - but on a much larger scale. Here's a picture of Bill freezing while standing on a Badlands overlook.

Leaving The Badlands we entered the South Dakota prairie. Here's our analysis:
Flat
Boring
Windy
Way too many billboards

One interesting thing in South Dakota: everywhere someone has died in an automobile accident they place a sign that says "X marks the spot, Why Die?, Think". On the back of the sign they list the name of the victim and the date. Very effective.

We spent the night in Murdo, South Dakota. Nothing to say there....

Day 6 - The Black Hills and some snow

We stopped in Sundance because Demi wanted to see Devil's Tower, the granite monolith immortalized in "Close Encounters of The Third Kind".

Unfortunately, we woke up to two inches of new snow and a very low ceiling. We made the one hour drive out to Devil's Tower National Monument anyway and were able to at least see the tower. We walked around, took in the visitor center, and called it a morning.

As we're both fighting a cold we decided to spend the rest of the afternoon in the trailer watching football and resting.

Kind of a boring day.

Here's a picture of Devil's Tower on a foggy morning

Day 5 - Thermopolis, Wyoming to Sundance, Wyoming

Not much happened today. A long drive through mostly open, uninteresting space. Saw lots and lots of antelope.

We stopped in Casper (the capitol of Wyoming, population 55,000) to look for an AC adapter for Demi's Ibook. No luck so Bill bought a new Gateway netbook instead. It seemed to make sense at the time.

The weather began to turn for the worse today. Intermittent showers and falling temperatures.

We're going to Sundance because it's close to Devil's Tower and the Black Hills of Wyoming and South Dakota.

We're both fighting colds (probably picked up from Kate's boys) and are hoping that we'll be non-infectious before we reach Hopkinsville so that we don't transfer the colds to Kai's girls. Although, when you think about it, there's a certain symmetry to that scenario.

Day 4 - Moran, WY to Thermopolis, WY

We left the high country around Yellowstone and headed "down the hill" to the east side of the continental divide. We're headed for Thermopolis, Wyoming.

This drive required us to cross a 9,600 foot high pass - 1,400 feet higher than the pass that had given us brake problems a couple of days earlier. But it turns out that today's pass had 7% grades on each side of the crest rather than the 10% grades that had given us trouble. The truck and airstream handled it with aplomb.

Thermopolis claims to be the home of "the world's largest hot spring". It's situated in a state park. There's a state run free bath house there . It's free because the terms of the sale of the spring (native americans selling to the state of Wyoming) call for perpetual free use. It's free as long as you don't want to sit in the water for longer than 20 minutes.

Day 3 - In and around Yellowstone

Neither of us had ever been to Yellowstone before so, naturally, it was high on our list of "must sees". We left the trailer in Moran and spent the day driving around Yellowstone. News flash - it's very, very big.

This late in the year it wasn't at all crowded - in fact the vast majority of the visitor facilities were closed for the winter. We didn't bring much food with us so we were starving by late afternoon until we found a "general store" that was open and had chili (and brownies) available. Sweet!

Being a geology nut and a little obsessive about hot springs, Demi loved Yellowstone. Our timing was great at "Old Faithful" as it erupted within 5 minutes of our arrival.

We didn't see any bears or wolves, but we did score a couple of moose, lots of elk and bison, and a river otter.

Here are a few of the many, many pictures we took with descriptions of each photo: The Grand Tetons, Vents at the edge of Yellowstone Lake, thermophiles (micro-organisms that live in the hot, chemically active water), Old Faithful, the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, and a moose.

Day 2 - Mountain Home, Idaho to Moran, Wyoming

We left Bruneau Dunes State Park (picture on left) early on Wednesday morning headed for Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks in Wyoming. After looking at the map we decided that we should take US 20 which runs roughly parallel to and north of I-84 through southern Idaho. This way we could stop at Craters of the Moon National Monument where Demi could at least partially satisfy her obsession with lava flows.

US 20 took us to Idaho Falls where we navigated to some state routes that took us over a mountain range and down into Jackson, Wyoming. The road up to the pass (at 8,200 feet) and then the road down the other side into Jackson was a 10% grade. The truck and trailer made it fine but, because I didn't have the electric brakes on the trailer adjusted correctly, we "smoked" the trailer brakes on the way down. For I while I thought they were going to catch on fire but, in the end, everything worked out.

Here's a picture of Demi taken at the top of the pass with Jackson, Wyoming visible below her, and another one of an arch made out of deer antlers in a city park in Jackson.

Late in the afternoon we arrived at an RV park in Moran which we used as a base to explore Yellowstone and Grand Teton.

Day 1 On The Road

Well, we left on schedule this morning and everything has gone well so far. As I mentioned, we decided to change our route over the first few days so that we could go through Yellowstone National Park.

As a result, tonight we're staying about 20 miles south of Mountain Home, Idaho at Bruneau Dunes State Park. It's a pretty nice place and there are only three RV's in the campground so it's pretty darn quiet. There's free wireless internet and our TV was able to locate 11 over the air channels. Pretty sweet.

Tomorrow it's off to Yellowstone.

Here are pictures of wind turbines along the Columbia River, Demi driving the truck, and one of the lakes at Bruneau Dunes State Park.

We're still on schedule

Chris Weaver and the boys just left after spending 48 hours in Tygh Valley. Demi's on her way back here from a 4 day vacation with friends at the Oregon coast. We're both gonna be tired but we're still planning to leave Tygh Valley on Tuesday morning for the KY trip.

We've already decided to make a change in our route (the map doesn't reflect this). We'd like to go through Yellowstone (weather permitting) so we've decided to take I-84 to Boise and then east through Idaho on US 20 to the west Yellowstone entrance. We'll rejoin I90 somewhere in Wyoming.

Hobbies

I always said that when I retired I'd rediscover my love for woodworking. Over the past year I've accumulated a nice shop full of tools from Craigslist. I haven't made too many projects yet, but last winter I did craft some wooden toys out of building materials left over from our house construction. So far, I've made a dump truck, a forklift, two helicopters, and a child's pull-toy grasshopper.

The dump truck was beautiful but too fragile for the grandkids to play with. When Kate asked if I'd consider donating it to Luke's school auction I agreed. Bye, bye truck








The forklift works - you can lift and lower the forks using the hand-crank and the string. The pallets are crafted out of cherry wood. It's so cute that we decided to keep it.


I made two helicopters - mostly out of plywood - and gave them to the Weaver boys. I think they're still functional.


Lastly, I made a cute pull-toy grasshopper for Kai's daughter, Mary. Unfortunately, because I hand made each and every piece including the wheels, axles, and pivot pins, the toy doesn't work well unless you put a lot of extra weight on the body. The small mis-alignments of the various parts and pieces resulted in too much rolling resistance. It's still darling.


The dump truck and forklift are about 12 inches long. The helicopters are about 7 inches long, and the grasshopper body is about 9 inches long. Except for the helicopters, they're all built of walnut (our staircase), clear fir (our house interior trim), beech (our cabinets), cherry, and oak.

Our planned route

Here's a map of our anticipated route. We're taking the northern route to get there and the southern route to return. We plan to spend a few days with friends and family in Lawrence, Kansas and Albuquerque, New Mexico. We'll also be visiting Yellowstone (weather permitting), Mt. Rushmore, The Black Hills, Graceland, Sedona, Death Valley, and assorted hot springs.

Road Trip!

We leave next week (the 20th or 21st) for a 6 week road trip to Kentucky to spend time with Kai, her husband Chris, and their three daughters Mary, Anna, and Olivia.

We're taking our truck and Airstream trailer and - with luck - we'll be posting some pictures and keeping a diary of our trip.

Check back to see where we've been and what we've seen.

Olallie Lake

We took our kayaks to Olallie Lake yesterday. It sits just north of Mt. Jefferson at about 4,600 feet elevation. An 85 mile drive, mostly paved, and well worth the time. A beautiful lake in an alpine setting. Caught one fish but had several other bites and saw literally dozens of fish jumping.

The only drawback to the trip is that the lake sits in an area that has been devastated by beetle kill. Approximately 50% of the trees are standing dead. The Forest Service has begun to cut them down but hasn't yet cleaned up the debris.

Squirrel Count

People keep asking "What's the squirrel count?"

As of today, the total for this year is 285. Add that to last years total of 370 and you get 655 squirrels sent to squirrel heaven.

Don't tell PETA

Fetzer-Glover wedding

Demi and Bill, along with our daughter Kate, just got back from attending Dylan Fetzer's wedding in San Jose, CA. Dylan married Megan Glover.

Because Kate left her two small sons at home in Portland with their dad, our trip had to be QUICK. We drove 1,600 miles in 4 days! All went well and we're all glad to be back home.

Good luck Dylan & Megan!