More of summer 2011

After the Grand Canyon and Pat's trip to Minnesota it was on to California and Yosemite. From there, we continued westward to San Francisco for a visit to daughter Lyn and her family in Novato. Then we continued up the California and Oregon coast to Washington, seeing things we had never before encountered. Talk about scenic overload! Regrettably, one of the reasons we're so late with our blog updates is because of a photo problem. Actually, it's a computer problem. My laptop "crashed" and I don't have all of the pix from the last six months recovered yet. Doing the best I can with what there is to work with.

One of the incredible mountain lake/waterfall scenes in Yosemite National Park.

Lyn's family in Novato CA. Noah, Lyn, Hayden, and husband, Joe.

 Beach scene along the Oregon Coast. Pat and Annie fairly well being blown away.

Just a delightful little cafe along the Oregon Coast highway, The Greasy Spoon.

Home cooking, for sure! We try to take the road less traveled as often as we can.

While in McMinnville OR we visited the Evergreen Aviation Museum, home of Howard Hughes' Spruce Goose. There I found a Grumman Mohawk on display, one of the aircraft I flew while in US Army Aviation back in my youth.

Here we are at the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.

This is the Spruce Goose. Made mostly of plywood, with 8 engines. It never flew successfully.

After leaving Oregon, our first scenic stop was at Mount St Helens WA.

We joined up with Pat's sister, Fran, and her husband, Jerry near Poulsbo WA. There was a Civil War re-enactment nearby so we spent a day there soaking up some American history. That's Jerry on the right, you might recognize the guy he's shaking hands with.

There was a lot of shooting, but nobody was killed permanently.

The participants really get into the life as it was in 1865.

Sisters, do I need to say more?

After we escaped the Seattle area we headed across WA to the eastside, Newport to be exact, where we lived since 1999. This is Dave with Carol Mack, left, and Janet Lambarth, right. Worked with these ladies in the county extension office until retirement. It was great to visit them after more than three years since retirement.

Upcoming: Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, and Minnesota.

Happy New Year, 2012

Wishing all our friends, family, and visitors to this blog a very happy new year. May 2012 be a great year for you.

As we look back on 2011 we realize how much we have done, how much we have seen, and how many miles we traveled. It was an ambitious agenda, to say the least.

One year ago, on Jan 1, 2011, we were at Glamis North KOA, near Niland, California, working on the campground, Pat in the office and restaurant and David building and fixing stuff on the facilities. Exactly one year later, Jan 1, 2012, we find ourselves in the exact same place, albeit in a new home, doing pretty much the same things. Ah, but what happened in between will take a lot of pictures and writing to explain.

January, February, March, April, and May have been fairly well covered in previous blog entries. It's June, July, August, September, and October that have been only marginally explained. Without a long explanation, let's just say that we had a lot of computer "issues" while traveling, and the speed of our travel and the way too busy schedule we kept just didn't make blogging all that convenient. Hope this catches things up for you.

June 2, 2011 - we left Glamis North KOA and headed out for the summer. This KOA closes for the summer and (almost) noone stays here as it gets way too hot. Our first stop was the General Patton Museum, just a few miles east of Palms Springs CA and at the gateway to Joshua Tree National Park, which we also toured.

From Joshua Tree NP, we moved on to sites along old Route 66 which took us to Williams AZ for an Escapees Head Out Program to tour the Grand Canyon and the Williams area. After the Grand Canyon, we headed for Phoenix where Dave, Molly and Annie waited while Pat went to Minnesota for grandson Gregory's graduation.

Dave, Pat, Molly and Annie at the start of Route 66 (in Arizona). June '11

Old Route 66 is mountainous, windy, with steep canyons flanking the narrow roadway. We really needed our smaller, 21', trailer for this road. Could never have done it with a 36'. June '11

Downtown Oatman AZ. Oatman pretty much consists of whatever is on both sides of the highway, and at that only for a few blocks. Can't get lost in this town. June '11

Wild burros sighted along historic Route 66. June '11

Williams AZ, gateway city to the Grand Canyon, south rim. June '11

One view of the Grand Canyon. June '11

Indian hoop dancer performing at the Hopi House, south rim Grand Canyon. June '11

Ancient cliff dwelling near Sedona, south of Williams. June '11

This is in Bodie ghost town, a CA state park. Doesn't belong in this sequence, but I can't find a way to delete it. Live with it. June '11

Some bighorn sheep we saw along historic Route 66. June '11

Oak Canyon, between Williams AZ and Sedona AZ. June '11

Pat flirting with one of the cowboy/gunmen at the Grand Canyon Railroad Station in Williams AZ. June '11