I'm back ...once again!

There've been a few things going on in my life in the last few days, hence the lack of posts.  Sorry for the lack of them, but when you're busy working on life things, there isn't a minimal amount of time for things like this.  And since life is still going on, this post will be minimal also.

Here's a list of things that are happening:

• Jeff got the racquetball gear from the far side of the moho, and we played.  Had a great time playing with him.  Not gonna say who won.  Played again the Saturday before Christmas with two guys from church, had another great time.  Not gonna say who won then also.  I was just so grateful to be able to play again and have a great time.
• Christmas came yesterday, so shopping was being done.  A lot of it was done before November so it wasn't that big of a deal to do the remaining.  And we were able to get it done when there weren't a lot of shoppers at Wal-Mart, or maybe they hired more checkers (ya think?), or we checked out at the auto service counter saving time since the lines are shorter and it's a shorter distance to get to our car.  
• The lung-nose gunk seems to have come back into the Ford household, so we've been partakers of it again.  Hasn't affected us too much, but my voice is now rather croaky, rather than smooth and mellow (it was that way once, wasn't it?).
• The health of Katie's Dad (Ken) has been declining to the point that he's now in a care facility.  So we'd been thinking about what he needs most of all, as well as feeling led by God, and we're leaving Amanda's house tomorrow to go to Phelan, Ca., to assess his situation there, and make a determination of what we will be doing to aid him.  As a result, don't know when the next posting will be.

There've been other things that have happened as well, but I'm not gonna try to remember them.  The above points are the main things.  So having said that, I hope Christmas was good for everyone.

Have a blessed day!

House Christmas lighting!

The weather for the last few days has been just plain cold.  However, yesterday it started to warm up causing bunches of snow and ice (snice) to melt.  Streets that had been kinda covered with snice started to clear up, and as Monday afternoon the streets are pretty much cleared up with some snow still next to the curb.  But by the time the next system is due to hit us on Thursday (that's what the weather folks are saying right now at least!), the roads should be pretty free of any snice, and since there'll be bunches of sunshine between now and then, we may even have DRY streets!  Life is good, huh?  Well, at least until Thursday when the precipitation is supposed to get here again.  

So... as I said, Saturday's weather wasn't quite as warm as it is today.  BUT that was the day that was allocated to hang Christmas lights on the outside of the house.  Gotta commend James and Jeff as they did most of the work by getting up on the roof, and literally lying in the snow on the roof to put the lights on the house.  Yes, it was dryer on the ground where I was.  But my hands got cold because I don't have insulated gloves, that makes a difference, doesn't it?  Probably nowhere near as cold as James and Jeff got as Jeff got wet clear through all his clothes, and I don't think James was far from it also.  But the lights got up, and look like this:

(The handsome young man in front of the house is Avery looking down the street.)  That's 2 lines of red C7 lights held on to the gutter or vinyl siding on the side of the roof with a clip that has a little hooky thing that is used to hold four lines of icicle lights.  A neighbor promptly came over and congratulated James for having such an interesting bunch of lights.  Now the important thing to remember about most folks here is that they put their Christmas lights up shortly after Halloween as it's still warm then.  They aren't turned on until after Thanksgiving though, and they don't have to face hanging the lights in the snow and cold.  Like some people do...  Ok, that's what happened Saturday.

Since Jeff been here, he has gone to a "Life Group" which is a small group at church, and he met someone there for me to play racquetball with, although I'm not quite sure when as he's a pilot at Hill AFB, and works quite a bit.  So hopefully we'll be able to match our schedules somewhere in the coming weeks and/or months to be able to get some serious exercise done.  ...Not that I need it, or anything like that, right!  Having said that, it's gonna be good to get my racquet and other gear out of the moho.  Now the trick to that is that I've got them in one of the basement storage compartments on the street side, which at this time is like 6" away from a fence.  ...Just not sure if I can get that compartment door open enough to get my stuff out.  Have to take a crack at it later in the heat of the day tomorrow when more of the snice is melted, maybe even leaving the driveway clear.  Here's what it looks like now.

Ya think I'm gonna be able to squeeze in there?  I dunno...  What's more, I don't know that Jeff will be able to squeeze in there either, even though there's less of him than there is of me.  I may need to move the moho out to the street just to get the racquetball stuff out.  I don't wanna do that as it's kinda set up now, and while the process may not be all that much, it's kinda more than what I really wanted to do.  Remember, I'm retired, ok?

Update on the health of the folks in the Ford residence:  Everyone is pretty much done with the hacking and growing gunk in various parts of our bodies, which is good.  However, Katie started doing the coughing and hacking thing late Saturday night and couldn't stop.  Finally I told her to try putting Vicks Vaporub on her feet and then putting socks on.  Odd as it may sound, it worked.  I counted the seconds (as best I could) and she coughed again for a little bit after 1 1/2 minutes, and then went to sleep.  Now then, this procedure isn't always thought to be very smart, as seen here, BUT it worked.  Or at least seemed to work, enough so that Katie got a good nights rest.  So I'm gonna say that it may very well be weird, ...but I'm thinking it's an ok way to get a good nights rest.  Anyone out there tried it?  If so, what do you think of it?  

So much for the current conditions.

The Travelogue - July 2012

Amanda and her family came to camp with us for a few days near the end of July.  This wasn't an odd thing for camp hosts as a lot of the families of the hosts came to visit them quite a bit of the time.  By the time that they got to see us, we'd tried out the lake a couple of times with our blow up Hobie Mirage i14T kayak, and got to have quite a bit of fun with it going across the lake and back again.  Amanda and her family had a boat previously and love being on the water.  Their boat had a motor though, and they didn't have to worry about getting tired when crossing the lake from paddling or peddling the mirage system.  Of course they had to buy the gas for the engine, but that's beside the point, right?  

So, we went down the 100' or so to the lake and put the kayak in the water.  Here's what it looked like.

Here they are out in the depths of the lake (golly, maybe four feet deep or so, not very far from the beach) with James using paddles rather than the mirage system (you can see the foot pedals for it right behind Amanda) while he calls out a cadence for Amanda to sync with him (They do look like they know what they're doing, don't they?).  As you can see Riley and Avery are busy looking out for the dreaded Bear Lake monster (Oh no!)  

As you can see, James is pretty excited about being back on the water.  Dja think that this might be his impression of "the life"?  Well, maybe...  But the kayak doesn't have much of a galley, let alone a place to sleep.  Probably a good thing he was only there for a short time, huh?

Here's Katie and I giving Avery boat ride.  Maybe you can see that we aren't quite in sync paddling like Amanda and James were.  And the look on my face is that of "how did this happen"?  After 26 years of marriage, I'm not really sure how it happened, I just know that it does every now and then on a regular and unspecified basis.  Regardless of the unsyncness, Avery had a great time.  So did Katie and I.

Grandpa helping Avery to use the mirage drive pedals.  I think it's gonna be a few years before he's able to reach the pedals without having some pillow behind him.  In this case, it's the world reknowned Grandpa pillow, which is sometimes adjustable depending on the amount of padding the Grandpa has.  If you look past Avery and Grandpa, you'll see Riley, and Amanda & James, with James clowning around a little.  Luckily for them, the Bear Lake monster doesn't go into water that shallow during the day.  

Here's Amanda driving the kayak having a pretty good time.  The hills in the background are on the east side of the lake, less than 10 miles from the Utah - Wyoming border.

The next day would see James leaving for home, and the rest of us going to the National Oregon/California Trail Center in Montpelier, Id. 

Have a blessed day!

Lions & Tigers, and Bear Lake Monsters! Oh My!

Ok, before I get into the guts and glory of the title of this blog, in particular the Bear Lake Monsters (...who cares about lions and tigers anyway?), I gotta cover a couple of things.  

First of all, I'd appreciate it if readers would put their email addresses in the box to the right labeled "FOLLOW BY EMAIL".  This would allow me to stop putting email addresses in a box in my settings which has me sending this to only 10 folks.  Thanks.

Secondly, if you're gonna wanna do gift shopping at Amazon.com which has some pretty good deals, I'd appreciate it if you'd click on one of the Amazon links on the right side, and on the bottom of the blog.  As it lets Amazon know that you got to them through my blog, they send a small bit my way; not a lot, but a little.

Thirdly, if you've sent me a comment to a post, I'm sorry but I haven't figured out how to answer the comments yet, so I haven't been able to respond to them.  I'm still in the process of learning how to do all this stuff, please be patient.  Thanks.


The Travelogue June of 2012

Now to the Bear Lake Monster.  Raise your hand if you did any research on the Bear Lake Monster, ok?  If you raised your hand, you get a gold star.  Not sure how I'm gonna get it to ya, or where you're gonna put the gold star if you were to get it, I'm really thinking that point is mute (sorry to get your hopes up if ya were thinking you were gonna get one).  So, the Bear Lake Monster has various tales about it, obviously every single one of them true, depending on who ya ask.  Maybe...  One of the tales links the Loch Ness Monster to the monster at Bear Lake, which sounds pretty preposterous, if ya ask me.  Rather than try to give you a synopsis of each story, here's a link to Google's search results for the legends of the Bear Lake Monster.  Remember, each story is factual... kinda.  Because there's really a lake, ok?


We saw what was a facsimile of the monster, but I didn't take a picture of it.  Not sure why I didn't do that!  Luckily, Google has a few images of it, here are a couple of them.

Ugly looking facsimile, huh?  This facsimile was parked in the overflow parking area of the state park, and had been there for more than a couple of years, and was looking for a new owner, as I recall.  Just to let ya know that it was a real facsimile, it had a couple of outboard motors attached to it's butt, I mean stern.  Looking at the inside of the facsimile were benches for a few people.  Obviously, if this was the real thing, folks wouldn't choose to ride in a monster where his stomach would be!

Ok.  On to more ...real stuff.  The weekend after our arrival at BLSP, we were asked as part of our duties to help out in the office with the campers and picnickers.  Turns out there was a big event that weekend, the Mountain Tropic Triathlon took place there at the lake.  If you click on the previous link, you'll find out more about it, and see some more pictures of BLSP as well.  While Katie was indoctrinated in helping in the office with the various campers and picnickers that were coming in, I got to go down to the parking lot to direct traffic so the runners and bikers could be as unfettered as possible going to and from their courses.  Apparently, I did a great jog at directing vehicular traffic and making it easier for the competitors as the director of the event came up to telling me what a great job I was doing.  That was a good thing to do, but she didn't do anything for the mosquitoes that were feasting on me while I was keeping my hands in the air waving at folks wanting to get in or out.  And it may have been that there just wasn't anyone wanting to get out in front of traffic like that, so I can't really say that I was doing that great of a job.  It wasn't that big of a deal to me as I'd done it a few times while I was working for the City of Las Vegas, and sometimes had to be in traffic letting folks know where they could go and where they couldn't go.  Anyway, Katie learned all about the office procedures, and I got a little sunburn and bug bitten. 

Another thing that was kinda exciting for us was what we'd done to the moho before we got up to BLSP.  When we'd hit the road, we'd removed the dining table as we just didn't like the way it took up room or worked.  We didn't have a good replacement for the table and had endured sitting at plastic tables that we set up and took down every time we stopped at a campsite and left the campsite.  We'd already replaced the sofa, and set up the TV in an entertainment center across from the sofa for a better TV watching angle, so we were familiar with doing change in the rig and weren't afraid of doing more.  The solution for the dining table finally hit us when we were at Amanda's prior to going to BLSP in the form of two 24" base kitchen cabinets from Ikea, along with two 6' lengths of countertop.  By putting the cabinets on the floor aproximately 24" apart, and putting table legs on one end of one of the lengths trimmed to fit with the other end supported by the cabinet sides, we were able to have a dining area and increase the storage space by quite a bit.  The galley drawers that Winnebago put in our Chieftain 35U weren't wide enough for a silverware tray, but we now had a drawer big enough for LOTS of silverware space, in addition to another drawer for ...more of Katie's kitchen stuff.  The storage space in the cabinets, as well as the space between them, were used for ...more of Katie's kitchen stuff.  (No, she didn't suffer a whole lot when she had to downsize her kitchen toy collection.)  Here's a couple of pictures showing the finished product.

 

The dining area slides in under the countertop when the slide comes in.  We think we did a fairly good job of making the dining area much better than it was and increasing the galley storage space quite a bit.

Have a blessed day!

Still cold!

That's right, it's still cold here in Clearfield, Ut.  Not that it isn't supposed to be because it's Utah, right?  But I was hopin' that it wouldn't be so cold at this point.  Yes, we could get the moho cranked up and head south, but that just isn't in the cards right now.  So I guess I've got to suck it up and find ways to stay warm.  No, I'm not gonna start shoveling snow again while the snow blower is working, because the snow blower is faster than shoveling, and does a better job as well.  Yesterday, I used the snow blower for about 20 minutes or so, and found that I was sweating when I was done.  There, I can stay warm doing that.  That lasts for about 20 minutes or so, but only when there is new snow, and that isn't in the weather forecast for the next week.  So, I'm still stuck with sucking it up.  Maybe I'll try sucking it up with long underwear on while I stay inside...

The Travelogue - The end of June 2012

Ok, the BIG annual event happening in Garden City, Ut., is Raspberry Days which is held on the first Saturday in August every year, along with the Thursday and Friday before.  As there are many raspberry fields in that area, it's only natural that they'd celebrate the berry as it enhances the economy, and it's good for ya also being high in fiber, manganese, and vitamin C.  There are a few small eateries in Garden City and in the surrounding area that sell raspberry milkshakes, among many other flavors as well.  Most of those eateries serve various other fare as well, but what impressed me a bunch are how the milkshakes are so thick, AND they make them "over the top".  At first, I didn't know what that meant, and the best I could come up with is that they are over the top with flavor, or something along those lines.  But I was wrong, and found out that the milkshakes are made in such a way that they are up to an inch higher than the top of the cup when they're served, kinda like these...

... except they're thicker than these by a long shot.  As a matter of fact, when these thick shakes are made, they look like they've been molded that way.   Now because of what I'm saying here about these milkshakes, it may open up a bunch of comments about how I haven't been to very much of the country because somebody might have seen them somewhere else, and know about them already.  Ok.  So be it, I haven't been to much of the country.  But I'm still hoping to see a bunch more.  Maybe I'll even see other places that have milkshakes over the top there also.  And if they had raspberry milkshakes, the journey there would be that much better. 

...Not quite sure how I managed to get from Raspberry Days to milkshakes that are over the top, but I did.  And in the process, I failed to mention the different festivities that we missed while we were there, which would be the parade, beauty pageant, fun run, fireworks and other things which would be mentioned on the website linked above.  In spending time with other Utahns, we were able to find that many people enjoy going there and have a great time.  So if you're ever in the area around the 1st weekend of August, I suggest that you take part and see the festival.  Get a raspberry milkshake also, ok?

Other things that we saw at Bear Lake are lighthouses.  I don't think they all work though.  Here's one:

It's located on the SW corner of Bear Lake, near a few buildings called Pickleville, so it's called the Pickleville lighthouse.  Next to the Pickleville lighthouse is the Pickleville Playhouse, which isn't where a bunch of people go to play as much as people go there to see plays and/or eat dinner as dinner is served there for those who want to have dinner also.  If you click on the link, you'll be able to find prices and what's playing there.  If you're able to find something on the Pickleville lighthouse, please pass it on to me.  I'm thinking that it was made to promote the housing development that is near there, but it's also possible that I could be wrong.  Kinda slight though, right?

There are other lighthouses also with one being inoperable and two others that are working.  The one that isn't operable is north of Garden City on the west side of the lake and is visible from the road as you travel north on highway 89, but I don't remember exactly where.  But in Garden City, Harbor Village Resort has a working lighthouse, and on the east side of Bear Lake at Bear Lake Aquatics Base, which is run by the Boy Scouts, there is another lighthouse which is operable as well.  For more information about these lighthouses, go to this link.  I mentioned lighthouses previously when we were in Celina, Oh., and when we got here, we just thought it was kinda neat that there were more lighthouses on Bear Lake, even though we didn't think that they were really that necessary.  But apparently they are.  In talking with folks that live in Garden City, there have been storms that came up quite quickly, and I suppose that if a boater was on the lake just prior to the sun going down and a storm came up, there may be some degree of difficulty in getting back to a marina, and those lighthouses might come in handy to guide those boaters in.  But since I'm not a boater, I don't know that stuff.  Any thoughts on having lighthouses on that lake from anyone?

The pictures that I used a couple of posts ago (26 degrees...) were taken at the Bear Lake overlook (on highway 89 also) after we'd been at Bear Lake for a couple of weeks, and we wanted to get out and see some of the sights around the lake.  The overlook is well equipped with the usual restrooms, and tourist information and was manned when we went there.  Here's a picture of a fine looking gentleman

standing in front of the overlook facility.  Not quite sure why the fine looking gentleman was looking so dour, have to as him about it next time I see him.

And here's a picture of some of the wildlife that's at the overlook:

We'd been told that there were large wildlife in the area, namely moose, but all the time we were at Bear Lake, we never saw one.  Maybe because there aren't any moose feeders like there are for hummingbirds, ya think?  Imagine getting a picture of a moose in mid-step...  Naw, don't because it isn't anywhere near the same as a bird in mid-flight, anytime!  Having said that, it still would've been neat to see a moose.  Maybe somewhere else down the road.

As we drove around the lake, there were more than a handful of tractors, predominantly Farmall, and here is what one of them looks like.

As I recall, all of the Farmall tractors that we saw were red, and this one is at the boat rental facility at Bear Lake State Park, adjacent to the campground where we were camp hosting.  It was used to take the rental motorboats into the lake so they could be launched from the boat trailer the boats are stored on, and they were used because of the high ground clearance that the tractor has for the engine.  I'm guessing that at some point in time in the past, there was a Farmall dealer in the area, and anyone who needed a tractor would get it from that dealer.  Obviously, they were a good brand and continue to work well as I don't think that there were a lot of those tractors that were living in tall grass as we drove around the lake, indicating that they weren't used for some time.

The beach at Bear Lake State Park was pretty nice at the time, although the lake was high and had been that way for a couple of years when we got there.  Here's a picture of the beach at the park.

As you can see from the picture, the date is the 15th of July, 2012 at 11:27.  As this was a Sunday, there were usually more folks using the beach, so this was an easy day there.  Don't remember if the weather was inclement, although all we can see are little fluffy clouds below some hazy clouds.  Maybe everyone who was gonna go there heard about the Bear Lake Monster and didn't want to chance meeting up with it, ya think? 

So... what was the Bear Lake Monster?

Have a blessed day!

Avery's 6th birthday party

Avery had his 6th birthday party today with 6 friends and Riley to help him celebrate.  The plans that Amanda & Katie came to fruition and there was a great time for all.  As you can see from the pictures, it was done in a Curious George fashion.  That monkey sure is a lucky monkey!

 Birthday decorations including the monkey pinata, who wasn't that lucky of a monkey!

 Birthday boy Avery with birthday boy food: Italian cheese bread from Little Ceasars.

Old folks attempting to solve the world's problems.  From the left, Katie, Charley, Pastor Matt, James, & Jeff.  No, not all of the world's problems were solved in this session.  Maybe next time, ya think?

All during the time of the party, it had been snowing, and since there's a winter storm warning in effect for Clearfield, it's probably gonna keep snowing through the night.  As I did last year when I snowed, I grabbed one of the snow shovels handy and started doing what retired guys do best: shoveling snow.  Well, maybe they don't always do that best, but it's right up near the top, huh?  Jeff saw how much fun I was having and grabbed another shovel and found out how much fun he could have as well.  In no time, we had the walk in front of the house cleared, as well as in front of a couple of houses each way on the street.  

Somewhere along the line, he decided that he wanted me to have a snowball fight with him, or something which involved having snow flying towards me, be it from a hand or a shovel.  As I'm not completely 100% healthy yet, I didn't partake in exchanging snow with him in ways which weren't going to keep me as warm as I'd wanted to keep myself.  Darn the bad luck for him, goody for me!  

I seem to remember that whenever my oldest son, Ken, would get together with me, he'd try to tickle me for some unknown reason, I know I never, ever tickled him when he was younger.  He just wants to take advantage of me now that he's got a few inches on me!  Having said that, I'm also thinking that he'd probably be on Jeff's side in trying to get me to have snow go down the back of my neck, or places which I don't normally put snow.  Silly boys!

Last January, we had bunches of snow as well, and in looking in James' garage I found a snow thrower.  After putting gas in the tank, I was able to get it started, and started throwing some snow. 

The snow thrower did a real good job of making the snow a whole lot less than it was before the snow thrower went along.  Although retired men love to shovel snow, throwing snow this way is so much better.

 

If ya look closely, you'll see that I'm blowing the snow towards the left of the picture, and that the wind is blowing the snow back towards me.  This is the same thing as spitting in the wind, a habit which just isn't the smartest thing to do.  Luckily, I only did this row and turned around the other way so I wouldn't be inhaling the snow.

Well, after the party was over with, James and I visited the snow thrower again getting it running so I could use it again in the coming days.  As it's gonna snow throughout the night, I'm pretty sure that I'll be using it early in the morning so we can get out to the street to go to church.  All you other retired boys and girls, eat your hearts out that you don't get to do this fun stuff!

Have a blessed day!

26 degrees, is this short shirt sleeve weather, or what?

That's right, the temp is supposed to get all the way up to 26 degrees today, so for those of you who aren't here, I'll be you're envious.  Then again, maybe not as it might even be warmer where you're at.  ...In which case, I'm envious!  The weather forecast says that we're gonna get 2" - 4" more snow tomorrow, and it's gonna go back to being colder again.  Yep, winter's here.  Maybe I should just get used to it, ya think?  I'm thinkin' there's no use complaining any more, but I'll probably do some still the same as the weather goes along.  I did find my gloves today, so I'll be prepared when the snow starts piling up in the driveway and walks, and I start doing wintertime exercise: snow shoveling.  

The health situation here in the Ford house is getting better, albeit slowly.  Katie and I still have some congestion in our lungs, James is still mending but planning on going back to work on Monday, and Avery went back to school today.  So I'm thinking that everyone will be better by late next week.

Amanda & Katie are in full party preparation mode again, with today being the big push for getting the house ready for Avery's 6th birthday party tomorrow.  Katie has drawn on a 2' x 4' sheet of plywood a bean bag toss game which I modified the sheet with holes for the bean bags to fly through, and now she's painting it.  I expect the house to be decorated with lots of Curious George stuff later today, and Avery to be in 6th birthday party heaven.  

Pretty good representation of George and Hundley, huh?

The Travelogue - The end of June of 2012

By this time, we'd been signed up with the State of Utah to be camp hosts at Bear Lake State Park near Garden City, Ut., but had to postpone our arrival there to be with Jeff prior to his induction into Teen Challenge in Shafter, Ca.  I don't remember when we left Amanda's house, but we were hoping to go to Las Vegas one last time for court stuff for Jeff, and then take him directly to Shafter.  It didn't happen that way with Jeff being taken into custody to serve a week in jail.  This put a large crimp in our plans as we wouldn't be able to take him to Shafter.  Luckily one of his friends stepped up and said that she'd make sure he'd get there when he got out of incarceration, thus allowing us to go back to Amanda's and load things up in the moho for our trip to Bear Lake, which is what we did, leaving Amanda's house on the 26th of June.  

We went to Bear Lake from Logan, Ut., where we headed northeast on highway 89 which followed the Logan River quite aways, going up to a summit of 7800' just prior to the Bear Lake Overlook, a little bit east of the summit.  The view of Bear Lake from the overlook, as well as from the highway, is spectacular, with the pictures below not doing justice to what ya can really see in person.

This is looking east toward Bear Lake with Garden City, Ut., in the foreground.

This is looking kinda southeast at the south end of the lake near Bear Lake State Park.  But not far enough south for it to be in the picture.  Sorry!

As you can see from the pictures, Bear Lake is a fairly large lake that is about equally shared between Idaho and Utah in the northeast part of Utah at about the 6,000' level.  There are at least two marinas on the lake, not counting the boat launch from the state park, or other launches as well.  Garden City is the largest town on the lake, with other smaller towns such as Fish Haven, St. Charles, and Laketown.  If ya want a nice little day trip, going around the lake would be a good one.

When we got to Garden City, we weren't able to find Bear Lake State Park we were supposed to be camp hosts at right away.  After asking at the Bear Lake State Park marina north of Garden City, we just happened to find a ranger who was kind enough to remember that we were going to be arriving that day, and took us to where we needed to be, at the extreme southern end of the lake, got us set up in our campsite (HUGE!), gave us a little talk about who we were to be seeing, a little about what we were to be doing, and let us get set up.  Here a picture of what it looked like when we had everything set up a couple of days later looking at the front door of the rig and our front yard.  Each campsite is a full hookup site with 50 amp electrical service, sewer and water.  While each campsite wasn't secluded by shrubs or hedges, they were far enough apart to provide a certain amount of seclusion.  In addition, there is a gazebo at each campsite which a lot of campers had put tarps on one side to shield from the west wind.  Obviously they provided an escape from the weather for campers with it being shade on the hot days, and a little dryness for the folks who camped in tents on the rainy days.

There isn't anything behind me when I took the above picture, maybe you can tell that from the picture below.   If ya look carefully, you'll be able to see the lake through the trees in the middle of the picture.

But if ya can't see the lake, or imagine it there, here's another picture showing the lake a little better.  Ain't telephoto lenses great?

I spoke of the gazebos earlier, but didn't say what the second use was, which was a place for the wildlife to perch, as is seen by the picture below.  It wasn't uncommon to find sea gulls on the gazebo peaks, or other places.  After all, they are the state bird.

 

A little while after we got set up, another camp host came over to introduce herself, and let us know a little about what was going on.  There was a dinner of all the camp hosts that evening at the local mexican food eatery in Garden City, Cafe Sabor, where we got to meet all of the other hosts, and enjoy the mexican food that was good enough for us to go back there several times while we were in Bear Lake.

Our stay in Bear Lake was for the next two months, but we didn't make it to the annual main attraction in Garden City that summer.  Anyone got any ideas as to what it might be?

Have a blessed day!

Snow's here ...kinda. I think it's more cold though, ya know?

Well, just as the weather forecasters said it was gonna snow, it did snow.  Not a whole lot of it, probably only like 1/2" or so, but it was enough to cause the ground and streets to go white.  But since there's so little of it, that's why I'm only saying "kinda".  Normally, as it has in the past few weeks, the snow melts and goes away in a couple of hours after the sun comes up.  However, the "normal" days have been modified as it's getting colder now, and the warmer temps that were here for the snow melting won't be coming for some time.  So I guess this would be "normal" for winter, not fall.

There is much sickness in the house now.  James and Avery went to the Dr. yesterday, James was told that he had "walking pneumonia", and that Avery had something a little less.  If Avery would sit still for very long, maybe it could be said that he has "sitting pneumonia", but the kid is rarely sedentary for that amount of time.  Regardless, it's in our prayers that they both get better soon, and that no one else in the house get sick like what they are.  Your prayers would be appreciated also.

The Travelogue around May - June of 2012.

It's hard for me to write about this part of our lives because I've never wrote about it quite so in depth.  It's probably not all that uncommon to lots of other folks, but our son, Jeff, had a problem with drugs.  We praise God that we were there at the time he came to realize that he wasn't meant to be on those chemicals, and that we were able to assist him in the beginning on his road to recovery.  Through Valley Bible Fellowship in Las Vegas, Nv., he was able to be connected with Teen Challenge induction center in Shafter, Ca., where he was able to start his Christ centered road to recovery.  Due to previous commitments, we weren't able to actually take him there, but a friend of his did in our place for which we were very grateful.  All of this was happening from the middle of May through the middle of June of 2012, right near the end of our time in LV, and just before the time for us to do a gig at Bear Lake State Park near Garden City, Ut, due to start near the end of June.

So prior to Jeff going to Teen Challenge, he had a couple of court things to take care of, as well as taking part in a Radiohead tribute at The Royal House (A boutique hotel on Convention Center Drive in Las Vegas) with his band.  The band thing was what he was really looking forward to, and he and his band had been working up to it for sometime.  The following pictures are of the night of the show.

Katie and Jeff together prior to the set.

Jeff in his element during the set.  Lots of folks came to hear Jeff sing that night, and he did a great job.

So a couple days after that, we took him with us up to Amanda's house for a few days prior to a last court date and then hopefully to Teen Challenge in Shafter, Ca., where he was to be inducted.  This was a good time for us to get together and enjoy each other.  And the weather was nice, being warm enough to be able to wear summer attire rather than what we're having to wear now with the temps being in the teens as we wait for more snow to come this weekend.  Darn!


We were able to go to the 1st grade concert that Riley was in, which was patriotic in nature.  Here's a couple of pictures of it.

 1st grade patriotic colorings at their finest.

 Riley's in the center of the picture in the blue shirt with the horizontal stripes.  I think he was paying more attention to Grandma taking a picture with the camera rather than his music teacher.

Proud mother Amanda & brother Avery.

We also took some time to go to a playground to do what we do best at times.  Sit and absorb sun...

while we look stylin' and hold down that park bench.  Doesn't get much better than this, huh?  Well, maybe it would if we were near a lake, ya think?

Have a blessed day!

Snow's on it's way!

Katie and I continued recovering from the Oregon gunk we had earlier last week.  There have been times when we felt a little weak in the knees, but for the most part we seem to be doing much better.  After calling my nephew last night to see how he and my sister, Elaine, were doing, I'm thinking that the gunk has been pretty much taken care of.  That was further just evidenced when I called my son Jon and hear him sounding much better than he did last night.  That's just plain good news.

When we crossed the border from Idaho to Oregon, the skies pretty quickly turned grey, and stayed that way for the rest of the time that we were in Oregon.  Yesterday, the skies were clear for the most part.  However, the skies here in Clearfield are now grey, just like they were in Oregon, with the weather forecast saying that it's gonna rain and then turn to snow with 1" - 2" accumulation by the time tomorrow comes.  After that the warmer temps we had in the 50's today are gonna seem like distant happenings as we're supposed to be getting temps in the 20's after tomorrow for several days.  Yep, I guess winter's here.  Darn!

After publishing this post, I got to thinking how it just wasn't quite complete the way it was.  I didn't feel up to putting stuff in about what we'd been doing as we just weren't doing a lot of stuff.  So I surfed the internet with no intent of what I was gonna find, and wound up watching flash mobs at YouTube.com, which are some of my favorite things to watch.  Mind you, I'm talking about the flash mobs that aren't vandals, but are groups of musicians or dancers that come together in a public mall, or some other public place.  Usually leaves me with tears in my eyes I enjoy them so much.

Over the years, I've watched a few of them, but have never been nearly as ...taken away by this one which is of not only a marriage proposal, but an actual wedding also.  So, I'd have to say that this is one of my favorites.  This is the pilot of the show "Mobbed" which Howie Mandel hosted, and from what I saw on the video, did a pretty good job.  Handel's "Hallelujah Chorus" is another great flash mob, here's one at a food court that I enjoyed.  Here's a flash mob of Beethoven's "Ode to Joy".  You may have lots of flash mobs as well, and if so, please leave a comment saying which ones they are.

Have a blessed day!

OK, we're back!

As I said in earlier posts, Katie and I were going to go to my sister's home in McMinnville, Oregon,  778 miles away, for Thanksgiving with my sisters and their families.  Going to Elaine's house on Tuesday, November 26th, started out at about 7 AM.  After packing the car with stuff and doggies, and stopping at our favorite healthy (not!) breakfast food to go eatery for two McSausages with egg and the necessary coffee to go with it, we headed north on I-15, hoping to drive the 778 miles to her house to arrive at Elaine's by 8 PM or so.  Along the way, we listened an audio recording of "Catching Fire" to pass the time, both on the way up and back down.  

After going through a few iterations of how things went while we were there for Thanksgiving, I'm only gonna tell ya that it was really good seeing everyone gathered together again, although at the family reunion in August, Amanda and her family were there along with Clay Taylor and his girlfriend.  My oldest son, Ken, and his family were missed both times, looking forward to seeing them again whenever possible.  The good times were dampened by the lung congestion that Katie and I developed on the way there Tuesday night, and Elaine and Jon coming down with it on Friday morning, when it was breaking up for us.  I actually felt good enough to hit the disc golf course with Jon and David in the morning.  My throws weren't very strong (not sure that they ever really are for a lot of senior citizens), but seemed to improve over the 12 basket course.  Elaine was due to participate in the McMinnville Starlight Parade as a "Rakette" from the McMinnville Garden Club, but she decided it'd be best if she didn't take part in the parade due to her health condition, which was shared by myself, Katie and Jon.  So we sat in front of the tube watching football doing what Elaine dubbed "four part coughing harmony".

We left McMinnville on Saturday, November 30, around 7 AM after gassing up and getting another of our favorite travel breakfasts, as described earlier on Tuesday.  The goal for the day was to be able to see Katie's brother and sister in law, Kenny and Lori, near Boise, Idaho.  That goal was achieved at about 5 PM when we called to see if we could visit and found that they were suffering from the same kind of guck as we were suffering from.  Yuck!  Regardless, we had a good visit, but I felt we needed to at least try to get home last night, so we left around 7:30 and headed south to Clearfield.  This journey lasted us until after 12 AM, and enabled us to finish listening to "Catching Fire".  Would've listened to "Mocking Jay", but didn't seem to have it on the iPod after all.  Darn!

So I learned a few things on this trip.

1. I can't count on being able to use other folks internet access wherever we go.  I didn't bring my mifi so I wasn't able to write a blog while we were up there.  
2. Make sure that I always bring a camera to take pictures with.  So in addition to not being able to post blogs, I couldn't take pictures of folks that I really wanted to take pictures of as well also.  
3. Use good hygiene to keep from getting sick and passing nasty germs to other folks as well. 

Not gonna do the travelogue today, just wanna take it easy.  Have a blessed day.

Another delay?

Yesterday, Jeff came to Salt Lake City.  Actually, it was night time when he finally got here.  His whole trip was kind of an interesting day long saga, I'm glad that God was watching over him. 

He started his journey early enough catching the bus from Bakersfield to Long Beach, and was taxied to LAX by Katie's sister and bro-in-law, Karen & Bill in plenty of time for his flight to Las Vegas where he would change planes.  However, I'm guessing that there was a problem with the weather somewhere along the line in the southern part of the country, which caused his flight from LAX to be delayed about an hour.  That flight finally got in the air about an hour late, but he did get to Las Vegas.   However, his flight to Salt Lake City was delayed also.  Then delayed again.  And again.  And again.  

So after checking Southwest's website numerous times to find out when his plane was to arrive in Salt Lake City, Katie and I left Amanda's house at about 8:30 to go to the airport to wait, wanting to be there in case he showed up magically due to some website inaccuracy. That took us about 1/2 an hour to get there, and we waited in the "Park and Wait" area of the parking area which has electronic signboards showing the status of the incoming flights.  Ironically, we never saw the Southwest flight Jeff was on listed.  However, at about 9:40 PM, we got a call from him saying he'd arrived at the airport, like he got there somehow without Southwest's help.  Hoping his return to SoCal for Teen Challenge Ministry Institute doesn't have as many delays as his getting here did when he leaves after Christmas!


The Travelogue 5/12/2012

Before we hit the road, we got a tandem inflatable kayak made by Hobie, the i14T.  As an inflatable kayak, we're able to keep it in the back end of the car.  It takes up the entire back end of the car (a Chevrolet HHR) and that doesn't take into account the oars, seats, mirage drives (peddle power), or life vests, which we put into the basement storage areas of the moho, but go in the back seat when we put the kayak in the water.  We don't use it often enough, but we did manage to use it on the Colorado River below Hoover Dam, at Willow Beach.  The pictures below aren't the best as they were taken through a clear plastic bag that we thought would be good to use to keep the camera dry.  While it did it's job, the bag just didn't do a very good job of keeping the pictures clear.

See what I mean?  I assure you that Katie does indeed still have a face, ok?  At this point, we've put it in to the water and are getting ready to head upstream.  The black blob in the lower part of the picture is the back of the front seat that Katie sits in (she faces away from me as I sit in the rear of the kayak), and if ya look closely above the seat, you'll see some black and white stuff, which is really Tasca with his life jacket on in the front of the kayak.  We both have long sleeved white shirts to protect us from the sun although you can't see me in mine as I'm on the other side of  the camera.

This picture kinda looks like Katie is holding the handle of a pink blob with a face on it that looks like Winnie, which is, indeed, what it is.  I don't think that she was putting Winnie in the water, but I could be wrong.  This picture doesn't do justice to where the water starts and ends, I'm thinking the plastic bag would be to blame for that again.  So after awhile, I just took the camera out of the bag and started living life dangerously.  Gratefully, the pictures were much better!
 

As you can see, the terrain is rugged and barren.  Add to that that the temperature was rather warm as well.  But I'm glad that we had the white shirts on, saved us from a bad sunburn. 

We did get to see several bighorn sheep, which is the Nevada state animal.  Although we'd lived in Las Vegas for about 18 years, this was the first time that we'd ever seen them, so it was kinda special for us.  Altogether, I think that we saw about 20 of them in different places along the river.

There was also a pair of trained ducks that came out to greet us on the way upstream.  I'm guessing that they had got trained from the many boaters that had gone upstream throwing them pieces of food as they would go by.  They learned well didn't they, but they didn't learn anything from us. 

What'd I just say?  They learned well, didn't they?  Here they are again on our trip downstream.  Pesky ducks!

We ended up the trip at the same place we started out at.  Imagine the first photo above (but clearer, ok?) with us getting out of the kayak.  Ok, maybe it'd be kinda hard to do so.  But since I use the mirage drive (kinda like pedaling a pedal car) while Katie uses oars (more like paddles), my legs are really beat by the time we get back.  Yeah, it'd probably be easier if I were to ride a bike daily for a couple of miles, but I don't.  At this particular time of getting out of the water, my legs were so tired that when I attempted to get out of the kayak, I couldn't stand up and fell back into the water.  There were a few young adults that rushed over to help me out of the water, for which I was grateful for, but didn't make me feel like I was that athletic like I was supposed to be if I had some sort of kayak.  This was also a learning experience for me though, as now when I try to get out of the kayak, I make sure that I'm in water that's deep enough for me to stand up in, meaning mid thigh deep rather than very shallow.  Makes for some cold water shocks, but I don't have to worry about bunches of young folks rushing into the water to keep me from floating down the river also!

Have a blessed day!

Been busy!

It's been a couple of days since my last post, which was November 19th.  The gunk that I was growing in my nose and throat seems to have kept me down, as well as spread to my grandsons as well as my son-in-law.  Then we got a pension check and had to run around and spend it all yesterday, so I didn't have the time yesterday to put together a post in this blog, but I did post my feelings about the 2008 Fleetwood Revolution LE 40V in Class-a-motorhome-advisor.blogspot.com if ya wanna go there and take a look at them.  

Tomorrow, Jeff is leaving Teen Challenge in Shafter, Ca., and will be arriving here in the late afternoon.  We'll be able to spend a few days with him before we head to Oregon to spend Thanksgiving with my sisters and other family members.  After Thanksgiving, we'll be heading back to Clearfield again to spend the next few weeks with Amanda, her family, and Jeff.  Jeff will be heading back to California after Christmas to start his studies as Teen Challenge Ministry Institute, and we will probably be heading that way with him in the moho because Katie's Dad is getting to the point that he may very well be needing our assistance.  Katie found out last night that he was in the hospital and not doing well.  So we may be heading south sooner than the end of December, but I'm hoping not.  This is opposite of what we wanted to be doing by a long ways.  But it just seems like we're the ones that can do what needs to be done easier than other folks in the family.  I'll keep ya updated as time goes on.

The Travelogue  4/15/2012

When I last posted, the LV Highland Games was having a parade down the Fremont Experience with the Guiness World Record Caber Toss taking place.  The next day (Saturday), the LV Highland Games took place, along with lots of other Celtic stuff going on, out at Floyld Lamb Park in NW Las Vegas. The SAMS color guard was there again, starting out the festivities (see anyone from the previous parades?)

The Highland Games consist of several games:

The stone put which is similar to the shot put,

The weight throw (there's gonna be better pictures of this event if ya click on the link),and other events which I didn't take pictures of, such as the caber toss (which ya saw from yesterday), the Scottish hammer throw, weight throw, and sheaf toss.  If you click on the links, you'll see more than I can remember about them.  The LA Scots and the USMC 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing Band were there, along with the Utah Pipe Band, and the Cameron Highlanders were among the many different groups that were there to compete or take part in the festivities.  

Among the booths there was one for Clan Keith, which is where the surname "Dickson" came from.  The picture below shows the Coat of Arms for Clan Keith,

and here's a better picture of the tartan of Clan Keith.  Nice colors, huh?

We had a good time at the Highland Games.  I particularly enjoyed hearing the bands and watching them march, which I thought they did quite regally and majestically.  If any readers have the opportunity to take them in, I heartily endorse that choice. 

The end of 2011, beginning of 2012

So it seems as though I'm starting to come down with some kind of ...gunk.  Went through a few of the rest of the folks here yesterday, and I woke up with the ...gunk in my nose.  Coffee felt good going down, that always helps, right?  Hoping I'll feel better as the day progresses, got lots to do today with picking up a grandson from school and going to class in the afternoon.  

The snow here as all but gone away, although Katie and I were surprised when we took our morning walk yesterday, there was a couple of piles of snow in the park like everyone had come together to put most of the snow in big piles there.  And that was all that was left.  Maybe we'll have to walk down there next time there's a large snow to see if the kids in the area roll all the snow together for massive snow ball fights.  That'd be a reason why there would be snow left in the way it was, right?  Earlier in the week, the weather report was for fair weather in the middle of the week, but something has changed so that it's got rain in the forecast, along with cooler temps.  Not what we'd had planned for!  

Katie and Amanda have gone back into the planning stage, this time for Avery's birthday party, which will happen sometime in December.  For the time being, all the decorations from Riley's party are still up, kinda like leaving up the Christmas decorations for awhile after Christmas is over with.  The decorations for Avery's party won't be up until after Thanksgiving, and will probably come down shortly afterwards so the Christmas decorations will be there.  

The Travelogue  4/13/2012

Ok, so thinking back to 2011, the year ended with a large bang in that we went to our storage place by Katie's Dad's place to find that we'd been burglarized again.  Another blow to what we'd wanted to not abandon.  Among the things the burglars took were all of my hand tools, Katie's nice sewing machine, several items from Amanda and James' stuff, and our peace of mind.  A decision was made to take everything we had left out of there, but we weren't sure where we'd put it.  As most of the stuff there was Amanda and James', we called them and asked them if we could put it in their house since they had the room for it now.  They said yes, and we rented a truck for the December 30 (the next day) - January 3.  The next two days were spent packing at a feverish pace to get everything out of the garage and into the truck as we had reservations at the Las Vegas 1000 Trails for December 31.  At about 6 PM, we left Phelan and headed for LV with Katie driving the moving truck and me driving the moho pulling the car.  Got to LV about 11 PM, and did the best we could to not make noise as we pulled into the temporary spots in the preserve, knowing that we'd get a permanent spot the next day, January 1, 2012.  

After getting our spot as early as we could the next day, we set up, had breakfast, and were on our way up to Amanda's house to drop off all the stuff.  Got there about 10 at night, and waited until the next day, January 2, to unload the truck, which was done much faster than what it took to fill it up. In talking things over between Amanda & James, and Katie and myself,  it was decided that I'd take the truck back as we had to have it back on January 3 and I was to start work with a former associate from CLV in the next couple of days, and Katie would stay there to help make things a little more livable with all the stuff that we'd crammed into their house.  So on the morning of January 3, I loaded up myself and the doggies (remember the doggies that we don't go anywhere without?), and headed back to LV where another former associate from CLV was kind enough to pick me up where I dropped off the truck at.  This began our time in LV for a few months.  Kinda of a hectic way to start it, huh?

My work was to assist in making traffic signals in the LV area work with the flashing yellow left turn arrows, which were being installed by a lot of municipalities.  This was to last till June, when we had to be in Bear Lake, Ut., for a camp hosting gig.  We didn't do a lot of sightseeing stuff while we were there, but one of the things we did do was to go to the St. Patrick's Day parade in March in Henderson, Nv,. of which there are pictures of the parade in the above link.  Here are the pictures I took:

One of the groups that took part in the parade was Post 777 of the Scottish-American Military Society, (SAMS) of which there are a few members in the above picture wearing their kilts and regalia.  About a month later, Las Vegas hosted a bag pipe parade down the Fremont Street Experience with SAMS doing the color guard,

marching ahead of the USMC 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing Band

with the most important part of the band here.  Hint: look at the Sousaphone, not the bass drums, ok?

The LA Scots Bagpipe Band was also there, but I didn't get a good picture of them while they were marching.  But I got a few pictures of them playing on stage.

Here is a picture of the combined bands, I think they were playing "Amazing Grace" with the piper on the stage starting the beat by stamping with his left foot. 

For those of you that've heard a pipe band previously, you probably know more about them than I do.  I was amazed at how disciplined and exact they were in their showmanship and their music.  I was especially impressed with the drummers and their movements, case in point these next photos.  They looked like this when they weren't beating:

But looked like this when they were beating:

Or this:

Yes, the picture wasn't taken by a really expensive camera, but it wasn't time lapse photography either.  Very showy, and good!  I wonder how many mid-air collisions they have...

Somewhere along the lines, the Guiness World Record Caber Toss was done. on the .  In looking for videos of the caber toss, I was amazed how many there were of the same night on YouTube.  I guess I should feel honored that I was there at the time, standing mere feet away from the movie takers.  Maybe I'm in one of the many videos there.  Then again...

Ok, gotta go.  Hope you have a blessed day.