2004

We got home yesterday from a trip with the car only up to St Peters MO and Christmas with Cindy, Ed, Becca, Aimee, Sam, Pam, Tracy and Jon. We had a great time as you can see from these pictures!

We did have time while there to visit with several friends, but ran out of time and didn't get to see everyone. Sorry if we missed you - will try for next time. We were only there 9 days and they went by very quickly!

We stopped by to see Ken & Ann in Cherryvale KS on our way back to Longview and had a good visit there. It was rather foggy when we left, but it cleared up before too long and we had a nice trip home. We did some antiquing along the way in OK - there are lots of antique shops along the highway there!!

We spent today catching up and unpacking and repacking. I think we will have a quiet New Year's Eve. Happy New Year Everyone!!

Our trip on down to Longview TX was uneventful except for some wind in the TX panhandle. We spent a few days there at Missionary TECH Team HQ and then left the coach there on Friday the 17th and drove up to Cindy and Ed's in St Peters MO. We decided that the weather forecast for MO was too cold to bring the coach up here. That proved to be true as the forecast for Friday is -1 degrees!!

Our arrival timing was perfect, as Ed had just returned home from picking up their new puppy and the kids knew nothing about her! So, we got to see them as they saw her for the first time. They were very excited.....she will be well loved!! She is so cute - just a little fuzzball!! Buddy (as the kids insisted on calling her!) is a Golden Retriever, so she won't stay small for very long. But, Retrievers are very good with kids!

We have been having a wonderful time visiting with their family and long-time friends here. We have kept very busy with phone calls, lunches, dinners, and breakfasts out with friends. Cindy & I found a little time to shop and even have some cookies baked. Our week here is going by very quickly!! Pam, Tracy, and Jon will be arriving tommorow evening.

We had record cold and snow shortly after moving into the coach!! That was no place for a RV!! After a week's delay in leaving GJ because of coach problems, we finally got away on Tuesday afternoon, December 7. We only went as far as Moab that day as we were late getting away. The next day, we had pretty good roads, some wet but no snowy. However, leaving Monticello, we hit fog for quite a few miles and that was not fun! We got to Gallup NM that evening and found a nice park with wireless internet. Yeah!! We decided to park here for a couple of days to get some work caught up. The weather has been great - sunny and beautiful!

Several days before we left GJ, Bev managed to come down with bronchitis, so we had to get in a Dr appointment the morning we left. With antibiotic and rest, she is slowly recovering!!

On the Road Again! Our house is sold, we closed on the 19th, all our furnishings are in storage, and we are now living in our coach until March. We decided to stay here in Grand Junction until after Thanksgiving and now plan to leave on Tuesday. the 30th. We were going to Denver and then on to St Peters MO, but, because of the cold weather and snows in the mountains, have now decided to head south to TX from here and just drive the car up to MO for Christmas. Propane has become quite expensive, and it has cost nearly $20 to heat the coach for the last 5 days! That is with it only getting down in the lower 30's at night!! Also, they are forecasting snow for the next 4 days in the mountains, so we don't want to try driving over them.

Thanksgiving was different this year.....we decided to go out for dinner with Bev's sister, her husband, his sister, and our nephew and his girlfriend. We had a delicious dinner, but will miss turkey sandwiches!!

We have decided to move - again!!! We thought we were finally settled for a long time, but all our traveling this summer has taught us that we cannot travel and keep up with our yard!! Plus, Bev's back doesn't like bending and pulling weeds!! I suffer for days every time I do it! So, we are buying a patio home. It is a bit smaller - won't have our breakfast nook, and only 3 bedrooms, but we don't really need that extra space. All the yard work and outside maintenance will be done for us and our living room and patio look out onto a creek area and trees - no-one right behind us!!! Now to get this house sold, all our stuff packed and stored until March 15, when we close on the new home. We are hoping to get it sold quickly as we want to be in St Peters for Christmas and would rather get over the mountains as soon as possible!!!

Well....that month sure went by fast!!!! Our friends from St Charles, MO, Jim & Betty Worman, arrived Sept 22 and we had a great time visiting and taking them sightseeing around the area. Our first trip was to take a picnic and go up on the Monument and we had a beautiful day for it!

The next day, we went up on Grand Mesa. However, because they had already had a snowstorm, we decided not to picnic, but eat at one of the restaurants up there - Good idea! It was quite cold, but the yellow aspen, green evergreens and the white snow was beautiful! Betty even found enough snow for a snowball!! We stopped in Cedaredge on the way home for apples and some "window shopping" at the Apple Shed.

Saturday, we took the day off and let our company rest a little while we got some work done.

Sunday, after church we took off in our motorhome for Moab UT. Monday, we took a picnic lunch and toured Arches National Monument. We had another beautiful day with blue skies and lots of sunshine. That is always an awesome place to visit!!

Tuesday, we headed south to Newspaper Rock and the Needles. We found a nice shady spot to picnic near Newspaper Rock and then went over to see the petroglyphs there. After that, we went on into the Needles National Park, but decided it would be better seen from the overlook!! However, it was a pretty drive.

Wednesday, it was kinda' rainy, so we took a short drive up the river to see some other petroglyphs and then back to the coach for lunch. The weather looked better in the afternoon, so we went on up to Canyonlands and Dead Horse Point. The rain stayed on the other side of the canyon and we were able to see all the sights and stay dry!! That evening, we had dinner at the Bar-M Chuckwagon where we enjoyed a "cowboy supper" and live western show. It was a good way to end our visit to Moab. Thursday we headed back to Grand Junction.

The next couple of days, we had to catch up on some work, so we gave Jim & Betty a chance to rest up from all our running around. We had a couple of evenings to play Sequence - the girls won!! They headed back home on Monday. We had a wonderful visit and made plans to do it again next summer!!

The next weekend was the Gospel Bluegrass Festival at Colorado River State Park, about 20 miles west of us. We decided to take the coach and spend the weekend there instead of driving back & forth. We got a great camp spot and had a chance to get to know some of the musicians and those putting the festival together. We had a great time listening to gospel music all day Saturday and Sunday and came home Monday evening.

We finally got a trip down to southwest Utah and Zion National Park.We stayed in Cedar City and first went to see the northern view of Zion. It was quite impressive. We had a beautiful, warm day and the scenery was great! The next day, we went to see Cedar Breaks, which they tell us is like Bryce Canyon. The colors there are amazing!!

The next day, it was raining and stormy over towards Zion, so we went in the other direction to see the Parowan Gap Petroglyphs, do a little bird watching and watch the storms up over the mountains.

Then, the next day, we finally made it down to Zion! It was quite impressive!! Those rocks make you feel about 2" tall!! You have to park outside the park and take the bus in, which was nice as Don could watch the scenery and not have to watch the road. We got off & on at each stop so we could see all we could see without taking long hikes!! We did take one hike up to a springs and waterfall, but it was nearly dry this time of year.

We took a couple days off sightseeing over the weekend and on Monday, went south to see the Joshua Tree National Forest, St George, and into Mesquite, Nevada, just to say we had been there! We also made it a few miles into Arizona.........

Then, it was back home and back to work for a few days!!

We got some peaches from our tree in the back yard this year for the first time and they were really yummy!! We had peach pie, peach cobbler, just plain peaches and I froze several containers for later use. My tomatoes are finally beginning to ripen - it seems like it has taken them a long time this year!!

We have taken a couple of 3-day trips with our motor home up to the mountains where it is a little cooler. First, we went to Ridgeway State Park where one day, we took a drive up to Telluride and to the top of Lizard Head Pass. We had a nice day, although it was threatening to rain off and on . The next day, we just relaxed around camp and that was very nice!

Then, a couple of weeks later, we went to Basalt-Aspen campground. Our good friends, Gordon & Jane joined us for a couple of days. The first day, we went up to Chapman Dam (where Don & Gordon went to Boy Scout Camp many, many years ago!!) The next day, we went up to Maroon Bells - a place we never tire of going! It is so gorgeous up there!! Then, we had lunch in Aspen before returning to the campground.

Now, we are home for a couple of weeks while deciding where our next trip will be!

Well............this past month has been a very busy one for us! First, we had a trip to Denver (to the Dentist), then on to Bailey for Megan's high school graduation on May 29. She has grown up to be quite a lovely young lady. She will be going to Olivette Nazarene College in the fall. It is in IL and I don't think her parents are too thrilled with her going so far from home!! We had a good visit with family and got to meet Josh's girlfriend. Since they don't really have room for us to stay with them, we spent a couple of nights with the pastor who married us (many years ago!!), Virg Horton and his wife Dorothy, who live fairly close and we had a great time catching up with them! Coming home, we had a spring snow to travel through, but the roads stayed clear!

Three days after we got home, we left again. This time for Oregon and Stephanie's high school graduation on June 4. She, also, has grown up to be a lovely young lady. She will be going to Northwest Nazarene College in Nampa ID - not quite so far from home as Megan, but still quite a ways. Don made cedar chests for both of the girls as graduation gifts and they were thrilled with them! We went motor home looking while we were at Ron & Kathy's and came home with a 1998 36' Discovery Motor Home!! It is a diesel pusher, which Don has always wanted. It sure made our trip home nice!! More about that later..........

On June 12, we went up to Monmouth OR for Heather and Jared's graduation from the university there. They are happy to be finished and are looking forward to finding teaching positions for the fall..... Heather in Middle School and Jared in High School. Of course, their families would love to see them back in the Eugene/Springfield area!

On Monday, June 14, we left Creswell and headed to the coast. We spent 3 nights in Florence and then 3 nights in Lincoln City so we could have our "beach time"...... Most of the days we were there, we had sunshine. Some clouds and fog but it usually cleared up by afternoon. Of course, no trip to the coast would be complete without some clam chowder at Mo's!! We then headed up to Portland and picked up I-84 and headed east arriving home on Thursday, June 24. All in all, we had a nice trip and certainly enjoyed having the motor home!! But, we spent the last 4 days traveling and much prefer a day or two break in between travel! However, we only had a 10 day trip pass to get it home which expired on the 25th. Now, we have to pay CO sales tax - yuk!!!

Spring has come to the valley! It is so nice to see things "greening up"!! But...that means lots of yard work to be done (and this body doesn't like all that bending and stooping!!). It seems like we have new plants coming up all over the place - and I hate to dig them up and throw them away!

Last weekend we took a drive up over Grand Mesa - Spring isn't there yet! There was still lots of snow! The roads were clear tho' and it was warm - didn't even need a jacket.

On the way home, we stopped in Eckert to see the Sandhill Cranes that are migrating thru the area. They are quite the birds! I think they are about the second largest bird in the US and they have a rather quiet call for such a big bird.

We have been having lots of  fog in the valley so we took a drive up over the Colorado National Monument and got some wonderful pictures on January 10.