Day 6 From Sand to Forest

After driving through the desert with 102 temps, this is the camp site we choose at Sparks-Reno,Nevada.

We left Reno and crossed over the Sierra mountains and forest. This is the route of the famous Donner Expedition

After leaving the Sierrra Mountains we descended into the Sacramento Valley. We saw Wheat Fields, Apricot and Pecan Orchards, Vineyards, Fruits and Vegetables grown in this rich valley.

Here we bought some fresh apricots to eat along the way.
Also there were many beautiful Palm trees.

We left the valley and ascended into the Oak Forests and Grasslands

We stopped at Clear Lake for lunch. This thing is over tweny miles
long.

Ended up for the night camping in the Redwood Forest area along the coast near Eureka California.





If you can get this video to work it is what we saw during our 500+ mile stretch over the desert. Not bad for an accidental shooting by Sharon.

Reverse, Arvada Colorado to Reno Nevada Day 4&5

Finally Something besides sand & more sand. You will have to excuse the reverse order of the pictures. We really need rest after todays drive. The last 500 miles makes us feel very blessed with what we have at home.

500 Miles of Desert Starting west of Salt lake City and ending about 20 miles east of Reno.

This is a view of beautiful Glenwood Canyon

The Eisenhower Tunnel near Vail Summit 10600 elevation

Ascending the Colorado Rockies
West of Denver via I-70

Spending the day with Cindy & Burtch inVail

Here are Cindy & Burtch sitting in front of the resturant we ate lunch at. It was an outdoor mexican resturant.
This is a picuture Vail from the Gondala that we rode to the top of the ski sloop. We didn't realize there were so many ski sloops in this resort

Here we all are standing in front of the Holy Cross which is in the back ground .

This is Cindy and Burtch's house, we stayed with them Friday and Saturday nights.

Thanks again Cindy and Burch!!

June 25th, 2009 Day One

Our vacation started this morning as we left the farm at 6:40 am. We treated ourselves to BKF at the Seven Stars Resturant in Hampton. We took HWY 65 to HWY 30 and were on our way.
Crossed the state line into Nebraska around 12:30 pm. Had a little road construction along the way, but not too bad. As we headed west, the temps continued to rise, by the time we got to Grand Island,Nebraska, it was 95 degrees, we pulled into Holdridge, Nebraska around 6 pm,which is on HWY 34, decided we were staying in at the Super 8, nice place, had a nice little resturant in walking distance that we ate our supper at. Was a nice day, thought we made pretty good time for not having a time schedule. We are just playing it by ear. Nice to be able to do that.
Not real exciting yet, but relaxing.
Saw a lot of irrigation of corn and bean fields, we really take our water for granted, some of the corn was shoulder high already, and some of the bean fields were filling in. There was also some pretty sorry looking fields. Their soil is so sandy.

New Musician

Thanks to Jaydin we had a fathers day Clarinet serenade. After just two lessons, Jaydin showed us her talent. Believe me she has potential!! Thanks Jaydin and keep up the great work.

Fun Things (Love) to (Garden) Pun Intended

I think we will flip a coin on who digs the potatoes. The weeds are as good as gone they were rounded up a couple of days ago. That stuff is a life saver.

Wow these tomatoes are growing! We may have to share a few.

They were planted in the Square Foot Garden Mix recommended by Mel Bartholomew. He has a .com if any interest. This was Mothers Day hugs all around. One of many precious moment.

The Biggest Loosers

This is the group of 8 golfers that tour on the cancer card anually. We are in Parkersburg in front of Dutches' Resturant. We voted them best breakfast of the week.
Oh yes about the title biggest loosers! I am sure our stomachs have shrunk since last years anual, picture The food was great, the golf fun. Throw in a little ribbin' and liein' and a great time was had by all.

Home Sweet Home on the Road

Well I think we have the camper and vehicle ready to roll. Mom did a lot of cleaning and packing and I made new tie down brackets and added storage on the back. These pictures show how we plan to travel. Maybe I'll pick up a map or two before we leave as we are not planning to stay on interstates all the way.

Well the count down is on, 2 weeks from today we will be leaving for our trip. I got the camper cleaned the other day, so our home away from home is nice and clean. We will be living out of it for 4-5 weeks. Started putting things in the camper also. Hope we can hold everthing we need to take along.I do know that we will have much more room than we did with just the van. Will have Jay take a picture of the inside of our home and post it soon. Keep thinking of things that we need to take, my list is getting longer.
Jay is on his golf outting this week. Has been to Independence, Conrad, Riceville and today going to Sheified, tomorrow Parkersburg. Has had a lot of fun, I of course have enjoyed having lunch with friends. Stay tuned for more.

Mom and Dads night out.

Tuesday night Dad and I went fishing at Bluebill Lake and caught these Bluegill along with some others that we caught but Dad had cleaned before we thought to take the picture.

I natually caught more than Dad, but not according to Dad.