2009, our adventures continue . . .

Welcome, Welcome, Welcome back to Les and Joy’s Excellent Adventures …

Now I know it’s been a long time since we wrote anything…. Way, long before Christmas, before Thanksgiving, before Tiffany's baby shower, even before I took off for my holiday visit with my Pacific Northwest family and friends, leaving Les at home to suffer through the first snowfall of the season. He was sweet enough to send a picture taken from the front room window, so I wouldn’t miss out too much. Isn’t he the sweetest?
In Oregon I got to visit with my friends and my KP family, and participate in some of my favorite holidays traditions with my family – (the sister slumber party and sister/niece luncheon, etc.). As ever I had a great time and the three weeks, ended way too soon, but I needed to hurry back to Les and start preparing for our holiday festivities.
It seems to take twice as long anymore to decorate and undecorate for Christmas. Is it that I’m getting old, or am I just getting lazy? I think it took me three days to decorate for Christmas and even longer to undecorate! We celebrated with a family dinner at our house, with all Les’ children and their mom, on Christmas Day. It was just like old times, with wrapping paper flying, corks popping and the smell of roasting turkey! So after the un-decorating, preparing the Casita for departing, and the wedding of our next door neighbor’s daughter, who grew up next door to the Mosers (They sure know how to throw a party) we were up and out of town. . .
Headed over to eastern Kansas to visit my cousin Clyde and his lovely wife Jacquetta in Parsons, KS – stayed one night and caught up on things with them and then headed on down to Texas, via Hugo, OK and Livingston, TX and then bright and early on January 13th we arrived at our favorite beach, outside of Port Lavaca, TX. Ah-h-h the sound of the surf and the gentle blowing of the wind! Didn’t take me long to get out on the beach and start finding shells and sea glass. This year I am also into finding little bits of coral. Why? Because they are there. So, because I have only a week before we leave on our cruise, I frantically gather as many shells, rocks and glass that I can as I’m finding that it’s almost a manner of honor that I take as many of these treasures as I can, home with me.
Before we know it we are off again to meet up with our friends, Peggy and Gary, to go on the cruise to Cozumel and to Progresso, Mexico. We met Peggy (and her mother and sister) on the 2001 Scotland Bus tour and meet up with her (and her sister) at the Oklahoma Blue Grass Festival every year. We drove into Galveston on Friday so we wouldn’t have the stress of that trip on the same day that the cruise started. Had a great time at Galveston, even though it is still pretty roughed up since IKE hit. There are still big piles of lumber and pieces of buildings pushed off to the side of the road, houses with tarps nailed on the roofs to keep the rain out, and many of our favorite shops are still closed – some never to reopen. I was all set to go to a restaurant that we found, to have a Muffalotto sandwich, but that was one of the restaurants that were closed. We managed to have an outstanding lunch at Fisherman’s Wharf, so all was not lost.
Early afternoon the next day we were in line to get on board for our cruise through the Carnival Cruise Fun Ship, Ecstasy.
Now neither Les, nor I had been on a cruise before so we had little expectation, except that from all I’d ever heard the food was outstanding and plentiful – I’d say that is an understatement! The food was wonderful! The stateroom, large and airy, everything was so clean, and everyone out to have a great time.
So, the first night we come in, unpack, wander around the ship, get a few drinks, attend an orientation, and then go to a boat drill. Shades of Titanic! Of course, they assure us that there are plenty of life boats and rafts and life jackets. I’d say they do, but as we are standing out there in the cold wind, couldn’t they just be a little quicker in explaining things? Then we walk in to the main area where there is a big atrium, a glass elevator that runs up and down about five floors, to the top floor where the ceiling is glass… and I’m thinking, “Didn’t I see this in the Poseidon Adventure?” OK, so get over it!
We got dressed for dinner – Yah, “dressed” – Les is wearing his normal blue jeans and polo shirt, I’m wearing a blouse and blue jeans, and thank goodness the dress code was liberal for us simple folks. Dinner is awesome – can’t even think of what was on the menu that day, but we had prime rib, lobster, salmon, grouper, shrimp, lobster bisque, escargot, caviar . . . every evening is an adventure to say the least. Chrystal, china, linen napkins, and lots of silverware that Les is very possessive of, when the waiter looks like he is going to clear it away – with every course they’d rearrange the silver that was left, taking away the ones we wouldn’t need . . . it was almost too much for that small town boy! We could go to the Wind Star Dining room all three meals, but now and then we decided to go to the Lido Deck for more casual dining (there’s only so much class that Les can take!)
They had evening shows that have been very entertaining, and the Cruise Director was a hoot. We saw a “Newlywed Game” – the contestants consisted of a couple that had been married 5 days, one couple who had been married 14 years, and the final couple who had been married 51 years. It was awfully funny! The older couple won, the couple that had been married 14 years almost came to blows – of course the newlywed couple was just cute! We also went to trivia contests, a Hairy Chest Contest (where one of the contestants had shaved a happy face on to his chest), a passenger talent contest, and some comedy programs.
We stopped in two places, Cozumel, and Progresso. At Cozumel, Peggy had done her homework and found a “Submarine Ride” that went to 100 feet. So, yes, Diana and Tish, I have gone down in a Submarine, only 108 ft, but a submarine all the same. It was a great ride and after 45 minutes seeing the fish, coral, sponges, etc., they settle the sub on the bottom of the reef for a few minutes and then over the intercom, they play “2001: a Space Odyssey” as we slowly rise toward the surface! It was great, and then to the tune of the Beatles, “Yellow Submarine” the “Voyage” comes to an end.
Peggy and I did some shopping on Cozumel and Les found a gorgeous Amethyst bracelet for me! We had a nice meal and lots of Tequila and beer before we went back on board the ship. We were pretty tired so we took naps and then went to dinner. Somewhere along the way, the ship started rolling - Just short of eating all of my Norwegian Salmon I decided that some nice fresh air may do me some good. It did, and without disaster I found my way down to the infirmary to pick up some sea sick pills.
The next day we hit Progresso. Les was much more impressed with Progresso than I, but oh, well, we had a great time, so what’s bad about that? After Peggy and Gary met back up with us in Progresso we had a few drinks and lunch and then Peggy and I went for a massage. Hah! We bargained for an hour massage, and it was great, BUT, when they took our watches off our wrists while we were drowsy in the sun, they reset our watches, CHEATING us out of 15 minutes of our massage. How fair was that? Les thinks that it’s hysterical; I think it was pretty dirty! J Anyway, we got back on board, no worse for the wear and richer for the experience and the beautiful ring I bought.
What really surprised me was the emotions I had on the last night onboard. No more chocolate on our pillows and funny "towel" animals awaiting to say goodnight to us . . . sniff. Then when we were saying goodbye to our table mates, Linda, Tami, Ted, and Merrie, and our waiters, Gedes and Johnny . . . for crying out loud, it was like the last day at camp, where all of a sudden you don’t want to go and leave your new friends. Sniff. Hey, guys! We love ya!
The next day we were back in Galveston, saying goodbye to Peggy and Gary, which wasn’t so bad ‘cause we know we’ll see them for a long weekend in October at the Oklahoma Blue Grass Festival! Thanks, Peggy, for inviting us to go along with you and Gary on this cruise, we had such a wonderful time! For those of you who have not had a Carnival Cruise Fun Ship experience, we cannot recommend it more highly.
We decided to try to take the short road out of Galveston, back to Port Lavaca, which goes by Galveston State Park. Someone had told us that the road was closed, but we had plenty of time and we were interested in the shape of the little towns past the State Park. So, taking our lives in our own hands we headed out. We found that although there was plenty of damage on Galveston Island, once we were back on the mainland there seemed to be as much, if not more . . . we saw more tarps on roofs, pilings where once were houses and then we saw the sign, “Road Closed, No Through Traffic, Travel at your own risk”. Okay. Off we go. Parts of the road had fallen away and road crews had filled in with sand and gravel so most of it was passable. Some parts of the road were totally gone, some just crumbling away. Then we were directed to drive on the beach for some miles. But we got through.
Back to the beach for us. The first night it was sooooo cold, but we had each other to snuggle up to and plenty of covers, of course, I was up at the crack of dawn, beachcombing. I have a ways to go before I gather up as much stuff as I did last year. We’ve decided that we may just stay here instead of heading further South to “The Valley” – if the weather holds up.
We have been joined by Les’ brother Jim and his lovely wife, Georgia, and family friend, Jim and his mother Velma, who will stay a few days at least, longer than that at most! Again, I’m sure, depending on the weather. I’m having fun having someone to share my beachcombing with.
So, til next time, take care all, y’all!
Joy
& Les
Les’ Readers Digest Version

-After staying home for a couple months we are ready to head for warmer digs.
-We went to or neighbor girls wedding (Melissa and Toby) on Jan 10. They done it up right.
-Left Wichita on Jan 11, made it to the beach on Jan 14.
-Stayed on the beach till Jan 23, then we went to Galveston for a Cruise. We went on a cruise from Galveston to Cozumel Mexico, then over to Progresso Mexico and back to Galveston.
-We are back on the Beach. My brother and his wife visited us for a few days. It was a good visit.
So, the fishing is crap, the wind is blowing too much, it is warm, the sun is shining a lot, LIFE IS GOOD. I was a feeling soo goood that we even went to church this morning. Boy, those ol Baptist ministers can still whup a guilt trip on ya.

... on to Winfield, Milford Lake, Topeka, Guthrie, Albuquerque . . .

We left Portland at 6:00 pm on Sunday night, September 14th, and after a concentrated effort, arrived in Wichita on Tuesday, September, 16th. We spent one night in our own bed and then were off to the 37th annual Walnut Valley Blue Grass Festival in Winfield, KS. This is a major blue grass festival that people from all over the world come to. Les has come to it since 1994 and I’ve gone since 2003. Anyway…. We had been getting weather reports from family and friends since Kansas had quite a bit of rain this year. The bottom line is that it flooded big time and the camping area at the festival itself was flooded out and they had to relocate the campers at Oxford City Park and Winfield Lake. Our group split in to two groups and we ended up with our friends Bill and Roxy, at Winfield Lake which is about 15 miles away from the festival grounds. Sadly, the other half of our group was at Oxford which has about 8 miles away from the festival grounds – on the other side of the city – as well as the group we like to visit and listen to their music in the days before the festival starts. It was a bummer not to be able to enjoy the pre-festival jams, but we had some wonderful musicians in our camp, namely Bill and Tim, see picture above, who we listened to as much as they’d play. Saturday, Les’ daughter, Susan, came with her little girls, Taylan and Kandance, and spent the night – really livened up the campsite. We spent the day listening to the music and enjoyed the festival. We left the festival the day it ended, Sunday, September 21st, and all agreed that they’d be glad to return to the Pecan Grove at the Winfield Fairgrounds.

This time we stayed three nights at our house before we headed to the Casita Rally at Milford Lake, which is north of Wichita and straight west of Topeka. There were eleven Casita’s that were there during the weekend. It was a lot of fun to get to meet with other Casita lovers and see what they’d done with their Casita’s. We had so much fun and can hardly wait to meet up again next year.

We left Milford Lake on Saturday, September 27th, drove on into Topeka and stayed at Les’ nephew and niece’s house (Adam and Fawn). On Sunday we made our annual trip to the Bonner Springs Renaissance Faire. It is too much fun going back in time on Sunday at the fair, eating Turkey legs and drinking Mead, seeing Fairies (see unnamed fairy above) and pirates, watching the shows, visiting the vendors, including my favorite jewelry shop!, and spending time with Adam, Fawn, RJ, and Alias - see picture below.
Monday I got a treat from Mother Nature. Fawn planted Milk Weed plants in her flower beds to attract Monarch Butterflies. She ended up with a lot of chrysalis in her plants and on the side of their house. We’d looked at them the day before and thought maybe they’d start hatching. I came over before we left for Wichita and found that three butterflies had just emerged and a chrysalis was looking very different than it had yesterday. I went back to look at the just emerged butterflies, took some pictures, then turned back to the chrysalis and saw that it had cracked at the bottom. I got my camera reading and on movie mode and started filming. I got a great little video of the butterfly emerging from its chrysalis! The first picture below is of the chrysalis just before I started filming, the second was minutes after I stopped and the third was just before we left for home.
October 2nd we were on our way to Guthrie Bluegrass Festival in Guthrie, Oklahoma, meeting up with the Peggy and Lennel, the sisters we met in Scotland in 2001. We stayed four nights there at Guthrie, listening to the music and just kicking back with our friends. Les and I had our first taste of volunteering at a festival. Free T-shirts and admittance tickets for the whole festival – what a deal! While we were kicked back and drinking a bit, when Peggy got a call from her travel agent who had a great deal on a cruise in January… before we knew it we were booked for a cruise – January 25, five nights, to Progresso and Cozumel, Mexico. Early Christmas present to ourselves for after Christmas. I am sooooo excited as I’ve never been on a cruise before (neither has Les). What a great group to go on a cruise with. Peggy, her beau, Gary, and Lennel. Part-ty!

After Guthrie we headed over to New Mexico where we were slated to help crew our friends, Lauren and Suzanne’s, balloon ("Call Me Crazy" picture to the left) at the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta We took our time and arrived in Albuquerque on Wednesday. On our way to our Wednesday night campground we were treated to a view of the balloons that had launched earlier that morning, floating down the valley, in plain view of the freeway. We laughed at the news reporter that suggested the locals go out and check their back yards for balloons, but saw that a couple of the balloons looked to be landing in the area. On down the road we visited the Petroglyph Monument and went on for a 2 ½ mile walk, seeing up to 200 petroglyphs that were reportedly several hundred years old. They were interesting, but Les and I couldn’t help but think that the petroglyphs we saw in Alaska were much more impressive. Also, it looked to me as if some of the petroglyphs were made by vandals, rather than the local ancients. How sad!

We decided to go on over to our campground by the Balloon Fiesta, even though we were a day early and we were happy we did. We got in touch with Lauren and ended up having dinner with not only Lauren, but birthday girl, Alex, Thumper, Alan, Eddie, and met up with Dana’s sister, Debby and her husband, Greg. The next morning Les and I went onto the fiesta grounds and volunteered to crew with another balloon as Lauren’s balloon had sustained some damage and wouldn’t be repaired until the afternoon. What a great time helping launch “The Little Pirate”. It was hard for me to focus on my “job” while other special shape balloons were launching and flying directly overhead! It was awesome and a good thing there were more people than were needed crewing on that balloon! Lauren got his balloon back late in the afternoon. We had a potluck on the launch site and spent the evening watching the “Glowdeo”, which is when they inflate the balloons and then use propane to light up the balloons. They would light up individually and then in unison…. Major cool! After the balloons were put away then they had a wonderful fireworks display that impressed even me. (After the Fort Vancouver displays I’ve seen that’s a little hard to do.)

The weather started acting up and we were lucky that balloons were launched on Friday – we got to see the special shapes launching again and Lauren’s balloon was launched offsite. We walked around the Fiesta grounds with Doug and Dana, taking pictures and watching the balloon competition. Even got some pictures of Lauren’s balloon. We spent the afternoon visiting and enjoying the company of the whole "Call Me Crazy" crew (pictured on the right). Things slowed down after that as the wind picked up and there were no balloons launched the rest of the weekend.

If you ever have the opportunity to go to the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta, do it. It is indescribable! Even I am at a loss for words to adequately express just how awesome it was to see the multitude of balloons in the air at one time. After the special shaped balloons were launched from the fiesta grounds, then the regular balloons started coming in from the offsite launch sites. There were competitions set up, money and car giveaways for those who could maneuver their balloons close enough to grab the keys or envelopes set up on long poles. Scores of balloons were overhead in brilliant colors against the blue sky! For more pictures (no, not taken by me) here’s a website for ya! http://www.balloonfiesta.com/gallery_2008.html

We left Albuquerque on Sunday, October 12th, and headed up to Moscow, Kansas where my cousin, Danny lives. (That's Danny and I pictured on the left.) He’s 70 years old and lives on the Homestead that has been in his family for years. (How many years would that be, Clyde?) His mother and my father are siblings. Danny and Clyde are brothers – if you remember from my letters this winter we stopped by Clyde (and Jacquita)’s in Parsons, KS, on our way down to Texas. We stayed in Moscow two nights and Danny took us in to Liberal, KS, home of Dorothy (and Toto, too) to go to “Dorothy’s House” and to the Midwestern Air Museum. There I was, escorted by Danny and Les, walking down the yellow brick road! Just imagine! J They had a very nice OZ Museum and tour of Dorothy’s House. . . Oh, ya, the Air Museum was interesting too.
Wednesday, October 15th, we parked the Casita in the driveway.
. . . . and this blog is up to date! HooRah!
Take care!
Joy
And Les

Les’ Readers Digest Version:
-Drove 1700 miles from Portland to Wichita.
-Went to Walnut Valley Music Festival.
-Went to Casita Camper Rally at Milford Lake Kansas.
-Then over to visit Nephew Adam and family in Topeka. Adam and family were not home when we arrived, and I set off the home security system. Got to meet one of Topeka’s finest Police Officers. Oh well the system works……. We all went to the Kansas City Ren Faire, the next day, in Bonner Springs, Ks. A great family (their boys are such a hoot) and a good time.
-Went to the Guthrie Oklahoma Bluegrass Festival. What can I say, good music, good friends, and good hooch.
-From Guthrie we went to the Albuquerque to the Hot Air Balloon Festival. Good friends, way, way cool Balloons, sunshine.
-Stopped in to see Cousin Danny, on his farm near Moscow Kansas. I enjoy listening to what he has to say. Good stuff.
-I guess I’m staying home till after the first of the year. Joy is flying to Portland for Thanksgiving. Then we're off to Texas for warm weather. Then up the east coast, back to Lake Huron, and over to Prince Edward Island……..

. . . to Winfield, Kansas

Okay, Okay, I know, I know… I’ve done it again! I’ve let the blog go too long! Now I’m going to rattle on and on and you are going to end up cursoring down to Les’ Readers Digest Version and miss my exquisitely crafted version of the end of our “On to Oregon and back to Kansas” blog.

We arrived in Portland on July 28th and settled right in at Lynda and Justin’s carport in Gladstone, OR – Gladstone (or HappyRock, as I sometimes call it) is a suburb of Portland. Didn’t take long at all to make nice with the grandkids and make plans to visit with sons, Patrick and Jim, and daughter, Vala. Had to slow down a bit as I was feeling exhausted and needed to take it easy for a couple of days. Just looking at my calendar and trying to make sure I didn’t miss visiting with people I wanted to see was overwhelming. But my energy came back and the fun began!

Lynda’s household was full to bursting with my granddaughter’s Casey and Cary, and then Hope - who lives in Utah - arrived with boyfriend Max. Of course we can’t forget, roommate, Summer with her three children, and neighbor boys Josh and Jake, whom Lynda babysits. Les had a lot of fun devising games for the kids, among which was a Bubble Blowing Contest (the picture is of the kids listening to the rules for the Bubble Blowing Contest) and another time, a watermelon seed spitting contest. Do you have any idea how hard it is to find a watermelon with real seeds in it in the Portland area? HARD!


On August 15th we went camping with my son, Patrick, and his family, which included his fiancée, Traci, Traci’s son, Tyler, Patrick’s daughters, Cory, Casey, and Carey. Coty, Patrick’s son, was already obligated to go on another camping trip, so we all missed out on him not being there. We went to “Paradise Point” which is a campground by Vancouver, WA. We had a great time, fishing, visiting, playing games, having s’mores; however, Tyler became ill and went home after the first night. Les and I were a bit on the “not quite feeling up to snuff” ourselves, so we totally empathized with his situation.

The next week we visited friends and family in Portland and then made our way down to Eugene to visit with friends of Les’. Les and Charlie worked together, much longer ago than either one of them want to admit to. Charlie and his wife, Betsy, packed up and moved to Eugene shortly after Les and Charlie stopped working together. We enjoyed the visit there and I felt I’d made some new friends. On the way home we stopped in Salem to visit with "sister" Kathy and husband Rick.


We came back to Lynda & Justin’s in time to get ready for the week long camping trip to Timothy Lake with my sister, Sheila, and her husband, Glen, and his family – sister, Monica, husband, Allan, daughter, Cassandra and various friends who show up now and then. We’ve gone on this yearly camping trip with these characters for couple of years now and always have had a great time. Glen was already out at the lake and Les joined up with him, taking the Casita and setting up, while I stayed to visit (shortly) with Lynda & family and collect Skyler to take him out to the lake to spend some special time with Grandma (that’s me) and his best buddy, Edan – Sheila’s grandson. Sheila picked us up on Sunday night, we ran some errands and picked up Edan and headed out to the lake. So the boys stayed Monday until Friday, at which time Sheila and I ran the boys into town, completely forgetting that the “Hood to Coast” was going on . . . right on the highway that we had to take… “Hood to Coast” is an enormous marathon that goes on every year – I used to be an official when I worked at Kaiser. Brought back some really great memories for me. After we skirted around the runners, we stopped in Sandy, OR to drop Edan off at my sister Melody’s, where Edan’s mom, Raylene, was helping Aunt Melody with a major endeavor. It was wonderful to see them both and we were sorry we weren’t able to stay longer –then back up to Timothy Lake, after taking Skyler back to Gladstone. Melody and her husband, Don, came by for a visit and a BBQ AND a couple of games of Scrabble were played by the girls….. Then all too soon, we had to come back down the mountain.

Les and I celebrated his birthday at the wonderful Scottish Pub called the Highland Stillhouse in Oregon City. Ahhhhh. He didn’t wear his kilt though! We also had a lovely visit with Kathy and Rich – Kathy and her son, Shaun, has been a part of my family from the early 80’s. Shaun was Robby’s roommate and is very special young man.


My sister, Ronda, threw a mini family reunion at the farm in Colton on August 30th. She planned all sorts of festivities . . . Ultimate Croquet Contest, Hot Potato Contest, Horseshoe Contest, Basketball Free-throw contest, Baseball – I’m sure there was another game, but I can’t remember what it was! My sister, Barbara and two of her girls, Sydney and Rachael, my sister, Ronda, her husband, Del, daughter, Amber, my niece, Kathryn, my sister, Sheila, her husband, Glen, my daughters, Vala and Lynda, with Justin, Skyler, and Ava, my son, Patrick, his fiancée, Traci, and grandson, Coty and granddaughter, Cory, besides Les and I were in attendance. We all had a ball, competing and eating. Les and Sydney won the Horseshoe Competition.

The next day was Ava’s second birthday party, and then . . . (Two of Ava’s favorite people, Auntie Vala and ELMO!) Oh, yes, then there was My birthday… Oh, fun and happiness, another year! Les took me to an Irish Pub in Portland, Kells – we always have a good time there. Did I mention that Kathy H, Tish, and I celebrated our birthdays together at The Canton Grill? This is a yearly to-do and a cannot miss event. The staff even brought three birthday cookies to our table!

Knowing that our time in Portland was drawing to a close, I frantically visited with friends from Kaiser, went over to our friends, Ken and Carol, for dinner where we were delightfully serenaded by Carol on her mandolin, and we had a lovely afternoon, evening and dinner with the old crowd (wish those pictures would have turned out better!). Also had a day out with Melody, visiting with our cousin, Dora. There is never enough time!

My XXth class reunion was on September 12th. For the reunion, we met at “Saylor’s Steak House” for dinner and then met again at a classmate’s house for a Saturday afternoon visit. We had a wonderful time, thanks to the planning expertise of a couple of our classmates.
Especially Mary, who, I believe, made sure the reunion was held while I was in town. Thanks, Mary! Les and I went to the dinner. Out of the 95-99 graduates, 19 came to the dinner. Not too bad. The next day, we had two more classmates show up that weren’t at the dinner. Somehow, I didn’t get a picture of those that were at the Saturday gathering….

Then, the grand finale of our visit…. Patrick and Traci’s wedding. It was a beautiful setting and ceremony! Traci was a beautiful, if nervous, bride, and Patrick was a very eager groom! We welcomed Traci and her two children and grandchildren into the family whole heartedly!

Thank you so much, Lynda, Justin, Skyler and Ava, for sharing your home with us for those eight weeks!

We left Gladstone, Oregon, on Sunday night at 6pm Pacific Time. The first night out we stayed at Baker City, OR, the next night was in Rawlins, WY. We arrived in Wichita, Kansas, on Tuesday, September 16th, at 11:00pm Central time.

Walnut Valley Festival awaited . . . .

Les’s Readers Digest Version:
-Spent almost two months in Oregon. Most of the time in Linda’s driveway.
-One week at Timothy lake. With Sheila and Glen’s family - had a good time. Not much for fishing, but I did learn how to catch crawdads at night.
-One weekend camping with Pat/Tracie and kids.
One weekend with friends Charlie and Betsy, Friends I hadn’t seen for 20+ years. I had a good time catching up on old times and the times we’d missed.
-A true highlight was when we visited Carol and Ken, one evening. Carol has been learning the Mandolin for the past couple years. She played Amazing Grace. Her grace on the mandolin is truly amazing.
-Stayed for Patrick and Tracie's wedding. Well done and Very nice. Patrick needs to get down on his knees and thank the higher power for her. She is an absolute sweetheart.
-We beat feet back to Kansas for Winfield Bluegrass, Kansas City Ren Faire, Guthrie Oklahoma Bluegrass, and the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta. These will be covered in the next blog.

...to Portland, Oregon

[Please note that I've posted additional pictures on the previous "... To Miles City" blog]


And now . . .



Started the long ride home to Oregon.... Now that we've hit the fun spots we wanted to see, it's just sort of a long ride through some pretty awesome scenery. Taking a deep breath we journeyed onward. Saw a lot of those little signs of Lewis & Clark, pointing the way.

First, let us digress a bit. Didn't really touch on some things I wanted to: Leaving Forada and before we hit our campground for the night, we stopped for lunch in Valley City, ND, where my dad, Bob Benzinger, grew up. We went to Chautauqua Park that was on the banks of a river and there was this huge train trestle spanning it and while we were there this big long train came by. Noisy, big, awesome!

The place we stayed that night was this little town called Dawson and I was afraid for a while that we had landed right smack dab in the middle of the "Twilight Zone". We drove into town, pop. 75. Not a creature was stirring. No dogs, no cats, no birds, no people! Parked and got out of the car by the "Information Center". Went in. No one there, just printed material about the area. Went to City Hall, locked door. Still no one in sight. Went to the town museum, doors opened, we went in, looked around, but still, not a soul. Walked across the street where there was a gas station, grocery, and cafe - went into the grocery and finally, there was a clerk on duty. Did I mention she reminded me of Kathy Bates in Misery? . . . . Just kidding! She told us where the campground was and after we set up we walked back to town and found more people in the local bar where we sat, drank a couple of beers and played Jeopardy.

After a good night's sleep at Dawson, North Dakota we went on through to Butte, Montana and then through a little town called Anaconda, where they once mined a lot of copper. There is this cool smoke stack still standing - http://www.anacondamt.org/photos.htm - and where we found a really good restaurant the last time we went through. This time we didn't stop to eat but drove another route through Shalkaho Pass, which was a little risky for us in the travel trailer as we didn't know what to expect with 20 miles of gravel road promised on the map. But, what the hey, we'd taken the Casita up to the Arctic Circle, remember? Couldn't be worse than that! Just before we hit the gravel road we drove by a place called Gem Mountain, where you can mine sapphires. Of course, we didn't make up our mind that we HAD to stop until we'd gone a half mile down the road. Les good naturedly turned around - no easy feat with the trailer, don't ya know. So we went back to Gem Mountain - http://www.gemmtn.com/ - and bought two buckets of dirt - it took me around three hours to get around 65 sapphires, with some help from Les, of course. There were six of the quality and size that you could send away to facet and give a heat treatment to bring out their color and for a mere $150.00 they'd be glad to send it away to have it done. Didn't do it - but it was sure fun to go through those buckets of dirt and find them! That night we camped at a primitive campsite just outside Hamilton, MT. Beautiful, but liberally sprinkled with mosquitoes.

We then went on to visit with Ken and Patti. These are people who we met up in last year in Denali National Park in Alaska. Camped with them there and then when we got to the Arctic Circle, lo and behold there they were! In parting we exchanged addresses and phone numbers and invitations to visit each other if we got a chance.... well, guess this teaches them a lesson as I called them a couple of weeks ago and asked if they were going to be home about the time we'd be passing pretty close to where they live in Montana. They said come on down! (or over as case may be). We stayed overnight at their home in the mountains of Montana where they have the sweetest set up! An awesome view of the mountain and valley, a lovely home they built there, two RV hook ups for friends that "just happen to be passing through" (even a couple of dump stations which are very important), and peace and quiet! They showed us a good time and we, somewhat reluctantly, left the next morning. After all, Oregon was calling to me.

We drove down Lolo pass, which is one of the prettiest stretches of roads between Wichita and Portland. Lewis and Clark couldn't have picked a more picturesque route if they'd tried. We stayed overnight in Kamiah, ID, we've stayed here before and were once again very happy with the accommodations.

Headed on out to Pendleton, OR, then decided to cut on over to Walla Walla, WA, instead. I realized we'd be going right by The Whitman Mission - which you history buffs know to be where the Whitman Massacre took place. We decided to stop there for lunch and I walked the grounds. During my early years of avid reading I'd read a lot about the fur trappers, the Oregon Trail and the early settlers of the Pacific Northwest, of which Narcissa and Marcus Whitman was a significant part of. The tracks you see in this picture is actually part of the Oregon Trail, even after all this time the ruts warn into the land were so deep they can still be seen today. The hill behind me is a place where Narcissa would climb to watch for her husband to return from his journeys.

While I had thought we would stop in Pendleton or Boardman for an overnight stay, Les decided to go ahead and run on into Portland. So we arrived in Portland on July 28th. We are glad to be able to stay put for a while.

So far we've had a nice visit with the family. Ava's growing like a weed, but very shy. Skyler is continually busy, Lynda & Justin are doing a great job with them and have opened up their carport with it's RV space for us. Granddaughters Casey and Carey were staying with Lynda when we arrived, so we had the bonus of seeing them for a few days. We've seen my sister, Sheila, her husband, Glen, their daughter, Andrea - Les helped with the building of their fence. Went to see my sister, Ronda, but didn't get to see her, but did spend some time with her husband, Del, and their youngest daughter, Amber. Also missed getting to see my dad when we went to Colton. I took a quick trip in to see my friends at work, at Kaiser Permanente, spent and evening and then a whole day with Vala, took my son, Patrick's girls, Casey and Carey over to him and are planning our camping trip with them - Patrick, his fiancee, Traci, and her son, Tyler, and of course, Patrick's daughters, Cory, Casey, and Carey - Patrick's son, Coty, will be on another camping trip so won't be there with us. Yesterday my oldest granddaughter, Hope, and her boyfriend, Maxx, arrived for a visit with her Oregon relatives.... How's that for timing? Haven't called a lot of people I need to, to make arrangements for visits, but we have to firm up some other plans before I make those calls. Yes, we are a bit busy while here in Portland.

I can see where there still needs to be a couple of more pictures posted so guess I'll be adding more pictures later! I've waited too long in posting this blog as it is! :-)

There will probably be something of a break in the blogs now for awhile. We should be in Portland until after my son's wedding on September 14th.

Take care all!

Joy
& Les

(Les' Readers Digest Version)

-Drove across North Dakota. West ND is a bit like western Kansas.
-Flat, hot, and dry.
-Drove across Montana. Dern, Montana is a wide state.
-Visited with Ken and Patti, in Stevenville Montana. We'd meet them in Alaska last year. They have 10 acres in the Mountains. With the nicest, private, RV set up I've seen. Room for Two friends or relatives with Elect, Water, and sewer.
-Good people and a good time.
-Drove across Oregon to Portland. Bought an annual fishing license for Oregon. $83.
-Fish stories are expensive, lies are cheap.
-Did I mention, we drove, and Drove, and DROVE.
-It's a long way from Lake Huron to Portland.

les,

...to Miles City, Montana

How time flies! . . . July is almost over already!

It's fun to be back in the states, but we can't forget the beauty of our Manitoulin Island Adventure or the friends we left there. One of my favorite pictures of our visit is this picture of one of our last nights there....

Got back into the United States on July 10th (after seeing a small black bear gnawing on a tree along side of the freeway on the way to the border). So nice to pay for gas by the gallon instead of the liter. We paid as much as $1.41 per liter. We were happy to pay the $4.23 per gallon in Michigan and was even more pleased to get to Minnesota and pay $3.97. Enough about gas...

On this trip we saw three of the Great Lakes, Michigan, Huron, and Superior. They are all beautiful. While skirting the shoreline of Lake Superior we went to "The Shipwreck Museum" at Whitefish Point, Michigan. Learned about five or six of the biggest shipwrecks in Lake Superior including "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald". It was very interesting. We also toured the lighthouse and learned about old rescue techniques - thank goodness the techniques have improved.

We were informed that there were like over a hundred waterfalls in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan - Oops! I mean, these waterfalls are in the Yooper, I found the falls to be wonderful and stopped to see four or five. Les finally put his foot down after we saw three in one day.

We breezed through Wisconsin. Beautiful scenery and then arrived in Minnesota. Stayed at Billisby Lake a few days, by Cannon Falls. While camping there we went into Northfield, MN - famed for the failed James/Younger bank robbery. It's very picturesque and we had a great time walking the streets of the old town and window shopping.


Then we drove over to Randolf, MN, where my nephew, Bob, and his lovely wife, Maria, live with their two lively little ones, Cole, 3, and Meaghan, 19 months. I have to say, they have an ideal set up for our camper. We parked in their circular driveway, blocking it off, of course, under shady trees overlooking their wooded property. Besides grilling awesome ribs for dinner the first night we were there, including us in on an extended "family" birthday party, dinner at a bar that served the best Walleye fish and chips I've eaten, a massive ice cream cone desert, a walk by historic houses of St. Paul - while eating said ice cream cones, Bob took Les on a most enjoyable fishing trip where he caught enough fish to make him happy, they somehow managed to arrange the lightening bugs to show up and glow in their yard like so many twinkle lights, all three nights we were there! Now that is going all out if you ask me.

Sadly we left Randolf, but we went on to Forada, MN, the small town that I spent 14 or so months when I was 8 and 9. This is where I went to the "one" room school house for my 3rd and 4th grades. I had no expectations as to what my visit there would be like as I had no idea what my old address had been. I have the memories of an 8/9 year old of the town and it's people and I thought I should be able to find where our house was. We drove into Forada (pop. 171) on Monday afternoon. I located the old schoolhouse, which had been brand new when I attended - Les delights in telling me how long ago it was - it's pretty run down and hearbreakingly derelict. There are two taverns and a Firehouse on main street, where there had been a tavern and a gas station/grocery store and a church. We stopped in at the "old" tavern and Les started up a conversation with the oldest looking guy in the room and shortly thereafter, a lady that was sitting at the bar, celebrating her birthday was on the phone to her good friend, my "old" best friend, Carolyn. Carolyn came right over and we visited for an hour or so, catching up on each other's lives, she updated me on our classmates - there were four of us in our grade, and the "do you remembers . . .". How much fun was that! As close to going home again as one can get. Sadly, the house that we lived in had been torn down, all of the old farm buildings are gone, a "new" house is where our driveway was and the barn has been replaced by a huge cornfield and there is a wooded area is along the main road. Sigh.

After spending the night in the new bar's grassy alleyway (not bad, a biker bar and a police station camping spot on this trip) we traveled out of Minnesota on to North Dakota where we stayed one night at a really, really small town, called Dawson, ND. I think their population was 42. Lots of pretty scenery all the way up until this afternoon when we hit some long flat places that faded into rolling hills with the wind picking up and messing up our good gas mileage.

Whoops, I'm back to gas. Time to sign off.

Take care all!

Joy

& Les

Les's Readers Digest Version:

-Left Canada and good friends.
-Drove to just south of Minneapolis/St Paul.
-Visited our Nephew Bob, wife Maria, live wire son Cole, and sweet daughter Megan.
-Bob and I went Fishing at Mille Lac lake, north of M/SP. One of the 3 biggest lakes in Minnesota.
-Bob got us a guide with a boat, I caught a 19 7/8” Small Mouth Bass (not 19 ¾” or 20” but 19 7/8” our guide, Jason, measured it)
Nephew Bob

-Les & guide
-Good people, good times, and good fishing in Minnesota.
-Now across Minnesota, North Dakota and Montana. On our way to Oregon.