Christmas Dinner in the Bus

Four Generations

Then over to Scottsdale to celebrate one more time with Sister Barb’s family on the 28th! We will also have the opportunity to visit with many more cousins while in AZ and hope to ring in the New Year with much family and lots of friends there.

Well – our last ‘blog title’ was “we’re back” – meaning we had another blog posting. However – many of you thought we were home – early!! Not a chance. So – here is the last week of our 3 month tour —-

Just like all the others, the week was PACKED. This one, though, held many days of reminiscing for Elizabeth. It was decided that Gary needed to see Iron Springs (just outside of Prescott, AZ) and the family ‘cabin’ where summers were spent back in the ‘good ole’ days’. So, we loaded up the car with Mother, friend Phyllis, Gary and Elizabeth and headed north. Gary saw the softball field where we spent many a summer night watching two or three men’s softball games an evening (unfortunately the Dairy Queen across the street no longer exists). Then we headed to Whisky Row – the usual main drag in old turn-of-the-century (1800‘s to 1900‘s) towns where all the miners would congregate at night to drink and ????. Of course, Mother and Phyllis found the oldest bar in town and saddled up!

After pleading with the caretaker, we managed to get into the ‘camp’, which looked about the same as it did 40 years ago!! (The Biaett cabin, however, was nothing like what we lived in!!) The old General Store was just as we left it – as was the caboose that hasn’t moved an inch in all those years.

Well – the last couple of weeks have been in the Phoenix/Scottsdale area and I didn’t think there was much to write about (so I haven’t) – until I started to put some thoughts down. We have really been busy!!

When we arrived in town, the first thing I saw was an ad for the ‘Arizona State Fair’! Now Gary is NOT a fan of any fair since I drug him to the Utah State Fair to ‘check it out’ right after we moved to Utah. BUT, this was my very favorite thing to do as a kid – and it was always over my birthday. So, several of my girl friends and I would go to the fair and spend an entire afternoon/evening there making ourselves sick on all the rides that would spin us and turn us upside down AND eating cotton candy and chocolate fudge. SO – this year I talked Gary into going with Deme and me so they could relive my youth with me. Deme and I went on all the rides I could stand at my old age (and then a few on her own, as neither Gary nor I could do the upside down ones any more!) Then we ate ice cream, fudge and cotton candy until our tongue and teeth turned blue!! Deme and I had a BLAST!!!!

All of this fun and frolic was followed up with Halloween. Not sure when Deme was the scariest – at the fair with her blue teeth or dressed up for Halloween?!?!?!

Well, since last we left you we have been ‘grandparenting’ – and having a GREAT time at it.

We spent 6 days in Lemoore, CA on the Naval Air Base in their RV parking area. This works out perfect, as it is about 2 blocks from the Hengsteler (Heather, Shannon, Haley and Joseph) on base household – a nice walk! We played, shopped, played, ate, played, went to tumbling class, played, walked, played, got a halloween preview, played – in short – we had a wonderful time being Gramps and Gramma!!

We have had a wonderful stay in Oregon this past week! We arrived on Monday after another ‘tour’ on the ferry to get us back to the ‘mainland’. You would think after the last ride, we would be old pros – but this was a MUCH smaller, older ferry that gave us another new experience loading and unloading. But, we made it to Port Angeles, WA just fine after more whale sightings!

A beautiful drive took us to our interim stop at another wonderful RV park in Kelso, WA, where we washed Magic so the bus was all ‘spiffy’ to meet our old friends in Oregon. On the drive we passed this place called Marathon Coach —-(www.marathoncoach.com ) . If you want to be ‘trailer trash’ you might check this out!!

Boy, did we give Priscilla & Steve a ‘fright’/laugh when we pulled up in front of their house with our 36’ house on wheels!! It was fantastic to see them again – and to see all that they have done to their farm in the last couple of years. There is a new beautiful home surrounded by many additions to the herd (150 sheep now!) and the ‘facilities‘ for the sheep. They have even recruited help from Shawn (and his dog Sam). After getting ‘the tour’ we had a good old fashioned ‘chat’ with cocktails and dinner – and a late night as we had several years to catch up on!

Due to our late night, we took it easy Tuesday morning before driving to Crater Lake (a 2 1/2 drive in each direction), which everyone but me had seen. Crater Lake was formed after the collapse of volcano Mount Mazama over 7,000 years ago and is the deepest lake in the United States at 1,943 feet (592 meters), and the seventh deepest lake in the world. It is also the fifth oldest national park, founded in 1902. The extreme depth and pure water combine to create a blue gem that stuns many first-time visitors into silence – if only one can see it. As mentioned in previous postings, we have had absolutely beautiful weather – which I was bragging about to our friends. So – it rained and SNOWED all the way to Crater Lake!! When we got to the lake – it was in a cloud, not to be seen. So – what else – we ate! After lunch, as we walked out on the patio of the Lodge, the clouds broke and we had 2 minutes of sun and I actually got to see the lake!!

A beautiful rainbow over the Salt Marsh Ranch awaited our return.

Our stay at the Salt Marsh Ranch would not be complete without a ‘walk around’ the farm to meet all the sheep, the guard Llamas – Lucy and Hank, the guard dogs – TJ, Chewy, Jacob and Isaac, and the herding dog – Molly.

Wednesday afternoon we moved Magic to an RV park just outside of Ashland and had company for dinner – Brian Campbell, our friend and former neighbor who is attending Southern Oregon University in Ashland. Again, we had a delightful evening just chatting and catching up. Our last day in Oregon was another wonderful day of lunching, shopping, dining and going to the Shakespeare Theater. What more could anyone ask for??

More later – E&G

Thursday, September 24, Gary and I headed to Horseshoe Bay (just north of Vancouver) to board the ferry for Vancouver Island. This was a new experience for all of us – especially Magic. Packing the bus onto the ferry was “nervous time”! But, also a lot of fun. Here is the story –

On the other side, we headed to our new camp for the next three nights. The environment is just fine – BUT, it is one of those with NO internet and NO satellite. After having such great coverage for the last few days – this is major withdrawal! So – this posting will include a couple of days when we can find a connection. AND, we will have to spend a little time back in a bar to watch the FedEx Cup and maybe the ND game – as we can’t miss those!

Friday was spent in Victoria – a walk around the town, a great lunch down at the pier (where we found our golf on TV – that ball going to the hole is Tiger’s putt!) –

Then out to Butchart Gardens for the afternoon. Jennie Butchart was perhaps the first ‘green lady’ way back in 1904 when she began to beautify a worked-out limestone quarry which had supplied her husband’s nearby Portland cement plant. The garden started as a hobby with the Sunken Garden (the quarry), but just kept expanding to the Japanese Garden followed by the Rose and the Italian Gardens. Today, during the summer months, concerts are held in the Gardens and fireworks explode over them. It was a wonderful, beautiful, relaxing afternoon wandering.

Saturday morning was a slow one getting out of Magic – we had breakfast, got cleaned up, began a little of the packing up process (tomorrow is a travel day – back to the good ole USA) and wrote the previous portion of this posting. When we finally got going, we headed back into Victoria to visit the Craigdarroch Castle. This home is built on a hill overlooking the City of Victoria (Craigdarroch means “rocky, oak place” in Gaelic). It was built between 1887-1890 for Robert Dunsmuir, a Scottish immigrant who made his fortune after coming to Vancouver from Vancouver Island coal – but, he never lived in it as he died before it was completed. His wife, Joan, inherited his entire estate (valued at $15-$20 million in 1888) and moved into the house in 1890. She also ‘housed’ several of her grandchildren at fairly young ages who were orphaned!

After our ‘house tour’ and lunch and an update on golf at our ‘bar at the pier’, we were off on a 3-hour whale watching tour (our tiny ship did not get tossed and we DID return!). What FUN we had!! Lots of whales – Orcas, Killers and Humpbacks!!

What a way to end our stay on Vancouver Island! Tomorrow we are headed back to the USA via ferry (again!) and on to Oregon.

More later – Love to All – Elizabeth & Gary

Well, here we are in Whistler – our whole reason for this trip. Our campsite is GREAT, we are enjoying further investigating Whistler, and watching their preparation for the Olympics. It brings back soooooo many memories!

There is frantic work going on to complete road improvements in and around Whistler. The medals ceremony arena in Whistler is still under construction (after being shelved due to finances with the alternative of medals given at the venues – now they are back to building the ceremony arena). All the finish areas are ‘under construction’ for the grandstands, press boxes, etc. The ‘Whistler Athletes Village’ is still under construction. Etc., etc. etc.

Monday was property investigation day – looking at possible housing for the 2 weeks of the Olympics, walking around the Village and just driving around to see what is going on in the way of preparation. A nice casual day followed by dinner on our ‘patio’ watching Monday night football – using that outdoor entertainment center!

Tuesday, September 22, we bounced into fall looking at more houses and golfing. Both were a BUST – a lot of disappointment. Nothing to say about the house and not much more to say about the Nicklaus North Golf Course, except it was surrounded by mountains on the shores of Whistler’s Green Lake – 15 holes with water!! The rest is all bad – and my Mother taught me if you didn’t have something good to say – don’t say anything. So – nothing to say here.

Wednesday – the first FULL day of fall – and another full schedule of houses, errands (a hair cut for Elizabeth!?!?!?) and a round of golf. Think perhaps we found ‘our’ house for the Olympics – after many ‘fact finding’ discussions with the Chamber of Commerce, Office of Tourism, Municipal Office, several real estate offices and property management offices, as well as individuals and many internet sites!! Amazing the lack of information at this point about bus schedules, bus routes, ski area access, etc. from the above offices – all of which was important information for our decision making. Whenever we received the same ‘bit of information’ from more than one source, we considered it ‘gospel’ and factored it into the decision process. Now we have our friend/roommate working on the negotiations – keeping our fingers crossed.

We also played the Arnold Palmer Whistler Golf Club Course this afternoon – a delight after yesterday afternoon! The course was beautiful, fairways and greens were in fantastic shape and it was a beautiful afternoon. Could not ask for any more on our last day in Whistler.

Tomorrow is another travel day – to Vancouver Island! Yes, Magic is going swimming! We will give you a full report of how things go later tomorrow.

Love to all – E&G

Well – I asked Gary to write this blog report and he said it would be one word if he wrote it – “YUCK!!!!” So here I am again –

Our second day of golf in Kamloops was a course called Tobiano – Golf Digest’s ‘Best New Canadian Course’ for 2008. Gary decided the same types of people make this determination as those who determine the overall winner at the Sundance Film Festival – they all have their heads somewhere other than where we have ours!!

First of all – the course has been plunked down in the middle of nowhere under the theory – BUILD IT AND THEY WILL COME! (Note – we did come!) The residential development part seems to be on hold like so many areas of the same ilk.

The condition of the course was wonderful – IF you could find the fairway, stay on it and then find the green. The majority of the men’s tees had carries over sagebrush dotted gullies – and not short carries! The par 3’s were all from hilltop to hilltop with a ‘wonderful carry’ in between – even for the women. The fairways were lined with that golden fescue stuff – so good luck finding your ball if you go off the fairway. AND, even if you hit your ball in the fairway it would wind up in the fescue because all fairways rolled ‘big time‘ right or left. Oh yeah – the views were great!

The best about this adventure – lunch was good. We ran a few errands on our way back to Magic (like picking up our dry cleaning), cleaned up for dinner and had a very nice dinner at Hoodoos restaurant above the city of Kamloops watching the city lights come on. A very nice way to wind up our visit to Kamloops.

Sunday was a fabulous travel day! We took ‘the back way’ – or as the locals call it – ‘the Duffy Lake Road’ – from Kamloops to Whistler. It is only about 180 miles, but it took us 6 hours! We had been warned that the road was very steep and winding in places, but that trucks used it so we would be OK with Magic. For the most part, the road was good – only a few gravel/dirt spots. BUT, it was very narrow in spots with several one lane wooden bridges (wish we had a shot of these to show you – wow!) and lots of very steep places. Ever seen a 13% Grade?!?!?! We had several – and Magic performed just fine.

At one point, we came up over a ‘hill’ and there in front of us was this fabulous picture –

The aforementioned Duffy Lake!! The scene was beautiful with the mountains and glaciers in the background. It just took your breath away. We decided this was a good lunch spot – so fired up the micro with leftover taco ‘stuff’ and enjoyed the view!

After taking it all in and having full stomachs, it was time to hit the road again. Most of the way it was open range, but we thought that was just for cattle. At one point it was the horses who created their parade – and didn’t care if they held up traffic!

The entire way was one beautiful view/picture after another. The 180 miles was worth all 6 hours – and the white knuckles!! AND, we were rewarded with a wonderful campsite in Whistler.

Now we begin our quest for Olympic housing. Will keep you posted on that hunt.

Love to All – YUCK & Aaaaahhhhh