July 12 and 13 2007

Thursday July 12 and 13 We are in Nampa, Idaho (20 miles west of Boise) for 4 days. Kent is really excited as they have his two favorite stores here, Costco and Walmart!!!! Someone told us that Nampa has the worlds largest Walmart, it is a test store to see how good it does. They said it was 3 blocks long and it carried all kinds of fancy stuff. We didn't notice it any different than what we usually see, so I think he must have gotten hit on the head with a large hail stone. Friday night we ate great pizza there at "The Chicago Connection".
Saturday July 14 Today we went to an old prison built built in 1870 as a territorial prison. It was added on to over the years to become a very large prison which was used until about 1956. Most of the prison is now just a shell due to fires that burned a lot of the main buildings. It was a very hot day and the guide did as much of his story in the shade of the buildings as he could. They sold frozen bottles of water when you bought your ticket and that was a life saver. The solitary confinement cells were still in tact, and felt so cool from the blazing sun. The women's prison was eventually built outside the main prison. It was quite different from the men's, as it housed only 14 woman. It had 7 double cells and a small kitchen where they cooked their own meals. Between the two rows of cells and kitchen was a larger room where the woman knitted or sewed on sewing machines. They sewed their own clothes and also made some money selling their work. They were sent there for prostitution, child neglect, or alcohol problems. Times have sure changed for the severity of these same crimes, hasn't it???

July 10, 2007

Tuesday July 10th We got off to a late start leaving Salem. Kent had to go back to the house for something we forgot and all that takes time. We only went as far as Pendleton and we found out after we were all set up the 50 amp. wasn't working for the campers in our section. So the smart people hurried up and moved into a different section but there was no room for us when we figured out what was happening. Not to be out foxed by our fellow campers, we found out that after everyone had left our area, the 50 amp worked great without the overload of so many campers. Every time a new camper came down our road, Kent went out and told them the 50 amp wasn't working and everyone had moved. So everyone would go to a different section leaving us the only camper in that section. We had no amp problems for the two nights we stayed there.

July 7 through July 9, 2007

Saturday July 7th Kallie Mae is playing in the "All Stars" softball games this weekend, so we went to her first game. Our friend Gary from California is visiting in Portland and he drove down and went to the game with us. The girls played well and we were very happy for the win. After the game, Kent, Gary and Sharon went to the casino and Gary taught Kent a new way to play Keno. Sharon played the slot machine that Pat from the Salon had told her about and we left the casino with $100. It sure was fun to win for a change!!! We ate dinner there and then we went home.
Sunday the 8th We are leaving on Tuesday, so we cooked a big turkey that we had in the freezer and had all of Sharon's kids over for dinner that could come. It was fun, almost like Thanksgiving used to be before she started cooking the big breakfast for her family. By cooking breakfast on Thanksgiving we can spent the day with both of our families. It was fun for all of us to get together and visit before we take off on the road again.
Monday July 9th We spent the day reloading the camper and getting ready to leave in the morning. Bodie spent the day with me and he was a big help carrying things and putting things away. That evening we went to Kallies second game and it was really fun because all of our family was there cheering the team on. They played a good game, but they didn't win. It was a big disappointment for all of us as they have worked so hard all season and have done so good. We stopped and picked up chicken for dinner and we went to our house afterwards for our last night of visiting.

July 3 through July 5th, 2007

July 3rd We had four busy days at home making freezer jam before it was time to head back to the beach house for the 4th of July gathering. Kent's girls and their families joined us there for three days. We went to the tavern for Chicken and Jo Jo's for dinner on Tuesday night. Wednesday the 4th we were up early eating breakfast and getting ready for the big day. Maya made a flag and stuck it to a big stick to take to the parade. (picture) Kent went and parked the truck in our favorite parking place so we can line our chairs up to watch the parade. ( Pictures) You would think it was a "Macy's" parade the way we all act. For such a small town, they really have a nice parade with families participating together in it. There is always so much candy thrown at the parade, the kids all caught a huge amount, that made it all the more fun. After the parade we went home and ate lunch and headed back to the activities of the day. They always have money buried on a tarp covered with sand for the different age groups to dig through the sand and find. I think they have $30 in coins hidden in the sand. Maya always does good with this game. The boys and Anna entered in the foot races and the 3 legged race. Josh and Brandon both won $12 . There is music playing, a lot of people fly kites and there is a lot of food booths to snack at. They also have an auction with a lot of neat things donated by the business's and people. There is usually a good crowd for that.
After the city's activities were over, we came home and the kids played on the beach and the adults sat in their lawn chairs and visited. That evening Kent grilled hamburgers for us and by the time we cleaned up the dinner mess, it was time for the kids to start shooting off fire works. By dusk, the beach is full of camp fires and people shooting off the pretty fire works or should I say the BIG fire works.There are sure a lot of illegal fire works going on. Kent says it looks like a war zone. I think I agree.(picture)
The next morning after breakfast we cleaned the house and changed all the beds for the next big gathering we will have. Probably Thanksgiving Dinner. That will be here before we know it I am sure.

June 25 thru the 28th

June 25th We are headed for the beach for a few days with Tress, Cory and kids. They are on vacation down south by Florence and are driving up the coast to spend a few days with us. The weather is a little on the cool side, but there is so much to do at the beach we will be fine. Kent and Cory went to Nehalem and picked up chicken from our favorite tavern and brought it home for dinner. I took the kids down to the water and let them play in the sand for awhile. The wind was really blowing and it was chilly. (picture)
June 26th The guys decided to go crabbing and fishing in the ocean today. It is cloudy and looking like rain, but we packed them a lunch and off they went with high hopes of a big catch. After they left, Tress, Blaize and Nonnie went antiquing to the town down the road and we also had a good seafood lunch there. (pictures) The guys came threw with 4 bottom fish and no Crab. Bodie caught his first large bottom fish it was about 18 inches. Bodie was real excited and caught the fish all by himself. He held the fishing pole for about 2 hours before he caught his fish Cory and Kent started to feel guilty about Bodie fishing so hard so we were about ready to leave and WHAM Bodie had the fish on(picture). Kent asked him if he wanted to go home and he said "lets stay". Bodie out fished Cory and Kent and he'd still be there if we hadn't made him quit.
June 27th Today the sun is shining so bright and beautiful! After our usual beach breakfast of pancakes, Cory and Bodie went down to the beach to build and deep tunnel in the sand. By the time I got the camera ready, the tunnel collapsed and they turned it into a bridge over the hole. Bodie was very proud of their work and had lots of fun playing in it. (picture) Later that afternoon we all drove to Tillamook to the cheese factory where we took a tour of the factory. Then we stopped at the animal farm where Mz. Blaize had a ball feeding the animals. You buy the feed inside for the animals, they are so tame, they about climb over the fence to get to the feed. I think Blaize would still be there if we hadn't run out of feed.
June 27th Another day of rain, so it is good we are going home today. The kids have been on vacation for 2 weeks, they need to get home to do a few things before they have to go back to work on Monday. It rained all the way home and was raining in Salem when we got there. We sure had a good time though.

June 19th thru the 22nd

Tuesday the 19th Kent is working in Portland again today and Sharon went to lunch at her friend Beth's house. We had a great time catching up on what has been going on with each other. Then back to the house cleaning for Sharon, maybe pull a few weeds in the back yard too.
Friday the 22nd Today Sharon is taking her two grand daughters, Shelby and Kallie Mae out for lunch and shopping to celebrate their birthdays. Shelby's birthday is in July and Kallie's was in May. We went to "Salem Center" mall and we had a a great time checking out all the stores. After we had lunch, (picture) we went to "Target" and they found a few more things they wanted to buy. Then it was time to go home, as Grandma had a dinner date with Lisa (daughter) and her friends to celebrate Lisa's birthday today! The party was held South of Turner, OR way up in the hills in the country at her friend Sharon's house. We always have fun at her parties as she is such a great entertainer and cook. Kent went out with Cindy and the boys for dinner after a ball game.
This was a very busy day celebrating 3 birthdays .
Saturday the 23 rd Tonight we had Beth and Ralph over for dinner. We had a good time visiting but we ran out of time before Sharon could get a game of cards going with them.

June 17, 2007

We are headed for Portland to go to Brandon's ball game, (picture) we were amazed how much Brandon has grown since we last saw him. After the game we went to Cindy and Erik's house for a father's day dinner. Cindy and Dee Dee fixed a lovely dinner for all the dad's there and Erik did the BBQ'ing, We enjoyed their lovely back yard visiting and looking at pictures. Dee Dee has a new baby pug puppy named "Ella". Kent spent a lot of time holding it. (pictures)

June 4th thru the 16th

So much to do and so many people to see before it is time to leave again. Kent goes to Portland in the morning to visit and do Dr. appointments. Sharon is busy trying to see as many people she can from the shop and the kids in the evenings. Kent has decided he is bored and has taken a job in Portland again running the lift and doing odd jobs. He is like a little boy with a new toy running the lift. (picture) Sharon has a lot of spring clean up in her yard and house, so she is really busy. She took down all the curtains in the house and moved all the furniture. When Kent came home he couldn't believe that Sharon could make so many changes in so little time. It really changed the motif of the home and Kent liked the change.
The new coffee house in Keizer (Steam Heat) is a really nice place to meet friends for coffee and a sweet treat. She met one of her good friends there.

We are busy back in Salem going to more ball games with 3 of Sharon's grand children playing ball. It is hard to get them all in for a couple of games, as the season is almost over and they sometimes play on the same night. They are so happy we are home to see one of their games and we love going to them. Sharon's son Bill coaches the girls softball team that Kallie plays on, it is neat watching Kallie pitch with that wind up pitch that the girls do.(pictures) It is so different watching the girls play versus the boys. Kent really got into the girls games and how aggressive they play. Bodie who is five had one game left to play. It was fun to see the little guys bat from the T and run fast when they hit it. They all sat so still on the bench until their turn came up, not all over the place like they do when they are older. (pictures). We went to a couple of Ray"s (Lisa's boy)
games and he looks so grown up on the field. He also won his games and that made it more fun. (picture)

May 30 thru June 02

Wednesday the 30th It feels good to be home again but the house feels almost like I am visiting here. About the time I get settled in we are ready to hit the road again. Pammy and Jeff are celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary on Saturday, it will be a fun night with all the kids there and their friends from high school.
Friday June 1st. Kim, Mathew and Pamela came from Eugene today and are spending the night here with us. Mike will drive up tomorrow for the party. We all are doing things for the party, I am taking the album of their wedding and I discovered the pictures were sticking to the album. That required changing them to a new album that is acid free. Doing that took awhile as I had to look at all pictures real good and have a few good laughs. That evening we went over to Pammy's house to watch her decorate her anniversary cake. She does such a beautiful job decorating cakes and did a superb job on their cake. (Picture)
Saturday June 2nd. Today is the day of the party and we are all ready for the big event. They rented a lovely hall in Keizer that had a full kitchen and they had set up the bar and all the tables for us. Jean Marie (Jeff's Mom) sewed beautiful yellow toppers for the tables to put over the white clothes. The color of their wedding was yellow. We all fixed food and it was a real hoe down for everyone. There were tables set up outside and they were in use a lot as the evening was warm and with all the dancing everyone was warm too. What a wonderful time we all had but it sure didn't seem like 25 years ago those two got married. It is a reminder that we aren't as young as we feel or in some instances we are as old as we feel. I don't think anyone there was feeling old that night from the looks of the people on the dance floor all night. All the girls that was in the wedding were at the anniversary party and they had fun taking pictures together.

May 24 through 29th 2007

Thursday the 24th We are on our way home again for the 4th of July with our kids. We are stopping at the "Klamath Falls RV Park". It isn't a fancy looking place, but the camping spaces are nice and level with green grass to park on. There is a pasture with horses in it to look at. We are headed for Madras, Oregon tomorrow. Kent's grandsons are playing in a baseball tournament there.
Friday the 25th We got here early to find a RV Park, with the tournament going on all the campgrounds are full. It took a lot of phone calls and some repeat calls to see if anything was available for a rig the size of ours. We finally found one six miles down the crooked river gorge canyon road. (Lake Simtustus RV Park) It was a real winding road that seemed to take forever to get to on the campground.We had to cross a narrow bridge that took some skill on Kent"s part to get across. After we checked in, we went to our space down a steep hill on the second level and found someone was in our spot. So we had to find a place to park and get out of the way. The lady was nervous when I told her they had rented us the space. The husband showed up soon and said they would be out in 1/2 hour. They were real nice and we think they decided to stay one more night and thought it would be OK as it was vacant and it was about 3:30.PM. We helped them pack up and move their boat and everything was all OK. That evening we met the kids at the motel were they were staying. We stayed and visited until about 11:30 PM. That was a long day for us and we are meeting for breakfast in the morning before we go to the games.
Saturday After breakfast we drove to the field where Nathan's game was to be played. We waited about 2 hours to find out there was a mix up and there was no team for his team to play. They finally put together a game with another team that had played earlier in the day. We headed to Redmond for Brandon's game at 6:00 PM. It was a good game, they won with no problem.
We had a late dinner and headed back to our camp for the night. The kids came out the next morning to see us and we headed back to town to visit our friends at their home in Madras. We all went to another game and then out to dinner.
Sunday we went to see Carol and Keith's beautiful home in Madras and from there we all went to Brandon's game that evening, they won again. They are a real good team and their games are fun to watch. (Picture)
Monday 28th we drove to Kahneeta to see Tony and Dee Dee and the kids at the resort. They were all at the pool and it was nice visiting with them. That afternoon Carol and Keith came to our campground and the 4 of us went to the casino for dinner and fun.
We headed home to Salem on Tuesday morning. It was a long fun filled weekend seeing the grandson's play ball and tour Kent's home town Bend.
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May 20, through the 24th

Today we arrived in Reno to the "Keystone RV Park" for one night. The next morning we moved to the "Shamrock RV Park" It has a lovely pool and is pretty nice here. We drove to Virginia City for the day. We hoped to see the movie set of the show "Bonanza" but we were told that it had been sold and moved to Hollywood or one of the movie production Companies. Sharon was very disappointed as that was one of her favorite shows and she still enjoys their reruns. The drive was beautiful and their was a lot of antique shops, but that is about all we saw. We were not impressed with the town. (Picture)
On Wednesday we went to Tahoe for the day. We stopped at Lake Tahoe on our way and had lunch.There was a group of artists there with their easels and paint drawings of the lake and mountains. Some of the pictures were very nice and some needed a lot of attention anyway thats what Sharon's artistic talents told her. They meet one day a week somewhere, they get together with their supplies and a sack lunch and have a great time. We went into South Shore and went into the two large Casinos that are right on the Nevada border. This helped us add to the casino card collection that we have started.

May 18th

Today we finally got to go to "Bodie Ghost Town State Park". Lisa and Gene Sharon's Daughter and Son in law have gone to it several times and we wanted to see this ''ghost town'' that is full of houses, old stores and furniture left in them. The town is so large and it was so hot outside, but we didn't let that slow us down. You park your vehicle in the parking lot and take off in whatever direction you choose. They do give you a map with the names of who owned the houses and stores but you have to back track to catch all the streets. We took our usual picnic lunch with several bottles of water and a Pepsi for Kent. It was very much enjoyed as there is no food places there, only drinks and some candy bars in the little gift shop.
The town was taken over by the state in the 60's for protection from vandals and the elements. They keep it safe to walk into the buildings by preserving it with repairs and such. It is sure worth the drive to see.
We got there about 10:00 AM and left at 3:30. It was a full day with lots of walking and enjoyment of seeing what a real old ghost town really looks like. Some of the furniture is planted in the houses but it is dusty and looks like it was just left there went the people left town.
We took a lot of pictures, but will only post a few of them. We call this our "Bodie's "town as they share the name of Sharon's Grandson Bodie.

May 17

We left the 5th wheel in Lee Vining and we went to Yosemite National Park. As we were driving to the park we were discussing what could be so great about this park? We thought it looked just like highway 26 over Mt. Hood. All of a sudden we had dropped down into a valley and there it was, just absolutely breath taking. Yosemite Valley is seven miles long and one mile wide at the widest point. The valley was formed by a glacial erosion over millions of years and it is the most visited section of the park. The walls of the valley are draped with water falls that usually run full in the spring and early summer. The rock formations are gigantic and there are 7 falls or more that are so big and beautiful. Yosemite Falls was the most impressive as it has a drop of 2425 feet and it is the tallest falls in North America and the 5th largest in the world. Sharon liked the Bridal Veil Falls as the spray of it looks like a bridal veil blowing in the wind. We rode a shuttle around the park where they pointed out the "Half dome", Yosemite's most distinctive monument. Standing at the eastern end of Yosemite Valley, Half Dome rises to an elevation of 8842 feet. Later we walked on foot to see a lot more of it. We vote this park is the greatest of all the National parks we have seen so far. (pictures)

May 15 and 16

Tuesday the 15th We are on the road again heading for Inyokern, California. It was very warm when we arrived, there was a "Schwans Ice cream" truck at the campground. We hurried over to his truck and bought a box of ice cream bars from him. YUM YUM!!!!!!!! It was a small, but nice campground in a very small town in the desert by China Lake and a Naval weapons station. The temperature was 114 degrees.
Wednesday the 16th Today is Kent's birthday!!!! We are in Lee Vinning There is a large lake around the town, Kent always enjoys the water, so we went for a drive around the lake that evening. We are going to Yosemite National Park tomorrow.

May 13 and 14

Sunday Mother's day! Bonnie invited us to spent the day with them at their house for a BBQ. There kids, grand kids and friends were there. It was a wonderful meal with so much great food to eat. Ruebe's treatments are doing good and he is looking better. They are looking forward to when they can head home to Fort Pierre, S. D. We are hoping by the time we get to SD they will be home and we can get together again. All my kids called today and it was my second Mother's day without any kids here, it sure is different not being together. Ray called me and they won his baseball tournament. We both hate missing all those ball games our grandsons play.

May 10th

Our drive was a little longer today to Palm Springs (Cathedral City). After we checked in we called our friends from South Dakota (Bonnie and Ruebe) and we went over to where they are staying. We took a quick dip in the pool here, actually there are two nice nice pools at this park.
There was a street fair in Palm Springs that blocked off the main street. We attended the fair and ate the famous street fair food as we wandered our way through it. The story goes that when Sonny Bono was Mayor of Palm Springs, he wanted to have a Street Fair on main street which was a State Highway. The state said they couldn't close down a state highway so he designated another street to be the state highway then he could close the main street for the street fair.
The next day we rode the tram that takes you to the top of a mountain It has a large viewing area and restaurant. (picture) You ride in a cable car that is all windows and the view is awesome. (Picture) More swimming when we got home. It was a great day.
The next day we picked up Bonnie and Ruebe and we took a tour of the movie stars of Palm Springs. They showed us Bob Hopes home where he entertained. It was given to him by Chrysler Motor Company it is approximately 10,000 square feet. Bob had a smaller home down in the city where he lived. He only entertained in the larger home that was up on a knoll and had a view of Palm Springs.
We were shown the home where Elvis Presley was going to be married. (picture) Everything was being prepared for the wedding, when the neighbor "Hedda Hopper"was out early walking her dog and saw all the caters vans and commotion. Being the famous gossip reporter that she was, she asked them what was going on there. One of the workers slipped and told her that Elvis Presley was getting married there that evening. By noon the street was lined with cars on both sides for blocks and to Hedda's disappointment the wedding was relocated to Las Vegas where Elvis and Priscilla were married.