May 22 through 25, 2009

Friday 22~~~~This morning we went to our grandson Bodie's school for a BBQ lunch before taking off for our Memorial weekend Camping trip at the "John Neil County Park". We have a group site and we are meeting my kids there for three nights of camping. Kent did a lot of searching for the best buy on a couple of generaters to keep us powered up for the week end and for us to use on the road when we want to take advantage of a beautiful free place along the road, Walmart or a casino which we do stay at sometimes if it is late in the day when we stop. Our batteries and water give us everything we need, except television!!!!!! Now we can have that too!!!! It frees us up to camp away from the busy camp grounds and enjoy the state parks and nature more. We had a lovely space in the shade of the trees just a few steps away from Lisa and Gene's campground. They were camp central where we had the big fire going most of the day and evening and we had several large tables there for our group dinners we fixed to share. We all brought our own meat and we put salads, casseroles and desserts on the share table. There was a nice lake there where some tried their luck at fishing and there was a wonderful walking path around the big pond. (picture of Lisa and Blaize on the bridge.) You got a good workout going around that everyday. I did it 3 times one day and I slept real good that night. ha Ray, (picture) Bodie and Blaize had so much fun in the park with the play ground swings and such, they also rode their bikes on the trail and they found a lot of side paths to explore and do bike tricks on. (picture of Bodie taking the dog for a walk on his bike). One day we drove into Mill City (stopping at some great garage sales on the way). We stood on the old bridge there and we watched the kayak's come down the river in their kyacks. One of the kayak's got on the bridge and jumped into the water, while another one perched his kayak on a rock above the river, he got in and slid it off into the river. This was about 35 to 40 feet high. It was the first time he did that here, no one else was brave enough to be that stupid. ha (pictures) Saturday evening, Justin, Pammy's son ( picture) and his girlfriend Jen came up for dinner and stayed the night, the next day Shelby, Pammy's daughter (picture) and her friend came up for the day and spent the night also. We had a Chinese horseshoe tournament (Pictures of Kent & Sharon pitching the discs) for everyone to play in and then we switched to a couple of tables of cards. The camouflage picture is Blaize hiding in the trees. All to soon, it was Monday and time to pack up and head home, but a good time was had by everyone so we will do it again sometime.

May 18 through 21, 2009

Monday 18~~~~~ We drove to Portland this afternoon to run and errand for our friend Gary and to attend ball games for our grandson's Brandon and Nathan. The day was very warm, and we enjoyed watching Brandon play his game in the warm sun shine. His team won a very well played game by both teams. We were headed to go to Nate's game when we found out it was called off as the other team didn't show up to play. That was a disappointment to us, as we haven't seen Nate play yet. Tuesday 19 ~~~~ Today Kent drove to Portland again to run some more errands for Gary and to go to his grand daughter Anna's track meet and to go our for lunch with Dee Dee and the girls, he went to Nathans base ball game in the evening and he about froze with the night air getting so chilly yet. The next game he goes to he will wear his winter jacket he said. I stayed home and worked on my books I am writing, I sure enjoy just being home, I don't even have to be going anywhere. Wednesday 20~~~~Kent was busy all day today getting the generaters he bought ready to take camping this weekend. I colored Breanne's hair today after she got out of school, then Kent and I went to Bodies baseball game. We forgot how long it takes to play three innings with kids that age. LOL Again Kent about froze, as he didn't have a jacket along. I wore one, but he said it wasn't that cold out, well it was by they time they played three LONG innings. ha We are going to some campground near Lyons with the Benson's, West's and Norwood families this labor day week end. We will be there Friday through Monday and I think it will be a great time for all, from the note our party planner Lisa sent to all of us. I will try and write on the blog every Thursday while we are home. Enjoy, your comments are always welcome. Thanks Bill K. for your nice comments. Kent never takes any pictures of the games he goes to, but I found some real neat ones of Brandonplaying basketball on the computer that Cindy must have sent to us, so I am posting it as I think the one is an especially neat picture.

May 12 through the 17, 2009

Tuesday 12~~~~We went out for pizza last night with Bill and his kids, Lisa, Gene and Ray, Pammy, Jeff and Joel, it is sort of tradition to go our for pizza the night we get home, we have fun getting together and catching up on everyone. Wednesday 13~~~~ Kent went to Portland today to go to his grandson Brandon's ball game and I stayed home and worked in the yard. My yard used to be my therapy from working at the shop all day, but now it is a job with so much catching up to be done every time we come home. It is no longer fun, pulling weeds and cleaning out flower beds when I won't be planting any pretty flowers. That evening we went to my granddaughter Kalie's softball game, she is the pitcher. We will be leaving again about the 12Th of July to where I don't know. We were talking about going to South Dakota and Nebraska and Colorado, but now we might do something else. I just know we will be "ON THE ROAD AGAIN". Saturday 16~~~~We drove to Tony and Dee Dee's house In Richfield, Wa. for a BBQ celebrating Kent's birthday. We took along my grandson Ray to play with Nathan, Anna and Maya. They have a beautiful home in the country with a trampoline and lots of room for the kids to have fun. We cooked hot dogs over the new fire pit that Tony built in their back yard, we enjoyed Cindy's potato salad, and the some-mores roasted in the fire pit. The weather couldn't have been any nicer for Kent and I who are so used to the sunshine, we usually freeze outside. Sunday 17~~~ We had my grandson Justin and his girlfriend and Shelby and her boyfriend over for dinner tonight. Kent cooked hamburgers on the grill and I made french fries and salad for dinner with fresh strawberries over ice cream for dessert. We ate outside on the deck and after dinner, it was starting to get chilly, so we came in to play a game of "hand and foot" cards. We forgot to take any pictures!! Darn!!!!

May 11, 2009

Monday 11~~~~After breakfast this morning, we went to the pool and enjoyed our morning coffee there and then we exercised in the pool for 45 minutes. The pool is an indoor one, the building is so warm and it has such beautiful pool furniture to just sit and read and enjoy yourself. We spent the day catching up on things that needed to be done before we get home. We went over to the casino for dinner and to leave a small donation in the slot machines. Kent's birthday is May 16 and our anniversary was May 6th so Kent got $5 playing money on his players card, a large bag of their famous beef jerky, a deck of cards and a neat flashlight. They gave us a bottle of sparkling cider for our anniversary,```````` that was the end of another perfect day. We are headed home to Salem in the morning. We left there on January first, it is good to be going home again to see our kids and grandchildren.

May 10, 2009

Sunday 10~~~~ We were on the road by 8 o'clock this morning as we have to drive 500 or more miles to get to the "Seven Feathers Casino" in Oregon. We drove out of our way to go the "Lassen Volcanic National Park." It was the most beautiful drive up there with all the snow along the way and it was so warm, we didn't even need jackets when we got out to take pictures and play with the snow. Lassen Peak erupted in 1914 and for three years it had sporadic outbursts. We saw boiling pots that produce steam from holes in the mountain and hot water bubbling out of a hole in the hill. Lassen Volcanic National Park serves as a century-long example of how Mount St. Helens might recover from its eruptions that were in 1980. The drive was beautiful and the Park Visitors Center was just opened in October last year, everyone working there was so friendly and they were so impressed with our Nat. Park Book that contains 100 pictures and stamps of when we visited each park during our travels all over the United States in the last 3 years. We arrived at Canyonville about 6:30 and got checked into the campground. I fixed us a light dinner and we settled in for the night watching our two shows on TV to see who was going to win the "Apprentice" and the "Amazing Race". It was a long day and almost too much driving for Kent in one day. (over 500)

May 8 and 9, 2009

Friday 8~~~ We stayed in Tonopah last night and we drove as far as Reno where we are staying for 2 nights. Kent saw on the television there was a water festival on the river walk tomorrow and he wants to go to it. Anything that concerns the water is an interest to Kent, he loves the water. The festival was fun with lots of food booths, vendors selling their wares, the Clydesdale horses and kayak boat races and people showing off their skills with kayaking in the fast water. The shores were lined with people sitting on rocks and the children playing in the water. We couldn't decide what food we wanted to eat for lunch so we were watching people as they picked up their orders to see what the food looked like. A lady ordered the taco dinner with a side of cheese nachos, they put the nachos on two plates and she said she had only ordered one. They said it was one order but it was so big, it took 2 plates to hold all the nachos, plus the taco plate. She asked me if I would help her by eating one of the plates of nachos. What a deal! They were delicious with a cold beer; Kent ate a Tri-tip steak sandwich that was very good also. We spent about 3 hours there leaving in time to go to the Cathedral for Mass and then out for dinner at an old Italian Restaurant that was recommenced to us by Cindy our friend.

May 7, 2009

Thursday 7~~~~ We got up early this morning to get an early start on our trip back home to Oregon, we both wanted to stop and see "Death Valley" National Park. Death Valley is about 95 miles north of Las Vegas, it is the largest national park in the United States with more than 3.3 million acres. Death Valley is open all year, but since summer temperatures frequently soar above 129 degrees F, winter visits are strongly encouraged. The highest temperature recorded is a temperature of 134 degrees F in 1913 which is the second highest temperature ever recorded in the world. The Sahara Desert topped this record by 2 degrees in 1922. Death Valley also holds a record low there in the same year 1913, for 15 degrees. Today when we were there, it was 103 and it was hot, a different hot than what we felt a few days ago in Vegas when it was 103 there. The desert flowers are known to be so beautiful in in March and April when the desert has had some rain. We missed out on seeing the beauty of a lot of them blooming at once, we saw some scattered here and there. In 1849 a group of gold rush pioneers entered the valley thinking it was a short cut to California, after barely surviving the trek across the area, these pioneers named the spot "Death valley". Most of Death Valley's mining operations failed within a few years, leaving eerie ghost towns and crumbling mines all over. Despite the the briefly successful borax mines that used the famous "20-mule-team's"(actually 18 mules and 2 horses) to haul the processed borax 165 miles across the desert to the railroad at Mojave. It took the mule teams 10 days to make the round trip. The park was proclaimed a national monument in 1933 and was redesignated a National Park in 1994. "Scotty's Castle" is one of the park's most popular destinations; Walter Scott lived the life of a real cowboy until he was hired to be a show cowboy in Buffalo Bill's, "Wild West." He worked with the show for 12 years as a sharp shooter cowboy. In 1902 Scotty retired and returned to Death Valley to become one of best know cowboy con-artists of his day. He fabricated stories about a secret gold mine and convinced several wealthy Eastern businessman to invest in his mythical mine. One such investor was Albert Johnson, president of the National Life Insurance Company of Chicago. Three years later Johnson came to Death Valley to check on the gold mine to learn there was no gold mine. He was so impressed with the area and he treasured his friendship with Scotty more than the money he lost. Scotty showed him how to relax and slow down his hard working pace of life that made him such a rich man. Scotty helped him realize his childhood fantasies about the west and after repeated trips back to Death Valley with his wife, he built a vacation home they named it "Death Valley Ranch". Scotty being typical Scotty told the reporters and locals it was called Scotty's Castle and people came from all over to stay there and to see and be in the castle. When Albert Johnson was asked about why he supported Scotty and why he allowed Scotty to claim the castle as his own, his reply was always the same: Scotty repays me in laughs. The castle is a monument of their friendship. It now belongs to the National Park system. It is well worth the drive to Death valley to see and hear the whole story of the beautiful castle that had everything way ahead of the period of time.

May 7, 2009 Dante's peak

Thursday 7~~~~~We stopped at Dante's View on our way through Death Valley and we took some pictures of the beautiful desert from the peak. The climb up the hill was quite steep and long, I took this picture of Kent 2/3 's of the way up. When we left here we ate our picnic lunch that I always pack for us, we enjoy it so much more than stopping at a restaurant and as the scenery is always different and more beautiful.

May 2 through May 6, 2009

Saturday 2~~~~ We got up early this morning to go to Mesquite, Nevada for lunch and to see our friends Dan and Gale and for Kent to play in a Keno tournament. Mesquite is about 80 miles from Vegas, it was another beautiful day and we enjoyed the drive and lunch. Sunday 3~~~After Mass today they served Italian Sausages with Italian potato salad at the church, so we ate lunch there. We didn't think the food was very good but the donation helps the church for their new parking lot. Kent says he thinks my Italian food is so good, that we don't need to go out for it anymore. After we got home we spent some time in the pool and watching a movie on TV. We are getting so Lazy!!! Tuesday 5~~~~This morning we rode the shuttle downtown for breakfast at the "Paris Casino", we had a $25 gift certificate to use before we left town, and Kent loves the food at the Paris. I called my sister and she really laughed when I told her we were in Vegas again. She asked if we need to call Gamblers anonymous. LOL Wednesday 6~~~~Today is our 3rd wedding anniversary and we spent a quiet day at home getting ready to leave for Oregon in the morning. It was 95 today and we went to the pool twice, yesterday it got to 103 and that is pretty warm to be outside but with the air conditioning you don't notice it. The pool is partly shaded by trees, so it is real nice to be there. Tomorrow we are heading home and we plan to stop at "Death Valley",we have never been there.