Newport Beach Harbor

This morning at 9 AM we boarded the Hornblower Cruise Yacht "ENTERTAINER" For a morning brunch cruise in Newport Beach Harbor. The harbor has 6 or 8 islands in it, Balboa Island being the largest. The shores are lined with houses ranging from 38 million and down. There are many yachts and sail boats as well. The house lower picture left was Gene Autreys house. It is now owned by the founder of Yahoo. Mark McGuire had purchased this house before the Yahoo owner but couldn't get voted in so never lived in it. It sets on the smallest island in the harbor. There are maybe a dozen houses on the Island and you have to be voted in to live there. The house just behind this on the north side of the island was owned by Clark Gable. The only way on to this island is by golf cart or boat. We saw Shirley Temples house as well as John Wayne's' House and Yacht. We also saw were Gilligan's Island was filmed. All of these multi million dollar houses and most of them only have a few feet of space between them.

Rose Parade float building

This morning we boarded the buses at 7:45 for the 1 hour ride to Pasadena where we toured a float building tent as well as one building where they were working on floats. They start designing these floats as soon as the parade theme is announced. They usually announce it soon after the parade is over. On Dec. 26th they are allowed to start gluing and attaching much of the plant material. They start with the flowers on the 29th. and all work must stop at noon on the 31st. All parts of the float are covered by plant material or flowers or seeds. The big majority of the work of covering the floats is done by volunteers. I would hate to guess how much glue is used or how many hours it takes to do just one of the floats. This evening we have an Hawaiian Luau here at the resort.

Chrystal Cathedral

Yesterday it was on the bus at 11 AM for the ride to Knotts Berry Farm to eat fried chicken with boysenberry pie for desert. After a couple of hours there it was back on the bus for the ride to the Chrystal Cathedral for the 4:30 showing of The Glory of Christmas. We arrived back here at Newport Dunes around 7 PM.
The Chrystal Cathedral is a huge complex consisting of the very large all glass main sanctuary, the memorial gardens, the bell tower smaller sanctuary building, the visitor center along with many memorial statue scenes. It is all beautiful manicured and very showy& glitzy. In the memorial gardens you can have your ashes placed in a crematory niche for $1650-$4500. There are 10 person family plots for $250000 as well as crypts priced somewhere in between.
The Glory of Christmas is staged in the main cathedral. It is a musical that uses live animals and approximately 250 people portraying the birth of Christ. There are several scenes that have up to 7 live angles flying over head. This is accomplished with with the use of cables and electric winches. At one time there were 5 horses on stage. At another there were probably 18 animals consisting of sheep, goats, a small calf, small camel , donkeys etc. They had 3 large camels on stage during the wise men scenes. They portrayed the manger where the Baby Jesus was born as being in a cave. I had always thought of the stable as a wooden or adobe structure but I guess it could also have been a cave.

Newport Beach, CA

Tonight finds us in Newport Beach for the Good Sams Rose Parade Samboree. We left Morgan Hill yesterday and drove to Valentia, CA for the night . This morning we drove the 80 miles through The LA metro area in about 90 min. This was a surprise to us a we had been told we could spend up to 4 hrs getting down here. We are Parked at the Newport Dunes RV Resort looking out our front window at the bay less than 100 ft. in front of us. The bay is decorated with Christmas tree floats. What a pretty night time sight. There are 74 RV's here for the Samboree. This evening we had our welcoming supper and were entertained by the Pasadena City College Band. They are the official band for the Rose Parade. There were about 100 band members that played (about 1/2 of the band). It was a very impressive performance. The pictures are from right in front of our motor home.

Monterey aquarium

On Wed. of this week we drove to Monterey to visit the Monterey Bay Aquarium located on Cannery Row on the bay. Cannery Row at one time was the location of up to 14 sardine canneries and a half dozen fish canneries. It has now been restored is and is a tourist area consisting of shops, restaurants and nite life spots as well as the aquarium. The aquarium focuses on the deep sea kelp forest and the Monterey Bay habitat. They also have an intersting exhibit featuring sea otters and fresh water otters. There is an extensive exhibit of many different kinds of jelly fish that are located around the kelp forests. The jelly fish are one of the most beautiful sea creatures I have ever seen. They have no bones and consist of a jelly like substance. You will find more pictures of them on my web album.

On the way to Monterey on US1 and US101 we passed by many fields of artichokes some fields of straw berries and many many fields that were just now being prepared for planting. The farming in this area is very labor intensive.

We also stopped at Moss Landing to watch the surfers. The temperature was around 50 degree's. It was interesting to see that a few now have someone on a jet ski pull them out to catch the waves. I guess that lets them catch a lot more waves in an outing as it doesn't take near as long as swimming out takes.

Morgan Hill, CA

We are still in Morgan Hill and still trying to adjust to the cool weather. I don't think that is going to happen as mid 50 degree days and low 30 degree nights just aren't our cup of tea any more. It is raining today and is supposed to for the next few days. We have not seen a lot of things lately due to the rainy weather. It doesn't look like we will see much more as we will be leaving after Christmas for the Rose Parade Samboree. Hopefully it will be somewhat warmer in the LA area and in Arizona when we arrive there after the first of the year.

Streets Of Bethlehem Salias, CA

Sun. evening Chris, Nancy & I drove to Salinas, CA to see the Streets of Bethlehem Christmas display put on by the First Baptist Church. It was in the parking lot surrounding the church and requires about 300 people to put it on and it is free. They take you through in groups of 300. The first area you enter portrays the King and the tax collector. They do a little skit about the arrogance of the King and his wife and about collecting the taxes. We then went past a lot of merchants as well as animals in pens etc. You could eat some bread that was typical of the time and see bracelets being made as well as many other things. The next section portrayed the inn. The skit there was of the inn keepers wife & son talking of getting the stable ready for use as the Inn was full. Joseph then entered with Mary on a donkey. The Inn keeper wanted to charge then to stay in the stable but the wife and son pleaded with him to let them stay for free. The next section we went into portrayed the Sheppard's on the hill side. The angel then appeared and the Sheppard's rushed over to that hill. After they went back to the hillside a group of young ladies appeared as angels below the first angel that announced the birth of the babe in the manger. Then the scene shifted the manger scene showing Joseph, Mary & the baby Jesus surrounded by angels with a large live angel in the sky overhead. After leaving there we went past the 3 crosses that that represented Jesus & the two robbers hanging on the cross. Also they had a large pen of sheep & goats for the children to interact with. To add to the authenticity of the whole thing the entire area was covered with straw.

Mission San Juan Bautista

Wed. of this week found us at San Juan Bautista, CA site of Mission San Juan Bautista established in1797. The original mission consisted of an adobe church, granary, barracks, monastery and some adobe houses all built by friendly people that inhabited the area. Construction on the present church began in 1803 with dedication in 1812. It had 3 aisles and thus was the widest church of all the mission churches built through California. The cemetery on the east side of the church contain the remains of over 4000 Christain Native Americans and Europeans.

In 1835 the Mexican government seized much of the mission property. In 1855 the present mission buildings and 55 acres were returned to the church by federal decree. The San Andeas fault runs along the base of the hill below the cemetery. As a result of the 1906 earth quake the side walls collapsed and were restored in 1976.
What is now the historic Plaza Hotel was originally a one story adobe building that housed 5 or 6 soldiers. It was purchased in 1856 by Angelo Zanetta. He then added a wooden second story and in 1859 it opened as a hotel that would become famous for its French & Italian cuisine. In 1870 a stable was built by John Comfort and Zanetta to accommodate the 11 stagecoaches that were arriving daily from Los Angeles or San Francisco. They also converted an adobe house that housed unmarried women and girls from the mission to be used as the courthouse. However Hollister became the county seat so Zanetta converted it to his private residence.

Thousand Trails RV Resort Morgan Hill, CA

It has been nearly a week since we moved to the
Thousand Trails resort here in the Santa Cruz Mountains just west of Morgan Hill. This flock of 24 wild turkeys visits us every morning. It is so peaceful & quite here, its hard to realise that we are just minutes from hi way 101 and a short 1/2 hr from San Jose and about 50 minutes from Chris & David in Redwood City.
Thanks Giving day we had Dinner with David's family at their house. On Fri evening Nancy, Chris & I went to down town San Jose for the lighting of the Christmas lights and the opening of the Christmas in the park animated Christmas scenes. Sun evening Chris, David, Nancy & I went to Gilroy Gardens to see the Christmas lights in the theme park there. We are enjoying the fall colors but wish the weather was warmer.

Winchester Mystery House San Jose, CA

Today Nancy, I and our daughter Chris went to the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose.
This house was built by the wife of the second President of the Winchester Arms & Mfg Co. She was the only heir to the estate as here only daughter died at infancy and her husband died soon after. She had this vision after their deaths that she was to purchase this 160 are farm & buildings. Her vision told here that if she would build continually on the house to appease the spirits for all the deaths that had been caused by the Winchester Rifle that she would live for eternity. She started in 1890 and construction went on 24 hrs a day until she died in 1928. There was a crew of 12 carpenters that worked around the clock. The mansion has 160 rooms 47 fire places & one bathroom. It has many bizarre features such as doors & windows that open onto blank walls, a staircase that goes from floor to ceiling, a door that open outward to an 8 ft. drop off, and beautiful stained glass windows from Tiffany's in New York. She was a woman under 5 Ft. in height with arthritis so most of the stairs risers are only 3 or 4 inch's high. She inherited 30 million and had $1000 a day income. When she died she only had 2 million left. No one was ever in the house other than the servants, carpenters & hired staff. She was very difficult to work for she paid her help $3 cash every day. If any of them questioned what she was doing or anything she would give them their $3 send them out the gate never to return. It is said that the only person to ever come close to entering the house was Pres. Roosevelt. He was reportedly visiting in the area and decided to call on her and on the way to the front door one of the helpers told him if he wanted to see her he needed to go to the servants entrance like everyone else. It upset him and he left never to return. The front door was installed at a cost of $3000 and no one ever used it as she had no guests in the 38 years that she lived there.

Morgan Hill, CA

We are now in Morgan Hill, CA about 40 miles south of Red Wood City. We will stay here and drive the car back and forth to David & Chris's apartment. Yesterday mid morning we left Palm Desert. We traveled west on I-10 & I-210 around the north side of the LA Metro area and on the south side of the San Gabriel Mtns. Lots of traffic. Around the Banning area there are large groups of wind generators in the valley and up the mountains to the north. We then went north on I-5 over the mountain pass and down the other side into the valley where we started seeing irrigated nut groves and farm fields. I guess I am still a farmer at heart because I sure enjoy seeing things growing and people tilling the soil. We stopped in Lost Hills for the night. This morning we turned west on CA 46 toward Paso Robles. As we went west we saw 3 or 4 oil fields that had oil wells about every 100 yd and it looked as if they may have each covered about a square mile. As we traveled on to the west large fields of grape vines began to replace the trees and crops. After about 20 miles we started into the Diablo Mtn. Range were we started seeing cattle. These mountains actually had some grass growing on them where the mountains in the desert seem to only have rocks and small mesquite bushes. At Paso Robles we turned north on US 101, we drove through miles and miles of large fields of grapes. Then we started seeing field after field of vegetables. It looked like they were picking cauliflower, Kohlrabi, peppers and tomatoes. We also saw some fields of onions that were being harvested. This was all in a valley between the Diablo Mtn range to the east and the Santa Lucia mnt. range to the west. I think perhaps it is the Salinas valley. At Salinas 101 turned to the NE through the Santa Cruz Mnts though Gilroy (the garlic capitol of the world) and then Morgan Hill. Form our camp ground we see the Santa Cruz mountains just just a few short miles to the west.

Joshua Tree National Park

Today we drove around to the other side of the mountains behind us for a visit to Joshua Tree National Park. It is on the Mojave desert side where the elevation is 2000 to 5000 feet higher than it is here on the Colorado Desert side. It was about 15 degree's cooler and windier. Joshua Tree is a year round rock climbers paradise.
We didn't know what Joshua trees were so I guess we were expecting to see more of a forest type setting. An example of Joshua trees are shown in one picture you can also see a Joshua tree in the picture of the rock climbers. We saw a lot of Joshua trees and granite rock formations. Duh this is the desert forests don't grow in a desert.

Salton Sea

Today we decided to go south on CA 111 to the Salton Sea. On the way we stopped at the Oasis Date Gardens just south of Thermal, CA. Dates have been grown here in the Coachella Valley since the early part of the century. The date palm trees grow about a foot per year and produce around 250-350 lbs. of dates annually. They start production about year seven and are used for production until approximately 50 years old. At that time they are sold to landscapers due to the fact that they have become so tall that they are dangerous for the workers. The trees have to be hand pollinated and harvested by hand. They do all the trimming and tree maintenance from atop the tree also. The date trees are grown from suckers that are cut from the base of the tree in its first ten years. They can't be grown from seed as the new tree will not produce dates that are the same as the tree that produced the date that the seed was taken from. They plant 50 trees per acre with one of those being a male tree that they use the pollen from to hand pollinate the other 49.
The Salton Sea is on down the road a few miles. The elevation is 227 feet below sea level and cover 360 square miles. The salinity is higher than the Pacific ocean but considerably less than Salt Lake in Utah. It is sustained largely by agricultural drainage and storm runoff. They say it was formed by accident about 100 years ago. The Colorado River broke through an irrigation canal and due to the high volume of water flowing in it took 16 months to stop the flow and divert it back to its original channel. The result was a new lake 45 miles long and 25 miles wide.

Thousand Trails RV Resort Palm Desert, CA

We have been here at Palm Desert since Thur. afternoon. Thousand Trails RV Resort is about 450 RV spaces with towering palm trees lining the streets. Palm Desert, Indio, Rancho Mirage and Palm Springs are located in the Coachella Valley between Joshua Tree National Park and the Santa Rosa mountains. The elevation is very near sea level so it is a tropical desert oasis area. After traveling through the desert from Salome, AZ it is quit a change, however you are still on the desert side of the Santa Rosa mountains. Today we drove south on Rt 74up the desert side of the mountains around to the west side to the mountain town of Idyllwild. It is a tourist town that reminds me a lot of Estes Park, CO. The elevation is about 6000 ft. above sea level. The drive up the desert side of the mountain is rocks dirt and some scrub trees but on the other side you are in tall pines and broad leaf trees with grass valleys that have cattle and horses in them. It really is a striking contrast. From there we took Rt 254 down the west side to Banning, CA located on I-10 about 40 miles west of Palm Desert. The Temp was about 85 degree's when we left this morning and was probably about 70 degree's at Idyllwild and about 90 when we got back here this later this afternoon. Nancy says she hasn't seen any thing out here that would make her want to move from Florida.

Salome, AZ

After being here almost a week we will be leaving in the morning for Palm Desert, CA. We had a good visit with friends John & Mary Fielding from Fri. thru Sun. They left on Mon. morning for Michigan. On Mon. we drove about 80 miles NW to Lake Havasu City. While there we drove over the London Bridge. Havasu City looks to be a tourist town. On the way back we stopped at Parker Dam and Parker, AZ. All of these places are on the Colorado River that runs between AZ & CA. The area between Parker and Parker Dam is really pretty. It is in a canyon between the mountains. The elevation sign said the elevation was 450 ft. The elevation here at Salome is 3300 ft. We booked the month of March at an RV park on the Calif. side of the river. Our site will be right on the bank of the river. We have also booked the month of Feb. here at Desert Palms in Salome.
Salome is located 100 miles west and north from Phoenix and 80 miles SW of Prescott. It is in the desert with mountains on all sides. There is some farming here in the valley. Right now they seem to be raising cotton and cantaloupe are being harvested. It is irrigated by wells and some ditch water from a dam in the mountains to the north. A few miles to the west in another valley there is a large dairy. If it wasn't for the water there would be only dirt and scrub similar to sage brush. The town of Salome appears to be around 500 residents with many more winter residents. There is a small grocery store, post office, restaurant, hardware-lumber yard and a parts store. Desert Palms RV Park is a really nice 200-300 space RV Park developed in the last 5 years. It also has a 9 hole golf coarse. There are many other RV parks in the area most are smaller and not nearly as nice. In fact some appear to be pretty run down. A lot of the men here have 4 wheel ATV's and spend time riding in the desert and the mountains. The women do crafts, painting etc like most RV parks. Just across the road to the south is a small airport development that has houses and hangers. We see ultra lights and small Cessna's taking off and landing there.

Salome, NM

We arrived in Salome, AZ just afternoon today after spending from Sat. until this morning at the Thousand Trails Resort between Cottonwood and Camp Verde AZ. We are finally seeing some farm ground having seen none since leaving Texas some two weeks ago.
On Tues we visited Montezuma Castle located near Camp Verde, AZ. Southern Sinagua farmers began building this 5 story 20 room dwelling early in the 1100's. It stands in a cliff recess 100 ft. above the valley. It is believed that 150 to 200 Sinagua lived here until about 1400 when they seem to have just disappeared. On Wed. we drove US 89A to Prescott, AZ and had a spent a very enjoyable afternoon visiting with my cousin Dick Williams and his wife Gloria. Prescott is on the other side of the mountains that are just west of Cottonwood. It was a very pretty drive with lots of switch backs. It is a good thing we drove it in the car as I had planned to go that way with the motor home this morning. Some of the turns going thru the town of Jerome couldn't have been navigated with the motor home and car in tow. As a result we changed plans and went south on I-17 to just north of Phoenix were we went west on US 74 and then Us 60 to Salome.

Cottonwood, Az

We visited the Grand Canyon Thur. &Fri. What a spectacular place to visit. It hardly seems possible that something so large and grand could be out in the middle if what seems to me like a desert. We didn't see all there was to see because the altitude made it hard for Nancy to walk & breath. What we did see was certainly worth the time we spent there. We are now in Cottonwood, AZ at about 1/2 the altitude. Nancy is breathing much better and doesn't have near the aches that she has at higher altitudes.Cottonwood in in a big valley between two mountain ranges south of Flagstaff.

Holbrook, AZ

Wed. we took a 250 mile drive in the car. We went east from Holbrook on I-40 and then north on 191 to Ganado where we saw the Hubbell Trading Post. It is a trading post that dates back to the 1860's. The Navajo, Hopi and Apache Indians traded wool and such for the necessities they needed. It is now run by the national park service and on the National Register of Historic places. See photo lower right.
Next it was west on 264 to the Hopi Indian Villages located atop the mesas with a stop at Keems Canyon for an authentic Hopi meal at noon. We had a soup made with hominy, onion, spice and some kind of meat along with fry bread. It was really very tasty. The villages are atop 3 different mesa's. Unlike the Acona village at Grants, NM these have electricity and are inhabited year round. I talked to a Hopi man and he indicated that most have running water also. Photo top left. It was back toward i-40 on RT 87 traveling through the Painted Desert before heading back east on I-40to Holbrook. The area we were in is very poor land covered with Junipers, rock and very little grass. On Rt 264 between Ganado and the Hopi mesa's there are many Indian homes along the way.

Sky City

It is 32 degrees here in Grants, NM this morning. Nancy has a dentist appointment at 10AM and then we will head west. I think it will warm up after we get over the continental divide at Gallop, NM.
Yesterday my cousin Arlene took a day off from work and toured us around some of the things in the area. We went to Sky City. It is supposed to be the oldest continually inhabited village in the US. It has been inhabited since 600AD by the Ancona Pueblo Indians. It is on a Mesa and has no electricity or running water. The priests of the village live there year round but the rest of the people have other homes on the reservation. They go there for many sacred celebrations and others live there part time. They have a road up to the village now but in earlier times it was only accessible by foot trail up the side of the mesa (top photo). We also went to another area were we viewed an arch rock formation and and a mountain shaped like an old lady.

Grants, NM

We arrived at Balloon Fiesta field about 1PM on Tues. Oct 9th. WE parked about 1 mile south of the balloon launch field with about 40 other Newmar coach's. Tues evening was orientation and a demonstration by a balloon pilot.
Wed morning it was up early and down to the launch field for the mass ascension at 7AM. It is really something to watch some 600 balloons being laid out and launched in a matter of an hour & 1/2. Nancy stayed at the motor home and watched them come over the top of where we were camped. Mid morning we all loaded into 2 buses and were taken to Santa Fe for a an afternoon of shopping and strolling around the plaza. Thur. morning at 7 AM the launching of some 90 special shape balloons occurred. There was the Wells Fargo stage coach, two super bee balloon, Clara Bell the cow and many more. Thur. evening after a tour of old town Albuquerque and the Indian culture center we watched the glow of the special shape balloons and the fire works that fallowed. Fri. was a free day until 3:30Pm. So we watched the launching of the special shapes again as they came over the motor home. Fri evening we went up Sandia Mountain by tram for supper. The tram ride is two mile up the mountain to an elevation of 10500 ft. Well after we had eaten we were going back to the tram and found that the trams had been stopped due to 45 MPH winds. Since there is no other way down the mountain we had to wait about 2 hrs. until the winds had gone down. We arrived back at the motor homes around 12:30 that night. Sat. was another mass ascension but since the winds were from the south we didn't get to see then come over the motor home.
This morning Sun. I went down to watch them launch again and we then left the balloon RV parking lot around 10:30 AM. We arrive in Grants, NM after noon and have visited my cousin Arlene Harvey this afternoon.

Santa Rosa, NM

I will try this again this morning, I have been having trouble keeping my enternet connection. From the 29th. of Sept thru Oct. 6th. we were in Calico Rock, AR. While there I did some trout fishing on the White River and Nancy visited with her Aunts. On Tues.and Fri evening we drove to Mountain View (25 miles south). We ate supper at Jo-Jo's on the White River and then enjoyed the music on the square down town. Mountain View has a lot of people that either live there or vacation there that have a lot of musical talent. There may be as many as 8 or 10 groups of people gathered together picking and singing.
On Sat. morning we headed west on US 412 toward Tulsa, OK. We spent the night east of Tulsa and then Sun. morning it was west bound on I44 to Oklahoma City were we picked up I-40 west spending the night at Amarillo, TX. Mon. morning we were west bound again for 3 hrs spending the afternoon and evening in Santa Rosa, NM. We had mail waiting for us when we got here so we caught up on things that had accumulated. We toured the Rte 66 Museum and the Blue Hole. The museum has around 30 old cars some have been highly customized. The Blue Hole is a hole around 80 ft deep and about that wide that has a spring in the bottom of it. The water is really blue looking. It has rock formations around it that divers use for diving. In three days we have traveled from the wooded Ozark mountains through the flat farm lands of Oklahoma and Texas to the rolling scrub and grass covered grass lands of eastern NM.
Today we will drive to Albuquerque, NM for the balloon festival.

Wakeeney, KS

After a little over 2 weeks in our hometown of Imperial, NE we are on the road again. As you can see by the title of this Blog we are not exactly going toward Oregon. The beauty of living in a motor home is that we can change our minds when ever the notion strikes. Well the notion struck and we are now on our way to Calico Rock, AR for a few days of trout fishing and visiting with Nancy's relatives. We still plan to be in the San Francisco Area in Nov. We have a couple of other stops planned on the way, but you will just have to keep watching the blog to know when we are at them. We enjoyed visiting with many old friends while in the Imperial area and even made a couple of new friends while there.

Imperial, NE

On Tues. of this week we drove from Omaha to Imperial, NE. We are parked in our son Dan's yard. There is nothing better than having free parking. We have been enjoying our time here seeing old friends, acquaintances and relatives as well as taking care of business in the area. We feel especially fortunate that we were able to spend some time with Uncle Wilfred & Aunt Helen Miller. They are both in thier mid 90's and have just recently moved into the Heights, a wing of the assisted living facility. Also got to spend some time with Uncle Ave Hudnall. He is 90 years young and lives in the same wing.

Omaha, NE

We are at the West Omaha KOA. We arrived here yesterday early evening. We Plan to be here at least through Mon. Our leveling jacks are not working so we are awaiting repairs for them plus we have some other business to take care of here. We took two days coming from Hazen Bay. To our surprise it is just a few miles further to Omaha than it was to Imperial.
Labor Day our last big weekend at Hazen Bay went very smoothly. We had an overflow of campers, but all were very low keyed & orderly for the weekend. A lot of our seasonals and some of the regulars looked us up before they left on Mon. to say their farewells and wish us well for the winter. After two years many of them are just like family. One of the couples that stays in one of the cabins brought Nancy a bouquet of roses when they checked in on Fri. afternoon. Needless to say she got very emotional and teary. Our plans now are to return to Hazen Bay again next summer. We never thought when we first got the call about going to North Dakota that we would be going to a place that we would both fall in love with. In fact when we first arrived there in May of 2006 we nearly told them no thanks and drove on to a job offer we had in Oregon. We are so glad that Ken and Terrie Peterson talked us into staying.

Hazen Bay ND

for a round of golf at the Bully Pulpit The last couple of weeks have been pretty slow here at Hazen Bay. It also feels like fall is in the air. Last week we had some nights in the upper 40's. As you can see by the picture it wasn't very warm last Sun. evening (Aug. 19th.) Sat. Evening Aug 18th My sisters Gloria & Ilene and theirhusbands drove up from western NE to spend a couple of days with us. On Sun. we visited the Knife River Indian ruins and Fort Mandan. Later in the Afternoon we had Walleye and fresh Nebraska sweet corn. HUM HUM On Mon. we toured the Freedom coal Mine, The Antelope Valley Power Plant and the Dakota Gasification Plant. We had lunch in Beulah and then my sisters and brothers in-law continued on to MedoraGolf Course and the Medora Musical & pitchfork Fondue. We surely enjoyed having them spend a couple of days with us. This past week end we were nearly full in the park again after 2 rather slow weekends. The upcoming Labor Day weekend we are booked to capacity. On Wed. or Thur. of next week we will be headed down the road again.

Aug. 11 2007

Surprise it's not 2 weeks or more between posts. The weather has cooled here in North Dakota It's only supposed to be in the upper 70's today. We have had some rain since the last post.
machines and maybe 75 old old tractors. Another was full of old cars, old buggies and just to many things to name. An old church was full of clocks. Another building was full of dolls. There was an old general store stocked as it was in the past. The old farm house was full of old furnishings. This is a private museum that is run by volunteers and supported by the 5 quarter sections of farm land that Dale & Martha Hawk owned. The story told to us was that Dale & Martha had no children and that Dale was not a very good farmer. He did however love to go to auctions and bring home what the neighbors called junk. He would then restore this junk into the things that are on display at this museum. Some of the This week on our days off we decided to see couple of things that we had read about but hadn't seen before. On Tues. we drove about 175 miles to Wolford, ND (about 35 miles south of the International Peace Gardens) to visit the Dale & Martha Hawk Museum www.hawkmuseum.org. Wow what a place One building had probably a dozen steam engines plus some old threshingexhibits belong to other people but for the most part it is things that they restored & collected. We also stopped at the Prairie Village Museum in Rugby, ND. They have various old buildings set up like an old town as well as some displays of old things from the past.

Wildlife Museum. What a surprise we expected to see a few stuffed birds and animals native to the area On Wed. we drove to Beulah and visited the Pfenninginstead we found a huge collection of stuffed animals from all over the world. This again is a private collection that is the result of one local farm couples hunting expeditions all over the world. In my opinion this compares to the display at Cabellas in Sidney, NE. Since this is a private collection the husband & wife are there to tell the story that goes with each animal and to explain the animals that we didn't know what they were.
You couldn't as for anything cheaper to see as the cost for the Hawk Museum was $5 per person and the Phenning Museum was only $2.50 per person

Hazen, ND

It's time for another update from Hazen Bay. The weather continues to be hot and dry. However it is only in the 90's instead of the 100's as it was. We have had some rain this morning it it is raining as i write this. The camp ground continues to be rather busy on the weekends but is pretty dead during the week.
a flax field in the distance I think it is a lake until I get closer and realise that it isn't a lake. I will make The North Dakota landscape this summer has been like a giant patch work quilt that continually changes colors. When we arrived in late May there were the green pastures with brown fields of bare dirt and green fields of growing wheat & barley. That soon changed to a patchwork of varying greens. When the canola fields came into bloom some of the patches in the quilt changed to yellow and some of the pastures started to take on a tan tint as the heads of grass began to mature. In a week or so the barley fields turned to a gleaming white tan color and the winter wheat fields turned to a golden brown while the spring wheat fields began to change from and deep green to lighter green as they began to turn to their eventual golden brown color. Now the sun flower fields are starting to take on the deep yellow colors as the seed heads form and the grass on hills has turned to the tan green color of mature grasses. I forgot the occasional blueish color of the flax fields at the same time the canola fields had their yellow colors. Every time I Seeanother post in a week or two.

Hazen, ND

It has been a while since I have posted a blog. Things have been pretty routine here in No. Dakota. The weather has turned hot and dry. Mon. & Tues it was 106 degree's. It cooled into the lower 90's yesterday so the heat is more bearable now.
Last Wed we journeyed by car to Imperial, Ne to take part in the bi-annual Wheeler family reunion on Fri. & Sat. It is 640 miles so it is a 12 hour drive each way. We stayed in a motel while there. I know now why we like to travel in the motor home as the mattress was really hard. We got to see a lot of old friends and view some of the damage from the 12 to 14 inch rains in the area last month. There were around 50 family members at the reunion. Our Sat afternoon and evening were spent in the canyon on the old Wheeler farm that my mother and here siblings grew up on. We have been having our reunions there since 1976. On occasion we have held them at places away from Wauneta but people seem to always want to go back to the canyon and the farm.
On the return trip winter wheat harvest was in full swing from Pierre, SD and north to the state line. Here around Hazen we saw one field of spring barley being harvested but most of the other spring crops are a week or two away from harvest.
Things here in the park are pretty routine. The mowing has pretty much come to a halt due to the lack of rain and high temps.

WOW Almost 2 weeks since the last post. The weather has changed from rainy, cool & windy to hot and dry and not as much wind. Not much to report as we have been pretty much here taking care of the camp ground. We didn't take Tues. & Wed. off this week as Sheryl had company from Chicago and wanted to spend time with them. The camp ground continues to be nearly full every weekend. That is a change from last year when some weekends were nearly empty. Yesterday I had my first chance to go out fishing and we limited out by 10 AM. From all reports the fishing hasn't been as good as it was last year.
The picture is Hazen Bay Campground. I climbed the hill to the east of us this morning to take the picture. I am sure glad they turned out as I didn't want to climb it again. The coming down was more treacherous than the climb but not as exhausting.

Sunsets at Hazen Bay on Lake Sakakawea

Another week has passed in No. Dakota and we have enjoyed a beautiful sunset every evening. We will no longer be seeing them as we moved our motor home to a different site yesterday. It is one that has some protection from the wind but we can no longer set at the table and enjoy the view thru the bay to the west. They said we had sixty mph winds in the night last night but we didn't even feel them. If we had been in our old spot we would have been rocking & rolling. The new site puts us closer to the office and amongst our old friends from last year.

Wed. of last week we went to Bismarck and toured the No. Dakota Heritage center located on the grounds of the state capitol. It takes you from the dinosaur age through present time. We enjoyed it very much. When we tell people what we have done we always hear you see so much and we have lived hear for years and haven't seen any of those things. It seems that is true all over this great land of ours, the travelers see things and the natives don't ever take time to see them.

Last weekend we opened up the 22 new sites to the seasonal campers that have them rented. That will make for a busier campground on the weekends than we are used to. We do enjoy the seasonal campers as you make close friendships with alot of them. They seem to keep us feed and supplied with fish too.

This past week has been busy with friends from Buttonwood Bay and taking care of the park. Mon. was the usual with me mowing and Nancy taking the weeks receipts to the city office and doing laundry while in town.She does some laundry in the motorhome but prefers taking it to town where she can do larger loads in less time. Also the water here tends to yellow thing after a while. Tue and Wed. were our days off we didn't do anything exciting. Tues afternoon we had over an inch of rain. Thur. afternoon our friends Carl & Jackie Zimmerman and Clair & Mary Smith arrived to spend 3 days with us. Fri. we arranged for the tours of the Freedom mine, Antelope Valley Power Plant and the Dakota Gasification plant. They were totally amazed and impressed with those operations. We certainly enjoyed the time spent with them even if the ladies did beat the men at pegs and jokers. They left this morning to continue on their journey to Alaska.
This is the second weekend that we have been completely full. Last night about midnight the sheriff called to tell us that a thunder storm with strong winds, hail & heavy rain was moving our way. We ended up with 1.75 inches of rain but missed the winds and hail. Since we are the camp hosts we get those calls and then it up to us to decide if we need to notify the campers. One time last year we all went to the comfort station but so far this year it hasn't been necessary.

Views From our Motor Home

Wow what a difference a day makes. Friday dawned sunny and warm and it looked like we would not have a lot of campers for this weekend. By the time the sun went down we only had four spots left and two of those were taken on Sat. It seems people were just waiting for a nice weekend and they sure got it this weekend as it has been in the 80's both days and no rain and very little wind. It appears that the fishing has also started to pick up as there have been a lot of people cleaning fish at the fish cleaning station.
The two pictures are taken from out motor home. As you can see we have very nice views and scenery from where we are parked.

It is a nasty day in North Dakota 45 degrees, rain and winds out of the north at 30-40 mph with gusts up to 50 mph. Our motor home is parked so that we get to enjoy the full benefit of the wind as there are no trees for wind protection to the north or west, we do however get to enjoy the beautiful setting of the sun over the lake and the wildlife that we view from our window. It seems like our first two weeks here have been mostly rainy and cool. I think we have received around 6 inches of rain since our arrival here. We have had a few nice warm days. Tomorrow is supposed to be 75 degrees with 80s this weekend. Larry and I have managed to get the park all mowed and have it looking real nice. It will all need to be mowed again next week. I hope the weather is going to be warmer from here on out.
Tues. Nancy & I went to Minot for the day. We saw the movie Knocked Up it was really a funny movie that we both enjoyed other than the frequent use of the f word.

Memorial Day Weekend

North Dakota campers have to be the heartiest group of campers in the whole world. Picture this if you will it is 45 degrees, raining with the wind blowing out of the east at 15- 20 MPH. Well that's what it was Fri.afternoon and evening and all but 3 of our registered campers checked in for the weekend, two out of the three checked in Sat. Now that is what I call dedicated to camping. Many of them were campers that were here a lot last year. It was good to see them and they all were glad we had returned. Isn't it nice to be liked and appreciated.
Sat. the weather cleared and we warmed up to 60 degrees and it is supposed to reach 70 degrees today. The rain has made these hills so green it gives you such a peaceful feeling to be nestled in them with such a perfect view of Lake Sakakawea. This morning Nancy saw a couple of turkeys come strolling by the motor home and disappear over the hill by the cabins.

Hazen Bay for the summer

Mon. morning we went to city hall to check in with the new director of parks & recreation, pick up keys, reservation book etc. The new directors name is Joe Amundson he is really young looks to be just out of college. It was sad not to see Jeff Gustafson but we knew last year when we left that we probably wouldn't see him again. Cancer doesn't care if you are young or not. We have a couple named Larry & Sharyl Roth that will be part time camp hosts with us this year. They will also help some in the c-store that is being run by the Roth family here in Hazen that has the Tersaro c-store in town. The park board is in the process of adding another 20 full hookup sites that should be ready in another month. These will be mostly occupied by seasonal campers. That will make the seasonal count around 30 campers. I think it will be a good improvement to the park along with the expanded hours that the new management plans for the c-store it looks like we should have a good summer here. Out of the 3 days we have been here we have had two cold wet days . It is around 50 degrees with intermittent rain showers as I write this. Hopefully it will clear and we can at least get the RV sites mowed before this weekend. We just saw four antelope in the drive way. This morning there was a coyote ran through by the motor home and during the day you can hear the pheasants crowing just over the hill. Every morning I have heard a pair of geese honking down in the bay which is dry at this time, they must have a nest down there. I also see fresh deer tracks in the area where the new sites are being put in.

Hazen , ND

After a nice visit Thurs. afternoon and evening with our friends Bud & Dorothy Nicholas in Rockford, Ill We departed Fri morning heading north on I-90 into Wisconsin. Driving across Wisconsin we left the fertile farm lands and went into the rolling wooded dairy lands along I-94 into Minnesota. We parked for the night at the St Cloud Campground & RV Park. There was a Monaco Coach Rally going on so they parked our Newmar Mountain Aire right between to Monaco's.
Sat. morning we were up and on the road at 8AM CST. Going west on I-94 toward Fargo, ND we left the rolling wooded hills dotted with small lakes for the flat fertile farm lands in the Red River Valley. They had received a lot of rain in the night and there was water standing in all of the newly planted fields. I sure hope they don't have to replant but it sure didn't look good. We stopped at the Flying J Truck stop in Fargo for Fuel. It was $2.86 per gallon the most we have paid to date. The lowest was $2.54 a gallon before we left Kentucky. Driving west from Fargo On I-94 we left the fertile Red River Valley and entered the gently rolling lands dotted with larger lakes and less trees of Eastern ND. We stopped in Bismarck At Wall-Mart for some supplies and the it was north on US 83 to Washburn and west on Alt 200 arriving in Hazen at around 4PM MST. It was 68 degrees when we left St. Cloud and 50 degrees when we arrived in Hazen. It seems to me as if something is wrong in this picture 85 degrees when we left Sebring 3 weeks ago and now we are coping with 50 degrees. They did tell us it was 90 here yesterday. The farmers here are planting what I imagine would be peas and canola.
We are parked at the Lewis & Clark RV Park in Hazen. We will stay here today and hopefully get the motor home washed. After checking in at city hall we will go out to Hazen Bay in the morning(Monday).

Rockford, ILL

Mon. morning around we bade our friends Paul & Mary goodbye. We will see them again in the fall. We continued west out of the mountains and onto the farmlands of Indiana. Mid afternoon we arrived at Charlie & Almeda Gant's near Anderson, Indiana. Charlie & Almeda live just 4 house down from us in Buttonwood Bay. We set up between the horse barn and their house. They live on the same acreage that their daughter & son-in-law live. We had a nice visit with them. They showed us around the Anderson area. Anderson used to have many manufacturing facilities that were connected to the auto industry they are no longer in operation. They also took us to the headquarters of Bill & Gloria Gaither. They do not offer tours of the recording studio or grounds but they do have a rather large gift shop where you can buy their Cd's, DVDs and much more. Anderson is just a few miles northeast from Indianapolis.
We departed their place around noon on Tues. and went about an hour west to Lebanon, Indiana were our friends Ray & Ida Vanausdall live. While there we set up in their drive way right next to their house. Ida fixed a delicious ham loaf supper for us and we played eucker all evening. Wed. morning we went to Judy's cafe for breakfast and then drove about an hour northeast to Kokomo, Indiana. In Kokomo we took an tour of the Kokomo stained glass factory. It was a very interesting tour as we saw them pour the hot glass from the kiln onto a table where it was turned with an iron fork 2 or 3 times. It then went through a roller that resulted in a sheet of hot glass about 3ft. by 6 ft. It then went through a cooling oven where it is cut into 36in.X32in. pieces ready for shipment. We also saw a 2 people blowing glass. They were making roundells about 15 in. across. After leaving there we drove about 15 miles northwest of Kokomo to the farming community of Galveston. Several people we know from Buttonwood Bay live in that area. We stopped at the farm Bob & Mary Ketchel. Mary wasn't home but Bob was. He took us a nice tour through the farming area there. We stopped at Dan & Barbara Ketchel's and visited them for a few minutes. We then went into Galveston where Bob bought us lunch. After lunch we drove around some more and went by Grissom Air Force Base. The end of the runway is about 1&1/2 mile East of Bob & Mary's farm. It was then back to Lebanon for another meal and more eucker practice.
This morning it was up and on the road by 8:30AM. West into Ill. on I-74 and then north on I-39 to Rockford where we plan visit with Bud & Dorothy Nicholas before heading on toward Hazen Bay in the morning. Since entering Indiana we have seen some very nice farm land. We have not seen corn bigger than six inches. however. They say things are a little behind this year. Bob Ketchel's corn was the best we have seen. He said they finished planting soybeans a couple of days prior to our arrival. They had a nice rain through much of the area on Wed evening so we have not seen anyone in the field since then.

Zanesville, Ohio

Tonight finds us at Wolfies Campground in Zanesville, Ohio. Yesterday We didn't do alot We went to the grocery store and restocked the fridge. On the way back we stopped at Deiners for one more home cooking buffet. I hate to guess how much weight we may have gained this last 5 days. Back to Roamers by mid afternoon where we took it easy. We enjoyed listening to the whistle of the steam train next door and watching them do some dirt work with some old construction equipment, some of which was steam powered. This morning we left Kinzer around 9AM . Went north west on 283 to Harrisburg where we got on the PA Turnpike then onto I70. We went across the Appalachian mountains and then the Allegheny Mountains. We went through 3 different tunnels through the mountains. I would guess that each one was a least 1/2 mile long. We sure do enjoy seeing the Amish in Lancaster county and watching them go about their olden ways of living while co-existing with the modern way of life.

Lancaster County

As you can see from the picture we are still in Lancaster county PA. Wed. we spent most of the day in Intercourse, PA. The ladies enjoyed the shopping. We had a buggy ride at
Arron & Jessica's located at Plain & Fancy between Intercourse and Bird-in-Hand. While there we also saw a 45 minute show called the Amish experience. Thur. We went to Strasburg where we enjoyed the National Toy Train Museum. I didn't know that there were so many toy trains in existence. We had lunch at Isaac's. We were surprised when we went in as we expected an Amish restaurant but found an ordinary restaurant & deli where the dining area looked like you were in a train car. The food was very good. After that we went to the Sight & Sound Theater www.sight-sound.com to see if we could get tickets for In The Beginning. They did not have any but told us to wait over by an angel and if any became available they would send them over. Well we got tickets however they were individual tickets so no one got to set together. The couple that we got ours from said they had purchased theirs in Jan. and they were hard to get then and that they were afraid they would be stuck with the extras that they had. Lucky us and lucky them. In the beginning is a 2 hour production that starts with the creation of earth and goes thought the death of Adam. They us live animals and have an amazing stage set up. It is a very moving show and is very sound in its interpretation. It does give you some things to think about that you hadn't really thought about such as the number of children that Adam & Eve had. The theater must hold at least 2500 people and they do 2 shows a day and three on the weekends. If any of you ever have a chance it is a must see. Be prepared so spend $40 plus for the tickets however. They will be opening another theater in Branson Mo. in 2008. Fri. was a day for shopping at the Tangier Outlet and then we went to the Green Dragon flea market. It was huge. On the way home we stopped at Good'n Plenty for supper. It featured family style dining. Just like at a buffet you eat to much. We sure haven't goon hungry while we have been here.
The farmers are busy preparing fields and planting corn. The alfalfa looks to be ready to cut as soon as they finish planting. I am told that the farms average 45-55 acres in size. I have been told that the land will sell for $100,000 per acre just for farming. It is hard for farmers to buy land as developers are paying up to one million per acre. This area has a lot of people you will be driving along in a metropolitan area and then you are in an area of the most beautiful Amish or Mennonite farms and the right back to metro.