A candid shot of Bob in a pensive moment.

Just a few of the many trophies that Lea and her horses have won over the years.

Lea leading her champion paint, Wild Rose-- affectionately known as "Rosie" over to say hello.

Lea and her pet goat.

Part of the herd ...

1:30 pm Thursday August 16, 2007

Phil is soooooo happy! He has a good size fishing lake just steps from the door of Penny the Pace. I am also soooooo happy because our Datastorm found a hole in the tall trees that surround us to connect with our Internet satellite so we are online.

We have a date for dinner with my cousin, Lea and her husband, Bob tomorrow. They have suggested we go to the “best place to eat around here”—the casino. We said we can believe it telling them about the great buffet at Little Creek Casino in Shelton.

We had our “linner” (what I call our late lunch-early dinner combo) at Chili’s in downtown Spokane yesterday and then walked around Riverfront Park which is just down the street from the Convention Center. From there we went to Wal*Mart and replenished our fresh fruit and of course, some other absolute essentials including a couple prescriptions for me. We were home in time for Phil to manage a couple hours of fishing before dark.

Here are some of the photos we have taken over the last few days:

Our Penny the Pace and the Lone Ranger at Dan's Landing RV Park and fish camp near Medical Lake, WA. Clear lake is just in front of her on the right.

Can you see the sun shining through the little hole in the pine trees? Our satellite internet dish found "the bird" through that gap and I was a happy camper!

Fish on!

Phil and his 12 ft. port-a-boat http://www.porta-bote.com/

tieing up to Dan's Landing dock after a great morning of fishing on Clear Lake.

Busy railroad bridges cross I-90 going north into downtown Spokane. This section of the highway descends two miles down into the Spokane River valley where the city is located. Did you know there are two cities in one? Spokane Valley is a city of it's own directly beside the city of Spokane. Who knew?

Here is Phil letting his inner child out to play! A real curiosity at the park is the huge Radio Flyer, an oversized replica (27 feet long) of the traditional red wagon beloved by generations of youngsters. The larger-than-life version is a favorite of children of all ages, who climb to the top, go down the slide at one end and play on the gym bars beneath it.

Gorgeous summer flowers are everywhere in the park.

The Clocktower was built as part of the Great Northern Railroad Station in 1902. An outline is visible where the rest of the building extended east and west of the tower. The tower is brick outside, and plaster inside. Maintenance personnel must climb two vertical ladders, three steep flights of stairs, and a section is twenty to thirty feet high.
The clock is simply a giant grandfather clock, with four faces. The clockworks are enclosed in a small room on an upper level of the tower. Maintenance personnel actually stand inside the clock to wind or set it. The pendulum is a metal ball that weighs approximately two hundred pounds, and is suspended on a thin strip of metal. The counterweights descend approximately forty feet, between windings. The clock is an "eight day" clock, and is wound once each week. Instead of a key, a crank (similar to a tire iron) is used for winding. It winds a cable around a spool that is approximately two feet long. The clock is set from inside the clockworks room. The hands are attached to shafts which extend from U-joints from the clockworks. The face is lit from inside.
The chimes are electronic. A small organ is used to program rolls (similar to piano player rolls) with tunes. As the rolls play, fine chords (similar to piano strings) are tapped, and the sound is amplified to speakers in the top of the tower.

This carousel was created for Spokane's Natatorium Park in 1909, http://natpark.org/ where it remained for 59 years. It remained under the ownership of descendants of the Looff family during that time. When the park closed in 1968, the carousel was dismantled and put into storage, where it remained for seven years. In 1975, the carousel reopened in Spokane's Riverfront Park, where it is still in daily operation throughout most of the year. The carousel features 54 jumping horses, two dragon chariots, a tiger and a giraffe. All of the figures as well as the Ruth & Sohn band organ are original, making this one of the only complete Looff carousels still in operation.

This carousel is huge!

The children were having a screaming good time in this beautiful fountain.

11:20 am Sunday, August 12, 2007

Our last day in Moses Lake has dawned sunny and beautiful. The Pier 4 Campground (Coast to Coast park) where we parked Penny the Pace has experienced the ebb and flow of all manner of RVs during this past week. There are many empty sites around the perimeter of the park but we have pretty much determined they are for Class C RVs, truck campers and tent sites as most are very short back-ins. Most of the larger Class A sites are full.

We have been resting and exploring the area with the bonus of a wonderful visit with my COX cousin, Norine in Othello added for good measure. Thank you Norine for your hospitality! Of course, we made our usual stop at Wal*Mart for two prescriptions, groceries and some other supplies. We strolled through the little Farmer’s Market in mid-town and attended an afternoon matinee to see the new movie, “The Bourne Experience.” After sitting through two hours of intense action I am still not sure it is the “last” movie in the Bourne series. For those of you who care, the plot did answer some questions concerning the main character, Jason Bourne’s true identity before being programmed by the government as the “perfect” assassin.

A day trip to Cashmere via Quincy and back through Ephrata by way of as many back roads as possible was a wonderful experience. It was another one of the area’s typical grand weather days and driving down into the gorge then back up to over 3,000 feet gave us a major dose of wheat farming on top of the world! Absolutely gorgeous and my “farmer gene” was thoroughly sated with this view across thousands of acres of golden grain.

Tomorrow morning we are off to Spokane for a week. I have never spent any time there and am looking forward to checking out the area. Also, meeting a LITTLE cousin and her family in Medical Lake is a much anticipated visit. Lea and I have corresponded for many years but this will be our first face to face meeting.

A huge baler on the road in eastern WA. Farm equipment travels between fields on the highway and we always give them a wide path.

Is this an adorable face or what? If I lived in a stick house I would have a dozen of these little sweet hearts.

Phil turned the Lone Ranger around so I could get a better look at these wonderful animals.

Adorable Alpaca just outside Moses Lake, WA.

Front of the Aplets and Cotlets store and factory. Lots of yummy goodies inside!

Aplets and Cotlets candy factory in Cashmere, WA. That is powdered sugar all over everything. Yummy candy!

Cousin Norine's large ranch house up on a shady hill.

My cousin Norine and me at her beautiful ranch in Othello.

Cousin Jack in happier days on a horse back moose hunt. This is his widow, Norine's favorite picture of her much loved spouse.

My cousin, Jack at work in his veterinary clinic in Othello about 2001. We were sad to learn that Jack passed away in January of 2002.

Our last glimpse of best friends, Gloria and Les. They hosted us and our Penny the Pace for three months in Shelton while we took care of business. Thank you dear friends! We will miss you!

Great Granddaughter, Carly trying on her new sunglasses.

Carly's chocolate chip cookie birthday cake! Different and yummy. Her Grandma, Bobbie treated the family to a wonderful buffet dinner at the Casino south of Shelton.

Servers at the Little Creek Casino buffet arrive to sing "Happy Birthday" to our great granddaughter, Carly. She is eight years old already! L-R: Carly's Aunt Sara, her Daddy, Joe, Carly and Grandma Bobbie.

3:00 pm Thursday, August 2, 2007

Phil and I are counting down to our departure date. If all goes well at my final doctor follow-up tomorrow, (I do not anticipate any problems) we will be leaving our current location in Shelton, WA on Monday—August 6th.

Phil is fishing with his pal, Lester today. It will be the last time they can go out together before we head east. Our tentative itinerary is eastern WA, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, Nebraska, Colorado, New Mexico then finally, Arizona. I have a bad case of “Hitchitch” and feel we have again overstayed our welcome which seems to be the norm for us once we settle in here at Gloria and Lester’s “RV Park.” It doesn’t come much better than this unless maybe they had a lake next door for the guys to fish in everyday.

The time here in Shelton has flown by and it is hard to believe we have been fixed in one location for three months! We did move Penny the Pace to Olympia last week to get her new front tires. She is very proud of her new traveling shoes and they look good! They ought to—we considered taking out a loan to pay for them. However, unless the road drops out from beneath us (per the disaster in Minneapolis yesterday) we should now roll safely down the road for many more miles.

Here are pictures taken over the past few weeks:

This is our precious granddaughter, Brooke. Is this an angelic pose or what? She will be three in October.

Granddaughter, Brooke, and her daddy, Mike. He is Phil's second oldest son and they live in Tacoma.

My niece, Tammy and her husband Steve (center picture) hosted a housewarming party in July to celebrate their beautiful new home. One of our gifts was this eight generation collage I made for her family picture wall. The image (top center) is of Jessica's (Tammy's daughter-bottom center) gr, gr, gr, gr, gr, grandmother, Nancy (Wood) Turner who was born about 1799 in Virginia and died in 1851.

6:05 pm Monday July 16, 2007

Long time no blog!

I will try and catch up with a few pictures and some short captions. Hopefully, Blogger will cooperate so I may download them without any problems.

About three weeks to our tentative estimated time of departure. More about that later.

Our track south through Idaho and Montana this year will include Wyoming, Nebraska and Colorado on our way to New Mexico and Arizona filling in three more states on our map.

Cousins, Brenda and Patrick welcome their new son, Hunter into the world on April 12th, 2007.

Deer come to visit across the street from Penny the Pace.

Andy's graduation day. L-R: sister, Jessica, mom, Tammy, Andy and stepdad Steve.

Hornets nest in the eave of niece, Tammy's new house. It was HUGE.

Great nephew, Andy opening his gifts at his 18th birthday party.

Phil relaxing with his favorite game on the computer.

Phil took this picture of a float plane taking off at Lake Isabella where he was fishing.

Phil waiting to go into surgery to have his seven and a half year old pacemaker replaced. Afterward, the doctor told us it was a text book procedure and we are hoping to get a full release to travel tomorrow.

Phil resting in recovery ...

On the mend ...

Grandson, Joe showing us his newly purchased acoustical guitar. He is a happy young man.

Our great nephew, Max blows out his #6 candle. His parents Arne and Beth gathered family and friends for the birthday celebration and deep fried turkey dinner. Delicious!

10:29 am Thursday July 5, 2007

There is no doubt now … I’m getting old.

I hate fireworks! I really do. Don’t get me wrong, it has nothing to do with how much I love my country. Phil is a proud and patriotic Viet Nam veteran and as far as we are concerned, politics aside, there is no better place to live on earth than the United States. That said, I repeat … I hate fireworks.

What do fireworks have to do with Independence Day? We live near two Native American reservations and as far as I can tell, they sell every size and shape of noisy rockets known to man and it is ALL about the money. One man I know spent over $400 for fireworks for his 4th of July party; what a waste. Why?

Beginning about noon, the jarring bang, boom and rat-a-tat staccato of citizens burning up their money and imposing their “fun” on every hearing resident within range began. By dinner time, the noise is deafening and I can imagine what it is like to live in Iraq. Of course, the weather was perfect for a Fourth of July picnic so our windows were open to catch a breeze. Finally about midnight, they quieted down.

To anyone who loves fireworks that might be reading this blog, I’m sorry if my opinion offends you but since it is my blog … I am taking advantage of this opportunity to whine. If you are a regular reader you know I rarely complain so hopefully this is my one shot—until next year!

2:52 pm Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Phil and I are both avid blog groupies. We have our favorites but I go a step further and explore the bloggers on the “Datastorm Users Map” http://datastormusers.com/ and of course, I also check out “Hitchitch”, http://hitchitch.com/the ultimate blog listing. The best ones are written by Rvers on the move who write every day and that was (and continues to be) my goal when I started my blog in June, 2004. Each morning, whenever possible, while having my coffee I devote an hour or more living vicariously through these blogs—especially when we are not rolling down the road ourselves. When it is not possible for us to travel, I keep my senses sharpened for the real thing by reading about our fellow rvers adventures. Time constraints thwart reading them all but that’s okay since not all write every day. However, like the innocent moths precarious curiosity about the flame—for me, the price tag of these reviews is the yearning in my belly to hear Penny’s mighty engine roar and see Shelton in our rear view mirrors!

It is evident from the lack of verbiage on my blog, when we stay in one place for very long, I soon run out of interesting sights and events to write about. In western Washington, our former home state, we have seen most of it many times and I have written about much of it during the past two summers. Hence, the extended silence on my blog as we are parked here doing mundane daily tasks. Believe me; I am saving you from a long, nap caused by boredom!

Our tentative (my word for carved in Jell-O) plans declare we are leaving Shelton the second week in August. The last scheduled medical follow-up is on the third and our great granddaughter, Carly’s eighth birthday is the fifth. In order to accommodate us, our granddaughter, Sara is going to celebrate her 20th birthday two weeks early and join Carly for her celebration so we can attend both at the same time. We will be pointing our wonderful Penny the Pace east through Washington and Idaho to Montana then south through Wyoming, Colorado and New Mexico on a quest for warm weather and new adventure.

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So … until we roll again, I ask for your understanding and patience.

A note to my family: I can still be reached by phone or e-mail.

12:57 p.m. Thursday, June 14, 2007

“The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men . . .”

No matter how carefully a project is planned, something may still go wrong with it. The saying is adapted from a line in “To a Mouse,” by Robert Burns and holds true for Phil and Joy this summer!

Back in February, we were enjoying the sunshine in Yuma and the conversation went something like this:

Joy: "While we are in WA this year, let’s not park in one spot this summer (We nearly overstayed our welcome last year by parking for 3 and a half months in Gloria and Lester’s back yard!) How about getting all our doctor appointments and family visits finished in May and explore around Washington a bit while the weather is good?"

Phil: "Sounds good to me! There are some great campgrounds I would like to visit that are located on some good lakes where I would like to go fishing."

Joy: "Great! Let’s get on the phone and start making our appointments."
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Phil: "Works for me!"

I won’t bore you with the details but with eight medical appointments for each of us that include follow-ups into August; wonderfully abundant dinner invitations; plentiful birthdays to celebrate; fun card parties with family and friends; graduations; a class reunion and Phil’s many local fishing trips with his buddy, Les . . . our dance card is full my friends! Into the second week of August, this 2007 summer is busy, busy, busy!

Such is the life of a fulltime Rver! Flexibility is the keyword—ability to change course in the middle of the stream.

Phil mused: “I guess we’ll have to come back to WA in April next year …?"
Joy responded: "Not on your life! The weather in May is iffy at best but April showers are a given in the northwest! 2008 is a whole new year; we’ll try again!"

4:10 p.m. Friday June 8, 2007

Our six days at Belfair State Park is over and we have returned to our parking spot in Shelton behind our friend’s house. My daughter, Violet managed to squeeze us into her busy schedule four of the six days and we experienced some great family time. She and her husband own a used car lot (Fred’s Car Lot) that also has Budget Rent-a-Cars. They also sell cell phone service and metal buildings/carports. They are very busy with the business and their church so it took some maneuvering to find time to be together but we did it! The grandsons, (14, 18, & 20 years old) are all doing well and Violet is taking time to do a small amount of gardening this spring which she is really enjoying.

Joy, Violet and her husband Fred. (I forgot to smile ~~~)

Two families of Geese and their goslings came every day to feed on the smogasboard of sea life exposed when the tide went out.

A beautiful rainbow in Violet's back yard.

A Para-surfer (?) enjoying the windy day on Hood Canal.