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!