Seals
Monday, December 9, 2013
And here are the pics!
The story line
OK, maybe we'll do three posts! Here's the running commentary since our last post. Please forgive the change from past to present tense and back again. Too lazy to edit tonight...
On Friday, 29th we got up and went for a walk on the beach, checking out the seals that come into the estuary there. In the afternoon we went to Port Hueneme and bowled.
Today we drove to an RV park in Lake Havasu City, AZ, and drove over the London Bridge.
We left Lake Minden RV park on Thursday, November 21st. We drove to Tulare, CA and stayed at Sun and
Fun RV park. It was a Passport America
park. Both of these that we have stayed
at so far have been mobile home parks with a few RV parking spots. We had a very nice pull through concrete spot
with full hookups. It was a tight turn
pulling out, and I wasn’t sure I could make the turn without backing up ( we
still had the van on the tow dolly, since it fit in the pull through
spot). I turned tight, and failed to
consider the tail swing and where that would put the tow dolly. Trevor heard something and said, “Dad
stop!” I stopped and we went to
look. We were up against the dump pipe
with the tire of the tow dolly, and were about to drive over the water
pipe. That would not have been
good! We unloaded the van, moved the tow
dolly by hand, and were able to get out without further incident.
We drove from there to Banning, CA, but had to stop short
for a time due to high winds. We stopped
in Rialto, CA and got Dominos pizza and ate in the parking lot of a church
nearby. We then drove on to Banning. It was now dark, and it was a very windy road
up to the Silent Valley RV park which was in the mountains. Sheryll was very nervous during the drive
up! At one point, there were several
cars behind me and I saw a sign for a turnout in ¼ mile. As we came around a corner, there was the
turnout that had been recently paved with pitch black asphalt. We were angled away from it due to the slope of the road, and it
was very difficult to see it. It looked
like we were about to drop into a black abyss.
As I turned onto it, Sheryll was saying, “Oh Jesus, Jesus!” Frankly, I was a little nervous myself! But as we leveled out onto the turnout, we
all breathed easier again. The next day
when we drove by in the daylight, we said, “There’s the abyss!”
The park here in the mountains is very nice. It has a rugged, rocky beauty, not as many
trees as in other areas. It is very
large (460 acres) and there’s not a lot of folks here. So we found a spot close to bathrooms and a
nice playground, and right next to the tennis courts. The kids are having a lot of fun playing
here.
We left Silent Valley
on Tuesday, November 26th and drove to Point Mugu, CA. We got into our parking spot, from which we
can see the ocean, and I went to VR-55 while Sheryll got the kids lunch. I went to the exchange to get us some water,
and Sheryll called and said the kids wanted to go in the water. So we let them and they had a great time, but
were numb with cold when they got out! I
was getting water because we couldn’t find the 3 gallons of water Tucker had
put in the back seat that morning. Turns
out they were in the laundry basket with the dirty clothes.
On Wednesday, 27th we got up and drove north on
the Pacific Coast Highway, and when we got back the kids when into the water
again.
On Thursday, 28th we had a lazy morning, at
breakfast, watched the Macy Thanksgiving day parade and a football game. Then we went to Denny’s and had Thanksgiving
dinner. Everyone enjoyed their lunch,
except those of us who ordered the turkey dinner. It was not good. But hey, at least we didn’t do any prep or
dishes! Then we went back to the
motorhome and watched the evening game.
One of the huge benefits of staying at Point Mugu was the
laundry was complimentary! On Friday, 29th we got up and went for a walk on the beach, checking out the seals that come into the estuary there. In the afternoon we went to Port Hueneme and bowled.
On Saturday, 30th we got up, ate breakfast and
left for San Diego. We stayed the K Q
Ranch. On Sunday December 1st
we got up and drove to Escondido Christian Center (formerly Cathedral of the
Valley) for church. We saw Joel and
Kathy Phillips and their children, Joel’s mom Mary, and Rochelle and Jody
LeDuc. After service we went to lunch
with Joel and Kathy and had a great visit.
As we were loading up to go, Kathy opened up the back of their car. They had some laundry inside, and Teddy
started pointing at the pile. It seemed
like he was pointing at a towel, so Kathy picked it up and said, “This?” Teddy said, "Yep!" and reached for it, so she gave it to
him. He took it into the restaurant
where we ate, and then kept it. After
lunch we went past the house we lived in when Trevor was born, and the hospital
where he was born. As we were driving
down the interstate, Courtney was texting Tyler what we were doing, and she
asked, “So what road are we on? I-15?”
Timothy said, “No, we’re going down Memory Lane!” We came back to the RV, and
cooked filet mignon steaks on the grill and fried potatoes on the griddle. It was awesome.
We had been planning to leave from KQ Ranch for Knotts Berry
Farm, but the road up here is so mountainous and curvy, and the Modders invited
us over to dinner Monday night, so we decided to move to the parking lot of
Joel and Kathy’s church so that we could avoid that drive late Monday night and
early Tuesday morning . The parking lot
was on a hill, so we couldn’t get the RV level, so we all slept with our heads
uphill as best as possible.
On the way to the Modder’s for dinner, we stopped and saw
Molly Chassen and her son Tony. We had a
great visit. We were good friends with
Ben and Molly when we lived in SD, but had lost touch. Ben was working so we didn’t get to see
him. Then we went to the Modders and had
a great evening with them and Tara Roach and her children. Tara is David Johnson’s sister, and Sheryll
as known her since she was very young.
It was a great day/night!
Tuesday morning, Dec 3rd, we got up and drove to
Knott’s Berry Farm. We had a great
time. The crowd was small, so lines were
short. The Silver Bullet ride was closed,
but that was the only down side. We had
a great day! That night we stayed at the
Anaheim RV park close to Disneyland. After
we were there for a bit, we released the older kids to go ride on their own,
and we took the little kids to do rides.
After a while the big kids returned and told us they wanted us to go do
some rides and get a treat and they were going to hang out with the little
kids. It was very sweet, and we took
them up on it!
Wed morning, December 4th, we got up and drove to
Steve and Donna Scheets house in Henderson, NV.
They have an RV shelter right beside their house that we parked in. They are the parents of Jeana Mudd. We did home church with the Mudds for two
years in Minot. Steve and Donna were so
gracious to us! What a blessing it was
to have laundry/shower facilities to use.
We ate meals with them, visited and our older children slept in real
beds! We had a great time, visited the
Hoover Dam, drove the strip and went to the park.
While we were there we got to visit with Alan and Ann Marie
Beckiett, friends we knew from Oak Harbor, WA.
They were missionaries to the Ukraine for years. We had a great visit with them.
Sunday after church, December 8th we left the
Scheets house and drove south to an RV park in Fort Mojave, AZ. Today we drove to an RV park in Lake Havasu City, AZ, and drove over the London Bridge.
Now in Lake Havasu City, AZ
Still trying to figure out the best way to manage blogging. Sheryll takes pics with her IPhone, and can post straight to the blog, but I keep the commentary on the laptop, and manage the digital camera photos from here. So we may do two posts tonight. Here's some pics...
The lights of Vegas from the roof of our friends house. What a view!
In Banning, CA at an RV park. Oldest and youngest on the see-saw. Wonder what they're looking at?
Chillin' in the RV
Thursday, November 21, 2013
We are on the road!
Last year, my Mom and Dad joined us on the farm. This year, my sister Rhonda and her children
Aaron, Zoe, Bailey and Reagan, joined us on the farm. Her husband Justin is there when he is not
working in the oil field in Williston, ND.
Additionally, my sister Brenda, her husband Edward and their children
Trenton and Taryn joined us.
On a date night on August 18th, while discussing
where my sister Brenda, and her family might spend the winter (they had been
living in our camper in the front yard…not really feasible after early
November) Sheryll suggested that we buy a motor home and leave for the winter,
allowing them to “winter over” in our home.
This motor home trip is an idea we have been dreaming about since around
2006 when our friends Bruce and Kim Orr told us about their motor home
trip. After that, the ball began rolling
pretty quickly.
On September 2nd, I flew to Detroit, MI to
purchase our 2007 Damon Challenger and drive it home. We purchased an 8 seat mini-van to pull
behind it, as our 15 passenger is too heavy.
We almost fit in it!
On Sunday, October 27th, at 4pm, we pulled out of
our driveway to start our motor home trip south. We will be gone all winter, heading southwest
to southern California, and then heading east across the southern states. According to Bruce Orr, our children are now “Road
Scholars”. J
We travelled to Dickinson, ND, intending to spend the first night
in the parking lot of the Walmart there.
However, they had banned all overnight RV parking due to the oil field
impact. So we pressed on, driving until
midnight when we were passing through Bowman, ND almost to the South Dakota
border. Trevor said, “Why don’t we see
if that truck stop will let us stay there?”
So I pulled in and asked, and they said, “Help yourself!”
The next day we drove south, and as we were approaching the
split to go through Newell, SD my sister Donna who lives in the Black Hills called
and asked where we were. We were just
north of Newell, and she said her husband Jerry was just south of Newell headed
for Minot! So we met him alongside the
road, with barely enough room to get our rig off the highway. He stepped inside the motorhome and we
visited for a bit before heading on. The
next day I texted Mom and said, “Mt Rushmore today, and dinner with Donna and
Jaralei tonight!” She texted back and
said, “While you’re having dinner with Donna and Jaralei there, we’ll be having
dinner with Jerry here!” Too funny.
We stayed at Hart Ranch southeast of Rapid City, SD. It was a great RV resort, but the weather
wasn’t great the first couple of days.
We went to the South Dakota Air and Space Museum, Mt Rushmore, and
relaxed for a day at Hart Ranch playing at the park and putt putt golf range.
We left on Trevor’s (and Tyler’s) birthday, Friday, November
1st and headed for Gillette, WY to visit Jim and Jewel Hawkins. However, we didn’t get very far! As we pulled out of Hart Ranch, the winds
were gusting and unrolling the tarp that goes over the slide-out and it was
flapping against the side of the motor home.
I called a local RV place to see if they had any tips for dealing with
this. They said, “Yes, get off the
road! The winds are forecast 30-50,
gusting to 60. Our drivers who deliver
motor homes can’t drive if it’s over 30.
We recommend you wait it out.” So
we went to a WalMart parking lot and spend several hours there, leaving for
Gillette a little after 5pm. The rest of
the trip was uneventful, but it was a bummer to be traveling after dark…makes it
a little tough to “see the country.”
When we arrived in Gillette, Jim, Jewel and Joselyn met us
at the Flying J and led us to their church.
At their church they had an RV parking spot that was awesome. We had full hookups…it was very nice.
We had a great visit with them, attending their church on
Sunday morning and then departed for Casper, WY where Sheryll’s cousin, Vicki
Johnson lives. We had a great, albeit
short visit with her, and then continued on to Rock Springs, WY where we spent
the night in a Walmart parking lot.
Again, driving at night was not optimum, so hopefully we won’t be doing
that much for the rest of the trip. But
we feel somewhat pressed to get farther south, as it got down to the low 20s
last night in Rock Springs. Upon arrival,
we also discovered that one of the tie-down straps had come off one of the
wheels of the van, and it was almost coming off the tow dolly. Oops!
Thank you, Lord, that it stayed on!
We’ll be checking those a little more regularly…
The next morning we drove to an RV park in Ogden, UT. It was a beautiful drive through the Rocky
Mountains. We arrived at the park, set
up and hopped in the van to go and tour the Sweet’s Quality Candy factory in
Salt Lake City. It was a fun tour, led
by a young man who had done his LDS mission to the Ukraine and spoke
Russian.
The next morning was November 5th, Courtney’s
birthday. We got up and had a leisurely
morning, with several showers and the kids playing at the playground. We left
and went to Chik-Fil-A for Court’s birthday lunch. Then we left and headed to Elko, NV, driving
across the Great Salt Lake. We stopped
for Courtney’s birthday dinner at Wells, NV at a restaurant called Bella’s.
We spent the night in a Walmart parking lot in Elko, NV. The next morning we got up and left for
Fallon, NV. We arrived at Alan and Tracy
Harrison’s house in the early afternoon.
We had a great evening of visiting with them. The next day we got up and had a normal
morning, and in the afternoon we went to NAS Fallon and walked through the
static displays they had there, and at Alan’s suggestion we went up into the
observation deck of the control tower.
It was great fun watching the jets take off and land.
Toby Thomas called and asked if we wanted to shoot skeet the
next day with Lou Mellott. So the next
morning we got up, and Trevor, Tucker, Tanner and I went with Alan, Toby and
Lou out to shoot skeet. It was a great
time! We shot and laughed and goofed
off, then went out for pizza for lunch, and then went to Stockmen’s rentals to
operate an excavator. Alan told the boys
he needed help “digging a hole” and acted like they would be using
shovels. Then when we got there he let
each of us take a turn operating the excavator.
We all had a great time. At the
end was a test to see if you could pick up a five gallon bucket by the handle
with the teeth of the excavator, and then set it down in a certain spot.
While we did this, Tracy took the girls and younger boys
shopping, and they had a great time as well.
On Saturday, November 9th, after lunch we went to
the Churchill County museum and learned about the history of Fallon and Nevada.
Toby and Connie Thomas joined us there.
Then we all went out to Sand Mountain, and Alan brought along their four
wheelers. Everyone had a great time
riding on the sand dunes and visiting.
After that, we came home and had pizza together at Alan and Tracy’s
house.
On Sunday we went to church and saw lots of old friends,
including the doctor who delivered Courtney, Galen Reimer. After church we went to Toby and Connie’s
house for lunch. Later that evening they
suggested Sheryll and I go on a date while they kept the kids. There had been conversation about an ice
cream cake from Dairy Queen, so on the way home we stopped and picked one up
for everyone to share. Unbeknownst to
us, soon after we left, Alan and Toby and the older boys went to pick one
up. So when we walked in with ours, they
were just finishing up theirs. It was
pretty funny.
On Monday, we went to Toby and Connie’s and Connie fixed us
breakfast. Toby had gone to work that
morning. Then we went back to the RV to
clean it while Connie kept the little kids.
Then I took Trevor and Tucker and we drove the RV to Stockmen Rentals
and used Alan’s tools to wash and wax it.
Then that night we went to Toby and Connie’s for supper, and Alan and
Tracy brought the second ice cream cake for dessert.
On Tuesday, we prepped to leave, said our goodbye’s to Alan
and Tracy, and headed out.
We got into a routine in Nicolaus. We did some schooling, cooked on our camp
stove, and went shopping In Nicolaus which was 28 miles away. On Saturday evening, we went on a family walk
around the lake in the moonlight. We
visited the Railroad Museum in Old Sacramento.
The highlight of our stay in Nicolaus was touring the facilities of our
favorite Christian radio station, K-LOVE located in Rocklin, CA. They are great folks, and everyone had a
great time during the tour, which included meeting a couple of the DJs we
listen to.
You might be a redneck if...you barbecue under an umbrella?
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