By the numbers II...

1 Nov 2009 (Sunday)

Days on the road since Z and Dad left Mqt: 81
Miles driven: 11875
Gallons of gas: 1311 (9.06 MPG)
Campsites: 33
US States: 21 (MI, WI, IL, IN, OH, WV, VA,MD, DE, NJ, PA, NY, MN, ND, MT, AK, WA, OR, ID, UT, WY,CO)
Canadian Provinces: 4 (OR, AL, BC, YT)
Cars seen during one three hour stretch (0630-0930) driving in the Yukon Territory: 3
Cars seen during one three minute stretch on US 5 in Seattle: 300
Crappers replaced: one
Days since broken shower identified: 68
Number of RV dealers visited who have proven unable to fix/replace the shower: 3
Old friends (or, rather, long time friends) seen: 7
Longest time since last seen friend/relative: 19+ years (Steph)
Colleges visited: 5 (IU, WVU, Penn State, UAF, BYU)
Packer losses to the most hated rival: 2
Number of times that Brett performed better in a Viking uniform than he had in 16 years in Green and Gold: 2

Peace...

Dad

Friendship

UTAH

We were going to save this blog about friends for another time, but we have seen so many friends and have many more to see, that we thought we would split them up.

When we started this trip we made lists of places we wanted to see. The sights that we have seen so far have been beautiful and I wouldn’t trade them in for anything, but something changed when we visited our friends in WA. Now that we have seen many different families that we know, it has actually become the highlight of our journey. We are still seeing the beautiful sights of N. America, but the people we see mean so much more to us. The times we have spent with them, even though short, have been the best part of our trip.

Our first stop, as my husband alluded to in one of his blogs, was to see our friends Jim and Pam and their son Josh (they have a daughter Mele in the Army whom we will visit early next year). They welcomed us into their home, fed us, let us do laundry, and were just great friends all around. We were neighbors when we lived in WA 10 years ago and it felt like we never left. Pam is an unbelievable cook and I always enjoy watching her in the kitchen and eating ANYTHING she is cooking! Not to mention the great chats. Jim even worked out a way for Dad and Z to tour the Seattle Seahawks practice field and training center. That was the best thing ever, according to Z!

Next we went to see Dad’s old roommate from West Point -- Paul and his wife Kristie, along with Jackson and Hannah -- their sweet kids. They, too, welcomed us into their home and survived the loud noises of 4 additional kids in their house and a large dog taking over their backyard. We had a great time with them: talking, hiking and having an adult night out to dinner! What a treat. I even got to cook in their BIG kitchen, which is a great thing for me!!! Their hospitality was awesome and as we drove south to Portland we realized how much we would miss them as well as Jim and Pam.

In amongst the WA visit, one of my closest friends Debbie and her husband Bill flew out to Seattle for a wedding. It was so funny to see her there in the middle of our visit. We are both from NJ and grew up together and to see each other outside of our hometown was a bit strange. We only had a few short hours together, but it was great to see her and Bill. We talked like old times, but every time she leaves or I leave -- which is usually the case-- I find myself wishing that we lived closer. We couldn’t be more different in many ways, but we have a history and an understanding that you don’t often find. Great to see you, Deb!! Not to mention the fact that they are baby-sitting our cat! He loves it there and it will be hard for everyone to drag him away! But I am sure the mice, birds and rabbits will be happy to see him go. Not to mention the neighbors :)

Next on the list was a trip to Oregon to visit Dad’s cousin Stephanie and her family. She has teenagers, so you know how busy they can be. We spent most of the time chatting with Steph. She was a great hostess and cooked us all a yummy dinner and dessert. Steph is an author and she and her husband, Tim, have lived in almost as many different places that we have -although the places they have been are cooler! It was great to chat with her about her writing, her travels and her family. The last time we all saw each other was right after we got married! Time sure does fly.

This picture I took of the cousins isn't great, but that is what
you get when you use a cell phone!

Last, but not least we drove to Utah to visit friends that we had met in Germany. Dave and Judy were more than friendly and our time there was both a learning time and a fun time. All three of the big kids hung out with their kids. Best of all was our own private tour of Salt Lake City with Dave as our tour guide. My husband really enjoyed working with Dave and had described him as tremendously knowledgeable in many areas, level headed and quite humorous. His wit and the fact that he is a lawyer who analyzes things with a lawyers mind was what Dad found interesting and enjoyable. Dave and Judy and family are Mormons. Although I have read and heard a lot about their religion, it was fascinating for me to hear about their tumultuous history and why they believe what they believe. Salt Lake City is the most amazing place to hear and see the Mormon history. Although we might disagree on some levels in our faith, it was a good time to gain some knowledge and understanding of the Mormon religion. The way they honor the family is a lesson that all of us could learn from. The kids fell right back into chatting and hanging out with each other and I know that they wished to stay longer. The food and fellowship were great and we so appreciate all their hospitality.

Crazy dress up time! YIKES

Jim, whom I mentioned at the top of this blog, is actually Pastor Jim and I remember a sermon he preached 11 years ago on how much we love and enjoy looking at beautiful Mount Rainier and scenery in general. We ooh and aahh at the landscape. We anticipate those clouds moving each day in order to get a glimpse of the awesome mountain. But he reminded us that there are beautiful people all around us, sitting right next to us that should be looked at with love, admired and oohed and aahhhed at as well. He is so right. It is the people that you meet along the way that make life so much better.

Thank you friends. You all went out of your way to make our stay with you a special memory that will stay in our hearts forever.

Blessings, Mom

Birthday time!

Hi all,

October is a big month in our house as well as our extended family. We have two children, two nephews, one niece and one aunt that have October birthdays. Not to mention many friends! And both mom's brothers have anniversary's that month as well! It is BUSY! but loads of fun.


This year the kids didn't have any big time celebrations with friends. We had to make due with what we could as a family, which is kinda nice. Baking cakes in our tiny oven, decorating with birthday banners and finding a place to keep secret gifts was a bit difficult, but we managed. Not to mention having a place for the uneaten cake! Counter space is lacking.



Toley's birthday came first. For her birthday we had a big breakfast, opened gifts and we went to see "UP". Good thing about being near a military post, they are always showing movies way past their prime! HA! so, we got a chance to see a fun movie that we missed when it came out (save for Z man who went with his friends). And the fact that we got to ride our bikes there made dad happy :) After that it was dinner of her choice. That is always a challenge for Toley because she likes so many things. She chose spaghetti and meatballs. YUM!







The next birthday was Z-mans who I am now going to call the BFG (big footed galoot!). The BFG is also a book by Roald Dahl. He is one of Toley's favorite authors and the BFG is one my favorite books. BFG in this case stands for Big Friendly Giant. He is way funny and one of my favorite lines is when he says, "Am I right or am I left?" HA!........anyway just go and read the book!


OK, back to BFG. He had a less eventful birthday. What can you do to entertain a teenager in a 31 foot RV? Pretty tough. But he got his big prized gift - the extended versions of Lord of the Rings - from mom's parents. So we spent most of the afternoon watching how they made costumes, created sets and thought up ideas. It was actually really amazing how it was all done; what was fake and what was real. For dinner we had BFG's favorite meal - pizza! His day was continued into Sunday as he donned his new Packer jersey from dad's mom and watched the Packers win! It was a good weekend for him.


You know what you get when you mix three big goofballs with one rainy day and an "I'm bored" attitude? WRESTLERS! That is how we spend a lot of our time, wrestling in this tiny space. It is a bit frightening, as you can see by Pooh's face! And I am sure BFG is going to love seeing this picture of him in his sisters hat posted for the world! Sorry BFG!



Anyway, the day was fun. BFG is getting closer and closer to the ceiling and closer and closer to flying the coop! That is both a happy and sad thought for me. But that is life!


Our last fun item is a "flip" that Pooh made of BFG talking like Gollum. For those of you that might not know, Gollum is the little creature that follows Frodo all over the place in the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Lord of the Rings Trilogy. It is a bit scary, but a pretty good impression if I do say so myself.



Enjoy the day

mom

Comments

Another dull post from Dad w/o Sue's exciting editing.

I just wanted to thank you all for your comments. We don't always respond to them, but we do read and appreciate them all.

Now, we realize that it is not easy to post comments. For whatever reason, this site seems to make it quite difficult. I believe they try to protect each site from "spam" and those who leave random comments. We have had a couple instances of comments unrelated to the site.

The easiest way to post comments is to click on the "comments" link at the end of the post and write your comment in the space provided. Then, using the drop down box, click on Anonymous. If you have a website that you want to reference, you could use that as well, but Anonymous is the easiest (Mom). Once you do that, click on the Preview button. That will bring up the comment as well as a window of blurry letters that you have to type to validate the comment. Once you type in those letters, you can click "Post Comment."

Another way you can comment is to become a "Follower" of the site (See Handyman, Lanny, Ray, etc). Their posts seem to get uploaded.

Sorry to those who've unsuccessfully attempted to comment. Hope this clears it up.

Peace,

Dad

Mount St. Helens

Hi I’m Kik, I am 8 years old and I’m writing about Mt. St. Hiwens. First we packed all our stuff and got into the rental car (the car we’re borrowing, Kik loves rental cars!). We took a long drive and I played with my CD player. When we got there we went to a fun place called the visitors center. We saw a sign: No Pets, No Water, and No Food. We went to play with fun stuff, you could go under a pretend Mt. St. Helens and they had pretend lava. Then we got to go to a movie. We got to sit in the way front.



The movie had a earfquake, real. It had a volcano too, there was tons of smoke. We got in the car again and went to another visitor’s center, it wasn't open, but we got to go play at a park. We played cruise ship and got to go down a slide on pretend rock. It was really foggy and you couldn’t see anything. If you look out toward Mt. St. Helens it looked like the end of the earth! While my big brother and sisters took funny pictures, like the one of Toley on the mountain, Mommy, Daddy and I got to go on a little hike through the woods.
We had a fun day.
~KIK