Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Ma & Pa - Stayin' Alive, Stayin' Alive!!

OK - OK. Many of you have sent emails saying “where are you? We’ve been checking the blog and there have been NO postings.”


So - here we are in AZ - but much happened along the way!


Since last we left you, the Magic Bus has been an entertainment facility. While in Valencia/Santa Clarita we had three - count them - three dinner parties!! All old, dear friends. One evening my old traveling companion (before Gary!), Janet, and her husband Perry joined us for dinner ‘in the Bus’. Of course much of our conversation centered around the Lakers as they now share those tickets with us. Another evening Dennis and Liz Kneier came out for dinner. That night we relived old Touche times, 3-day walks (Liz did the 3-day with me both of the last two years while Dennis worked the pit stop with Gary) and anything else we could think of to talk about. The last evening Steve Campbell, our previous next door neighbor and friend, who is now attending Cal Lutheran University, came over for a home-cooked meal. There was a lot of ‘catching up’ to do with him. Magic is GREAT as an entertainment center and dining hall!!


In between the entertaining we spent many hours with Gary’s Mom - visiting and lunching. We even got some time with Tom and more time with Heather and Haley!


On the 15th of October we headed to Arizona for our annual ‘stay with Deme while my sister and brother-in-law, Barb and Andrew, go on their anniversary weekend’. Again, Magic performed admirably! Deme stayed with us for two nights and LOVED the Bus - especially Gary’s infamous shower!!


We are now back to golf - trying to take in as many new courses as possible. Need to add to our ‘ball display cases’ back in Park City. The only news there is that we are both taking a three day ‘class’ next week and yesterday I FINALLY broke 100:-)


No pictures to go with all this news - but we had lots of fun along the way never the less!


Love to you all - E & G

Sunday, October 11, 2009

Fun with Gramma and Gramps

Well, since last we left you we have been ‘grandparenting’ - and having a GREAT time at it.


We spent 6 days in Lemoore, CA on the Naval Air Base in their RV parking area. This works out perfect, as it is about 2 blocks from the Hengsteler (Heather, Shannon, Haley and Joseph) on base household - a nice walk! We played, shopped, played, ate, played, went to tumbling class, played, walked, played, got a halloween preview, played - in short - we had a wonderful time being Gramps and Gramma!!


Joseph, Heather & Haley - Dinner in the Bus


Taking a stroll to Tumbling Class


Little tunnel rat


Tumblin trio - Haley gets a kiss from BFF, Zoey


Haley observes Gramma and Gramps in tunnel of love


Kiddies in the cubbies


Get that bubble



Getting prepared for trick or treating



Gimme a kiss


There was also a ‘quick trip’ to Pasadena during this time for another ‘Touche Partner Retirement Dinner’ for OLD friend Richard Giss. It is always fun to welcome another to the ranks of the retired - as we are ever hopeful to have friends join us in our travels. We would like to make a convoy!! It is also fun to catch up with many old friends (that it seems you only see at retirement parties and funerals these days). Speaking of old friends, after Lemoore Jim Malone opened his doors to us for a few days. Here we enjoyed a little golf, a little eating and a little visiting - just perfect.


Valencia Travel Village, an RV park around the corner from Eloise (Gary’s Mother), is our home for the next few days. In case you didn’t guess - we are now out of the National Parks phase of our trip and into the ‘visiting friends and family‘ phase.


More later - Love to All - E & G


Sunday, October 4, 2009

Oregon Trail


We have had a wonderful stay in Oregon this past week! We arrived on Monday after another ‘tour’ on the ferry to get us back to the ‘mainland’. You would think after the last ride, we would be old pros - but this was a MUCH smaller, older ferry that gave us another new experience loading and unloading. But, we made it to Port Angeles, WA just fine after more whale sightings!


Tucked in the ferry hold en route to Port Angeles, Washington

A beautiful drive took us to our interim stop at another wonderful RV park in Kelso, WA, where we washed Magic so the bus was all ‘spiffy’ to meet our old friends in Oregon. On the drive we passed this place called Marathon Coach ----(www.marathoncoach.com ) . If you want to be ‘trailer trash’ you might check this out!!


Boy, did we give Priscilla & Steve a ‘fright’/laugh when we pulled up in front of their house with our 36’ house on wheels!! It was fantastic to see them again - and to see all that they have done to their farm in the last couple of years. There is a new beautiful home surrounded by many additions to the herd (150 sheep now!) and the ‘facilities‘ for the sheep. They have even recruited help from Shawn (and his dog Sam). After getting ‘the tour’ we had a good old fashioned ‘chat’ with cocktails and dinner - and a late night as we had several years to catch up on!


Due to our late night, we took it easy Tuesday morning before driving to Crater Lake (a 2 1/2 drive in each direction), which everyone but me had seen. Crater Lake was formed after the collapse of volcano Mount Mazama over 7,000 years ago and is the deepest lake in the United States at 1,943 feet (592 meters), and the seventh deepest lake in the world. It is also the fifth oldest national park, founded in 1902. The extreme depth and pure water combine to create a blue gem that stuns many first-time visitors into silence - if only one can see it. As mentioned in previous postings, we have had absolutely beautiful weather - which I was bragging about to our friends. So - it rained and SNOWED all the way to Crater Lake!! When we got to the lake - it was in a cloud, not to be seen. So - what else - we ate! After lunch, as we walked out on the patio of the Lodge, the clouds broke and we had 2 minutes of sun and I actually got to see the lake!!


On the road to Crater Lake


We can almost see the lake


Priscilla & Elizabeth

A beautiful rainbow over the Salt Marsh Ranch awaited our return.


A rainbow at the Saltmarsh Ranch

Our stay at the Salt Marsh Ranch would not be complete without a ‘walk around’ the farm to meet all the sheep, the guard Llamas - Lucy and Hank, the guard dogs - TJ, Chewy, Jacob and Isaac, and the herding dog - Molly.


Hank the Llama lookin for some lovin


Isaac needed a scratch


Molly - keeping on herding


Molly is somewhere behind this group


A view of the barn from one of the grazing areas



TJ (the dog) and Llucy Llama watching us closely


Wednesday afternoon we moved Magic to an RV park just outside of Ashland and had company for dinner - Brian Campbell, our friend and former neighbor who is attending Southern Oregon University in Ashland. Again, we had a delightful evening just chatting and catching up. Our last day in Oregon was another wonderful day of lunching, shopping, dining and going to the Shakespeare Theater. What more could anyone ask for??


More later - E&G