Back on the Road Fall of 2016

On the Road Again!   Sounds like a song!  Oh ya, I guess it is, ha ha.  Well I guess it’s our song now.  We left Olympia on September 18th after my dad’s 90th Birthday Party.  What a great time and a Great Guy!  

                  

Then we headed for Moses Lake where we spent a few days before our Nephew’s wedding in Leavenworth on September 24th.  Another great time celebrating with family.  Congratulations to the Bride and Groom Keith and Beth Frost and parents John andCheryl Frost!  

I also had to stick these pictures in to show the beautiful venue and to share a couple great picture of our parents (and grandparents of the groom), Jim and Phyllis Frost! 

 

After a short detour back to Olympia to finish an irrigation project, we left Moses Lake on October 3rd.  We made our way through Idaho, on to Provo, UT, then to Moab where we spent a couple of nights so we could have a day of jeeping again,  it was just as fun as we remembered.  We hooked up with some people in Razor’s who ride out there regularly and they showed us around.  It was really fun.  I got to ride in one of the Razor’s for a while.  Good thing John didn’t get to, he would have bought one.  It was really fun, and I could see why you would want one if you lived near there. 

                

 

I got to ride in this one!

             

     

We also went into Arches National Park again, it is always beautiful!

                  

  

From Moab we headed East over the Rockies to our next destination to see John’s mom and family in Denver Colorado.  The scenery on the way was beautiful!  We stayed at Chatfield State Park, when we arrived there were old fashioned airplanes giving us a show right over our campground, it was pretty fun.  

We picked up Mom and headed to old town Morrison to walk along Bear Creek, it's Edith's favorite place to walk.  She gets along quite well for her 90+ years!!  

John and mother Edith

Washing the jeep.

    

Along the Bear Creek

At the dam on Bear Creek

Bear Creek River

Had fun spending time with Kevin and Beth and their family and getting to meet the newlyweds, Paul and Kelsey Turner, married July 7, 2016.  We go to enjoy all their wedding pictures and could tell they had a really fun time.  We go to share with them our favorite card games.  We all had a great time together.  

The group playing Fastback!  Renee, John, Maddy, Paul, Kelsey, Elizabeth and Kevin

The newlyweds!  Paul and Kelsey, both first time teachers this Fall!  Congratulations!!

John's sister Elizabeth and husband Kevin

Madeline Turner, college student at CCU

While we were in the area, we drove down to Colorado Springs and took in Pikes Peak and the Garden of the Gods.  These are pictures from the Garden of the Gods.  This park was donated by one person who wanted to make sure that people were never charged to see it, so the park is free and well worth the time to explore it.  

 

 

After leaving the Garden of the Gods, we drove up the highway a bit so we could climb Pike's Peak.  Pike's Peak is known for it's height (over 14,000 feet), and the races they have down it every year.  It is now a nice paved road, don't know what it used to be like, but it is very windy and steep, I don't think I would like to race up or down it.  Some places they tell you to keep your car in second gear!  That may be a little overkill, but it is very steep in places.  We were above the tree line it was so high and when it was 80+ degrees down below, up on top it was freezing!  You can probably tell from the pictures! This map is the road up the mountain, it is 22 miles long and you have to pay $12 per person to drive up this road.  At the top is a small gift shop known for its donuts.  I wouldn't hold out for those donuts, they are just plain old cake donuts and not very good.  I had my mouth set on a Krispy Cream type donut, what a disappointment  that was!  Also at the gift shop there were medics walking around just in case people were sick from altitude sickness.  I will say that John and I both felt a little lightheaded being up that high and the low oxygen.  Didn't get to stay long because it was late in the day, but definitely would recommend it if you get to Colorado Springs, it is an adventure.

After a great visit with family we headed south.  We stopped in Carlsbad NM where we spent the day touring he Carlsbad Caverns.  It was a great experience.  And, we waited to watch the bats that come out at dusk.  Around 6:35 pm that night, here come thousands and thousands of bats out of the cave entrance.  We sat and watched them come out for over 30 minutes and they just kept coming.  Quite amazing.  Sorry, couldn’t take any pictures of that.

Entrance to the cave

 

 

 

 

 

 

After leaving Carlsbad, or next destination was reaching San Antonio TX.  We spent a week here.  Our main goal was to see the Riverwalk in downtown San Antonio, which we did a few times, it is amazing, and so beautiful, we rode the boat around the canals and we walked around on the sidewalks, both were fun.  Lots of shops and eating places, hotels, stores, and a mall.  

 

We also caught up with a friend of mine, Sabrina Camacho who was an intern for me when I worked at the Superintendent of Public Instruction a hundred years ago!!  Or at least it seems like that.  Okay, it was probably about 25 years ago.  It was so good to see her and meet her family.  She is now married and has 3 girls, wow how time flies.  When she was my intern, I think she was 16!  

On my birthday, October 20th, we went and visited a mission, and went and had a Texas steak for dinner at the Little Red Barn Steakhouse.  When we walked in the door, they greeted us with two salads in their hands ready to seat us and feed us!  The menu was 3 ft X 4 ft board with the menu on it that they stand up at the end of the table across from you so you can read it!  It was great fun and the food was good.  And, I got to try out the gun and holster!

 

 

 

Birthday Dinner at the Little Red Barn

Steak House

On Sunday, October 23rd, we got to go to John Hagee's church in San Antonio TX.  We watch him on TV on Sunday Mornings while we are on the road for our church service, so it was very cool to see him in person.  They tape the Sunday morning service, and if you happen to watch his sermons (you can see them on GETV.com), you may see us in the crowd, we watched and saw ourselves several times, mostly from the back, but we were there!

After leaving San Antonio, we headed out to the beaches.  We plan on spending the next couple of months on the Gulf Coast.  Our first stop was South Padre Island.  Evidently this is a big spring break place, but we were there the end of October and it was pretty quiet.  We stayed at the KOA just over the big long “Queen Isabella” island bridge.  South Padre Island probably isn’t any wider than a half a mile, but is very long.  The long island separates the mainland from the ocean and creates a bay.  We were parked on the bay side where there is lots of fishing, but spent time on the ocean side which was amazing.  The air temperature was about 86 degrees while the ocean water was a warm 81 degrees.  Can’t beat that!  And the beaches were a soft white sand.  We took our lounge chairs and set up right on the beach, nothing better than that!



 At South Padre Island, we are at 
the most southern tip of Texas.  






  This was a pretty cool bridge!

This is the entrance to our park.  Nice park!

This picture is from the pier right
next to our RV Park.

Cozying up to the Pirates!

Our spot at the park.

And the Beaches!  We spent the day soaking up the sun and enjoy the warm surf.

                      

And yes, it does rain in Paradise!  It down poured the morning we were to leave.

here was standing water everywhere, but before we left, 

the sun was out and drying things up.

After at few days at South Padre Island, we headed to Corpus Christi TX.  This time we are on the mainland, not the island, but we have done a lot of exploring on the island.  Looks like we could just drive our motorhome out onto the beach and camp for up to 3 days every 21 days.  Not too bad an idea but I do like the extra comfort of being plugged in at night!  Keep the air conditioning on!   Down here it doesn’t cool off much at night, it is still in the low 70’s and without much of a breeze it can be stuffy inside the coach.

Short 5 minute ferry ride over to the island.

Halloween on the Beach!!

Every bird on its perch!

You can camp right on the beach, this is a long road with lots of room to camp.

  

After a day at the beach, we did some sightseeing at Corpus Christi where we spent the day touring the USS Lexington.  The largest aircraft carrier in the American fleet.  What an amazing ship.  It was set up to house 2500 soldiers, but had as many as 2900 serving on it at one time.  There were lots of exhibits on this ship, there were also lots of video presentations throughout the ship and a 3D Movie Theatre with a great movie about the ship and the wars fought with it.  We would recommend anyone who comes through Corpus Christi to spend time touring this ship.  Well worth it.

These are bunks for sailors.  There are 3 on each side down each corridor.
There are 36 beds in this area.

 

This is the ready room where they get ready for their next mission.

Notice how the wings fold up?  That's so they can get more on the flight deck.
This flight deck is big enough to hold 1000 cars.

Walking the Plank!

Well, we are caught up for now!  We are having a great time and enjoying seeing new things and new places.  From here we head to Galveston where we will be for the next month. From there we plan to travel through New Orleans and stay for a few days then on to Pensacola where we will stay for another month.  We are enjoying the gulf coast and the warm weather.  I guess we are "winter Texans" this year!  That is what they call snowbirds down here.

Thanks for following our blog, 

hope you enjoy viewing our travels.