Spam and Repairs

The following post was planned for middle of 2019 but did not make it to the blog until now.

It is now June 2019.  The parents are somewhat situated but still have daily struggles and needs.  We planned for a long time to make this next trip to have some needed repair work done on our rig.  Inasmuch as the work is very specific to Winnebago products and my comfort level needs to be met, we have scheduled work to be done at a dealer in the city where the manufacturer is located, Forest City, IA.

Before leaving we took time out to visit with parents, kids and grandchildren.  Along the way we even found time to stop and smell the roses (er tulips). 

Represents the next stop on their path in life.

 

Just north of Dallas area

Lots of good things in this picture, jus sayin

We have passed through some areas that are flooded with the recent rains and ongoing rains we have seen this year.  Even part of one interstate highway was closed due to flooding.  As we make our way to Iowa, we pay particular attention to road conditions and weather forecasts.  When we arrive in Forest City, we make our home on the parking lot of the dealer because the city park we have used in the past is closed due to flooding.

Water, water everywhere

We end up staying a week.  Not because the work took that long but we had warranty work done on an A/C unit that was replaced a couple of years ago and it took several days to get another unit from the manufacturer.  I was warned in advance that the manufacturer does not allow parts to be shipped in advance and we possibly could be waiting for replacement items to be delivered to the dealer.

Not a problem since we needed some down time anyway and we met several interesting folks to visit with as they came to the dealer for various repairs.  We even had time to make a visit to Austin, MN and visit the SPAM museum.  SPAM was very instrumental during the World War II effort in keeping our troops fed and nourished.  During the visit, folks would come by with various samples cooked and served warm to try.  Mmmmm good!  I might just turn into a SPAM connoisseur, yep I really liked it.  I had SPAM growing up but today there are a multitude of flavors available that were not in existence back then.  This is a very interesting, different kind of museum and adventure that all ages would enjoy.

That is correct.  I am 22 cans tall.

Keeps her from cooking, why else would she love it?

As we leave Forest City, we have had numerous repairs done and are glad to know things are in good shape as we head out.  We had the rig tested for leaks and roof inspected so areas could be properly sealed once again.  Our long slide had a bracket that needed to be welded back in place to operate the slide and allow our basement doors to open properly again.  Our hot water heater had a tank leak and needed replacement.  Our black tank flush needed repair to work properly again.  Our rear A/C unit needed replacing and the drains properly hooked up.

So it is off to our next destination in Indiana, Shipshewana to be exact.  We don’t know a lot about this place but after we told some folks where we were headed to look into replacing some furniture in the rig, we learned it is a popular destination.  As we approach the area we begin to see an unusual sight on the road.  We do not ordinarily encounter black square carriages pulled along by a four footed animal.  Come to find out this is the third largest concentration of Amish peoples in the United States.

Evidently we are headed towards a whole different kind of adventure.  More detail about that in the next posting.  See ya later.

Unexpected Twists

(It has been quite some time since I posted into blogger and the reasons are in this posting and the one after this one.  It has been an overwhelming year for 2019.  Due to time demands and state of mind, that was all I could manage for the time being.  With the pandemic time in 2020, I have determined to shake off this entrapment delay and get current again in the blog.)

Early Fall 2018 continued through January 2019.

We now have moved down the road further west.  To get into Utah, we had to decide on either an easterly or westerly route to circumnavigate the big hole in the ground, otherwise known as the Grand Canyon.  We chose westerly to squeeze in a stop at Hoover Dam and Lake Mead, neither of which I had seen even though had been close a few times while visiting Las Vegas.

We stayed a few days to take in the sights and enjoy a change of scenery and climate.  What a change it was too.  It was 108 degrees the day we visited Hoover Dam.  Thankfully, most of the visit was inside and much cooler.  We did get cooling breezes and comfortable temps in the evening when the sun got low on the horizon from our spot right on Lake Mead.

Our view of Lake Mead from RV site

Second part of view

The tour of the dam was very impressive with all the history and impact it had during a tough time in America.  The sheer size and magnitude of the project is mind boggling.  Today standing on the dam and peering over its side, it is hard to even fathom how it could be conceived and brought to fruition by the blood, sweat and sheer determination of the workers.

Water outlets at bottom of dam

Standing on top looking down at water outlets

Deep in the dam where electricity is generated

Standing on top-behind us is a six-lane bridge

Moving on from the desert, we headed into canyon country in Utah.  Our goal is to see at least two different national parks and visit the north rim of the Grand Canyon before heading back to Texas.  We have our sights set on Zion National Park and Bryce Canyon National Park.  We managed to view these two but opted to bypass the visit to the north rim.

Talk about being sure-footed, these guys are!

Zion view

Another view of Zion

Bibi showing the scale of the cliffs in Zion

And now... A look at Bryce photos

Another Bryce look and wow, just wow!

Beautiful, all descriptions miss the magnificence

Bibi asked me as we headed back to Texas which one was my favorite.  I have thought about that many times and can honestly say, there is not a favorite.  All are unique and have differing aspects that appeal to me.  Even though the pictures do not adequately give the scale and depth of what our eyes see, they do provide a glimpse into God’s magnificent artistry.  If we have access to such things here for the short time we are on earth, I can only imagine what is in store for the believer when we get to heaven.

It is time to move back into Texas.  As we leave our traveling companions it is with both regret and anticipation.  When we get to Texas, we plan a short visit in Odessa where our oldest grandson is enjoying his first year of college.  We have a nice visit and get a tour of the campus and his room while we are there.  It is hard to fathom he is this age already.  Now I will fast forward to the end of the school year, when I asked him if the year passed slowly or fast for him.  His response, it passed very quickly, and I had to relay the sad information to him that each and every year he lives from now on will get faster and faster.  Time really does fly, doesn’t it?

Even the view from the windshield driving back to Texas defy words

Our almost grown grandson at college

Leaving our college freshman, we headed to our next volunteer opportunity with TBM Camp Builders in Royse City, TX.  This put us in close proximity to our other grandchildren and allowed us to catch up with family during the next three weeks.  By family, we mean both blood relatives and our adopted family of TBM’ers.

We moved from here to another camp project with TBM at Latham Springs outside of Waco.  I posted on Facebook we were working there to which a comment was made from a former employee that when she was growing up, she spent several camps with her church group at Latham Springs.  We do indeed live in a small world, don’t you agree?

After this camp we returned to our ‘home park’ in Longview.  And this is when the next chapter of our lives began.  My mother has vascular dementia and unknown to me, at the time, my stepfather has memory loss related to a differing diagnosis.  These two diagnoses came together in dramatic fashion for the first time one weekend when she took him to the hospital emergency room.  I found out about it on the following Monday morning and when I asked them why they went and what they were told, neither of them could relate details.  All they could remember is they went to the emergency room.  In fact, they went twice and after telling them on Monday they did not need to go again, they went a third time Monday evening.

This led to a sequence of events where physically and emotionally both of them were in terrible shape.  It was during a visit by my sister that our mother told us she felt it was time to move from independent living to assisted living.

As things progressed, we moved them and tried to get them situated.  Unfortunately, a steep decline in memory and cognitive ability resulted in the following months that have consumed a lot of our daily lives.  We were able to volunteer with TBM at a camp or two for short periods of time as the parents adjusted to their new environment.  But issues of unhappiness and messing around with finances cropped up and required our attention and intervention.

This is an ongoing struggle for everyone and one of the reasons why I am late in getting these updates to the blog posted.  It is extremely difficult to concentrate and focus when you are constantly distracted by occurrences requiring attention.  As we journey through this stage of life, we are learning a great deal about memory related disease and the effects on us as well as our loved ones.  We are happy our parents are still with us but deeply saddened by the loss of their former independence and self.

We now move into the future with nervousness about what will happen next.  We are hyper sensitive to just how quickly daily living can change and are more determined than ever to continue our adventure for as long as physically and mentally possible.  We have a loving, supportive group of folks we call ‘family’ that is our privilege to share both laughter and burdens with as we all walk this road we call life.

See you again in the next posting of our latest adventure.

More Surprises and Spectacular Sights

Early Fall 2018.  We leave Durango, CO and head west via Northwest New Mexico.  During our sojourn, we decide to take an Indian Road (that's the official designation when on a reservation) that will provide the most direct route to our destination of Gallup, NM.  After making the turn onto the road, we crested a rise in the road and were treated to a scene out of an old Western movie.  We stared for a long time looking for smoke signals, a wagon train or a group of riders on horseback.  Of course, we saw none but were still carried back to the images we have been fed via the movies many times in the past.  It was a very surreal moment to say the least.

What a sight to see - roughly in the middle of nowhere

After reaching Gallup and our RV Park destination, we enjoyed a BBQ dinner at the park under an Indian Summer night sky.  The setting and food was perfect after a day’s worth of driving.  From this spot on I-40 we continued our westward trek through Flagstaff and on to Williams, AZ where we intend to stop for about a week.

We arrived in Williams and took our spot at the Grand Canyon Railroad RV Park.  Williams is located south of the Grand Canyon and is part of the old Route 66.  There are a lot of historic and tourist type establishments in downtown Williams which is within walking distance from our RV pad.  Bibi and I took a stroll one morning just to get a feel for the place and to see what we could see.  Afterwards we booked our train excursion to the Grand Canyon.

It is interesting to me that I traveled on only one train as a child and it was the only trip I took via train my entire life until I retired.  Of course, I did grow up in the era of the car, particularly muscle cars, when trains had diminished to almost entirely freight hauling.  Since retirement, I have been on multiple trains to various locations and thoroughly enjoyed the relatively slower pace of travel.

All Aboard

Hey Bibi - They said All Aboard!

The trip to the canyon on the train was very entertaining primarily due to our ‘conductor’ who provided almost non-stop commentary during the trip.  He writes books about animals he studies and had come to Arizona to study certain animals and write a book about them.  He was quite knowledgeable and entertained us enough to make the long trip seem much shorter.

Upon arrival at the Canyon, we had a certain amount of time to eat and do some sightseeing before boarding the train again for the return trip to Williams.  We determined we would come back in our car to fully explore some of the areas of the Canyon we did not have time to look at on this trip.  We learned from our ‘conductor’ that a group of California Condors had been relocated to the Canyon to try and save the species from extinction.   According to him, it appears to be working because the original group has grown in number.  So this became one of our goals to locate and see the condors.

That is a three story building in between the fingers!

Boy howdy! That is a loooonnngggg way down.

Just don't lean too far back - please.

Having not been successful on our short visit via train to locate the birds, we continued our search a couple of days later when we returned to the Canyon via car.  We spent the entire day exploring the views and sights at many of the stops available via the park service shuttles that operate continuously.  One of our major disappointments is the fact that the three dimensional images seared into our brains cannot be viewed adequately by looking at a two dimensional picture.  There is no way to accurately reproduce the ‘grandness’ or the beauty of what we saw using pictures.

We did have success in locating some condors on this trip.  Here are a couple resting on the ledge of an outcropping.  They are nowhere close to us and this picture was taken with a very strong telephoto type lens by our intrepid photographer pal, David.  So mission accomplished with thanks and a hat tip to David for providing our proof.

That's too close to the edge Bibi and don't pull on me so hard.

Definitely prettier when flying but here's the proof we saw them.

During our stay in Williams I had a super nice surprise.  I was staying inside the RV while Bibi and our traveling companions made a trip to a Flea Market adjacent to our RV park.  While at the flea market, a vendor asked the group where they were from and they told them Longview, TX then they proceeded on their way to other vendors.  A short while later; another couple came by the same vendor who asked them where they were from with the same answer; Longview, TX that led to the next question, ‘do you know those folks from Longview?'

Long story, short, I get a knock on the RV door and standing in front of me is a former schoolmate from high school I had not seen in 50 years.  We had a great time catching up with each other’s lives, friends and events during the intervening 50 years.  What a nice surprise and time we had and it was all owed to a vendor at a flea market three states away from Texas.  Of course, our Texas accents probably had a lot to do with his initial question.  Jus’ sayin’.

What a super nice surprise and a reunion from 50 years ago

We made one additional trip to the Canyon late one afternoon just to catch the sunset as it played its last light of the day on the facing rock walls.  We read and were told the best time to take photographs to try and catch the colors, definition and translate the 3D to a 2D image was at sunset.  So we decided to give ourselves a shot at doing just that.  We had a great time and enjoyed a different perspective than previously experienced during our daytime visits.

Time to move on to another adventure and you can read all about it in the next posting.  See ya down the road!

On to Colorado

Late summer 2018.  As we leave the Texas August heat behind us (it was 100+ degrees when our Alaska flight landed yesterday) and head toward Colorado, we make a couple of stops along the way to avoid driving straight through and to mark some things off the bucket list.  We met back up with our Alaska traveling companions in Amarillo.  They are heading to the next TBM (Texas Baptist Men) Camp Builder project with us in Durango, Colorado.

One thing about a bucket list I have observed is that it seems to grow instead of shrink.  As you go about exploring and going on adventures to check off things on the list, you invariably find more things to add to the list.  There just doesn’t seem to be enough hours in the day or even enough days to see and do everything.

David and I do not like to drive too long at a time; and now that we are retired, try to plan our trips with some built in recovery time.  So we spent a few days in Amarillo after a couple of days driving.  We took in the outdoor drama, "Texas Our Texas", in Palo Duro Canyon along with the BBQ dinner available prior to showtime.  It was quite the production with live animals, laser lighting features, water features, set changes and fireworks during the finale.  Everyone enjoyed the whole evening immensely.

The outdoor amphitheatre at Palo Duro Canyon

Two lovelies at the Cadillac Ranch in Amarillo

The next stop was in Albuquerque, NM.  We have been here before for the hot air balloon fiesta and wanted to revisit some favorite spots plus do some additional exploring.  One trip was to ride the tram to Sandia Peak.  Sandia is a ski resort adjacent to Albuquerque and the temperature difference between the base of the tram (6,500 feet) and the peak (10,700 feet) is quite remarkable.

What a view of Albuquerque in the distance.

After our adventure up the mountain, some good ‘ole red chili sauce or if you prefer green chili sauce is in order to warm us back up.  El Pinto restaurant is a great place to sample the New Mexico version of Mexican food.  Each weekday there is a lunch buffet which allows a diner to sample the various types of cuisine and sauces available.  Oh yeah, there is a nap in your future if you indulge.

Those are chilis hanging in the entrance

On another day, we visited the Unser Racing Museum.  The Unser family is well known in racing circles and in particular the NASCAR folks.  I did not know they had lived in the area and called Albuquerque home.  We also did not realize the Pike’s Peak run was where they first tested their racing abilities, both driving and building the cars used for the run.  Even non-racing fans would enjoy the museum and history shared with the exhibits and cars on display.

Even the girls enjoyed these cars and exhibits

Here's David trying his skills at racing - it's harder than it looks!

Having exhausted our free time, it is now time to move onto our ultimate location in Durango, CO.  We are volunteering for a few weeks to help rebuild some unsafe stairs on a bunkhouse and build a freestanding bathroom facility.  When we show up for these jobs, all materials and tools are at the job site.  We merely provide the labor to accomplish the desired renovation or complete a building project.  It is always great fun to reconnect with our peeps and have something to show for our efforts.

View from our vantage point

Some neighbors that dropped by frequently

The rest of the neighbor family - they are a little stand offish

Before demolition

During demolition

After rebuild and the end result

Our crew for the two jobs at Durango

The Siding Crew for the free standing bathroom - not too bad guys!

We were blessed with this double rainbow complete from end to end on final days in Durango

While at the camp, we had time to visit a Texas (yes in CO) BBQ joint, a home cooking café with great chicken fried steak (yes in CO too), the Bar D Chuckwagon Show, ride the Durango and Silverton train and visit Mesa Verde National Park.  So you see, it is not all work.  There is a lot of play involved too.

The Bar D Chuckwagon Show is an outdoor dinner theatre (located at the old Dalton gang hideout) with old west cowboy music as the entertainment.  We really enjoyed the food and the show.  It is an amazing feat to feed the number of folks that show up and in such an orderly, efficient manner.  The musicians are some of the finest on their instruments I have heard with a wonderful mix of comedy and singing.

Mesa Verde National Park is where some of the best preserved cliff dwellings are located.  The vistas and views are spectacular.  We only spent a day there but easily could have spent several days exploring in detail the various areas located in the park.  It is amazing to learn about the daily lives of the humans using their skills to survive and prosper in seemingly hostile terrain.

One of the cave dwelling sites

A close up view of the dwellings, notice the multi story aspect too

The train ride to Silverton and back was filled with rugged mountain scenery.  We chose to ride in an open car so we could take pictures and hang out the windows to get a full view of everything we passed.

What vistas and scenery we saw

So happy to be alive and blessed to see what I am seeing

Our traveling buddies needed to repair the slide mechanism on their rig so we spent an extra week in Durango after the building project to make sure the slide was operating smoothly before moving on.  Our next route is westward.  We were within 60 miles of seeing the Grand Canyon the last time we were in Arizona but an emergency family situation interrupted that trip.  Since we are so close, we decided to go back.  More on that adventure in the next posting.