Labor Day weekend 2010

We had a huge yard sale on Saturday morning. It went well, we sold furniture, clothes, shoes, nic-naks?, and lots of other stuff we needed to get rid of. We made about $600.00 or more so I think it turned out pretty good.
After the yard sale Beka, January and myself went to Tonya's wedding in Jacksonville. It was reallly pretty and the reception was great. I just wish they would cut the wedding cake earlier. We got home late that night.

Sunday we went to church and then to the river. I stopped to visit with Kathy Ray at Aunt Olean's house. Most of mom's brothers and sisters were there. I haven't seen some of them in a long time so it was good to see and visit with them for a while.

Jan, Beka, Patrick, January and Jonas were already in the boat. We cooked and ate supper and Beth came in about 10 or so. On Monday morning I cooked pancakes for everyone. Tim, Susan and Kyle came down and ate with us. We had pancakes with fruit toppings & bacon. It was really good. We took the boat out for a long ride down river. Jan, Jonas and all us girls rode almost to the Santa Fe. Oh, Patrick had to leave and go to Thomasville for baseball camp at the college. He helps players improve their skills. Brad had to work on Monday so he wasn't able to be there either. Later in the day January and Jan decided to test the skis out. They both skied great. Jan felt so good he decided to barefoot, which he hasn't done in several years. here are a few pics of the weekend activities.

August 23, birthday for ME

Manatee

This is what the Manatee looked like when we first saw them..
I wish I knew the trick to posting the pictures with the right words.

Weekend at Indian Pass Campground

Well we went to Indian Pass Campground on August 13th for the weekend. We drove the motor home because we needed to help the economy. ha:) It really burns a lot of gas but it hasn't been driven in a while and its not good for it to set up for long periods of time. It's kinda like our bodies, they need exercise and activity. :)
I thought the campground was closer to Apalachicola but it was like 23 miles west of there. We had a beatiful campspot looking out over the water. We were able to see lots of dolphins and birds.

We drove into Apalachicola on Saturday and shopped (mostely window). We ate lunch at the Owl Cafe, really good. We also loved "The Tin Shed", so much stuff to see. I bought some wind chimes and shells. Rod and Robin were camping at Ho Hum and they drove over and we walked around with them for a while and got ice cream at one of the ice cream shops. I got a neat picture in front of "She Dreams of Apalach". cute
Rod and Robin called us after they left to come see some whales that were in the water just over the bridge. I was snapping pictures of two gray humps in the water and then Robin comes to tell me they are Manatee. :(( not whales. I lost my enthusiasm after that. I did get some pretty neat pictures of the Manatee though.

Resting in the shade

Weekend happenings

Steinhatchee has become more popular over the years. There were lots of people fishing and scalloping.


Friday night me, Jan, Patrick, January, Jonas and Beka went to Mori's Japanese Steak house in Valdosta and I got miserably full of fried rice and sushi. I hadn't had it in a long time and decided to eat all I could. I really like fried rice, yum yum. We did walk around Kohl's and Target a while so that helped me feel a little better. I bought Jonas some cute outfits in Kohls, they had a great sale.
Saturday Jan and I decided to ride down to Roy's in Steinhatchee (like we needed to eat big again)???. Anyway I guess being gone on vacation I had missed our most favorite places so we had to visit them. Roy's has better scallops than any place I know of. The weather was nice, overcast so the sun didn't cook us on the way down. We shared a four item seafood platter. I also really like Roy's potato salad they have on their salad bar. We had a good ride. I like to ride my own bike on shorter rides but Jan says the trike is much more comfortable when we go long distances. We took hwy 51 down to Steinhachee but when we came back we went through Cross City and up 349 to Branford and 129 on back to Live Oak. We try not to go and come the same way so we see different territory. I didn't like the road construction though on 349 and 129 this time.
On Sunday we drove to Lake City to listen to our most favorite Preacher, Dennis Deese. Dennis was filling in for Rick McCall at Gateway Baptist Church. Dennis loves GOD and preaches like it. After Church we (OMG eating again) went to Bob Evans and I had strawberry pancackes filled with vanilla cream and topped with cool whip. I gotta stop all this eating...... We left Sunday afternoon for Kennesaw, GA we had an appointment with Dr. Firnbach at Balanced Body Wellness Centre. She is our holstic doctor that trys to keep us in balance. Holstic medicine is very interesting and I believe is the way to go. We came home Monday afternoon and stopped in Valdosta to eat the crab feast platter at Red Lobster. OK we are done eating like this for a while. Got home safe and sound PTL... until next time..st

Everyday life is good

Today is Sunday and we are watching I Love Lucy. She is so dumb.
Worked at the office all week and it was good to get back to a routeen for a while. We will keep Jonas the end of this month because January and Patrick are going to Hawaii for their 10th wedding anniversary. I have never been to Hawaii but would like to go one day. We are looking forward to keeping Jonas, oh my goodness he is so sweet. We love him so much.
Saturday was paint day at Beth's house. Us girls went and helped her paint her bedroom and bathroom. It looks great! She picked out some really good colors. My girls are really good with designing stuff. That has to be from Jan, because I am not artistic at all.
While on the back of that motorcycle I did a lot of thinking about Ksusha and Nastia and just can't understand why things worked out the way they did with them. I want them with us so bad and nothing worked out. I know GOD works all things for good for them that trust HIM but I wish HE would bring them to us. One day I want to explain everything to them. I will always think of them as my girls, they are in my heart.
It was also good to get back in church. GOD is good and HE blesses us all the time. We would love HIM even if he didn't because HE is a Great and Awesome creator... PTL
Have a great week.

Home Sweet Home

We left Opelousas the next (this was on Friday,the 1st) morning bight and early and drove in dry weather most all day. We crossed a lot of bridges today and made it into Mississippi. I had to go look at the beach to see if I could spot any oil. We saw workers along the beach every couple of miles. Some were just sitting around others may have a shovel scooping up stuff and putting it in plastic bags. I finally convinced Jan to let me go talk to them and see if they were getting any oil balls. Well I did see one and when I touched it one of the guys kinda startled me "don't touch it" he said, after I had already touched it.. I said why, "it's toxic" he says, I said, oh its ok its not going to hurt me. I had already seen people swimming in the ocean and now these workes had to wear all these white suites and wear protective gloves and stuff so they wouldn't get toxic from the oil. Hello, why are they letting people swim in it if its so toxic??
We ended up staying in Tallahassee the last night of our trip, we really tried had to make it on home but we lost and hour in time and we had gone over 500 miles that day. I had to make Jan stop, he was like a horse headed for the barn. I told him NO, I am tired and hungry lets stop, so he agreed it was the safe thing to do. We would have had to travel at night and there was some stormy looking clouds building. We got up early the next morning, ate breakfast at Cracker Barrel and headed home to see Jonas, and everyone else.:) Its good to be home. We came to the house for about an hour and went to the rive for the 4th. January, Patrick, Jonas and Beka came down and we all ate boiled peanuts, corn, hotdogs, watermelon and lots of junk... We missed the fireworks in Branford because we thought they were on the 4th, not the 3rd. Oh well, next year.

Rain Rain go away

Well we are out of Texas, thought that state would never go away. We crossed in to Louisana but they didn't have a sign, so no facebook photo. We left Lindale Texas this morning about 7:00 with a promise of rain on the horizon. We had a dry morning and it was a great ride. Was not too hot with the overcast sky so we made good time and was comfortable. We stopped at Wal-Mart so Jan could buy more lucas for the bike, he likes to add it to the gas. He says it's a mechanic in a bottle and he'd rather ride than work on it. We ate at a great restaurant right near Wal-mart, Wagon Wheel, kinda like a Texas Roadhouse and they let you autograph their wall. After we ate we took off again. We had gone through a few little showers and didn't have on our rain gear so we decided not to put them on yet. Well we finally had to put the rain suit on and boy did we need it, more and more rain. It seemed the further we went the heavier it got. The roads were getting really dangerous, water standing on them and all. A few times I felt the tires skiing on the water. scary! We finally made it to Opelousas and found this Super 8. We looked like some drowned rats when we pulled in. This bed feels so cozy right now. It felt good to get dry then we ordered Chinese and they delivered to our door. now relax and get to sleep early...gotta get back to my Jonas...st

High Country Rest. in Chama, NM

Goodbye California, hello Arizona, New Mexico, Texas

Well when we got to Needles it was 110 degrees, boy was it hot. We checked in and rested for a while. When we went to eat it was 117 degrees, wow, it was normal for this town it seems. We left the next morning and drove through Arizona. Well not without a hitch, Skip's Harley had a problem with the shifter so we had to make a pit stop for about an hour while they operated on it. Well the guys got it going, PTL. We skipped the Grand Canyon because we all had seen it before and drove on up the road.
I keep telling Jan that I will drive for a while but he won't let me...he doesn't want to sit in the seat behind me...lol.... Oh well, I guess I'll just keep riding and looking. I will say this is a wonderful view from the back of this goldwing. The seat is comfortable and the music is loud and I feel free and easy going down the road!!!
We stayed in a Navajo Hotel near Kayenta, Az. It was the most expensive room on the entire trip. It wasn't the nicest but not too bad really. We also had some authentic Navajo Fry bread. Jan already looked up the recipe so he can make us some. It was quite interesting eating in the restaurant with all the Navajo people. I think we were the only white people there, but that was fine, we had good food and good company. The next morning we were on our bikes by 6:30 am, this is the last day with Skip and Cheryl. When we got almost to Four-Corners Skip and Cheryl waved goodbye and went on their way back to Moab to get their truck and trailer and head home. They live in Minneapolis, Minnesota. I am sure we will get together again to ride. They are great people, we really like them, (Skip I have to say that, cause I know you will ready this) ha ha !! We enjoyed the ride!
Well Jan and I went on into New Mexico on a trail that we were familar with. The scenery is still beautiful and the weather was just right. We ate in Chama, NM at the High Country Restaurant. Ronnie and Molly were with us last time we ate there. It is a cool place to eat. From there we went on to Taos and stayed at the Indian Hills Inn. The inn was nice and we ate at Grahams, another one of our favorites. The weather gave us a scare on the way, thunder and lightning and Oh yes, it hailed on us again. I think this is the 3rd time we had hail on our heads. We got through it pretty quick.
We are in Texas now and it is getting hotter again. It was cool from Taos down to the Texas border. I can't believe I have been so cold this late in June. Well we want to get an early start tomorrow. Not much NEW to look at from here home. Keep us in your prayers. GOODNIGHT

Rainbow at Morro Bay

I didn't have room for my big camera and this small one just doesn't get the picture I want. I have to settle

Skip feeding a little squirrel along Hwy 1

sea lions

Left Morro Bay and toured the Sequoia's

We left Morro Bay on Friday morning, mission accomplished. Jan and I have rode the most scenic highway in America. Well he drove it (mightly, I might add) and I rode it. The most surprising thing was how cold it was. Apparently the part we rode, from the Redwood forest down to Morro Bay never gets any warmer either. Everyone said in regards to the weather, "this is it" doesn't get above about 72. With the moist air and wind off the ocean, you better dress warm, if you are on a motorcycle especially. :)

We drove up to the Sequoia trees and saw some of them. Jan and I had seen them before, they are humongus trees. Skip and Chery had not seen them so we had to check that off their list. After the Sequoia's we drove South to Porterville and stayed at a Motel 6. Oh, Skip has done a terrific job at finding and booking us cheap, clean hotel rooms. He is a good trip planner. Him and Cheryl have been a joy to travel with.
As we drove along the highway on the way to the park we saw lots of fruit tree groves. We saw orange trees, olive trees, pomgrante trees, loquate trees, avacoda trees, grape orchards, I think that's all I can remember, and I probably didn't spell them all right either. Ok I keep backing up but now we are going south. We drove by tons and tons of oil wells today, the most I have seen all together like that. It was truly an oil field. We stopped a few times and we always meet other motorcycle travelers. Today Jan probably saved a young couples life by being so observant. We had been talking to them (oh, they were a pair, for sure) and we were starting to leave and Jan saw a big worn through spot on his back tire. The chords of the tire were showing. The guy had a fit, said that was a new tire. But the tire could have blown any minute and they had passed us flying. They were on a two wheeler pulling a trailer. Well we made it to Needles, CA to another Motel 6 and will get an early start tomorrow. GOODNIGHT

More pictures of the coast along highway 1. I am so glad we were able to make this trip. I have been wanting to see this west coast on hwy 1 for a long time. I could just sit and stare at it, Jan can't understand, maybe it's just a girl thing. don't know. Oh, we also saw some sea lions sunning on the beach. We didn't realize what they were at first. We thought they were just more rocks. The highway is real curvy, I know Jan and Skip was getting tired of all the curves. They are excellent drivers. Cheryl has been feeling a little sick, coughing and all, but she's a trooper, keeps on going and going. We stayed at the neatest hotel right on the bay front, it was older but clean and cozy. They gave us free cinnamon rolls from the bakery next door, OH they were to die for. We also ate supper at a real high class, (high cost) place. Windows on The Water Rest. The food was really good and of course the view was great. When we left the restaurant there was a gorgeous rainbow all way across the sky, my camera didn't do a very good job of capturing it though. Morro Bay was our destination point along the coast and we headed in and up to the Sequoia National Park to see the GIANT trees.

We left Watsonville, CA this morning after a very good breakfast at Norma's Family Rest. We drove south on hwy 1, we saw lots of farming right on the coast. There were some strawberry fields and I really don't know what else. I was surprised of how much farming there was so near the ocean. It was still cold. I cannot believe how cold it has been since we left Salina, Utah. All the way across Nevada and California it has been really really cold. Well we would drive for a ways in sunshine and then a ways in clouds. We finally got down around Carmel and the coast got really pretty again. From Carmel down to where we are now in Morro Bay the views are just spectacular. I took lots of pictures as usual. We would stop often for me to take pictures. Jan has really been good about stopping quick :), it's easier on the trike than it was in the motor home. Skip and Cheryl lost us again today because Jan had to pull of the road to find out what he felt crawling in his helmet. (we never found anything). We caught back up with them after a while. I don't remember if I posted yesterday but Skip and Cheryl left while we were getting a picture of Alice's Rest. (it is kinda a novelty place), and we realized Skip headed East and we wanted to go West back to hwy 1, so we went the other way. They ended up getting lost in some deep dark woods when they decided to get off the interstate because of a traffic jam. I got a little worried about them but when we got to the hotel they were there. I was relieved. I was glad we went to hwy 1 though because I got to see a great lighthouse. I was excited about that. My first west coast lighthouse. OK i am tired. will add a few pictures and go to bed. Oh, I love Morro Bay! st

I will put more of the trees on next time. We rode on Hwy 1 down some of the coast today. It is absolutely beautiful. I can't take enough pictures. I am always trying to get just the right one, but none do justice to the scene. Jan is a great driver and did a great job missing a moma deer and her twin fawns. I seem to look away just the time I need to be watching. I looked just as he hit the brakes. The mom went on across and the babies went back thank goodness, we would have hit one of them if they had kept going across. We kinda got sideways in the road but avoided the babies. I wanted to stay and help them cross, but we kept going. very cautiously
We are staying inland a ways in Rohnert Park, near Santa Rosa. Jan needs to take the bike to get an oil change tomorrow morning. We have gone about 4,000 miles so its due.
I am missing my family, I love ya'll. Kiss Jonas for me. Will add more later.
I am looking forward to crossing The Golden Gate Bridge, maybe tomorrow. night

After we left Middlegate we arrived in California finally. We keep meeting up with some of the same motorcycle guys along the way. The interesting part is we end up staying at the same hotels. I was walking across the parking lot and some guy on a bike yelled at me "hey where you been?" I didn't know what he was talking about. Then when we got into the hotel he was the one we saw back in Nevada at another gas stop. Jan and Skip always remember them because of their bikes, I have to ask, "who was that?" We toured the Redwoods most all day and came back to the hotel and rested. The Redwoods are amazingly tall and there are lots of them. The forest makes you feel really small, you look up and can barely see the sunlight. Jan said it reminds him of Ferngully, girls you know exactly what he's talking about.

staying at Middlegate Stagecoach Stop

I am really tired so this will be short. We left Salina, Utah this morning about 7am. I had a terrible night, I got food poinsioning from the resturant we ate at. I was really really sick most of the night. I felt better this morning so we left and drove 450 miles approx to this place out in the middle of nowhere. Its really a neat place though. Old Old buildings and great people. I will have pictures on facebook and will put one on here tomorrow maybe. OK goodnight. Oh Hwy 50 in Nevada is called The Loneliest Highway in America, believe me it is. Not much to look at.

Arches & Fins and Things trail 6-17-2010 Thursday

We went for breakfast at Jailhouse Cafe this morning and then went to Arches National Park.
I love this park but would like to spend a little more time here. I want to experience all of it, trails and every arch that's in it. As usual we didn't get to stay as long as I would have like. We hiked up to Delicate Arch, which for us is the "main" attraction. Delicate Arch is the most popular of the arches. You will see it on Utah licenses plates and was on the front of the atlas on year. The hike up is a grueling 1.5 mile hike up rocks and slickrock, but is definetlyl worth the trip. I think Jan and I have hiked it 5 times. We always want to go with people when its their first time. This time it was Jennifer Johnson's first time seeing it. So we went with her, Beth and Rebecca. There are so many more people going now that 5 years ago.

Sunset seen from Big Mesa

Red Cliff Ranch