Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Christmas is coming!
We are still home in Brantford and have decorated our tree and put up the decorations. Last year we were in our RV so this is the first Christmas in this new townhouse and we must decide where to put our lights and tinsel. There is a bit of snow on the deck and all the leaves are off the trees. Derek had surgery on December 4 to fix the torn meniscus in his knee. While they were looking in his joint with the arthroscope, they found that he had also completely torn his ACL! This means that he must have another surgery to reconstruct this important ligament that keeps his knee stable. First he must heal from the recent surgery, strengthen the surrounding muscles, get a made to measure brace and book the surgery with another specialized surgeon. This means more weeks of waiting, so we have decided to leave for Florida with the RV right after Christmas and return in mid Feb after Greg and Tara's baby is born, for more followup.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
November - but we are still in Ontario
We have not posted to this blog over the summer as we consider it a "travel" blog and we have been at home in Brantford since mid-April. We have taken shorter trips to the GLASS Rally in Berrien Springs, Michigan, an FMCA area rally, in May. We also went to Lancaster county Pennsylvania in July to see more of this Amish area. We met Jack's cousin John Luth and his wife Alice and went to the the play "In the Beginning" at the Sight-Sound Theatre. From there we went to the FMCA National Rally in Bowling Green, Ohio. While we were there, Jack's mother passed away at the age of 93. We headed home and spent the rest of the summer enjoying our deck and new hot tub.
In September, we flew to the Netherlands and spent 2 lovely weeks traveling to visit elderly aunts and uncles and visiting with good friends Rien and Dorothy Keyzer. Jack got more information on Jagt family geneology. We had good weather and really enjoyed our visits.
Our plans to begin travel to the US Southwest, leaving on October 31, have had to be postponed. Two days before we were to leave, (with the RV almost fully packed) our son Derek fell and severely injured his knee. He cannot bear any weight and has a strained ligament and perhaps a tear in the meniscus inside the joint. He has begun physio and we will see the orthopedic surgeon again next week to determine if he needs arthroscopic surgery. So for the time being...... we will stay home and watch the leaves fall while we sit in our hot tub!
In September, we flew to the Netherlands and spent 2 lovely weeks traveling to visit elderly aunts and uncles and visiting with good friends Rien and Dorothy Keyzer. Jack got more information on Jagt family geneology. We had good weather and really enjoyed our visits.
Our plans to begin travel to the US Southwest, leaving on October 31, have had to be postponed. Two days before we were to leave, (with the RV almost fully packed) our son Derek fell and severely injured his knee. He cannot bear any weight and has a strained ligament and perhaps a tear in the meniscus inside the joint. He has begun physio and we will see the orthopedic surgeon again next week to determine if he needs arthroscopic surgery. So for the time being...... we will stay home and watch the leaves fall while we sit in our hot tub!
Friday, May 1, 2009
Home !
On April 18, we arrived safely at home after driving nearly 11,000 miles over 159 days! Our travels took us from the eastern seaboard of the US , along all coasts of Florida, to Arizona and the south west US and as far as Hawaii and we LOVED every minute of it! If we did not miss our family and friends so much, we may have stayed on the road longer. But it was time to return to our new condo in Brantford and settle in for the summer season. But the weather has not been co-operative to say the least. A day of rain and a day of sun - over and over - as well as cool temps - we have to wear SOCKS! Horrors!
The day we drove from Indiana to Mary's sister Jacque's farm near Flint, Michigan, it rained very heavily making driving a challenge. The road to her farm is unpaved and the RV and tow car got absolutely filthy!! The place we park was fairly firm but the Jetta got stuck in the mud the next day and had to be towed out with the tractor! The next few days, the sun shone - though it was cold at night. We were really happy to see our son Derek again - he had a good winter working with the horses on the farm - but Michiganers are also anxious for Spring and sunnier days. Jack helped Chuck take out and old fense and Mary cleaned off the deck and got the summer furniture out. After some anxious time with a peacock (Clyde) who fell through a ceiling in the barn because of his amorous pursual of his lady friend (Bonnie) and broke his foot and lost all his tail feathers in a horse stall overnight with Foxy, we headed home on Saturday, April 18. We stopped on the way to have coffee with Jack's brother Hank and his wife Mary near Sarnia, then fuel, dump stop, and the truck wash for our very dirty RV!
We arrrived home at 5pm to the greetings of our neighbors and friends. The next day was Sunday and our church family gave us lots of hugs and "Welcome Home"s. Tara and Greg and Tie (the family dog) gave us a lovely dinner and we talked til late at night. Now we just have to tackle a huge mound of accumulated mail ....................
But is good to be HOME!
The day we drove from Indiana to Mary's sister Jacque's farm near Flint, Michigan, it rained very heavily making driving a challenge. The road to her farm is unpaved and the RV and tow car got absolutely filthy!! The place we park was fairly firm but the Jetta got stuck in the mud the next day and had to be towed out with the tractor! The next few days, the sun shone - though it was cold at night. We were really happy to see our son Derek again - he had a good winter working with the horses on the farm - but Michiganers are also anxious for Spring and sunnier days. Jack helped Chuck take out and old fense and Mary cleaned off the deck and got the summer furniture out. After some anxious time with a peacock (Clyde) who fell through a ceiling in the barn because of his amorous pursual of his lady friend (Bonnie) and broke his foot and lost all his tail feathers in a horse stall overnight with Foxy, we headed home on Saturday, April 18. We stopped on the way to have coffee with Jack's brother Hank and his wife Mary near Sarnia, then fuel, dump stop, and the truck wash for our very dirty RV!
We arrrived home at 5pm to the greetings of our neighbors and friends. The next day was Sunday and our church family gave us lots of hugs and "Welcome Home"s. Tara and Greg and Tie (the family dog) gave us a lovely dinner and we talked til late at night. Now we just have to tackle a huge mound of accumulated mail ....................
But is good to be HOME!
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Easter
Good Friday was spent on top of the "rolling wheels" across Texas and Oklahoma. On Saturday, we made our way to Branson, Missouri. We have been here before. This is "Christian Nashville" There are at least 40 theaters that have good clean entertainment, much of it with Christian themes and many have country and western music. On Easter Sunday, we invited our neighbors in the RV park who were from Brockville, Ontario, and also on their way home from Arizona, to come to church with us. We went to Faith Life Church right in downtown Branson and had a wonderful (but long at 2 1/2 hours) service and had lunch afterward with our new friends getting to know them better. That's the beauty of RV travel - new friends are just waiting around the bend to be met.
We hope (God willing) to be in Michigan by Tuesday April 14 to visit with Mary's sister on her horse farm and spend some time with Derek who is helping out there. We expect to drive home finally to Brantford on Saturday April 18 - and see if our condo still meets with our approval after 5 1/2 months on the road. I'm sure we will feel that it is a HUGE space after so many months living in 300 sq ft!
We hope (God willing) to be in Michigan by Tuesday April 14 to visit with Mary's sister on her horse farm and spend some time with Derek who is helping out there. We expect to drive home finally to Brantford on Saturday April 18 - and see if our condo still meets with our approval after 5 1/2 months on the road. I'm sure we will feel that it is a HUGE space after so many months living in 300 sq ft!
Utah to New Mexico to Texas
Moab, Utah has an interesting phenomena. Every year in the week before Easter, off road enthusiasts congregate to drive the hills and canyons of the red rock country around town. They are everywhere! Mostly the jeeps are caked in mud - and so are the drivers. Our RV park was full of them too. They leave every morning in groups of 20 - 50 and follow a guide through various routes - the more challenging, the more fun they are. The RV right next to us even ran a "welding" business to fix things that broke during the day of fun.
On Monday, April 6, we left Moab and headed south with the TerHaars for the Four Corners area. This is the only place in the US where four states meet - Arizona, Colorado, Utah and New Mexico. It's fun to see if you can get one limb in each of the states.
From here, we headed south east, going through Shiprock and Farmington, New Mexico to the Jemez Trail. Elevations are high here - 6600' - making the nights cold but the days warmed up nicely to 18 - 20C. This is an area of pinyon pines and canyons and winding roads. Many pueblos still have people living there after 500 years and follow traditional methods of cooking and speaking their native languages. We were fortunate enough to meet and elderly gentleman who grew up in the Jemez Pueblo and told us he only spoke Towa until he was a teen. The roadside park where we met him as we had lunch, has platforms for the traditional pow wows and dances that they hold in the summer.
A geological phenomena that we saw along the "trail" was Soda Dam. The area has several hot springs and one bubbled to the surface bringing heavily laden mineral waters. The water evaporated, leaving calcite and it created a dam that blocked the Jemez River. Eventually, the river bore a hole through the calcite and broke through but you can see the spring still bubbling in a small cave and the river flowing along the side. See the picture.
We spent the next day in Santa Fe - a very old city. Navajos still sell handmade turquoise jewelry and pottery on the porch of the Government House after 300 years.
From Santa Fe, we drove the "Turquoise Trail" passing through samll towns that used to boom in the gold and coal mining eras. Now they are little more that ghost towns. Eventually, we connected with I-40 heading east. In Amarillo, Texas our RV park was right next door to the Big Texan Roadhouse. They feature the 72 oz steak dinner. If you can eat the steak plus salad, potatoes, and rolls, you get it free! If you cannot do it - you pay $72. Few make it!
On Monday, April 6, we left Moab and headed south with the TerHaars for the Four Corners area. This is the only place in the US where four states meet - Arizona, Colorado, Utah and New Mexico. It's fun to see if you can get one limb in each of the states.
From here, we headed south east, going through Shiprock and Farmington, New Mexico to the Jemez Trail. Elevations are high here - 6600' - making the nights cold but the days warmed up nicely to 18 - 20C. This is an area of pinyon pines and canyons and winding roads. Many pueblos still have people living there after 500 years and follow traditional methods of cooking and speaking their native languages. We were fortunate enough to meet and elderly gentleman who grew up in the Jemez Pueblo and told us he only spoke Towa until he was a teen. The roadside park where we met him as we had lunch, has platforms for the traditional pow wows and dances that they hold in the summer.
A geological phenomena that we saw along the "trail" was Soda Dam. The area has several hot springs and one bubbled to the surface bringing heavily laden mineral waters. The water evaporated, leaving calcite and it created a dam that blocked the Jemez River. Eventually, the river bore a hole through the calcite and broke through but you can see the spring still bubbling in a small cave and the river flowing along the side. See the picture.
We spent the next day in Santa Fe - a very old city. Navajos still sell handmade turquoise jewelry and pottery on the porch of the Government House after 300 years.
From Santa Fe, we drove the "Turquoise Trail" passing through samll towns that used to boom in the gold and coal mining eras. Now they are little more that ghost towns. Eventually, we connected with I-40 heading east. In Amarillo, Texas our RV park was right next door to the Big Texan Roadhouse. They feature the 72 oz steak dinner. If you can eat the steak plus salad, potatoes, and rolls, you get it free! If you cannot do it - you pay $72. Few make it!
Sunday, April 5, 2009
Hiking the Fiery Furnace
The snow has pretty well gone and the sky is clear blue and we are going for a hike. The Fiery Furnace is a area deep in the Arches NP that is a maze of fins and canyons. You can only go there with a ranger as a guide, and sign up days beforehand. We met Ranger Carrie at the trailhead to begin a 3 hour hike through this confusing but spectacular area. Our hike involved some real manuevers - narrow ledges, squirming through skinny defiles in the rock, scooting between two rock walls with butt on one side and feet on the other and making your way with feet on each wall - and at the end was "Surprise Arch"! Spectacular! There were so many wonderful things to see and Carrie explained a lot of geology, biology and nature lore that we learned as well as had a good time. What a great day!!!
Tomorrow, we drive south to the Four Corners area - the only place where four states meet - Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico. Then we turn east and plan to explore the northwest corner of New Mexico - Santa Fe - the Jemez Trail and the Turquoise Trails. We'll take a couple of days to do this and then take I-40 east as we begin our journey home. I don't know when we will have wifi again but will continue this blog when I can
Tomorrow, we drive south to the Four Corners area - the only place where four states meet - Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico. Then we turn east and plan to explore the northwest corner of New Mexico - Santa Fe - the Jemez Trail and the Turquoise Trails. We'll take a couple of days to do this and then take I-40 east as we begin our journey home. I don't know when we will have wifi again but will continue this blog when I can
Saturday, April 4, 2009
A love affair grown cold ... and white!
This morning we woke up to ... SNOW! A cold front came in and 6 inches of snow softly fell overnight. Red rock does not look nearly as good with a covering of snow and dull grey skies. I made a snowman on the picnic table and later in the day we went for a drive. We returned home when another front came in and it began to snow again and the roads were not very clear. We hunkered down in the RV - warm and toasty and read books and drank tea and began to plan the next leg of our trip to New Mexico. Maybe next year, we'll give Arches a bye.
Arches National Park
Since we retired, we have come to southern Utah near the end of our winter travels. For the fourth time, we are in Moab, Utah to visit Arches National Park. We love it here - the red rock, the fascinating scenery wherever you look and the wonderful hiking and photography. The morning following our arrival, we toured the park with Gerry and Dia. It was a cloudy day but the sun peeked out occasionally. We hiked a couple of trails and signed up for a long hike with a ranger in the firey Furnace on Sunday. There are lots of people in town despite the cool temps because it is the start of Easter Jeep Week. You would not believe the number of fancy and beatup jeeps around town as they set off for trails in the canyons an slickrock around here. Most return at the ned of the day covered with red mud and dirt.
Another Merrie Yacht
On Thursday, April 2, we drove from Escalante to Moab, Utah. After driving through Capital Reef National Park, we stopped for lunch in Hanksville at a roadside turnout. After eating, we went for a short walk to get the kinks out and saw on the far corner a storage lot with lots of houseboats (Lake Powell is nearby). And what did we see .... a houseboat named the Meri Yacht! Slightly different spelling but someone else has the same idea that we have.
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