Wednesday--Week 2

This is in Yach BC. The goat is on the roof. They sold goat milk soap there, but said they bought the milk in large quantities--the goats on the roof were just for attention. Anyway, I bought Devon, Kate, and Abby some jewelry there. Hope they like it.
This is somewhere in southeast Washington. They had LOTS of wheat, and it was grown on TALL hilsides. We wondered how they plowed and harvested it, it was so steep. This was taken from the car, and it's not a very good picture, but maybe it will give you some idea. There were many hills much steeper than this.

Hello from Pasco, Washington

We traveled about 450 miles today from Cranbrook BC to Pasco. We are about 15 miles from the Columbia River and about 225 miles from Portland. Charles left Drew a message, telling him that we should be there sometime tomorrow afternoon. I didn't take many pictures today, because there wasn't much different to take pictures of. We stopped in Sand (something) Idaho at the Litehouse Cheese factory and bought some cheese, and we had bought some cherries and blueberries in Creston BC, so we are going to eat in the room tonight.

Love,

Mimi

Tuesday--Week 2 Continued

This is a true glacier. Glaciers form between two mountains. They don't melt completely during the summer, so they become like a chunk of ice. They get bigger and bigger year after year, and they begin to move down the mountains--carving out a kind hole as they move. It is projected there won't be any glaciers in GlacierNP by 2030 because of global warming. They said there is only 25% of the amount of glaciers now that were there in 1850. It must have been pretty awesome then.

Actually, it's Wed morning. I worked until 1 oclock last night, but I didn't post everything I wanted to, so I will try again. Kate and Abby, what type of souvenir would you like? I'm thinking that a t-shirt might not be what you would like. Anyway, I'm going to try to stay on the internet long enough to upload a couple of pictures--well, one is a video--thought you would enjoy hearing the sound of the water coming out of the mountains. Ya'll have a good day.

Love,

Mimi

I don't know how to rotate this picture, but maybe you will like it. This is the sound of the water coming down from the mountain.

Tuesday--Week 2

This mountain goat came down from the mountains and posed for us.
This is a marmot. It was at one of the observation stations in the high mountains.

This is a cast of a grizzly track--note the cell phone for size.

This was taken from the car somewhere in Alberta Canada on the way to British Columbia. Quite a bit of difference, but not many miles--These pictures are all out of order--I have such a crummy connection--I keep getting bumped offline and have to start all over--hope some of it makes sense.
This is a tracking collar worn by a grizzly.

These falls are from melting snow, and they just came out of the rocks and down the mountains. There were lots of them. More melting snow and cascading waterfalls.

A high mountain valley.
Snow-capped mountain peaks.

Lake Macdonald. A large hole was formed by a glacier, and it became a lake. It is about 450-480 feet deep.
Another mountain with snow and water running down in the valley.

Hello from Cranbrook, British Columbia

Hope this finds everyone well and happy. We spent the night in West Glacier, MT last night. It was about 3 miles from Glacier National Park. We didn't have any telephone, tv, or internet, so I couldn't post anything.

Tonight we are in Cranbrook. It's 66 degrees here, and it's supposed to be 53 tonight. Glacier Park was beautiful. Matt wants me to post more pictures, and I really have them this time. My internet connection is not very good, so I'll do what I can.

Drew, thanks for being so patient with us. We are SLOWLY making our way to Portland, and I think we will be there late Thursday. Grandpa said we had about 550 more miles to Vancouver, but I think we will go back to the US before then and drive through some of Washington state. Anywhere you want to show us will be fine with me. I am looking forward to maybe eating some Dungeness crab somewhere around Portland.

Amy, I'm glad your garage sale was a success and you figured what to do to get back online with us.

Lori and Becky, I haven't heard anything from you--what's going on in your world.

Can't think of anything exciting here, so I will work on uploading the pictures--I think they are awesome.
Devon, tell Annie hello for me--I sure she misses me; and tell Brooke, Kamryn, and Blake hello for me also--I think Kamryn might miss me a little--I sure do miss everyone.

Love,

Mimi

Sunday

This is it--OLD FAITHFUL. We got there just as it has gone off, so we waited a little over an hour and a half for the next one--it was worth the wait.
Looking across Yellowstone Lake--see the snowcapped mountains?
This is the mud volcano. It was actually a mud-spewing volcano for about 2 years--then it blew itself out and is just a hot, bubbling, ugly pool of mud. There may be a life lesson in there somewhere.

This is Upper Falls.
This is Lower Falls--it's a lot bigger than Upper Falls--both go into the Yellowstone River.
These are elk grazing on the square at Mammoth Hot Springs--still in Yellowstone. We actually saw some elk, 2 buffalo, some geese, a crippled fox or coyote, and some ground squirrels while in Yellowstone--not much wildlife activity.

Hello from Helena Montana,

We are on the road again--this time to Glacier National Park at the top of Montana. Yellowstone was amazing. I am sending some pictures; hope ya'll enjoy them.

Devon, we are missing you, too. I know you are taking better care of my house and plants than I would, and I have no worries about parties--I do hope you and your friends are enjoying the pool and watching movies there.

Matt, I hope ya'll got that house--it sounds perfect.

Drew, we will get to Portland eventually--Grandpa is talking about some loop that goes into British Columbia, Idaho, and Montana . It's not supposed to be a long way. I don't know if we will take it or not--guess we'll decide while we are at GlacierNP. Anyway, the trip is fun--wish you all could see the scenery --I miss you.

We ate at a nice steak place in Helena tonight. We shared an entree of buffalo ribeye--it was about as fat as cow ribeye--I was surprised about that--it must have been a fat old buffalo. Helena is pretty small--about a block from the steak place (which was downtown) we saw a doe and fawn grazing on some grass--in the middle of downtown. They got it right when they call Montana the BIG SKY state. I like it a lot.

Hope everybody has a good Monday, and I will check in again tomorrow night.

Love,

Mimi

Saturday Morning

Hello Everyone,
We just booked a reservation in Yellowstone for lodging tonight. It has no tv or internet, so I probably won't be blogging tonight--unless we get lucky and can find some wireless somewhere today. We plan to leave yellowstone tomorrow and head to Montana, so I will talk to you soon.
Love,
Mimi

Friday

The temple area covers 36 acres and has 14 buildings, most of them very large and tall.
This angel is atop the highest spire of the temple.

More flowers on the temple grounds
This is on the wall in the Beehive, Brigham Young's home. It is unusual in that it is made from human hair wound around flowers, stems, etc.
This is Bear Lake. It is on top of a mountain, and it is much larger than it looks here. Half of it is in Idaho, and half in Utah.

Greetings from Ashton Idaho--the seedling potato capital of the world.

We visited the Mormon Temple and headquarters before we left Salt Lake City. Wow!! They have spent some money there. The grounds are absolutely beautiful--these pictures don't capture how pretty they are. The buildings are very modern and BIG. We drove all afternoon. We drove through Jackson Hole about 6:30. There were a lot of people (tourists) there. The Tetons are pretty--I don't think I got any pictures because they are so big, my camera won't capture them.

Hope things are going well with everyone--we're happy that Vince and Amy sold their house and have bought another one. Matt, I hope you and John and Jake have found a good house for you. We are going to Yellowstone tomorrow--may take 2 days to see it, depending on how much we get done tomorrow.

Nothing exciting to report--no tickets or anything like that--just motoring along.

Will report in tomorrow. Let us know how things are going with everyone.

Love,

Mimi

Thursday

This is outside of Torrey, UT.
This is unusual because you don't usually see any houses; however, there was MUCH more civilization between Torrey and Salt Lake City. It's getting greener here and you can see the irrigation.
This is a Morman temple in Manti, UT.

Hello again,

Today we drove from Torrey Utah to Salt Lake City (about 230 miles) and spent some time getting the Clarinex Rx refilled at Walmart/Sams--earache again. We got to Salt Lake about 5 pm --kind of taking it easy today. We went to eat and then went to do laundry. I think we are going to see the big temple tomorrow and do just a little sightseeing here, and then head for Jackson Hole, WY. It is really hot here--it was 101 this afternoon--hope ya'll are having some cool weather. After dinner we went to a Barnes and Noble bookstore (It was in the parking lot where we ate), and I bought a "Pearls Before Swine Cartoons".

They sell fireworks in the stores here--we saw a big display in Sams this afternoon. Right now, I can hear some going off outside the room.

I'm sending some pictures of things along the way to Salt Lake--I think it is prettier here--much greener--mountains with little flat, green, irrigated places along the highway and MANY more houses--we didn't see houses for miles and miles yesterday; however, the scenery was much more awesome yesterday.

Will go for now and report in tomorrow.

Love,

Mimi

Wednesday

Taken in Monument National Park
This is in Monument National Park
This was taken from the car somewhere along the highway.

Hello from Torrey, Utah,

Holy Moly, what a day! We have spent most of the day driving in southern Utah. We saw VERY few cars, except at National Monument, and some on the ferry at Hall's Crossing at Lake Powell. We are amazed at how fast the scenery and formations change in texture and color. We have tried to take pictures of it, but it is just too big for the pictures to do it justice. Torrey, Utah is unique in that you drive and drive and drive and there are no houses--then you get to Torrey and there are 7 or 8 nice motels/hotels, and places to eat. We ate at Cafe Diablo tonight, which has been named the best restaurant in southern Utah and is also included in the book "1000 Places to Visit before You Die." The food was excellent.

Drew--I'm sorry you haven't been able to reach us--I check my phone quite often during the day--sometimes I have bars, and sometimes I don't--we have been in some pretty remote places. I wish I could give you some kind of hint when we will get to Portland. We are going to Salt Lake City tomorrow and on to Yellowstone on Friday. (I think.) I don't know how long we will be at Yellowstone--probably not over a day. I'll ask Grandpa to call you tomorrow and maybe let you know more about our whereabouts. We are looking forward to seeing you. Don't worry about having to work--we understand that if we don't even know when we will be there, it would be impossible for you to plan a schedule around us.

Anyway, it's getting late. I'm going to send some pictures, but they don't do a good job of showing the awesome scenery that we saw today.

Love,

Mimi

Tuesday Continued

Chugging along--we traveled at about 10-12 mph--these burn coal to make the steam, so we got the smoke smell and the cinders--it was really fun.

We arrive in Silverton

Animas River on the way to Silverton

Sitting behind the steering wheel trying to use a computer has its liabilities. When I have more time, I will learn how to put the posts in chronologial order. Its 9:30 Wed, so we are on our way to Utah.

Love,

Mimi

Tuesday

Well, I must have hit the wrong button twice--anyway, I continue--
Amy--hope those offers on your house are good ones and you get it sold asap. Will keep you posted as we continue our trek.
Here are some pictures from yesterday.

Tuesday

Hello Everyone,
Sorry I didn't get a blog out yesterday. We spent the night in Durango, and the room was so far from the front office that we couldn't get wifi. Actually, it's Wed. morning and I am sitting in the car in front of the hotel, charging my computer battery, and using their wifi.
Anyway, we had an interesting day yesterday. We took the narrow gauge from Durango to Silverton--beautiful scenery. The engine on the train got a wheel bearing that was heating, so we stopped lots of time for them to water it and cool it off--sometimes from the river, and sometimes from the water tanks along the way, and sometimes with bottled water.
We ate lunch in Silverton at 2 o:clock, left at 4 :15 and got back to Durango about 7:30. We FINALLY found a place to stay and then went to ea--the most wonderful scallop entree that you can imagine.
So we are off this morning to Utah--plan to go through Salt Lake City--don;t know where else--on our way to Yellowstone.
Matt, I will try to get pictures of beautiful women--but they might really think I'm strange--maybe the mullets are a better idea.
Nikki, welcome aboard--I'm happy that you would want to join our expedition.

Monday

New Mexico is very colorful--even the highway decorations


This is coming into Pagosa Springs--looks like it's kinda blurry

Hello Everyone,

Charles got his stitches removed, we washed the car, and then got new tires. We left Lubbock at 11:04 and drove most of the day. We made it to Pagosa Springs, CO, where we are spending the night. We drove through a nice rain shower between Santa Rosa and Chama NM. It's cool here--I think it's 64 degrees now. I had forgotten how good it smells in the mountains--wish I could bottle it and bring it home. We are planning on driving through Ouray and Silverton tomorrow--got a brochure on the narrow gauge train that looks interesting. Maybe I will have something more exciting to report tomorrow. Hope things are going good for everyone--looking forward to some comments on my blog.

Love,

Mimi

Sunday

We left Benjamin at 3 pm. We are spending the night with Lori and Rickey. We all. went to Rockfish Grill for supper and met Vince there. At 7:45 in the morning Charles has an appointment to have the stitches removed from his neck. Then we will go buy some new tires for the VW, have the car washed, and head north. Plans now are to go to Silverton, Ouray, Salt Lake City, Jackson Hole, and then to Yellowstone. However, they change quite often, so we will keep you posted.

Let us hear from you.
Mimi and Grandpa