234 Years

Today is the 4th of July, and summer in Seattle is just around the corner. We're still topping out in the 60's, but the forecast calls for mid 80's by the middle of the week. Some of us will transition to that easier than others. We probably won't see daytime highs in the 60's again until October.
We spent 3+ days in Las Vegas last week where it was over 100 degrees every day. At night it "cooled off" to around 80! We haven't seen 80 for a daytime high yet in Seattle. It will be interesting. I don't like anything over 80, but it will be nice to see some sunshine in the morning while having that first cup of coffee and reading the paper.
Our summer plans have taken a change of direction as the job that I was scheduled for fell through due to permit issues. It amazes me that a government agency is unable to work with other governmental agencies to secure the neccessary permits to fix a section of highway before it has to be shut down because it is no longer safe!But that's life in Washington State. Or at least on the west side. But we don't seem to have any problem funding and spending for electronic signs up and down our highways. Yesterday we were heading south on I-5 to visit Pat & Steph in Shelton, and the traffic became stop and go around Fife. Lo and behold the overhead message sign showed up to advise me that traffic was heavy and I should watch out for slow moving or stopped traffic. I'm sure glad that the sign was there. The carnage could have been terrible. I don't know how we have managed to survive up to now without signs to alert us to the obvious. It used to be that it was the drivers responsibility to monitor the traffic and watch out for brake lights. I guess now we just have to watch the signs and hope that we read them in time to avoid rear ending somebody! I can't wait for the first lawsuit when somebody sues the state because the sign didn't warn them in time that the traffic was slow or stop and go, or that they rear ended somebody because they were distracted from driving while reading the sign! Electronic message signs are my latest pet peeve. (if you hadn't noticed)
Today we will be getting together wit friends for the annual 4th of July BBQ, and to celebrate the upcoming begining of summer in Seattle. So happy 4th to all, may we have many more, and lets blow something up! Maybe one of those damn signs!!
Ernie

Patiently Waiting For Summer

This is the longest gap that we have ever had since we started this blog almost 2 years ago. My Mother passed away on the 24th of May. She was almost 95 years old, and had been in and out of the Hospital about 8 - 10 times over the last 2 years, so it wasn't a complete surprise. I only hope that I can stay in good health as long as she did.
Joyce and I will be celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary later this week with a short 4 day trip to Las Vegas. It will be near 100 degrees there, which will be a shock to our systems since it has only reached 70 2 or 3 times this spring! We have not seen 75 since we left Arizona in April. It's beginning to look like it may be "one of those summers" in Seattle. This is the only time that I can remember that it hasn't hit 80 at least once by now. And the long range forecast doesn't show anything above the low 70's. Maybe after the 4th of July our summer will start. That's been known to happen.
It looks as if I will be returning to the work force for about 10 weeks beginning in mid July. There is a small project that I have been approached about doing the inspection on. I have committed myself to do it, so unless something unexpected pops up to circumvent that plan, I will be working until the end of September. If for some reason it falls through, we will probably get in a road trip for a couple of weeks or so. Otherwise, we have a week scheduled in mid August at Angels Camp in the Sierra Nevada's in California. We are now in the "thinking stage" for a BIG road trip in 2011. It will probably be a bigger (more miles and more time) than the original "Big Adventure".
We are also in the beginning stages of figuring out where to hang our hats for the next stage of our lives. Now that we are both officially retired, except for my occasional transgressions, we are trying to figure out where we want to live. We know that we don't want to be too far away from Seattle, but would definitely like to get out of King County. We've looked a little in all directions over the last couple of years, but are now concentrating on heading north. We shall see. I'm sure that nothing will happen for at least a year. We're not in a rush, but don't want to wait too long either. So right now, we're just doing a little talking and looking. We have decided that when we do make a move, we will not go much more than an hours drive from Seattle. Almost all of our friends and family are in the Greater Seattle area, and we don't want to lose contact with anyone.
Today is Father's Day, and we are getting ready to head up to Keith and Sheila's for dinner. And now that our lives are back to normal(?), we will try to not let the blog slip again. Ernie

Hairold T.(the) M.(miracle) Cat

On Thursday the 29th, Sheila called to say that Chandler was pretty sure that he had spotted Hairold T. Cat while weed whacking around the house. So we drove up after dinner, and after about an hour of calling and whistling for him, he walks over to me. He was so light when I picked him up. that I had to check for the lack of front claws to make sure it was really him. After making his break on the 29th of March, he resurfaced on the 29th of April! He appears to be doing all right other than losing 1/3 of his body weight. That would be like me losing about 70 pounds in a month!! So, if you really want to lose some serious weight, just live out in the wild for a month or so and just eat what you can find. Guaranteed to lose weight in a hurry.
We had pretty much given up on him. I figured there was about a 10% chance that he would have been able to survive this long. He has no front claws, so that seriously cuts down on his hunting ability. And to take into consideration that he is 16 years old, who would believe that he could survive a month in the wild. But he did. He must have some damn good genes. He will be staying in the house for a few days to get some meat back on his bones before going out to take on the neighborhood dogs. He's probably not out of the woods yet, but so far so good.
Ernie

Home

Altering our plans, we decided to drive the 500 miles from Boise to Seattle and arrived Sunday evening. Managed to unload at least half of the RV when we got home. Yesterday we drove the RV to Stanwood and parked it back at its' home at Sheila and Keith's place.

People are asking us where we are going next...at this point it's Colorado for one week in August to meet up with my sister and her husband.

During the 2 1/2 months we were gone we also enjoyed visiting with a lot of different people we know which was a highlight of the trip for me. In all, I counted 20 people we know that we were able to get together with at some point on this trip - friends and/or relatives from Calif, Montana, Phoenix, Seattle, Tulsa, Salt Lake City, Boise, and Texas.

We had a good time and saw a lot of interesting sights; of course, it's always good to be home, especially since it's Spring in Seattle. - Joyce

Idaho

Left Monument Valley Friday morning and stayed in Provo, Utah. We had a nice dinner and visit with Jandora and Tom - they had invited us to their home nearby. We left Provo Saturday morning and arrived near Boise, Idaho last night. I had contacted my cousin Linda who lives in Boise the day before so we had dinner with Linda and her husband Bill last night. It's Sunday morning 9:45 a.m. and we are just leaving the RV park we stayed in so it's 'on the road again' for us. We plan to overnight in Ellensburg, Washington and arrive in Seattle Monday afternoon. -Joyce

Monument Valley Arizona/Utah

We arrived at the Rv Park at Monument Valley Wednesday afternoon about 4:30. We drove the last 50 miles or so in a dust storm that at times cut visibility to about 100 yards. The wind gusts were hitting us from the side at about 40 to 50 m.p.h. Needless to say we were pretty well worn out when we got here. About 6:00 the winds began to settle down, and we were able to start to see the fantastic scenery. We are surrounded by huge red rock formations in the RV Park. Today (Thursday) we took a 14 mile drive out thru the rock formations. The sun was shining and the air was clear. It is hard to believe that places like this exist. The scenery is nothing short of spectacular. We took so many pictures that we ran out of memory. We had to download them to the computer to go back out to get a few more at sunset. This place ranks up there with Bryce, Zion, Yosemite, Glacier, and Yellowstone Parks. We're glad we decided to take this side trip!
Tomorrow we will be heading out in the morning for Provo Utah. We should get in in the late afternoon. We will be getting together with Tom and Jandora for dinner. Joyce and Jandora are old high school friends. We haven't seen them since passing thru Salt Lake City on our original "Big Adventure" in 2008. Saturday we should be closing in on Boise Idaho. then on to the Hermiston Oregon vicinity on Sunday. We probably will be rolling into Seattle during Monday's rush hour. Then it will be back to normal (?) at least for a while.
Ernie Having trouble adding pictures. Will try again tomorrow. Still having problems! Got a few pictures up, but can't add captions. They speak for themselves.

On the Road

Before we left Lubbock, Texas we visited the Buddy Holly Museum which is housed in a refurbished 1890's train depot located in an industrial area. I was only 8 years old when Buddy Holly died in a plane crash, but Ernie remembers its well since he was an 'old' 13. I found it interesting as to how the museum put his music in to perspective regarding most of the bands that formed in the 60's.

We drove out of Texas in to New Mexico and are staying near Albuquerque tonite. We took a wrong turn along the way and couldn't turn around(small 2 lane country roads don't accomodate RV's that need to do that!) but we ended up where we wanted to be anyway and saved about 50 miles, so I suppose it was a good thing. We were in the flatlands of Texas and eastern New Mexico for a lot of miles but we are climbing in to high country again as we are at about 6600' here. - Joyce