July 27 thru July 30 Cowley Wyoming

Hi all, we are visiting with relatives (Uncle Les and family) in Cowley Wyoming (look it up if you are unsure where it is...population approx. 400). There is no internet service so we drove to another town to their library to write this. We will be heading to Yellowstone National Park tomorrow so our next update will be after this weekend! We are still having a good time! See you soon. Les, Pat, Shirley

Glacier National Park, Montana

July 22 - 24 - Traveled to Glacier National Park, staying one night on the West side of the Park and 2 nights at East Glacier KOA. Very nice park and the weather was beautiful on Thursday. We booked a tour for Friday on the Red Bus, a vintage 1937 (renovated) bus tour for 3 hours. Unfortunately Friday morning brought us quite a bout of rain, an occurrence that is infrequent at this time of the year here. Shirley opted out of the tour, which we agreed with based on the weather and chilly conditions. Les and I went on the tour and had a good time especially since the weather changed back to sunny and warm at Logan’s Pass, an elevation point of about 7,000 ft. There was still quite some snow at that elevation and a fairly good view of the top of the glaciers still visible at GNP. On the way back down the mountain the driver pulled back the canvas top on the red bus so we really got the flavor of the tour. They provided blankets but we brought our “snuggie” from home so we were all set. On the drive back we did see a bear and a coyote fairly close to the road. Back to the campground for a swim, hot tub, a little sun time and a supper of crock pot beef stew. By the time this evening rolls around the weather will be back to fairly chilly in the low 50’s so the stew will be a good thing! Our next stop will be Bozeman, Montana just north of Yellowstone.

Friday Harbor, Washington (San Juan Island)

July 19 thru 21 - Sunday we took the 8:45am ferry over to the Island. What a nice, smooth ferry ride and very handicapped accessible. Teddy was waiting at the dock and off we went to see Alice and the “Deane Acres” (sorry Alice!)…it was actually quite nice that we didn’t have cell service or internet access through the iphone because it really gave us a chance to enjoy the peacefulness and beautiful scenery. We sat around and gabbed and walked the property until early afternoon when Teddy suggested a nice little hike up the mountain to see even more spectacular scenes. Must be a Deane thing to downplay the nature of the hike! Teddy led with Les next pulling Pat up the hill! We had a nice little aerobic workout and were rewarded by absolutely breathtaking scenes of Victoria BC, Mt. Baker as well as other sea and land wonders. I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that Genevieve actually led the way - a 4 year old Lab with a titanium ankle! She was just a sweetheart and we thoroughly enjoyed our animal fix with her. She absolutely reminded me of our former neighbors “wiggle butt” dog Maggie. Alice is a Master Gardener and as such has a wonderful garden with herbs, vegetables, fruits and flowers, definitely not something you can do on a Florida postage stamp yard! Alice fixed us a lovely supper of grilled fresh northwest salmon and vegetables as well as a salad and the most delicious bread. One guess who had a hamburger! But Shirley and I loved the salmon. Early bedtime for all of us really because we had been out in the fresh air and with a little exercise that’s all it took. Of course Monday morning Les and I are up early and walking about a deer crossed the driveway while I was walking up the hill. Beautiful sight but too quick for a camera shot. Teddy and Alice’s heaven abuts a National Park and an Alpaca Farm so Les and I walked to the Alpaca farm and took some photos of the baby Alpaca’s with their mothers - very cute. After a sumptuous breakfast courtesy of Teddy he drove us for a tour of the island and Shirley was able to see a buck close up as it crossed in front of us. This was the first time that an animal stayed out in the open long enough for her to be able to see it. Off to the town to catch the 1:00pm ferry back. Once we landed we jumped into Dorothy and took off for Issaquah, Washington, our evening stopover on the way to Glacier National Park.

Anacortes Washington

July 17 and 18 - left our Sandy River RV Resort this morning fairly early so that we could make a few stops along the way to do some bike riding along the Gorge as well as to visit Maryhill Museum and Multanomah Falls. Our first stop was to the Falls - we bypassed Bridal Veil Falls because we missed the exit talking (can you just imagine that?) so we went directly to Multanomah Falls. It is the second largest fall in the United States and really it was beautiful. It had good handicapped access so we wheeled Shirley to the first viewing area and left her there while we hiked up to the bridge that spanned across the Falls. When we got to the bridge Shirley seemed so small on the landing, even though it was not a huge distance climb, just vertical. We waved and took some photos from the bridge, which by the way was constructed in 1914 so we didn’t stay too long on it! In 1998 there was a 400 ton rockslide that occurred unexpectedly so we were aware of the inherent danger. We then crossed over the Columbia River from Oregon to Washington State and stopped at Maryhill Museum. We originally wanted to go there to view some of Sam Hill’s architecture and road designs, but there was a nice exhibit of royal artifacts given by Queen Marie from Romania and as a bonus we arrived the same day they opened an Ansel Adams exhibit. It was enjoyable. After lunch we drove to Ellensburg, Washington, a quick stopover on our way to Anacortes. Saturday we arrived at our campsite in Anacortes right on Fidalgo Bay. The camp is cool (literally and figuratively) and when we biked a couple miles along the water we saw a seal, who peaked up and gave us a casual look and then disappeared. We plan on catching the early Sunday morning ferry so we can have a nice long day and overnight with Teddy and Alice. We decided that we will park the RV at the Ferry Lot and when we come back on Monday we will go right to our next stop a few hours down the road. I am including a photo of the casino as a special treat for…well you know who you are!.

Columbia River Gorge, Oregon

July 15 and 16 - today we traveled to Sandy River RV Resort located on the Sandy River (duh) which is an offshoot of the Columbia River. Les immediately went for a swim in the river, I took photos. It was cold - really cold so he didn’t stay in very long. Thursday morning we took the RV and went to the Twin Tunnels located on the Columbia Gorge. What Les failed to inform me of was that once we parked the RV, with Shirley comfortably ensconced, he and I would go for a “short bike ride.” Okay he was being a little evasive about the “ride” and no wonder why. Turns out it was 9 miles roundtrip (how do you do 20 miles daily Bill and Carol??) and up and down a mountainside. By the time we got to the windy top I was exhausted and had to walk my bike up the last few feet - all downhill from here says he! That was true enough - downhill through the twin tunnels - hmm…but then you have to bike back up the “downhill” and back to the RV. Of course it was 90 degrees out (but no humidity for our Florida friends) and my bike gears didn’t shift properly. Some experienced rider took pity on me and stopped and fixed my gear so I could get back up the mountain. Did I mention how much fun this was? The ride itself was only about 1.5 hours and the views, I have to admit were spectacular (in between the heavy breathing), but I was really glad to get back to the RV. Les admitted he really wanted to do this ride but didn’t want to tell me how long it was for fear that I would stay in the RV sipping margaritas instead of going with him. When we returned to the campsite both of us went swimming in the river, or rather floating down the river in the current. I have to admit it was fun and Les is thoroughly enjoying this part of the Country. Our next big adventure will take us to the San Juan Islands for a visit with Teddy and Alice Deane and we are looking so forward to some family time. For those of you who have hung in there with us and my rambling, our thanks. We feel grateful to be able to share our adventure with you. I just hope our neighbors feel the love when they are looking at our lawn burning dead this summer (Gary and Nancy we love ya).

Crater Lake, Oregon

July 12 and 13 - Sunday afternoon we landed at the KOA in Eureka, California on our way to Crater Lake in Oregon. Nice campground but it was very cold at night. When we awoke Monday morning Shirley had 2 blankets and her heavy bathrobe over her. For the first time in 2 weeks Les donned long pants. Off we went to see the Trees of Mystery located in the Redwood National Park. This is where there are statutes of Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox. They are huge wooden structures and of course we had pictures taken under them. We then took a shuttle to the entrance for the Sky Ride a gondola type ride that took all three of us to the top of the Redwood canopy of trees. It was fun and Shirley was a good sport to do it since it’s not one of her favorites to be higher than a couple of feet off the ground. We all enjoyed ourselves and were glad that we made this stop. We took lots of photos and are posting some here of the ride from Eureka to Diamond Lake (Oregon). We are also posting a couple of photos for some friends. Can you determine if these were taken for you? We rearranged our schedule a tad so that we will go to Diamond Lake tonight and then tour Crater Lake tomorrow as it will be almost 4pm when we arrive at Diamond Lake. As one of our friends wrote us “the pictures are worth a 1000 of your words” so we will let them speak for themselves.

July 14 - Today we traveled to Crater Lake located in Oregon. I had no information on this as it was a place that Les wanted to visit and was I ever glad he made that choice. Until we started traveling this summer I thought I knew a fair bit about the United States but how wrong I was. Crater Lake is the deepest lake in the United States and the 7th deepest in the world! It’s color of dark deep blue is like nothing you have ever seen. Our highest elevation today was approximately 7,000 ft. and the outside of the Crater (the lake was formed by a volcano “imploding” and the glacier melt filling it up as a lake) was dotted with snow pack. Apparently it can snow every month of the year but usually only snows 9 months of the year. There was plenty of ice/snow pack evident and I hope you can see it in our photos. From all the shaking we did on the road yesterday Shirley has a sore shoulder so she spent most of the day in the pilot seat alternating between ohs and ahs and OMG Les we’re going over the side! What a beautiful place. Our evening stop was only about 100 miles from Crater Lake in Sutherlin, Oregon. We are staying at Hi-Way Haven RV Park which is an old drive-in movie theatre and they show a nightly movie on the large screen that you can watch from your RV! What fun!

San Francisco, Cupertino, Los Altos, California

July 8 through July 11 - we have spent the last few days a the most glorious RV Park, Coyote Ranch RV Resort. It certainly is the best park thus far and should we be back in this area we would most definitely book time here. This particular park has a bike trail that spans about 18 miles along the river and is teeming with wildlife. We were warned that there is at least one Bobcat that has been documented on the trail but in our rides we did not see him/her. We did bike every day although not the entire trail. Our purpose of this visit to California was to see Shirley’s brother Ray, his wife Beverly and daughters Deb and Linda (brother Gary unable to get time off). Ray, Bev and Deb came over to the RV the first day we were here for a gabfest. Friday Shirley, Les and I headed out to San Francisco - Deb was kind enough to lend us a vehicle - we had a ball even though we limited our sightseeing to the Wharf area. Alcatraz was clearly visible from the Wharf and we enjoyed the famous claim chowder in a sourdough bread bowl at Bourdans. We couldn’t leave SF without headed down Lombard Street (aka Crooked Street). Since the car was a sportscar Shirley was relegated to the front seat and I think she was only half looking on the way down the hills. The biggest bonus today was that California had a “furlough” day for state workers so the traffic was practically nothing, about an hour drive into the city right to the parking garage, in and out. After a quick nap we had an old fashioned family night at Deb’s house in Los Altos. Deb lost her beloved Graham last year and he is missed greatly - but we were fortunate to be visiting at the same time as Graham cousins, Bryan and Pauline. What fun to meet them and listen to their English accent - they were fun folks. This morning (Saturday) finds us up before 6 and headed down the bike trail. We had to stop at one point to allow a deer to decide if he was going to cross in front of us or scurry back into the wood - he chose the latter and we discovered on the return trail that there were 3 of them having breakfast together so that was pretty cool. We are off to our last visit with Ray and Bev at their home in Cupertino, California. From there we are headed out Sunday morning to Eureka, CA to enjoy the Redwoods. The Music Box storefront photo is for Fran F.

July 6 - we land in Las Vegas, the city that never sleeps! Too bad we do! It was so hot I can’t describe it to you. I wasn’t perspiring but I was boiling inside. I am going to say it was anywhere between 103 and 106. As soon as we landed and hooked up the air conditioning to their electric we went swimming (Shirley was watching her ballgame). Les called to make a massage appointment and was lucky enough to have “pick up service” at the campground. Of course being as neurotic as I am I had him leave his wallet at home and only take enough money for the massage. I was picturing someone picking him up and never seeing him again, or even worse having no money left (LOL). All was well with that and since I didn’t have anything to do and after all, we were in Las Vegas, I went over to Circus Circus to gamble a little bit. It was fun but no luck for me and I limited myself to a little over one hour. I am going to Vegas with my girlfriend in September so no sense in blowing the bankbook now! Anyway after dinner and when it “cooled” down a bit we decided to go for a walk and see the sights. Ha! It was still 95 degrees outside at 10:00 pm and trust me it was a hot breeze. After we both took a quick cat nap we ventured out. Okay after a half hour we had both had it with the heat and headed back to the RV Park. We did take a few photos and throw a couple of bucks in the slots, but that was it for Vegas. We are uploading a special photo for Jerrod (he LOVES clowns and since we stayed at Circus Circus AND we stayed on Clown Lane we wanted him to see).

July 7 - headed out of Vegas early today, left camp at 7:15 am. Shirley had one eye open and stayed in her PJs for the day. We voted on a short day and headed to Bakersfield California. For those friends of mine from California, specifically Polly B and Nancy F you will be happy to know that the desert still exists and they are actually doing some good with it in the form of windmill farms. Other than that, Mohave Desert, more sand, a few more mountains of sand and yup that’s about it for the trip from Vegas to Bakersfield! Les selected the Orange Grove RV Resort for a couple of reasons, the first being that you could “pick your own oranges in your site” (okay so what is the season is over) and secondly that the Park had a specific RV Wash Station - yippee Dorothy would be cleaner than any of us. Really….this was the second time that Dorothy had a bath in 10 days - that’s more than some members of our family!! And really who wouldn’t want to spend 1.5 hours hand washing and hand drying the RV in 95 degree heat? I was thrilled beyond words and sweating to death when we finished (oh honey it goes so much faster when you help - come on how many times am I going to fall for that again!!!). Anyway after we finished that and made dinner it was time to do a couple of loads of laundry…Les did help with that, well he carried the basket.. In between that I shattered a wineglass all over the place so Les did vacuum the RV. We ended our evening with Les grabbing a few more photos of tractors for his brother, A Schlitz and a swim. This has been a great vacation so far and we are all so impressed with the beauty of this Country.

July 5 & 6
Today we spent the afternoon and evening in Zion National Park. Not sure how to describe the beauty of this park and again as in the Grand Canyon photos do not do it justice. I suppose that just means that you have to visit yourself. After we landed and hooked up satellite tv for Shirley Les and I took off on our bikes to the park shuttle. We boarded the shuttle and toured the canyon. We stopped at The Zion Lodge because Les wanted to hike to the Emerald Pools. Oh my gosh, it was listed as a 1.5 mile roundtrip…only problem was that it was a vertical climb. We went through 3 full bottles of water on the way and both of us were huffing and puffing all the way down. We caught the ‘down canyon” shuttle back to our bikes and then biked back to the RV. The only problem is Les is a far superior bike rider than I am and of course I never would admit that, that is until I followed him down a hill while trying to carry my water and dumped off the bike. After dinner Les wanted to go for another bike ride but I passed electing to wash the dishes and takes some dusk photos. Next morning we were literally up before dawn, biked to the first shuttle of the day and took it to the very most northern point of the canyon. We hiked 3 miles to the Narrows although we both elected not to walk in the water through the actual Narrows due to its depth and the fact that we didn’t want to slosh the entire return trip. This is a magnificent place and we thoroughly enjoyed it. We saw mule deer and were able to get a couple of shots. On the trip up to the canyon we saw mother wild turkey and a little week or two week old baby wild turkey chick. It was cool. On the return shuttle we decided to stop at the Zion Lodge and partake of the breakfast special. Les was commenting to me about how he thought his stomach was shrinking whilst eating 2 eggs, sausage, bacon, 2 pieces of toast, home fries and then had ½ of my pancakes. Apparently that is working well for him. We hope that you like the photos. Off to Las Vegas tomorrow (I promise not to go into Harrah’s).