We headed out to California with the skiddos in tow. When passing through Indio we always go through the area where there are all the windmills to generate electricity. We never realized just how many were there until the skiddos kept saying, “there’s more, there’s more.” LOL

As we get close to the southern Orange County border this is our welcome:

We mainly went to see hubby’s dad, who was sent home from a nursing home to basically live out his life in the comfort of his own home. He is doing remarkably well considering they will not do the dialysis that he would need because his kidneys are beginning to fail. So, it may not be too long.

We arrived at Kevo’s house Friday afternoon. Kevo lives in a million dollar home. He is renting and got a great deal. You see the builder built the homes and could not sell any of them, so Kevo’s girlfriend struck a deal to be able to rent. He is very fortunate. The home is very nice except that you only have about 2 feet on each side that buffer you from the neighbor. And the noise is tremendous. Of course we live on acreage and barely hear any neighbor dogs, so any noise would be a lot to us.

Then that night Boo, son #4, and his girlfriend came by to visit us. Then Mattress, son #1 and his girlfriend came by to visit to let us know his plans. He had a Yamaha motorcycle that he had to ride to get mileage (Yamaha pays him to test ride), so he would be doing that on the weekend. Here is the bike:

Saturday morning Mattress, Kevo, PookiePie, MLR and the skiddos and us went to see hubby’s dad. In order to not have to take too many cars, Kevo and Mattress rode the motorcycles. We asked Pookie if she wanted to ride with Mattress and she screamed “YES” and Mattress said, “It sounds like she doesn’t want to”… haha, ok you had to be there to get the full funnyness of it. Mattress and Pookie:

Anyway, the visit with hubby’s dad....…

Way back when he was a young man, he served as a Merchant Marine in southern Calif. He served on a ship called the SS Lane Victory. So we got on the net to see if we could get something from/about that ship. It would have taken too long, so we asked Kevo, son #2 to see what he could do. He went up to San Pedro on Thursday to check out the gift shop… he got there at 2:45 and even though they were not to close until 3pm, they still would not let him in. He went back on Friday morning and was able to get a book, a picture and a DVD about the ship and its history. THANK YOU KEVO! When we got to his house Kevo gave him the gifts and he just lit up like a child when he saw the picture and book. We sat there and watched the DVD with him. He was sooo happy which in turn made us all happy for him.

Then Saturday afternoon it was beach time. Kevo’s girlfriend Diz got to come with us with their dog… the skiddos had the bestest time.

That night I insisted on having Potato Cheese soup from Marie Callenders for dinner because we don’t have a Marie Callenders here. Mmm, mmm, mmm. Then finally a nice restful evening.

We hit the Denny's Sunday morning... MLR wearing uncle Kevo's hat and R doing what he tends to do best... digging deep for that bugger... LOL

Then it was time to set out for the park with the skiddos, PookiePie, MLR, Kevo and us. We went to a park that was just a flat grassy area way back when I was in junior high and high school. I used to walk through this park to get to school.

J was so cute, he would not let anyone carry his little tractor up the hill, he never stopped until he got it to the top either.

It was a grand time and we got to see every kid at least once. My heart is happy to know how terribly blessed that I am ,beyond anyone’s dreams, to have the family I do.

Next on the agenda for Calif kids will be in August. We are going to be putting a round pen and we need to do heavy tractor work. So, Mattress and Kevo has volunteered to come on out and help. I have to start a list and draw out some plans of all the things I want to accomplish when we have the tractor. We rent a huge John Deere about 3 times a year to do the heavy duty yard work.

Our mini vacation...
We started our trip on July 2^nd at 4 pm. Heading out going through Flagstaff and up toward Page, AZ. The drive was good, traffic was light. We rented a cute little Chevy Aveo that actually did pretty good on the climbs and it flew on the decends…LOL.

I am amazed to see some of the American Indian housing areas along this route between Flagstaff and Bitter Springs, AZ. What terrible living conditions they have. Most are run down, old, manufactured homes that have no stem walls, just up on the pilings with steps to the doors. Almost all dwellings looked to be just dropped onto hunks of land with no thought of placement based on terrain. The majority of families also had round dwellings that were stick built, apparently these are used for worship and/or meal preparation from what I have heard. I am even more amazed that there are very little animals of any kind that these people have. I think I counted a total of 5 horses at what looked to be 2 home sites just south of Bitter Springs. We have traveled this road one other time when we went to Lake Powell, but it still is amazing for the scenery and also at times depressing to see that these Native American Indians live as they do. Unfortunately I have heard that many of these Indians tend to be alcoholics by the time they are in their early teens and that so many live off government contributions of some sort. It is a matter of choice for these people I imagine.

We took the turn off at Bitter Springs and went through Jacob Lake, Arizona and made a quick pit stop to pee and grab a bite to eat. Jacob Lake is located at the junction of 89A and SR67 in the Kaibab National Forest. This lake, albeit is small, is actually supplied only by rain and snow melt. Located on top of the Kaibab Plateau that is known as the “waterless mountain” because it has no streams or running water feeding into it. It was dusk when we arrived and I did not get the camera out. Dang it! The soup was good, but a little expensive at this little café, but what do you expect out in the way-out boonies.

I made the reservations online and even spoke to a Bob to let them know we would not be arriving until late. We rang the buzzer, no one came. We rang it again.. no one came. We grabbed one of the business cards and called the number and talked to Bob who came to the office. He said we did not have a reservation and that they were full. GREAT…. GRAND….WONDERFUL …as my youngest son would say! Bob got on the phone and got us a room down the street at the Treasure Trail Motel:

Thursday morning 5am, awake and on the road again. Gosh what fantastic green valley’s we go through as we travel toward Park City UT where we meet up with Boo (son #4) and his girlfriend JM and her 3 kids. We hurry on into Evanston, WY where we will stay for the remainder of our trip.

Evanston is not really flat, nor is it mountainess (that isn’t really a word, but you follow me, right?) I find that it is kind of like continual rolling hills.

JM works for a man that owns the High Country Inn, the Purple Sage Golf Course and Bar & Grill, the Sinclair gas station and the Wyoming Downs racetrack, so the hotel stay, all the meals, the day at the racetrack and anything bought at the Sinclair gas station market was paid for… YEEHAW!

We settle in the first evening and have a nice quiet time at the hotel. This is our room:

Here is the view out our hotel room window to the golf course and to the Purple Sage Bar & Grill.

Friday we decide to do some geocaching (www.geocaching.com ) with our son while JM does some job interviews and works with the hotel staff and on the computers there at the hotel. We will meet up later in the evening to go to the local rodeo.

We find 4 geocaches. One of which was located up on a hill behind an elementary school, here is the view from right behind the school building:

Another was near a Bison Park, look what we saw:

They also had a chicken chasing competition for the wee ones:

I just love little local rodeos like this! The rodeo bullfighter performed with his young son and a baby son, see picture below. He travels throughout Wyoming to all the rodeos, big and small. What a life that must be.

Then back to the hotel room to freshen up for dinner at the Purple Sage Bar & Grill… mmmm! Then we went bowling.. HA what fun! Then fireworks time. We were amazed at so many fireworks going off. Of course there was 2 or 3 huge fireworks stores right there in Evanston. I guess any kind of fireworks are legal there.

Saturday off the races. We passed a nice area where Black Angus roamed:

Wyoming Downs Race Track:

We had the best time! We sat in the VIP section. We had monitors to watch the races on and food at our fingertips. There were even a few couches for the kids to lie around on. We even won about 50 bucks… LOL

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Sunday morning came too fast…. We had to start the trip home.

Some of the little towns we passed through in Utah…

Coalville, population 1451, had the most amazing creeks and beautiful greenery along the highway.

Springville, this place even had a minimum speed limit posted on the highway. I guess some of the population (25,309) liked to really mosey their way around here.

Heber Valley, population 8,624, a lot of alfalfa and hay fields here in different stages of growth. The typical settled town that no doubt at one time back in the day was a booming town with old rundown brick buildings on the main street that no doubt housed lively businesses, but now house emptiness.

Levan, population 834, this was even smaller than Coalville, it did not have a main street to speak of, but again filled with fields of hay of one sort or another.

Mt Carmel, population almost zero, most people live in the outskirt cities but almost 200 people work in Mt Carmel. Now this was a cute little town. This is just big enough that I would like to live in a place like this if I didn’t live where I live now.. hehehe.

Then through Hatch, this place cracked me up because they had 2 “sheriff” vehicles parked, one at each end of the town. These obviously were permanent fixtures because of the dust and grime on them and growth of weeds around the tires to deter drivers from speeding. I can imagine they were just the shell of the vehicles even. They had to be maybe 1995’s Ford Broncos. Anyway… too funny.

We stopped in Panquitch to get gas. Then into to Kanab, UT, where we stopped just long enough to grab a few snacks. We thought we were going to a Denny's here, but it was a Denny's fish and tackle shop so we ended up stopping at a gas station/Wendy's/market... LOL

I grabbed a picture reak quick.. this is the Kanab Cemetery.

Traveling from just outside Page, AZ, we would get caught in sporadic bursts of thunderstorms. Hubby drove the whole way home (thank you honey!!!)

Back home.. yeehaw! I love vacations, but it is great to be home! Back to reality and time to get things ready for work…
Monday comes, work and horse riding class. Tuesday we had a meeting with a gal from foster care. Wednesday night we sit down and watch a rented movie (The Other Boleyn Girl)….

Then before I could blink, it is now Thursday and I have finally been able to write about our trip. But one chore called me before I could, I went out and cleaned the water troughs and mucked the stalls a little and it is a good thing because now we are having a real good monsoon going on. Now is a nice time to sit and write this and watch the weather. whewwwww, done...BUT..................

I cannot even get on the internet to get this posted. LOL!

Ahh, enough of the storm has passed so I can post this.... yippee skidoodle!

Now I have a few hours so I can go and do a lot of catching up with reading my favorite blogs.