Sept. 26 - 28 Huntington Beach State Park

Sunday - It rained almost all the way down, but it was dry when we set up camp. Thank you, Lord! Then it rained some more. When it got down to a drizzle, we made a dash to the grocery store and gas station (both at Kroger), we went in dry and got back in the car just as it was beginning to rain again. It POURED while we went back to the camper, and amazingly stopped as we pulled up to the camper.
Monday - We went to Prossers' for lunch. I was disappointed that they did not have shrimp on the buffet, but the fish, bbq, and fried chicken wing was good. LOL! They have shrimp and grouper on Fridays, so we will go back then. Also, Wed. they have crab cakes, a favorite of mine and Phil's. It poured and poured on and off during the day and night.
Tuesday - It is cloudy, but not raining. We are supposed to get a break today. I want to go to the visitors' center and see if the painted buntings are still here. I hope so! Last year we missed them by a few days. I want some photos!!!! We also are at Books A Million to get wifi and download all the e-mail from the past few days. My Droid will get e-mail at the camper and access the internet, but the phone signal is no bars or one bar. We are supposed to get six inches or more of rain from the new tropical storm brewing in the Caribbean. I hope we are on high ground! There is a lot of standing water around the camper this morning. I hope it all gets absorbed before the big rain comes! We probably will just hunker down in the camper until Friday once the rain begins.

Sept. 10

We traveled to Rock Island, IL, today. Iowa is one rolling-hills state! Again, we passed hundreds of miles of corn fields and also hundreds of windmill farms mixed in with cattle and mostly corn fields. I love windmills and hope our country will use a lot more where they can be utilized efficiently and economically. We met a series of trucks hauling parts for a windmill. It is hard to believe have huge these things are. One propeller on a three-propeller windmill is about 20 feet or more longer than a flat bed of an 18-wheeler. The "pole" has to be hauled on at least six trucks in parts. The base parts are wider than the truck and bulge out from the flat bed. I think they are really beautiful and do not pollute or smell bad. Over our trip, I'd have to say we have probably seen a thousand, including the ones we saw in Canada. On our trip 26 years ago, we saw a windmill farm before we got to Oakland, CA. I was amazed, and I am still amazed that we can produce clean power with them.
Phil was tired when he got up this morning from not sleeping well. He says he has nagging pain. We have called and gotten an appointment with his urologist for next Wed. We were hoping for Mon., but he had none until 3:40 p.m. Wed. We were hoping to go to SC to see all the children and grands Wed., but that is on hold until we know what Dr. Tieng says. We are so very thankful this did not happen earlier in our trip. His previous stones have been a nagging pain over a long period of time before two lithotripsies for each one finally blasted the things into passable sizes.
Tomorrow we are aiming for somewhere around Cincinnati. They do not have a campground in Cincinnati. We will stay in North Bend, OH. The reason we picked this track home was because I wanted Phil to eat at a Skyline Chili Restaurant in the Cincinnati area. I got him eating this from the frozen food section of the grocery store years ago. I had eaten it in Cincinnati on two occasions. It is supposed to rain a lot in the Cincinnati area tomorrow. I hope we can get set up in dry weather and eat and get back dry! We may have to dig out the ponchos if it is raining that much. Then Sunday we will travel home and end our marvelous adventures. We have traveled 112 days on this adventure and put around 13,000 miles on the truck since we left May 24. The great news is that we will begin more Sept. 26 when we go on our annual coastal camping trip to Huntington Beach State Park for two weeks; Wilmington, NC, for five nights; and a month in the Outer Banks. We are praying all tropical systems and Nor'easters STAY AWAY!!!! I encourage you all to go on adventures of your own. We have a wonderful, beautiful country!

Sept. 7 - 9

Sunset in Rawlins, WY

When we left the Tetons and as we approached Jackson, there were three hot air balloons. It was very early in the morning - around 8:00 a.m. We got into road construction and ended up on a dirt road for about five miles. We did go through a charming town on Hwy. 191, Pinedale. The topography changed a lot that day! Phil got out and stretched because his back hurt. I started praying for his back. When we got to Rawlins, Phil was pale and in a lot of pain. He told me he had another kidney stone. He took a couple of my pain pills for headaches, and it eased up some. The sunset was beautiful, and I popped out of the camper long enough to shoot a couple of photos. The wind was the strongest we have ever encountered in the camper. It howled and rocked the camper way into the night. I told Phil I had to imagine that I was trying to sleep on a train. It calmed down, but started up again before daybreak. Phil said he had some discomfort, but it was bearable. We hit the road and headed to North Platte, NE. It was a windy drive, but it did not rock the camper like it did in Rawlins. The most eventful thing was leaving Wyoming and getting into another time zone. Now we are only one hour off of our home time. Today, we road to Gretna, NE, which is west of Omaha by about 20 miles. The topography is very, very flat and we have seen hundreds of miles of cornfields today. Phil is still at about the same pain level. Some times it will get worse, but it has not been as bad as two days ago. We are praying it will not get bad, so he can get back and go to his urologist. It is hard to believe that we have just two more nights on the road before arriving home. It has been an awesome, wonderful, memorable, exciting trip! The Lord has kept us safe and the camper and truck working just right.

Sept. 6 and 7 - Last day in Tetons and trip to Rawlins, WY

on the way to Rawlins on Hwy. 191

We are not in the Tetons any more!

When we were getting close to Jackson, we saw three hot air balloons. This was one of them.

Phil, Mike, me, and Helen around the campfire last night.

Sept. 6 and 7 - Last full day in the Tetons, and it was a wonderful one! I fixed some sandwiches and packed a couple of soft drinks in the cooler. Wilson Rd. near the Moose Visitors’ Center was one place we had not traveled. We rode that to the Teton Village, mainly a ski resort with lots of shops and restaurants. It is a cool place. We ate lunch on the way at a Moose Habitat pull-off. We did not see a moose, but we enjoyed lunch in that setting. On the way back I got some photos of an osprey next with two ospreys on it. Then we went back to where we have seen moose twice. A lady told me there were two bulls and a cow further down. I was excited! There was already a huge crowd. I came to the first bull, and he was lying down. The bushes and shrubs hid him well. One person at a time could go down the embankment a little ways to get a photo. The crowd kept getting larger and larger, so I decided to walk along the embankment to see if I could see the other bull and cow. Well, I got started and a volunteer who manages crowds called me back. He told me he could only supervise one crowd, so I’d have to stay with the big group. Thank goodness, there was no volunteer the last two times we saw moose there. Oh well, at least I already have some decent photos of the other moose. That evening, Helen, Mike, Phil, and I went to Leeks Marina to get pizza. It was their last night open for the season. We ate salad and pizza, and enjoyed it thoroughly. Then we went back and built a big campfire. The campers next to us left a huge pile of wood, so we got some, and Mike and Helen got a good bit. They are going to be there two more nights, so they will really enjoy it. Finding free firewood is a thrill. We used to send the kids around in the morning to get any left by people leaving. It brings back good memories! After Mike and Helen went back to their camper for the night, it was about quiet hours. We got the camper as ready as we could for a fast get-away in the morning. It was freezing when we got up at 7:00, and we could not use the heater since we were popping down. We hurried and got out of there in about 30 minutes. The car said it was 26 degrees. I believe it or lower! We headed for Rawlins, WY. We traveled Hwy. 191 to Rock Springs. There was a stretch of about five miles of construction and dirt road. A truck threw a rock and hit the windshield. It felt like a missle hit it! We will have to have that replaced when we get back. Then poor Phil started having pain in his back, but it was not his back. It is another kidney stone. Thankfully, I have some Tramadol that I take for made headaches. He took a couple and the pain eased up. I hope it will not cause him problems tomorrow! His history with those things are that they move around and eventually he has to have lithotripsy a couple of times before it breaks up. We both hope he does not have to go through that again. We are praying! Tomorrow we will head toward North Platte, NE.

Sept. 3 - 5 Moose sightings!!!!!

This was mama moose. Something spooked her and this was right before she changed direction and started to run towards us. Yes, the fat woman can run!

Woops, this was not the photo I meant to download of the youth.

Ahhhhhhh!

Can we say bully, bully???

Finally saw my bull moose!

Sept. 3 - Helen had told us about a fabulous photography gallery and shop called Images of Nature in downtown Jackson. Also, Phil had a coupon for $25 off a $50 purchase at Orvis, so he wanted to stop there to see if they had $50 worth of stuff he could not live without. He did not find anything he desperately wanted, so we went to Snake River Brewery and Pub to eat lunch. Then we went to Images of Nature. What gorgeous photography. We were both delighted to see the photos. My favorite was of a bear with a salmon about an inch from its mouth in mid-air. Awesome shot! Phil loved the panoramic shots of the Tetons in every season. I did, too. Then we headed to Moose Junction to see if we could see a bull moose as Helen and Mike had seen yesterday. We saw a huge rack sticking up from the brush. A lady told us the moose was lying down for a bit. Well, we waited for over an hour and a half, but we were rewarded with some photos when he decided to get up. Then in the evening, Helen and Mike joined us at our campfire, and we shared what we had done during the day with each other. We are so glad to get to spend some time with Helen and Mike. They are very active folks - mountain biking and hiking. We are just slugs that walk to take a good photo (if not too far). LOL!
Sept. 4 - More cloudy today. A cold front is supposed to move through and chill things down again. The last two days have been wonderful with highs in the mid to upper 70’s. We were tempted to get out of jeans and into shorts, but we passed. It still gets cold at night - near or below freezing. I can see some yellow on some aspens and cottonwoods, just a branch here and there. I can only imagine the beauty in a few weeks. We are beginning to grieve a little about leaving this beauty, but we know we are blessed with the Great Smoky Mountains. Of course, there is our coastal trip coming up Sept. 26. We are already salivating for some great seafood. We are thankful Earl did not do major damage to the Outer Banks! We pray no more hurricanes head for the Carolinas!
Sept. 5 - Rained last night and this morning, but it is just cloudy this afternoon. We are sitting in the second floor huge gathering room at Jackson Lodge. What a view!!!!! We walked a path from our camping circle to Jackson Lake right after lunch and took a few photos. Still a nice day!

Aug. 31 - Sept. 2 - Grant Village, Yellowstone to Colter Bay, G. Teton N.P.

Aug. 31 - Snowy morning, trip to Colter Bay
Wow! What a surprise to wake up to sleet and snow! It changed to all snow - large flakes and coming down like a blizzard. My favorite kind!!!! The bad part was we had to pack up and move to Colter Bay. Phil was a Nervous Nelly, and I was jubilant. After taking some photos, we finished popping down and getting hooked up. When we got to where you put your checkout paper in the little mailbox, there was a note that the east entrance to Yellowstone was closed due to three inches of packed ice and snow on the road. Also, the south entrance was temporarily closed. We had to exit the south entrance to get to Colter Bay. Phil thought it would be good to go to the Grant Village Visitors’ Center and ask if the road was open yet. We did, and they said it was closed still. The snow plows were clearing it, and there had been an accident. They had a lovely fire going in the fireplace, so we just chatted with other people there waiting for the road to reopen. Around 11:00 they announced the road was open with slush on the road, and snow tires were advised. Well, we were towing, had no snow tires, AND don’t know how to drive in snow/ice (as proven by the accident we had a couple of winters ago). We decided we had better let the other people drive on the road and dry it out for us. We went over to the Village Grill and had a hamburger basket for lunch. By then, then temperature on the car thermometer said 44 degrees. Phil felt we could leave and if it got bad, he would find a place to pull over. We only saw one place that had any snow still on the road, so we had a safe journey to Colter Bay. Colter Bay Campground is first come, first served, and we were going to be pretty late getting there. We hoped we could get a decent site, and we did. It is absolutely amazing how loved we feel by our Lord for the many blessings He has showered on us during this trip. We popped up, got the frig running, and skipped over to Jackson to the grocery store, gas station, and K-Mart.
Sept. 1 - It is raining this morning. We got up at 7:00 to try to find a place to get a decent phone signal to hear from Brice. He had out-patient surgery this morning for two broken bones in his right hand. They were hoping to put in pins, but if that did not work, they surgeon will put in a plate. I hardly slept last night, but I prayed for my son every time I woke up. I like to be there to help any of my children if they have surgery. I do not like being so far away. It pains me to think of him going back to his apartment and being alone. I’ll be praying a lot for him these next few days and pray the pain will not be bad and healing will be fast. On a brighter note, the weather is supposed to get sunny starting tomorrow. I saw that Sunday is supposed to be about 80 degrees. The nights will be in the 40’s, so that will be lovely. It has been too cool to sit around a campfire.
We went back to Jackson to get a few things because it rained all day, and when we got back, we went to the Colter Bay store and saw a truck that looked familiar. It looked like Helen and Mike Gross’s, our dear friends from Townsend. We went in the store and looked all around. We saw a man with a UT orange jacket on and decided it must be his. We shopped and were going back out to the car when Mike Gross appeared walking from the laundry. What a wonderful surprise!!!! They had planned to go to Grant Village for two nights and come here Friday. Well, we had a great time catching up. It was too rainy for a campfire, but we will have one the rest of the time. The weather is supposed to be very nice from now on.
We were also very happy that Brice’s pain meds are keeping him comfortable.
Sept. 2 - I am at the cabin rental office, and the sky is that perfect blue that just makes you happy inside. I am rushing this so we can get outside and enjoy it. Helen and Mike had to go to Jackson to grocery shop and then they are going to ride the bike trail around the Jenny Lake area. We’ll get together again later this afternoon and evening.