Fun with the kids

This is probably volume one of “Fun with the kids” but maybe I can come up with other titles later on. Jana, Josiah, Lilly, and Jeyanthi arrived last Wednesday evening at the Portland airport. Ginger was with them and they all were returning from their vacation in Texas. Since then we have enjoyed a house full of grandkids.

Today we spent a few wonderful hours in the sun at Wallace Marine Park in West Salem. It is on the west bank of the Willamette River. The pictures of the Josiah and Lilly on their bikes are taken on an old Union Pacific Railroad Bridge over the river that has been converted to a pedestrian bridge.

A couple of silly kids – Jey and Lilly.

Fun in the Willamette River

We found this Sunflower growing out of a crack in the sidewalk. There must be a sermon illustration in this.

Blessings.

Numbers

We’ve been home six days and I have my garden irrigation finished – just in time for the rain today! Though it won’t rain very much. Been with friends in four different group meetings plus church Sunday. Joyce and I took Ginger to the airport yesterday morning so she could join Korak, Jana, and the kids in Texas for a week of vacation. They will all be back here next Wednesday. Can’t wait. We still need to wash and clean the RV and the pickup as well as get the house ready for kids to eat and sleep and play.

So here’s some facts and figures from our trip for those who like such things.

3,888 = total miles traveled in 26 days

2,858 = miles towing the RV

337 = total gallons of diesel burned

11.57 = miles per gallon

12 = number of RV parks we camped in

$4.39.9 / gallon = most we paid for fuel (at a run-down Texaco in Tonopah, NV. Didn’t buy much)

$3.89.9 / gallon = least we paid for fuel

That’s about it. So blessings on you. I’ll try to post while the kids are here – with pictures.

 

 

Reflections on the Utah Adventure

We are home. Arrived at 7:00 on Friday the 6th. After we left Hurricane, Utah Sunday, it west on I-15, skirt around Las Vegas, and north on highway 95 to I-80 at Reno. In Reno (actually in Sparks) we met with Ron and Nikki (and daughters Erin and Elizabeth) for a great breakfast and lots of  “catching up conversation.” Ron was my youth pastor in Grants Pass.

We stayed two nights in Corning, CA just to rest from our vacation (!) and catch up sorting all the tourist brochures we had collected. It was close to 100* on Wednesday and was going to be 103* on Thursday. We got out of there.

Last night we were in the wonderful front yard “camp ground” of our friends Mike and JoAnn in Grants Pass. It was good to visit with them, with Joyce’s brother and his wife, and with some other former church people.

Here are a few reflections on our adventure to Utah.

We traveled 3,888 miles – I think. I’ll do a better calculation in a day or so. I’ll also figure fuel mileage and that sort of thing for those who like numbers. We were gone 25 days.

Weather? Fantastic. Mostly cool. Mostly sunny. There were some clouds and a little rain. This was in Moab with thunder storms in the distance. The rain didn’t bother us. The last few days it began to be hot but we survived it okay. In fact we only used the RV air conditioner the last 2 or 3 days. We couldn’t have asked for better weather.

My favorite camping place was Fruita Campground in Capitol Reef National Park. It was dry camping but was a very nice, quiet place to stay.

My favorite Park was Arches because of the size and diversity of landscape. There were short hikes for people like me and long hikes for those able to do so. And a person could see a lot without even hiking. Bryce ran a close second because it was so beautiful – much more so than any other place. But it was mostly viewpoints unless you wanted to hike down into the canyon. That, of course, meant hiking back up.

For the record Bryce Canyon is not really a canyon. It is the edge of a plateau. Zion National Park should be called Zion Canyon because it is one. The Virgin River runs into it at the top end, through it, and then on to (someplace).

We did lots of up-hill-down-hill driving. Of course that is to be expected in the mountains.  I have decided I don’t like pulling the fifth wheel along high mountain roads with steep drop offs and no guard rails. We did our share of that and I sweat quite a bit! One place was called the Hogback on Scenic Highway 12 in Utah. Just enough flat on top to put two lanes of highway (narrow lanes, I might add). Then drop off on both sides for about 10,000 feet – more or less. Honestly, I have no idea how far down it was because I wasn’t looking.

The Lord was gracious to us. Everything went well and worked well. We saw some amazing creation. God set things up to leave some wondrous beauty for us to behold. What an imagination God had/has!

One last thing… here’s the picture of my drenching as the wall of water is coming. This on the Colorado River raft trip. See the camera in my hand? All ready to take a picture but all I could think was, “I wonder how bad this is going to be.” Of course this picture was taken by a professional on the bank. The next picture after this one showed ALL white water with a  little blue raft showing through.

There is lots to do around the farm now. Got to get out there and put in my garden irrigation system.

Blessings.

 

Zion National Park

Saturday we drove the 23 miles from the town of Hurricane to Zion National Park. They do not let private vehicles drive the scenic part of the Park. We were told all parking was taken at the visitor’s center so we parked in the town of Springdale, rode the shuttle to the Park entrance, walked in, and caught the Park shuttle for or tour. I really enjoyed not driving. We got off at each scenic stop, stayed as long as we wanted and caught the next shuttle which came in less than 10 minutes. Each stop had a covered place to sit and wait.

So here are some views of Zion. This is the Great White Throne to the right with the Organ in the center foreground.

This is the Court of the Three Patriarchs – left to right, Abraham Peak, Isaac Peak, and Jacob Peak. Jacob is the white mountain in back of Mt. Moroni. If all this sounds religious it is because they were named by church guys – Mormon church guys who came and settled this area. In fact, Brigham Young sent people out to settle the land, establish communities, and spread the (Mormon) Word. The very name “Zion” is because the canyon looked to them like a place of eternal rest and solitude.

It is interesting, as you tour the exhibits or watch the orientation movie they very frankly refer to the “Mormon settlers” who came to do this or that or who settled here and this is his cabin or his picture or his orchard. Do we hear that in other places? We do hear about the Whitman Mission or the Methodist Missionaries but in general the settlers who came west were simply pioneers – no reference to their brand of religion. Just an observation.

(I wonder why the freedom from religion people haven’t raised a fuss over this?)

At the end of the scenic drive (I think it was 13 miles) you can keep walking on a nice paved walkway for another mile. This is The Narrows where the walls of the canyon begin to come together. To go any further you have to wade in the Virgin River. Some people do – for another 5 or 6 miles until they can almost touch both sides. That is if the water level is low enough. If you are wondering, I didn’t!

There is even an arch on the side of one of these mountains. See it almost in the middle of the picture? The green above and below it are trees. It is amazing where trees will grow.

Like Arches and Bryce there are so many more pictures to show but not enough space to post them all here.

Joyce commented that we should have started with Zion and worked our way up. As magnificent as this place is, It was a little disappointing after seeing Bryce and Arches. But I understand it is an entirely different kind of place and certainly amazing. Awesome even.

We are on our way home. At the present (Sunday evening) we are in Beatty, Utah simply because it is a place to spend the night on the way to the Reno area.

Blessings.